“Democracy has recently become extremely
important and the key issue in politics.” You can count the political figures
who say and mean that on the fingers of one hand. But that was the uncompromising
message delivered by John McDonnell to Occupy London activists.
McDonnell is a rare breed in the shape of a
Labour MP with principles and perspective. He had been invited to kick off a
debate on democracy as part of the New Putney Debates,
developing themes from the original debates in 1647 during the English
Revolution.
This particular event, organised by the Real Democracy
working group, had McDonnell pouring scorn on those who have claimed that the
slow evolution of liberal democracy and its economic counterpart – capitalism -
had culminated in the “end of history”, with the present system deemed the
optimal form of the political voice of society. His alternative view is worth reflecting
on:
“But then along came the economic crisis of
capitalism. People woke up realising that they have no control over their lives
and that governments cannot control the economic system and cannot supply the
basic necessities of life. Unemployment and insecurity is on a scale not seen
for a long time. My constituency office is now organising food packages for
local people.
“We are at quite a crucial moment in our
history. The idea of a system which is perfecting itself has failed. The debate
now becomes fundamentally relevant to people as it did in the English civil
war. People realised they had an opportunity to question and re-shape
everything. Virtually every element of the establishment is now seen as exposed
and corrupt. People are searching for alternatives and answers.
“It is a time to start envisaging real
utopias, based on democracy. We need to
address the state and the economy and the links between the two. People have
lost confidence in the state system we have and the politicians within it.
Representative democracy is not the last word.”
A leading supporter of Occupy London
responded that the last 30 years had led to a “society without power”. There
was something fundamentally wrong and the problem was to animate people to do
something about it.
Another raised the issue of globalisation
and how it dominated economics and politics: can institutions such as the
European Union, the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and
the United Nations democratised or do alternative international institutions
need to be created?
The irreconcilable conflict that led to the
original Putney Debates was powerfully brought to life in a performance at St
Mary’s church, Putney on the exact day and venue that they took place 365 years
ago.
Actors Damian LeBas as Leveller and senior
military figure Thomas Rainborough, Michael Edwards as Henry Ireton (Cromwell’s
son-in-law) and Dominic Golding as John
Wildman (civilian and probably the author of the Agreement of the People) were
outstanding in an 11-strong cast, directed by Natasha Langridge in a rehearsed
reading of Caryl Churchill’s play, Light
Shining in Buckinghamshire.
Earlier, speakers had brought out the
inspirational significance of the English revolution, which, said one person, “everything
in our political culture today tells us – ignore it, forget about it, it never
really happened, and if it did it was only a minor insignificant event”.
Leveller demands in the Agreement of the
People, seen as the basis for a new constitution, were far beyond their time
and were rejected by the army grandees. But the fundamental thrust of their
arguments about suffrage and natural rights were to re-emerge in centuries to
come.
A contribution from A World to Win proposed
a contemporary form of the Agreement to open up “a new page in democracy that
would have to go hand and hand with a social revolution in terms of ownership
and control of land, the economy and finance.”
The New Putney Debates have opened the
doors for a wide discussion on different approaches: “make and mend”,
regulation within the existing institutions or a revolutionary change. The Revolution Will
be Networked assembly on November 17 will take up this challenge.
Corinna Lotz
A World to Win
