SPGB Bag; Winstanley Quote
Socialist Party custom printed cotton bags
Dyed 5oz Cotton bags black in choice of three designs. The bags measure 38 x 42 cm and have two shoulder length cotton handles.
Price £3 plus £2 for UK P&P. Single orders posted in C4 size gusset envelopes for easy recycling.
Available online at https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/product-category/merchandise/ or buy direct from SPGB Head Office, 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UN.
For overseas or bulk order P&P details please enquire by email with subject ‘Cotton bags’ to spgb@worldsocialism.org.
Whoever has will be given more
Socialist Sonnet No. 240
Punch and Judy Man
The tide ebbs and flows in Clacton,
Waves advance, pause and then retreat,
Quite unmoved by human conceit
Enjoying the fresh air and fun.
It’s not beyond Westminster’s reach
The squabbling for office and place,
Where everyone’s more than one face.
There’s to be drama on the beach,
A show that’s seemingly funny
And yet is actually grotesque,
The character behind the mask
Only performs for the money.
Once you given all you can spare
You’ll find he is not really there.
D. A.
The Socialist Party’s Summer School
The Socialist Party’s Summer School.
A weekend of talks and discussion on the theme of Populism
21st – 23rd August 2026, Worcester
Summer School 2026 – The Socialist Party of Great Britain
Sleeping on the street
The government has just repealed the Vagrancy Act of 1824, which made rough sleeping a crime. There are about a million empty homes in England alone with more than a quarter of them empty for more than six months. So there is absolutely no need for anyone to sleep rough.
In London, there are over 47.000 homes that have been empty for more than six months, enough to house the estimated 13,000 people sleeping rough there each year, and the 200,000 living in temporary accommodation.
In this supposedly relatively wealthy country, the possibility of providing decent homes for everyone is perfectly feasible, but capitalism’s profit motive prevents it from happening.
Socialist Sonnet No. 239
Penalties
Both captains of England beaming
Out through a betting shop window.
The trophy they hold’s just for show
To entice punters who’re dreaming
World Cup dreams. Footballing success
Against the odds: There is romance
And an outside gamble that chance
Might pay out, and so help to address
The piker’s parlous fiscal state.
Also, there’s national pride at stake,
All lost on a simple mistake;
Seeming perniciousness of fate.
Briefly, the optimism flows,
But then, the final whistle blows.
D. A.
July 2026 Socialist Standard Now Available OnLine FREE
Conscription and German Youth
A tweet on X made us aware that Germany is determined to continue its preparation, like several other Western European and Baltic states, to engage in a military conflict with Russia.
The tweet was in relation to the German volunteer military join up. Soymb posted about this in July 2025. https://soymb.com/2025/07/06/militarism/
Well ‘wer hätte das gedacht! The volunteer scheme has bombed because in first five months of 2026 only 530 applied. The German state was hoping that, from the potential 300,000 Jugend, many many more would rush forward to fight for Germany’s capitalists against Russia’s competing capitalists.
Long story short, Germany says it has twelve months in which to decide whether to bring back a compulsory military draft.
You can bet your bottom Deutschmark, sorry Euro, that the attempt to force German youngsters to sign up, or else! will be made sooner rather than later.
To German youth, and to youth everywhere, there’s only one war war worth fighting and that’s the class war!