Programme of the Democratic Socialists

Last updated: To be reviewed and amended by members in Summer 2026.

Through our re-founding process we will be asking members to engage with developing our programme for Democratic Socialists. As a foundation, we have adopted Workers Deserve The Earth that as developed by Grassroots Left and heavily influenced by our proposed programme for the founding of Your Party.

Workers Deserve the Earth

As amended by Grassroots Left implementation team

We recognise that the interests of the working class cannot be reliably and sustainably secured within the constraints of capitalism and instead require the development of an alternative economic model based on democratic planning and the socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange, alongside the abolition of the profit motive and private capital – ie, socialism.

We seek to constitute this party as a radically democratic body, rooted in the democratic traditions of the working class*, and as such we view the current constitutional order as a fundamental impediment to our democratic needs and goals.

We will campaign and stand in elections to raise the possibility of a democratic and socialist alternative to the authoritarian and capitalist society of today. But our party will not enter coalitions with other parties at any level of government and will not participate in any government without the explicit guarantee of the implementation of its democratic programme in full. We refuse to become responsible for the management of capitalism and continued immiseration of the working class and its allies.

This party will also take a role in organising the class beyond the present limitations of the electoral realm, i.e. in the workplace, the home, and on our streets – seeking to defend and advance the cause of the working class wherever it finds itself under threat from the onslaught of reaction, with complete solidarity and defence of the most marginalised sections of our class, in particular migrants and trans people, who are under daily assault, by allying with and supporting the many organisations and movements that exist to struggle against it.

We recognise however that this alone will not be enough. Capitalism is organised internationally: therefore this party must be thoroughly internationalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist – that means being explicitly and uncompromisingly anti-Zionist, too. The working class in Britain can only hope to advance its interests by organising together with the working class of other countries, beginning with our nearest neighbours on the continent.

This party therefore puts forward the following immediate demands:

1. Abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords, along with the peerage itself; and the establishment of a democratic republic with a unicameral parliament elected by proportional representation, with annual elections and MPs’ salaries set at the median workers’ wage.
   
   
2. Comprehensive democratisation of the British state, beginning with the convening of a constituent assembly, elected by proportional representation, which will draft a constitution, with the aim of developing home rule across Britain and invigorating democracy at a local level by passing greater legislative powers to local governments, with a high degree of meaningful autonomy. This will also entail developing constitutional guarantees of the rights and freedoms of the people, including but not limited to: freedom of speech, assembly, the freedom of the press, the right to unionise and take collective and secondary action, as well as self-defence.
   
   
3. The abolition and/or reform of repressive laws and structures used to terrorise and illegalise social movements; and transparent parliamentary inquiries into police forces and intelligence agencies to form the basis for a complete overhaul of these organisations and establish culpability for crimes against the public over the previous decades.
   
   
4. The minimum net wage to be set on the basis of what is needed by a worker and one child to lead a full life, participating materially and culturally in society; with all benefits, pensions and student grants to at least match the minimum wage. This must be accompanied by the setting of a maximum workday and working week, with a view to the gradual lowering of working hours without reduction in real pay, viewing automation as a tool for emancipation of labour rather than as a threat, so as to win for the working class in Britain both full employment and time to live, breathe, care for children, participate fully in political life, and to pursue freely-available leisure, sports, culture and education.
   
   
5. The total decommodification of housing, including the immediate abolition of private rent and its legal basis, the absorption of housing associations into council housing authorities, stronger guarantees on the rights and conditions of council tenants along with the provision of resources to councils to fulfil these. Rough sleeping is to be ended in the first day of government by the practical seizure of empty properties for human need. A new state-led wave of housebuilding and regeneration of housing stock, that is spacious and of high quality, incorporating ecological considerations into all new construction and into previous construction found to be deficient, and ensuring that adequate service provision is included for all new development as well. Housing will no longer be considered something to be bought and sold, but rather a fundamental right of all people.
   
   
6. A commitment to democratising the economy through the immediate nationalisation and socialisation to put critical infrastructure and strategic national industries, including but not limited to energy, water, transport, telecommunications, banking, and healthcare — without compensation. Undoing decades of austerity and managed decline with sustained waves of investment into the public sphere, with a particular focus on measures to mitigate the coming onslaught of climate breakdown. The abolition of parasitic public-private "partnerships" and debts incurred to the public by them, that impede the public good for private gain.
   
   
7. An urgent political and economic mobilisation to address the climate crisis by rapidly decarbonising while simultaneously adapting to the effects of extreme weather, underpinned by a confrontation with capitalist profits. The key pillars will be nationalisation of the entire energy system without compensation to dismantle the fossil fuel industry and scale up clean energy; price controls on food, energy, water and other affected goods; and financial and technical support for transition internationally, including debt cancellation. For open borders and the right of all people to work and live wherever they want. For a campaign to unionise all workers to stop wage dumping.
   
   
8. Open the fight across the whole of Britain against violence against women and girls – in the streets and in the home, where it happens most. Equal pay for women in every company, full rights to divorce, contraception and abortion on demand, 24/7 nurseries, subsidised community dining rooms and laundries, and the complete liberation of women.
   
   
9. Legislation and constitutional guarantees to the effect of protecting and empowering oppressed minorities, and the prevention of further harm to these groups. This includes but is not limited to the extension of healthcare and dignity for trans people; improving the quality of life and material dignity for people with disabilities; and the extension of political rights to migrants and abolition of the hostile environment.
   
   
10. Transparent and wide-ranging parliamentary inquiries to establish criminal culpability for all of the failures that have been inflicted upon the working class and the oppressed by the ruling class over the past decades, including but not limited to the pollution of Britain and the world for private gain; the social murder of over 300,000 disabled and marginalised people through austerity; the disastrous pandemic response that led to over 200,000 deaths; the stochastic incitement of hate crime and passage of legislation against oppressed groups by the capitalist media and political class; manifold crimes committed abroad including active material and political support for the genocide in Palestine and the invasion of Iraq amongst others; state cover-ups and police violence at Hillsborough and Orgreave; the Transatlantic Slave Trade, including an assessment of reparations owed to the descendants of enslaved peoples and mechanisms for their delivery; and the persecution of those who have stood against all of the above and have been targeted for it by the police and security services.
    
    
11. Withdrawal from NATO and an end to participation, whether directly or indirectly, in all imperialist wars, alongside unilateral nuclear disarmament; and a steadfast commitment to proactive international solidarity with oppressed people across the world. In the first instance this means immediate withdrawal of recognition and the delegitimisation of the State of Israel; disavowal and apology for the Balfour Declaration; unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people; and withdrawal of British forces stationed overseas.
    
    
12. Transitioning Britain's vast military-industrial sector towards production of goods for peace rather than war, with the sections of the working class employed within the sector to democratically devise and control the plan for that transition, with the skills they can offer guaranteeing them a place within the new industries.

*From unemployed people through to pensioners, those unable to work and all those deprived of the means of production and dependent directly or indirectly on wage labour.