Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
Editorial of the Socialist issue 1350
For anyone still wondering whether the capitalist system can provide a secure and stable world, the start of 2026 has been a brutal reality check. Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, and his to-the-point honesty in declaring his actions a defence of the economic and strategic interests of American imperialism – in this case including access to oil – illustrates the dangerous and volatile world that capitalism in its era of decay and decline has created.
And the response of the Labour government in Britain? Keir Starmer simply welcomed the toppling of Maduro while Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, urged for a ‘quick’ transition of power after Trump declared the US would now be ‘running’ Venezuela. If the start of 2026 is a glimpse into the future of the kind of world capitalism in crisis is creating, then it also shows the role British capitalism – a desperate, puny player on the world stage – is fated to play in the world economic and political storms which are developing.
In his New Year’s message, which will have rung laughably hollow for anyone who bothered to listen to it, Starmer attempted to take aim at the cost-of-living crisis engulfing the vast majority of people living in Britain.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the cost of living soared as bosses in Britain and internationally moved to protect their profit margins. Out of this crisis facing the working class emerged the 2022-23 strike wave in Britain, which forced increased pay offers out of the then Tory government and contributed to the political fracturing and eventual sinking of that hated government in the general election.
But this crisis hasn’t disappeared for the vast majority. Data from Retail Economics found that in the least affluent households, cash left over for spending after essentials has fallen 2.1% since Labour was elected in July 2024. For the bottom 40% of households, incomes remain below 2019 levels.
Neither has this crisis appeared out of the clear blue sky for working-class people. Since the beginning of the world economic crisis 19 years ago, continuous austerity and squeezed living standards have rained down. Any government representing the capitalist system and the interests of the bosses – as this Labour government does – is bound to preside over further falls in living standards, making it widely unpopular and hated.
Starmer in his New Year’s message bragged “rail fares, prescription charges, fuel duty – all frozen. £150 cut from your energy bills.”
But working-class and young people living in the real world are experiencing an ongoing, years-long crisis. Waiting lists in the NHS remain well above pre-pandemic levels; councils face financial crisis after years of cuts, meaning further attacks posed to social care, education and other vital public services locally; rising unemployment; to name just a few symptoms.
Industrial struggle
As 2026 kicks off, the working class is gearing up for a fightback. Just before Christmas, resident doctors across England took five days of strike action. Meanwhile, industrial action is set to hit 33 further education colleges this January as members of the University and College Union walk out on strike. This isn’t to mention countless local disputes taking place, including Unite the Union’s ongoing Birmingham bin strike against the Labour council’s fire-and-rehire operation, which has now achieved the historic step of bringing agency workers into the struggle.
Industrial action might not yet be at the level of the 2022 strike wave, which itself was a 30-year high point, but it remains for now higher than during the pre-Covid period, with the real potential for more action in the future.
Political representation
Less than two years ago, the Tories were smashed by working-class opposition. This Labour government ultimately faces the same fate. Already there is speculation about a replacement for Starmer following what will be a disastrous performance for Labour in the May elections. But this begs the questions – what political alternative does the organised working class have to hand to fight to replace pro-austerity Labour with?
Overwhelmingly, the leaders of the trade union movement have tried to dodge this question. Some will attempt to place hopes in a new Labour leader replacing Starmer.
But no matter who leads the Labour Party in the future, committed to defending the interests of capitalism in crisis as it is, Labour will not offer an alternative to the poverty, war, and vicious daily attacks which capitalism means for the working class.
Unison
Meanwhile, in the trade union movement itself, the debate around working-class political representation rages on. December saw a historic victory for the left in Unison, with Andrea Egan winning the general secretary election. Her pledge to review and strengthen the union’s capacity to take effective national strike action is a potentially huge threat to Starmer’s Labour, as the biggest union organising workers in the public sector.
As important was her pledge to launch a review of Unison’s relationship with the Labour Party. This, along with the motion passed at Unite policy conference in summer 2025 condemning the Birmingham Labour council for its attacks on the bin workers, and ‘discussing the union’s relationship with Labour’, should be used as the basis for the convening of a trade union conference to discuss steps towards political representation for the working class. It is urgently needed in both unions and beyond, to turn those words on paper into action by the union leaders.
The working class will have the opportunity to express its anger with Starmer’s Labour at the polls in May, but without a tool to do so effectively being offered by the trade unions. As a result, Nigel Farage’s right-populist Reform UK will benefit – presenting itself as anti-establishment and on the side of workers.
Your Party
Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party summer 2025 launch received over 800,000 sign-ups – an indication of the huge enthusiasm for a left-wing alternative, and a consequence of the huge absence of working-class political representation.
The overwhelming support at its autumn founding conference for “local People’s Budget conferences, bringing together representatives from the local trade union movement, as well as local anti-cuts groups, socialist organisations, and other working-class organisations, to coordinate a no-cuts stand”, as well as to “support all independent socialist candidates of good standing”, should be taken as a green light for all those trade unionists, activists, and Your Party supporters wanting to fight for a working-class socialist alternative to prepare to stand and fight austerity.
The elections in May 2026 will be a watershed moment for Starmer’s hated Labour government. The elections will see the working-class finding different ways to express its anger at the polls. There is an opportunity to give an expression to that anger in the form of an anti-austerity, working-class stand – pointing in the direction of the mass workers’ party that is desperately needed.
Working to help seize that opportunity, as well as fighting for the trade unions to take the lead in developing a new mass workers’ party in opposition to Starmer’s Labour, will be key tasks facing socialists in 2026.
