Caucus

By Salmna Yaqoob

The forthcoming 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq is an important milestone for me. With recent reports that up to one million people have suffered violent deaths, it sadly reaffirms the worst predictions of those of us who said this war would be a disaster.

It was also five years ago that my frustrations with mainstream parties prompted me to get involved in politics. At the time I felt they were not reflecting opposition to war and neo-liberalism. Nearly five years later the democratic deficit in British politics that drove that decision unfortunately remains.

While Brown talks about withdrawing troops from Iraq, a hidden war rages in Afghanistan. Iran faces the threat of attack, and the persecution of the Palestinian people continues unabated. Meanwhile our planet is literally burning up.

At home, free market madness is leaving its mark on new generations.

A Unicef report earlier this year listed Britain’s children as the unhappiest in Europe. The Samaritans report that five million people are “extremely stressed”. Binge drinking, drug abuse, violence and vandalism – have reached record levels.

Psychologist Oliver James highlights a doubling in rates of mental illness in both children and adults in Britain since the 1980’s.

He describes how a society which is increasingly unequal, and increasing obsessed with placing a high value on money, possessions, appearances and fame, is increasingly insecure and unwell.

So, while over the past decade we have witnessed an unprecedented period of uninterrupted economic growth, our collective mental health and happiness has declined sharply.

And this is not surprising.

If we live in a society in which competition is increasingly in-built to every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave, our society will be more fractured, dysfunctional, unequal, unhappy and unsustainable.

Yet research reveals that people don’t want to live their lives like they are in some crazy rat race.

A recent study by the British Social Attitudes highlights that there has been a rise in the proportion of mothers who would like to spend more time parenting and less time working – up to 90%. Employer and government pressures prevent them from so doing.

There is a lot of talk in government circles about the need for a ‘national conversation about what ‘Britishness’ means in the 21st century.

If we are to have such a conversation, it would be well served by looking back to the future. The ideas of universal healthcare; living wages; participatory democracy; public services that are accountable to the people who use them; food, medicine and shelter as a human right; are not particularly radical ideas. They are common sense ideas enshrined in the UN Charter.

Add onto that list a foreign policy which places a premium on diplomacy and international cooperation, plus more decisive action on climate change, and there is the basis of a manifesto a sizeable slice of the British public would sign up to.

Yet these ideas are increasingly squeezed out of mainstream political discourse, helped by an undemocratic electoral system.

All them more reason for progressive voices to seek ways to work together so that we push forward the totality of the left, and not just our single part of it. And to do so in way that is genuinely open to new thinking, pluralistic and democratic.

It is with that aim in mind that George Galloway has floated the idea of a progressive list for the GLA elections. I hope we can approach elections elsewhere in the same spirit of seeking to unite progressive voices.