SPGB 2025 Summer School: What is Marxism? An update

The following session has been added to the programme of the Socialist Party Summer School:

Guest speaker Cat Rylance [of Communist Future] will present ‘Marxism, Reforms and Reformism’  

The question of the role and function that reforms play in the transformation from capitalism to communism has been brought to the surface again in recent years by ‘democratic socialist’ trends advancing the argument for ‘non-reformist reforms’. How does the idea of non-reformist reforms relate to existing approaches to reforms and reformism within the communist movement? And what place, if any, would we understand reforms as having within a Marxist programme? The talk will explore how reforms are related to in the programmes of Classical and Orthodox Marxism, in particular the purpose of minimum demands within this, considering these questions in relation to the approaches of the left today, and thinking about how we might deal with the challenges that emerge from these approaches.

SPGB Summer School (2024)

Party News from the September 2024 issue of the Socialist Standard

This year’s Summer School was held in Worcester over the weekend of 16-18 August. The theme was political consciousness. Keith Graham covered Marx’s view, arguing that, as we could no longer maintain, as Marx did, that socialism was inevitable, the emergence of a socialist political consciousness was even more crucial. Brian Gardner showed that, while the working class was not that conscious of its own interest, capitalists most certainly were of theirs. Paddy Shannon wondered whether Generation Z might not be contributing to raising political consciousness in the sense of breaking down barriers within the working class by promoting gender and sexual orientation equality.

There were two guest speakers. Interviewed by Mike Foster, Cat Rylance, of Communist Future, explained why she had stood as a candidate in the recent general election canvassing door to door for a society in which private property rights over means of production and wage-labour would be ended and from each according to their ability to each according to their needs practised. Asked why the group had chosen ‘communism’ rather than ‘socialism’ to describe this, she said that this was to make a clean break with the reformist social-democratic politics as instanced by Corbynism. Both this and Trotskyism gave the impression that the aim of socialists or communists was the reforms they advocated rather than a different society to capitalism. What was needed was people who put advocating a different society first. She felt that the best way to advance this was by working within the Left. Some of those present questioned this.

Darren Poynton set out the ‘Roman republican’ conception of ‘freedom’ as freedom from being dominated as contrasted to the still dominant liberal conception which saw it as freedom from interference. He pointed out that the republican conception would be achieved in a classless society based on the common ownership of the means of life as this would be a society in which no one would have dominion over anyone; with full democracy, in which everyone could have an equal say, nobody would be able to subjugate anyone.

As well as the talks and the discussions they prompted, the event included a one-off board game on the theme of political consciousness and an exhibition about how the subject has been covered in the Socialist Standard. And between the sessions, the weekend was a welcome opportunity to catch up with friends and comrades over a meal or in the nearby pub.

Tiny Tips (2024)

The Tiny Tips column from the July 2024 issue of the Socialist Standard

The gap between rich and poor has widened particularly in countries that have become more integrated into the global economy, such as China, Russia and some Eastern European countries…. ‘The influence of globalization on income inequalities worldwide was greater than we had expected’, summarizes Valentin Lang, junior professor of International Political Economy at the University of Mannheim and author of the study. ’We were particularly surprised that these differences were mainly due to the gains of the richest and that the lower income groups benefited little or not at all’. 

(ZeroHedge)

Still, over the years the men have been re-considering many of the customs they took for granted in their youth. This includes even female genital mutilation – which is practiced on daughters as a rite of passage. ‘We’ve noticed that it makes our girls weak’, says Lengees. With hindsight, Lengees says he wishes he could have traded his past Moran life for an education. ‘Look at this phone my children gave me’, says Lengees, holding it out. ‘I only know how to press this button to answer it if someone is calling me. I can’t even call out.’ Being illiterate, he says, ‘is like being a deaf person. You don’t understand the language people are using. It’s like you’re not even fully in the world’. 

(NPR)

….Topham noted how the Smurfs live in a Kibbutz-like farming community and rely on self-sufficient methods of means and production. Moreover, the Smurfs coexist happily without using money, sacrificing themselves for the greater good of the community.

(Movieweb)

‘New study in Nature confirms that if we want to avoid the next pandemic—we should stop destroying biodiversity, heating, and polluting the planet’, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, who leads the World Health Organization’s climate change unit and was not involved with the study, wrote on social media. ‘Just one more reason to go for a greener, healthier future’.

(Common Dreams)

Salman Rushdie says free Palestinian state would be ‘Taliban-like'.

(Middle East Eye)

‘Millions of children across the country do not have anywhere safe and decent to call home. These children are living without space to study, play or even have a good night’s sleep; while their parents struggle to afford essentials like food and clothes’. 

(wsws.org,)

It is a system driven not by human needs and wants, but by the pursuit of profit that has no end. This system has only been around for a few hundred years. But in that short time it has reshaped the world with new technologies, infrastructures and innovations. This has given us the potential to truly meet the needs of everyone, to give everyone a life of freedom and fulfilment. 

(Communist Future)

The US government is currently considering a reclassification of Vietnam under the US Tariff Law as a “market economy,” which would provide Vietnam major economic benefits, even though Vietnam does not satisfy basic labor rights standards. 

(Human Rights Watch)

(These links are provided for information and don’t necessarily represent our point of view.)

A socialist future? (2024)

From the July 2024 issue of the Socialist Standard

One of the many organisations standing candidates in the General Election is the newly founded Communist Future (see their no-frills website at communistfuture.com, which includes their manifesto). They are contesting just one seat, the Manchester Central constituency.

They say in their manifesto that the working class are those who have to work for a wage. Capitalism cannot achieve the potential of giving everyone a life of fulfilment, as a small minority own most of the resources needed to produce and distribute goods and services, resulting in crisis and instability. Instead of capitalism, they stand for a society with no class system: the means of production should be the shared property of everyone and be democratically managed. The communist future will be ‘a society of freedom and fulfilment for all, a setting free of human potential.’

This all sounds very promising, and is on the same sort of lines as the case of the Socialist Party, though it would be good to hear a bit more about what their future society would involve, such as implying the ending of wage labour. On the other hand, Communist Future do express support demands for reforms, such as controls on rents and reduced working hours, though accepting that these can only provide short-term gains. They also support ‘demands that promote political freedom’, including an end to the House of Lords and the monarchy. They say they are not standing in the election in order to do things for people.

So they could certainly say more about the kind of society they want, and their advocacy of reforms is a sticking point. But it is certainly encouraging to see such an organisation making its voice heard.

Paul Bennett