The following piece has been written by Steve Freeman of the Bermondsey Republican Socialists for the Occupy Times<\/cite>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the poorest he that is in England has a life to live as the greatest he\u2026\u2026and I do think that the poorest man in England is not bound in a strict sense to the government that he has not put himself under.\u201d These words of the republican Leveller, Colonel Thomas Rainsborough, addressing the Army Council on 28 October 1647 at St Mary\u2019s Church in the Putney, still speak to us over three hundred years later.<\/p>\n The struggle for democracy has continued ever since, by revolution and reform, with victories and defeats. Far from ending the struggle for democracy, capitalism has steadily generalised it across the world. As Banks and Corporations exploit their power so people revolt and seek democratic solutions. International finance and people\u2019s democracy stand as mortal foes.<\/p>\n The latest phase, the Arab Spring, began in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria and recently appeared in Moscow and China. This triggered the Occupy movement in September 2011 which hit the headlines when people began to occupy Wall Street. \u2018Occupy\u2019 has become an international protest movement against financial capital and social inequality which has spread to over ninety five cities including Madrid, New York, London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, and Paris.<\/p>\n At first sight the Occupy movement seems distinct from the political and democratic struggles in the Middle East. It would be wrong simply to contrast the Arab democratic revolutions with \u2018Occupy\u2019s\u2019 economic demands. Whilst the movement\u2019s slogan \u201cWe are the 99%\u201d refers to the distribution of income it expresses democratic values. It has been rightly described as a \u201cdemocratic awakening\u201d – if not yet Spring at least the end of hibernation. The central feature of our movement is participatory democracy in “General Assemblies”.<\/p>\n This takes us back to that historic and revolutionary, if largely forgotten, general assembly of the New Model army in occupation at St Mary\u2019s church Putney. In 1647 the active section of the England\u2019s young people were armed and organised in the New Model Army. Each regiment elected its own \u2018shop stewards\u2019 known as the agitators. As the first civil war ended the army became effectively a people\u2019s parliament or republic, inside the defeated Stuart monarchy.<\/p>\n This parliament or general assembly met to debate a new constitution. The republican Levellers proposed an \u201cAn Agreement of the People\u201d in opposition to the Army\u2019s \u2018Grandees\u2019 – landowning generals – such as Fairfax, Ireton and Cromwell, backed by the wealthy City bankers and merchants. History has shown the Levellers were right but Cromwell and the City had the might. Soon they used it to suppress the Levellers, and the Diggers, who in 1649 began to occupy land at St Georges Hill in Surrey.<\/p>\n England has turned full circle. Today\u2019s young people are not in a revolutionary new model army. But its students and \u2018redundant\u2019 youth are rebelling on the streets. Occupy has been led by young people trying to peacefully occupy the City in solidarity with similar protests across the world. The forces of the Crown barred the route to the Stock Exchange and we ended up camped outside St Paul\u2019s. Now, like some Macbethean witches prediction, it is time for St Paul to meet St Mary.<\/p>\n Steve Freeman (Real Democracy Working Group)<\/p>\n British-England needs to address its own democratic deficit and national identity<\/em><\/p>\n In autumn 2014 Scotland will have a referendum on the issue of independence which may lead to the break up of the UK. Such a major shake up of British politics would end British national identity as we know it. Of course the SNP is hardly a revolutionary party and Alex Salmond is no Lenin. He has been at pains to calm fears of the ruling class – Scotland will remain under the British monarchy and continue to pay its dues to the Bank of England. It will be a great place for multinationals to do business.<\/p>\n Salmond told an audience in London on 26 January that an independent Scotland would be \u201ca beacon for progressive opinion south of the border\u201d. He pointed to free university tuition fees and free medical care for senior citizens and more would come. An independent Scotland would exit NATO and the nuclear submarines would leave their base in Faslane. Friendship between Scotland and England would be \u201creinvigorated\u201d.<\/p>\n In this scenario there is nothing for progressive politics in England to worry about. A liberal-social Scotland would be little different from today. Perhaps cast adrift from Tory England it would move more to the left. May be this would waken the English working class to fight for better deal. Either way the left in England has surely enough generosity of spirit and democratic internationalism to wave good bye.<\/p>\n Tory England is not going to take this lying down. The old dog will not give up without a fight. Public opinion in England is already being primed with resentment. There is plenty of dormant chauvinism to be mobilised as witnessed on radio phone-ins – \u2018the Scots are like welfare dependents being subsidized by taxpayers down south, these ungrateful recipients of state handouts are damaging all of us\u2019.<\/p>\n The SNP has its own answer. The Scottish state can rely on North Sea oil and doesn\u2019t need taxes from England. But there are massive debts, over \u00a31 trillion, to be divided up. This redistribution of wealth will drive the inevitable battle. Czechoslovakia broke up peacefully but the battle for Yugoslavia fuelled a violent aggressive nationalistic-fascism. Whether a break up will be progressive or not depends on the state of class struggle.<\/p>\n The Yugoslav scenario does not seem likely at the present, not least because England and Scotland have a different history to the Balkans. However, we must not be too complacent or think that some kind of national-fascism could not gain momentum. Future politics may seem an extension of current trends, but sometimes it undergoes sharp and unexpected developments. Flagging up an unlikely scenario is not designed to create fear but constitutes an appeal to the left in England to take this matter with the utmost seriousness.<\/p>\n The UK is a multi-national state whose British national identity was forged over three hundred years ago. England is the largest country with the greatest population and resources, particularly its wealth creating working class. The national question concerns the interrelations between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and crucially this is not simply about external relations between nations, rather it is bound up with internal demands for democracy, sovereignty and a new national identity.<\/p>\n The struggle to redefine Scotland\u2019s democracy and identity will stir up the forces of both reaction and democracy within Tory England. Last summer\u2019s riots show that everything in the English garden is far from \u2018rosy\u2019. The alienation of young people in England is clearly connected to unemployment and the lack of real democracy which is reflected in relations with Her Majesty\u2019s Constabulary.<\/p>\n The England question is very important. As yet it is neither recognised nor theorized by the English left. Yet to ignore it is to leave a major political opportunity for organisations like the English Defence League. The fascists are quick off the mark when it comes to reinforcing \u201cEnglishness\u201d as a racial and religious stereotype which can be mobilised against perceived threats whether from Europe, Muslims or disloyal Scotland.<\/p>\n England is a Tory country and not just when the Tories are in government. It is built-in to our class based institutions and \u201cBritish-English\u201d identity. This includes the Tory monarchy, House of Lords, the Honours system, the constitution of the Crown and our history as an imperialist power. Official history identifies national icons such as Queen Elizabeth 1st<\/sup> and Sir Francis Drake defeating the Spanish armada, Nelson defeating the French at Trafalgar, the Dunkirk spirit and the battle of Britain.<\/p>\n The \u201cBritish-English\u201d have been one of the world\u2019s most war-like nations over the last three hundred years. This dual identity under the British Crown is symbolised by the Union Jack, (aka the butcher\u2019s apron), the flag of St George and the national hymn of praise \u201cGod Save the Queen\u201d. However, in the last twenty years growing democratic demands from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have seen a search for, and the beginning of, a reinvention of the Englishness of St George.<\/p>\n There is of course another England. This is unofficial England, ignored, unloved and uncelebrated. It is a people\u2019s England created out of the long struggle for popular democracy and sovereignty. This is an England fought for by the Levellers, Chartists and Suffragettes. It has many of its own heroes and martyrs including for example William Cuffy, the black republican and leader of the London Chartists who in 1848 was fitted up by the Crown\u2019s \u2018agents provocateurs\u2019 and exiled to Australia.<\/p>\n The Scottish referendum raises the question of what kind of England we live in. There is a democratic deficit in England, highlighted by the Scottish parliament\u2019s reforms on student fees and welfare for senior citizens. It is time for Old Tory England with its British-English identity to be abolished. A new democratic England will redefine itself as republican, multi-racial, internationalist and secular country. To do this it must draw on our own popular democratic traditions which put the social and collective interests of the working class majority first.<\/p>\n The resurrection of English radical traditions can be symbolised by flags and banners. The flag of England\u2019s democracy is a tricolour which symbolises a republican and secular country. It is the recognition of a future England re-founded on the sovereignty of the people. The three vertical stripes of red, violet-purple and green represent the values of liberty, equality and solidarity.<\/p>\n The historical roots of this flag go back to the Levellers, the democratic republican party of the English revolution. Levellers formed the most advanced pro-democratic wing in the New Model Army. Their colour was sea green.\u00a0The tricolour connects with the Chartist flag (red white and green) and the suffragettes flag (green, purple and white). These colours identify with the most important\u00a0struggles in England that have shaped our parliamentary democracy.<\/p>\n Taken separately, the three colours highlight a future England which recognises the rights of working people who produce the wealth, the rights of women to full equality and the recognition of the global environment for the future of the planet. There has never been a time when the left in England needs to show it has new ideas, new slogans and new policies that point in the right direction. Clearly the Scottish question tells us it is not a new flag we need but a new country. But symbols matter and a people\u2019s flag which reminds us of our radical democratic traditions shows at least we are starting to think about them.<\/p>\n Steve Freeman and Phil Vellender<\/p>\nTHE ENGLISH QUESTION<\/h2>\n
National question<\/h3>\n
Tory England<\/h3>\n
The Peoples Flag<\/h3>\n