{"id":240993,"date":"2023-02-27T15:40:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T15:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/?page_id=240993"},"modified":"2023-02-27T15:40:56","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T15:40:56","slug":"march-2023","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/march-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The merry-go-round<\/h3>June 24, 2026<\/small>

So Keir Starmer has resigned and Andy Burnham is likely to take over. Will it make any difference? It probably will to Labour’s standing with the electorate. For most people, perception of a leader’s personality seems, unfortunately, to be the key element in what passes for political thinking.<\/p>\n

But will a new leader be able to do anything different to resolve the problems of the crisis-ridden system we live under? The answer to this has to be a resounding no. There will only be any difference to speak of when we decide collectively to scrap that system and replace it with an entirely different one that uses the abundant resources that already exist to satisfy all our needs the world over. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

The Chinese Dream<\/h3>June 17, 2026<\/small>

Workers in China are feeling jaded nowadays. After Tiananmen Square, Deng Xiaoping stopped pretending China was ‘communist’ and pulled the capitalist stops out. In 1980 home ownership was 20%. Today it’s 96%. So a success, right? But wait. 10% own over 70% of wealth (Economist<\/a><\/em> – paywall).<\/p>\n

The ‘entrepreneurial’ generation were ‘faced with open roads, you could go far even on a three-wheeled cart’. Now ‘the roads are jammed, and\u2026 the [wealthy heirs] can take helicopters’. Seeing nil prospects for success, today’s young people are ‘lying flat’ instead. ‘They think that effort is no longer rewarded\u2026 and that the keys to success are connections and being born rich.’<\/p>\n

Welcome to our world. Capitalism is pretty dismal for workers, and utopia is only for the rich.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Watch out Makerfield, you\u2019re about to be conned again!<\/h3>June 10, 2026<\/small>

In the coming UK parliamentary by-election in Makerfield, apart from the two confessed jokers, candidates will all be putting out the same message:<\/p>\n

\u2018Trust me, I have a plan that\u2019s guaranteed to make life better for you\u2019<\/p>\n

Some will add a rider that there will be challenges ahead, there\u2019ll be sweat and tears, but in the long run it\u2019ll come right.<\/p>\n

The plans will differ slightly, of course, but they will all have this in common \u2013 they’ll ignore the inescapable reality of the capitalist system, in which the profits of the minority will always take precedence over any other considerations, precedence over any of the needs or desires of working-class voters.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Looking forward to retirement?<\/h3>June 3, 2026<\/small>

Workers toil not just to live, eat and raise a family, but also to prepare for retirement by building a pension pot. However, recent reports from the Pensions Commission have argued<\/a> that fifteen million people in the UK are not saving nearly enough to have a secure retirement, even by the miserly standards of capitalism. <\/p>\n

Nearly half of working-age adults are not saving into a pension at all, with just 4% of \u2018self-employed\u2019 workers doing so. Future retirees may well be worse off than today\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Not only does capitalism dominate people\u2019s working lives, the pressures of daily life also make it much harder to get ready to live comfortably after their days of toil and exploitation are over.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Water balls-up<\/h3>May 27, 2026<\/small>

Anyone looking to cool off this summer with a swim in England’s river bathing sites had better check it hasn’t rained recently, because the river could be full of E.coli from sewage overflows. Of the 14 inland river sites tested last year by the Environment Agency, 12 are still rated poor<\/a>, with advice being not to swim.<\/p>\n

People understandably get steamed up when water companies use profits to pay shareholders instead of repairing leaky infrastructure. Meanwhile we get filthy rivers and lakes, and hosepipe bans. Many would like to see water renationalised, but cash-strapped government doesn’t want the maintenance burden \u2013 they have jets and missiles to pay for.<\/p>\n

Water falls out of the sky for free. Trust capitalism to ruin even that.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\tNext<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Socialist Party\u2019s Summer School
\nWoodbrooke, Birmingham
\n21st\u201423rd July 2023
\n<\/strong>This weekend of talks and discussion looks at different aspects of work, and what they tell us about the society we live in. Book here \u27a4<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"First time? START HERE \u27a4<\/strong><\/a>
\nForget what you think you know about socialism…<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n
\"\" MARCH LIVE \u27a4<\/strong><\/a>
\nMeeting on now? Zoom link here<\/a>
\nLoads of talks, debates, other audio stuff here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"FORUMS, BLOGS, CHATS \u27a4<\/strong><\/a>
\nWant to chat, discuss, ask a question, disagree? Yes, this is<\/em> the right room for an argument…<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Book Reviews<\/a><\/h5>\n

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\n\tSee full catalogue<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Socialist Party\u2019s Summer School Woodbrooke, Birmingham 21st\u201423rd July 2023 This weekend of talks and discussion looks at different aspects of work, and what they tell us about the society we live in. Book here \u27a4 First time? START HERE \u27a4 Forget what you think you know about socialism… MARCH LIVE \u27a4 Meeting on now? … <\/p>\n

Read more “Water balls-up”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2605,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-fullwidth.php","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-240993","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/240993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240993"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/240993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240995,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/240993\/revisions\/240995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}