One tweak needed (2026)

From the September 2026 issue of the Socialist Standard

Societies in every part of the world are currently organised around the same, single feature – a system of production driven by the search for profit.

 

In other words, capitalist production, where most people work for wages while just a few scoop up the profit that the majority produces.

 

This system was progressive in the past – it promoted such a huge increase in industrial and agricultural productivity that every person in the world could now have access to all the goods and services needed for a reasonable life.

 

But a reasonable life for all is denied precisely because the system is driven by the profit motive. If there is no prospect of a profit, there is no question about it, there will be no production.   

 

At the same time, it’s a competitive system that inevitably forces individual capitals to expand or lose out to other capitals. But the competition is not (nor can be) subject to any overall planning, which results in the boom/bust pattern that has become a fact of life in the last 200 years, in which time capitalist production has come to predominate.

 

The need for expansion also results in war. Forget the rubbish about sovereignty and fighting for freedom. Modern war is all about markets, raw materials and transport routes.

 

And that inevitable expansion is becoming a major environmental threat too.

 

But hey! Don’t despair. That ‘one tweak’ in the headline? Take the world’s productive resources away from the minority and use those resources to produce for human need, not profit.

 

We know this sounds like a big ask, but remember, the world’s workers already run production from top to bottom. It makes sense for them to run it in their own interest.

Letter: The profit paradox: How capitalism’s engine fuels its own replacement (2026)

Letter to the Editors from the September 2026 issue of the Socialist Standard

 

The profit paradox: How capitalism’s engine fuels its own replacement

Capitalism’s greatest irony is that the very force driving its expansion — relentless technological innovation — is also paving the way for its peaceful replacement. Each leap in technology makes it increasingly clear that our society possesses tools powerful enough to meet human needs directly, sustainably, and abundantly. As the means of production and communication become almost god like in their capabilities, it grows harder to justify using them primarily to generate private profit rather than to serve the common good.

While a socialist transformation could have occurred long ago, today’s technological landscape makes such a transition far more achievable. Automation, global communication networks, and advanced artificial intelligence have dramatically reduced the barriers that once made large scale social change difficult. As these technologies continue to advance, the path towards a democratic, worker induced re-organisation of society becomes smoother still.

More and more workers around the world are recognising this reality. As they see machines capable of producing immense wealth with minimal human labour, they increasingly question why that wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a small capitalist class. This growing awareness is likely to inspire peaceful, democratic organisation on a global scale. In my view, the accelerating development of modern machinery could make such a transformation possible within the next thirty years.

Matthew Shearn

Letter: Communicating Power (2026)

Letter to the Editors from the September 2026 issue of the Socialist Standard

Communicating Power

Dear Editors

I read Mike Foster’s article, ‘Proper Gander — Grander Designs’, which appeared in the July edition of the Socialist Standard with interest. The point about Chatsworth House being built to ‘communicate power’ resonates with me as Derbyshire County Council’s libraries have been used to deliver a dubiously named ‘community membership pass’, which promises free entry for two adults and six children.

As a library assistant for Derbyshire Libraries, I can’t help but feel that we’ve been used in a publicity stunt to maintain the duke’s prestige at his ducal seat. The booking and issuing of the tickets, managing waiting lists, taking numerous enquiries and calls each day have fallen on us when we’re already stretched thin. The bureaucracy that this one scheme has created is staggering.

Derbyshire has some affluent areas, but there are a lot of economically deprived areas. I find it hard to act as a ticketing agent for a rich duke whilst many of the people who use my library are finding it difficult to survive in the current system. I’ve served families with children who are struggling with reading at school, and it’s a joy to see them thrive after getting hooked by the right book. Another customer is living in mould-riddled rental housing and relies on using our free PCs to find a better place whilst having a sympathetic ear to talk to. That is the bread and butter of my job — not ticket admin for a duke.

On 17th July, I read on BBC News that schools and libraries will facilitate Queen Camilla’s birthday book giveaway. Not right away, of course, but at Christmas. We can never expect a queen or a duke to understand the day to day lives of ordinary, working people. Nor will they act in our interests because that would clash with their interests as the upper class. Their paltry attempts at championing literacy are purely for public relations purposes. It’s an insult.

We’re meant to doff our caps like serfs when nobles and royals offer us scraps whilst offloading the admin on to overstretched public services. I won’t wax lyrical about libraries being used to soften the image of aristocrats who maintain the status quo. It’s all about communicating and maintaining power over the working class. It was working class labour that built Chatsworth House and its gardens, therefore we should be free to visit it at all times. The only way a true community membership can come to fruition is by having common ownership in a socialist society.

Name supplied