World Socialist Radio

This episode reflects on life before smartphones and social media, describing how children in the 1990s experienced the world directly, without digital pressures such as FOMO (fear of missing out), sexting, cyberbullying, and addictive “attention economy” features designed to maximize engagement. It highlights growing concerns about the mental health impacts of ubiquitous device use among young people and discusses recent policy responses such as Australia’s ban on major social media platforms for under-16s and widespread bans on phone use in schools, though evidence of real benefits remains mixed. It also notes how pervasive smartphone ownership even among very young children blurs safety with surveillance, and that regulatory efforts may simply push kids toward less regulated, potentially worse online spaces. Taken from the January 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode argues that fascism and fascists are symptoms of deeper social and economic decay under capitalism — not just isolated groups of extremists or caricatures of “jackbooted thugs.” It dismisses simplistic responses like beating up racists on the streets, noting that violence alone won’t change the underlying conditions that breed fascist sentiment. Instead, it emphasises that many people drawn to fascist politics are alienated, fearful, and frustrated by their position in society under a profit-driven system, and that their attraction to nationalism and hatred stems from this sense of powerlessness rather than coherent political ideas. The real answer to fascism isn’t merely opposing its street-level activism but challenging and transforming the social conditions that give rise to it — particularly the inequalities and crises inherent in capitalism. Working-class education, solidarity, and unity against nationalism and division are needed to undercut fascist appeal. Only broad social change, rather than repression of individuals, can address the root causes of fascist movements. Taken from the February 1993 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Recent media attention has focused on the Socialist Rifle Association (SRA), a US-based left-wing organisation promoting firearms training and “working-class armed self-defence,” after a Democratic Senate candidate in Maine was criticised for past posts encouraging people to join it. Reports suggest growing gun ownership among LGBTQ and left-liberal Americans driven by fear of political repression, while a Cato Institute FOIA request revealed the SRA is under FBI investigation. The SRA presents itself as a left-wing counterpoint to right-wing gun culture, framing firearms as tools for community defence and resistance to authoritarianism. However, this trend reflects not a coherent ideological shift but widespread anxiety produced by capitalism – economic insecurity, political polarisation, violent policing, and commodified security – conditions that push different social groups to arm themselves defensively. This episode criticises the SRA’s use of revolutionary rhetoric, particularly selective quotations from Marx and implied links to Leninist traditions, arguing these ideas are taken out of their historical and theoretical context. Marx’s later view emphasised democratic, majority-led self-emancipation rather than armed minorities or vanguards, and the piece contends that firearms cannot resolve capitalism’s structural causes of insecurity and division. Drawing on historical examples and socialist theory, it argues that armed groups – left or right – reproduce capitalism’s logic of coercion and offer consumerist, individualised responses to systemic problems. Socialism cannot be achieved or defended by militias or vigilantes, but only through conscious, democratic, and mass political organisation; the SRA is therefore a defensive reaction to social breakdown rather than a genuine revolutionary alternative. Taken from the January 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode situates debates over transgender identity within a Marxist analysis of capitalist society, arguing that rigid gender roles are historically constructed and reinforced by capitalism’s need to reproduce labour power. It draws on Marx’s base-and-superstructure framework to explain how patriarchal and gender norms originate in earlier modes of production and persist under capitalism to serve economic ends, assigning individuals culturally defined roles tied to reproductive labour. From this perspective, gender identity is not simply derived from biology but is shaped by social expectations that help sustain the capitalist system. Taken from the December 2022 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode article uses recent public comments by authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and the broader enthusiasm among billionaires and tech elites for life-extension research, to highlight the hubris of the rich attempting to “cheat death.” It points out the absurdity of autocrats and Silicon Valley figures treating ageing as a technical problem to solve, despite biological limits and deep inequalities in who could even access such treatments. The speaker underscores that while elites fantasise about immortality through organ transplants, genetic tweaks, or radical longevity regimens, these efforts are constrained by hard biological realities. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode is a recording of a talk given by Johnny Mercer at The Socialist Party's Head Office on 30th November 2025. The speaker outlines the Socialist Party of Great Britain’s case for abolishing the wage system, arguing that capitalism is rooted in minority ownership of the means of production and in production for profit rather than human need. They reject the idea that capitalism emerged naturally, instead tracing its origins to violent dispossession – from the Enclosures and Highland Clearances in Britain to slavery and colonialism globally – which created a propertyless working class forced to sell its labour. Drawing on Marx, the talk emphasises the exploitative and alienating nature of wage labour, detailing how workers are separated from the products of their work, the labour process, each other, nature, and ultimately their own human potential. Capitalism’s pursuit of endless growth is linked to ecological destruction, and global conflict is framed as competition between capitalist interests fought at the expense of the working class. The second half outlines the principles of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, founded in 1904 as a breakaway from reformist movements and committed to a leaderless, democratic, revolutionary transformation. The speaker defines socialism as a stateless, moneyless society based on common ownership and production for need, stressing that emancipation must be won consciously by the working class itself. They argue that all other political parties – including those considered left-wing – ultimately support capitalism, offering only reforms rather than systemic change. The talk concludes by urging workers to unite under the SPGB’s banner to replace capitalism’s inequalities with a society grounded in freedom, equality, and genuine human solidarity. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode explores how the word “revolution” has been overused and misunderstood, much like marketing buzzwords such as “game-changer.” The speaker argues that revolutions are a normal and essential part of human progress — from mastering fire to agriculture, industry, and modern technologies like AI and genetics. Societal revolutions happen gradually and often unnoticed, just as we don’t feel the Earth spinning. Capitalism isn’t the final stage of history, and future generations will likely view today's world as outdated. The episode then presents the socialist vision of the next major revolution: a society where money is abolished and everything is free. The argument is that humanity already produces enough resources — food, housing, clothing — for everyone, but the monetary system artificially restricts access. If goods are free, money becomes unnecessary. Capitalism requires inequality, fuels environmental destruction, and cannot reform itself. Therefore, real freedom and sustainability require a conscious human push toward this next revolution — a world based on abundance and free access to resources. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode argues that war and large-scale violence are not primitive constants built into human nature, but rather they became widespread only with the rise of hierarchical, agrarian and class-based societies. For most of human prehistory — during the long era when humans lived as small, egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands — there is scant evidence of systemic war. It was only with the advent of agriculture, permanent settlements and the resultant scarcity that social hierarchies emerged: a privileged minority gained power over resources and labour, dominance replaced egalitarianism, and the structural conditions for permanent class society were created. Thus, war and institutionalised violence are shown as products of social organisation rather than an inevitable aspect of human biology or “original sin.” Taken from the December 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Proposals for “free buses” under capitalism—like the plan by New York politician Zohran Mamdani—paint a misleading picture: there’s no such thing as “free” in a system based on profit. While fare-free public transport would indeed make travel easier and lower emissions, the column warns that funding it via higher local taxes essentially subsidises employers by reducing the cost of living, which in turn can suppress wages. The only way to make transport—and all essential services—truly free and accessible for everyone, according to the authors, is to abolish the wage system entirely and bring the means of production into common, democratic ownership, enabling a socialist society where goods and services are provided solely to meet people’s needs. In Woolly Thinking the author critiques trade union leader Sarah Woolley’s call to raise taxes on the rich and corporations in order to fund public services like housing, health, education, and a “just transition.” While she argues that the money already exists in society, the article contends that under capitalism, that wealth comes from surplus value created by workers — which capitalists then reinvest or hoard. Taxing profits would reduce incentives for reinvestment, likely leading to less job creation, lower wages, and a shrinking tax base. The piece warns that these reformist proposals misunderstand how capitalism fundamentally operates. Articles taken from the November 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This is a talk that was given on 31 Oct 2025 on a general maritime theme. There's no particular point being made, just some observations on a number of vaguely related news stories from earlier in the year. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This Socialist Standard article “Pathfinders – Basic Skills” critiques claims that declining literacy and “cancel culture” stem from abandoning phonics, arguing instead that capitalism’s chaotic priorities—not conspiracies—drive educational failures. It notes that both US and UK literacy levels are poor, worsened by social media and AI, which promote effortless but shallow learning. The author humorously demonstrates AI’s inconsistency in misattributing a quote, concluding that genuine understanding requires “friction” and effort—something neither capitalist education systems nor AI’s “frictionless” convenience can provide. From the November 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode examines how UFO narratives have been shaped by secrecy, misinterpretation, and capitalist interests. It discusses the BBC4 documentary “What Are UFOs?”, which revisits pilot Alex Dietrich’s 2004 “tic tac” sighting and the 2015 “gimbal” video, both later explained by experts as camera and motion distortions of ordinary aircraft. Many so-called “unidentified” incidents, the article notes, are better understood as sightings of classified military technology—echoing cases like the 1947 Roswell crash, now known to involve Project Mogul, a Cold War nuclear-detection program. Likewise, triangular UFO reports from the 1980s onward likely stem from experimental U.S. stealth craft tested at secret facilities such as Area 51. The piece argues that the UFO craze thrived amid Cold War paranoia, government secrecy, and Hollywood storytelling, eventually evolving into a profitable pop-culture industry. Ultimately, it concludes that the enduring fascination with UFOs reveals more about capitalism’s power to generate fear and fantasy than about life beyond Earth. From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Even in a socialist society the legacy of capitalism would pose deep challenges—particularly in areas tied to personal behavior, health and consumption. The episode points to obesity, processed foods, addictions, pollution, synthetic drugs and industrial toxins as examples of harms created under capitalism, and raises the question of how a socialist world would responsibly manage them without exacerbating individual dependency or imposing authoritarian controls. While acknowledging that some “withdrawal symptoms” might result from removing harmful, profit-driven products, a democratic socialist society would not perpetuate illnesses for profit, and would need to find ethical, collective ways to address lifestyle and health issues. From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode criticises Kirk’s activist legacy, arguing that his aggressive right-wing tactics — including demonisation of queer people, unions, and students — laid the grounds for the backlash that culminated in his assassination. It frames his death not simply as violence against a provocateur, but as the inevitable consequence of a combative ideology that treats politics as warfare rather than debate. From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This episode criticises how Labour and other self-described “socialist” parties trumpet the label without a coherent understanding of socialism, arguing that most of their proposed reforms—such as nationalisation, higher taxes, expanded public services—do nothing to challenge capitalism’s fundamental logic of production for profit. It describes a “Your Party” meeting, where despite participants’ rhetoric about socialism, discussion centered on reforms rather than systemic change. True socialism means abolishing the market system entirely in favour of a moneyless, cooperative society, and that efforts to rebrand or tweak capitalism as “socialist” are misleading. From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

From the October 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard, written by Robin Cox Nationalism is a product of capitalism: it emerges to glue culturally diverse societies under a shared identity, but in fact tends to erase local diversity and enable state control. This episode traces nationalism’s rise alongside capitalism’s growth (via literacy, print culture, mobility), shows how “traditions” are often artificially invented to bolster national identity, and highlights the tension between nationalism and globalising forces (e.g. big business, migration) which capitalism also fosters. The result is a backlash: as neoliberal globalisation falters, resurgent nationalism—often reactionary and exclusionary—becomes a rallying point against the perceived threats of migration and cultural dilution. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

From the September 2025 issue of The Socialist Standard: This article warns of the growing crisis posed by generative AI’s propensity for “hallucinations”—fabrication of false or harmful content presented as fact. It highlights alarming examples, including a case where Google’s AI falsely informed council-house tenants they could be evicted to make way for asylum seekers—dismissed by a housing solicitor as “horseshit of the highest order.” It also discusses Musk’s AI, Grok, which—especially in its “spicy” mode—can generate explicit deepfake imagery of celebrities without prompting. The piece critiques the Trump administration’s deregulatory stance on these technologies, despite widespread calls from U.S. states and even tech leaders for safeguards. Concerns escalate when chatbots are reported to advise children on dangerous behaviours like abusing substances, hiding eating disorders, or drafting suicide letters. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, acknowledges a deeper problem of “emotional overreliance” among young users, who may defer critical life decisions to AI, a phenomenon he finds deeply troubling. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Creating an egalitarian society through a redistribution of wealth within capitalism is a pipe-dream as it goes against the logic of the system. Capitalism is based on a minority owning the means of wealth production and on these being used to generate profits that are accumulated as more wealth for the owners. Inequality of wealth ownership and the tendency for the wealthy to get wealthier are built into the system. Attempting to counter this will mean that the new party will end up being a mere party of protest, spending its time criticising the government for not doing what it ‘demands’ and ‘resisting’ when the workings of the capitalist economy force the government to make things worse. --- The Times’s obituary (4 August) of the economist Lord Desai who died at the end of July recounted the following anecdote: ‘“Marx wasn’t against home ownership. In fact he owned his own house,” Desai insisted when challenged about his own two properties. What Marx was against, he added, was using property to exploit workers. “Marx had no objection to the ownership of consumer durables”.’ Taken from the September 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Labour didn’t fundamentally reform capitalism. Instead, capitalism reshaped Labour, gradually pulling it away from egalitarian ideals toward embracing profit-driven policies and business-friendly governance. Originally formed in 1906 as a trade union pressure group in parliament, in 1918 the Labour Party adopted as its long-term aim a nationalised economy. This, together with a redistribution of wealth to create a less unequal society, was to be achieved gradually by measures taken by a succession of Labour governments. This strategy — Labourism — failed, and how! Instead of Labour gradually changing capitalism, it was capitalism that gradually changed Labour. Learning from the experience of being in government, that the only way capitalism can run is as an economic system driven by profit-making and that this has to be given priority, Labour gradually evolved from an alleged labour party into an avowed capitalist party. Here is how it happened. Taken from the September 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

We love watching cop shows where the rugged dick wins. The bad guy gets caught, everyone breathes a sigh of relief, and law and order are secured for another day, again. The detective’s a heavy drinking, chain-smoking, emotionally wrecked mess, but somehow they get the bad guy. Usually some rich, powerful bastard who almost gets away with it, but justice wins in the final act. We get to feel good. Satisfied. But that’s not how it works in real life. For the working class the justice system doesn’t exist to deliver truth or fairness. It’s a system: a system under capital, a system that serves capital. It protects property, not people. It punishes survival. It targets the working class, the dispossessed, the traumatised, those who’ve already been hurt by other material conditions this system throws at them. Written by AT and taken from the September 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard. World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants. To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0