{"id":251909,"date":"2024-04-30T21:10:53","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T20:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/?page_id=251909"},"modified":"2024-04-30T21:10:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T20:10:53","slug":"may-2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/may-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rough reality<\/h3>July 26, 2026<\/small>

Andy Burnham pledged<\/a> ‘to finally end long-term rough sleeping across the UK\u2019. He previously aimed to prevent rough sleeping in Manchester by 2020, and in 2019 the Conservative Party manifesto<\/a> committed to ending \u2018the blight of rough sleeping\u2019. Instead, in 2025 the number of people estimated to sleep rough on a single night<\/a> in England was the highest recorded, at nearly 4,800.<\/p>\n

Rough sleeping is not just about housing. Rough sleepers are among the most marginalised and victimised in capitalist society. Support services, however ‘well-funded’, can only ever offer limited palliatives as they are working within a system that pushes people into homelessness – why previous attempts to end rough sleeping have failed, despite Burnham\u2019s ambition.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Football: beautiful or ugly?<\/h3>July 22, 2026<\/small>

Can we separate the skills of the beautiful game from the ugliness of the money machine that drives it and the rivalries and nationalism it thrives on? Should we regard the emotional investment of fans as people being brought together or a reminder of how alienated they are from their own lives and capabilities. Is it, as one commentator stated, people being sold ‘meaningless thrills to patch over the pain\u2019?<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, in the society of voluntary cooperative work and free access to goods and services that socialists look forward to, appreciation of the talents of others \u2013 including footballers \u2013 will still exist, but side by side with each person having the time and space to cultivate their own talents and capabilities.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Ann Widdecombe<\/h3>July 15, 2026<\/small>

Red faces in the Socialist Workers Party after their tweet on X in response to the death of Widdecombe was ‘Hooray, she’s dead’, followed by immediate deletion as furore swept the media. Some even confused the SWP with us.<\/p>\n

So we should point out that, while we oppose capitalism and all its works, and urge the world’s people to establish a post-capitalist society of democratic common ownership, we have no truck with the SWP\u2019s infantile reaction to the death (probably murder) of a pro-capitalist politician, however detestable that person\u2019s opinions.<\/p>\n

Capitalism is a worldwide system of private property and market trading, which can only be replaced at a worldwide scale by a conscious and informed majority, not by targeting individuals.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Whoever has will be given more<\/h3>July 8, 2026<\/small>

A report on wealth inequality<\/a> graphically illustrates the class divide in 2026.
\nApparently, the 56,000 wealthiest adults on the planet \u2013 who could fit inside a single football stadium \u2013 own three times as much wealth as the poorest 2.8 billion adults (add their families, that’s HALF of humanity). <\/p>\n

Those 56,000 must have really worked their arses off…<\/p>\n

Just kidding! That wealth has been sucked from the world\u2019s working class and, as Marx predicted in Capital, the nature of capitalist economics has resulted in increasing concentration of real wealth.<\/p>\n

The report\u2019s suggestion? Higher taxes for the rich and spend more on education (!!). In other words, tinker around at the edges and leave the cause of the problem alone. Sad or what?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Sleeping on the street<\/h3>July 1, 2026<\/small>

The government has just repealed the Vagrancy Act of 1824, which made rough sleeping a crime. There are about a million empty homes in England alone with more than a quarter of them empty for more than six months. So there is absolutely no need for anyone to sleep rough. <\/p>\n

In London, there are over 47.000 homes that have been empty for more than six months, enough to house the estimated 13,000 people sleeping rough there each year, and the 200,000 living in temporary accommodation. <\/p>\n

In this supposedly relatively wealthy country, the possibility of providing decent homes for everyone is perfectly feasible, but capitalism\u2019s profit motive prevents it from happening.<\/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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First time? START HERE Socialism – it may not be what you think… MAY LIVE Meeting on now? Zoom link here Loads of talks, debates, other audio stuff here FORUMS, BLOGS, CHATS Want to chat, discuss, ask a question, disagree? Yes, this is the right room for an argument… Book Reviews   \u00a0 Go here … <\/p>\n

Read more “Sleeping on the street”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2680,"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-251909","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/251909","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\/2680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/251909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251911,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/251909\/revisions\/251911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}