FOR AN ENGLISH PARLIAMENT

FOR AN AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE

FOR PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF THE LAND

The Coronation and the Commonwealth of England |

Charles Windsor is automatically the head of state under the hereditary ‘principles’ imposed by the 1066 Norman Conquest. William the Bastard and his Norman knights robbed, murdered, raped, and tortured their way across England. All the land was stolen and made Crown property forever. Every coronation in England is a celebration of a history of robbery, enslavement and exploitation that made the monarchy and aristocracy and kept them very wealthy.

Monarchy is a symbol of a class society, built on wealth and privilege, established long ago and continued under the reign of successive kings and queens. Centuries of violence and robbery are sanctified in the coronation. The Archbishop gives history the blessing of God Almighty. Those onlookers are basking in the reflected glory of gold, jewels and ermine – symbols of wealth extracted in blood, sweat and bitter tears from those labouring on plantations, farms and factories.

The ‘modernised’ coronation (2023) continues to play an essential role of incorporating the public into an undemocratic constitutional regime. If the majority accept or tolerate a hereditary head of state and the public display of wealth and class privilege, then the constitution is safe. The estimated £250 million cost is money well spent as an investment to ensure the people do not question their exclusion from power. No voting is involved and no choice allowed, just cheering and waving Union flags, made as a ‘great’ moment of national celebration.

In a bizarre twist, the Palace is calling on people to make a Coronation Oath – “I swear that I will pay true allegiance your Majesty and to your heirs and successors according to law – so help me God”. Far from uniting people this has shown division. Royalists will of course pledge loyalty. The political class of MPs, Lords and Civil Servants have already sworn oaths of loyalty as part of the job. Those who want to become British citizens have to do the same on pain of exclusion. The majority will not swear the oath and the thirty per cent of republicans will refuse on principle. 

Today state power is not exercised by the king in person but by the Crown through its Ministers and top civil servants whose orders are carried out by millions of its employees. The City of London, the big corporations and the United States support the maintenance of Crown powers in the hands of an oligarchy linking Downing Street, Whitehall and the Palace. Power does not reside in the Palace of Westminster. Parliament is like a theatre where the pretence of democracy is played out as pantomime. It provides the illusion of democracy and its absence in practice. The House of Commons is not fit for purpose. It is unable and unwilling to exercise control over the Crown and its Ministers and make them accountable to the people.

The consequence of the distribution of political power in the unwritten constitution is real enough for our health, welfare, democratic rights and civil liberties. The absence of popular sovereignty, the lack of democracy, the addiction to secrecy and unaccountable decisions has enabled the Crown to impose neo-liberal policies on the country. Since the 2007-8 banking crisis the so-called ‘elected dictatorship’ has imposed growing poverty, deteriorating social conditions, poor housing, inflation, lack of rights at work and collapsing public services.

Trade union members have been leading the fight back. But this is not enough. There has to be democratic political change to break the cycle of decline. There has to be a radical break with conservative Tory traditions symbolised by monarchy.

The Republican Labour Education Forum was set up in England to promote democratic republican politics in the labour and trade union movement. We are calling for the abolition of the monarchy as the beginning of a democratic transformation of politics in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In England we are not waiting for Charles Windsor to abdicate. We are calling on the working class movement to develop a democratic programme. We believe this must include;

• A democratic parliament for England, away from the stench of Westminster.
• A written democratic constitution for this parliament made by agreement of the people.  
• All land in England must be taken into public ownership under democratic control.

Tony Benn pointed the way with his 1993 Commonwealth Bill. Yet the biggest barrier to the working class movement leading the fight for a republic has been the failure of the socialist movement to make democracy central to its programme. Labour left MPs have colluded with the constitution of the Crown-In-Parliament and promoted the illusion that a Labour government can take a short cut to socialism without the difficult business of winning the battle for democracy. It has led the left into its current impasse.