Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!

(From the Masque of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Below is what I consider to be a Manifesto of Hope, to whose motives and principles I wholly subscribe.

 

Public ownership of all public services and infrastructure, including utilities and transport.

Ye are many—they are few!

A National Health and Social Care Service, fully funded from progressive taxation, which employs directly all who work in it. No sub-contracting, and no out-sourcing.

Ye are many—they are few!

A major programme of council house building and regeneration to solve the housing crisis and to create communities that are sustainable both environmentally and socially.

Ye are many—they are few!

High quality, state education to ensure all have an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential without incurring the burden of debt and an end to privatisation, for example academies and outsourcing.

Ye are many—they are few!

Access to sports, leisure facilities and the arts available to all. We want Bread and Roses too!

Ye are many—they are few!

Full employment rights for all workers from the first day of employment, and the repeal of anti-trade union legislation, in order to return power to union members.

Ye are many—they are few!

 

A new Welfare State, in which those in need are not forced into poverty, and in which public service and the public good replace private greed in our national life.

Ye are many—they are few!

A justice system accessible to everyone regardless of wealth, and the protection of civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and the right to protest.

Ye are many—they are few!

Protection of the environment, with a serious plan for a just transition to a sustainable Green economy, fit for purpose to confront the impending catastrophe facing people and the planet.

Ye are many—they are few!

Uncompromising opposition to all forms of racism and discrimination.

Ye are many—they are few!

A foreign policy committed unequivocally to work for peace, the rule of international law and universal human rights, the rights of refugees, and a fair, non-racialised immigration system.

Ye are many—they are few!

Transformation of the economic system in the interests of the people not corporate power, so that ‘workers by hand or by brain receive the full fruits of their industry’.

Ye are many—they are few!