Is the UK in the Mood for Socialism?

We’ve given capitalism a chance — did it measure up to expectations?

In the UK and the US there is growing interest in socialism, brought about by the failures of neoliberal capitalism, and carried by supposedly unlikely leaders who have resonated with the public. Many people are experiencing extreme hardship; as a result of this, support for trade unions, socialist politicians and independent media has grown. For now, this support is coming mainly from the working and lower middle classes, but it has the potential to grow if things continue to get worse for the average British or American citizen — and/or if the middle classes reassess their conscience and decide that the current system is unacceptable.

That’s a difficult one to gauge, as we cannot yet see into the minds of others (although it’s probably part of neoliberalism’s ultimate goal). But as soon as the cutbacks to public services start to harm the middle classes, we will. Although traditionally left-wing media is covering the impact of British austerity policies on the poorest, readers of the Telegraph and Daily Mail are unlikely to be paying much attention to these stories. A lot of them simply do not know about the suffering and deprivation spreading through the poorest communities, as they do not read other papers or access the internet. They may have heard about some of these stories, but…