Michael Meacher

The Politics Of Conviction

A socialist or social democratic society is one that exercises moral principles, social justice and democratic accountability of power in meeting individual and social needs. A capitalist society is one where the economy is driven by unfettered market forces and power is amassed through the accumulation of capital. In the West, the political struggle largely centres round exactly where the line is drawn between these opposing tensions in the regulation of both economies and societies.

Over the last century or more massive shifts of power have occurred across this dividing line. Following the immense destructiveness of the Second World War, the swing of power towards social democracy was reflected in the establishment of a network of welfare state provisions, a steady diminution over succeeding decades in the inequality of income in society, the strengthening of trade union power in opposition to capital, and a widening of employment opportunities and rights.

But in Britain the pendulum swung back in the 1980s and a confluence of factors ushered in the Thatcher counter-revolution. Contrary to all expectations, after 18 years of Thatcher Major Toryism, these policies have been largely continued by New Labour.The balance of industrial power remains as tilted in favour of big business as it ever was in the 1980s and 90s and the centralisation of state power has been taken even further.

The ideological centre of gravity remains entrenched firmly on the political Right. The question is whether this Right-wing retrenchment is inevitable. This pamphlet argues for a programme that will inject a much more democratic tenor into the quality of public life in Britain today where so much is decided top-down without consultation or accountability. It says there is a yawning gap between the governing class and the governed on a greater scale than for a very long time. It argues that Britain now needs to close that gap, to hold authority to account and to empower those now constrained by the traditional hierarchies of class and discrimination.

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