Some ideas Socialist Labour are putting forward for discussion
For a democratic Labour party:
● For a sovereign Labour party Annual Conference which makes party policy and elects and mandates the Executive Committee to carry out this policy and controls the PLP.
● Support the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy Charter for a Democratic Conference.
● For the abolition of the Joint Policy Committee and the National Policy
Forums.
● Defend the democratic right of all CLPs to choose their own candidates, no NEC impositions!
● Ensure female and BAEM proportionality in all CLPs.
● For the right of CLPs to recall all Labour MPs, MEPs and Councillors and for these to be paid no more that the average wage of a skilled worker.
● All Labour councils to refuse to implement Tory austerity in alliance with the trade unions, local anti-cuts campaigns and local TUCs.
● End bans and proscriptions against working class and left currents, for affiliation rights for all socialist movements and societies. Democratise trade unions and the Labour party link:
● For democratising the trade unions via rank and file control over the bureaucracies.
● Defend the Labour/trade union link and democratise it; end block votes and fight for all trade unions to affiliate to Labour and all trade unions members to pay the political levy to Labour.
● All trade union leaders and full time officers to be subject to recall, to be directly elected and to be paid no more that the average wage of a skilled worker.
● Abolish zero and low hours contracts for all workers. Trade union pay rates and conditions for all, abolish agency sub-contractors.
● Mobilise to defeat the Tory Trade Union Bill, repeal all anti-trade union legislation, establish the right to strike, defend TU facility times, employment rights from day one, abolish Employment Tribunal fees.
● For a trade union and Labour party controlled mass media, including press and TV station.
● For workers’ democracy via local TUCs to organise trade union branches and community groups under attack by capitalism as a local basis for workers’ power. Nationalising Industry, Council house building:
● Nationalise all major industries including the building industry, all public utilities, gas, water, electricity, Royal Mail, the railways, bus and coach services, ferries, etc. without compensation under workers’ and trade union control.
● Defend the NHS, abolish all privatisations, tendering and PFI initiatives; nationalise all drug companies and equipment suppliers without compensation under workers’ control.
● For a massive state programme of council house building at rents proportional to income not the bogus ‘affordable rents’. Control all rents, empower councils to seize all properties empty for more than one year.
● Protect the environment, combat global warming by trade union controlled progressively replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy, no to nuclear power.
● For a democratically organised planned economy geared to production for human need and protection of the planet’s environment and not for the profits of finance capital and transnationals. Defend the welfare state, free education:
● Abolish the Bedroom Tax and end the Benefit Cap, for disability and carer allowances at trade union rates of pay.
● For a £11 minimum wage for all workers adjusted in line with inflation, RPI/CPI, whichever is greater.
● No workfare; end unemployment by a 30 hour week for all with no loss of pay, jobs for all school leavers and graduates and a massive programme of public works.
● Abolish all tuition fees and all student debts; an education allowance at living wage rates for all students. Abolish all private (public!) schools, Academies and Grammar Schools. All primary and secondary schooling to be controlled by Local Authorities.
● For steeply progressive tax rates and wealth taxes on the very rich; they must pay the most for the welfare state.
● Optional retirement at 55, state pensions at living wage rates. Rights and civil liberties:
● Abolish all immigration controls; transnational corporations can go anywhere, so all workers, regardless of race, creed or colour must be free to sell their labour power wherever they get the best price.
● End all discrimination on the basis of race, s*x, s*xuality, ability, age, etc. by public education and legislation.
● For a woman’s right to choose, free abortion on demand.
● We defend the Human Rights Act and the European convention against Tory attack, but we need to fight for something better: A Charter that defends the rights of the working class majority and not the property rights of the capitalists.
● All ‘laws against terrorism’ from the PTA,1974–89, to the present Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 threaten the civil liberties of all citizens of the UK. No support for British imperialism, for a Workers’ Republic:
● Oppose all foreign wars, withdraw all UK armed forces from abroad, the main enemy is always at home for British workers.
● Britain has no progressive role to play in Ireland, full support for an anti-austerity 32 county socialist united Ireland.
● No support for US/Nato imperialist wars or the bombing of Syria and Iraq, for the right of the workers of the Donbass to resist the austerity programme of the Ukrainian oligarchs ushered in by the Maidan protests by any means necessary.
● Britain out of NATO, no Trident renewal.
● Abolish the monarchy and the House of Lords.
● End capitalism, for a Workers’ Republic, part of a socialist Europe in a socialist world.
