DEMOCRATIC REFORM

The Workers Party of Britain is socialist but it is also radically democratic. We seek to persuade through our words and our actions. We will take as long as is necessary to break through the matrix of half-truths and downright lies that hold the current system together and offer an alternative Left vision for this country.
We uphold the right to peaceful protest, free speech and resistance to attempts by authority to ‘chill’ legitimate opposition through surveillance, fear and misuse of the law.
For us, the Crown is a problem. It is the heir to feudalism and is used as cover for maintaining the capitalist structures that exploit and manipulate the population. But we also recognise that the identity of many British workers, including many who see it as guarantor of an ethos of service to the community, is bound up with tradition and that this tradition includes allegiance to the Crown. This is sincere and to be respected.
Our demand is that the British people be given a say in the future of the monarchy, and that a referendum be held to decide this. We do not seek to set down the precise question, nor propose an ideal form of change to the existing constitution, let that be informed by rational public debate.
However, we see no gain if the public are persuaded to vote against monarchy only to have a form of Republic that simply replaces the Monarch with a billionaire or ex-Prime Minister whose sole purpose is to maintain the current system in aspic. Our commitment is to supporting a referendum on this important question but we will engage in that debate ourselves to ensure that we do not fall into the trap of Americanising ourselves rather than creating a collective socialist democracy.
Across the board, we will widen and deepen democracy and transfer as much of the royal prerogative back to the representatives of the people as is possible. We reject the State’s misuse of the Crown to give itself excessive powers at our expense.
We will ask those questions once asked by Tony Benn of every person with power at hand: What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you use it? To whom are you accountable? How do we get rid of you? These are questions we want everyone to ask about their situation and the WPB exists to ask those questions on behalf of the working class.