World Socialist Radio

Nine Days That Didn't Shake The World. The 1926 British General Strike.

Mon, 11 May 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Reflections on the centenary of the 1926 British General Strike. Millions of workers joined the strike in solidarity with coal miners facing wage cuts and worsening conditions, but despite its enormous scale, the strike ultimately failed to produce lasting political or social transformation.

The general strike demonstrates a broader lesson about the limits of reformist labour politics and trade unionism under capitalism. Large-scale worker militancy alone is insufficient without a clear socialist objective and political organisation. Meaningful social change requires a conscious movement for socialism, rather than temporary industrial protest.

Taken from the May 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants.

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Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Moon Madness. Space Exploration and Capitalist Motives.

Mon, 04 May 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The original moon race captured imaginations because it seemed to represent a dramatic leap into the future, even though it was fundamentally driven by Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. By contrast, today’s moon missions present a far more muted and divided public response, with many people more concerned about economic hardship and crises on Earth than space exploration. Scientists and commentators themselves disagree about whether crewed lunar and Mars missions are worthwhile or merely expensive vanity projects.

Modern space exploration is shaped less by scientific curiosity than by capitalist competition and geopolitical rivalry, particularly between the US and China. Governments and corporations are motivated by strategic and economic interests, including access to lunar resources and potential military advantages, rather than purely humanitarian or scientific goals. NASA’s efforts to justify the enormous cost of Artemis are contrasted with urgent global social problems such as poverty and hunger. This episode concludes on a pessimistic note, warning that the militarisation and commercial exploitation of space could extend the destructive logic of capitalism beyond Earth itself.

Taken from the May 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

David and Goliath. Competition and "Enshitification"

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In modern capitalism, so-called “Davids” (like startups) often win by using strategies backed by huge financial power, such as venture capital. Companies deliberately sell at a loss to undercut competitors, drive them out, and dominate the market—after which they worsen their service or raise prices, a process described as “enshittification.” These outcomes aren’t exceptions but built into capitalism itself: success tends to come not from better products but from access to capital and market control. What looks like an underdog victory is often just another form of concentrated power, meaning consumers and workers ultimately lose out as competition disappears and conditions deteriorate.

Taken from the April 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

The Closed World of Billionaire Power

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This episode argues that a small global elite of billionaires effectively operates within a “closed world” of power, where wealth translates into disproportionate influence over politics, economies, and decision-making. Rather than governments or democratic institutions being in control, real power lies with those who own and control major corporations and financial systems, allowing them to shape policies and outcomes in their own interests. This concentration of power is presented as a structural feature of capitalism, not an accident.

It also suggests that this system perpetuates inequality and limits meaningful change, since those at the top benefit from maintaining the status quo. Even when reforms are proposed, they tend to leave underlying power relations intact. Only a fundamental transformation of ownership and control, away from private wealth and toward common ownership, can break this closed circle of elite power.

Taken from the April 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Agency and Responsibility

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This episode uses the example of Tourette’s syndrome to challenge how capitalist society understands personal responsibility. It argues that capitalism assumes individuals are fully rational and in control of their actions, so behaviour – especially speech – is judged as intentional and morally accountable. However, conditions like Tourette’s, where speech can be involuntary, expose a flaw in this assumption: society often ignores medical or material explanations and still treats actions as deliberate. This creates a contradiction where conformity is praised as virtue, but inability to conform is condemned as moral failure, even when control is limited.

It also critiques how capitalism polices language and constructs ideas of acceptable behaviour. While opposing genuinely harmful speech is valid, the article argues that moral judgement should depend on whether real agency exists. Treating involuntary and deliberate actions the same undermines both justice and understanding. More broadly, it claims capitalism only tolerates disability when it can be framed as “inspirational” or manageable; when it cannot, individuals are excluded or condemned. Ideas of responsibility under capitalism are inconsistent and fail to account for the social and material conditions shaping human behaviour.

Taken from the April 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Zackonomics — How Green Can You Be?

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The episode critiques the economic ideas associated with Green Party leader Zack Polanski, arguing that his proposals – such as wealth taxes, public ownership, and increased government spending – reflect a reformist belief that capitalism can be reshaped to serve people and the environment. This is an illusion, similar to earlier Labour policies, because capitalism is fundamentally driven by profit-making. According to the author, governments – regardless of intentions – must prioritise profits to keep the system functioning, or risk economic downturns and being forced into policy reversals. As a result, simply electing “better leaders” cannot overcome the structural constraints of capitalism.

Taken from the March 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Peter Mandelson: Arch Labour Party Careerist

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:35:29 GMT

Peter Mandelson exemplifies a lifelong “careerist” within the Labour Party. His political trajectory was driven more by personal advancement than by principled commitment to socialism. He rose through the party not from grassroots activism but via roles in communications and media management, becoming a key architect of “New Labour.”

This episode uses Mandelson as a case study to criticise Labour, arguing that figures like him demonstrate how the party is dominated by professional politicians focused on power and status, rather than pursuing genuine socialist change.

Taken from the March 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb

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Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Myths of Race and Nation

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

This episode argues that ideas about “race” and “nation” are largely social and political myths rather than clear scientific or natural realities. It connects the myths of race and nation to political and economic interests, particularly under capitalism. Ruling groups often promote ideas of racial or national unity to distract ordinary people from their shared class interests. By encouraging workers to identify with a nation or racial group, elites can divide the working class and prevent them from recognising their common position as exploited labourers. From this perspective, nationalism and racism function as ideological tools that maintain existing social systems, while a socialist viewpoint emphasises the common interests of people worldwide rather than divisions based on race or nationality.

Taken from the March 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Big Red Button

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

This episode uses a recent film about nuclear war as a starting point to discuss the continuing danger of nuclear weapons. It notes that films and stories about a leader pressing a “big red button” highlight how catastrophic nuclear conflict would be, but the real concern is that such destructive power is concentrated in the hands of political leaders and military systems. Even though the popular image of a literal button is exaggerated, governments still maintain complex systems that could launch nuclear weapons very quickly, making the risk of accidental or deliberate war a persistent threat.

The continued existence of nuclear weapons is linked to the structure of the global system of competing nation-states under capitalism. Military competition and geopolitical rivalry encourage countries to maintain and modernise nuclear arsenals despite the catastrophic risks. As long as this system persists, the threat will remain; therefore, a socialist society based on global cooperation and common ownership would remove the conditions that produce nuclear arms and the possibility of their use.

Taken from the March 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

State and Repression

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

An account of how state repression is always accompanied by deceptive attempts to control the narrative and preserve legitimacy.

Taken from the February 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Ending The Money System Can Save The Planet

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

A letter to the editor. Environmental destruction is rooted in the global money-based economic system, where production is driven by profit rather than human need. It claims that businesses must expand and compete to survive, leading to overproduction, resource depletion, and pollution. Even well-intentioned reforms—such as green technologies, regulations, or ethical consumer choices—are presented as insufficient, because they operate within the same system that prioritises growth and profitability over ecological balance. As long as money and markets dominate decision-making, the planet’s resources will continue to be exploited unsustainably.

The writer proposes replacing the money system entirely with a global society based on common ownership and production for use. In this model, goods and services would be produced directly to meet human needs, without buying, selling, or profit. This, they argue, would allow rational planning of resources, reduce waste, and enable sustainable interaction with the environment. The letter concludes that only such a fundamental transformation—rather than reforms within capitalism—can effectively address the ecological crisis and ensure long-term planetary survival.

Taken from the February 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Human Factories

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

This episode critiques superficial “girl-boss” empowerment narratives, arguing that flashy media representations of strong women mask the harsher realities many women face under capitalism—persistent pay gaps, gendered expectations, and widespread violence. Research on women’s advancement reveals a structural double bind: behaving in socially approved “feminine” ways may earn status but rarely real authority, while assertive behaviour can bring power at the cost of social acceptance. Feminist thinkers and historians are therefore drawn to questioning the roots of patriarchy, from debates about prehistoric societies to modern analyses of gender and property. Drawing on Angela Saini’s work, the piece highlights how patriarchal systems developed alongside expanding state power, militarisation, and rigid gender roles that channelled men into war and women into reproductive and domestic labour.

Women’s bodies and reproductive capacities become central to understanding both ancient and modern systems of control. Historically, women were among the earliest enslaved populations and were positioned as “human factories” to sustain armies and economies; today, similar pressures persist through pronatalist policies and political movements that seek to regulate women’s choices about work, family, and reproduction. As birth rates decline globally, capitalist states increasingly frame women’s fertility as an economic necessity, often disregarding women’s autonomy and wellbeing. Genuine liberation requires challenging the wider economic structures that depend on gendered exploitation, arguing that feminist struggles against patriarchal power are inseparable from broader efforts to dismantle class domination.

Taken from the February 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Venezuela: Another Failure of Capitalism

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

This episode argues that Venezuela’s economic and social crisis reflects the limits of reformist political projects that try to improve capitalism rather than replace it. It traces how governments associated with Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro pursued policies such as nationalisation, welfare expansion, and price controls while still operating within a capitalist framework dependent on oil exports and global markets. When oil prices fell and economic pressures intensified, these reforms proved unable to stabilise the economy, leading to inflation, shortages, and worsening living standards. These outcomes reveal structural weaknesses in attempting to manage capitalism through state reforms alone.

Both supporters and critics of the Venezuelan government misunderstand the deeper problem. Defenders frame Venezuela as a victim of external pressure or sabotage, while opponents blame “socialism,” yet both sides overlook that the country remained fundamentally capitalist. Lasting change cannot come from reformist policies or state-led capitalism but requires a more fundamental transformation of the economic system itself.

Taken from the February 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Do I Know You?

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

A fraudster exploits a moment of uncertainty by pretending to be a familiar figure, relying on the victim’s embarrassment and hesitation to question their own memory. The example shows how easily social cues, expectations, and politeness can override critical thinking, revealing how recognition is not purely about memory but also about social pressure and assumed roles.

The episode then expands to examine how capitalist society encourages shallow and fragmented social interactions, where people are primarily understood through their economic or social functions rather than as full individuals. This environment makes people more vulnerable to manipulation and alienation, weakening genuine human connection. A socialist society, organised around cooperation and shared purpose, would reduce these distortions, allowing people to relate to one another more openly and authentically, without the mistrust and confusion fostered by competitive social structures.

Taken from the January 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Why We Can't Support Your Party

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 06:00:00 GMT

The Socialist Party of Great Britain refuses to support the newly founded political organisation “Your Party,” launched in November 2025 under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. “Your Party” promotes a reformist programme that seeks gradual change within capitalism through taxation, nationalisation, and expanded public services, rather than advocating the abolition of capitalism itself. This approach has repeatedly failed, citing historical examples such as the Syriza government in Greece, because capitalist economic pressures ultimately block meaningful reform. Although the party’s rhetoric speaks of fundamental transformation, in practice it will pursue modest reforms that leave capitalism intact, making it incapable of achieving genuine socialism — which, they argue, requires conscious majority support to replace the entire economic system.

Taken from the January 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

The Magic Gadget IRL

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 06:00:00 GMT

This episode reflects on life before smartphones and social media, describing how children in the 1990s experienced the world directly, without digital pressures such as FOMO (fear of missing out), sexting, cyberbullying, and addictive “attention economy” features designed to maximize engagement. It highlights growing concerns about the mental health impacts of ubiquitous device use among young people and discusses recent policy responses such as Australia’s ban on major social media platforms for under-16s and widespread bans on phone use in schools, though evidence of real benefits remains mixed. It also notes how pervasive smartphone ownership even among very young children blurs safety with surveillance, and that regulatory efforts may simply push kids toward less regulated, potentially worse online spaces.

Taken from the January 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

What The Fascist Needs

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 06:00:00 GMT

This episode argues that fascism and fascists are symptoms of deeper social and economic decay under capitalism — not just isolated groups of extremists or caricatures of “jackbooted thugs.” It dismisses simplistic responses like beating up racists on the streets, noting that violence alone won’t change the underlying conditions that breed fascist sentiment. Instead, it emphasises that many people drawn to fascist politics are alienated, fearful, and frustrated by their position in society under a profit-driven system, and that their attraction to nationalism and hatred stems from this sense of powerlessness rather than coherent political ideas.

The real answer to fascism isn’t merely opposing its street-level activism but challenging and transforming the social conditions that give rise to it — particularly the inequalities and crises inherent in capitalism. Working-class education, solidarity, and unity against nationalism and division are needed to undercut fascist appeal. Only broad social change, rather than repression of individuals, can address the root causes of fascist movements.

Taken from the February 1993 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Socialism From the Barrel of a Gun

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Recent media attention has focused on the Socialist Rifle Association (SRA), a US-based left-wing organisation promoting firearms training and “working-class armed self-defence,” after a Democratic Senate candidate in Maine was criticised for past posts encouraging people to join it. Reports suggest growing gun ownership among LGBTQ and left-liberal Americans driven by fear of political repression, while a Cato Institute FOIA request revealed the SRA is under FBI investigation. The SRA presents itself as a left-wing counterpoint to right-wing gun culture, framing firearms as tools for community defence and resistance to authoritarianism. However, this trend reflects not a coherent ideological shift but widespread anxiety produced by capitalism – economic insecurity, political polarisation, violent policing, and commodified security – conditions that push different social groups to arm themselves defensively.

This episode criticises the SRA’s use of revolutionary rhetoric, particularly selective quotations from Marx and implied links to Leninist traditions, arguing these ideas are taken out of their historical and theoretical context. Marx’s later view emphasised democratic, majority-led self-emancipation rather than armed minorities or vanguards, and the piece contends that firearms cannot resolve capitalism’s structural causes of insecurity and division. Drawing on historical examples and socialist theory, it argues that armed groups – left or right – reproduce capitalism’s logic of coercion and offer consumerist, individualised responses to systemic problems. Socialism cannot be achieved or defended by militias or vigilantes, but only through conscious, democratic, and mass political organisation; the SRA is therefore a defensive reaction to social breakdown rather than a genuine revolutionary alternative.

Taken from the January 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Transgender Issues and Capitalism

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 06:00:00 GMT

This episode situates debates over transgender identity within a Marxist analysis of capitalist society, arguing that rigid gender roles are historically constructed and reinforced by capitalism’s need to reproduce labour power. It draws on Marx’s base-and-superstructure framework to explain how patriarchal and gender norms originate in earlier modes of production and persist under capitalism to serve economic ends, assigning individuals culturally defined roles tied to reproductive labour. From this perspective, gender identity is not simply derived from biology but is shaped by social expectations that help sustain the capitalist system.

Taken from the December 2022 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Cheating The Reaper

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 06:00:00 GMT

This episode article uses recent public comments by authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and the broader enthusiasm among billionaires and tech elites for life-extension research, to highlight the hubris of the rich attempting to “cheat death.” It points out the absurdity of autocrats and Silicon Valley figures treating ageing as a technical problem to solve, despite biological limits and deep inequalities in who could even access such treatments. The speaker underscores that while elites fantasise about immortality through organ transplants, genetic tweaks, or radical longevity regimens, these efforts are constrained by hard biological realities.

Taken from the December 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Abolish The Wages System: Why We Need To Get Rid Of Capitalism

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 06:00:00 GMT

This episode is a recording of a talk given by Johnny Mercer at The Socialist Party's Head Office on 30th November 2025.

The speaker outlines the Socialist Party of Great Britain’s case for abolishing the wage system, arguing that capitalism is rooted in minority ownership of the means of production and in production for profit rather than human need. They reject the idea that capitalism emerged naturally, instead tracing its origins to violent dispossession – from the Enclosures and Highland Clearances in Britain to slavery and colonialism globally – which created a propertyless working class forced to sell its labour. Drawing on Marx, the talk emphasises the exploitative and alienating nature of wage labour, detailing how workers are separated from the products of their work, the labour process, each other, nature, and ultimately their own human potential. Capitalism’s pursuit of endless growth is linked to ecological destruction, and global conflict is framed as competition between capitalist interests fought at the expense of the working class.

The second half outlines the principles of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, founded in 1904 as a breakaway from reformist movements and committed to a leaderless, democratic, revolutionary transformation. The speaker defines socialism as a stateless, moneyless society based on common ownership and production for need, stressing that emancipation must be won consciously by the working class itself. They argue that all other political parties – including those considered left-wing – ultimately support capitalism, offering only reforms rather than systemic change. The talk concludes by urging workers to unite under the SPGB’s banner to replace capitalism’s inequalities with a society grounded in freedom, equality, and genuine human solidarity.

To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Revolution Reclaimed: What It Really Means to Change the World

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 06:00:43 GMT

This episode explores how the word “revolution” has been overused and misunderstood, much like marketing buzzwords such as “game-changer.” The speaker argues that revolutions are a normal and essential part of human progress — from mastering fire to agriculture, industry, and modern technologies like AI and genetics. Societal revolutions happen gradually and often unnoticed, just as we don’t feel the Earth spinning. Capitalism isn’t the final stage of history, and future generations will likely view today's world as outdated.

The episode then presents the socialist vision of the next major revolution: a society where money is abolished and everything is free. The argument is that humanity already produces enough resources — food, housing, clothing — for everyone, but the monetary system artificially restricts access. If goods are free, money becomes unnecessary.

Capitalism requires inequality, fuels environmental destruction, and cannot reform itself. Therefore, real freedom and sustainability require a conscious human push toward this next revolution — a world based on abundance and free access to resources.

To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Violence and War: Are They Inevitable? The Long View

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 06:00:35 GMT

This episode argues that war and large-scale violence are not primitive constants built into human nature, but rather they became widespread only with the rise of hierarchical, agrarian and class-based societies. For most of human prehistory — during the long era when humans lived as small, egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands — there is scant evidence of systemic war. It was only with the advent of agriculture, permanent settlements and the resultant scarcity that social hierarchies emerged: a privileged minority gained power over resources and labour, dominance replaced egalitarianism, and the structural conditions for permanent class society were created. Thus, war and institutionalised violence are shown as products of social organisation rather than an inevitable aspect of human biology or “original sin.”

Taken from the December 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

'No Such Thing as Free Buses' and 'Woolly Thinking'.

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 06:00:32 GMT

Proposals for “free buses” under capitalism—like the plan by New York politician Zohran Mamdani—paint a misleading picture: there’s no such thing as “free” in a system based on profit. While fare-free public transport would indeed make travel easier and lower emissions, the column warns that funding it via higher local taxes essentially subsidises employers by reducing the cost of living, which in turn can suppress wages. The only way to make transport—and all essential services—truly free and accessible for everyone, according to the authors, is to abolish the wage system entirely and bring the means of production into common, democratic ownership, enabling a socialist society where goods and services are provided solely to meet people’s needs.

In Woolly Thinking the author critiques trade union leader Sarah Woolley’s call to raise taxes on the rich and corporations in order to fund public services like housing, health, education, and a “just transition.” While she argues that the money already exists in society, the article contends that under capitalism, that wealth comes from surplus value created by workers — which capitalists then reinvest or hoard. Taxing profits would reduce incentives for reinvestment, likely leading to less job creation, lower wages, and a shrinking tax base. The piece warns that these reformist proposals misunderstand how capitalism fundamentally operates.

Articles taken from the November 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Bonkers From Jib to Poop – Tales of Capitalism All at Sea

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 06:00:42 GMT

This is a talk that was given on 31 Oct 2025 on a general maritime theme. There's no particular point being made, just some observations on a number of vaguely related news stories from earlier in the year.

To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Basic Skills. How Capitalism Is Failing Us

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 06:00:35 GMT

This Socialist Standard article “Pathfinders – Basic Skills” critiques claims that declining literacy and “cancel culture” stem from abandoning phonics, arguing instead that capitalism’s chaotic priorities—not conspiracies—drive educational failures. It notes that both US and UK literacy levels are poor, worsened by social media and AI, which promote effortless but shallow learning. The author humorously demonstrates AI’s inconsistency in misattributing a quote, concluding that genuine understanding requires “friction” and effort—something neither capitalist education systems nor AI’s “frictionless” convenience can provide.

From the November 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard.

To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb

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Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

UFOs Exposed: How Capitalism’s Crafty Cover-Ups Shape What We Think We See

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 06:00:36 GMT

This episode examines how UFO narratives have been shaped by secrecy, misinterpretation, and capitalist interests. It discusses the BBC4 documentary “What Are UFOs?”, which revisits pilot Alex Dietrich’s 2004 “tic tac” sighting and the 2015 “gimbal” video, both later explained by experts as camera and motion distortions of ordinary aircraft. Many so-called “unidentified” incidents, the article notes, are better understood as sightings of classified military technology—echoing cases like the 1947 Roswell crash, now known to involve Project Mogul, a Cold War nuclear-detection program. Likewise, triangular UFO reports from the 1980s onward likely stem from experimental U.S. stealth craft tested at secret facilities such as Area 51. The piece argues that the UFO craze thrived amid Cold War paranoia, government secrecy, and Hollywood storytelling, eventually evolving into a profitable pop-culture industry. Ultimately, it concludes that the enduring fascination with UFOs reveals more about capitalism’s power to generate fear and fantasy than about life beyond Earth.

From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard.

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Withdrawal Symptoms

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 06:00:34 GMT

Even in a socialist society the legacy of capitalism would pose deep challenges—particularly in areas tied to personal behavior, health and consumption. The episode points to obesity, processed foods, addictions, pollution, synthetic drugs and industrial toxins as examples of harms created under capitalism, and raises the question of how a socialist world would responsibly manage them without exacerbating individual dependency or imposing authoritarian controls. While acknowledging that some “withdrawal symptoms” might result from removing harmful, profit-driven products, a democratic socialist society would not perpetuate illnesses for profit, and would need to find ethical, collective ways to address lifestyle and health issues.

From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard.

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Charlie Kirk: A Victim Of His Own Ideology

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 05:00:32 GMT

This episode criticises Kirk’s activist legacy, arguing that his aggressive right-wing tactics — including demonisation of queer people, unions, and students — laid the grounds for the backlash that culminated in his assassination. It frames his death not simply as violence against a provocateur, but as the inevitable consequence of a combative ideology that treats politics as warfare rather than debate.

From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard

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All Socialists Now?

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 05:00:36 GMT

This episode criticises how Labour and other self-described “socialist” parties trumpet the label without a coherent understanding of socialism, arguing that most of their proposed reforms—such as nationalisation, higher taxes, expanded public services—do nothing to challenge capitalism’s fundamental logic of production for profit. It describes a “Your Party” meeting, where despite participants’ rhetoric about socialism, discussion centered on reforms rather than systemic change. True socialism means abolishing the market system entirely in favour of a moneyless, cooperative society, and that efforts to rebrand or tweak capitalism as “socialist” are misleading.

From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard

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Nationalism and Capitalism

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 05:00:55 GMT

From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard, written by Robin Cox

Nationalism is a product of capitalism: it emerges to glue culturally diverse societies under a shared identity, but in fact tends to erase local diversity and enable state control. This episode traces nationalism’s rise alongside capitalism’s growth (via literacy, print culture, mobility), shows how “traditions” are often artificially invented to bolster national identity, and highlights the tension between nationalism and globalising forces (e.g. big business, migration) which capitalism also fosters. The result is a backlash: as neoliberal globalisation falters, resurgent nationalism—often reactionary and exclusionary—becomes a rallying point against the perceived threats of migration and cultural dilution.

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A Wealth of Hallucinations. AI deception and distortions.

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 05:00:39 GMT

From the September 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard:

This article warns of the growing crisis posed by generative AI’s propensity for “hallucinations”—fabrication of false or harmful content presented as fact. It highlights alarming examples, including a case where Google’s AI falsely informed council-house tenants they could be evicted to make way for asylum seekers—dismissed by a housing solicitor as “horseshit of the highest order.” It also discusses Musk’s AI, Grok, which—especially in its “spicy” mode—can generate explicit deepfake imagery of celebrities without prompting. The piece critiques the Trump administration’s deregulatory stance on these technologies, despite widespread calls from U.S. states and even tech leaders for safeguards. Concerns escalate when chatbots are reported to advise children on dangerous behaviours like abusing substances, hiding eating disorders, or drafting suicide letters. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, acknowledges a deeper problem of “emotional overreliance” among young users, who may defer critical life decisions to AI, a phenomenon he finds deeply troubling.

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Corybn's Crumbs of Comfort. Lord Desai's Retort. Cooking The Books September 2025.

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 05:00:54 GMT

Creating an egalitarian society through a redistribution of wealth within capitalism is a pipe-dream as it goes against the logic of the system. Capitalism is based on a minority owning the means of wealth production and on these being used to generate profits that are accumulated as more wealth for the owners. Inequality of wealth ownership and the tendency for the wealthy to get wealthier are built into the system.

Attempting to counter this will mean that the new party will end up being a mere party of protest, spending its time criticising the government for not doing what it ‘demands’ and ‘resisting’ when the workings of the capitalist economy force the government to make things worse.

---

The Times’s obituary (4 August) of the economist Lord Desai who died at the end of July recounted the following anecdote:

‘“Marx wasn’t against home ownership. In fact he owned his own house,” Desai insisted when challenged about his own two properties. What Marx was against, he added, was using property to exploit workers. “Marx had no objection to the ownership of consumer durables”.’

Taken from the September 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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How Labour Changed

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 05:00:38 GMT

Labour didn’t fundamentally reform capitalism. Instead, capitalism reshaped Labour, gradually pulling it away from egalitarian ideals toward embracing profit-driven policies and business-friendly governance.

Originally formed in 1906 as a trade union pressure group in parliament, in 1918 the Labour Party adopted as its long-term aim a nationalised economy. This, together with a redistribution of wealth to create a less unequal society, was to be achieved gradually by measures taken by a succession of Labour governments.

This strategy — Labourism — failed, and how! Instead of Labour gradually changing capitalism, it was capitalism that gradually changed Labour. Learning from the experience of being in government, that the only way capitalism can run is as an economic system driven by profit-making and that this has to be given priority, Labour gradually evolved from an alleged labour party into an avowed capitalist party.

Here is how it happened.

Taken from the September 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Justice Isn't For Us

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 05:00:37 GMT

We love watching cop shows. The bad guy gets caught, everyone breathes a sigh of relief, and law and order are secured for another day, again. The detective’s a heavy drinking, chain-smoking, emotionally wrecked mess, but somehow they get the bad guy. Usually some rich, powerful bastard who almost gets away with it, but justice wins in the final act. We get to feel good. Satisfied.

But that’s not how it works in real life. For the working class the justice system doesn’t exist to deliver truth or fairness. It’s a system: a system under capital, a system that serves capital. It protects property, not people. It punishes survival. It targets the working class, the dispossessed, the traumatised, those who’ve already been hurt by other material conditions this system throws at them.

Written by AT and taken from the September 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Just Another Day. A short story about planned obsolescence, free market ideology and everyday interactions.

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 06:00:44 GMT

A short story about planned obsolescence, free market ideology and everyday interactions. Written by Hud and taken from the September 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Introducing The Socialist Party

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 05:00:58 GMT

The Socialist Party and the World Socialist Movement affirm that capitalism is incapable of meaningful change in the interests of the majority; that the basis of exploitation is the wages/money system. The Socialist Standard is proud to have kept alive the original idea of what socialism is -- a classless, stateless, wageless, moneyless society or, defined positively, a democracy in which free and equal men and women co-operate to produce the things they need to live and enjoy life, to which they have free access in accordance with the principle ‘from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs’.

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Book Review: Raising the Red Flag. Marxism, Labourism, and the Roots of British Communism 1884-1921. By Tony Collins

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 05:00:49 GMT

Taken from the July 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

Walter Kendall advanced the view that Bolshevism-Leninism was something that was alien to the formally democratic traditions of the working class movement in Britain, introduced from an economically and politically backward part of the world where conditions were quite different. Collins, writing as a Leninist, argues that in fact those who founded the British Communist Party were all too much in the tradition of reformist labourism. Both views have some merit.

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Capitalism Is Mental

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 05:00:46 GMT

Capitalism is not just a class war; it is a war of the mind. It demands conformity, punishes difference, and uses trauma as a tool of control. Still, resistance keeps bubbling up. Neurodivergent people often develop ways of thinking that refuse to follow capitalist logic, question authority, and imagine new ways of living.

Taken from the August 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Bad Apples - Technological innovation, market competition, and the profit motive

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 05:00:52 GMT

Apple have always been known for being control freakish and attempting to lock their customer base into their own exclusive ecosystem, including a special patent-protected charging cable that no one else is allowed to make and which doesn’t work with any third-party device.

People say that capitalism drives brilliant technical innovation, but when you look at the way this happens, ‘brilliant’ is not the word that comes to mind. It is chaotic, spontaneous, unplanned and secretive, with profligate waste and duplication.

Taken from the August 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Reeves, Marx and Mosbacher. Cooking The Books – July 2025

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 05:00:36 GMT

The Spending Revue:

Governments can’t control the way that the capitalist economy works. They can, however, decide how they are going to spend the money that they have or plan to have. This is the annual budget. From time to time, in Britain, the government takes a longer view and sets out their spending plans over a period of three or four years.

Did Marx respect the rich?:

‘Even Marx respected the rich more than Reeves’ was the headline of an article by Sunday Telegraph columnist Michael Mosbacher (18 May). He accused Reeves of putting up taxes on the rich because she believes it immoral to be too rich. And quoted Marx as having written in the Communist Manifesto of 1848 that ‘the bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together’.

Taken from the July 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Vanguards, Get Lost

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 23:00:21 GMT

A criticism of modern-day would be vanguard parties, and a comparison of the vanguardist position with what Marx actually wrote. From the July 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Farage – Opportunist Supreme

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 05:01:02 GMT

With characteristic opportunism, Nigel Farage, sniffing political power, is seeking to present himself as the leader of a kind of neo-Labour Party who will fix everything Labour has always promised to fix for workers but never has. In the end however, he is only an extreme example of the opportunism inherent in all capitalist political leaders as they seek to control a system that breeds economic chaos, poses the constant threat of war and environmental degradation and can only ever offer workers at best a few crumbs from the table of the rich.

Adapted from an article from the July 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Labour in Sickness and Health

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 23:00:20 GMT

Healthcare under capitalism and socialism. Article from the July 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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Dark Factors and Dodgy Populists

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 23:00:19 GMT

On cooperation, selfish competition and the plasticity of human behaviour. Article from the July 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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The End and the Means

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 18:27:26 GMT

A description of the broad features of socialism, a society of free and democratic co-operation. Excerpt of a longer article taken from the May 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

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