Britain Deserves Better - On the Workers Party of Britain Manifesto

The Workers Party of Britain is a socialist party but we are not utopian, nor are we bound by abstruse theory. We have a common-sense analysis and a practical mission. The Workers Party is committed to the redistribution of wealth and power in favour of working people. (p.8)

The Workers Party of Britain was founded in 2019 after Jeremy Corbyn's Labour suffered a landslide defeat to Boris Johnson's Conservatives. It essentially represents a modern version of an 'Old Labour' party, being economically left-wing and socially conservative in its approach, which aligns with the political disposition of working-class voters in the North of England.

Economic Planning

The Workers Party of Great Britain (WPGB) is the first party whose manifesto we've analysed which explicitly identifies itself as socialist and committed to enhancing the power of the working classes. It defines socialism as the following:

Socialism is not only about economic planning for the benefit of all, it is also about a belief in the value and worth of every one of us on equal terms no matter our personality, gender, lifestyle choices, intellectual capacity or disability. (p.18)

But what does the Workers Party mean by economic planning? It doesn't tell us. The manifesto vaguely refers to capital and labour controls, without elaborating on the extent of these controls, assisting economic planning. Without establishing a new Bretton Woods, these controls alongside economic planning will likely isolate Britain, neither assisting in a rise in economic prosperity nor the rise of socialism anywhere in the world.

Socialists have proposed different forms of planning. Examples include the 'socialist' market economies of China and Vietnam, in which the state plays a large role in directing the market economy of primarily state-owned firms, and, on the other hand, the centrally planned economy of North Korea, which is a disaster. What model of socialism is the Workers Party advocating?

General Economic Strategy

The WPGB recognises that democratic socialism won't be realised over night but seeks to initiate this journey by re-industrialising the UK and empowering the working class in monetary decisions. Britain need a return to industrialism, replacing rentierism. Socialism is not possible in a rent-seeking economy, which most Western capitalist societies are.

The party's call for re-industrialisation is one of the strongest part of its manifesto, aligning with the Social Democratic Party's (SDP) stance. The manifesto emphasises empowering the working class within firms through strong trade unions and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit of the working class.

Income Tax

Raising the personal income tax threshold to £21,200 is politically questionable. The policy risks undermining its socialist philosophy by creating division among workers based on tax liabilities and conceding ground to the right-wing Reform Party.

Socialists should embrace tax reform, moving the burden of taxation away from productive labour to rent-seeking behaviour and the source of income for capitalists.

Productivity

The Workers Party rightly connects social investment with economic productivity, emphasising the need for adequate education, social care, and mental health provisions to ensure a productive workforce. Productivity growth is needed for sustainable economic growth, which capitalism is no longer providing. Only socialism offers a new way forwards.

Nationalisation and Investment

Every monopoly, or essential industry for operating the country, will be nationalised. Industries that will work within the economic regime of the Workers Party needn't be nationalised, however. Public-private initiatives will be ended with nationalisation being considered for Railtrack (now Network Rail), the electricity grid, water companies, the military-industrial complex, national food logistics, ports, airports, and the pharmaceutical industry.

Considering the title of the section, National Investment in Infrastructure, it is disappointing that no investment projects whatsoever have been proposed in this section of the manifesto. How many news houses will be built? We don't know.

Changing ownership of monopolies and other essential components of the UK economy will not address the issues facing the country. How will the Workers Party manage these industries so they are operated effectively? How will democratically run public services improve performance? Do voters know what issues are causing poor performance even when resources are adequate?

Management

Our economy is too oriented towards management, and we lack the proper means of scrutinising managers holding them accountable. Within the NHS, 14% of NHS staff are managers, adding needless bureaucracy to the system. The specific areas that the WPGB highlights about management in general are finance, marketing, public affairs, and human resources (HR).

HR is not an ally of the worker within firms. Many workers fear HR because it will always side with the interests of the firm, rather than promoting a just and equitable working environment. They highlight how alienated workers are from the firms that provide the resources for their lifestyles and sustenance.

It is appalling that a socialist party engages in climate denialism and scepticism of the scientific consensus on climate change. Consider the following:

Climate change is constantly taking place. It has done so for thousands of years. We follow the science when it is clear but we understand just how much science can be socially constructed in a society dominated by the interests of Profit and not People. We keep an open mind but place the really existing conditions of the working class now and in the future top of mind. That is why we exist as a political party. (p. 12)

The science is clear that we are already in a mass extinction event as a result of human activity destroying ecosystems across the globe, and this process will only get worse because of how rapid our climate is changing. Human activity is forcing change onto ecosystems, even destroying them, at a rate faster than the rate at which ecosystems and species can adapt. The urgency of climate change is not because our climate is changing, but because the rate of change is so fast that even human civilisation will eventually be unable to sustain itself.

Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? - Nature

Palaeontologists recognize five major extinction events from the fossil record, with the most recent, the Cretaceous mass extinction, ending some 65 million years ago. Given the many species known to have disappeared in the past few thousand years, some biologists suggest that a sixth such event is now under way. Barnosky et al. set out to review the evidence for that claim, and conclude that the recent loss of species is dramatic and serious, but not yet in the mass extinction category — usually defined as a loss of at least 75% of Earth’s species in a geologically short time frame. But that said, there are clear indications that the loss of species now classed as ‘critically endangered’ would soon propel the world into its sixth mass extinction.

NatureAnthony D. Barnosky

The WPGB needn't keep an "open mind" because the science on the cause of climate change is categorical. Science being "socially constructed" sounds like postmodern nonsense.

Calling for a net zero referendum is laughable. We have a moral obligation onto future generations, including the future working classes, ensuring our planet is habitable for them.

The burden of costs of achieving net zero needs addressing given out of touch middle class politicians impose measures such as ULEZ without considering its affordability for poor working class people. The New Realist was critical of the Greens for ignoring this when it sought the introduction of carbon taxes. Nevertheless, the issue isn't ULEZ themselves, which work and are necessary. The issue is how the costs are imposed onto workers when a cost of living crisis exists.

The New Realist rejects any notion that the green agenda is merely business propaganda fuelling and believes that socialism should be grounded in scientific evidence.

The Workers Party offers very strong policies on the NHS, calling for a full re-nationalisation of the NHS and removing market competition from within it. It also seeks a strategy of preventive healthcare, which the best healthcare systems in the world use. Even though it doesn't specify how it will attack ultra-processed foods, it is much needed.

However, the party doesn't offer any specific plan for tackling the waiting list crisis engulfing the NHS.

Mental health

The Workers Party correctly identifies the material conditions of society as a chief cause of mental illness. Simply eliminating these causes, however, will not fix the mental health pandemic. Active measures promoting mindfulness, trauma awareness, character development, support groups especially among men, therapy treatments, and medication are all necessary for tackling the mental health pandemic.

Culture Wars

The New Realist supports reconciliation between social progressivism and social conservatism, not engaging in the culture wars on the side of our enemy. "Cultural engineering" is a far-right conspiracy trope in which the promotion of socially progressive values is seen as a coercive means of forcing a worldview on people.

Despite holding socially progressive values, the New Realist is critical of over-zealous support for identity politics and the usage of identity politics as a substitute for engaging in the hard work of rethinking our political economy. However, the New Realist doesn't confuse over-zealous advocacy with "cultural engineering", which is just nonsense designed as an attack not just on the advocacy of progressive values, but the values themselves.

Football Ownership

The New Realist supports a move towards a fan-ownership model of football clubs in which supporters have far greater say in the management of their clubs than present. FC United of Manchester, Northwich Victoria and Chesterfield are great example. The manifesto incorrectly asserts that Telford United is fan-owned, while Wycombe Wanderers fans only own a 25% stake.

The New Realist is unconvinced by the Workers Party manifesto, despite supporting practical socialism. Its lack of clarity on economic planning leaves us none the wiser of what type of socialism it seeks to implement.

Furthermore, the New Realist is disgusted with climate denialism and seeking a net zero referendum. Tackling climate change, and the revolution that entails, is the best opportunity for introducing socialism in the 21st century. The manifesto ends up diminishing scientific evidence which supports conclusions that are ideologically inconvenient.

The New Realist condemns wholeheartedly the use of far-right dog-whistle tactics as a means of attracting the working classes towards socialism. It's one thing bringing respect back towards traditional working class values so that the left can re-engage with the working classes with the objective of attaining working class solidarity. It's another indulging in reactionary attitudes, e.g. "cultural engineering", which facilitates the rise of socialism's true enemy - the fascist.

Is the Workers Party a fascist party, or a would-be fascist party, as some on the left contend? No. Socialism, not fascism, describes the essence of the Workers Party. It has indulged, however, in the strategy the far-right uses in exploiting working class discontent, which needs rejecting. That strategy is an anathema to the principles of socialism.

Class solidarity will not arise through demonisation, whether from socially progressive socialists, or socially conservative socialists. The left must show how its principles of solidarity will benefit and respect the working classes. It should not use far-right dog-whistle tactics as a substitute for engaging in this process. Overhauling the material conditions in society and the structures that reinforce them should be the focus of the left, not the culture wars which are a distraction from that.

It is a shame the New Realist reached this conclusion. The Workers Party is the only prominent socialist party in Britain at the moment. Naturally, the New Realist wanted to support it even if we found questionable aspects to it. However, climate denialism and far-right dog-whistle tactics go well beyond questionable practices and fundamentally contradict the socialist principles espoused by the New Realist. It's clear that the WPGB still has a lot to work to do. Despite the harshness of criticism in some areas, ultimately the New Realist hopes its takes onboard the criticism, becoming a better exemplar to the left of what socialism is.