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New Socialist Settlement
by Roger Warren Evans first published 20 March 2002
II Individual Freedom
"Liberty" is different. For the principle of individual freedom is not self-evident. It has to be argued, asserted, secured by
political contention. The American Founding Fathers already made that distinction - Equality was God-given, Liberty man-driven. Given the foundation values of equality and
fraternity, both liberals and socialists are called upon to assert the consequential primacy of individual freedom,
of liberty. There are too many systems of class, caste and slavery in the world,
too many successful right-wing philosophies, for the value of individual freedom to be
considered self-evident. The constant assertion of individual liberty is the
prime responsibility of all socialists.
Equality,
fraternity and liberty, taken together, constitute for me the three core
values of this
New Socialist Settlement.This is the territory of civil liberties, of the assertion of the primacy of individual rights and the impropriety of their abridgment. Many of the
great coming socialist battles will be fought under this banner - for the protection of the
individual against the abuse of power, against the abuse of man by man, of citizen by state,
of worker by employer, of prisoner by warder, of prisoner-of-war by victorious combatant. For
Labour, this arm of the New Socialist Settlement offers fertile ground for the
propagation of new initiatives. In the UK, Labour passed the Human Rights Act 1998, strengthening
individual enforcement rights, and that was a perceptive and important
political achievement.
Yet the traditional UK Left has been weak, on
civil liberties. The Labour Party, interpenetrated as it is by trade unionism and the
virtues of solidarity (i.e. fraternity and collective action), has never been entirely at home with a systematic assertion of individual freedom. Even the Human Rights Act 1998, Labour's signal achievement on this front, is flawed by the Government's refusal to create effective means of enforcement. And the Government's Freedom of Information Act also has shortcomings which belie its commitment to the cause of open, accessible government.
"Civil liberties" have sometimes been seen
within the Party as the preoccupation of middle-class lawyers, untouched the harsh realities of the labour market and the oppressive behaviour of employers. Recent Labour Government measures have displayed an insensitivity to human rights which is no longer acceptable. In the management of
migration, significant errors of judgment have been made, if masked by the
public popularity of illiberal measures in this sector.
In the
Government's response to the growing terrorist threat, Labour has also
been found wanting, in Ministers' flawed understanding of civil rights principles.
Socialists cannot any longer leave the civil rights cause to the Liberals. Individual freedom stands as an integral element of my New Socialist Settlement. Traditional priorities will need to be re-visited. Major challenges are looming in the workplace, because the thrust of European influence is towards the assertion of stronger workers' rights, and there have been indications that Tony Blair is planning to resist those moves. That would be unwise. Where they are individual (i.e. not trade union) rights, and where they go to the condition and quality of the work function, they should be welcomed. I agree with Tony Blair that these pressures should not inhibit workforce flexibility, but that is a different point.
New political balances will have to be struck by Labour, giving greater weight to the primacy of individual freedom. Our children will reject a socialism
that adheres to the old insensitivities, to unnecessary collectivism.
That is why a group of us recently acted to create, for the first time in the history of the Labour Party, a Socialist Civil Liberties Association, so as to raise the profile of civil rights within the Party - see
SoCLA . Our aim is
nothing less than the assertion of individual freedom as a key value in the socialist pantheon, ranking alongside equality and fraternity.
The assertion of individual freedom is much more,
however, than the defence of the individual against the abuse of power, important
though that is. It embraces the restatement of all socialist values in terms of their
outcome for the individual citizen. The ultimate rationale of socialism, properly
understood, has always been the fulfilment of individual aspiration: there can be no other
principled purpose. Yet in our political language and analysis, we have not always given
expression to that concern, and have seemed to be pursuing other agendas. Part
of the New Socialist Settlement is that process of restatement. The logic of
individualism runs deep, and will transform traditional socialist formulae. But unless
this restatement is undertaken, socialism will be left stranded by the wayside, as communism
has been stranded.
New Socialist Settlement