Who exactly are the revolutionary class?
Firstly, we need to decide who constitutes the class known as working people. We have become so used to arguing about identity and rights that are promoted within the elite’s political agenda that we have lost sight of who, we are as a group.
The working people are defined by Blue Revolution in this way. A) Do you rely on your labour power alone to make a living? B) Are you in receipt of welfare? C) When you die will you leave enough to enable your children to live a life which does not require them to engage in waged labour? Finally, D) are you well connected enough to ensure that if your children do depend on waged labour you can ensure access to high waged work opportunities? If you answer yes to A and B you are a waged or potentially a waged worker and could be part of a revolutionary class. If you answered yes to C and D, you are part of the elite and probably part of the problem.
Getting the workers views embedded in the nation state requires us to limit the state’s power. We believe western workers are mature and flexible enough to play an important role informing social, economic and political policy.
In the UK there are 26 County Councils and 192 district councils and 190 unitary councils at every administrative level above parish council. These councils will have anywhere between 30 and 80 plus councillors who are ordinary workers and probably meet our blue-collar criteria above. They will come from every walk of life and unlike Westminster MP’s generally they will not go through a rigorous two-day selection process that weeds out eccentrics and potential troublemakers.
These people connect with local communities, reflect the views of local communities, and respect local communities. Even those local communities where ideas based on religious observance remain established. They too need to have a voice as members of their respective community.
The party system works in the interests of political parties and this takes away the sense that politicians work on behalf of the people. Political parties are a microcosm of the state itself. The modern state reflects systems of power and control that existed before working class men had the vote in the nineteenth century.
When members of the political elite worry about the democratic deficit (large numbers of people not voting in elections for example, or councillors being elected with less than five percent of the eligible vote) which suggests working people don’t trust the system or politicians in general, their solution is to extend voting to sixteen year olds or bribe people to vote. Having more people voting in the same out of date eighteenth-century system is not the answer. It is all very well throwing aside eighteenth-century beliefs like homophobia but preserving eighteenth century institutions undermines efforts at real reform. It needs working people to inform and contribute to political decision making.
The way to resolve this democratic deficit is relatively simple bring lower tier authority councillors into the legislature. In the community there will be councillors who could make valid contributions to debates but cannot as they do not sit in parliament. The solution is to create what we call a legislative college. This idea backed up by technology allows any “elected member” from any administrations including in time parishes, to “come in” on a parliamentary debate. In time they could acquire the right to vote in parliament too. The MP for the area will have some real competition from “lower tier” authority members and will need to ensure that their profile is maintained if they are to preserve their seat. All excellent for democracy, access to democratic decision making and progress.
Opponents will say it will make governing impossible. That will not happen because the executive’s policies will be either voted for or voted down. The executive would need to be elected by the whole legislature to ensure the end of tribal left- and right-wing adversarial politics and the nonsense of votes of no confidence and ‘whipping in’. Losing a vote on a bad idea will become the will of the people, not the death of an administration. It thus will make the democratically elected executive more cautious and accountable.
To develop this idea which is technologically possible and get it past the elite, will need a Blue ’workers’ Revolution. Ultimately it will mean for example that no government can take us to war by relying on a supine and docile parliament as Tony Blair did and no government would escape the reality of its policies on the working people most affected. The changes to our lives that artificial intelligence or climate change might impose on working people must not happen until working people have given policies political legitimacy.
The whole project can be financed by abolishing the House of Lords.
SUMMARY
Currently six hundred and fifty MP’s represent 65 million people. They look and sound like an elite class because they are. Ordinary people pay for the political system and deserve to have a big role in deciding national policy. Giving the right to speak and vote in parliament takes away the power of the bourgeois socialist elite of all parties including the Conservative Party.
