A new agenda for political change

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Today a major new political initiative will be launched. The People's Charter for Change is a set of six policy priorities we believe will resonate among millions of people who face the harsh realities of the present economic crisis, and which will help build a popular movement to support the new agenda. The charter calls for a new model for our finance industry, with priority given to more investment for new jobs and green technology, and protecting the existing jobs of ordinary working people; an end to the half-baked privatisations like that proposed for the Royal Mail, and for previously publicly owned companies to be taken back into public ownership.

The charter calls for a massive building programme of new affordable social housing to deal with the chronic housing crisis that affects almost every town and village, and sets out a radical agenda to end the waste of lives and billions of pounds of taxpayers' money on wars and weapons.

Finally, it recognises that there will be no economic justice without social justice, with a demand for fairness and equality for all our citizens - equal pay for women and an end to racist scapegoating; an end to City super-bonuses; and the payment of proper pensions. The charter sets out an alternative vision for our young citizens, with free childcare for all, better youth facilities and free education at all levels.

It is because the charter sets out such a clear alternative vision that offers hope rather than the failed financial policies of recent decades that we support this new initiative.

Victoria Brittain,
Louise Christian,
Bob Crow General secretary RMT,
Professor Mary Davis,
Professor Keith Ewing,
Suresh Grover,
John Hendy QC,
Imran Khan,
Jonathan Ledger General secretary, Napo,
Mike Mansfield QC,
John McDonnell MP,
Robert Monks General secretary, URTU,
Keith Norman General Secretary, Aslef,
Peter Tatchell,
Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS,
Matt Wrack General secretary, FBU