In this podcast with Hannah Sell, Socialist Party general secretary, we look at the world economy, how the capitalist system works – or doesn’t work - and draw conclusions for socialists. 
It is the first time that, across much of the world, a surge in inflation has coexisted with widespread financial vulnerabilities. The longer the inflation persists, the stronger and longer the required policy tightening, and hence the bigger the financial stability risks”. The central banks are walking a tightrope, with little room for manoeuvre.
Hannah draws out how, whatever the immediate perspectives are for the world economy, there is no prospect of any new golden era of capitalist progress. 
That does not mean, however, that the Great Recession is going to be precisely replicated. On the contrary, the capitalists will face crises in the next period that are likely to be even more devastating for their system, both economically and politically. None of the factors which led to the 2007-08 recession have been overcome, while the ‘solutions’ that were adopted to ameliorate its effects will not be possible in the same way next time. 
Hannah explains how the capitalist classes of the world have no way out of the intractable problems facing their system – economic, political, environmental. Halting climate change would clearly only be possible on a global basis, and yet under twenty-first century capitalism it is a tool for protectionism.
Only planning, under the democratic control of the working class, will make it possible to develop production to a higher stage, organising it on a global basis to satisfy social needs and halt and reverse climate change, rather than being driven by the greed for profit. Replacing this rotten capitalist system with democratic socialist planning is the urgent task facing the working class worldwide.

Get in touch
To contact the Socialist Party about this podcast or to find out about becoming a member:
www.socialistparty.org.uk

We also recommend checking out the CWI, with analysis of world events, and for those listening in other parts of the world, get in touch to join the fight for socialism in your country, that’s www.socialistworld.net 

Socialism 2023
Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 November, Institute of Education, London WC1H 0AL
It will be an in-person weekend of discussion and debate on ideas to change the world hosted by the Socialist Party. 
Hannah will be a key note speaker at the Saturday night rally and will also be among the many speakers introducing workshops where you will also have a chance to ask those questions forming in your head as you listen to this, to raise your own points, to argue if you wish. You will be among hundreds of socialist fighters at this weekend event – so it will be brilliant.
Socialism 2023 takes place on 25 and 26 November in London. You can buy a ticket that includes hostel accommodation, there’s a free creche throughout, and it will be brilliant. 
For tickets and info: www.socialism.org.uk


Further reading

Socialism Today September 2023 No.270
The end of Golden Eras
The new lease of life that world capitalism experienced after the collapse of the Stalinist states of Russia and Eastern Europe from the late 1980s has definitively run its course. Whatever the immediate perspectives are for the world economy, argues HANNAH SELL, there is no prospect of any new golden era of capitalist progress. 
https://socialismtoday.org/the-end-of-golden-eras

Socialism Today July/August 2023 No.269
China, Mao and the markets
At a time of intensifying economic and geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China, HANNAH SELL reviews a book that stresses the role of the Communist Party-controlled state in China’s economy.
https://socialismtoday.org/china-mao-and-the-markets

Socialism

127. A Marxist take on the world economic crisis

The Class Struggle in 2020

A fierce factional struggle is being waged around the ruling ANC between the supporters of so-called ‘white monopoly capital’ around President Cyril Ramaphosa, and the supporters of former-President Jacob Zuma, whose siren-call is ‘radical economic transformation’. Both factions however defend the capitalist system.  In essence, their argument is about the best way to perpetuate the exploitation of the working class.
In this podcast, Weizmann Hamilton, general secretary of the Marxist Workers Party, explains this factional struggle as the inevitable outcome of the class interests the ANC has served historically – those of the black aspirant capitalist class, and sketches-out how this mission developed historically, including the role of Nelson Mandela and the 1994 negotiated settlement that ended apartheid.
Hamilton brings things firmly up to date and warns the leaders of the trade unions that the reformist economic and timid political alternative being put forward will see them following in the ANC’s footsteps and objectively playing the role of defenders of capitalism. Capitalism’s economic and political crisis demands a policy of strict working class independence from the intra-class conflicts of the different wings of the capitalist class. A genuinely independent working class policy must have the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy under democratic workers control at its heart.

Recorded at the MWP’s Gauteng branch meeting in Johannesburg on 8 February 2020.

NB: We apologise for the sound quality, especially from 20:00 to 22:30. The meeting took place during severe rainstorms.

The ANC’s Historical Mission: The Defence of Capitalism

The Marxist Workers Party of South Africa bases its programme on the following ideas: 

(1) Karl Marx (1818-83) & Friedrich Engels (1820-95)
(2) Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)
(3) Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)
(4) The First Four Congresses of the Communist International (1919-22)
(5) Trotsky’s Left Opposition (1923-27) and the founding of the Fourth International (1938)
(6) The Committee for a Workers International (1974) and its forerunners.

Taken together, we believe these are the ideas necessary to guide the working class’s struggle for the liberation of humankind from poverty and exploitation.

The MWP is organising a series of day schools to introduce each of these to new members and supporters. The first took place on 22 February 2020.

The workshop covered how the capitalist class first emerged, the bourgeois revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Industrial Revolution, ideas of the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s Das Kapital, the organisation of the First International and the events of the Paris Commune and their impact on the development of the Marxist Theory of the State.

The workshop was presented by Shaun Arendse for the MWP ‘s Executive Committee.

A Brief History of the International Marxist Movement & the Revolutionary Programme (Part 1)

Socialism the Podcast offers a Marxist approach to the big issues we face in a world of capitalist crisis. Fighting for jobs, homes and public services for all. From strikes and mass movements through to community campaigns, history and theory. We shine a light on the struggles of workers and young people, and discuss the strategy for a socialist fightback.

127. A Marxist take on the world economic crisis

Socialism

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