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