Joint Policy declaration for the May 2006 local elections
IN THIS YEAR’S council elections a joint campaign is being mounted by several left parties and some independent socialists, to put forward an alternative to the right-wing policies of privatisation, contracting out and cuts offered by New Labour, the Tories, and the Liberal Democrats alike.
We believe that the New Labour party of Blair and Brown has deprived the working class of political representation, and we want to restore a workers’ voice in politics.
We are socialists. We believe that there is a fundamental contradiction between the needs of capital in an exploitative, profit-driven system, and the needs of the large majority of human beings here and throughout the world. We stand for a thoroughgoing restructuring of the economy and society as a whole, based on common ownership under democratic working class control of the major concentrations of productive wealth.
We are green socialists. We want integrated, expanded and publicly-owned and run transport services, and a planned conversion of the energy industries to sustainable technologies. These are just the first steps needed to stop capitalist greed destroying the world in which we live through global warming and environmental destruction.
This joint election campaign includes individuals and parties who each have our own programme and policies corresponding to the differing perspectives we have on how socialist and environmental change can best be achieved. But all our candidates will campaign for:
AN END TO PRIVATISATION
- Public services
- All public services should be publicly owned and democratically controlled. There is no place for private finance, control or management in public services.
- Stop privatisation
- Stop and reverse privatisation, including covert privatisation by schemes like the so-called ‘Private Finance Initiative’ and ‘Public Private Partnership’.
- Public ownership
- Common ownership of the major concentrations of productive wealth.
EDUCATION
- Free education
- Education should be free, including higher education, with no student fees; replace loans by non-means-tested maintenance grants.
- Public education
- No to Academies, no to ‘trust schools’. State education must be publicly-owned and democratically-run. No to private sponsors running our schools.
- Comprehensive education
- All state education should be comprehensive, with no selection, providing equal education opportunities for all under democratic local control.
- No league tables
- Abolish league tables and the current excessive testing of children.
- No private education subsidy
- No tax concessions or other state support for private schools or private fees as a step towards the abolition of private education.
- Secular education
- State education should be secular, with no religious indoctrination in state schools.
- Nursery education
- A big expansion of public nursery provision.
- School closures
- No school closures for non-educational reasons – a guaranteed place for every child at a good-quality local school.
HOUSING
- No housing privatisation
- No more privatisation of housing, in any form including ‘arms length companies’. Support the ‘fourth option’: tenants and leaseholders should have the right to have homes and community facilities improved and remain in local authority control.
- Public housing
- A mandate for local authorities to build good quality houses and flats for affordable rents, and central government funds for this.
- Private-rented sector
- Bring back rent controls. Re-introduce security of tenure in private rented accommodation.Councils should take over ownership of unused homes kept empty by absentee and neglectful landlords and make them fit and available for rent.
YOUTH SERVICES
- Youth facilities
- A youth club on every estate and neighbourhood, under local control.
- Travel, sport & leisure
- Affordable travel and access to sports and leisure facilities for young people.
LOCAL DEMOCRACY
- Local accountability
- Restoration of powers and funding to democratically elected local government.
- Proportional representation
- Use proportional representation in all elections.
- Council tax
- Scrap the Council Tax – replace with a fairer and more equitable system such as a progressive local services tax, like the Scottish Services Tax proposed by the Scottish Socialist Party.
- Council workforce
- End low pay and the ‘two tier workforce’, with all council work to be in-house, including cleaning, school dinners, waste collection, leisure etc.
- Council democracy
- No more Town Hall fat cats. A maximum wage for senior council employees. No to the ‘council cabinet’ system.
- Councillors & expenses
- Complete transparency in disclosure of business and other interests. SGUC councillors will not pocket the huge expenses paid by many councils. We will claim only legitimate expenses and donate the rest to community initiatives/campaigns. Where councillors are paid a wage, we will take no more than the average wage of a skilled worker.
ENVIRONMENT
- Combat pollution
- Councils to use their full range of powers to control pollution. Monitor local air, water and other pollution levels and publicise the results.
- Integrated transport
- Provide an integrated system of convenient, accessible, cheap, efficient public transport, publicly owned and run.
- Recycling
- Bring in mandatory targets for recycling for manufacturers, retailers and local authorities. Halt the expansion of incineration – recycle or compost as much waste as possible.
- Sustainable energy
- Planned conversion of the energy industries to sustainable technologies.
- Local food
- Favour local food over food transported long distance, by means of planning and other law and the tax system.
LAW
- Accountable police
- Local democratic accountability of the police.
- De-criminalise drugs
- Education and treatment for drug abusers, not criminalisation that fuels crime. Provide adequately funded drug treatment centres and advice in every locality.
HEALTH
- Free NHS
- The National Health Service should be free to all at the point of need, and we will bring back free prescriptions, eye tests and dental treatment. NHS services will be available locally.
- Public NHS
- The National Health Service should be publicly provided and democratically controlled, with no privatisation. Local hospitals and services should be accountable to elected local representatives.
- Investment in health
- Increased investment to help abolish waiting lists and dramatically improve mental and community health care, involving local people in planning and delivery.
- No private health subsidy
- No tax concessions or other state support for private hospitals or private health insurance. Strict application by councils of planning controls on developments.
========================================================================
The foregoing policies address primarily local issues relevant to elected local councils. For the national and international policies of the Socialist Green Unity Coalition, as published for the last general election, see the SGUC website or the printed 2005 “Joint Policy Declaration”.
SGUC 6 March 2006