In a world of households where both parents work, progressive politics means providing structures and a system of taxation that addresses the problems of hard working families.
In the globalised economy progressive politics has to produce policies that are more inclusive rather than reinforcing growth in income inequalities. Progressive politics has to give priority to quality of life issues that includes the present generations being the trustees of the environment for future generations. And as life expectancy increases, more needs to be done so that older generations can live their years of retirement with good quality pensions and a safe environment. The Malta Labour Party has to be the party of that progressive politics that wants as many people as possible to benefit from wealth and democracy and not let power and money become concentrated in the hands of a few elites hiding behind populist rhetoric.
To do this the Malta Labour Party needs to show that it has historically been on the side of progressive politics. This means that the Party must not disown its history. It needs to talk about historical achievements that have become pillars of reform and reforms that Nationalists Governments have not sought to dismantle. But at the same time the MLP cannot become the party of the majority by simply reminding people of its past achievements.
Like all progressive movements the MLP recognises that the challenges of the new century are different and that progressive politics has to address these new challenges.
In summary the new challenges are:
1) The global economy – meaning the shrinking of geographical spaces that creates a world that is more interconnected and interdependent. We need to ask the question what is the nature of this globalisation and how does Malta meet the challenges and the opportunities? Also there is the question of how we can create a globalisation that is more inclusive of creating jobs that are secure and that offer high wages.
2) Global warming and climate change – what contribution can we make to reducing emissions? How do we start to calculate individual carbon footprints so that we can as individuals and families start to take responsibility for our environment? We need to work within the EU to ensure the USA, China and India adhere to the Kyoto protocol and then after 2012 to ensure that there is a global policy that replaces Kyoto.
3) The changing nature of the family – households with both parents working; the new hard working families faced with challenges of employment; bringing up children; high costs of mortgages; increases in prices – how can families be helped?
4) People living longer and how do we ensure that senior citizens enjoy a quality of life including better pensions, the right to stay in the world longer, and more professional care in residential homes.
5) Politics and democracy – There are a number of impulses that have the potential of undermining the process of democracy such as the influence of money in politics. We need legislation that increases accountability and transparency of government, including a Freedom of Information Act and reforms of funding of political parties.
Real democracy undermines elite networks that are on the side of income inequalities and the concentration of wealth. To show concern about growing inequalities is dismissed with these elite networks as the politics of envy, yet the concentration of income and wealth creates a political and economic elite that undermines the nature of democracy. Money in politics undermines the democratic process.
In today’s economy we need to provide a legislative framework that provides a balance between incentives for local operators to remain competitive and attract inward investment, while at the same providing adequate employment rights for employees working within these companies.
We therefore need to provide legislation that offers protection to part-time workers and workers on contract. The EU working time directive provides rights for all part-time workers working more than 16 hours per week. These workers should have the same rights as those in full time employment including contributions to national insurance rights to pension contributions, rights to training.
We also have to provide an effective industrial relations framework that protects workers rights including trade union recognition in the workplace and equal pay for equal value to reduce the gender gap in wage inequalities. We therefore need to create a labour force that is flexible, reflective, and able to understand the nature of change and treated fairly and not as modern slaves.