ACT stands for Active Citizens Transform: a new non-party political movement that aims to mobilise citizens, to transform Britain into a vibrant, participatory and sustainable society.

The Reasonable Revolution

Citizens and communities are losing the battle against centralisation. Executive government, quangos and corporations have too much power over everyday lives.

Britain cannot go on being run in the way it is. We need much more openness, public involvement and accountability in politics, with strong public interest agendas that underpin and support government policy and company behaviour. Citizens and communities must have a greater say in what goes on. We need new ideas - as well as new forms of government - to rejuvenate democracy and communities nationwide. This is what ACT and its partners stand for.

If there is something really new in what we are saying, it is this: the old ways of protest will not succeed. Just as there is something badly wrong in the way we are governed, so we must acknowledge that there is something fundamentally missing from the way social movements work. Because so little changes in politics and public affairs as a consequence. To get wide-ranging solutions taken up and implemented requires a fundamentally different approach to stopping bad projects or causing a public outcry. What we need is an active, nationwide, non-party political movement with real democratic clout.

That's what ACT and our work with Charter 88 and others is about -- building political clout, and holding politicians to account for improving democracy and delivering sustainability. An active and aware nationwide network of voters, constituents and taxpayers can do that.

The sustainability agenda is complex and challenging. In this, it reflects reality. The issues of democracy, environmental and social justice, wealth creation and economic determination are entangled. Progress in one area depends on progress in others. Campaign agendas, and campaign tactics, must reflect that reality. We believe ours does.

Many of us sign up to organisations that seek fundamental change. But they have not found the means to match their goals. The fact is that exposes, evidence and sound argument are not enough for campaigners to win their case. Despite the huge public support for NGO agendas, Ministers and officials generally ignore calls for change because they know will be no political comeback. It's not hard to resist well intentioned lobbying when there is no electoral price to pay.

As the ACT manifesto says: "Politicians think that there are no votes in democracy, no votes in the environment, and no votes in a new constitution. We aim to change that."

This is what we offer -- new ideas and mutually supportive agendas, cooperative and collaborative approaches with other NGO and community groups, campaigns driven by people, and ways of working that can transform the massive armchair support for sustainability and democracy into aware and active citizen pressure -- in order to ensure that government delivers.