Away with elite politics

The Socialist Party's message in the parliamentary elections on September 25, 2021: Seventh offer to voters presented during the Merchants' Weekend:AWAY WITH ELITE POLITICS

In recent years, politics has shifted from what could be called popular politics to what is inherently elite politics. Political parties are no longer active public organizations but are mostly run on grants from the state and municipalities. The trend has been that the leadership of the parties has become independent of the grassroots. Some newer parties are little more than a shell around the leadership.

Instead of seeking policy, power, and mandate from the active participation of ordinary members, the leadership buys advice to strengthen itself in the arena of elite politics, which primarily consists of news and media coverage. And the media are part of these elite politics, just as exclusionary as the parties for the majority of the public.

The result is staged politics that are disconnected from the lives of the public, politics that fail to address the injustice that a large part of the nation experiences.

The Socialist Party wants to change this.

The Socialist Party is a grassroots organization

And the Socialist Party starts at home. The party's structure is such that a small group of leaders cannot bend the party to their will. The party's grassroots do not relinquish the formulation of policy or the ranking on candidate lists; instead, both are done in randomly selected groups of ordinary party members. The party's structure is not a triangular power structure, like other parties, but rather the party has many centers and different boards, all of which are equally established and seek an equal mandate from the Socialist Congress. All members have the right to attend the Socialist Congress, and within the party, rules apply regarding the maximum tenure of members on boards. The Socialist Party therefore has built-in defenses against cliquishness in its structure.

And there is a strong reason for that. The structure of the Socialist Party is built on the experience of other parties. If parties do not have built-in defenses against clique formation, they fall prey to cliquishness. History shows this. This applies not only to political parties but to all public organizations. Those who come to power use that power to further increase their own power and to defend it. This has been called the iron law of cliquishness.

The Socialist Party is a young party, still in its infancy. Party members are well aware that the party's organization and structure are not fully developed. But they are conscious that if the party is to benefit the common people, it needs to attract as many members as possible, activate them for work, and protect the party from clique formation.

How does a people's party operate within elite politics?

The Socialist Party has not shaped the framework that the elite parties have built around themselves. The party's elected representatives enter a super-salary system that elite politicians have crafted around themselves, the party is allocated the same facilities that the elite parties have created for themselves, and it receives the same grants that the elite parties have allotted themselves.

The Socialist Party therefore needs to decide how it will respond within this corrupt environment. And the party will respond as follows:

The party's elected representatives will follow the example of City Councillor Sanna Magdalena Mörtudóttir and donate a portion of their salaries to the Vorstjarnan support fund so that what remains is equivalent to average middle-class wages, comparable to the salaries of a head teacher or a skilled worker. This is a path that socialist parties have taken worldwide. Vorstjarnan supports the advocacy and freedom struggle of groups that lack the economic means to wage their struggle and who have not yet managed to build organized entities. This applies to tenants, impoverished retirees, immigrants, the unemployed, and many other groups.

Alþingi pays the salaries of parliamentary group assistants. Socialists believe that the party's MPs will be part of a broad popular movement and that their work will improve as the movement grows stronger. The assistants will therefore work with the entire movement, not just the parliamentary group. The development of the movement will strengthen the parliamentary group. A parliamentary group without roots in a broad popular movement is worthless.

The state provides high amounts of funding to political parties. Socialists will use these funds to strengthen the advocacy of financially vulnerable groups, build media outreach in cooperation with Alþýðufélagið/Samstöðin, which is a precursor to a radical media outlet, and in other ways support the struggle of the common people against injustice and the oppression of capitalism.

Socialists will therefore transfer the funds and facilities that the elite parties have allocated to themselves into the movement of the common people. This best serves the goals of the Socialist Party. The party will be of no use unless it is part of such a movement. A party without deep and active connections to a movement of common people is worthless and, in fact, an obstacle to the struggle. This applies to the elite parties, and the Socialist Party does not want to be such a party.

How does the Socialist Party want to fix politics?

The Socialist Party wants to lower the salaries of MPs and other elected public servants so that they are comparable to decent middle-class wages. This is how these salaries were a few decades ago. During the neoliberal years, MPs' salaries increased significantly, and this was justified by arguing that higher salaries would attract better people to parliament. That has not been the case. People who seek politics for the salaries have no place in the democratic arena. MPs should have comparable salaries to head teachers, and ministers similar to school principals.

What remains of the glorification of politics, which can be traced back to medieval kingdoms, must be abolished. Politicians should not call each other 'honorable' and even less 'most honorable.' It is simply ridiculous in a parliament that enjoys very little trust among the nation. Ministerial cars, private chauffeurs, and all such pomp and snobbery must be abolished.

Grants to political parties must be abolished. They do not improve democracy but weaken it, increasing the power of party leadership at the expense of the grassroots. To strengthen democracy, the state should support and assist the advocacy of those groups who are worst off and have the least financial resources. Therein lies the problem of democracy. The poorer have too little power. And the leadership of political parties does not belong to the poor and powerless.

To ensure equality in the democratic arena, donations from companies and interest groups of capital and business owners to political parties must be banned. Democracy is the arena of the public, its tool to counteract the oppressive power of wealth. To reduce the influence of money on election campaigns, electoral propaganda in broadcast advertisements should be banned. Wealth has no place in politics; there is enough power that comes with wealth, and it should not touch public politics.

If necessary, electoral candidacies may be supported to maintain an office and minimal promotion 2-3 months before elections so that voters have good access to information about the policies and platforms of the candidacies.

Seventh offer of the socialists

The Socialist Party's seventh offer to voters for the parliamentary elections on September 25, 2021, is this:

• Socialist MPs will lower their salaries by donating a portion of them to Vorstjarnan
• Assistants of the socialist parliamentary group will work for the public movement, not just the parliamentary group
• Grants to the Socialist Party will be used to build a movement of the poor, not the party
• Socialists will lower the salaries of elected representatives at the first opportunity
• Socialists will abolish the super-grants of the elite parties at the first opportunity
• Socialists will abolish ministerial cars, private chauffeurs, and all such snobbery and pomp. Politicians are servants, not masters

Approved at a joint meeting of the executive and policy boards of the Socialist Party on Sunday during the Merchants' Weekend 2021.