Holyrood 2026 – Jim Monaghan Interview

This is the first of a series of interviews in the run-up to the Holyrood elections. We’ll be interviewing people from a range of parties, including independent candidates and commentators. The first interview is with Jim Monaghan: writer, poet, podcaster and community activist. Follow Jim at @JimMonaghan10. More on Your Party Scotland here: SCOTLAND | Your Party

I wanted to start by asking you how the founding conference in Dundee went. What were the key decisions made? And what is your role in the new party?

The Scottish Conference was a huge success. The team who came together to organise it were up against the odds, had an extremely tight timetable but managed to hold a largely comradely and interesting Conference.

The key decisions were huge decisions. Voting to move to a completely separate “sister” party was the biggest decision and one that will be difficult to implement. Every member of YP in Scotland joined the UK wide organisation. The vote doesn’t mandate members to join the new breakaway party nor mandate the UK party to agree to have a separate sister party in Scotland. A lot of work will be needed to avoid this vote resulting in two parties.

The decision to be a pro-indy party was also significant but expected. YP in Scotland has failed to recruit from the Corbyn-left in Labour so far and the driving forces in the branches has largely been from the pro-indy left and Greens.

I don’t have a specific role at the moment. I was drafted into the Conference Organising Group a few weeks before the event. That group were elected en masse to be the interim leadership but I decided that, on balance, it was better for me to step back. I am not sure that I would have added anything to what is a highly skilled and efficient group of members.

I have been involved in the formation of YP in Scotland and the UK since late 2024. I think I have played a key role at times. But groups of people across Scotland have emerged as leaders and organisers who are taking the project forward.

I am standing as a candidate to represent Scotland’s members on the UK Central Executive Committee. I see that role as liaison position taking us to the next stage. I won’t know if I am elected until next Monday (23rd).

It’s fair to say that the launch of the new party has been at times chaotic, and many people believe that wasted a huge opportunity. Without going back across all of it, do you believe those problems are now resolved?

I wish I could say that the problems and divisions are resolved but we are a long way from that. The CEC elections have been toxic and as bad as I have seen on the left. There is a fight for control of the party between two slates supporting Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. They have quite different visions for the party going forward, so the balance of the CEC will shape the next developments.

We still haven’t even sorted the initial problems. During the founding period there was an arrangement that two groups held each other to account. MOU Ltd held the funds, PJP held the data. Both were supposed to pass on to a YP Ltd company at the UK wide conference in November. But as it stands, MOU are still withholding a significant sum of members money, believed to be at least £200,000. That does not look like being resolved soon. Apparently, Zarah Sultana has imposed conditions to handing over the funds to the party. I don’t know what the conditions are.

Is the party standing at Holyrood elections?

Conference voted that we should plan to be involved in the Scottish elections but that each region should decide their own strategy. It remains to be seen how that will play given the limitations on time and funding. But the general mood is that we should be standing across Scotland.

The party describes itself as ‘a new kind of political party’ with participation and democracy at its core. Is this how you see it? Is the form of politics as important as the output of its politics? & I wonder if you could say something about your experience as a community organiser and activist and what this has taught you about how to organise?

As a Community Organiser, I see the vision set out by Jeremy Corbyn as being crucial to YP being the “different” party that we claim to be. There is a very real difference between actual community organising and political parties organising their own agenda within communities. I saw this at first hand when working for Corbyn’s Community Organising Unit. One stark and noticeable thing so far with YP here in Scotland is the lack of recruits to the party from the massive pro-Palestine campaigns taking part in Scottish cities every weekend, especially from our Muslim and South Asian communities. So far, we have focused on internal structural work and haven’t even begun to start helping communities find their voice or to see YP is a place where they can find a political home.

Local campaigns fighting closures of sports centres, community centres, libraries etc have seen political parties turn up at protests. But often they are there as part of their own political agendas and not to help build community power. Only by immersing the party in communities, by listening and by helping them build campaigns, will YP be different from the other left parties in Scotland. It’s crucial that we start that work as soon as possible.

We have created the structures and framework for a member-led, bottom-up movement that will allow community campaigns to feel at home in YP, but we have yet to start the work in communities to be relevant to their fights.

What are the things that bring you hope and inspiration?

What brings me hope and inspiration is the people I have met during the process and in helping to build the party in Scotland. I have seen, in Glasgow and beyond, people with the skills, experience and desire to make this work. The fact that many of them come from a community organising background and know how to take us to the next stage fills me with hope. Also, the group of activists that came over from the Scottish Green Party are particularly impressive and have been the driving force in many ways. It’s a break from the same auld faces, auld people like me.

You’re a poet as well as a political organiser. Are these two activities compatible?

I wish politics was as easy as poetry. When I perform a poem it is often a political statement but rarely the trigger for a debate. I think there will be a time soon when I can play a small part in YP locally and get back to writing about it. At least that is the plan!