A recent report endorsed by the economist Joseph Stiglitz warned that the world is facing an ‘inequality emergency’, as an overwhelming share of new wealth goes to those who are already the richest. The economic chasm between them and everyone else will deepen with over $70 trillion passed down to their heirs over the next decade.

But what’s new? We already knew that a tiny proportion of the population owned the vast majority of wealth. The percentages make little difference to most of us whose only resource is the energy we sell to an employer. And that will continue until we vote to bring in a completely new kind of society based on production for need rather than profit.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

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.

Taken from the December 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/world-socialist-radio/

Arguments against Jesuits and JWs.

Speaker: Adam Buick

I feel a bit of a swine sometimes, usually when I’m talking to my mate Chris. Although he knows more than most about Marx’s economics, he recently told me he was pleased about Mamdani’s election as New York mayor because the poor would benefit from free public transport and rent controls. Here’s the swine-ish bit – I reminded him that the law of value applies to every commodity, including labour power, that those two proposals from Mamdani would, if applied, allow employers to reduce wage levels, and perhaps result in a slight shift of wealth from landlords to employers.

‘So it’s nowt to do with socialism then?’

‘That’s right, Chris, sorry!’

For more on this topic see here.

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.

Speaker: Bill Martin

History is the history of class struggle, and before the capitalist class came to power, they had to fight against the dominant feudal class: this talk looks at a case study of commoners revolt in Medieval London and how it related to capitalism coming into being.

To connect to a Zoom meeting, click https://zoom.us/j/7421974305

Heat-related deaths now exceed half a million a year, which means about one every minute.

People often just cannot cope with the heat stress caused by continued burning of fossil fuels, quite apart from the air pollution and increased likelihood of wildfires that result.

Governments pay out massive subsidies to fossil fuel companies ($2.5bn a day in 2023), often while spewing out drivel about the benefits of a ‘free market’. At the same time, hundreds of billions of hours of labour are lost because of the heat.

The responsibility for all this is down to capitalism and its motive of making a profit rather than caring for the environment and those who live within it.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/