Socialism Today – Page 2 – Socialist Party magazine

Global Warning: The environmental record of Greens in power

1 September, 2026Admin

Across Western Europe the alarming impact of global warming has been acutely felt this summer. Record temperatures contributed to thousands of heat-linked deaths; drought has been disastrous for agriculture; wildfires brought loss and fear. This is while no part of the globe escapes from extreme weather events, often severe enough to dominate media headlines.

The political parties that claim to prioritise the fight against climate change are those calling themselves Green or ecology parties, and it isn’t surprising that many of them have at times increased their electoral support and membership on the basis of hopes that they are indeed the most environmentally friendly option to choose.

Our theoretical tasks

1 September, 2026Admin

This June the CWI produced a new book, The Revolutionary International, which includes an updated programme alongside a central text, the Historical Struggle for a Revolutionary Socialist International and the Programmatic Foundation of the CWI. This article by HANNAH SELL is based on an introduction and reply to a regional Socialist Party meeting initiating the discussion on the book, which we are publishing in our three hundredth edition as it summarises some of its key themes, focusing particularly on the theoretical tasks facing Marxists in Britain today.

We are discussing a new document about our international programme historically and today, but what do we mean by a programme? We are talking about more than just a list of demands. This is a discussion on our central conclusions about society and the struggle to change it which enables us to draw up that list of demands, our “common understanding” as Leon Trotsky, leader of the Russian revolution alongside Lenin, put it in the article from 1938, which is included as an appendix to the CWI book. “What is the party? In what does the cohesion exist? This cohesion is a common understanding of the events, of the tasks, and this common understanding – that is the programme of the party”.

Lenin and the first world war

1 September, 20261 September, 2026Admin

Vladimir Lenin, the co-leader of the 1917 Russian revolution, took a clear, principled class position at the outset of the first world war. But he also related his programme to the developing consciousness of the working class and its different layers, a vital task in this new era of militarism too. PETER TAAFFE explored this theme in an article reprinted here in shortened form from the special world war one anniversary edition of Socialism Today, No.180, July-August 2014.

All genuine socialist internationalists condemned the war. They also denounced in the most vitriolic terms the right-wing leaders of the Second (‘Socialist’) International, who lined up behind their own governments and capitalists to justify the war, condemning the working class to its slaughter and suffering. Karl Kautsky, up to this time, was recognised as the ‘pope’ of international socialism due to his great political authority. But he and other traitors to socialism were condemned by Lenin, Trotsky and other revolutionaries as ‘social chauvinists’: socialist in words but sell-out nationalists in practice.

China, the duck-billed platypus

1 September, 2026Admin

In the next article in the series discussing the character of the Chinese state and its economy, launched in the previous edition of Socialism Today, we carry an edited version of a speech by TONY SAUNOIS, the general secretary of the Committee for a Workers’ International, at the CWI summer school, held in Berlin from 30 July to 3 August. A fuller version is available at socialistworld.net

China has emerged as a world power challenging the dominance of US imperialism. It now plays a central role in the world economy and in geo-political world relations, not least in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is impossible to analyse world events today or grasp possible future events without considering developments in China. US imperialism has been in a drawn-out decline for decades. Its decline is relative. It remains the largest and most powerful imperial power with economic growth better than many other capitalist countries. Yet the historic trend is clear. It will develop further in the future albeit in quite a protracted manner.

Editorial: How long can the Burnham bubble last?

6 July, 20266 July, 2026Admin

In the event Andy Burnham scored a convincing victory in the Makerfield by-election in the Greater Manchester region of north west England on June 18, winning 24,927 votes, a 54.8% share, well ahead of the second-placed Reform UK candidate on 15,696 (34.5%).

It was a considerable turnaround. Just six weeks earlier Reform had swept the board in the May 7 local elections in the area, winning every seat available with an aggregate 50% of the vote across the constituency’s council wards, almost double the votes achieved then by Labour (26.7%). At that time too the Greens, fresh from their parliamentary by-election triumph in February in the Greater Manchester seat of Gorton & Denton which had seen off both Labour and Reform, polled over 3,000 votes (10.4%) in the Makerfield wards, to make them a viable contender. But on June 18 this had melted away to just 308 (0.7%). Makerfield really was Burnham’s ‘proof of concept’ victory – his argument that only he could hold back the prospect of a Reform government – which he was seeking when he decided to re-enter parliament to become eligible to stand for Labour leader and the premiership.

Reform social attitudes fallacy

6 July, 2026Admin

“Support for Reform is much more than a protest vote, finds new British Social Attitudes research” is the title of the press release for the new BSA report ‘Who supports Reform?’, published in June this year.

The BSA report is based on a small subsection of responses to the annual British Social Attitudes survey conducted between August and October 2025. Overall, 18% of respondents to the survey were categorised as being ‘supporters’ of Reform. That categorisation was based on responses to a series of questions designed to “capture whether someone identifies with and has an emotional attachment to a particular party, even if currently they might not vote for that party”.

Global Warning: North Sea oil test for net zero politics

6 July, 20266 July, 2026Admin

In the run up to June 18, eyes were turned towards the Makerfield by-election – transformed by Andy Burnham into a ‘referendum on Keir Starmer’s leadership’. Another by-election on the same day, in Aberdeen South, was dubbed by the Tories a ‘referendum on the oil and gas industry’. Reliant on North Sea oil for jobs and livelihoods, workers in Aberdeen and surrounding areas have suffered from ongoing job losses in the sector, as production starts to wind down. One study has estimated that 1,000 jobs a day are being lost, with some of these workers taking up employment in the renewable energy – often with worse pay and conditions, or finding fossil fuel jobs abroad.

What would happen if Reform won?

6 July, 2026Admin

HANNAH SELL reviews What if Reform Wins? by The Times journalist Peter Chappell, looking at how the capitalist class sees the prospect of a Reform government, and the tasks facing the workers’ movement.

What if Reform Wins? A Scenario

By Peter Chappell

Published by Bloomsbury, 2026, £16.99

Andy Burham’s victory over Reform in the Makerfield by-election, clearing the way to him becoming prime minister, has temporarily lessened the panic about the prospect of a Reform government. Surveys suggest that with Burnham at the helm, Labour would manage to overtake Reform in national opinion polls. For a little while at least; because, however much Labour MPs tell each other that they must not make the same mistakes as the Tories before them, their party is inexorably on the same path. Both parties are being destroyed as a result of ruling in the interests of decrepit British capitalism.

America’s revolutionary legacy

6 July, 2026Admin

With up to nine million protesters on the streets in March protesting against Trump under the No Kings banner – more than the US population at the time of the nation’s founding war of liberation against the British monarchy – CHRISTINE THOMAS takes a timely look at America’s struggle for independence.

In his history of the Russian revolution Leon Trotsky wrote that one of the main characteristics of a revolution is the entrance of the masses onto the scene of history. In this respect, the struggle for independence from British imperialism by the 13 colonies that were to eventually constitute the United States of America was indeed a revolution.

Spain 1936: A crisis of leadership

6 July, 2026Admin

This month marks ninety years since the working class and peasants of Spain rose up against General Francisco Franco’s fascist forces and capitalist exploitation in general. ADAM POWELL-DAVIES draws out the lessons of that heroic struggle for the situation facing Marxists today.

World events in 2026 confirm that capitalism today is in a new era of turmoil. Life for billions is increasingly marked by war, falling living standards, environmental breakdown, and attacks on democratic rights. On the other side of the coin, there is the heightened outbreak of new mass uprisings and revolutionary movements across the world, which in recent years have shaken all continents.

To find such an equivalent level of global volatility and polarisation it is necessary to go back to the two decades between the first and second world wars. This was a period of revolution and counter-revolution, in many ways epitomised in the major class battles which erupted in Spain throughout the 1930s.