Charter 88 was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform and owes its origins to the lack of a written constitution. It began as a special edition of the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' magazine in 1988 and it took its name from
Charter 77
Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech and Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Něm ...
– the
Czechoslovak
Czechoslovak may refer to:
*A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93)
**First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38)
**Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39)
**Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60)
**Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...
dissident movement co-founded by
Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...
. It also has a faint echo of the far more popular mid-19th century
Chartist Movement
Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, w ...
of
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
that resulted in an unsuccessful campaign for a
People's Charter and also
Magna Carta or 'Great Charter' of 1215. In November 2007 Charter 88 merged with the
New Politics Network to form
Unlock Democracy
Unlock Democracy is a British pressure group, based in London. The organisation campaigns for a more participatory democracy in Britain, founded upon a written constitution. Unlock Democracy works to promote democratic reform across the politica ...
.
History
Formation
Charter 88 was created by 348 mainly
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
and
Social Democratic British intellectuals and activists. They signed a letter to the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' magazine as "a general expression of dissent" following the
1987 General Election victory of the
Conservative Party, led by
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
. This was then followed by further advertisements in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' and ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
''. Five thousand signatures were published in ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' newspaper in January 1989, followed by the establishment of an organisation.
The organisation was offered space within the offices of the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' magazine, then based in
Shoreditch. For several years it was based in offices in Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell. It later moved to the Institute of Community Studies (now The
Young Foundation
The Young Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental think tank based in London that specialises in social innovation to tackle structural inequality.
It is named after Michael Young, the British sociologist and social activist who created ...
) in
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...
. Its initial activity resulted in the creation of a Charter which the public was invited to sign and to support with financial contributions.
Anthony Barnett was the first Director and Andrew Puddephatt, former General Secretary of
Liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
, became the director of Charter 88 in 1995.
Source of inspiration
Charter 88 was the brainchild of ''New Statesman'' editor Stuart Weir and came into existence as a direct response to Thatcherism in Britain in the 1980s. It closely followed the methodology that had been employed by
Charter 77
Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech and Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Něm ...
in
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
during 1977. Charter 77 originally appeared as a manifesto published in a
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
newspaper that was signed by Czechoslovak citizens representing various occupations, political viewpoints, and religions. The manifesto was reprinted and circulated as a document inviting other signatures and by the mid-1980s it had been signed by 1,200 people.
The Original Charter 88
The Original Charter of Charter 88 was explicitly concerned with institutional change:
Support
Since 1988, approximately 85,000 people have signed the Charter, over which time the aim of the movement has changed considerably.
Among its early supporters in the British entertainment industry was singer
Billy Bragg.
He had earlier given his support to the
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
Red Wedge
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...
British youth political movement. Red Wedge closely allied itself with Labour Party leader
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
in his unsuccessful attempt to defeat the
Conservative Party. The writer
Harold Pinter, composer
Simon Rattle, actor
John Cleese and actress
Emma Thompson were also early supporters.
Other signatories from the entertainment world included actor
Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally (30 March 1926 – 15 June 1989) was an Irish actor. He was the recipient of three BAFTA Awards in the late 1980s: two BAFTA Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor (for ''The Mission'' in 1986 and ''My Left Foot'' in 1989), and ...
, who played the left-wing Prime Minister in the TV film ''
A Very British Coup
''A Very British Coup'' is a 1982 novel by British politician Chris Mullin. The novel has twice been adapted for television; as '' A Very British Coup'' in 1988 and as '' Secret State'' in 2012.
Plot
Harry Perkins is the left-wing Leader of th ...
'', whilst other famous names included novelists
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and We ...
,
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...
,
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with '' The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and '' A ...
,
A.S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than t ...
,
Margaret Drabble, and
Angela Carter
Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...
.
Other famous signatories included
Martin Amis,
Melvyn Bragg,
Tim Clement-Jones,
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her ...
,
Terry Eagleton
Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University.
Eagleton has published over forty books, ...
,
Antonia Fraser
Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (' Pakenham; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and p ...
,
Clement Freud
Sir Clement Raphael Freud (24 April 1924 – 15 April 2009) was a German-born British broadcaster, writer, politician and chef.
The son of Ernst L. Freud and grandson of Sigmund Freud, Clement moved to the United Kingdom from Nazi Germany as ...
,
Stuart Hall,
and
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...
.
Signatory
Lord Scarman
Leslie George Scarman, Baron Scarman, (29 July 1911 – 8 December 2004) was an English judge and barrister, who served as a Law Lord until his retirement in 1986.
Early life and education
Scarman was born in Streatham but grew up on the bo ...
chaired the launch in the House of Commons of Charter 88's strategy document 'We can Make it Happen in the Next Ten years', and remained a behind the scenes influence.
The intellectual left provided notable signatories however in the form of
Ralph Miliband
Ralph Miliband (born Adolphe Miliband; 7 January 1924 – 21 May 1994) was a British sociologist. He has been described as "one of the best known academic Marxists of his generation", in this manner being compared with E. P. Thompson, Eric Hob ...
,
Robin Blackburn
Robin Blackburn (born 1940) is a British historian, a former editor of '' New Left Review'' (1981–1999), and emeritus professor in the department of sociology at Essex University.
Background
Blackburn was educated at Hurstpierpoint College, ...
and feminist
Sheila Rowbotham
Sheila Rowbotham (born 27 February 1943) is a British socialist feminist theorist and historian. Early life
Rowbotham was born on 27 February 1943 in Leeds (in present-day West Yorkshire), the daughter of a salesman for an engineering company a ...
.
In 1988
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
is alleged to have described Charter 88 as a movement of "whiners, whingers and wankers", though he and his wife
Glenys Kinnock
Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (''née'' Parry; born 7 July 1944), is a British politician and former teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the ...
later signed the charter.
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
acknowledged his agreement with many of the aims and intentions of Charter 88.
People
Council Chair
*
Stuart Weir and
Richard Holme
Richard Gordon Holme, Baron Holme of Cheltenham CBE, PC (27 May 1936 – 4 May 2008) was a British Liberal Democrat politician.
Educated at University of Oxford ( BA Jurisprudence; St John's College) and Harvard Business School, Holme joined t ...
(jointly) 1988–1989
* Beverley Anderson 1989 – 1992
*
Helena Kennedy
Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, KC, FRSA, HonFRSE (born 12 May 1950), is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2018.
Ea ...
1992 – 1997
* Paul Farthing 1998 – 2003
* Debbie Chay 2003 – 2005
* Vicky Seddon 2005 – 2007
Directors
*
Anthony Barnett 1988 – 1995;
*Andrew Puddephatt 1995 – 1998;
*Pam Giddy 1998 – 2002;
*Karen Bartlett 2002 – 2003;
*Phil Starr 2003 – 2004;
*Ron Bailey 2004 – 2006 (co-Director);
*Peter Facey 2004 – 2006 (co-Director), 2006 – 2007
Later developments
In June 2003, the chair of the Charter 88 executive and management committee and active contributor
Paul Hirst died suddenly. Along with this, the organisation's financial situation and a period of resignations and redundancies, created a crisis situation in late 2003.
From 2004, Charter 88 developed partnerships with two organisations:
*The
New Politics Network was created in 2000 following the winding up of
Democratic Left.
*
Active Citizens Transform, founded in 2004 by
Charles Secrett
Charles Secrett is an environmental activist and was head of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1993–2003. He is an author and broadcaster on environmental topics.
Secrett was a member of the Labour Government's Comm ...
, former Executive Director of the environmental organisation
Friends of the Earth and by Ron Bailey.
On 8 February 2005, Charter 88 and the New Politics Network launched the
Elect the Lords
Certain governments in the United Kingdom have, for more than a century, attempted to find a way to reform the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This process was started by the Parliament Act 1911 introdu ...
Campaign, which began with an advert in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper.
It worked to introduce the
Armed Forces (Parliamentary Approval for Participation in Armed Conflict) Bill in Parliament, in cooperation with
Clare Short
Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003.
Short was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood from 1983 t ...
. In 2006, Active Citizens Transform was wound up and subsumed within Charter 88.
Local Works, ACT's campaign for the
Sustainable Communities Bill continued successfully and the legislation received Royal Assent in October 2007.
Members of Charter 88 and the New Politics Network were balloted in March 2007 on a proposed merger of the two organisations. The proposal was passed and the new organisation called
Unlock Democracy
Unlock Democracy is a British pressure group, based in London. The organisation campaigns for a more participatory democracy in Britain, founded upon a written constitution. Unlock Democracy works to promote democratic reform across the politica ...
was established in November 2007.
See also
*
Civil liberties in the United Kingdom
Civil liberties in the United Kingdom are part of UK constitutional law and have a long and formative history. This is usually considered to have begun with Magna Carta of 1215, a landmark document in British constitutional history. Development o ...
*
Commonwealth of Britain Bill
The Commonwealth of Britain Bill was a bill first introduced in the House of Commons in 1991 by Tony Benn, then a Labour Member of Parliament (MP). It was seconded by the future Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn.
The Bill proposed abol ...
*
Elections in the United Kingdom
*
Labour for a Republic
Republicanism in the United Kingdom is the political movement that seeks to replace the United Kingdom's monarchy with a republic. Supporters of the movement, called republicans, support alternative forms of governance to a monarchy, such as an ...
*
Make Votes Matter
References
{{reflist
1988 documents
1988 establishments in the United Kingdom
Constitution of the United Kingdom
Electoral reform in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1988
Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom
Charter 88
Charter 88 was a British pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform and owes its origins to the lack of a written constitution. It began as a special edition of the ''New Statesman'' magazine in 1988 and it took its name ...
Reform in the United Kingdom