A triumph for citizen Sultana

Corbyn's clique began the witch-hunt on day one, got its organisational strategy and standing orders passed and remains firmly in control of the levers of power. However, the left is clearly winning the battle for hearts and minds. Jack Conrad gives the view from inside the ACC hall

What is now officially known as Your Party had a stormy first conference. The witch-hunt, as we feared, began on day one. The SWP's national secretary, Lewis Nielsen, was told he had been expelled on the way up from London. By the way, he shared an Avanti carriage with Jeremy Corbyn and his entourage (and, generously, Lewis offered to buy them a cup of tea). Others were turned away at the door, including councillors Michael Lavalette (Counterfire) and James Giles (Democratic Bloc).

However, ironically, because of the failure to cover transport and accommodation costs, and a pervasive 'why bother' rank-and-file attitude, given that there would be no conference votes, there was an unexpectedly shrunken sortition pool. Accordingly, a healthy proportion of those actually going to Liverpool were made up of the left ... and the organised left too. Not because we are rich - we aren't. It's just that we are a dedicated lot, relish a good political fight when it is on offer and, above all, we know what is at stake, given capitalism's polycrisis, the abject failure of the mainstream parties, the Green Party diversion and the spectacular rise of Reform and the far right. Historically it is, yes, socialism or barbarism.

So, instead of 13,000 members attending what would amount to a rally over the Saturday and Sunday, conference happened not in the Arena and Conference Centre's biggest space. Rather we met in the downscaled smaller hall: capacity around 1,500. There were about 1,200 of us there each day (and most, at least those whom I asked, were attending over two days, not just one). There was, note, always plenty of room on the back, tiered seats.

Given the absence of conference votes, you ha