What does Left Unity stand for?
Have a look at Left Unity’s policies on economics, health, housing and more, as passed at our conference on 29 March.
You can find the policies by clicking the Policy menu above, or by using these links:
If you like what you read and you’re not yet a member, why not join Left Unity today?
You might also be interested in Left Unity’s founding statements, as voted on at our founding conference in November 2013.
Policy in areas not covered here will be voted on at another conference later this year – members can get involved in Left Unity’s policy commissions, which are doing the work of drawing it up.
6 comments
6 responses to “What does Left Unity stand for?”
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I am REALLY pleased these have been posted.
The next step: getting them in a format so that ALL our branches can use them well…and so that branches preparing them for use/local distribution do not have to duplicate the work of other branches in formatting them ( e.g. leave a space for branches to print off themselves with local LU contact details and so on.)
It would be good to hear from other branches and LU HQ on this issue.
Alan Story, Interim Sec., LU Nottinghamshire
Re: Health, would have be nice to see something about support for long term chronic illness, and preventative care, which the NHS is not very good at, I think it may be controversial to some, but more community based care is essential, this may indeed mean some hospitals streamlining, etc..
Congratulations to the comrades who produced the economic policy. I only have two comments
1) We need to readdress at some point the issue of Citizens Income, as we should show that we valve people and there imput into communities. If it was introduce as say a minamum Living Allowance so that everyone had that along with there tax code.We have to remove the stigmatism of welfare.I write as some one currently unemployed and have a disabled partner.
2) State Ownership of the utilities and other services. Everyone has a national insurance number let that the be mechonism for people owning on behave of the state rather than the state owning on behave of the people. Which ever social enterprise model is used. An annual vote to approve the financial statements,election of trustees etc,by one vote per NI number.
Let us continue to move forward.
Stewart, Left Unity is committed to creating a comprehensive Welfare State, in which the socialist principle of “To each according to their needs” is paramount. That, not a limited universal state handout, would protect all disabled people from poverty and need – regardless of how expensive for society meeting that need was. The neo-liberal “libertarian capitalist” originating proposal for a finite “citizen’s income” government handout ( or more accurately survival ration) to each citizen – regardless of individual levels of need or existing personal wealth/income, (usually from the proceeds of dismantling all other universal welfare provision), is no substitute for a comprehensive welfare system .
The Citizen’s Income idea is quite simply a diversion from the real task of building a proper Welfare State – and a society with full employment and common ownership of public utilities and services , even in its various “leftish” variants.
In Economics policy, you state:
41. We also oppose the provisions of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership [TTIP] between the EU and the USA which threaten to impose further privatisation of public services and weaker forms of environmental regulation plus reducing the public’s access to truthful information, by allowing corporations to conceal information or research which could cause damage to public health if it is seen as potentially damaging to the corporation’s future profitability.
In Health policy, you state:
10. Exempt the NHS from the EU/US Free Trade Agreement, which otherwise threatens to open up our healthcare system to irreversible privatisation.
Surely point 41. above precludes the need for point 10. Or in 41. are you saying that you only selectively oppose some of the provisions of TTIP (also known as the Transatlantic Free Trade Area, abbreviated as TAFTA) rather than rejecting it outright?
its fair to say that benefits should be earned though, and citizens should be expected to contribute to society in some way. for efficient socialism, everybody needs to play their part of the common good, or at least have some incentive to do so.
Also in terms of immigration, this will always be a vote-loser for the left and whilst I agree with the free movement of people, I also think it should be conditional and those deemed to be a threat to social harmony should be (where possible) deported. It should also be one of the last things to work towards because without enough houses and jobs for people, poverty will ensue.