h.moss@swansea.ac.uk
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Body shaming would be a better term. And whether it existed or not in former times, it’s definitely going full pelt now. Yes it is used as a cowing mechanism by many people and, I would say, among all strata of the working class. As usual, their own insceurity and lack of self-esteem leads them to look for various ways to cow others.
Some of it is technical, but some of it less so – e.g.
“The system grows adjacent to markets, not through their immediate abolition.
Pilot nodes adopt Integral internally while remaining externally embedded.
Interface cooperatives manage boundary interactions with market systems.
Federation enables cross-node coordination without hierarchy.
Parallel infrastructure gradually replaces market dependence.
Dominant substrate emerges quietly, through reliability rather than force.
There is no singular revolutionary moment. Success looks like infrastructure: boring, dependable, quietly indispensable.”As can be seen, he views the shift as a gradual one with local projects spreading more widely until the process is complete (nothing new there of course, as per, for example, Anitra Nelson). But he’s a real ‘cookshops of the future’ man and I dread to think of the idea of reading the ‘345 page technical white paper’ we are invited to download.
The Christmas-related articles are great, Darren. And often amusing too. I wonder what Steve Coleman would think now of what he wrote then.
“ZJW – You don’t have to agree with a book to review it. Your attitude doesn’t really help with starting dialogue with those who disagree with us – just sounds like sectarianism.”
Good point, but if the language of this book is anything like the language of its publisher’s blurb, then run a mile.
It’s far too sweeping to say that anti-Fascists are Fascists ‘in that they oppose free speech and wish to silence those of another opinion.’ Some may do, but most don’t. I consider myself an anti-Fascist (as well as a socialist) and I don’t. And as for the comment about Ukraine, well that’s the old hard on for Putin who, if anyone’s a Fascist, he is.
Didn’t know Matthew Syed was an ardent Tory. Disappointing after some of the intelligent stuff he’s done on Radio 4.
Unfortunately capitalism is same old same old. And the articles, reviews and commentary in the Socialist Standard are largely just as valid now as when they were written.
Great analysis here by Thomas More.
See also: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2020s/2025/no-1449-may-2025/book-reviews-shiva-saito-stevenson-yang/ review of ‘Wild Ride’
and
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2020s/2025/no-1449-may-2025/book-reviews-shiva-saito-stevenson-yang/ (capitalist China and socialist revolution)And from what Andrew Northall says in his letter, after that socialist minority seizes power, the ‘education’ of the working class and the production of sufficient wealth to satisfy all needs is likely to be decades in the making, during which time that minority will remain in power. Just how attractive a proposition is that? Also he pours cold water on the notion that we could quickly or immediately produce enough for everyone or that even today the means exist to produce enough for everyone’s needs. It’s true that there are different views on this and, as he correctly observes, a moneyless, voluntarist socialist society couldn’t necessarily use existing capitalist systems of production and infrastructure at the drop of a hat once a majority opts for socialism, so some adjustments will no doubt be needed. But the idea that such adjustments will take ‘years’ or ‘decades’ just doesn’t stand up. All sorts of figures get flung around but AT’s contention that there’s no real evidence that existing or potential production wouldn’t be able to meets all needs more or less immediately if used for that purpose just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. There’s all sorts of evidence for the opposite viewin fact. But just one simple example: the World Food Programme’s 2024 ‘Global Report of Food Crises’, which offers the most comprehensive account and evidence of annual global food production, finds that enough food was produced that year to meet the needs of 11 billion people (https://www.fsinplatform.org/report/global-report-food-crises-2025/). And if that’s being done within a system whose purpose is to produce to sell not to feed, how likely is it that we couldn’t feed everyone in short order if society sets about producing to feed and not to sell?
‘Another letter from a Party member in this week’s Weekly Worker:
https://www.weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1545/letters/
Great letter too.
