The Socialist Party 2010 Manifesto

Work & Income
- Trade union struggle to increase the minimum wage to £8 an hour without exemptions as an immediate step towards £10 an hour. For an annual increase in the minimum wage linked to average earnings.
- All workers, including part-times, temps, casual and migrant workers to have trade union rates of pay, employment protection and sickness and holiday rights from day one of employment. Enforce equal pay.

Unemployment
- No job cuts. Full employment through a massive programme of socially useful public works with a living wage of at least £8 an hour and a maximum 35-hour week.
- No cheap labour apprenticeships and unpaid internships. Guarantee at least the minimum wage and a job at the end.

Pensions & Benefits
- An immediate 50% increase in the state retirement pension, as a step towards a living pension. Reinstate the link with earnings now.
- Reject ‘welfare to work’. For the right to decent benefits without compulsion or means testing.

Public Services
- A socialist NHS to provide for everyone’s health needs, free at the point of use, in full public ownership and under democratic control.
- Free, publicly run, good quality education available at any age. Abolish tuition fees and introduce a living grant.

Housing
- No repossessions. Nationalised banks should offer cheap loans and mortgages for housing.
- Keep council housing publicly owned. For a massive building programme of publicly owned housing to provide good housing with low rents.

Infrastructure
- A democratically planned, low fare, publicly owned transport system. Renationalise the railways and the buses.
- End fuel poverty. Cut fuel bills immediately. Take the gas and electric companies into public ownership.

Democracy and Sleaze
- No MP to receive more than the average wage of a work, to be re-elected every two years, to be accountable and subject to recall and to have their expenses open to the scrutiny of their constituents.
- Abolish the House of Lords.
- Introduce a democratic form of proportional representation.

The Banks
- Nationalise all the banks on the basis of democratic public ownership. Compensation to shareholders only on the basis of proven need.
- End city fat cats’ bonuses, golden parachutes and gold-plated pensions.
- For a socialist government to exercise a monopoly of foreign trade, as a means of controlling all imports and exports including capital movement. No ‘flight of capital’.
- Reject the diktats of the ratings agencies, the European Central Bank and other unaccountable and unelected international finance bodies. For international workers’ solidarity and economic planning across borders.

The Economy
- Open the books at the major companies that dominate the economy; let popular committees of works, trade unionists and consumer groups see where the profits have gone.
- For a socialist government to take into public ownership the top 150 companies that dominate the British economy, to be run under democratic working class control and management. Compensation to shareholders only on the basis of proven need.
- A democratic socialist plan of production based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and in a way that safeguards the environment.