Two thirds of young people in Britain are socialists…

But what is socialism?

George Phillips, Cardiff Socialist Students

Capitalism is failing. Every section of society, with the exception of the elite capitalist class, is being squeezed and cut. Households face yet another increase in energy prices, driving millions more into poverty this winter. All this while Shell recorded profits of nearly £9.5 billion in the last three months. BP’s profits tripled to £6.9 billion, and the world’s five biggest oil companies shared profits of $100 billion in the first six months of 2022.

Billionaires’ wealth increased by $5 trillion to $13.8 trillion between March 2021 and the start of this year. The rich keep getting richer at our expense.

Unsurprisingly, in this world where prices continue to rise and pay doesn’t keep up, record heatwaves expose the climate emergency, workers’ strikes spread, war rumbles on in Ukraine and the Tory government is in chaos, interest in socialist ideas has exploded. 67% of young people aged 16-34 want to live in a socialist economic system, according to a poll by the Institute of Economic Affairs last year. But what is socialism, and how do we fight for it?

Under capitalism, the way society is currently organised, the overwhelming majority of wealth and resources – including the means of producing all the goods and services society needs – is privately owned by a small layer of individual capitalists. Decisions about what to produce and how to produce it are made with the objective of maximising profit for the bosses. The workers, who build and operate the machines and deliver services, receive just a fraction of the wealth they produce. An increasingly small fraction of this is invested in progressive technology and training, and the rest is hoarded by the capitalist bosses.

Socialism is about turning this arrangement on its head, by transferring ownership and control of the world’s wealth and resources into the hands of the many, not the few – so that production can be planned democratically to meet the needs of ordinary people.

But of course the capitalist class with all its wealth and power – including the backing of the capitalist state, the armed forces and police, and so on – is not about to hand over control without a fight! To change society in our interests means getting organised and building a mass movement.

And people are demonstrating that they are not prepared to allow private companies to continue to exploit us. Motivated by the struggle for secure, safe, and warm housing, food on the table and access to a decent standard of living, people are fighting back.

The “Enough Is Enough’ campaign, backed by the Communication Workers Union and RMT leader Mick Lynch, has set out its demands for: A real pay rise, the slashing of energy bills, the ending of food poverty, decent homes for all and taxing the rich.

But the biggest show of strength by working-class people has been the development of nationwide strike action by rail workers, postal workers, BT telecoms engineers, as well as countless local strikes. Workers in the public sector, like health workers, teachers and council staff, are voting on whether to strike this autumn.

By refusing to work, the source of the bosses’ profits is cut off. Already, the strikes have given a glimpse of workers’ potential power – the effects of no trains, bins not being collected and post undelivered is clear for all to see. Coordinating the strikes, with workers in different industries taking action together, would demonstrate that power further.

Fearful of strikes spreading, like they have to Amazon warehouses, the mainstream capitalist media has tried to turn the public against the strikes, but they are not getting their way! A recent poll found that nearly 75% of people supported the RMT rail strikers’ demands. RMT leader Mick Lynch has galvanised a layer of workers and youth with his media appearances taking down journalists and political commentators. The Trades Union Congress, which brings together the trade unions, reported a 700% increase in traffic on its ‘Join a Union’ webpage in June.

All of these strikes bring workers into conflict with their bosses. But politically, there is no mass party fighting on the side of working-class people. On top of the decade of cuts and privatisation, the Tories continue to push for more restrictive anti-trade union laws, adding to the existing ones kept in place by previous Labour governments. Labour leader Keir Starmer continues to stick two fingers up to workers, disciplining MPs for backing workers’ demands for pay rises and backtracking on every promise made in his leadership campaign. And Labour’s proposals to deal with the cost-of-living crisis fall short.

The root of Labour’s inadequacy is that it is unprepared to seriously dent the bosses’ profits, let alone call for re-nationalisation of the railways, Royal Mail and BT – among others.

The Labour Party no longer represents working-class and young people; like the Tories it serves the well-off in society and big business. A new mass workers’ party, with the backing and democratic involvement of the trade unions with their millions of members, could put up a challenge at the ballot box and popularise demands that would truly start to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. Fighting to build such a party is a crucial task in the fight for socialism.

The huge rallies in support of Jeremy Corbyn in his campaign to be leader of the Labour Party showed the potential for young and working-class people to be mobilised by demands such as a £15-an-hour minimum wage, rent control and free education. A new party could quickly grow. But to succeed in the long term it would need to be armed with a socialist programme.

Capitalism is in deep crisis and cannot afford substantial reforms. The bosses seek to claw back any limited concessions as soon as possible in their quest for profit; this is even more the case in periods of economic crisis. Look how quickly access to free Covid testing was withdrawn, or the extra £20 a-week Universal Credit during Covid!

The UK economy is falling into a recession that is predicted to last until at least the end of 2023 – the biggest economic downturn since the 2008 financial crisis – and for many young people, it’s not the first in our lifetime. Inflation, a measure of the increasing cost-of-living, is set to exceed 13%, heaping more misery on ordinary people.

Periodic crisis is inherent to capitalism. Only rational planning of the economy, made possible by nationalisation of the biggest companies and banks under democratic working-class control and management, can lay the basis for a decent future for us all.

Students are being hit by the cost-of-living crisis as much as workers. Maintenance loans are not enough to cover rent, bills, travel and food. One in ten students rely on food-banks, according to the NUS. In recent years there has been a 300% increase in the number of students owing over £100,000 in student debt. The Tory-imposed crisis in Higher Education funding fuels course closures, attacks on teaching staff and deteriorating learning conditions. In 2021, one student took their own life every four days. Students have no choice but to fight back.

Socialist Students is a campaigning organisation. We fight for demands that would transform students’ lives: free education, living maintenance grants, and rent caps. But we also make it clear that to win those demands on a permanent basis and secure a decent future, we need to bring about socialist change. Mass movements of students and young people together with the economically powerful working class, organised around a socialist political programme to take the wealth and power off the capitalist class, can achieve that change in Britain and internationally.

If you agree, then join Socialist Students today.