The "Krisis" Manifesto is the petition we should sign to stop business-as-usual post-Covid

Photo by Robert Metz on Unsplash

We were delighted to be asked by Peter Coville, long-term activist and founder of The Unfinished Revolution blog, to sign his wide-ranging “Krisis” manifesto, setting out concisely and dramatically a post-Covid plan for our economy, society and culture. In particular, its call for a “permanent UK Citizens’ Assembly for the Future (UKCAF)” to be set up is particularly worth support (we love citizens that think about the future).

It’s appeared in The Observer in truncated form today, but Peter’s very happy for us to print both the full text, and the full list of signatories (also available here). If you’re up for attaching your name to this, please contact Peter here.

THE KRISIS MANIFESTO

We, the undersigned, believe, firstly, that the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the importance of building a united, caring and resilient society, and secondly, that we must use the recovery to invest in preventing what could be an even greater disaster for humanity – a full-blown climate and ecological crisis - while there is still time.

“Crisis” comes from the Greek krisis (κρίσις) which originally meant the turning point in an illness, the moment when things could go either way for the patient. Human civilization is at a similar turning point.

It’s time for bold, concerted action to ensure that this “patient” follows the path to full recovery and enduring resilience, rather than going the way of painful decline and death.

We therefore advocate the following principles for a post-pandemic United Kingdom, with suggestions for their implementation, and a radical piece of democratic reform to ensure that “politics as usual” does not continue to impede their realization.

Although some of the measures described below can only be introduced by Government, the realization of these principles must be a collective effort, with business, charities and all of us playing an active role.

1.Recognize the value of care

Those who have risked their lives to keep us safe deserve more than just a round of applause. Dedicated nurses and other – disproportionately female - lower-paid carers deserve a review of their pay and working conditions.

We should reconsider the internal organization of healthcare provision: the competitive market model is good at providing many things, from washing machines to mobile phones, but poor at providing the kind of high quality public goods and services that should be available to all as a right, like healthcare or education.

Physical, mental and social care should be better integrated at all levels. A shift towards prevention rather than cure in all these areas would reduce pressure on the system, and make us more resilient, both individually and collectively.

2.Accept that we really are all in this together

The UK remains one of the most unequal developed countries, with BAME communities particularly disadvantaged.

We all suffer from inequality in the long run, as precious human potential is left undeveloped, and lost forever not only to those concerned, but also to society and to the economy. Renewing the austerity policies of recent years would increase inequality and be in no-one’s long-term interest.

We should consider introducing a Universal Basic Income (UBI) during the recovery period, building genuinely affordable homes, and rapidly housing all of the UK’s homeless. Whilst innovation and effort should be rewarded,  current levels of inequality are unacceptable in 21st century Britain.

Inequality causes social division, warps democracy through the influence of big money on politics, and places a massive burden on care systems, reducing our capacity to cope with crises like Covid-19.

This essential interdependence applies globally too, and we must not neglect international solidarity as countries face even greater challenges than ourselves in the weeks and months ahead.

Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash

3. Tackle the climate and ecological emergency

One day in the not-so-distant future, climate scientists will stop saying “this is our last chance” and start saying  “we had our last chance.” Accelerating species loss could be equally calamitous for humankind, potentially leading to the collapse of the ecosystems on which global food production depends.

The solutions are well-known – only the political will to act is lacking. We need to “bake-in” positive changes forced on us by the pandemic, such as the reduction in flying, the increase in videoconferencing, and home-working.

Bailing out high-carbon industries like oil companies and airlines with public money makes little sense in this context.  We should consider stricter, year-by-year carbon budgets in line with the 1.5 degree target set under the UN framework.

Farming should be helped to adopt the principles of agroecology, with food production localised where possible, making us less prone to global food shortages. Industry should embrace the principles of a circular economy. Large-scale projects such as Heathrow’s third runway should be scrapped.

Urban and rural green spaces must be protected and extended, making our countryside richer in animal and plant life, and our cities healthier and safer.

4. Learn from the past

We support calls for a full independent public inquiry on the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, with the power to make binding recommendations for the future.

5. Prepare for the future

We believe that our present political institutions are ill-suited to meeting the challenges of the 21st century and realizing the principles outlined above.

If they do not reform themselves, and quickly, then we risk a slide towards authoritarian populism, with all its dangers, as citizens become increasingly sceptical that mainstream political parties will defend their interests and help improve their lives.

We therefore propose a moderate, yet significant reform: the establishment, within six months, of a permanent UK Citizens’ Assembly for the Future (UKCAF), selected at random periodically from the adult population, given access to the best expertise, and granted ample time to deliberate.

This body would focus on longer-term issues, like disaster planning, institutional reform and a just low carbon transition. No reform is a panacea on its own, but a Citizens’ Assembly would help counter the short-termism, unrepresentativity, and bias towards the interests of party funders which blight present arrangements. 

A purely advisory body would be ignored by Government whenever its recommendations were deemed “inconvenient”. We therefore propose that the UKCAF be empowered to present up to three new bills during each parliamentary session (via parliamentary “sponsors”), which would then be subjected to a free vote.

In this way, Parliament’s accountability would be preserved, whilst helping build cross-party consensus for long-term action in the public interest. It would fabricate the necessary political will to act where previously there was none.

The pandemic has demonstrated how quickly society as a whole can act to transform itself. We must now act with an equal sense of urgency to heal the divisions in our society, make our country better able to face the challenges ahead, and demonstrate to the world that catastrophe can be avoided.

There is no doubt that we are at a turning point in history – which path we take now is up to us.

Initial signatories:

Indra Adnan, Co-Initiator,The Alternative UK; Graham Allen, Convener, Citizens’ Convention on UK Democracy;Anthony Barnett, Co-founder, OpenDemocracy; Pete “the Temp” Bearder, Spoken Word Artist; Richard Bellamy, Professor of Politics, UCL & EUI Florence; Will Black, writer, former clinician; Bev Clack, Professor of Philosophy, Oxford Brookes University; Peter Coville, activist, and blogger at theunfinishedrevolution.net; Nicola Cutcher, documentary film maker; Michael Edwards, Editor, OpenDemocracy Transformation; Steven Fielding, Professor of Political History, University of Nottingham; Roger Hallam, Co-founder, Extinction Rebellion; Rob Harrison, Co-editor, Ethical Consumer Magazine; Jason Hickel, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, Goldsmiths’ College;Lucy Jones, author and journalist;Pat Kane, musician, writer, activist, consultant; Jamie Kelsey-Fry, Contributing Editor, New Internationalist;Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, Barrister; Jeremy Leggett, Writer, and Founder, Solar Century; Baroness Ruth Lister, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Loughborough; Corinna Lotz, Co-organiser, Real Democracy Movement; Michael Mansfield QC,Barrister; James Meadway, Economist; Robin McAlpine, Director of Common Weal;George Monbiot, activist and writer; Anthea Norman-Taylor, music publisher; Kate Pickett, Professor of Epidemiology, University of York; Rupert Read, Reader in Philosophy, UEA and spokesperson, Extinction Rebellion; Martin Rowson, Cartoonist, Chair of the British Cartoonists’ Association; John Sauven, Executive Director, Greenpeace UK; Tom Shakespeare, Professor of Disability Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Graham Smith, Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster; Peter Tatchell, Director, Peter Tatchell Foundation; Imogen Tyler, Professor of Sociology, Lancaster University. Nigel Warburton, freelance philosopher and writer; Richard Wilkinson, Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology, University of Nottingham; Baron (Rowan) Williams of Oystermouth, Principal of Magdalen College, Cambridge, former Archbishop of Canterbury; Jonathan Wolff, Professor of Values and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.