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Euston Alternative

Compliments to the creators of the "Euston Manifesto," a restatement of liberal progressive political positions. It is more difficult to create an original document than to edit or comment on the original.

The needs of the next pass are twofold:

• First, the compelling underlying first principles need to be distilled from the original along with the arguments that support them.
• Second, where generalities are used, specifics need to be teased out and ambiguities resolved.

	Euston Manifesto	Euston Alternative
1	A. Preamble	A. Preamble
2	We are democrats and progressives. We propose here a fresh political alignment. Many of us belong to the Left, but the principles that we set out are not exclusive. We reach out, rather, beyond the socialist Left towards egalitarian liberals and others of unambiguous democratic commitment. Indeed, the reconfiguration of progressive opinion that we aim for involves drawing a line between the forces of the Left that remain true to its authentic values, and currents that have lately shown themselves rather too flexible about these values. It involves making common cause with genuine democrats, whether socialist or not.	Rather than a fresh political alignment, what is required is a clear statement of what is important and why that is so compelling that people of all political persuasions will run to embrace it.
3	The present initiative has its roots in and has found a constituency through the Internet, especially the ‘blogosphere?. It is our perception, however, that this constituency is under-represented elsewhere - in much of the media and the other forums of contemporary political life.	We are engaged in process: learning to live, learning to associate, and learning to govern -- as were our parents and as will be our children.
4	The broad statement of principles that follows is a declaration of intent. It inaugurates a new Website, which will serve as a resource for the current of opinion it hopes to represent and the several foundation blogs and other sites that are behind this call for a progressive realignment.
5	B. Statement of principles	B. Statement of principles -- Basic principles are garnered from human experience and apply to individuals, to small groups, communities, states, nations, the world, and beyond. In its most fundamental incarnation, society requires two principles -- humility and reciprocity -- from which subsidiary principles can be deduced. Different permutations of successful societies invariably include these principles.
6	1) For democracy. We are committed to democratic norms, procedures and structures - freedom of opinion and assembly, free elections, the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers, and the separation of state and religion. We value the traditions and institutions, the legacy of good governance, of those countries in which liberal, pluralist democracies have taken hold.	Democracy codifies humility. The First Principle of society is humility -- which is reachable by any individual who chooses to examine personal experience. Experience shows that sometimes we think we are right when we are not because we operate only from a mental map of reality, which we, as individuals, are challenged to match as close to reality itself as we can manage. Improvement is a continuous process, engaged in with others. Democracy codifies humility in societies of individuals gathered together for mutual benefit and the hope for a better way of doing things. Democracy embraces peaceful problem resolution and captures the fundamental characteristic that separates mankind from the rest of the animals -- the ability to plan for a better future and to work to change behavior in order to achieve it.
7	2) No apology for tyranny. We decline to make excuses for, to indulgently ‘understand?, reactionary regimes and movements for which democracy is a hated enemy - regimes that oppress their own peoples and movements that aspire to do so. We draw a firm line between ourselves and those left-liberal voices today quick to offer an apologetic explanation for such political forces.	The individual is the basic unit of society. No group of individuals grouped together into society can claim special rights beyond those claimed by individuals. There is no place in society for oppression of one's citizens or of others.
8	3) Human rights for all. We hold the fundamental human rights codified in the Universal Declaration to be precisely universal, and binding on all states and political movements, indeed on everyone. Violations of these rights are equally to be condemned whoever is responsible for them and regardless of cultural context. We reject the double standards with which much self-proclaimed progressive opinion now operates, finding lesser (though all too real) violations of human rights which are closer to home, or are the responsibility of certain disfavoured governments, more deplorable than other violations that are flagrantly worse. We reject, also, the cultural relativist view according to which these basic human rights are not appropriate for certain nations or peoples.	The Second Principle of society is reciprocity -- the consideration that others live their lives as acutely as you do and earn respect accordingly if they reciprocate. What is more, we depend upon others to refine our own mental map of reality. Reciprocity is most usefully expressed as don't do to someone else what you would not want done to you.
9.1	4) Equality. We espouse a generally egalitarian politics. We look towards progress in relations between the sexes (until full gender equality is achieved), between different ethnic communities, between those of various religious affiliations and those of none, and between people of diverse sexual orientations - as well as towards broader social and economic equality all round.	Equality of opportunity is a re-expression of the principle of reciprocity. Equality of result was the doomed hope of utopian philosophies in which a central government of the few attempts to oppress the many.
9.2	We leave open, as something on which there are differences of viewpoint amongst us, the question of the best economic forms of this broader equality, but we support the interests of working people everywhere and their right to organize in defence of those interests. Democratic trade unions are the bedrock organizations for the defence of workers? interests and are one of the most important forces for human rights, democracy-promotion and egalitarian internationalism. Labour rights are human rights. The universal adoption of the International Labour Organization Conventions - now routinely ignored by governments across the globe - is a priority for us.	People have opportunities to take jobs that are available, where they are available and may or may not join trade unions according to their desires. Trade unions are valuable for negotiating education, conditions for working, and for cushioning transitions to other jobs when and where available. Preserving unnecessary jobs is not their task.
9.3	We are committed to the defence of the rights of children, and to protecting people from sexual slavery and all forms of institutionalized abuse.	This is a necessary consequence of reciprocity, the Second Principle of society.
10.1	5) Development for freedom. We stand for global economic development-as-freedom and against structural economic oppression and environmental degradation.	Liberty and education prepare people to stand up for themselves in society.
10.2	The current expansion of global markets and free trade must not be allowed to serve the narrow interests of a small corporate elite in the developed world and their associates in developing countries. The benefits of large-scale development through the expansion of global trade ought to be distributed as widely as possible in order to serve the social and economic interests of workers, farmers and consumers in all countries.	Centralization of control stifles the free and open interaction the market requires to benefit from the competition of ideas.
10.3	Globalization must mean global social integration and a commitment to social justice. We support radical reform of the major institutions of global economic governance (World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank) to achieve these goals, and we support fair trade, more aid, debt cancellation and the campaign to Make Poverty History. Development can bring growth in life-expectancy and in the enjoyment of life, easing burdensome labour and shortening the working day. It can bring freedom to youth, possibilities of exploration to those of middle years, and security to old age. It enlarges horizons and the opportunities for travel, and helps make strangers into friends. Global development must be pursued in a manner consistent with environmentally sustainable growth.	We are temporary stewards chartered to hand over to our children and their children responsibilities that are no more difficult than our own.
11	6) Opposing anti-Americanism. We reject without qualification the anti-Americanism now infecting so much left-liberal (and some conservative) thinking. This is not a case of seeing the US as a model society. We are aware of its problems and failings. But these are shared in some degree with all of the developed world. The United States of America is a great country and nation. It is the home of a strong democracy with a noble tradition behind it and lasting constitutional and social achievements to its name. Its peoples have produced a vibrant culture that is the pleasure, the source-book and the envy of millions. That US foreign policy has often opposed progressive movements and governments and supported regressive and authoritarian ones does not justify generalized prejudice against either the country or its people.	Critical thinking is practiced only when it is practiced. We do not serve each other when we tolerate shoddy thought without comment.
12	7) For a two-state solution. We recognize the right of both the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples to self-determination within the framework of a two-state solution. There can be no reasonable resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that subordinates or eliminates the legitimate rights and interests of one of the sides to the dispute.	See sovereignty below.
13	8) Against racism. For liberals and the Left, anti-racism is axiomatic. We oppose every form of racist prejudice and behaviour: the anti-immigrant racism of the far Right; tribal and inter-ethnic racism; racism against people from Muslim countries and those descended from them, particularly under cover of the War on Terror. The recent resurgence of another, very old form of racism, anti-Semitism, is not yet properly acknowledged in left and liberal circles. Some exploit the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people under occupation by Israel, and conceal prejudice against the Jewish people behind the formula of ‘anti-Zionism?. We oppose this type of racism too, as should go without saying.	Opposing racism and the like follows from reciprocity. Bigotry demonstrated by racism is ignorant overgeneralization that shows up its practitioners to be shallow thinkers, whose vitriol needs to be exposed by words. Independent of bigotry, violence is a crime to be punished.
14	9) United against terror. We are opposed to all forms of terrorism. The deliberate targeting of civilians is a crime under international law and all recognized codes of warfare, and it cannot be justified by the argument that it is done in a cause that is just. Terrorism inspired by Islamist ideology is widespread today. It threatens democratic values and the lives and freedoms of people in many countries. This does not justify prejudice against Muslims, who are its main victims, and amongst whom are to be found some of its most courageous opponents. But, like all terrorism, it is a menace that has to be fought, and not excused.	Opposing terrorism follows from reciprocity. Terrorism attempts to substitute fear for critical thinking and reason.
15	10) A new internationalism. We stand for an internationalist politics and the reform of international law - in the interests of global democratization and global development. Humanitarian intervention, when necessary, is not a matter of disregarding sovereignty, but of lodging this properly within the ‘common life? of all peoples. If in some minimal sense a state protects the common life of its people (if it does not torture, murder and slaughter its own civilians, and meets their most basic needs of life), then its sovereignty is to be respected. But if the state itself violates this common life in appalling ways, its claim to sovereignty is forfeited and there is a duty upon the international community of intervention and rescue. Once a threshold of inhumanity has been crossed, there is a ‘responsibility to protect?.	Sovereignty is an opportunity that can be forfeit by mistreatment of citizens and others. When sovereignty is lost supervision of jurisprudence, police and military, and education should be undertaken by the international community for up to a generation, to break the cycle.
16	11) A critical openness. Drawing the lesson of the disastrous history of left apologetics over the crimes of Stalinism and Maoism, as well as more recent exercises in the same vein (some of the reaction to the crimes of 9/11, the excuse-making for suicide-terrorism, the disgraceful alliances lately set up inside the ‘anti-war? movement with illiberal theocrats), we reject the notion that there are no opponents on the Left. We reject, similarly, the idea that there can be no opening to ideas and individuals to our right. Leftists who make common cause with, or excuses for, anti-democratic forces should be criticized in clear and forthright terms. Conversely, we pay attention to liberal and conservative voices and ideas if they contribute to strengthening democratic norms and practices and to the battle for human progress.	Following the First Principle of humility, openness is the necessary prerequisite of continuous renewal.
17	12) Historical truth. In connecting to the original humanistic impulses of the movement for human progress, we emphasize the duty which genuine democrats must have to respect for the historical truth. Not only fascists, Holocaust-deniers and the like have tried to obscure the historical record. One of the tragedies of the Left is that its own reputation was massively compromised in this regard by the international Communist movement, and some have still not learned that lesson. Political honesty and straightforwardness are a primary obligation for us.	Looking from the past, through the present, to the future is an application of the First Principle of humility that leads to a more accurate map of reality. The accuracy of one's mental map directly affects planning for one's very best future.
18	13) Freedom of ideas. We uphold the traditional liberal freedom of ideas. It is more than ever necessary today to affirm that, within the usual constraints against defamation, libel and incitement to violence, people must be at liberty to criticize ideas - even whole bodies of ideas - to which others are committed. This includes the freedom to criticize religion: particular religions and religion in general. Respect for others does not entail remaining silent about their beliefs where these are judged to be wanting.	Ideas stand apart from the people who think them -- and should. It is a sign of respect to assist one towards a more accurate mental map of reality. This is an application of the First Principle of humility.
19	14) Open source. As part of the free exchange of ideas and in the interests of encouraging joint intellectual endeavour, we support the open development of software and other creative works and oppose the patenting of genes, algorithms and facts of nature. We oppose the retrospective extension of intellectual property laws in the financial interests of corporate copyright holders and IP pirates. The open source model is collective and competitive, collaborative and meritocratic. It is not a theoretical ideal, but a tested reality that has created common goods whose power and robustness have been proved over decades. Indeed, the best collegiate ideals of the scientific research community that gave rise to open source collaboration have served human progress for centuries.	Copyright, the bargain between society and an inventor or author, has been unbalanced by corporate-led revisions to the law that extended the period beyond an ordinary lifetime such that society no longer benefits from its half of the deal. Copyright needs to be recalibrated to reset the bargain, to distinguish different kinds of use, and to facilitate micropayments that technology makes possible.
20	15) A precious heritage. We reject fear of modernity, fear of freedom, irrationalism, the subordination of women; and we reaffirm the ideas that inspired the great rallying calls of the democratic revolutions of the eighteenth century: liberty, equality and solidarity; human rights; the pursuit of happiness. These inspirational ideas were made the inheritance of us all by the social-democratic, egalitarian, feminist and anti-colonial transformations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - by the pursuit of social justice, the provision of welfare, the brotherhood and sisterhood of all men and women. None should be left out, none left behind. We are partisans of these values. But we are not zealots. For we embrace also the values of free enquiry, open dialogue and creative doubt, of care in judgement and a sense of the intractabilities of the world. We stand against all claims to a total - unquestionable or unquestioning - truth.	Positive values invariably result from the processes of thought that examine personal experience and society. Sensible education insures that those processes are learned and that people see why they are valuable. Teaching virtues by rote results in inflexible, brittle, rule-bound, unenlightened automatons who cannot appreciate what is important or why.
21	C. Elaborations	C. Elaborations
22	We defend liberal and pluralist democracies against all who make light of the differences between them and totalitarian and other tyrannical regimes. But these democracies have their own deficits and shortcomings. The battle for the development of more democratic institutions and procedures, for further empowering those without influence, without a voice or with few political resources, is a permanent part of the agenda of the Left.	Tempering the First Principle of humility with the Second Principle of reciprocity encourages us to empower all people for our own safety's sake -- first, to encourage the best possible mental maps of reality, and, second, to assure that as many as possible join together under an umbrella of peaceful problem resolution. Under an umbrella of peaceful problem resolution, people are more insulated from the law of the jungle.
23	The social and economic foundations on which the liberal democracies have developed are marked by deep inequalities of wealth and income and the survival of unmerited privilege. In turn, global inequalities are a scandal to the moral conscience of humankind. Millions live in terrible poverty. Week in, week out, tens of thousands of people - children in particular - die from preventable illnesses. Inequalities of wealth, both as between individuals and between countries, distribute life chances in an arbitrary way.	Income redistribution should be the last resort of government, since it masks problems rather than rectifies them. Legislating equality guarantees its absence -- Rather than equipping the less fortunate to compete in the marketplace, by dictating redistribution of wealth, the powerful steal from those who earned it to deliver it to others who have not. Meanwhile, the powerful feign innocence because they are not the recipient of the goods. Since the benefit of society is the transaction, each transaction should be taxed uniformly. Those with more would be taxed more by virtue of the greater number and amount of the transactions.
24	These things are a standing indictment against the international community. We on the Left, in keeping with our own traditions, fight for justice and a decent life for everyone. In keeping with those same traditions, we have also to fight against powerful forces of totalitarian-style tyranny that are on the march again. Both battles have to be fought simultaneously. One should not be sacrificed for the other.	Understanding is paramount because what is labeled justice may not necessarily be justice. The powerful forces of tyranny are best undercut by understanding what is wrong and why, the better to believe it and to explain it. Courage naturally follows understanding what is important and why.
25	We repudiate the way of thinking according to which the events of September 11 2001 were America?s deserved comeuppance, or ‘understandable? in the light of legitimate grievances resulting from US foreign policy. What was done on that day was an act of mass murder, motivated by odious fundamentalist beliefs and redeemed by nothing whatsoever. No evasive formula can hide that.	No one can be held hostage to history. History is how people today learn to decide how to make a more successful future.
26	The founding supporters of this statement took different views on the military intervention in Iraq, both for and against. We recognize that it was possible reasonably to disagree about the justification for the intervention, the manner in which it was carried through, the planning (or lack of it) for the aftermath, and the prospects for the successful implementation of democratic change. We are, however, united in our view about the reactionary, semi-fascist and murderous character of the Baathist regime in Iraq, and we recognize its overthrow as a liberation of the Iraqi people. We are also united in the view that, since the day on which this occurred, the proper concern of genuine liberals and members of the Left should have been the battle to put in place in Iraq a democratic political order and to rebuild the country?s infrastructure, to create after decades of the most brutal oppression a life for Iraqis which those living in democratic countries take for granted - rather than picking through the rubble of the arguments over intervention.	The invasion of Iraq was a failure of the international community to face up to its responsibilities to individual citizens who make up the nations of the world. When government ceases to represent the human rights of its citizens it forfeits its sovereignty. When government threatens the human rights of others, it forfeits its sovereignty.
27	This opposes us not only to those on the Left who have actively spoken in support of the gangs of jihadist and Baathist thugs of the Iraqi so-called resistance, but also to others who manage to find a way of situating themselves between such forces and those trying to bring a new democratic life to the country. We have no truck, either, with the tendency to pay lip service to these ends, while devoting most of one?s energy to criticism of political opponents at home (supposedly responsible for every difficulty in Iraq), and observing a tactful silence or near silence about the ugly forces of the Iraqi ‘insurgency?. The many left opponents of regime change in Iraq who have been unable to understand the considerations that led others on the Left to support it, dishing out anathema and excommunication, more lately demanding apology or repentance, betray the democratic values they profess.	The first step forward is to recognize bad behavior in ourselves and others, to be able to label it as such, to be able to explain why, and to turn your back on such behavior whereever it is found.
28	Vandalism against synagogues and Jewish graveyards and attacks on Jews themselves are on the increase in Europe. ‘Anti-Zionism? has now developed to a point where supposed organizations of the Left are willing to entertain openly anti-Semitic speakers and to form alliances with anti-Semitic groups. Amongst educated and affluent people are to be found individuals unembarrassed to claim that the Iraq war was fought on behalf of Jewish interests, or to make other ‘polite? and subtle allusions to the harmful effect of Jewish influence in international or national politics - remarks of a kind that for more than fifty years after the Holocaust no one would have been able to make without publicly disgracing themselves. We stand against all variants of such bigotry.	Bigotry demonstrated by racism is ignorant overgeneralization that shows up its practitioners to be shallow thinkers, whose vitriol needs to be exposed by words. Independent of bigotry, violence is a crime to be punished.
29.1	The violation of basic human rights standards at Abu Ghraib, at Guantanamo, and by the practice of ‘rendition?, must be roundly condemned for what it is: a departure from universal principles, for the establishment of which the democratic countries themselves, and in particular the United States of America, bear the greater part of the historical credit.	The implementation of democracy -- which institutionalizes openness and a process of change -- expressly implies that all government needs checks and balances, for its own safety's sake and that of its citizens. There can be no secret courts, secret dockets, star chamber, or process of law that cannot be reviewed.
29.2	But we reject the double standards by which too many on the Left today treat as the worst violations of human rights those perpetrated by the democracies, while being either silent or more muted about infractions that outstrip these by far. This tendency has reached the point that officials speaking for Amnesty International, an organization which commands enormous, worldwide respect because of its invaluable work over several decades, can now make grotesque public comparison of Guantanamo with the Gulag, can assert that the legislative measures taken by the US and other liberal democracies in the War on Terror constitute a greater attack on human rights principles and values than anything we have seen in the last 50 years, and be defended for doing so by certain left and liberal voices.
30	D. Conclusion	D. Conclusion
31	It is vitally important for the future of progressive politics that people of liberal, egalitarian and internationalist outlook should now speak clearly. We must define ourselves against those for whom the entire progressive-democratic agenda has been subordinated to a blanket and simplistic ‘anti-imperialism? and/or hostility to the current US administration. The values and goals which properly make up that agenda - the values of democracy, human rights, the continuing battle against unjustified privilege and power, solidarity with peoples fighting against tyranny and oppression - are what most enduringly define the shape of any Left worth belonging to.	For their own safety's sake, people must become engaged with the rest of society. We are all in this together -- particularly since science has put such power into the hands of anyone who cares to learn enough to use it. Mother Nature does not care if civilization wins, but we do.
32	We are democrats and progressives. We propose here a fresh political alignment. Many of us belong to the Left, but the principles that we set out are not exclusive. We reach out, rather, beyond the socialist Left towards egalitarian liberals and others of unambiguous democratic commitment. Indeed, the reconfiguration of progressive opinion that we aim for involves drawing a line between the forces of the Left that remain true to its authentic values, and currents that have lately shown themselves rather too flexible about these values. It involves making common cause with genuine democrats, whether socialist or not.	We are not after the triumph of our own ideas, but of good ideas, forged publicly through critical thinking and respectful dialog. We believe that sensible people of all political persuasions differ merely on the path they choose to grow civilization.

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