Socialism Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales)

Over the last two years of strikes the working class in Britain has begun to feel its collective power. It is about to face a Starmer-led government that will defend the interests of the capitalist class. Further development of trade union militancy is going to be vital, but our class will also desperately need its own party. Any steps that can be taken in that direction in the pre-election period will put the workers’ movement in a much stronger position for the battles ahead. That’s why the Socialist party is standing in the local elections on 2 May as part of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which aims to bring together the strongest possible workers electoral challenge possible.

Check out the TUSC website at www.tusc.org.uk

This Special Episode of the Podcast, recorded on the 20th March 2024, is a recording of Hannah Sell, the general secretary of the Socialist Party, speaking at a Socialist Party public meeting in South London.
To contact the Socialist Party about this podcast or to find out about becoming a member visit: www.socialistparty.org.uk
Check out the CWI, for analysis of world events, and for those listening in other parts of the world, get in touch to join the fight for socialism in your country, that’s www.socialistworld.net

Further reading
The fight for workers’ politics now
There is not so far any sign of a national political expression of the anti-war movement, never mind one based on the workers’ movement. However, a workers’ list – including suspended, expelled and deselected Labour MPs – could get a bloc of MPs elected. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), in which the Socialist Party participates, is campaigning to bring together the strongest possible working-class challenge at both the local and general elections.
https://socialismtoday.org/the-fight-for-workers-politics-now
Building on Rochdale – the fight for a new workers’ party
“Beyond alarming” is how Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak declared George Galloway’s victory in the Rochdale by-election, at a specially convened press conference on the steps of Downing Street. Labour leader Keir Starmer appeared equally alarmed as he apologised for having to withdraw support for the Labour candidate in the by-election, giving Galloway an easier path to victory.
Rochdale “raised the confidence of all those looking for a working-class socialist alternative to Labour”. Even in the limited time left before the general election there is the potential to take important steps towards creating such an alternative.
https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/122735/25-03-2024/editorial-building-on-rochdale-the-fight-for-a-new-workers-party/

Sascha Staničić, national spokesperson of the Socialist Organisation Solidarity, Sol, the CWI in Germany, discusses the CWI’s analysis of the crisis and class struggle in Germany, with Sean Figg, from the CWI’s International Secretariat.

For a whole period German capitalism has been a bulwark of stability for capitalism on the European continent. Now it has entered a period of turmoil, unprecedented since reunification more than thirty years ago. In this podcast we cover the political crisis of the German ‘traffic light’ coalition, the rise of the right-populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the mass movement against it, the Sara Wagenknecht-led split from DIE LINKE (the Left Party), the protests of the small farmers and the important strike-wave involving workers from multiple sectors.

- Visit the CWI website for more Marxist analysis at socialistworld.net.
- Support the work of the CWI by donating via PayPal here.
- Contact us by emailing cwi@worldsoc.co.uk

The crisis of world capitalism means war and conflicts, economic stagnation and crises, and political instability on every continent. The working class, young people, and the poor masses around the world are responding with uprisings, mass movements, strike waves and an increased searching for the forms of organisation and the political ideas necessary to challenge capitalism.

Tony Saunois, secretary of the CWI, and Sean Figg, from the CWI’s International Secretariat, discuss the CWI’s analysis of the world situation, developed at a five-day meeting of the CWI’s International Executive Committee in January, which brought together comrades from each of the 14 countries in which the CWI is organised. The brutal war of state-terror being waged by the Israeli state against the Palestinians took centre-stage…

Visit the CWI website for more Marxist analysis at www.socialistworld.net

Support the work of the CWI by donating via PayPal here.

Contact us by emailing cwi@worldsoc.co.uk

Marion will build an industrial plan capable of winning, including national and selective action and overtime bans. Marion will ensure that PCS takes the lead to coordinate with other unions on pay, jobs and against Tory anti-union laws. Marion will give your reps and branches the tools they need to do the job you elected them to do.
Get involved: https://bln.org.uk/
Leaflet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Puuc3ZZ5L4cSGjyIqlxeqLGhgO9wbMYc/view?usp=sharing


To contact the Socialist Party about this podcast or to find out about becoming a member:
www.socialistparty.org.uk
Check out the CWI, for analysis of world events, and for those listening in other parts of the world, get in touch to join the fight for socialism in your country, that’s www.socialistworld.net

Socialism 2023
Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 November, Institute of Education, London WC1H 0AL
It will be an in-person weekend of discussion and debate on ideas to change the world hosted by the Socialist Party.
Marion will be a speaker at the main Saturday night rally at Socialism 2023.
At the event there will be around 40 workshops where you can ask those questions forming in your head as you listen to this, raise your own points, argue if you wish. You will be among hundreds of people who want to change the world. The topics covered will include a discussion on ‘Building Marxism in the trade unions and workplaces’ and ‘How can the anti-union Minimum Services legislation be defeated?’
You can buy a ticket that includes hostel accommodation, there’s a free creche throughout, and it will be brilliant. For tickets and info: www.socialism.org.uk


Further reading
Socialism Today October 2023 No.273
Drawing lessons from the strike wave
The current strike wave, which erupted more than a year ago with national strike action by railworkers in the RMT union, marks the beginning of a new era in the class struggle in Britain. Rob Williams gives an overview of the strike action so far and draws vital lessons for the workers’ movement for the battles to come, especially under, as looks likely, a future Starmer government.
https://socialismtoday.org/drawing-lessons-from-the-strike-wave

PCS: the real issues at stake
The dispute within the left of Britain’s largest civil service union raises key issues for the whole labour movement. Above all, the need for democratic, lay-member control of fighting trade unions. Hannah Sell and Rob Williams explain the background to the current situation.
https://socialismtoday.org/archive/221/pcs.html

Capitalism and its political representatives are totally incapable of meeting any of the needs of working-class and poor people anywhere on the globe. All that is on offer is a never-ending diet of war, poverty, oppression and repression.
Now the Israeli regime is on the verge of launching a brutal land offensive in Gaza, raising the possibility of war spilling over into a wider confrontation that could inflame the whole region, and adding to the multiple crises the capitalist system is already creating internationally.
The Israeli regime’s indiscriminate bombing and starving of 2.3 million people in Gaza, including 1 million children, of food, water, medicines and fuel – “a death sentence” according to the United Nations - has provoked mass protests around the world.
This podcast, recorded on 23 October, goes behind the headlines to examine the processes that have brought us to this point – and to offer socialist ideas to build the anti-war movement to end the conflict and deliver peace, security and a decent future for the masses of the region.
In this podcast we speak to Judy Beishon who is a member of the Socialist Party’s executive committee and of the International Secretariat of the Committee for a Workers’ International, which is the world socialist organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated.

Get in touch
To contact the Socialist Party about this podcast or to find out about becoming a member:
www.socialistparty.org.uk

We also recommend checking out the CWI, with analysis of world events, and for those listening in other parts of the world, get in touch to join the fight for socialism in your country, that’s www.socialistworld.net

Socialism 2023
Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 November, Institute of Education, London WC1H 0AL
It will be an in-person weekend of discussion and debate on ideas to change the world hosted by the Socialist Party.
The many workshops will include a discussion on ‘Gaza under siege: how can a Palestinian state be achieved?’
Judy will be among the many speakers introducing workshops where you will also have a chance to ask those questions forming in your head as you listen to this, to raise your own points, to argue if you wish. You will be among hundreds of people who want to change the world.
You can buy a ticket that includes hostel accommodation, there’s a free creche throughout, and it will be brilliant. For tickets and info: www.socialism.org.uk


Further reading

Socialism Today September 2023 No.272
Is a Palestinian state possible?
This article was written in September on the 30th anniversary of the first Oslo accord – and before the eruption of the war. Judy Beishon discusses what conditions would be necessary for achieving an independent state
The article will be posted here shortly, where you can find previous articles on the issue: https://socialismtoday.org
And can be read here: https://www.socialistworld.net/2023/10/07/israel-palestine-30-years-since-the-oslo-accord-will-there-ever-be-a-palestinian-state/

Website of the Socialist Party for up-to-date articles: www.socialistparty.org.uk

In this podcast with Hannah Sell, Socialist Party general secretary, we look at the world economy, how the capitalist system works – or doesn’t work - and draw conclusions for socialists.
It is the first time that, across much of the world, a surge in inflation has coexisted with widespread financial vulnerabilities. The longer the inflation persists, the stronger and longer the required policy tightening, and hence the bigger the financial stability risks”. The central banks are walking a tightrope, with little room for manoeuvre.
Hannah draws out how, whatever the immediate perspectives are for the world economy, there is no prospect of any new golden era of capitalist progress.
That does not mean, however, that the Great Recession is going to be precisely replicated. On the contrary, the capitalists will face crises in the next period that are likely to be even more devastating for their system, both economically and politically. None of the factors which led to the 2007-08 recession have been overcome, while the ‘solutions’ that were adopted to ameliorate its effects will not be possible in the same way next time.
Hannah explains how the capitalist classes of the world have no way out of the intractable problems facing their system – economic, political, environmental. Halting climate change would clearly only be possible on a global basis, and yet under twenty-first century capitalism it is a tool for protectionism.
Only planning, under the democratic control of the working class, will make it possible to develop production to a higher stage, organising it on a global basis to satisfy social needs and halt and reverse climate change, rather than being driven by the greed for profit. Replacing this rotten capitalist system with democratic socialist planning is the urgent task facing the working class worldwide.

Get in touch
To contact the Socialist Party about this podcast or to find out about becoming a member:
www.socialistparty.org.uk

We also recommend checking out the CWI, with analysis of world events, and for those listening in other parts of the world, get in touch to join the fight for socialism in your country, that’s www.socialistworld.net

Socialism 2023
Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 November, Institute of Education, London WC1H 0AL
It will be an in-person weekend of discussion and debate on ideas to change the world hosted by the Socialist Party.
Hannah will be a key note speaker at the Saturday night rally and will also be among the many speakers introducing workshops where you will also have a chance to ask those questions forming in your head as you listen to this, to raise your own points, to argue if you wish. You will be among hundreds of socialist fighters at this weekend event – so it will be brilliant.
Socialism 2023 takes place on 25 and 26 November in London. You can buy a ticket that includes hostel accommodation, there’s a free creche throughout, and it will be brilliant.
For tickets and info: www.socialism.org.uk


Further reading

Socialism Today September 2023 No.270
The end of Golden Eras
The new lease of life that world capitalism experienced after the collapse of the Stalinist states of Russia and Eastern Europe from the late 1980s has definitively run its course. Whatever the immediate perspectives are for the world economy, argues HANNAH SELL, there is no prospect of any new golden era of capitalist progress.
https://socialismtoday.org/the-end-of-golden-eras

Socialism Today July/August 2023 No.269
China, Mao and the markets
At a time of intensifying economic and geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China, HANNAH SELL reviews a book that stresses the role of the Communist Party-controlled state in China’s economy.
https://socialismtoday.org/china-mao-and-the-markets