00:00 Natalie Bennett: Well, thank you very much. And I think my knees are going to take this for 10 minutes — I've just done my four-hour shift at the People's Supermarket, a wonderful cooperative just over a few streets away, and I spent four hours lifting [?] things up and down, [so] I think the knees over the next ten minutes... I stand here in the week of the Queen's Speech, and I guess here, when we're talking about both socialism and climate change, it's easy to be depressed. If you
00:30 take particularly the Infrastructure Bill and the climate change [measures] in the Queen's Speech, everything in it is bad for climate change and bad for people. We have a situation where we're promoting fracking, offering huge tax breaks and the opportunity to drill underneath your house whether you like it or not, without even necessarily telling you. We have "let's build new roads", because new roads are a great way to progress society. And we have that small sop [?]
01:02 with the plastic bag tax. But nonetheless, what I really want to talk about today, and be today, is really optimistic. And I've got some obvious reasons [for that]. I'm sure everyone knows that we've just had the European election, and the Green Party, we grew our number of MEPs: we sent Molly Scott Cato to Europe from the South West, [the] first time we've ever had a South West MEP. And probably even better, we had really strong council election results. In fact, at the moment you're sitting in Islington, where the Green Party is the
01:35 opposition to the Labour council. Now, when I say the Green Party is the opposition, I actually mean one person: Caroline Russell. She's our one Green councillor, and Labour should be really, really scared — anyone who knows Caroline Russell knows exactly what I mean. But it's not just, you know, election results, mid-term election results, UKIP, [inaudible], comeuppance, all of those things. Actually we're
02:05 really in a period — I'm sure, I believe with all my heart — we are actually heading into a period of massive change. If you just think about the state of our society at the moment. Think about the fact that a million people last year had to rely on food banks, [had] to rely on charity to feed themselves. If you think about the fact that twenty percent of workers earn less than a living wage. And you think about all the issues of climate change, and the fact that we
02:36 don't actually have an energy policy in Britain. The fact is that where we are now is not stable. There will be change — I say that with absolute certainty — and there will be massive change. Because I think we can take an analogy from biology in this. When I was a kid I was taught about evolution as this gradual thing, where things changed gradually, but actually we know now that evolution changes in big leaps, what they call punctuated equilibrium. And I think
03:06 what we're heading towards in terms of Britain is a big leap, a big change in politics. And that's a huge opportunity for all of us to present ideas for positive change, to present a real idea of how to make things different. Now, I'm going to briefly mention some of the things that, as a Green Party, we're working on, and I'm going to start with what I call really quite little things. This would sound pretty radical outside this room, but I think you'll probably grant [?] me these are the small changes. We want to make the minimum wage a living wage. We simply want to see [that] if
03:40 you work full time you should have enough money to live on. And I've actually seen what kind of difference actually having a living wage makes [to] people, because some of you may know the Tres Cosas campaign [at] the University of London — again, just over a couple [of] streets over that way — and I've been supporting them from the start. And it's a wonderful campaign, because after [a] really long hard struggle the cleaners at the University of London got the living wage. And they might have quite [happily] gone no further [?], having got the living wage — we've had a long
04:10 fight — but they're absolutely inspiring, because they said: now we've got the living wage, we want more. And their Tres Cosas, which is "three things" in Spanish — which is about my only words of Spanish — their three things are: they want pension, sick pay and holiday pay exactly proportionate to what the academics get. And they're out there and they're fighting to get it, and they're absolutely inspiring. And if you're ever in the vicinity you'll definitely hear one of their demos, because they've got the loudest drums you'll ever have heard. And you really
04:41 know when they're having a demo. So they're really inspiring. But, you know, we should make that for everyone — get everyone a living wage, and then people would have a bit more time, space, energy to really start to campaign for other things. A nice easy one, not a big change at all: Caroline Lucas, Green MP, has a private member's bill now before Parliament to do just that. Let's renationalise the railways. You know, it's very simple:
05:13 all you have to do is wait for the train operating companies' contracts to lapse, bring them back into public hands. And we can all enjoy travelling on trains like the East Coast, which is my favourite train line — and not just 'cause it's publicly owned, but because you can just feel the difference when you travel. And then probably the biggest one in my small three, and it's a really tough fight and there's a huge amount to do, but we have to defend and restore our publicly owned, publicly run NHS. We
05:45 simply have to say the profit motive has no place in healthcare. We have a huge fight on that, and many of you may well know the proposed EU–US free trade deal, which the Green Party's doing a lot of work opposing at the moment in Europe, and that is a real threat to our NHS. An immediate thing to fight, an immediate issue to focus attention on, protecting the NHS around. And that's hugely important. So that's sort of three fairly
06:17 simple, very easy things. But I was talking about a big, huge change in the ways society works, and none of those things really quite [add] up to that. So I'm going to just very briefly explore a couple of the ideas, of the things that the Green Party's looking at. And one of them is what's known as the citizens' or basic income. I don't [know if] everyone in this room knows what I mean by a basic or citizens' income? Yeah? All right, okay. I spent a whole [day]
06:49 yesterday at the Citizen's Income Trust talking about the basic income, and this has the potential to be absolutely transformative. We were talking about lots of different ways about how you can think about [it], this citizens' or a basic income, and one of them that I often talk about is a freedom from fear. So many people these days are actually really thinking: tomorrow, next week, next month, I might simply not be able to pay the bills, I might not be able to keep a roof
07:19 over my head, I might not be able to buy tomorrow's food to eat tomorrow. And if you have a citizen's or basic income that meets people's basic needs, then you take away that fear. And I think if you look at other ways of looking [at] this, you can think about this from [a] human rights perspective — and we haven't perhaps talked about human rights in these terms a lot lately — but the right to food, shelter and clothing are the most basic rights of all. And if you can have a basic income that guarantees your access to those things, this is absolutely
07:52 critical. Now, one of the things that's interesting about the basic income is it really freaks out mainstream economists. That's fun in itself. Yes, I know. But the reason why it freaks out mainstream economists is [that] it's really hard to model how people would behave if there's a basic income. If you decoupled working from the need to actually feed yourself, to clothe yourself, you can really decide how you want to spend your
08:22 time. Now, one of the things that I think might happen under a basic income is you really change wage differentials. One of the things that you would find is that you might have to pay sewer cleaners a lot more than we do now. It is always the point where someone puts their hand up and says "my friend's a sewer cleaner and he loves his job" — but anyway, most of us probably wouldn't want to be [a] sewer cleaner, and you might get to the point where sewer cleaners get paid more than bankers do. I think that might be a
08:54 very interesting position to be in [?]. And I think if you sort of think about some of the really horrible jobs we've got in our society — genuinely horrible jobs [that] everyone would hate — you think about those really horrible call centres, the kind of call centres where you have to answer every call and finish in 53 seconds, and every time you go to the loo it gets timed. And I think you might find that no one would work in call centres like that if you didn't need to keep a roof over your head and the food on the
09:24 table, and they would disappear. And I think that would be better both for the workers and for all the rest of us [who] have to ring those call centres as well. So the citizens' income has a real potential to really fundamentally change society — [to say]: you are accepted as a member of this society, you will have your basic needs met. And that's a big leap forward. Now, the other thing that I'd like to explore is the issue of working hours. Because we have in Britain some of the longest working hours in Europe, and this
09:56 has all sorts of negative effects in terms of impacts on family life, impacts on personal life, impacts on the chance to simply have a life. Now, Green Party policy has been for many years the idea of reducing the standard working week to 35 hours as a standard working week. But I think, if we're really starting to think radically, think outside the box, I'd like to go to the New Economics Foundation idea, which — their suggestion is that we should work our way gradually
10:27 towards a standard 21-hour working week. And I think this is really important in thinking about how that would transform society. But it also very much fits in with the theme of today, which is the fact that we are currently in Britain — no matter how you're living as an individual — all of us collectively using the resources of three planets. Every year we use that much resources. We focus a lot, rightly, on
10:58 climate change, but there's all the issues about the degradation of our soils, the damage to our oceans, our freshwater, the fact that we're just utterly trashing our biodiversity. And that has to change, and it has to change fast. And we have to ask people to choose to live differently, to choose — in short, if you want a shorthand — to have less stuff. And in a consumerist, consumer-driven society where everyone's trying to scramble up the ladder because they're
11:29 frightened of falling back down, that's a really tough ask. And that's where I think, if you put reduced working hours and a citizen's income or basic income together, you start to imagine a society that works differently. Because if you've got a basic income that cushions you, that makes sure you always have the basics of life, then you don't worry about your income going down [?] so much, you don't worry about going down that ladder of hierarchy of jobs so much. And if we're going to ask people to have
12:00 less stuff — think about, instead of growing GDP, think about some different kind of progress. [What] if you think about: maybe every year we aim to cut the standard working week by 15 minutes, so every four years, every week you get an extra hour of life. You have time to do whatever it is you'd like to do, whether it's gardening, whether it's spend time with your friends, whether it's be down the pub, whether it's whatever you like to do. Every four years you get more
12:33 time to do what you want to do. And as I've often heard Caroline Lucas say, no one lies on their deathbed and says "I wish I'd spent more time in the office". And if you get that more time, you might have less stuff in your life, you might not be flying to Prague for a stag weekend or something similar — but we start to really fundamentally reshape society. So those are two of the ideas that I'd like to offer you today. I'm sure there's going to be a lot more ideas coming out
13:04 of today, and I look forward to hearing all those different ideas. But I think my takeaway message is: let's be radical, let's think big, and let's say we can, we must, we will change society. Thank [you].
## Corrections
- "the **three causes** campaign the University of London" and "their three causes **this rib** ... are three **courses**" → the **Tres Cosas** campaign — the University of London cleaners' fight for sick pay, holiday pay and pensions. She glosses it herself in the next breath ("which is three things in Spanish"), which is what identifies it. - "we both grew a number of **any please** we said **Molly Scott Cato** to Europe" → "we grew our number of **MEPs**: we sent **Molly Scott Cato** to Europe" — elected Green MEP for South West England in the May 2014 election. - "she's our one green **MP with one green councillor**" → **Caroline Russell** was a councillor, not an MP; she was elected for the Greens in Islington in May 2014, which is the point of the joke about Labour being scared. The captions conflate her with Caroline Lucas, the party's one MP, who is named correctly later in the talk. - "let's **realize** the railways" → "let's **renationalise** the railways"; "trains like the **east post**" → "like the **East Coast**", then in public hands. - "defend peep and restore our publicly-owned **probably run** NHS" → "publicly owned, **publicly run** NHS". - "I spent a hold of yesterday at the **citizens income trust**" → "a whole [day] yesterday at the **Citizen's Income Trust**". - "the **New Economics foundation** ... a standard 21 hour working week" → the **New Economics Foundation**'s 21-hour week proposal; name correct in the captions, capitalised here. - "someone puts their **nothing** says my friends are sewer cleaner" → "puts their **hand up** and says 'my friend's a sewer cleaner'". - "you might **be** flying to Prague for a stag weekend" → "you might **not** be flying to Prague for a stag weekend". A dropped negation that reverses her meaning: the point is that less stuff means fewer such flights. - "every time you go to the loo it gets **time**" → "it gets **timed**". - "everyone's try to scramble **off** the ladder" → "trying to scramble **up** the ladder"; "that's a really tough **ass**" → "a really tough **ask**". - "let's be **ready cool**" → "let's be **radical**" — the first of the three verbs she closes on. - "when I was a kid I was **talking** about evolution" → "I was **taught** about evolution"; "evolution changes in big **Leafs**" → "in big **leaps**", which she then names correctly as punctuated equilibrium. - "the loudest drums you **curve of a hood**" → "the loudest drums you'll **ever have heard**". - "twenty percent of workers **unless with** a living wage" → "**earn less than** a living wage" — 20% is the figure Socialist Resistance reported from this speech. - "we focus a lot **brightly** on climate change" → "a lot, **rightly**, on climate change". - "a big huge change in the **hallways** society works ... really quite **fit up** to that" → "in the **ways** society works ... really quite **add** up to that". - "**the people supermarket**" → "the **People's Supermarket**", the Holborn cooperative. - "at the **inner speech**" → "in the **Queen's Speech**" — the 2014 speech, whose Infrastructure Bill carried the fracking and under-house drilling provisions she goes on to describe. - Marked and uncertain: "that small **sop [?]** with the plastic bag tax" (captions: "that small stock with the soft"); "I spent four hours **lifting [?]** things up and down"; "you'll probably **grant [?]** me"; "they might have quite [happily] gone **no further [?]**"; "a very interesting **position to be in [?]**"; "your income going **down [?]** so much". And one phrase defeats me: "it's not just election results, mid-term election results, UKIP, **[inaudible]**, comeuppance, all of those things" (captions: "you keep God's cut off comeuppance").