Today, we launch the People’s Charter 2024, a set of foundational demands, which – if adopted – would form the building blocks to change our society from one that serves the interests of the rich, the multinational corporations and private greed to one that serves the people, home and abroad.

The demands cover the economy, a just transition, housing, public services, the NHS, education, equality, and peace. They include:

  • An economy that works for the majority and not the rich. Redistribute wealth for the common good. A real living wage, which can give workers enough to pay the bills and live a decent life.
  • Better pay and conditions in the workplace and a green revolution. Put workers at the heart of a just transition to a carbon-free economy. Repeal the anti-trade union laws and replace them with a radical new deal for working people, which genuinely shifts power to workers & their unions.
  • A massive house building programme. Decent rights for renters & an end to homelessness. Take away power from landlords and put it into the hands of renters. Build affordable, publicly owned, good quality homes to address the housing crisis.
  • No more cuts in public services. Invest in local government, the welfare state, public health services, education, transport & a publicly funded social care system. Reinstate our public services on their founding principles, based around people, not profit.
  • Justice, equality, and fairness for all – fight racism. Challenge xenophobia, authoritarianism, and petty nationalism – refugees are welcome. Fight disability discrimination and sexism in society and the workplace.
  • Welfare not warfare. Conflict resolution and human rights at the heart of our foreign policy. End the war on Gaza. No more warmongering that brings death and destruction to the poorest and most oppressed abroad.

The People’s Charter 2024 is based on two previous charters:

The People’s Charter of 1838

The original People’s Charter was drawn up for the London Working Men’s Association (LWMA) by William Lovett and Francis Place, in 1838. The ‘Chartists’ had six demands:

  • All men to have the vote (universal manhood suffrage)
  • Voting should take place by secret ballot
  • Parliamentary elections every year, not once every five years
  • Constituencies should be of equal size
  • Members of Parliament should be paid
  • The property qualification for becoming a Member of Parliament should be abolished

Five of the six were eventually adopted (we never got yearly Parliaments), but only after a campaign of mass meetings across the country.

The People’s Charter 2009

In 2009, Tony Benn, a coalition of trade unions and other prominent radical figures relaunched the People’s Charter as a set of demands that challenged the tightening grip of the so-called ‘free market’, increased authoritarianism and attacks on pay and conditions, public services, and communities in the immediate aftermath of the financial crash. The People’s Charter was one of the founding groups that formed the People’s Assembly in 2013. It’s demands outlined an alternative and better future for us all:

  • A fair economy for a fairer Britain
  • More and better jobs
  • Decent homes for all
  • Save and improve our services
  • Fairness and Justice
  • A better future starts now

Our new charter, the People’s Charter 2024

Now, after 14 years of Tory austerity, and a Labour Party committed to playing by fiscal rules made by big business, we feel there is a need to (a) reassess where we are now and (b) revise the demands in the charter accordingly. It’s plain to see that we are in a much worse position than we were in 2009: local government is in acute crisis, the NHS is crumbling after years of under-investment and privatisation, our public services and comprehensive education system is being undermined by marketisation and the cost of living crisis has brought many people across communities in the UK to their knees, after more than a decade of austerity, low pay and under-investment.

We clearly need this new People’s Charter, but it is designed to be used as an organising tool, not a document to be filed away and brought out for conferences or meetings. It is not just aimed at the current Tory Government, or as a set of demands for Parliamentary candidates, but fundamentally a guide for activists and supporters under any new Government that comes to power after this election – and will be used to challenge any government that doesn’t take the steps necessary to provide the people of the UK with a better life and a safer world.