Prerequisite of such a plan that the anks, insurance houses, building societies and all other financial institutions be nationalised. A national plan without control of capital would be unworkable. Second, there should be a punitive wealth tax on the rich.
Government spending on defence should be cut by at least 80 per cent, and a programme of reconversion of the arms industry undertaken. Money saved in defence should be redirected towards investment in industry and soThe export of capital would haveto be The billions which leave the country each year to boost the prons of the ten must be brought under social control.
All the de nationalised industries should be renationalised, together with those maior firms which control the economy. Nuclear power should be ahased out. and the coal industry milt. The energy network, controlled by a nationalised electricity and gas industry. would have to utilise the ecologically sound techniques which are already available. What are the priorities for investment? Manufacturing industry needs vast investment to introduce modern techniques. The transport system needs a radical overhaul. Vast spending on the rail network and other forms of public transport are needed to break the ecologically All benefits and pensions should wage, and be indexed against inflation. ing scale; there should be a sliding scale of hours. Work time could rapidly be reduced to 32 hours or less. Welfare state An ageing society needs billions poured into the NHS. The Tory health reforms need to be totally scraducadon needa to be transformed, with the opening of higher and further education for d available now only to the lucky few, Private homes for the elderly should be scrappea, with a nanonal system or free ar universal care, including lished. At one go, the enormous burdens looking after elderly parents, would be OTORA A free national childcare and creche stroke. The crippling burden on millions of women forced into part-time work, or forced to stay at home, would be de stroyed. This in tum would unleash an enormous creative potential in society.
The fight for an alternative society reuires free and fighting trade unions 'he first action of a Labour governmen' should be to unshackle the unions by abolishing the anti-trade union laws.
This should go hand-in-hand with an extension of democratic rights, in the A key to the level of civilisation in any society is its ability to offer a Socialise mune perand the right to job, training or education at the national Vote should be given to youth ap 16 years old. Student loans should be abolshed in favour of a statutory grant at a International ritish troops have been in Irelan ince 1969, fighting a useless and de structive war against irish unity and There is no British solution to this war. The troops must be withdrawn and the war ended. The Prevention of Terrorism Ict must be repealed ritain should get rid of nuclear wea ons and withdraw from NATO. Scoliand Support for self-government is overwhelming in Scotland. The basis of self-determination must be the creation of a Scottish Assembly with If it is the will of the Scottish people, then they have the right to full inde pendence. A Welsh Assembly with its own powers must be established. The policies outlined here are unattainable without working class struggle to support and impose them. force to defeat the right. Where to begin? There is a central paradox and contradiction in outlining policies which would meet the scope of the present crisis. Labour is light years away from embracing such a programme.
While anti-capitalist policies are inevitable as a solution to the depth of the crisis, large parts of even the left of the Ja bour movement will pescopacal doout the viability of a complete alternative programme, or the possibility of fighting for it.
Alter the elecaon, u a Labour covern mentis elected, the task is precisely to adopt a charter or basic demanas waica sum up and encapsulate an anti-capitalist approach - demands which can gain a wideecho in the labour movement and the working class This would have to include demands such as nuclear disarmament and tre slashing of the defence budget; taxing the rich and funding neartn and socia services; scrapping the trade union laws; an amnesty for all poll tax prisoners and defaulters; a Scottish assembly with full aws, and equal rights for women Such demands inevitably point in the direction of an economy which works accordina to a ditterent logic to the castno madhouse of free-market capitalism. Building support for such a programme is central to renewing working class postics and the nght for socialist No. 18 March 21, 1992
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