#AnyHumanPower

The Manifesto of the Changemakers Independent Concordium

Bringing Power to those with Wisdom and Wisdom to those with Power

We who stand as independent candidates in the forthcoming UK General Election (and all elections in the devolved nations hereafter) do accept and support the following:

We live in a world in the midst of ecological, technological, social and political tipping points. These are liminal times: the old system is crumbling and we aim to create the new one which will safely make the old one obsolete. Our focus is on total systemic change: nothing less will work now. We seek to hospice late stage capitalism and usher in a new paradigm which can and will bring out the best in humanity, not the worst. This means we must accept the complexity of the world we live in and understand that the most effective leverage points focus on paradigm shift while the least effective tweak minor policy areas.

We reject wholeheartedly the sense of separation, scarcity and powerlessness that has underpinned our existing predatory capital system, which gives primacy to growth, regardless of its impact on people and planet and which tells us there is no alternative to extractive capitalism.

Instead, we value connection, agency and sufficiency and embrace an economy that works to foster thriving life within the means of the living planet. We give primacy to actions and concepts which embrace life, which value the integrity and complexity of the ecosphere of which we are an integral part, which enable us to set the foundations of a future we would be proud to leave to the generations that will come after us.

We believe that collectively we are capable of being a good keystone species—good ancestors—and that this is our highest calling. In short, we seek to bring Power to those with Wisdom and Wisdom to those with Power.

In a world in such rapid transition, there is little point in detailing exact policies in many areas—we will instead detail our overall beliefs, aims and the routes we see to achieving these, with key policy actions that are in alignment with these.

Our core belief is that we can trust the people: that given the agency and information to create change, the creativity of humanity is paramount and our job is to enable the full flowering of this astonishing resource.

Value

We take it as axiomatic that humanity exists to create more fulfilled, creative, connected, inspired humans and that governance structures exist to facilitate this. We will engage all the social and practical technologies available to enable us to do so while in government.

In order to defend the integrity of our living systems there are certain key policies we will enact as swiftly as possible following our election. We will:
–  Sign the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty
–  Cancel all licences for fossil fuel drilling/mining in the UK
–  Initiate action to make Ecocide a crime within the UK with the highest possible penalties to companies and the individuals who sit on their boards. We will amend our vote at the ICC to add the crime of Ecocide to the four existing international crimes of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and Crimes of Aggression

Democratic Shift

We exist in a mediaeval democracy whose traditions are outdated and no longer fit for purpose. Overhauling this will take time but there are some obvious first steps.

Governance structures

House of Lords: The House of Lords will be abolished and replaced by a Citizen’s Assembly with an initial term of 12 -18 months. Rolling replacements will begin at the end of the first year, replacing one third of the members every six months, until there is a stable state with a 12 month tenure and regular replacements. Those who have most recently retired will be offered a consultancy to mentor new incomers.
A Constitutional Convention will establish the most democratic means of governance which genuinely engages all citizens of the nation
Voting Age Reduction: The voting age will be reduced to 16 in the first instance, 14 in 5 years, linked to reforms in education (v.i.)
Random Drink/Drugs Testing: This will be initiated in both houses of parliament: 3 strikes and you’re out (and no hefty ‘redundancy’ payment: you are not being made redundant, you are being sacked)
Proportional Representation: PR will be instigated for all future general and local elections, the exact form to be determined by the Constitutional Convention

Party Funding and Communications

–  No donations to political parties: all registered parties will receive base level funds and a top-up proportional to their share of the vote. Exact details to be established by the Constitutional Convention.
–  Party political spending will be limited to £100,000 per annum
–  All spending will be approved by a neutral body with details of all advertising, including digital advertising pre-approved. Failure to do so will revoke 50% of funding in the first instance, 100% in the second
–  Free postal leaflets by every party will end – these will be combined in one ‘electoral booklet’, content to be vetted for accuracy

Economy

The aim of the economy is to promote wellbeing (aka flourishing of people and ecosystems), regardless of whether it grows. To this end, an economic advisory board made up of Drs Kate Raworth, Marianna Mazzucato, Jason Hickel and Richard Murphy or their nominated representatives will establish a transitional strategy to a functioning economic model.

In the first instance, changes will be made to taxation such that:
–  All Crown Dependencies will cease to be tax havens
–  Annual personal income over £1million will be taxed at 99%
–  All financial transactions will be taxed at 0.1% per transaction
–  Companies will be required to move to a Future Guardian Governance model. Failure to do so will incur a taxation rate of 50% of turnover per annum
–  Maximum wage to be no more than 20x minimum wage in any given corporation. Companies which move towards equity in pay and other metrics will have reduced levels of taxation based on a sliding scale to be established by the economic board.
–  All basic services will be brought into public ownership, run by the people, for the people as community benefit companies, under the Future Guardian Governance model. For the avoidance of doubt, basic services include: water/sewerage, transport (rail services, buses and airports), energy production, postal services, and health care, including the provision of pharmaceutical agents, and research into future aspects of health provision.

Education

Any civilisation rests on its ability to create effective intergenerational transfer of values and knowledge. As we move into a world where all data (and a great deal of opinion, fake data and propaganda masquerading as data) are freely available, it matters more that our young people develop skills in critical thinking, reflexivity, emotional literacy, effective social technologies (conflict resolution, decision making, self-care)m creativity/fluency in the arts and the capacity to engage deeply with the natural world than that they are hot-housed to pass exams that have no real-world implications or applications. Such skills do not require that we herd our young people into groups based on age and create pedagogies of power in which a teacher is forced to teach things they know to be of minimal value.

Instead, we propose that education of our young becomes one of the primary functions of our communities(along with the creation of power, food and shelter). Clearly this must be made safe, so there will be a phased introduction of ‘schools without walls’ in which communities come together to teach that at which they excel and by which they are inspired.

Educational philosopher Zak Stein has said, ‘I suggest that each school building be transformed into an unprecedented institution that is some combination of a public library, museum, co-working centre, computer lab, and daycare. Funded to the hilt and staffed by citizen-teacher-scientists, these…educational hubs would be the local centres of regionally decentralised pop-up classrooms, community organising, apprenticeship networks, and college and work preparation counselling. Giant schools built on the model of the factory at the turn of the last century can be gutted, remodelled, and reborn (metaphorically and literally) to create the meta-industrial one-room schoolhouses of the future. In this new form of public space dedicated to education, digital technologies will enable the formation of peer-to-peer networks of students and teachers of all ages, from all across the local region (or the world, digitally), all without coercion or compromise. What enables these safe and efficient hubs of self- organising educational configurations are fundamentally new kinds of educational technologies, which put almost unlimited knowledge in the palm of every person’s hand.’

This is our aim. Fulfilling this in ways that maximise human and ecosystem flourishing will transform our world.

Work

Humanity has evolved as a communitarian, prosocial species in which self-fulfilment, pride and respect are integral to our wellbeing. The concept of jobs (bullshit or otherwise) which take us away from our homes, families and communities to perform tasks that offer little or no fulfilment, agency or pride is anathema. The evolution of AI and robotics means that many mundane tasks no longer need human input, freeing time for creativity, sport, care and self-expression.
Our aim is to create a low entropy economy of sufficiency with minimal extraneous consumption and no waste in which people have the training and encouragement to find work (as opposed to jobs) that enables them to thrive. Working hours should be no more than 3-5 per day with the option of regular daily work or 2-3 days of 8 hours each. The provision of Universal Basic Services and a Universal Basic Income (with concomitant controls on wealth extraction) will mean that work is performed for its inherent value, not for survival.

Food, Farming and Health

The nation’s health depends on the availability of clean air, water and healthy, nutritious food as much as it does on the provision of health care free at the point of need. To this end, we will enact such legislation as is necessary to ensure the air is safe, the water is clean and the food is nutrient-dense and beneficial to health.

Specifically, we will:
   – Renationalise the water/sewerage companies and halt the flow of sewage into our rives and seas
Minimise particulate runoff from roads by shifting to a national system of public transport designed to maximise use of 21st century technology such that very few individuals need or want private cars and trains/co-operatively owned small vehicles and vans are available for private journeys and transport of goods. This will serve also to improve air quality.
   – Legislate to remove PFAs (Forever Chemicals) from all goods – in the first instance we will require all items/products which contain any PFAs to be clearly labelled as such with details of the harms caused and suggestions of safer alternatives.
   – Legislate to remove UPFs from the food chain—in the first instance, all such ‘industrially produced edible substances’ will be required to be clearly labelled as such, with full details of the harms caused and suggestions of whole food alternatives
   – Minimise industrial agricultural run-off as part of the transition to regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is chemical/input free, uses minimal fossil fuels by removing the need for large scale industrial plant, is based on small scale fields/farms and uses careful husbandry of livestock, mainly 100% pasture-fed, thereby removing the importing of cereals and soya meal.

Regenerative Agriculture:
   – improves biodiversity above and below the soil,
   – increases the uptake and retention of water, thereby reducing runoff into the watercourses, soil loss and the risk of flooding
   – increases nutrient density and restores nutrient balance of the food produced
enhances the welfare of the livestock, while reducing overall numbers
   – provides increased capacity for work on the land for those who want it. Government buy-out of farms will create local council farms with the capacity for a range of tenancy acreages.

Local GPs (see below) will be encouraged to prescribe food boxes to those patients most in need of whole foods, together with local community cookery classes to ensure the best use is made of food that is locally-grown, harvested and supplied.

The NHS will be overhauled in consultation with all health professionals to provide a Wellbeing Service dedicated to preventing illness in the first instance and then treating it when it occurs. No part of the wellness service will be run for profit. GP numbers will be doubled and consultation times increased. Mental health provisions will be increased, but our aim will be to address the causes of the mental health epidemic rather than attempting to suppress the signs and/or medicalise it out of existence.

Business

As already stated, taxation structures will encourage businesses to adopt the Future Guardian Governance model.
All services/products will be audited for their regenerative capacity. Those which clearly fail to fit the model of a flourishing future for humanity and planetary ecosystems will be taxed out of existence.

Transport

In accordance with local-focused lives either in urban, peri-urban or rural areas, the need for personal transport will reduce. Cars in particular spend most of their time parked. The latest generation of novel technologies will be employed to create a community transport system offering door-door service in which drivers are fully recompensed for their time and attention. Longer distance travel will, where possible be facilitated by trains, trams and buses. Air travel will be infrequent and phased to zero. International travel by sail boats with hydrogen fuel cells will replace current means of transportation between continents.