Marching in the footsteps of the Levellers

Creating a real democracy to replace our deficient, defective system is obviously no simple task. However, the positive outcome of an assembly called around producing an Agreement of the People for the 21st century shows that the project is gathering momentum.

A diverse range of groups and individuals have formed a steering group to complete work on revising the draft Agreement presented to the assembly that was held in London at the weekend (You can watch a live stream here, here and here).   

When finalised, the Agreement will be presented as the framework for a new democratic constitution for Britain. The idea is that the Agreement should embrace political, economic, social, legal, environmental and other rights.

The assembly heard proposals to complete the work within six months and to then launch a campaign to win mass support for the Agreement, to create a movement that will fight for it.

Working groups came up with many proposals to improve and amend the present draft text. These will be incorporated into the process of producing a final Agreement.

Among the many action points was a commitment at an early stage to try to create global links with other progressive organisations and groups. How this can happen was established in the assembly itself, when a representative of Revolucion Democratica from Chile was able to take part in a working group via the internet.

The need to extend participation in the process through online forums (with links to each other) and make use of video presentations was a key proposal which the steering group will work on when it meets for the first time. 

Also crucial will be the search for allies amongst networks of community groups, trade unions, activist organisations and those struggling against the state over cuts, attacks on human rights and for climate change action. This is clearly going to require resources – human and financial – so fund raising will be crucial.

  

Support from creative artists is already forthcoming. “The Revolution Will Be Networked” assembly drew inspiration from performances by poets Chip Grim, Cristina Viti and Adnan al-Sayegh. 

The Agreement of the People project takes its inspiration from the struggles of the Levellers and Diggers during the English Revolution in 1647. A new constitutional settlement was needed to complete the switch from the absolute power of the monarchy to parliamentary power.

When the Levellers put forward their Agreement at the famous Putney Debates at meetings of the Army Council of the New Model Army, it emphasised democratic control of power, the rule of law, regular elections, a wider franchise.

Theirs was the first attempt in history to create a constitution, to say how the country should be governed. Although there were two more drafts, the Levellers’ agreement was defeated. Parliament became sovereign but there was no democracy to go with it.

Leveller ideas surfaced again in the American and French revolutions. The famous words in the US constitution about holding “these truths to be self-evident” and “certain unalienable rights” sound like Leveller language.

Fast forward to the 21^st century and, although the right to representation has long been won, the state has undermined this through a direct alliance with corporate and financial power. A market state has established a stranglehold over society.

The plan to produce an Agreement of the People for the 21^st century builds on work done by democracy activists in the previous decade and the Real Democracy working group of Occupy London.

Created at the end of 2011, the group took as its starting point the initial statement of Occupy London, that the “current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust”. The group has championed analysis, debates and discussion about our flawed political/state system as well as the English Revolution.

Seven groups have initially declared their support for the development of a new Agreement. This is significant because it cannot be the property of one organisation. It has to win broad support.

The time is right historically to consider what a real democracy would and could look like. We are in good company historically speaking. We are a line that goes back to the Levellers, the Diggers, the Chartists, the Suffragettes. We are with Tom Paine and John Lilburne and many other fighters for democracy and against state oppression.

We know that the tide of history is with us and not the status quo. 

Paul Feldman

Communications editor

Time runs out for Obama and the constitution

The irresistible march of economic and financial events undermines legal and constitutional structures, weakens bureaucratic constraints, exposes weak and divided political leadership and transforms long-established relations between people and states.

Generations have stood before the Stars and Stripes and sworn allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. Adopted in 1787, and subjected to 27 amendments – the latest in 1992 – it is the oldest written constitution still in use by any nation in the world.

This is according to Wikipedia, which was itself set up as part of a global movement to undermine the property rights which are of the essence of the capitalist system. They argue rightly that private property in knowledge and software impedes human progress.

But world-shattering events are now shaking the foundations of the United States. The 14th was particularly important in establishing the legal authority of the Federal government in Washington during the reconstruction in the wake of the civil war and the ending of slavery.

Section 4 of the amendment reads: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorised by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

Some have suggested that President Obama could invoke this section to raise the government’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling which is fast being approached. The Republicans are playing hard-ball and declining to reach an agreement with the White House to raise the ceiling before next Tuesday’s deadline. Raising the ceiling is required so that the United States can go on borrowing on international markets and service its debts.

Such a move by Obama would be a constitutional declaration of war with echoes of Abraham Lincoln’s military campaign to bring the south into line. Whether he’s up for this is debatable. But while Obama ponders his next move, what, according to the constitution, “shall not be questioned” is in reality being challenged by the money markets, as well as the obdurate Republicans.

The credit rating agencies which were effectively given power over companies and states by the Basel 2 international agreement on banking laws and regulation first published only in 2004, are threatening to downgrade US debt. That would force up borrowing costs and add billions to the total debt. The “validity” of the US public debt is definitely being questioned.

In any case, would invoking the constitution to raise the ceiling unilaterally do the trick. Not at all, as US commentator Andrew Leonard points out:

“Would taking action under the 14th Amendment make the debt ceiling crisis go away? Highly dubious. Not only would the House GOP [Republicans] immediately start impeachment proceedings, but, as several commentators have observed, there's a real question as to whether investors would continue to buy US Treasuries while the legalities of the president's action were settled. Pretend you are China – do you think it's a wise move to keep buying US government debt while the US goes through a constitutional crisis? Using the 14th Amendment to protect the ability of the US to pay its debts becomes a lot less attractive if as a consequence, borrowing costs for the U.S. government rise sharply.”

Not least among the many problems facing the multitude of politicians, bankers, and civil servants with the hopeless task of holding back the catastrophe is that downgrading a country’s debt to “default”, whether that country is Greece, the United States, Spain or Britain, has dramatic consequences.

During the madness of the last couple of decades, the entire global economy became irretrievably entangled in a seething interdependent mass of credit and debt held together by those fiendish financial instruments known as credit default swaps. The trouble is that if, or rather when one country is declared to be in default, it will trigger a chain reaction throughout the millions of CDS contracts.

No power exists to stop it. And it doesn’t much matter which country is first up. There are no “fixes”, quick or otherwise, as Obama is about to find out.

Gerry Gold

Economics editor