July 2020

Conference 2020

The SPGB’s 2020 Conference was held online this year at 10am on 18 July, 2020 using the Zoom system.

SPGB now online in Discord – Audio talks – Meetings – Debates

Forthcoming events for July 2020 here >

Visitors are very welcome and are free to join any online Discord meeting just as they would be free to attend any physical meeting by the Socialist Party or its companion parties.

If you’d like to drop in and chat to us online, or come to one of our talks or other events.

Contact Forum Admin for special invite or email spgb@worldsocialism.org‘.
Check our Audio page for some recordings of these talks.

Whether you are new to socialist ideas or not, these links provide both introductory as well as in -depth analyses

No. 1391 July 2020

Socialist Standard No. 1391 July 2020 PDF

Regulars

The Socialist Standard is a monthly socialist newspaper published without interruption since 1904 by the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

Socialist Standard Archives

by RIGG

Features

Amazon: Fiercely Resisting

One indication of the global spread of the coronavirus was the report (Guardian online, 10 April – bit.ly/3cTUxUJ) that a member of the Yanomami indigenous people in Brazil had died after contracting Covid-19. It was not clear how he had become infected but it was entirely possible that it had been through direct or indirect contact with the gold-miners who have flooded the territory of the Yanomami (also known as the Yanomamo). More >

Capitalism has not directly caused the covid-19 pandemic. This coronavirus is by no means the first, and will not be the last, species-jumping outbreak. Nor could socialism guarantee to prevent something like this happening as it is a natural process. However, its rapid spread to ill-prepared recipient societies is most certainly exacerbated by capitalism. More

‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts’

‘Miami, Florida – December 26, 1967: just a few months removed from the ‘long, hot summer of 1967’, in which rampant unemployment, poverty, and police brutality in black America reached a boiling point, sparking almost 160 race riots across the country. Ironically, that same summer was referred to as the ‘Summer of Love’ by hippies due to their rapid concentration in San Francisco. More

The Case for Socialism

The basic case of the Socialist Party can be set out in three parts: a description and criticism of present-day society; a proposal for a new social system to replace it; and a way of moving from the present to the future society.

The system that dominates the world today is capitalism, which has a number of central features. There is a class division: the vast majority of the population have to work for a wage or salary in order to survive, or are dependent on someone else who has to do so; in contrast, a small number of people, probably well under one in a hundred, live off income from rent, interest and profit, and are immensely wealthy. More

Race or Class?

The killing of George Floyd has contributed hugely to the worldwide consciousness of police brutality, but also to some important points about class. There has been a spontaneous response to Floyd’s murder, more or less united, organised around principles of solidarity, that has taken the world by storm. In less than a month, protests tens-of-thousands strong have popped up, making the call for increased consciousness of race issues. Revealingly, it is this aspect of it that is focused on by most left-liberal analysis. More

The people in the driving seat of the Brexit project love to talk about free trade, looking back to the glory days when free trade was the ideology Britain spread to the world through its empire. This doctrine was so important that the Grun’s The Timetables of History lists the British penetration into South American markets as one of its significant events in that chronology. Freed from the restrictive barriers of the EU and its protectionist ideology, so the doctrine goes, Britain will be able to spearhead its way into genuine free trade around the world, and a new golden age of prosperity will begin. More

Book Reviews

Click images for individual review. All Here