Which Way’s Left? Principles and Goals

1 November 2009

The goal of Open Left is to renew the thinking and ideas of the Left. This means starting from first principles, considering fundamental questions about the purpose of our politics. Only on these foundations we can build a powerful and coherent policy agenda. We believe this task is long overdue – and must be done in the spirit of openness and pluralism across the Left.

We launched Open Left by asking people to tell us what it means to them to be on the Left today. We’ve had over a hundred people submit their views on our website, demonstrating the diversity of reasons that people are motivated and passionate about the potential of centre-Left politics. You can read what people said here.

Shaping a popular and effective centre-Left agenda requires being clear about what we believe and care about – and addressing head on the areas where we might reasonably disagree. We think there are five such areas and we’ve tried to encapsulate them in the following core questions.

Economy: Should the Left seek to shape a fundamentally different model of capitalism in the aftermath of the banking crisis and subsequent recession?

Community: Should the Left seek to foster a shared sense of identity, morality and community, or embrace a diversity in each?

Power: Should the Left be collecting or dispersing democratic and political power in seeking to bring about change?

Equality: Should the equality that the Left now pursues be more focused on capabilities than just resources?

Ideology: Should the Left draw more on its social democratic or radical liberal traditions in looking to the future?

Confronting these questions is about much more than simply generating an interesting debate about ideas. They speak to the central political questions facing Britain today and in the years ahead. Whether we are concerned with the crisis in our politics, the future of our economy, or the health of our society – from public services and democratic reform, to the nature of capitalism and the response to immigration – the response to these questions cuts to the heart of any future policy agenda. These are questions we cannot avoid. And the answers will shape the future direction of the centre-Left.

To lead the debate, we have asked some of Britain’s leading political thinkers to address these questions – and we’ll be publishing their responses in the near future. But we also want to hear your views as well. Over the coming days we’ll be kicking off a debate about each of these questions – so watch out for that. But for now, are they the right ones? What have we missed? Post your comments here or e-mail us your views to openleft@demos.co.uk.

4 Comments

4 Responses to “Which Way’s Left? Principles and Goals”

Paul Kempton
November 4th, 2009 @ 3:21 pm

I see “words” but I don't see any direction. Sorry, but it is like New Labour currently, lots of content – no substance though.
Graeme_Cooke
November 5th, 2009 @ 11:03 am

Paul – our goal is to create a space where people on the Left can have a genuine debate about direction, based on being clear about what we believe and care about. And we want that to be as open as possible – rather than prejudged. We think these are the big topics where people on the Left often disagree – so let's confront them. Then we work out where we go next…

Graeme
radicalpete
November 12th, 2009 @ 7:44 pm

The Way it Was

The poor in Britain
Are bleeding poor
Was not always
Like this,that’s for sure

A war was fought
Till late 1945
When most of you
Were not alive
When men and women
Bravely died

On return to
Blighties shores
They’re former life
They would NOT endure

Class distinction
Was alive and well
Establishment and privilege
Was once more

Then the Election came in 45
Labour ans Socialism was alive
Their pledge to this Nation
That things must change

No more ownership
By the richest few
But everything owned
By me and you

Nationalisation
They called it then
Public ownership
Of everything
Fuel and Power
Phones and Gas
Mines and Shipping
The whole razzmatazz

The NHS came to be
That gave free health care
To the likes of me
A dental service
Free to all
No more money
For teeth to pull

A pension book
Labour did pledge
Paid by OUR profits
Labour had said

But along the way
Things did change
Mrs “T” did arrange

She “STOLE” it all
The Nations wealth
Her filthy hands
Are everywhere
She stole the milk
From little kids
Sold our water
As well as gas
Essential elements
We all must have

No more profits
For everyone
No more pensions
That the State
Should pay
The rich and powerful
Now have that sway

We've come a long way
Since 1945
When Labour was powerful
With real men of steel
Not like this fungus
This gutless crap
Just like old Thatcher
Blaire and Brown
Made sure of that

Peter Wicks 2007

PS
So my friends in Britain
This is the reason you
Must work till you drop
Your pension is owned
By the rich,now ain't that good

Peter Wicks
annecorrie
November 13th, 2009 @ 10:31 pm

It might be useful to go back to the beginnings of 20th century radicalism and re-examine some of the ideas of the anti-marxist left, the anarchists and syndacalists or the origins of cooperatives and communes. You might want to start with Anarcho-syndicalism: Theory and Practice by Rudolf Rocker, reprinted with introduction by Noam Chomsky.