SPGB Snippets: Hold the tears (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

September 2, 2026

So Starmer is about to resign as an MP. This will allow him to follow the plan he set out after he resigned as PM, i.e.:

“I will now focus on other things and that will be international affairs including defence, security, trade and technology in a fast-changing world.”

A cynic might translate this as:

“I shall reap the dividend of eleven short years in parliament by selling the tiny remnants of my soul to defence corporations, multinationals, big tech, bankers and investors. A quick message to all of you who have worked 40 odd years to gain a pitiful pension to last you through your uncomfortable final years, it appears you joined the wrong pension scheme. So long suckers”

SPGB September Events (2026)

Party News from the September 2026 issue of the Socialist Standard

Our general discussion meetings are held on Zoom. To connect to a meeting, enter https://zoom.us/wc/join/7421974305 in your browser. Then follow instructions on screen and wait to be admitted to the meeting.

Spoiling for choice (2026)

Party News from the September 2026 issue of the Socialist Standard

WHY WOULD ANYONE BOTHER WITH VOTING?

Can’t be bothered with voting?

Fair enough.

So let’s do this instead!

We know, they’re all rubbish. Red, blue, yellow, green, whatever colour that other lot are this week. They all want the same thing: to keep things ticking along for the people who own everything while the rest of us graft for a living.

Not voting will look like you don’t care and these career politicians will use that as a mandate when the election is over.

Get down to the polling station. Take the pencil. And write SOCIALISM right across the ballot paper.

Why bother? Spoilt ballots get counted and published. Sitting on sofas doesn’t. It tells them you’re not apathetic. It tells them you want the whole lot replaced, not just the faces at the top.

What we actually want: No bosses. No buying and selling of people’s lives. The factories, hospitals, land, the lot; owned by all of us, run for all of us. That’s socialism. Not state control. Not more welfare. Not reformism (tweaking the system) and hoping for the best. Actual common ownership.

None of the parties here are offering it. So don’t pick one. But don’t be silent either!

SPOIL IT PROPERLY. WRITE SOCIALISM.

Leaflet distributed during the election of the new Mayor of Greater Manchester in July.

Action Replay: Get your kit on (2026)

The Action Replay column from the September 2026 issue of the Socialist Standard 

Last year an American athlete suffered an unfortunate mishap in a 400 metre race, when his penis appeared from his shorts. He struggled to push it back in, and did indeed win the race. This illustrates the point that sportspeople often need to wear rather brief outfits that do not impede their movements. And, of course, it is mainly women who have to put up with media attention to such matters.

For instance, in the recent Commonwealth Games, there was much hoo-ha about the dresses worn by the Australian netball team. The dresses tended to ride up at the slightest movement and the players had to keep tugging them down. The players, however, seemed more blasé about this than some of the supporters. It has been suggested, though, that girls might be put off playing the sport if it means wearing inappropriate outfits.

A few years ago Norway’s female beach handball team were fined because their players at the European championships had worn shorts instead of bikini bottoms, as specified in the rules. But then the rule book was changed to allow shorts, with no mention of bikini bottoms. Men players, incidentally, had to wear shorts that were at least ten centimetres above the knee.

In Action Replay for June 2011, we commented on similar issues, including the requirement that women beach volleyball players must wear bikini bottoms with a maximum size width of seven centimetres.

These issues have certainly not gone away since then. The European Broadcasting Union recently issued guidance about sexualising images of female athletes. This included avoiding low camera angles that can result in compromising scenes, for instance of long jumpers or pole vaulters, and also slow-motion replays that serve little technical purpose. According to one long jumper, some camera angles may have ‘serious long-term effects on [an] athlete’s mental health’, with abuse on social media taking place.

The incident mentioned in our first paragraph was shown in high-definition replays, but clearly it is women who are subjected to the most unfortunate experiences in connection with sports outfits. A reflection of the sexualisation of women in society, sadly.

Paul Bennett

50 Years Ago: Amin, Africa and the world (2026)

The 50 Years Ago column from the September 2026 issue of the Socialist Standard

The way to stop understanding of events is to show them as resulting from personal misconduct or mismanagement by those in charge. Had Hitler not been mad and bad, the Second World War would never have happened. Stalin’s treacherousness made Russia what it is. But for a succession of weak and untrustworthy leaders, the Labour Party would have brought us all to the Promised Land. This view of history means we are perpetually invited to look at figures idiotic and corrupt, and put all the blame on them. Without doubt they are all as objectionable as stated, but that is not the answer. The high chairs in which these characters sit are provided by capitalism, and at some time of need each appeared to be the ideal occupant.

The special place of buffoon-turned-villain is held at present by President Amin of Uganda. Since his regime began it has been characterized by killings, culminating in the ‘Makerere massacre’ of over 100 students in August this year. It has included the deportation of Asians in 1972, and a series of international incidents; in July there was a confrontation with Kenya, and on the 28th July Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Uganda. There have been attempts at uprisings and to assassinate Amin. On 1st August The Observer had an editorial headed ‘Getting rid of Amin’. (…)

The balance of power in Africa is between the growing and aspiring ruling classes of the states there, their deals for aid with bigger nations, and the bigger nations’ own need for oil and minerals for commodity production.

In this balance, the grotesque Amin is entirely dependent on his sponsors. The continuation of the Kenyan oil blockade in July could have caused his downfall, and from the viewpoint of his Arab allies he is unreliable and disposable; no doubt their attitude is like Samuel Pepys’s — ‘whether it will be better for me to have him die, because he is a bad man, or live, for fear a worse should come’. Meanwhile, workers in Uganda and countless other countries live not only under tyrannical regimes but have the prospect of being fodder for wars, in which the enemies are a matter of permutation. This is the result of production for profit. It does not have to go on.

[From the article, Amin, Africa and the World, by Robert Barltrop, Socialist Standard, September 1976.]