What we stand for
Since the election of a Labour government, the most important issues facing socialist activists are the broad direction and the policies of the government. Basing themselves on a system based on greed and profit will inevitably mean that the Labour government ends up cutting services, including the NHS, further privatising them, and challenging the living standards of workers with a new version of austerity dressed up as ‘hard choices’.
Attention therefore must shift to the trade union movement. Among the leaders of the affiliated unions, the majority have backed Keir Starmer’s drive to the right, facilitating the grip of the Labour right wing on policy and party. Whether or not the trade union members will accept a new round of cuts is another matter, however. So the fight is now on to get the affiliated unions to assert their control over the Labour Party in the interests of their members and not in the interests of a handful of right-wing careerists.
There is no sign anywhere on the political horizon of a ‘new’ party to the left of Labour and, in any case, the Labour Party above all belongs to the trade unions who were instrumental in its formation. The Party is not Keir Starmer and Keir Starmer is not the Party and it is essential that the trade unions that are affiliated begin a fight-back against right-wing infiltration and influence.
Left-Horizons is a part of that fight. We are a website is run and managed by socialists who are active in the labour movement. We believe that socialist ideas have never been more relevent – and necessary – than they are today.
We believe that the so-called ‘free-enterprise’ economic syste – capitalism – offers no way forward for working class people in Britain or internationally. Austerity, declining health-care standards, crumbling services, limited educational opportunities, low pay and inadequate housing – these are only some of the effects of leaving the main levers of the economy in private hands. An economic system based on greed, short-term gain and private appropriation of wealth offers nothing but unending austerity for the big majority.
Socialist Policies
We are fighting inside the trade union movement and, where we can, inside the Labour Party, for real socialist policies that are in the interests of the working class, the big majority of the population. Our policies are:
- For an immediate national minimum living wage of £15 an hour
- For a national house-building programme, focused on social housing, to build a million homes a year.
- For rent controls linked to the national living wage. Housing is a basic right and no family to pay more than a modest percentage of its net income on rent!
- For the reversal of all Tory cuts and a massive programme of public works in infrastructure, public services, housing, education and NHS.
- For the reversal of Tory anti-trade union legislation
- For a fully-funded and publicly-owned NHS, with the cancellation of all private contracts and PFI scams
- For a fully-funded and integrated transport system, linking rail, road and buses in a publicly-owned and managed system for the benefit of travellers.
- For the cancellation of student debt and the re-introduction of grants and bursaries for further and higher education.
- For a living wage for all public sector workers, linked to the prices index, so that fire-fighters, nurses, teachers and council workers can afford a decent life.
- Renationalisation of Royal Mail, the railway system and utilities like gas, water and electricity, so they can run for social benefit and not subsidised for private gain.
We believe that these policies, and more, should be at the centre of a Labour programme and that they would prove to be enormously popular.
We believe that if it based itself on a socialist outlook, the Labour Party would explain that the huge economic wealth of this country should be used for the benefit of the overwhelming majority, through the nationalisation of the big companies that dominate the economy. Big decisions that affect millions of people – like economic and industrial investment, energy policy, infrastructural development – should be based on what is best for the majority, not on what is most profitable for a tiny minority of super-rich.
The giant companies that dominate the economy lobby and covertly influence ministers, civil servants and they own the majority of the press; they and keep their tax affairs and profits in closed books, dodging taxes and paying obscene sums to their bosses, while hiding it all from public view. They need to be brought into the public domain, for the benefit of all.
Democratic plan of production and climate change
If socialism is to mean anything, it must mean the organisation of economic wealth and the deployment of resources democratically, involving workers’ and community representatives as well as government, in a democratic plan of production. The resources, skills, expertise and wealth of this country – which are still considerable – could be used for the benefit of all and not for a tiny minority.
If we take the social and economic crises affecting the world population and add the growing crises of global pollution, climate change, population pressures and the misuse and exhaustion of natural resources, we are entering the most disturbed and dangerous period in the whole of human history.
We believe that so-called ‘green’ issues are not ‘separate’ but have effects on social and political developments and are therefore part of the struggle for a society based on a rational use of resources, rather than greed, corruption and short-term profit for an insignificant handful of super-rich. It is not moral failure that is causing irreversible damage to the Earth’s environment, but capitalism, and so to be truly ‘green’, activists have to be also ‘red’, challenging the fundamental basis of capitalist society.
In fighting for working class people and for socialist ideas, we believe the Labour Party and trade union movement should itself be a model for democracy, with all officials elected, subject to recall and paid the same wages as ordinary skilled workers. We believe that elected Labour representatives, whether MPs or councillors, should face automatic re-selection for every election, so there are no meal-tickets for life.
Workers’ unity and internationalism
We believe the Labour and trade union movement, as the political and industrial arms of the organised working class, should fight for the greatest possible social and political freedoms for all people and against all forms of discrimination and harassment, whether on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sex, sexuality, disability or age. It must be the organisations of the labour movement more than any other that champion and progress the interests of oppressed minorities and the disadvantaged.
We believe the Labour and trade union movement should follow a policy of consistent internationalism, supporting and promoting workers’ unity against all those who would divide the working class on grounds of national, religious or cultural differences. Socialism in one country is a mirage that cannot be maintained in the real world. We therefore believe that the struggle for the transformation of society is one that necessarily means having an international perspective, programme and policy.
As an alternative to an EU dominated by business, socialists argue for international solidarity and for a Socialist Federation of European states, as part of a struggle for a Socialist Federation across the Globe. Only in a socialist world, with the resources of the Planet organised and planned rationally for the benefit of all humanity, can there be a guarantee of health, education and all the basic necessities of life, as well as human culture, science and art. Human society is at an inflection point and the only guarantee of a future lies in socialist ideas.
These are the polices and these the ideas that are reflected in the articles on the Left Horizons website. Join us in establishing a clear Marxist socialist tradition among all those activists struggling for a better future and a better world.
