Rigged system and rising right brought me back to socialism
Chris Cannon, Liverpool North Socialist Party
It wasn’t a sudden awakening or a phase I stumbled into. It was a foundational belief that society should be built on solidarity, equity, and collective wellbeing, rather than individual greed.
That conviction solidified when I turned 18. I met my former primary school teacher, who was running a Socialist Party campaign stall on the high street. After a catch up and a brief talk about the Socialist Party, I decided to join up there and then.
However, as life progressed, I moved away for university. My formal membership lapsed, as I focused on navigating higher education and building a career.
I did what we are all told to do.
I worked hard, climbed the ladder, and secured a good, stable job at a credit card company.
Objectively, I was doing well. I had a steady income in a professional industry.
But it didn’t take long for a harsh reality to set in. One that millions of working people face every single day.
The numbers didn’t add up
Despite my comfortable corporate salary, the numbers simply did not add up. The cost of living and the skyrocketing housing market created a rigged system. I was trapped in a cycle paying exorbitant rents, where it was functionally impossible to save for a home of my own.
I was working in the finance sector, watching capital flow, realising that the basic human need for secure housing was entirely out of reach for my generation.
In 2008, faced with a stagnating UK economy, I had to make a drastic choice. I left my career behind and moved abroad. But returning to the UK, anger at that systemic failure stayed with me.
While economic hardship laid the dry tinder for my return to organised politics, the final straw was the terrifying, unchecked rise of the far right.
Seeing the surge of Reform UK nationwide was alarming. But it truly hit home when Sarah Pochin was elected MP in my own backyard.
Watching a right-wing populist capture a local seat by exploiting people’s genuine economic anxieties with divisive rhetoric was a painful wake-up call.
For months, I found myself locked in exhausting, endless arguments on social media, trying to counter the deluge of misinformation and reactionary points from Reform supporters. It was a draining, isolating experience.
I grew tired of shouting into the void, while the political landscape shifted beneath my feet. Writing angry comments online wasn’t going to stop the right.
We can’t fight alone
If you want to fight a coordinated, organised political force, you can’t do it alone. You must organise. I decided to do something tangible.
My journey away, the economic gymnastics required just to achieve a basic milestone of adulthood, and the encroaching shadow of right-wing populism have completely reaffirmed my lifelong beliefs. Capitalism cannot solve the crises it creates, and it is those very crises that feed the far right.
