Capitalism is still the dominant global economic
system. Laissez faire capitalism only exists in
text books. The biggest capitalist economies, the
United States and Japan, practice high levels of
state intervention and protection for native corporations.
The European Union is caught between an open market
philosophy and trade barriers. The long boom and
growth for most western economies during the 1990s
will result in recession and slowdown as sure as
night follows day. The huge credit bubble cannot
continue indefinitely. Thanks to the expansion
of globalisation, war, poverty and revolutions
remain prominent features of the world landscape.
Global warming and environmental degradation walk
hand in hand with unregulated profiteering.
At any one time at least 20 military conflicts
rage across the world with war in the Middle East
being the paramount international flash point.
While Chartist supports the right of national groups
to a degree of political autonomy, the right to
self determination, including for Palestine ,Israel
, the Kurds, Sunnis and Shias in Iraq, is conditional
on respect for the rights of other national groups,
especially where there is no clear territorial
separation. We campaign for an international socialism,
and for structures for world governance and dispute
arbitration as a goal for a humane, egalitarian
and democratic world.
Chartist wants a proportional electoral system
where every vote counts equally. We believe active,
democratic political parties are a crucial vehicle
for social and economic change but recognise they
must be inextricably linked to extra-parliamentary
movements to effect a fundamental redistribution
of wealth and power. Economic and social justice
is a prerequisite of a truly democratic society.
Chartist is an independent socialist journal.
It is not affiliated to any political party. While
some members of the editorial board are members
of the Labour Party, others are not. This has enabled
Chartist to be part of a broader political dialogue
across the left. While we cannot ignore debates
within the Labour Party and within government,
Chartist has sought to have a wider focus. Chartist
has therefore published articles on a range of
issues from a range of political perspectives.
Chartist has however been a persistent critic of
Blair and New Labour without being tied in any
way to any specific faction within the Labour movement
. One of Chartist’s strengths has been its
recognition of a range of socialist traditions.
Chartist has often sought to remind its readers
of the importance of socialist history and principles – an
important role given we have a Government and a
wider Labour Party which is increasingly both unprincipled
and ahistorical.
The basic position of Chartist is that it supports
a socialist governance based on economic and political
equality. In opposing authoritarian centralism
both within government and political party structures,
it supports economic and political power being
operated at the most appropriate level. It therefore
supports democratically elected and accountable
forms of governance at international, national,
regional and local level. Chartist recognises that
the main role of government is to provide the social
and economic infrastructure which cannot be organised
by individuals or groups of individuals and to
provide a framework for the operation of ‘civil
society’. Chartist accepts that a central
role of government is redistributive – to
use the wealth of individuals and corporate bodies
for the benefit of the population as a whole. Chartist
recognises the diversity of both politics and culture
and that governance is necessary in both protecting
diversity and individual rights, while ensuring
that rights cannot be exercised in a way that denies
the rights of others.
Chartist therefore supports the limitation of
personal wealth and the operation of a progressive
taxation system. The Government therefore should
introduce higher rates of taxation for households
on higher incomes and limit the accrual of personal
and household wealth through both inheritance and
the appreciation of land and property assets. The
Government should focus on policies of wealth and
income redistribution rather than incentivising
personal and household asset appreciation. The
Government’s focus, for example, on increasing
the number of households who are homeowners through
use of tax resources as incentives represents an
unacceptable bias towardsfocus on middle income
households at the expense of the households on
lowest incomes. It also makes the economic fortunes
of even more households dependent on market forces
outside their control. The Government has a short
memory. One product of market cycles is negative
equity and mortgage default repossessions.
Chartist supports the provision of essential services
and social infrastructure on a publicly accountable
and publicly managed basis. Local government needs
to be re-empowered and made more democratic. People
will only re-engage in politics if local government,
as well as regional government, is seen as both
having a positive role in relation to them and
is seen as open to influence through appropriate
democratic channels. Local councils should regain
control of education and housing services. They
should also have a degree of control over health,
police and local transport services, which serve
more than a single authority area. Regional bodies
required to support cross regional services should
also be directly elected. To ensure the required
degree of democratic accountability and stability
of governance, we advocate a system of annual but
partial elections, with representatives serving
three year terms, with a third being elected each
year. All forms of government should be operated
on a committee structure, without Mayoral or executive
structures, with all representatives being paid
an equal salary and having equal rights within
the organisational body.
All utilities, transport, water, gas and electricity
should be provided through bodies under public
control. Any services provided by private sector
organisations should be on a contractual basis
to the public body as client. Use of the private
sector to provide public services should be limited
to specific circumstances determined by the public
sector body where the public sector does not itself
have the specialist capacity. The profit motive
is not a relevant matter in the provision of public
services. Cost-efficiency can be assured by public
control, audit and regulation. Chartist would therefore
support the reintegration of private education
and health services within a framework of public
control, accountability and equal access. QUANGOs
should be replaced by accountable public bodies.
Use of consultants and agencies should not be a
way of avoiding pay and conditions applicable to
directly employed staff, nor a mechanism for exaggerated
salaries for managers.
The principles of accountability and individual
rights also need to be central to the judicial
and policing systems. The principles of trial by
jury and strict limits to pre-trial detention should
be operated without exemptions. There is no basis
for using the justification of terrorist threats
to weaken these essential safeguards. Accountable
and democratic governance, which is accepted by
the vast majority of the population, continues
to be the best defence against terrorism. Authoritarianism
and secrecy are the terrorists’ greatest
recruiter.
We recognise that economic power and wealth has
to be shared between public and private sectors.
It has also to be acknowledged that with the development
of international corporate bodies, there are severe
limitations on the ways in which a single government
can regulate and control the operation of multinational
capitalism.
Maintaining a balance between supporting employment
growth and limiting the growth in economic inequality
requires a range of regulatory and taxation interventions
at international as well as at local, regional
and national level. The current position of strong
economic growth leading to greater inequities in
income and wealth is not however sustainable and
has created a culture of envy and social marginalisation
where the lottery and reality TV shows have replaced
education as the main route a ‘working class’ person
can achieve economic and social advancement.
In international policy, Chartist supports the
central role of international governance, through
the United Nations, its associated bodies and continental
bodies such as the African Union and the European
Union. While as a major economic power, the UK
has international responsibilities, it is no longer
a colonial power and any interventions in civil
disputes or wars both between and within other
sovereign states, should be as a contributor to
a UN force and under UN authority. While the UN
should be reformed to remove the veto powers of
the Security Council and to ensure continental
representation on its governing body, the UN remains
the pre-eminent international body and its decisions
should not be disregarded by any government, including
the UK government.
The Government should terminate its ‘special
relationship’ with the US Government, should
not seek to categorise other countries as allies
or enemies and should consider its relationship
with other countries in terms of the merits of
the individual case in question and within the
frameworks established by the UN. The UK should
cease the export of arms to any body other than
to a UN controlled force. The UK defence forces
should only operate in other countries where they
are acting as part of a UN controlled military
intervention. We would support a major programme
of arms industry conversion and retraining. The
UK government should seek to transfer any residual
governance responsibilities in Iraq to local political
control, or where this is not yet feasible, to
agencies of the UN. The UK should focus on supporting
international development through its aid programme
rather than on military interventions. Where development
cannot be achieved without political control and
security, such interventions should be through
the UN. Any intervention in the internal affairs
of a sovereign state, for example in the case of
threat of civil war or genocide should be through
the United Nations rather than through unilateral
action by individual states. This requires the
UN to have a significant intervention force on
standby available for immediate deployment.
An accountable, transparent, democratic European
Union on a social democratic model, would provide
the basis from which to develop these international
goals with preferential trading relations being
provided for developing nations and a foreign policy
independent of the USA. Significant reforms are
required to governance of the EU to increase its
internal democracy and its accountability to the
electorate of its member states. Powers should
not be transferred from democratic nation states
to undemocratic pan-national bodies. We stand for
the free movement of all labour within the EU and
a humane, non-racist immigration policy, with protection
of employment rights of non-nationals as well as
nationals.. We should never close our doors to
asylum seekers and refugees and recognise that
immigration plays a positive economic, social and
cultural role in the development of British society.
Chartist stands for the extension of rights and
freedoms to the disadvantaged, exploited and oppressed.
We support the UN Declaration of Human Rights and
its incorporation into British law. We stand for
the extension of active democracy in all spheres
of society and politics including the workplace
and in the social relations of the family.
We support the abolition of the monarchy and replacement
by a republican head of state. We support the replacement
of the House of Lords with a predominantly elected
second chamber. We have consistently campaigned
for equality for women in economy and society to
include equal pay for work of equal value, the
right of women to control their own bodies, fertility,
decisions about marriage and for equal representation
in the corridors of power.
Chartist supports the practical extension of equal
rights to all those experiencing disadvantage and
discrimination because of their gender, race or
ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability. The
emancipation of women worldwide stands in parallel
with the freedom of workers from exploitation and
is integral to the creation of democratic socialism.
We support freedom of religious belief. However
we oppose any religion or religions in general
being given any favoured position within the state.
We therefore support separation of state and chaurch.
No religious group should be empowered by the state
to impose its faith on others. The state must be
neutral between faiths and therefore secular.
In promoting collectivism, we oppose selfish individualism,
not human individuality. No individual should be
disbarred from full participation in civil society
and the political structure of the country, except
where removed from society through imprisonment
for conviction for crimes of violence against other
persons which demonstrate that they are a significant
threat to civil society. All individuals should
be encouraged to actively participate in civil
society. Effective citizenship involves responsibilities
as well as rights.
We stand for workers’ democracy, be it in
the factory, office, school, supermarket or farm.
Producers and providers should have a powerful
voice in the decision-making process mediated by
the needs of service consumers and stakeholders.
A Freedom of Information Act should apply to government,
society and corporations which should no longer
be able to hide behind the mask of company law
to deny information to their employees.
Chartist recognises the fundamental threat to
all life posed by climate change and environmental
degradation. We support the principle of the polluter
pays, the extension of green taxes, investment
in renewable energy sources, recycling and reuse
of materials.
The 21st century should be an age when technology
is harnessed to enhance the life of all people
and enrich that which makes us human: art, science,
culture, politics, and the pursuit of happiness.
We need to establish a new enlightened work-life
balance. No one should have to work more than 35
hours or a five day week. We welcome flexible working
arrangements, the extension of maternity and paternity
leave, job sharing, sabbaticals, the extension
of the minimum wage and the introduction of a maximum
wage. We support the EU maximum 48 hour working
directive and call for all member states, including
the UK, to implement this legislation.
The objectives and policies set out in this manifesto
are neither extreme nor utopian. They would have
been viewed as cautious, even reformist, by many
socialists over the last hundred years. They are
idealist but nevertheless still practical. They
are based on the reassertion of the fundamental
principles of socialism, while recognising the
changed context in which they should be applied.
While Chartist may have a relatively limited role
within the UK left, never mind within the international
socialist movement, we believe it has an important
role as an independent advocate of socialist ideas
and can help to set the framework for the debate
on a more socialist future, at least within our
readership and networks. This restatement of Chartist’s
policy objectives could assist to broaden our influence,
and to avoid misinterpretations or misattributions.
We need to be a beacon of light in a context which
is increasingly darkened by a failure of collective
memory as well as abandoning of the collectivist
principle. Our objective should be not just Beyond
Blair but Towards Socialism. |
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