Respect Party - Policies

Policies

Respect was set up in January 2004, as a left-wing alternative to the three established parties - Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The party was opposed to the War in Iraq and is opposed to the War in Afghanistan (2001-present). It seeks to "provide a broad-based and inclusive alternative to the parties of privatisation, war, and occupation" and has a broad socialist agenda.

Some of the policies on which it campaigns include:

• Renationalisation of the railways and other public services.
• Opposition to the perceived privatisation of the National Health Service and the education system.
• Opposition to university tuition fees.
• Support for pensions increases linked to average earnings.
• Raising the minimum wage to the European Union's "decency threshold" of £7.40 an hour.
• An increase in income taxes on the rich to fund social welfare programmes and close the income gap.
• The repeal of the industrial relations legislation brought in by the Conservative Party in the 1980s.
• The defence of the rights of refugees and other asylum-seekers.
• Opposition to the "stability pact" that the European Union seeks to impose on all those who join the euro.
• Support for the Palestinian people and ending British support of various Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians.
• Support for the British environmental movement.
• Support mediation of the Kashmir issue between Pakistan and India, to resolve the dispute peacefully and with the involvement of the Kashmiris themselves.

In its founding constitution the Respect Party states its overall aim is to "help create a socially just and ecologically sustainable society", giving a definition of social justice that includes "the organisation of society in the most open, participative, and accountable way practicable based on common ownership and democratic control".