by René Lavanchy
LEFT-WING activists are preparing to campaign nationwide for a socialist response to the economic crisis, which would target ordinary members of the public and promote a new “people’s charter”.
The Labour Representation Committee, which works for the Labour Party to return to its socialist roots, hopes to take advantage of popular anger against bankers and financiers, which they call the “biggest opportunity for a generation”.
The charter to be launched in March calls on the Government to take the biggest financial institutions into public ownership, reduce working hours, restore union rights and nationalise transport and utilities. It would also raise the minimum wage to half of median national earnings.
Owen Jones, who is organising the campaign, said: “Gordon Brown and ‘new’ Labour have kept the deregulation of the Thatcher era. He’s talking now of a new world order. We want that to be a reality. We’re not calling for the old form of nationalisation. If we’re running the banks, we want the management of the board to be democratically elected by the users of the bank.”
“The left has its biggest opportunity for a generation. If the left fails to grasp the nettle, then there’s very little point in existing.”
Marsha-Jane Thompson of the LRC national committee said: “We want to get out to shopping centres, jobcentres, people who are recently out of work, trying to get in touch with them.” A “people’s tribunal” naming and shaming capitalist wrongdoers is also planned.
