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Six new articles have been added to the French-language section on the World Socialist Movement site here:
They are:
Manifester … jusqu’à quand?
Condamnés au capitalisme à perpetuité?
“Humaniser” le capitalisme?
“Humaniser” la société … ou en changer?
Le monde dans lequel on pourrait vivre.
Liberté ou capitalisme?These are not translations but were leaflets written in French by a native French-speaker and distributed by socialists in France at the turn of the century.
This local by-election is attracting national party leaders as well as future prime ministers (though in the end he didn’t turn up):
Andy Burnham backs out of Clapham Park rally as Zack Polanski bolsters borough campaigners
We will have to step up pointing out “Labour Green, Same old scene”, especially as Polanski himself is on record as not ruling out working with Labour under Burnham (though not under Starmer).
https://www.itn.co.uk/news/polanski-greens-could-work-cooperatively-burnham
In our election campaign one of the points we are making is that the opposition between the Greens and Labour is a sham fight, “sibling rivalry”. Revealing confirmation of this is an article written by Green councillor Michael Chessum (before he was a councillor and Burnham was a prime minister in waiting) in which he holds out the possibility of a Labour-Green pact:
“Just as Sánchez formed coalitions with Podemos and Sumar, it is possible to imagine Burnham’s Labour entering a pact with an insurgent Green Party, reducing the chances of a Reform UK government.“
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/january/who-s-afraid-of-andy-burnham
The first draft of our election address for the local council by-election in Lambeth, London, stated that “the council … cannot abolish the value form.” The Party’s Executive Committee, although agreeing with this, changed it to “cannot abolish the profit motive” on the grounds that the original version might not be immediately understood by too many voters.
Pity in one sense as it would have taken the discussion from academic circles into the real world. While they talk there about it we try to spread the idea amongst the working class generally. I wonder how the academics would react to the objection we met that this amounts to advocating “universal shoplifting”. Come to think of it, that’s not entirely wrong. It’s certainly a simple way of putting it.
We now know what Burnham is selling from his stall. It’s “business friendly socialism”:
Probably the same as Streeting’s “progressive capitalism” but less honest. In any event, both are oxymorons.
https://www.ft.com/content/83d1ff43-27ee-464b-ad9a-3155a526f799
I wonder what sort of capitalism Burnham is selling from his stall.
By the way, this could be last entry on this thread as it looks as if we will have to start a new one on the Burnham Labour Government to record its failures and anti-working class measures.
Let’s face it, “degrowth” under capitalism is a bonkers idea. The driving force of the capitalist economy is growth in the form of capital accumulation out of profits. This can’t be stopped without upsetting the whole economy. Which is what any attempt to do would result in.
Since “growth” is measured as an increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which itself is measured in terms of money, “degrowth” won’t make sense this as there won’t be a general unit of account such as money and so no GDP to aim at reducing.
This said, the production of some things will of course be decreased but that of others will be increased.
More (from another site) on the other candidates:
LAMBETH LBC; Clapham Park (Grn resigned)
Candidates:
AMOS, Ben (Liberal Democrat)
BALL, Michael Sherif (Green)
FORRESTER, Joshua Jack (Conservative)
JEHWO, Susanna Kehinde (Christian Peoples Alliance)
KRYCEK, Anya (Socialist Party (GB))
READ, Martin Lester (Reform UK)
SOMERVILLE-SUTHERLAND, Louie (Labour)2026: Lab 1285, 1158, 1117; Grn 1154, 1033, 938; LD 364, 312, 262; Con 308, 259, 205; Ref 235; Ind 202; SDP 38
2022: Lab 1545, 1416, 1361; Grn 574, 424, 405; Con 303, 286, 231; LD 239, 207, 186Louie Somerville-Sutherland was the unsuccessful Labour candidate here in May, whilst Ben Amos was the top Lib Dem and Martin Read was the Reform candidate. Read was also the 3rd Conservative here in 2022. Michael Ball (Grn) stood in Kennington in May (also in 2022), Joshua Forrester (Con) in Clapham Town and Anya Krycek (SPGB) in Brixton North.
The 3000 election leaflets arrived yesterday. Distribution began today.
Here is what it says:
A WORD TO THE ELECTORS OF CLAPHAM PARK
You are being asked to vote in yet another election. The other parties will come to you with lists of promises: more housing, safer streets, better parks, protection for LGBTQ+ people. They will tell you that if you elect them to the council, they will manage capitalism a little more humanely.We say: we have all heard these promises before. Labour, Lib Dem, Green, they have all sat in the council chamber. The housing crisis has deepened. Rents have soared. Our parks have been fenced off for private profit. And still they ask for your vote on the promise that this time it will be different.
The SOCIALIST PARTY does not make promises we cannot keep. We do not ask you to vote for us in order to administer capitalism more efficiently. The other candidates will tell you they can make Lambeth “better.” We tell you the truth: Lambeth cannot be made better while capitalism remains. The council, whatever its political colour, is an administrative body of a class state. It manages the affairs of capital in our locality. It cannot abolish the profit motive. It cannot communalise housing. It cannot de-commodify our parks. It cannot produce safety without force.
Only the conscious, organised working class can do these things. Only when the majority of people understand their interest in the abolition of capitalism and act upon that understanding can we move beyond the endless cycle of reform and reaction.
Your vote for the ANYA KRYCEK is not a vote for a councillor. It is a vote for socialism. It is a declaration that you refuse to be bought off with promises of “affordable” rents and “community” policing. It is a recognition that the problems of Clapham Park are the problems of the capitalist world system and that their solution lies not in the council chamber but in the abolition of that system and its replacement by one based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community.
We now know who our opponents are: the Gang of Five and the Christian Peoples Alliance
The nomination papers for our candidate were handed in at Lambeth Town Hall and accepted this afternoon. We won’t know who the other candidates are till after nominations close on Friday at 4pm.
So far only the Greens and Labour have named their candidates. The Greens have already started canvassing.
The Executive Committee has given London Branch the go-ahead to contest the Clapham Park by-election on Thursday 9 July. We have completed the nomination papers except for the signature of one of the two electors nominating our candidate; the sympathiser prepared to sign is currently out of the country but will be back on Tuesday. After they have signed we will formally hand the papers in to the Returning Officer by the deadline of 12 June.
There is by-election in another ward on the same day which we will not contest but, if we have time, we might leaflet suggesting that those who want socialism write this on their ballot paper.
These will be hotly contested by-elections, especially in Clapham Park where two of the three councillors elected in May were Labourites. The Greens have put out an appeal to Green Party members in the rest of London to come and help, as here:
“Dear London Greens, Lambeth Council hangs by a thread. The Greens, on 27 councillors, have a majority of just ONE over the Labour Group. Two by-elections on 9 July will decide the fate of the council for the next 4 years. We cannot do this alone. Green Party Lambeth.”
If nothing else, this will mean more local and even London coverage and more political activity in the two wards, with being in a position to make our voice heard at least in Clapham Park.
Councillor Chessum has just been appointed Cabinet member for “Economy, Cost of Living and Empowered Communities”. It’s going to be interesting to see how he handles this and instructive to see what happens.
Meanwhile London Branch are considering standing a candidate in one of the by-elections the date for which has now been fixed as Thursday 9 July. It would be the one in Clapham Park which is next door to one we contested on 7 May and a part of which is within walking distance of our Head Office.
Here is an example of a war-mongering trot group in Argentina:
“From the beginning of the invasion, the Marxist International raised the slogan “arms for the Ukrainian people!”, because in war and revolution, it is more dangerous for the proletariat and revolutionaries to take a pacifist stance than a defensive military one…”
(https://www.revolucion.org.es/l/dos-politicas-en-la-izquierda-mundial-para-cuba-y-venezuela2/)
Of course they all supported the war of the Argentine state under General Galtieri against the British state over the falklands, even calling on the trade unions to turn their offices into recruitment centres.
Real enemies, then, in practice as well as theory, of the working class.
