They say that all of life is a learning curve: well, politics certainly fits that description, and after two years of existence the English Radical Alliance is demonstrating that it is learning by setting out a new strategy that will be adaptable to the changing political and cultural circumstances of 21st Century Britain. This strategy has been agreed unanimously by the Executive Committee and will be adopted from its publication on the ERA website. Put basically, from this point ERA refuses to play the game by the rules that are laid down by the Establishment and will become a new type of political movement, one that will encourage decentralised decision-making and participation in non-political activities as a parallel source of attaining power. As part of this new strategy ERA will be encouraging its members and supporters to think beyond the narrow confines of party politics and consider English society as a whole when they think about participation in future activity. In order to support this new strategy ERA is to make a number of changes as follows:

Firstly, ERA will cease to play the traditional “national party” role of seeking power solely through electoral participation under its own name. Instead, ERA will cultivate alliances with localist groups and independents who subscribe to our decentralist agenda and offer them help, training and publicity via our English Radicals training programme and website. We will no longer play the Establishment game of throwing our money at election campaigns where the media deliberately imposes blackouts on non-ConLibLab parties - but instead invest our time, energy and money on developing local bases of support under localist group names or independent activists. Such a strategy also negates the Establishment’s tactics of infiltration to foment internal strife as there will be hundreds of local groups under their own local leadership and, as such, more difficult to disrupt.

Secondly, it is our intention to de-register from the Electoral Commission as we see this organisation as an Establishment tax- and information-gathering regime which forces levels of bureaucracy on political groups so as to render their participation in the political process more difficult and time-consuming. It also makes public information about the political groups that only their own membership should be entitled to view. The Commission also forces groups to adopt organisational structures that may be alien to their own inclinations. For instance, ERA has no Party Leader as we do not believe that having a ‘Leader’ is conducive to the best interests of our movement, yet the Commission demands that groups name a Party Leader, who is then made legally responsible for the party’s status with the Commission.

Thirdly, ERA will encourage supporters who do not wish to participate openly in political activity to join or establish local community groups in their areas with the intention of acquiring access to funds that will enable them to run local services. By this means ERA supporters will gain experience in public service and help re-distribute political power and economic resources within local communities. Similarly, we will encourage members and supporters to join/create local history societies as they are the focus for community identity and cultural cohesion. These history groups can also offer educational services to all age groups and encourage heritage identity across the generations.

Fourthly, ERA supporters will be encouraged to seek out local self-employed and small businesses with the long-term intention of forming alternative local economies within their communities. Local directories of shops and businesses should be developed and, where necessary, skilled members should offer training to young apprentices. Eventually, job clubs could be established by groups of local supporters with skills/educational experience to offer. Participation by retired members of the community could be crucial here. Along with business, education and skills, there is also room for the formation of local savings clubs so that an alternative to the non-lending major banks can be found locally in order to support small businesses.

Finally, ERA intend to develop an alternative cultural agenda by encouraging new writers, poets, playwrights, and musicians. Locally, supporters can encourage readings, writers and poets clubs – libraries are very keen to be relevant at the moment due to threats from cuts so now is the time to target them with an alternative cultural agenda. Similarly with pubs, which also need to attract custom. This cultural agenda forms part of ERA’s ideological alternative for England.

The whole basis of our new strategy is to ensure that ERA as a political movement reflects its own ideology. As believers in decentralisation we should, therefore, do the same with our movement. By getting behind local groups and local candidates, we will appeal to the electorate as disillusionment with traditional parties and with the Westminster village grows. There are already enough “national” parties, and voters are starting to realise that national parties only look after their own selfish interests, not those of the nation, or their constituents. The political climate is changing: as people demand more accountability and power locally, support for local parties and independents will increase, and the process of extinction for the tired national dinosaurs will begin – our plan is to provide ideas, policies and on the ground support for local candidates, whilst at national level encourage communication and co-ordination between them.

As believers in the Minimal State, we should do the same with ERA and reduce its bureaucracy and structural clutter to make it more responsive to changing political and cultural times. For over forty years, new political parties have tried to breakthrough into politics by playing the traditional party game – none have succeeded. Yet, as each new party is formed, so it plays along with the Establishment game and wastes its money and the efforts of its activists on an impossible dream. And all under the control of the great ‘Leader’, who soon becomes the focus for internal strife and leadership challenges, which soak up too much energy and disrupt the membership. There has to be another way and ERA, as the only modern political movement with an ideology, is thinking for the future. ERA has a collective leadership that encourages debate and inspection. ERA believes that power should be invested at the local level as that is where the crucial decisions of life are made, politically and socially. Finally, ERA believes that political struggle is a long haul, and that our movement must therefore be adaptable, yet sturdy enough to survive through to the final victory.





 


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