The Right are winning – not because of their great policies and institutions – but because the Left is losing.  But why is the Left losing? This is the six million dollar question! Furthermore, there is no one answer to it. The Left is losing for many many different reasons and we could analyse this question until we all drowned as a result of global warming. So let’s not do that! Instead let’s consider a simple answer – the Left is losing because we are failing to tap into our source of power. That power is solidarity. The Left is losing because the Left is fragmented. From this simple insight we might ask: how can we overcome this problem of fragmentation and in-so-doing start to generate real social power for the Left?

One answer to this question is to unify around what we are against. A good example of this – here in the UK – is The People’s Assembly, who describe themselves as “a campaign organisation building the movement against cuts and privatisation together with Trade Unions, Political Organisations, Community Campaigns and everyday people like you.” I have been organising with The People’s Assembly for a couple of years now and have found the experience, so far, to be very positive. Last year I was in Manchester helping as a volunteer at the week-long Take Back Manchester! Protest the Tory Party Conference events. I was also at the recent Health, Homes, Jobs, Education national demonstration in London where I helped to run a People’s Assembly stall in Trafalgar square – raising money to help cover the costs of the march and rally. Now I am helping with the Unwelcome the Tories event that is being organised by the People’s Assembly as a counter-conference that will run, here in Birmingham, in parallel with the Tory Party conference that is scheduled to take place in October this year.

The People’s Assembly clearly represents a living example of solidarity in action. And with that solidarity we see the emergence of real social power. If it continues to grow, as it seems it will, The People’s Assembly really could stop the ideologically motivated cuts and moves towards privatisation. That said, it has to be acknowledged that there are very real limitations to The People’s Assembly and, because of this, the level of solidarity that it can be expected to generate. This inherent limitation is to be found in the fact that The People’s Assembly focuses on what it is against – i.e. “against austerity”. This, by-the-way, is not a criticism of The People’s Assembly but more an observation about the reality of the Left more generally. I am not, for example, trying to argue that The People’s Assembly should change. On the contrary, I think The People’s Assembly should continue doing what it has been doing from day one. That said, I do think that there is a place for a parallel progressive left organisations to The People’s Assembly – and similar organisations the world over – that focuses on what we are actually for. My argument is that if we are to take activism to the next level and expand and consolidate the level of solidarity generated by the opposition to the cuts, etc. then we will need organisations that facilitate an inclusive process for arriving at shared program (sorry about the American spelling but they are the hegemonic power, so…)

For too long the Left has focused on what is wrong with the world, on what needs to go, on what we are against. The time has come for the progressive Left to workout what would be right for the world, what it wants, what it is for. This is suggested, not as an alternative to the analysis of what is wrong, what needs to go, what we are against, but rather as something that could complement it, and vice versa. The idea is to workout and present ideas for shared program that would generate a more balanced approach to organising, an approach to organising that highlights both the negatives and the positives, an approach to organising that not only shocks and angers people but also inspires and uplifts people. Being clear about what we are against and what we are for is the way to generate both broad and deep solidarity on the Left. It is, quite simply, the way to empower the Left so we can start to win.

But how do we arrive at shared program? One way is been offered by a new initiative called People for a Shared Program. The starting point for this new initiative was a document – titled Some Possible Ideas for Going Forward – that was drafted and signed by 87 seasoned activists (see list below for some examples). This document – which has sections on economics, education, race, gender, international relations, health and ecology – has now been presented as a starting point for a discussion on shared program. The idea is that people sign up to the overall process of trying to arrive at shared program (using the Sign Now! form on the left-hand side of the home page) using the current version of the document as a starting point for that discussion. Those who do sign up can propose changes and improvements to the document using the forum and or the blogging system. There is also an opportunity to write about and discuss the broader issues of the approach taken as well as the implications the development of shared program might have on our day-to-day organising. Refinements will be made in light of suggested changes with the latest version of the document presented on the homepage of the site. That is the idea. However, as is the case with any Leftwing project the success largely depends on whether sufficient numbers of people engage or not. So if you like the idea and do decide to sign up to this process then one of the most important things you can do, in addition to actually particulating yourself, is to promote the site and encourage all of your contacts to visit the site, sign up and also engage.

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List of some examples of initial signers:

Michael Albert, Gar Alperovitz, Bridget Anderson, Omar Barghouti, Walden Bello, Elaine Bernard, Leslie Cagan, Noam Chomsky, Marjorie Cohn, Steve Early, Vincent Emanuele, Laura Flanders, Bill Fletcher, Andrej Grubacic, Kathy Kelly, Neal Lawson, Michael Lerner, Ben Manski, Binu Mathew, Scott McLarty, Robert McChesney, Leo Panitch, Michael Parenti, Cynthia Peters, Jerome Roos, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Saskia Sassen, Lydia Sargent, Marina Sitrin, Norman Solomon,

Sarah Stockholm. Eric Stoner, Bhaskar Sunkara, David Swanson, Tom Vouloumanos, and Hilary Wainwright.

You can see the full list here: http://www.sharedprogram.org/#!initial-document/ozjgn