{"id":262493,"date":"2026-01-27T17:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/?page_id=262493"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:35:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:35:24","slug":"summer-school-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/summer-school-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer School 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If \u2018populism\u2019 is taken to mean politics popular with the majority pitched against an elite minority, should socialists aim to make socialism \u2018populist\u2019? Certainly socialists work to make socialism popular globally with the majority, but without pandering to notions that would negate its revolutionary goal. This means being opposed to ideas that might attract wide support in the short term yet actively undermine the socialist case.<\/p>\n

Because \u2018populism\u2019 remains ill-defined, it gets applied to a right wing group such as Reform UK, or a left wing organisation like Your Party. In the USA, Donald Trump\u2019s Republican Party can be termed \u2018populist\u2019 as might Bernie Sanders\u2019 variety of leftism, and similar examples are found in Europe and elsewhere. Is \u2018populism\u2019 simply reformism repackaged for the 21st century?<\/p><\/div>\n

The Socialist Party\u2019s weekend of talks and discussion will explore how the concept of \u2018populism\u2019 has developed, why it attracts support and what this tells us about capitalist society.<\/p>\n

Our venue is the University of Worcester, St John’s Campus<\/a>, Henwick Grove, St John’s, Worcester, WR2 6AJ. Book full cost<\/a> (including accommodation and meals Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) for \u00a3150 or at the concessionary rate<\/a> of \u00a380.<\/p>\n

E-mail enquiries to spgbschool@yahoo.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Should \/ Could Socialism Be Populist?<\/strong>
\nPopulism is any political message that’s popular, regardless of merit or political orientation. Ideas become popular when they resonate with how people think. And just how do they think? In Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), psychologist and Nobel prize-winning behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman identifies two modes of thought. System 1 is fast, heuristic and emotional. System 2 is slow, effortful, logical and dispassionate.<\/p>\n

In the whirl of everyday life, says Kahneman, people get by with System 1 thinking. But that’s highly vulnerable to manipulation by populist politicians. We generally explain the socialist case in the language of System 2 thinking, because we need people to understand it, not just react emotionally to it.<\/p>\n

Which gives us a problem. If socialism is ever to succeed, it must first become popular, and to do that, it must contend with System 1 thinking. People won’t listen to us if we don’t speak their language. Is a populist socialist approach possible? What would it even look like?<\/p>\n

Speaker: Paddy Shannon<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Details of other talks will be announced before the event<\/p>\n<\/div \n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If \u2018populism\u2019 is taken to mean politics popular with the majority pitched against an elite minority, should socialists aim to make socialism \u2018populist\u2019? Certainly socialists work to make socialism popular globally with the majority, but without pandering to notions that would negate its revolutionary goal. This means being opposed to ideas that might attract wide … <\/p>\n

Read more “Summer School 2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2680,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","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-262493","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262493","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=262493"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263287,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262493\/revisions\/263287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}