Long ago, society was being overwhelmed by a series of
catastrophes to which there seemed no answers. Unemployment, poverty and
inequality were rife as a global crisis took hold. The old capitalist economic
system had run its course and was unsustainable.
The world was choked with products, many of them out of date
as soon as they came off the production lines. Huge dumps and rubbish piles
accumulated and overwhelmed parts of the planet. Waste, some of it lethal,
became big business as it was shipped across the globe.
People became poorer as they lost jobs and services were cut
by a undemocratic governments in the pockets of the corporations. Increasing
numbers depended on charity food banks just to survive. Obesity and diabetes
epidemics affected the poor – due to the marketing of junk food by agribusiness
and supermarkets.
As ordinary people fell into deeper debt and could not
afford high rents and mortgages, they saw their government continue to hand
over hand vast amounts of public money to bankers and financiers. Britain ’s debts
continued to rise at every level as the global money markets and speculators
ruled the roost. The ConDem coalition blamed the people and said they had to
tighten their belts for another five years.
Floods swept Britain
for an entire year as extreme weather resulted from climate change. Green belt
areas, parks and woods were ruined, as property speculators ran rampant. On the
global scale, ecological disasters mounted. Air pollution due to carbon
emissions together with rainforest clearing increased icecap meltdown at a rate
that outpaced scientific predictions.
By 2012, parliament as a representative, democratic
law-making body had become discredited. Corrupt collusion between media,
parliament and the police was exposed and people stopped trusting those in
power. Large numbers of people refused to vote in elections. Top state
institutions - the BBC and the Church of England - were riddled with crises.
The Trade Union Congress organised a protest against government cuts, but
people had clearly lost confidence in its feeble bleating.
People could see no way out through the existing political
system and could only look forward to years of cuts in jobs and services. The
parliamentary alternative was a return to Labour, which was equally – if not
more – tied to the global corporations and business.
But during 2012, there were glimmerings that people realised
new kinds of politics were needed. Despite the media obsession with medals,
naked corporate interest and security madness, people were enthused by the
London Olympics. They seemed to indicate a hidden mass creativity whereby
ordinary people could accomplish the impossible.
In 2013, people realised that the political system, the
institutions of the state, had become a brake on the aspirations of those it
ruled over. A fundamental transition to greater democracy was needed.
Inspired by the global Occupy movement and movements such as
those in Egypt and Latin
America – in particular the Cochabamba World People’s Conference on Climate
Change and the Rights of Mother Earth - people in Britain said it was time to
determine their own fate. They looked into their history and discovered that at
the time of the English Revolution during the 1640s, the Leveller movement had
put forward an Agreement of the People.
Surely a new constitution could provide a new framework for
the society of the 21st century? If the existing system had lost its legitimacy
it was up to the people to work out a new solution. So groups of people in London and around the
country began to call for a new Agreement of the People for the 21st
century.
It provided a basis for transferring power from the old
institutions to democratic grass roots movements, organised by co-leaders who
were accountable to people’s assemblies. They took the discussion over what
rights such an Agreement had to enshrine out far and wide through the country.
Large numbers of people came forward with their grievances and brought their ideas for
a future society into the debate.
The idea of a constitution began to take root and eventually
the mass of the people did it. They rose up and cleared out the fat cats, the
speculators and the billionaires and set up an alternative people’s parliament,
using the internet and social networking technology to make it inclusive. Land
was declared a common treasury. Global corporations in Britain , banks
and supermarkets were taken into co-operative ownership and control.
The transition was not easy. As the movement from below
gained strength, some people in the ruling elites broke ranks and joined in.
But those in power did not want to let go of their privileges and resisted. But
for once in history, the movement did not allow itself to be taken by surprise.
They realised that they had to take power from the old rulers. In the end, the One
Percent could not keep their machinations secret, were overwhelmed and lost
control for good.
A World to Win editors
Revolutionary New Year's greetings!
No comments:
Post a Comment