Imagine a world

in which everyone has…

• a secure and comfortable place to live
• affordable access to healthy, nutritious food
• free access to modern healthcare and medicine
• free access to childcare and care in old age
• free schooling, higher education, and vocational training
• free use of the internet and public transport
• free and easy access to peaceful, unpolluted green spaces
• the guarantee of a paid job doing meaningful work
• sufficient income in retirement or when sick or incapacitated
• time to relax, socialize, and pursue hobbies

Finally, imagine a world in which the above represent ten basic rights that are universally achieved and forever protected.

Could such a world really exist?

Yes! We have almost everything we need to achieve it, including:

• A very hospitable planet with fertile soils, abundant fresh water, and rich biodiversity
• 8 billion members of a uniquely intelligent and capable species
• The technological capacity to meet all our needs in a sustainable way

So what is missing?

The following elements are still missing:

• A globally united political movement committed to creating the world most of us would want to live in
• A distribution of power and wealth that is compatible with a healthy society and a healthy planet
• An economic system that can deliver prosperity without destroying the planet

To create these missing elements and build the world we want for ourselves and our children, we first need to recognise the magnitude of a series of crises that now confront us.

Four major crises

Each of these are separate but in some ways related.

• The inequality crisis – the billionaires are taking control and are a major threat to democracy and political stability
• The AI crisis – the unbridled development of AI threatens all of our jobs, our access to energy and water, and possibly even our very existence
• The climate and ecological crisis – climate change and ecological degradation threaten our homes, our health, our food supply, our water supply, and much more
• The nuclear proliferation crisis – this is now a greater threat than ever before and is an existential threat to everyone on the planet

The growing concentration of power and wealth is destabilising our national societies, which in turn fuels global instability. This makes it increasingly difficult to reach the international agreements that are so important for reducing the risks of either a nuclear, environmental, or AI-induced Armageddon. We need to wake up and force our governments to act on behalf of people and humanity and not the super-rich.

Politics

Unfortunately, politicians are not taking these crises sufficiently seriously.

• This is because they have other priorities and believe they will be punished at the ballot box if they try to implement truly transformative policies.
• It is because the voting public are distracted by other concerns, such as immigration, and day to day survival under the current system.
• Above all, it is because the richest sectors of society use their disproportionate influence over politicians, the media and public opinion, to control the narrative and promote policies that ignore the crises.

Politics today serves the wealthy and comfortably off but has little or nothing to offer younger generations or those for whom life is a permanent struggle to make ends meet. This needs to change.

Some fundamental truths

In order to create the world we desire, we must convince our political leaders and the general public of these fundamental truths:

• To protect democracy, beat the crises, and deliver a high standard of living for everyone, extreme inequality must be treated as one of the most pressing problems we face
• A technology as powerful and potentially dangerous as AI should not be controlled by a small handful of unaccountable billionaires.
• To avoid catastrophic climate change and ecological disaster, we need a major change in what we produce and consume.
• More shopping does not make people happier – personal relationships, community, how we spend our time, as well as physical and financial security are what really count
• The world we want to live in can only be built if countries work together rather than seeking to dominate or exploit each other.

So what can we do?

Those of us who broadly agree with what has been outlined above must urgently do the following:

• Start building a global mass movement for genuine political and economic change
• Build an internationally recognisable brand for the movement
• Make the brand a unifying banner under which progressive people and organisations across the world can mobilise
• Identify a clear and simple set of objectives and principles for which to rally support

How can this be done?

Above all, it is necessary for progressive people and organisations to set aside their differences and focus on a common cause and a common message. Ideally we need to do the following:

• Use whatever existing platforms we have to promote the global movement, its aims and its principles
• Create a new social media platform designed to recruit and coordinate everyone with a genuine interest in making the world a better place
• Support growth of the platform with the ultimate aim of exceeding Facebook, Tik-Tok and Instagram in terms of profile, scale and reach
• Use the platform to design a political manifesto for genuine human progress
• Find a way for platform members to contribute constructively to the manifesto’s development
• Use the manifesto and the platform to empower genuinely progressive leaders and politicians around the world

Principles

The movement will need to establish some basic principles to guide its demands and its actions. These should include the following:

• Achieving the ten basic rights is at the forefront of all demands and actions associated with the movement
• The four major crises are recognised as significant obstacles to achieving the ten basic rights
• Addressing the four major crises is therefore urgent and of paramount importance
• The movement is a global one and believes that the ten basic rights should and could apply to everyone on the planet, whatever their nationality, colour, creed or gender
• It asserts that the four major crises are also global and can only be addressed through international cooperation
• The movement recognises that opinion on cultural issues is diverse, both within and between countries, and does not attempt to influence opinion on issues that do not directly relate to the ten basic rights or the four major crises
• All actions should adhere to the principle of non-violence

The aim of the principles outlined above is to keep things simple and focused on aims that very large numbers should be able to agree upon, whatever their nationality, religion, or cultural preferences. We need principles that unite people rather than dividing them.

What is this website for?

This website, which is in the early stages of construction, is the start of a project to explore ways in which progressive people across the globe can be brought together as a united force for genuine progress.

• It is motivated, not only by the climate crisis and growing levels of inequality and social injustice, but also by a concern that the window of opportunity for democratic change may be getting smaller.
• It is driven by a fear that, as the climate crisis deepens and the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) escalate, the rich and powerful will start shutting down avenues for democratic action, using AI to protect their own power and position rather than solving the world’s pressing problems.

People with a vision for the world that is rooted in true democracy, a genuine concern for human wellbeing, and the urgent need to protect our planet have to unite. Only once united can we confront the looming threats that face us all, and begin to build the world that most people want to live in.

To read more about the claims made on this page go to ‘The arguments’ page

And if you are broadly in agreement with the vision described above, please do consider joining us.