The Socialist Party of Great Britain – Part of the World Socialist Movement
Source: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb
Archived: 2026-04-23 16:40
The Socialist Party of Great Britain – Part of the World Socialist Movement
Skip to content
Cover page
April 2026
Socialist Standard
Contents ... ➤
Summer School 2026
Now booking ... ➤
Landscape
Whose land? ... ➤
Woman planting
Pleasure or pain ... ➤
John Davidson
I Swear... ➤
Blue globe
A world to win... ➤
Green globe
Workplace democracy... ➤
3 Free Standards
Money down the drain
April 22, 2026
People often defend the capitalist market system on the grounds that the ‘price mechanism’ is the most effective and realistic way to regulate production and consumption. But because price only reflects paying potential, not actual need, this often leads to bonkers outcomes, like
milk being poured down drains
.
Right now there’s a global energy crisis, due to the Iran war. But UK electricity providers are telling consumers to use more power, not less. Why? Because the government expects a glut of renewable power this summer, and will have to shut down solar and wind plants, and reimburse providers for lost revenue via expensive ‘constraint payments’ (
Guardian
, 14 April).
Socialism, where everything is free, would be so much simpler!
Today’s take-away
April 15, 2026
Most crude oil (88%) refined in the US
comes from fields in the US, Canada and Mexico, all a long way from the chaos currently being wreaked by the latest Middle East war. Yet average retail
petrol prices in the US have risen by over 30%
since January.
The reason?
Along with every other major raw material, crude oil is subject to a world market price, so a major disruption to supplies, be it caused by war or an economic bottleneck, will have a global effect.
The lesson?
National governments (however big the country!) have little influence over the world market. In particular, any politician who promises to control prices is lying through their teeth.
Poverty grows
April 8, 2026
There are
over 13 million people in the UK living in relative poverty
(which means in a household with income below 60% of the average income). This includes four million children and nearly 1.7 million pensioners. The figures are for the year to March last year, during which the total rose by half a million.
The Work and Pensions Minister described the situation as ‘wholly unacceptable’. This is right of course, but, like all politicians, she has no understanding of the causes. It’s due to capitalism, a system which, in the midst of potential abundance, relies on poverty and inequality as a means of coercing people into wage labour and hence exploitation.
Are we slaves?
April 1, 2026
Referring to employment as wage slavery is sometimes seen as an exaggeration. After all people who work for a wage or salary are not owned by other individuals and their labour is not enforced by law and violence.
Capitalism is seen as providing freedom. But is it anything more than an appearance of freedom? While you are free to walk away from your job, you can’t walk away from the need to survive, the need for food and shelter. That’s what makes you a wage slave. The system holds you in place not with chains of iron as in the past but with chains of necessity. Only the cooperative, moneyless, free access society that socialists advocate will remove those chains.
Stealing the common from off the goose …
March 25, 2026
The UK government has just published the first ever
Land Use Framework for England
, in which joined-up thinking, better mapping tools, and free access to ownership data will supposedly rationalise legacy chaos so that “land can support house building and infrastructure, a resilient food system, climate mitigation and thriving nature.”
The framework enthuses about community consultation and partnerships but never, of course, questions the very idea of ownership. 10 percent of land is held in secret and just 8 percent of England is public access. Capitalists got their start by stealing the land off the people, worldwide, forcing generations to live as landless wage-slaves. We will never be free until we take the land and other resources back and abolish capitalist ownership laws.
Next
Socialism – it may not be what you think…
APRIL LIVE
Meeting on now? Zoom link
here
Loads of talks, debates, other audio stuff
here
WORLD SOCIALIST RADIO
Want to chat, discuss, ask a question, disagree? Yes, this
is
the right room for an argument…
APRIL BOOK REVIEWS
See full catalogue
Skip to content
Cover page
April 2026
Socialist Standard
Contents ... ➤
Summer School 2026
Now booking ... ➤
Landscape
Whose land? ... ➤
Woman planting
Pleasure or pain ... ➤
John Davidson
I Swear... ➤
Blue globe
A world to win... ➤
Green globe
Workplace democracy... ➤
3 Free Standards
Money down the drain
April 22, 2026
People often defend the capitalist market system on the grounds that the ‘price mechanism’ is the most effective and realistic way to regulate production and consumption. But because price only reflects paying potential, not actual need, this often leads to bonkers outcomes, like
milk being poured down drains
.
Right now there’s a global energy crisis, due to the Iran war. But UK electricity providers are telling consumers to use more power, not less. Why? Because the government expects a glut of renewable power this summer, and will have to shut down solar and wind plants, and reimburse providers for lost revenue via expensive ‘constraint payments’ (
Guardian
, 14 April).
Socialism, where everything is free, would be so much simpler!
Today’s take-away
April 15, 2026
Most crude oil (88%) refined in the US
comes from fields in the US, Canada and Mexico, all a long way from the chaos currently being wreaked by the latest Middle East war. Yet average retail
petrol prices in the US have risen by over 30%
since January.
The reason?
Along with every other major raw material, crude oil is subject to a world market price, so a major disruption to supplies, be it caused by war or an economic bottleneck, will have a global effect.
The lesson?
National governments (however big the country!) have little influence over the world market. In particular, any politician who promises to control prices is lying through their teeth.
Poverty grows
April 8, 2026
There are
over 13 million people in the UK living in relative poverty
(which means in a household with income below 60% of the average income). This includes four million children and nearly 1.7 million pensioners. The figures are for the year to March last year, during which the total rose by half a million.
The Work and Pensions Minister described the situation as ‘wholly unacceptable’. This is right of course, but, like all politicians, she has no understanding of the causes. It’s due to capitalism, a system which, in the midst of potential abundance, relies on poverty and inequality as a means of coercing people into wage labour and hence exploitation.
Are we slaves?
April 1, 2026
Referring to employment as wage slavery is sometimes seen as an exaggeration. After all people who work for a wage or salary are not owned by other individuals and their labour is not enforced by law and violence.
Capitalism is seen as providing freedom. But is it anything more than an appearance of freedom? While you are free to walk away from your job, you can’t walk away from the need to survive, the need for food and shelter. That’s what makes you a wage slave. The system holds you in place not with chains of iron as in the past but with chains of necessity. Only the cooperative, moneyless, free access society that socialists advocate will remove those chains.
Stealing the common from off the goose …
March 25, 2026
The UK government has just published the first ever
Land Use Framework for England
, in which joined-up thinking, better mapping tools, and free access to ownership data will supposedly rationalise legacy chaos so that “land can support house building and infrastructure, a resilient food system, climate mitigation and thriving nature.”
The framework enthuses about community consultation and partnerships but never, of course, questions the very idea of ownership. 10 percent of land is held in secret and just 8 percent of England is public access. Capitalists got their start by stealing the land off the people, worldwide, forcing generations to live as landless wage-slaves. We will never be free until we take the land and other resources back and abolish capitalist ownership laws.
Next
Socialism – it may not be what you think…
APRIL LIVE
Meeting on now? Zoom link
here
Loads of talks, debates, other audio stuff
here
WORLD SOCIALIST RADIO
Want to chat, discuss, ask a question, disagree? Yes, this
is
the right room for an argument…
APRIL BOOK REVIEWS
See full catalogue