Life of the Party

What a week! Shanice, Joe and Jonas dissect the Green party's exciting and decisive victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election. How did Hannah Spencer's campaign win? Is Keir Starmer’s Labour party finished? And where does this leave Your Party? With Jeremy Corbyn's The Many slate coming out of the CEC elections with a big majority, we ask where next for the beleaguered new left party. To wrap up a big episode, Jonas digs deeper into the question of ideology and positioning: should left parties advocate for radical policies like drug decriminalisation and decarceralisation, or do we need to appeal more to the status quo?Reading⁠Golden Gulag - Ruth Wilson Gilmore⁠⁠Policing the Crisis - Stuart Hall⁠⁠The Interpretation of Dreams - Sigmund Freud ⁠⁠RSPB Handbook of British Birds - Tim Cleeves⁠⁠On the Ground in Gorton and Denton - Joe Todd⁠

With the Your Party CEC elections in full swing, Jonas breaks down the current state of play in the party - and the gang despair at Your Party’s deteriorating culture of political debate. Would Your Party and the Greens be better if they were a little bit more like the Belgium Worker's Party (PTB), or the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)? Joe challenges the assumptions of the British left, arguing that the PTB and DSA are very different organisations, and we need to analyse them on their own merits.ReadingBetween Autonomy and Control: Comparing the Democratic Socialist of America and the Belgian Workers Party - Joe ToddThe Breaking of the English Working Class - Jonas Patrick Marvin We Found Love in a Hopeless Place - Gabriel WynattThe History and Practice of Political Police in Britain - Tony BunyanParks and Houses For the People - Johan PriesYour Party's Infantile Disorder - Sam Joyce

With Andy Burnham out for the count - blocked by Keir Starmer and his allies from running to be Gorton and Denton's next MP - Joe, Jonas and Shanice grapple with the dynamics at play in this upcoming, historic by-election that could change the face of British electoral politics. Can the Greens really beat Reform in the North? Are Labour out of the race? And most importantly, why is Reform's candidate Matt Goodwin such an incorrigible loser?ReadingA Very British Coup - Chris MullenThe Gorton and Denton by-election: a tale of two Manchesters? - Rob FordMatt Goodwin and the Politics of Resentment - James BloodworthHow to Block ICE in Your City - Eric BlancSupportHelp make Life of the Party happen. Donate at lifeoftheparty.uk/support

To kick off series two of Life of the Party Shanice, Jonas and Joe are back to their usual antics with spicy hot takes and pressing party news. This week Jonas gives you the lowdown on Your Party's CEC elections so far. Meanwhile Shanice goes against the grain: arguing that trade unions aren't the only site of working class struggle, and why Your Party and the Greens shouldn't formally affiliate to them.Readings:Disaster Nationalism - Richard SeymourGrub first, then ethics? - Jonas MarvinLenin's Last Struggle - Moshbe Lewin

Wrapping up the first season of Life of the Party Shanice, Joe, and Jonas give out awards for the major players (and wreckers!) on the burgeoning British left. Meanwhile your hosts dust off their crystal balls to give their predictions on the big political moments heading our way in 2026.Readings: Mistaken Identity - Asad HaiderThe Populist Moment: The Left after the Great Recession -  Anton Jäger and Arthur Borriello Black Marxism - Cedric J. RobinsonBecome a supporter at lifeoftheparty.uk

In the run up to Christmas Joe, Jonas, and Shanice answer your listener questions. Are we revolutionaries, what does that even mean? Should the left run as councillors? What does community organising mean? Why have some of the Independent Alliance remained in Your Party? We answer these questions, and more - as well as give you our favourite reads of 2025.Readings: Workers Can Win - Ian AllinsonSupermarket Struggle - Workers' Inquiry⁠Pessimism of the Will - Asad Haider⁠⁠New Model Island - Alex Niven⁠Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain - Sam WetherellIntermezzo - Sally Rooney

** Help keep the podcast ad free - become a Life of the Party supporter **Coming back from a wild weekend in Liverpool, Jonas gives us an insider account of the vibes, schisms and politics shaping the long-awaited founding conference of Your Party. Meanwhile Joe probes at critical questions: have the Green party completely over-shadowed Your Party? Should Your Party ditch elections and focus on the hard work of building popular power?Reading: The Days of Abandonment - Elena Ferrante Three Women - Lisa TaddeoSocial Infrastructure Proposals - Organising For Popular PowerYour Party Conference: Total Chaos or the Future of Democracy - Novara Media

As Your Party’s founding conference approaches, Joe breaks down the latest financial shenanigans and resignations, whilst Jonas makes the case that even if the launch has been a disaster, the historical opportunity presented by the crisis of British capitalism hasn’t been totally squandered.Reading: Melinda Cooper - Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public FinanceHelen Walsh - Once Upon a Time in EnglandOliver Eagleton - Your Party: The Return of the Left

With Your Party's regional assemblies in full swing Jonas breaks down the dynamics and debates shaping the grassroots of the party. Meanwhile, Shanice puts the debates about class and identity politics under the microscope; making the case you cannot understand the seismic and irresistible rise of Zohran Mamdani without taking seriously how class is felt through identity. But what are the lessons for the British left?ReadingWe Were There - Lanre BakareCan Apartheid Free Zones Help Liberate Palestine? - The Bristol CableMichael Lange's Substack

As Zack Polanski’s comms campaigning takes the Greens from strength to strength, Your Party releases its founding documents; with debates beginning at regional assemblies. Shanice gives us a look into this contrasting picture, whilst Joe kicks off a debate about NATO, anti-imperialism, and whether Your Party and the Greens need to be more than simply pro-Palestine parties.Reading:Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism & Race in Palestine - Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, Rafeef Ziadah Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat - Hannah Proctor Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm - Dan Charnas

As the left turns to economic populism as the way to beat Farage, Jonas, Shanice and Joe explore it's potentials and imitations. Meanwhile, the Greens surge to 100,000 members, Joe tests the water at Green Party conference, and Zarah Sultana comes out gunning for the Greens at The World Transformed.ReadingOrganising for Popular Power - An Anti-Capitalism Base Building Tendency in Your PartyThe Neapolitan Novels - Elena FerranteBelgian Workers Party Congress DocumentsNew Times, New Circuits: Recovering Sivandan's Political Economy - John Narayan

What the f!#k has just happened with Your Party? Shanice, Joe and Jonas try their best to shake off their collective depression and get a handle on the drama and controversy underlying Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn’s very public fallout. How did we get here, and more importantly how the hell do we get out?Readings: Whose Party Is It Anyway - Archie WoodrowYour Party’s Messy Public Breakdown Shows It Has Big Questions to Answer - Archie WoodrowDisaster Nationalism - Richard SeymourTheory of The Party - Phil A. Neel

As Zack Polanski begins to make his mark scrapping with journalists and political opponents, Joe and Shanice disagree on where his biggest challenge will come from. Meanwhile the row between MPs Zarah Sultana and Adnan Hussain on trans politics raises critical questions about what Your Party stands for.Readings:Regime Change in the West - Perry AndersonIn and Against the State. Revolutionary Feminism During De-industrialisation - Katrina ForresterGreens Who Organise - Robert MagowanTheir End is Our Beginning - Brian BeanCredits:Design: Rachel Carr / rachelcarr.co.ukMusic: Benjamin Tissot / 9INTLNTLWTYTDKVN

Shanice, Joe and Jonas dive into all things democracy, examining Zarah Sultana’s saucy New Left Review interview, travelling way back to the Greek agora, and asking searching questions of Corbynism’s legacy. As the Your Party founding conference looms, they ask what real party democracy actually looks like?Readings:The Alternative - Zarah SultanaBorn for life, Marked for death - Max Shanley Models of Organisational Democracy - Jante's UmarellParty as Articulators - Salar Mohandesi Credits:Design: Rachel Carr / rachelcarr.co.ukMusic: Benjamin Tissot / 9INTLNTLWTYTDKVN