SPGB May Events (2025)

Party News from the May 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

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Obituary: Andy Malone (2025)

Obituary from the May 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

Glasgow Branch regrets to report the passing of Andy Malone at the age of 81. Andy joined the Socialist Party in February 1969 having previously been a member of the Communist Party from which he had resigned in 1965.

This was at a time of much activity in Glasgow Branch in which Andy became involved.

In 1973 Andy’s membership of Glasgow Branch ceased, but only because he went to live in New Zealand where he joined our companion party (SPNZ) there. On his return to Glasgow in 1979 he, of course, rejoined the branch and once again became involved in the work of the party.

He refused to be defined by his employment. Real life was what mattered: his family, his interests and the struggle to overthrow this vile system.

Andy was a scathing critic of the idiocy and cruelty of capitalism and always ready to challenge nonsense whenever he heard it, but he was also willing to have discussions with both those who agreed and disagreed with him. He was very generous with his time and resources. He was an avid reader of many subjects, including history, physics, biology, logic and science generally. Many party members and non-members alike benefitted from access to his vast knowledge and his library. If a subject came up in discussion, usually Andy would have at least some knowledge of it and at least one book about it!

Back in the days when the branch often had several outdoor propaganda meetings on a Saturday and one on a Sunday, Andy would often be at one of those meetings selling the Socialist Standard and other literature and discussing with members of the audience.

Some Glasgow members will remember, only a few years ago while leafletting at George Square, an amiable discussion they and Andy had with a group of Christians who had some misconceptions about both socialism and socialists. Later that day, Andy discovered some anarchists who turned up and a useful discussion and exchange of literature ensued.

Andy was also an enthusiastic and accomplished chess player. His main use for computers was not as a general purpose problem solving machine, nor even as a word-processor, but to check out and assess the latest chess programs.

His contribution to the cause of socialism was outstanding, but his regular attendance at our social events has also given branch members many treasured memories. This is a sad time for all who knew him but especially for his wife Jean and all his family, friends and neighbours.

We will all remember him with great affection.

JC

50 Years Ago: The Common Market: in or out – does it matter? (2025)

The 50 Years Ago column from the May 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

For the first time in British History—a referendum. A device often used in other countries; Norway voted in such a manner to keep out. This vote, largely favoured by the anti-marketeers in the Labour Party, will resolve the decision for the Government. Mr. Wilson, when recommending the terms said “This is one of the most important parliamentary occasions in our history”. Not so. The British people are only being asked to endorse the continuation of capitalism, in or out, and they do this at every General Election. As yet, they continue to give this endorsement.

To remain in or get out has produced a weird assortment of protagonists. IN – Mr. Wilson and some members of his cabinet ally themselves with Mr. Heath, Maudling, the Liberal Party, the Confederation of British Industry, the Farmers’ Union and generally speaking ‘big business’. OUT – this includes an even weirder assortment. The Communist Party, Enoch Powell, Benn, Foot, Shore, the National Front and the TUC. (…)

How you will vote is your concern. We tell them to stuff their referendum. The real issue that the workers should tackle is Common Market or Common Ownership.

We and our sympathisers will vote. We shall register on our papers our commitment for Socialism. The question you are being asked to answer – In or Out – is of no concern to members of the working class. Whatever the outcome of the vote, Capitalism will continue. And continue it will until you and a majority like you take the revolutionary step of deciding to abolish capitalism in all its forms and to bring into being a new society. (…)

Away with all the trappings of capitalism – tariffs, customs duties, monetary union, competition, buying, selling etc. Vote for nothing but Common Ownership.

(From 'The Common Market: In or out — does it matter?' by Cyril May,  Socialist Standard, May 1975)

Action Replay: Net income (2025)

The Action Replay column from the May 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

In the August 2024 Action Replay we wrote about the struggles of players in the lower reaches of professional tennis.

But it’s not just those below the top echelons who need support. The Professional Tennis Players Association (www.ptpaplayers.com) aims to ‘Provide protection and support for players and advocate for their best interests’. It focuses on the top 250 singles players and the top 100 doubles players (men and women in both cases), but claims to service players of all rankings, and aims to extend this to cover junior and retired players too. Mind you, it is probably lower-ranked players who would be most in need of the association’s support.

Among other things, PTPA offers free legal aid to players involved in anti-doping and anti-corruption cases, provides medical opinions and recommendations, offers resources to support players’ mental health and (most importantly, no doubt) enables players to receive discounts at Hilton hotels.

Recently, the PTPA began legal action against the sport’s various governing bodies (BBC Sport, 18 March). There are allegedly too many tournaments, which many players are effectively forced to enter. Moreover, players do not receive a large enough percentage of the revenue generated by the top tournaments. According to the PTPA Executive Director, ‘players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardises their health and safety.’

The top twenty men’s and women’s players recently asked for more prize money in the four biggest tournaments, the Grand Slams. Losing in the first round at Wimbledon earns a player £60,000, but many lower-ranked players still struggle to get by. In the year to July 2023, the All England Club (which runs Wimbledon) had an operating profit of just under £54m, but ninety percent of that was paid to the governing body, the Lawn Tennis Association. Zheng Qinwen, the world number eight, said ‘increased prize money would be particularly welcomed by lower-ranked players, who can struggle to make ends meet at other times of the year.’

PTPA is rather different from most trade unions, and many professional sports have unions for players; for instance, the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPRO) consists of sixty-six national players’ associations. All of which shows that even those better off than most people still need to have their interests protected against the powers-that-be of one kind and another.

Paul Bennett

Editorial: Why tariffs are not an issue (2025)

Editorial from the May 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

‘Tariff Reform, Free Trade or No Trade? The Fiscal Fraud Exposed’ was the front-page headline of the Socialist Standard in May 1910. It could be today too.

Britain was then a free-trade country with no tariffs on imports. This was the traditional policy of the Liberal Party, then in office, dating from the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1844 which had taxed imports of wheat and other cereals, resulting in higher rents for landowners and so lower profits for capitalists. By the turn of the century, however, British metal manufacturers were feeling the effect of competition from German and American producers and the cry went up for their profits to be ‘protected’. A demand taken up by the Conservative Party as ‘tariff reform’.

Both sides canvassed working-class support for their policy, employing the same specious arguments which we are hearing again today. The Free-Traders’ main argument was ‘cheap food’, that if tariffs were imposed then the price of food would go up and people would be worse off. Today, Trump’s opponents are saying that his tariffs will harm workers by putting up the price of computers, smartphones and clothes. The Tariff Reformers argued that a tax on imports would help preserve jobs in heavy industry and reduce unemployment. Trump, in photo ops with hard-hatted car workers and coal miners standing behind him, is employing the same argument, one that has attractions for the workers concerned and is often supported by their trade unions.

An increase in the cost of living and job security are matters that workers have to worry about. But tariff-free trade does not make workers better off and protective tariffs cannot ensure job security.

Wages reflect the money cost of creating and maintaining a worker’s labour power and tend to go up and down in line with the price of the basket of goods and services they need to do this. If the cost of living increases so, eventually, will money wages (the quicker, the more workers take union action to press for this). And vice versa.

Employers don’t employ workers to provide them with a job but to make a profit out of their work. They are always under competitive pressure to keep costs, including labour costs, down. One way of doing this is to install more up-to-date machinery that enables a worker to produce more in a given period of time. Which results in fewer workers being employed. This process continues even behind tariff walls.

Whether or not there are taxes on imports, workers remain economically dependent on those who monopolise the means of wealth production and have to work for them for a wage that is less than the value of what they produce or provide. Their interest lies in ending this situation by making the means for providing what society needs common property under democratic control.

Then there will be ‘no trade’ because what is trade but the exchange of products between separate owners? With common ownership it cannot exist. What there will be is the simple moving of products from where they are produced to where they are needed, a question of logistics and not a question of buying and selling — or of tariffs and other taxes.

Socialist election activity (2025)

Party News from the May 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Socialist Party stood four candidates in the local elections at the beginning of May. Below are their election addresses

Kent County Council Election Folkestone

Human needs or profit first?

We live in an economic system, capitalism, that ensures nothing gets built or created unless someone, somewhere expects to make a handsome profit. Human needs come very much second.

That is why Folkestone’s stunning harbour is going to be submerged in ugly blocks of concrete and glass. They are built, not for the needs of local people, but to make a profit for the developers and the owners of the land. No surprise there. That is how capitalism works.

All around us everything crumbles, from schools to libraries and social services, even as the vast wealth of a tiny minority continues to increase. And this will go on so long as we keep voting for political parties which think this absurd and cruel system can be reformed.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain has for the last 120 years advocated a quite different society built on the common, democratic ownership of the planet and its resources. A society in which every one of us gets to participate in decisions like the building of new houses, the planting of crops, how we get our energy. A truly human society where sustainable decisions are made based on human needs and the need to maintain a healthy planet.

At current levels of science and technology the earth can easily provide an abundance of resources for everyone to live a happy and fulfilled life. Then there will be no need to artificially ration the necessities of life with money. We will contribute our physical and mental labour freely and take freely from the common store.

That will need a world revolution. And every revolution starts somewhere. Why not Folkestone?

If you agree VOTE SOCIALIST.

Gloucestershire County Council elections Stroud

Capitalism or Socialism?

This might be the last Gloucestershire County Council Election. The government seems intent on reorganising the County and District Councils. This will result in fewer representatives and a concentration of strategic power in the hands of a regional Mayor.

This is democracy in the capitalist system: a choice between candidates for office with only marginally different sets of policies. Once elected those in office can tinker with the system but not the rules of capitalism: those without wealth are beholden to those who do, profit comes first not human needs, and can’t pay – can’t have.

But what can we do? Unlike the architects of local government devolution, socialists believe not that there is too much democracy, but that there isn’t enough. The rules of capitalism have not been in place for all of human history and we don’t need them in future. Getting rid of the rules of capitalism and creating a real democratic future can’t be brought about from above. It has to come from a majority of people.

You can show support for real democracy, socialism, by voting for the Socialist Party of Great Britain on May 1st.

Socialism is a classless, stateless, wageless, moneyless society or, a democracy in which free and socially equal men and women co-operate to produce the things they need to live and enjoy life, to which they have free access: ‘from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs’.

The Socialist Party is like no other political party in Britain. It is made up of people who have joined together because we want to get rid of the profit system and establish real socialism.

Our aim is to encourage others to become socialist and act for themselves, organising democratically and without leaders, to bring about the kind of society that we advocate.

We are solely concerned with building a movement of socialists for socialism. We are not a reformist party with a programme of policies to patch up capitalism.

If elected, Piers Hobson will work for socialism at every opportunity, vote on issues according to the democratic decisions of his branch of the Socialist Party and always be for socialism and nothing else.

Lambeth Council by-election London

Real change, not damage limitation

Fellow workers,

They call it democracy but it’s nothing of the sort.

Labour didn’t even want this by-election. They’d rather stitch it up behind closed doors than face a real challenge. This isn’t about serving the people, it’s about protecting their grip on power. Councillors are parachuted in, selections are stage-managed, and decisions are made long before you ever see a ballot paper.

Meanwhile, rents rise, wages stagnate, benefits are cut, food banks multiply and estates are handed over to developers. Labour’s record in Lambeth is clear enough.

Now they ask for your vote again. So do the Greens, Lib Dems and others who promise change but only offer better management of a system built on exploitation. They won’t end your problems. They won’t challenge the class system. They won’t stop capitalism — they serve it.

No confidence in their system. No votes for our bosses’ parties.

Until we end capitalism, nothing changes.

That’s why the Socialist Party is standing in this election. Not for tweaks or token reforms, but for real change. Common ownership, democratic control, production for need not profit.

If you want that, you can show it by voting for the SOCIALIST CANDIDATE.

May-Day and the Socialist Standard (2020)

As I've just reposted a 2016 May Day message from the Socialism or Your Money Back blog, I may as well also take the opportunity to repost below a 2020 post  from this blog. Sadly I never did follow up on the promise to provide an expanded version of this piece. Maybe next year . . .

May-Day and the Socialist Standard (2020)

One of those rare good ideas you get when it's too late in the day to fully implement them.

Today is International Workers' Day and, in years gone past on the blog, it has usually meant a random smattering of May Day articles or editorials from old Socialist Standards where, to be honest, there can be an overall tone of repetition and general gloom whatever the decade. However, it struck me this morning that the blog is so far ahead in breaking the back of fully digitizing the Standard, that it is now in position to start pooling together articles around a general theme for the attention of the random reader.

"Breaking the back" is, of course, a bit of an overstatement but a good place to start such an endeavour would be the various May Day messages that appeared in the Socialist Standard over the years. Though in 2020, it's hard at times to fully comprehend the significance of May Day for the organized working class, back in the day it has to be understood that May Day was a day when all unions and radical groups would make that extra push in both celebrating the day and seeking to communicate their message to a wider audience than usual. 

The SPGB was no different in that regard, and it was usually the case that the May Socialist Standard would be the issue in any particular year where the print run for the Standard that month was at its highest, and it was expected that the May issue would quickly sell out (no jokes at the back, please!).

I'd love to be able to provide a full list of Socialist Standard May Day articles from its exhaustive history but, as I stated at the beginning of this ramble, this idea sadly came too late for May 2020. However, it will be something I will be working on in the coming month(s) and, who knows?, short of the final breakdown of civil society à la Cormac McCarthy's The Road or *cough* a Socialist Revolution (are you still laughing at the back?) there should be a definitive list for May 2021.

In the meantime, linked to below is the Socialist Standard May Day messages for the period from 1904 to 1918. If you read them in sequence, you will note that the initial enthusiasm and hope for Socialist Revolution just over the horizon is gradually seeping away in May Day messages even in the SPGB's early years of its history. That's fine as far as I am concerned. Why pretend? Why kid your readers on with fake boosterism about how it's all about one final push, and we'll at last have possession of the bakery? The SPGB was quickly aware that the writing was on the wall for the Second International pre it's final capitulation in 1914, and it's to its credit that it didn't try to sweeten that pill.

As you will note from below, not all May Socialist Standards from this period carried a May Day message within its pages. I guess I'm especially surprised that one is absent from the very first May Socialist Standard (1905) but, in mitigation, I would point out that a big portion of that issue was given over to reporting the SPGB's first Annual Conference. It was initially surprising to discover that there were no explicit  May Day messages from the war years but it maybe reflected the mood of both the Party and the country at large. For Socialists, the wider Labour Movement had failed a major test of principle in 1914, and perhaps it was not felt that a May Day message would carry the same weight as it would in 'normal' times.

For this reader, the May Day message from the 1912 issue is especially powerful, and I would hazard a guess that its unnamed author was A. E. Jacomb. He just had a certain style and tone of authorial voice that set him apart from other Socialist Standard writers during this period.

It was not all doom and gloom for that period. May Day carried a double significance for Socialists; it was also considered the semi-official opening day for when Outdoor Speaking would kick in again at full throttle. The more clement weather meant that once again there were SPGB speakers all over London and its environs, putting forward the socialist message at speaking pitches on street corners' and in public parks. We sometimes forget that for the early decades of the SPGB the outdoor meeting carried so much more weight and significance for popularizing and propagandizing socialism. Sadly, that lost history is not always captured in the pages of the Socialist Standard or in the SPGB's pamphlets.

If I've missed any Socialist Standard May Day messages from this period, please let me know in the comments section.

Happy May Day! Happy International Workers' Day!

• 1906: May 1st, 1906.
• 1907: The Significance of May Day.
• 1908: A Word in Season.
• 1909: May-Day.
• 1911: Our Motto For May Day.
• 1912: A May-Day Message.
• 1913: A Deadly Parallel. 

May Day Message repost (2025)

Cross-posted from the Socialism or Your Money Back blog

The following May Day message was originally posted on the Socialism or Your Money Back blog in 2016. It was originally posted by Alan Johnstone ('ALJO' in the Standard), and the article was probably written by Alan.  The SOYMB blog reposted it today. 

"Arise ye prisoners of starvation, Arise ye wretched of the earth."

May Day inspires fear in the hearts of the capitalists and hope in the workers the world over. Why do they fear the worker's holiday? What are they afraid of? May Days have come and gone yet each and every year they are a sign of what rulers’ fear: the fear of general strikes, of political revolt, of workers’ uprisings, of the militancy of workers. 

Eugene V. Debs wrote: "This is the first and only International Labor Day. It belongs to the working class and is dedicated to the Revolution."  

Our May Day is actually the only holiday celebrated internationally. It obliterates all differences of race, creed, colour, and nationality. It celebrates the brotherhood of all workers everywhere. It crosses all national boundaries, it transcends all language barriers, it ignores all religious differences. It makes clear the difference between all workers and all employers. It is the day when the class struggle is reaffirmed by every conscious worker. 

May Day is the portent of a new world, a classless world, a peaceful world, a world without poverty or misery. A world of abundance. It is the promise of socialism, the real brotherhood of mankind. May Day is a warning to the capitalist class, “Do your damnedest to us but your days are numbered!” May Day proclaims that there is but one race – the human race! 

May Day says the future is ours. More than any other group, the working class suffers from war; and only the working class, in all its strength, can win the struggle for peace. Workers march for freedom from deprivation on May Day. Workers march for equality on this May Day. 

On May Day, workers march shoulder to shoulder, in solidarity, black, brown and white — for democracy and social justice. Workers call for unity of all workers. 

May Day is a time for casting away illusions and preparing for the struggle. It is a time for the working class to heighten its vigilance against its enemies. It is a time to unite real friends to defeat our real enemies.

May Day is not simply a time of celebration of our class. World events serve to remind us that this is also a solemn occasion, a time when we bow our heads in respect for our fellow workers and brothers and sisters who have fallen. On May Day, we remember that the workers’ flag is red for a reason as our traditional labour song goes:

“The people's flag is deepest red,

It shrouded oft our martyred dead,

And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,

Their hearts' blood dyed its ev'ry fold.”

Not all those who wave the red flag or claim to speak for the working class actually do. Rather than overthrowing the capitalists, they argued that labor should try to win friends among the capitalist politicians and support one faction against another. For sure, over the past decades the ruling class has made a considerable number of concessions. But what are these gains, really? If you consider the wealth that the working people have produced, when you consider the power and potential for an abundance of the productive forces that the workers themselves have created, then these reforms are shown up for what they really are. They are nothing but crumbs, scraps left over from the table after the capitalists have had their feast.

Our May Day is the day of solidarity.

“Arise, ye prisoners of starvation.” 

May Day is the day of the working class, the class that has borne untold sufferings and has nothing, nothing to lose but its chains.

“Arise, ye wretched of the earth.”

May Day is the day of the exploited, here and around the globe. You have been despised and spat upon by capital, but now the road to your liberation is clear.

“The earth shall rise on new foundations, we have been naught, we shall be all.” 

May Day, is when we pledge to break the power of capital and declare war against these bloodsucking leeches. Their time is over, their days are numbered.

“Tis the final conflict, let each stand in his place. The Internationale shall be the human race.”

The Socialist Party cannot be bribed or bought, nor can we be diverted from our struggle in the defence of workers and oppressed people of the world. The Socialist Party advocates a class war that will only end with the complete emancipation of the working class and the total defeat of the capitalist class. In the revolutionary class war to rid the world of the evils of capitalism you will find us ready to volunteer to fight with all our hearts and souls. 

Socialist Sonnet: No.191 May Day (2025)

From the Socialism or Your Money Back blog

May Day

This feast day of Joseph the Artisan,

Liberated for Labor from the Church

When congregations of workers began

Gathering to confront the capital rich.

An infamous Haymarket bomb, a hail

Of police bullets, then the hangman’s rope

Demonstrated reasoned reforms would fail:

Workers must make and pursue their own hope.

Now, fourteen decades after the event,

Collective hopes remain unrealised,

So many parties, despite their intent,

Have left capital’s spirit unexorcised.

Yet potential power is marked by May Day,

Of workers turning history their way.

 D.A.