Manifesto
Intro
Assemblies
Economy
Nature
Culture
A system beyond repair
Capitalism is an exploitative, obscene system that is beyond repair and past its use-by date. A handful of for-profit powerful corporations controlling everything from food, drugs, cars and energy to finance – have brought us to this emergency, facilitated by states and tame mainstream politicians.
This economic system is unsustainable – financially, socially and ecologically.
Mountains of debt, much of it unrepayable, prop up capitalism globally, bringing with it the grim prospects of a financial crash far bigger than the 2008 catastrophe.
As a share of the global gross domestic product – the value added to economies each year – debt has risen to a record 336% and stands at over $300 trillion. More than 80% of the 2023 debt build-up has come from the developed world, with the US, Japan, the UK and France registering the largest increases. To meet debt payments, at least 100 countries will have to reduce spending on health, education and social protection. 60% of low-income countries will be unable to service their debt. Billions will have to further reduce spending on food and fuel.
Inequality has grown by leaps and bounds. The 10 richest men in the world own more than the bottom 3.1 billion people. In the UK, the share of wages as a percentage of GDP has fallen from 70% in the mid-70s to 59% today.
Capitalist overproduction has unleashed ever-rising emissions. Its wasteful extraction and overuse of natural resources has destroyed much of the planet’s ecosystem. The atmospheric concentration of CO2 has risen by 50 per cent since the Industrial Revolution, accelerating rapidly in the last 40 years. There has been a five-fold increase of primary energy use and the razing of half of global forest cover since 1950.
Rising temperatures, heavier rainfall and more frequent and intense extreme weather are projected to cause $38tn (£30tn) of destruction each year by mid-century. Climate change is predicted to cut average incomes worldwide by almost 20% by 2049 despite any attempts at mitigation, further worsening inequality. The incomes of people in poorer countries will be worst affected, despite having the smallest carbon footprints.
Unleashing revolutionary potential
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Together we can harness the revolutionary potential of science, technology and technique to minimise resource use, creating a society based on co-operation, that meets the needs of all. By replacing employment contracts with co-operative membership, we will overcome the alienation that many feel from their work and from society.
Extending these relationships and principles throughout society will allow and enable people to fulfil their potential and make health and well-being the single defining social objective for the world’s population.
A view into the future Imagine that you are a member of a global society of communities whose citizens work together, co-operating on the land and in the buildings we own to meet our needs for food, clothing, housing, education, health and transport. You haven't got a “job”. No-one has a job. There’s no employer, nor any employment contract. Your work is a contribution to the satisfaction of the needs of our community. The work you do entitles you to a share of our community's collective product. We have moved beyond the era of global capitalist corporations, where production was driven by profit. Instead, we have embraced a system of collectively-owned, democratically-controlled cooperatives. This global network ensures that our decisions align with the sustainability of life on Earth. You are free from the relentless bombardment of consumerism, from the addiction to unhealthy food products, from the entrapment of unlimited credit. The value you produce stays within the community, not siphoned off as profits for external shareholders. Surpluses are saved for the future or used to meet the community’s agreed-upon needs. You give what you can and receive what you need. Growth is redefined as increasing local production, reducing dependence on globally transported goods, and promoting fair exchange for items that cannot be produced locally. Low-energy transport systems, powered by renewable sources, move people and goods efficiently. The issue of money for exchange and credit for investment is controlled by democratically accountable not-for-profit service organisations akin to credit unions and building societies. Communities convene regularly to review their needs and plan what they collectively will do to improve lives and the lives of people within and beyond their borders. You are an active participant in decision-making, instilling a sense of control and ownership. Your community sends delegates to regional and national Assemblies, ensuring representation at every level.
Local and global solutions
We propose dismantling the undemocratic pyramid of organisations of free market capitalist rule and replacing it with democratised institutions that ensure equal standards of living worldwide. A world body like the United Nations, but democratised and free from the control of major powers, would debate the need for global institutions and laws.
All productive resources would be commonly owned, replacing unlimited exploitation with stewardship of the land, sea, the air and all of the planet’s ecosystems. Ownership of the production facilities of the major corporations will shift from external shareholders to co-ownership under democratic control.
They will encourage and support small-scale enterprises, creative workers and farmers. Property rights in seeds, fossil fuels, pharmaceuticals, genes, intellectual products and even water by global corporations will end. Providing assistance, sharing expertise and technology will become the new norms.
Decisions about the extraction and use of natural resources and the location of production and distribution facilities will no longer be determined by the market. Instead, the guiding principle will be the equitable satisfaction of needs in line with the restoration and enrichment of the planet’s ecosystems.
A New Financial System
A revolutionary government will outlaw speculative trading and replace the entire financial system with a not-for-profit network of socially owned organisations. The issue of money needed for exchange and credit for investment will be subject to democratic control.
Existing trading platforms and communication networks will become part of a democratically accountable global system of distribution and exchange. As electronic systems proliferate, digital accounting based on units of labour can replace money.
Local Assemblies will decide which personal debts can be cancelled and which renegotiated. Outstanding mortgages, for example could be replaced by socially determined affordable payments.
This is our call to action. Let us come together to create a society that values cooperation over competition, sustainability over exploitation, and the common good over profit. Let us build a future that we can all be proud of.
Priority actions
- all austerity and spending cuts programmes aimed at appeasing the money markets will be terminated
- loans made to finance deficits caused by the capitalist crisis will be repudiated as the preparatory step to an entirely new financial system
- stock markets will be shut down and most shares – those used for speculation by hedge funds and private equity funds – confiscated
- title/ownership will be transferred in trust to the workers in an enterprise. The remaining individual shareholdings will become non-transferable
- banks and all financial institutions will be taken over and their operations reduced to not-for-profit services run by committees elected by depositors and workers
- all empty properties will be requisitioned and used to house those who are homeless or living in housing that is not fit for purpose
- all mortgage debt will be replaced by socially determined payment for housing renegotiated according to the ability to pay
- Private Finance Initiative contracts with the public sector will be terminated. Assemblies will delegate teams to re-prioritise and re-finance development projects
- surplus income from pension funds, freed from speculative investors’ control, will be used to fund the costs of transition
- all subsidies to fossil fuel producers will be transferred to renewables
- all those able to work who are unemployed will be offered a job at the average wage or retraining with no loss of income.
Next: Creating a natural future