Mark Best, Socialist Party national committee
This may not be the first Socialist newspaper you’ve read in 2024, but it is the last one published of the year.
It’s been a year filled with globe-shaking events, the bloody effects of capitalism in crisis, and, in many places, workers and young people fighting back. And in the pages of the Socialist there has been analysis of the processes at play, highlighting and learning from struggles across the world and what is needed to fight back and to win – the organised working class armed with a socialist programme.
We finish the year after Trump has won the US presidential election. War continues apace in Gaza and Ukraine, with tens of thousands of people killed and many more having lost their homes. And as the Socialist goes to press, thousands are feared dead after cyclone Chido hit the island of Mayotte, just one of a list of extreme weather events made worse by capitalism’s climate catastrophe.
The capitalist system, which puts short-term profits ahead of people’s lives, livelihoods and the environment, has got to go! A socialist society, based on democratic workers’ control and management, could put an end to the divisions, wars and oppressions of the capitalist world.
And workers fighting back have certainly featured in these pages. Amidst the doom and gloom that gets plastered across the establishment press, victories have been won by working-class action or even just the threat of it. Issues have included articles on the mass movement in Bangladesh against students’ access to jobs that brought down pro-big business leader Hasina. In Sri Lanka, workers and poor people rejected the austerity programmes initiated by previous presidents Rajapaksa and Ranil on behalf of the institutions of world capitalism – the IMF and the World Bank. That led to the mass uprising known as the Aragalaya, and in 2024 the election of a self-proclaimed ‘Marxist’ as president, whose programme will be tested by the masses and big business bosses on each side.
Working class stamping its mark in Britain
Going into 2024, the Tories had on the statute books draconian anti-union minimum service levels legislation. Threat of strikes by rail workers left it dead in the water. The law has sat gathering dust on the shelf ever since, soon to be taken off the lawbooks for good.
Working-class anger smashed the Tories at the general election. Previously the most successful pro-capitalist party in the world, the Tories were unceremoniously booted out and reduced to squabbling rubble.
Rishi Sunak’s replacement, Keir Starmer, had already shown his true colours to many of the people who marched and took action against the war on Gaza; backing the actions of the Israeli state and offering mild criticisms. Independent MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, were elected on the back of this anger. Although Starmer’s New Labour won many seats, its shallow social base shows that we can fight back and win concessions.
Knowing it is on wobbly ground, the government was quick to settle the ongoing public sector pay claims almost as soon as they got in. Chancellor Rachel Reeves acknowledged they were doing so because of the strike wave, to avoid the ‘cost’ of further industrial action.
Less than six months into the new Labour government, anger is rising. Starmer’s approval rating is lower now than any leader in the last 50 years. Many people hoped against hope that the Labour government would offer some alternative to the Tories, but by keeping the two-child benefit cap (and suspending Labour MPs who voted to scrap it), and axing universal winter fuel payments, he’s continuing the Tories’ cruel legacy on behalf of the capitalist class.
Working-class struggles, fightbacks by young people and more sections of society loom on the horizon. What will be the spark that sets off a mass movement? The raising of tuition fees and crisis in education? Insulting public sector pay offers to hard-working teachers, NHS staff and more? (see pages 4 and 5) Or it could be another event entirely. The only thing guaranteed is that the anger bubbling under the surface will find an expression somewhere. And to cut across the pretend anti-establishment ‘credentials’ of the likes of Reform and Trump, we need fighting working-class organisation, in our unions and a party of our own.
New year, new socialist you?
So, while the Socialist is not being produced – back with the first issue of 2025 coming out on the 8 January, can you ponder a Socialist new year’s resolution?
If you’re reading this and you’re not subscribed to get it on your doorstep or in your inbox every week, can you subscribe to the Socialist? And if you are subscribed, make sure you get your weekly dose of medicine against all the crap in the pro-capitalist media by reading as much of each issue as you can. Is there anyone you know who you’ve talked to about the state of the world that would get a lot out of reading the Socialist? Can you sell them a copy and see what they think, or even get them a three-month subscription as a Christmas present?
If you’re serious about wanting to fight for working-class action and to fight for a socialist alternative to crisis-ridden capitalism, then you need to get organised. A first step is to join the Socialist Party in the new year, come to one of our meetings and discuss with one of our members about what you can do to help fight for a socialist world.
