Socialism

What could a socialist campaign for London achieve? The London mayor and assembly are up for election in May. The Labour Party’s Sadiq Khan is the incumbent and Labour’s candidate for 2020 - but is a supporter of the pro-big business wing of Labour and an opponent of Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity politics. Low pay, a housing crisis, disappearing council services, knife crime and air pollution are...

Trans rights: a socialist programme for united workers' struggle. Transgender rights have recently become a point of contention in the ongoing Labour Party leadership contest. The Socialist Party fights exploitation, discrimination and oppression in every form. The workers’ movement must fight for the resources necessary to guarantee all sections of the working class a decent life. If it does not,...

Major strikes in the civil service and National Health Service have shaken the capitalist establishment in Northern Ireland. These enormous workers’ action followed watershed struggles in the private sector at the Harland and Wolff shipyard and Wrightbus factory. The rival sectarian parties are required by the Good Friday Agreement to agree to govern together. They had refused to reach such an agr...

Divisions and surprises abound as the main parties eye an angry working class in Britain. The Tories’ decade-long grip on power continues for now - but what about their programme? The government has announced more cuts, but has also promised infrastructure investment. They have restored their majority, but their catastrophic divisions are already re-emerging. In fact, Sajid Javid, the chancellor o...

Do the setbacks in the 2010s mean the unions can't fight today? The 2010s were a period of major attacks on workers in Britain. But the bosses and their politicians didn’t get things all their own way. The trade unions - the basic self-defence organisations of the working class - fought many important battles, shutting down production to try to force the bosses back. There were many setbacks in th...

Councils have the power to resist continued Tory austerity. It’s budget-setting season again for local authorities in Britain. The Tories in central government have succeeded in making local councils do their dirty work and implement savage austerity for a decade. In fact, so successful was this strategy, that the lack of any practical distinction between Labour and Conservative at a local level w...

After more than 45 days of strikes, workers in France are still furious about President Emmanuel Macron’s attack on pensions. His so-called reform would mean: work longer, get less. But there’s no clear strategy from the union leaders. And there’s no clear political alternative to Macron and his politics, including from left-wing political leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Understandably, after almost tw...

After Suleimani's assassination, what prospects for Iran, Iraq and the US? The year started with Donald Trump ordering the public assassination of a leading Iranian general, Qassem Suleimani, by a drone strike in Baghdad, the capital of neighbouring Iraq. What are the prospects for the struggle between the US and Iran? Does this mean war? What about the people of Iraq? And what will this mean next...

The year is now 2020. Popular uprisings are cascading like chain reactions across the globe. Strongman right-wing leaders lie and cheat their way to power in some countries, and are brought to their knees by mass movements in others. As a new year opens up, class struggles and capitalist instability will only intensify and spread. This episode of Socialism looks at the year ahead: a promise of reb...

Johnson took office in July 2019 amid intractable crises - which haven't gone away. In this re-run of episode 34 from August 2019, we remind ourselves of the big problems for the Tories which lie beneath their electoral victory.

Boris Johnson has won a majority in the UK’s general election. Many workers and young people will understandably be feeling gloomy and angry. We say the fightback starts here. How did this happen? What are the lessons? And what does the workers’ movement need to do now to stop Tory attacks? This episode of Socialism responds to the Tories’ return: stand firm for socialist policies.

Millions of workers have downed tools to fight hated President Emmanuel Macron’s attack on pensions. The CGT union confederation reports that 1.5 million protested throughout the country during the 5 December strike, and over 800,000 on 10 December. In between, transport workers have kept communication routes in a state of near-paralysis. Blocked from ending austerity and privatisation through the...

The Tories are trying to lie and bully their way back to power. How can Corbyn and the wider workers' movement stop them? With less than two weeks until polling day in the UK, both the Tories and Labour have now released their manifestos. Jeremy Corbyn’s programme includes big steps forward for working-class and young people in housing, pay, public services, workers’ rights and the environment. Bo...

Northern Ireland faces renewed political conflict as a result of the bosses’ Brexit crisis, the collapse of the Stormont government, and underlying it all, huge anger at poverty and oppression. But there is one place where Catholics and Protestants, Nationalists and Unionists are united: the workplace, and so also the trade unions. Councillor Donal O'Cofaigh is the first elected councillor for the...

How will the struggle for independence and against austerity affect the general election campaign in Scotland? And what lies in store for Scottish workers after 12 December? Plus: High Court blow to postal strike: where next for the CWU?

How can the unions win for members and end austerity and Tory rule? We speak to PCS union general secretary candidate Marion Lloyd (in a personal capacity) and RMT union national executive committee candidate Jared Wood. The trade unions are always areas of fundamental concern for Marxists. Now they are poised to play a pivotal role in Britain’s winter election - and the convulsions that will foll...

SPECIAL: Tories out - Corbyn in with socialist policies! This election is harder to call than perhaps any in British history. But what we can say is that whatever the outcome, tempestuous class struggle will follow. What is the best outcome for this general election? How can socialists help to achieve it? And what does the workers’ movement need to be ready for after the 12th of December?

A spontaneous rebellion of revolutionary proportions is unfolding in Chile - a country with a history of revolution and counter-revolution. The largest demonstration in Chile’s history floods the streets of the capital. Protesters in the north march on army barracks - and soldiers withdraw rather than challenge them. The hated neoliberal government of Sebastián Piñera is suspended in mid-air by a...

In 2016, tenants on the Butterfields estate in east London beat the landlords and banks. How can working-class people fight the housing crisis?

The Kurdish people in the Middle East are facing a catastrophic onslaught. How did it come to this? What is the way out of this life-and-death struggle for the Kurds? And how can the Kurdish people win national liberation?

How did Liverpool defeat the Iron Lady? A political tribute to Tony Mulhearn, a giant of the workers' movement. As part of the Militant Tendency and Socialist Party, Tony helped lead the working-class struggle that defeated Margaret Thatcher, and spent his life fighting for Trotskyist ideas. What can we learn from those heroic struggles in fighting for socialism today?

In the midst of a historic crisis, the state is preparing the ground to sabotage a potential left government. The Supreme Court has delivered a blow to Johnson. But were the Labour leaders right to praise the judiciary as an impartial upholder of democracy?

Sri Lanka is heading into presidential elections in the midst of a government deadlock - and the aftershocks of the horrific terror attack on 21 April. We ask socialists from Sri Lanka what the situation is like on the ground - and what political problems they will address in the November elections.

The race to be next president of the United States is hotting up. What's behind the crises in the Republicans? And can the Democrats be a route for change? Plus - report from the 20 September climate strike in London.

The majority of austerity is suffered by women. Meanwhile, rape convictions are down, and domestic violence murders are up. This episode, we hear about the struggle to defend women from the cuts, in the home, and at work - and how socialists think we can win the fight for women’s liberation.