Research and study of ideologies of social and national emancipation and their application to conditions within imperialist society
Following the drubbing received by both the major parties in British politics in local, Scottish and Welsh elections in Britain on 7 May 2026, this Webinar sought to evaluate the results, what they reveal about the ability of Britain’s ruling classes to retain control over events and their implications for the future of Britain’s political economy.
Moderated by Alan Freeman, the Webinar heard contributions from Andrew Murray, Radhika Desai and Rashida Islam.
In his contribution, Keith Bennett concluded with his assessment of the requirements for addressing the threat posed by the rising strength of Reform:
“The situation therefore demands that all working class, popular and democratic forces work to form a united front – whether in organisational form or de facto, but most likely combining elements of both, including with regard to local circumstances and possibilities.
“This would require a measure of agreement on a limited and realistic number of key issues whilst also allowing for every political party and trend in the working class and progressive movements to put their own perspectives and program before the working class and people. Although time does not allow for elaboration on this, it will also necessitate careful, realistic and perhaps magnanimous consideration of trends in the Labour Party. Starmer’s days in office are clearly numbered. Whether or not his replacement can represent some sort of progress will depend not least on the extent to which left and progressive forces can influence and shift the overall centre of political gravity.
“But one thing is for certain. A government that is complicit in and enables genocide. That appears almost insanely set on a quite possibly nuclear war with Russia. That has attacked some of the poorest and most vulnerable in society with apparently sadistic glee. That foments racism at every opportunity. That is engaged in an onslaught on democratic rights and is embarking on a program of creeping fascism. That seeks to legislate tomorrow what Nigel Farage proposes today. Such a government is part of the problem not part of the solution. If sections of the working class are falling for the odious snake oil of Reform, we can only deal with this by placing the blame where it belongs – squarely at the door of 10 Downing Street.”
The full text of Keith Bennett’s talk is available here.
In his address to the event, Keith Bennett stated:
“On April 15, 1986, 40 years ago this month, US warplanes took off from bases in Britain to bomb Libya. Their intention was to murder the country’s leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. They succeeded – if that’s the appropriate word for such a heinous crime – in killing his adopted baby daughter.
“I hardly need to point out the contemporary resonance of this. When we have a Prime Minister – a man who wouldn’t recognize the truth if it stood up and slapped him in the face – falsely claiming to have kept us out of the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran whilst simultaneously boasting that RAF planes are in the skies and in action, and, just as 40 years ago, US planes take off from bases here to inflict murder and mayhem far away.”
The full text of Keith Bennett’s speech is available here.
In addressing a webinar organised by Friends of Socialist China on 12 April 2026 (see report below), Keith Bennett said:
“Today, we see the ever increasing and ever more visible inability of social democracy to represent working class interests in even a partial or degenerated way; decaying infrastructure, rising poverty and an increasingly vicious assault on democratic rights[3]; an utterly discredited, corrupt and venal ruling class, now aptly called the Epstein class, with its tentacles reaching from the White House to the royal family to the Labour Party; a looming climate catastrophe; the promised peace dividend with the end of Cold War I has become the ‘forever wars’ and Cold War II, and the nuclear clock ticks ominously closer to midnight.
“While an earlier generation of young people was moved to tears and roused to action by the pictures of a little Vietnamese girl running screaming down the road, her body aflame with napalm, today’s generation is similarly moved and roused by the genocide in Gaza and increasingly elsewhere in the West Asian region that is livestreamed 24/7 on their phones.
“Whether in the 1960s and 70s or today, young people in particular, in looking for explanations and alternatives, saw, and are increasingly starting to see, that China presents a different option. That a better world is not only necessary but possible. That it actually exists and is being built. Not without difficulties, mistakes and setbacks – the inevitable fellow travellers of all human endeavours – but in very real and concrete ways nevertheless.
“Whether in the 1960s and 70s or today, ‘Chinamaxxing’, looking to China as a reference point and inspiration, and for answers to some of the greatest and most existential questions facing humanity, was not wrong then. And it is not wrong now.”
Report on the Webinar from the website of Friends of Socialist China:
On Sunday 12 April, Friends of Socialist China hosted a webinar on the subject of Socialist Chinamaxxing: How China’s achievements are a product of socialism.
In spite of several years of intense propaganda and misinformation about China in the media, large numbers of young people in the West are going through “a very Chinese time in their lives”, not least because they are seeing China’s extraordinary achievements in poverty reduction, technological innovation, ecological protection, infrastructure development and more.
This webinar explored how these achievements are a product of China’s social, political and economic system: socialism. The speakers argued that China’s progress would simply not have been possible within a framework of capitalist rule, and that the country’s experience provides a powerful example of the superiority of socialism in terms of delivering for the people and for the planet.
The speakers were:
Videos of all the contributions are available on
The full text of Keith Bennett’s talk is available here.
