ENGELS once said that capitalist society “stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.”

Commenting on these remarks during World War I, the great socialist Rosa Luxemburg said: “What does ‘regression into barbarism’ mean to our lofty European civilisation? Until now, we have all probably read and repeated these words thoughtlessly, without suspecting their fearsome seriousness. A look around us at this moment shows what the regression of bourgeois society into barbarism means. This world war is a regression into barbarism. The triumph of imperialism leads to the annihilation of civilisation.”

Today, as we see the climate catastrophe, the wars in Gaza and elsewhere, the insane new nuclear arms race which is set to escalate, and the dire economic situation globally, it is clearly the case that the choice is socialism or barbarism.

Furthermore, the return of Donald Trump represents a new, heightening phase in the barbarism that is the US empire’s ongoing war on the majority of humanity.

In terms of the world economy, global poverty and inequality levels show how barbarism is already a reality across much of the globe.

An Oxfam report last year confirmed the world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes since 2020, while the wealth of the poorest 60 per cent has fallen.

If these trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade but poverty won’t be eradicated for another 229 years. 

Unfortunately, there won’t be a habitable planet if capitalism continues anywhere near that long!

Oxfam may not be a socialist movement, but it does eloquently point out how sharply increasing billionaire wealth and rising corporate power are interconnected.

These are of course the conclusions Rosa Luxemburg herself made as she analysed the emergence of imperialism as a phase of capitalism, also linked intrinsically with the drive to war, saying: “The high stage of world-industrial development in capitalistic production finds expression in the extraordinary technical development and destructiveness of the instruments of war.” 

Today it is weapons made in the US and Britain — and still sold by the government of Keir Starmer and David Lammy — that use technology to commit genocide in Gaza.

But there is hope that the flame of resistance can burn brighter too in the period ahead.

The mass movements on Palestine show how millions have not only had enough of war and misery, but are making the link between the wars and the profit-driven, crisis-ridden economic system that drives them.

The same is true in the climate justice movement, where placards often carry the slogan “system change not climate change.”

On both counts, Trump’s return — flanked by Elon Musk and a motley crew of profiteers and polluters — will for millions in the US, here and around the world starkly confirm the need for a different economic order.

And as I’ve pointed to in the Morning Star before, polling shows remarkable things in terms of how people perceive an economic system that puts corporate greed before public need. 

To give one illuminating example. In Britain, a 2023 YouGov survey showed that while among those born between 1946-64, only 4 per cent of people have a positive view of Lenin, he was popular among 40 per cent of millennials (those born between 1981-96). And another poll published shortly afterwards by the Fraser Institute found that nearly a third of young people (18 to 34-year-olds) believe that “communism is the ideal economic system.”

And we know that socialist solutions to the crises that we put forward, such as water and energy public ownership, or wealth taxes to fund public services, have massive popular support that goes way beyond this layer of radical younger people.

It is therefore more than possible that a mass anti-capitalist mood, and movements organised by the left based around it, can emerge here in the next period.

But — and this is a massive but — the left needs to be explicitly talking the language of anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism and socialism if it is to harness these moods and forge the movements we need, based on militant and collective action.

As well as this, a key lesson of the years of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and since must be that steeping ourselves in a real understanding of socialist ideas is not a nice “add-on” to the equally essential work of organising in streets, workplaces and communities. It must be central to what we do.

How can we be beat back against the ideological warfare of the enemy, if we don’t collectively grasp the nature of class rule today ourselves?

And of course, the struggle is international which can also give us hope. In Latin America, for example, mass movements are not only rising against US domination and neoliberalism, but also making real changes for the better. And uprisings in Africa against French neocolonialism continue.

To again quote Rosa Luxemburg to conclude: “Enthusiasm combined with critical thought, what more could we want of ourselves!” That is exactly the attitude we need to build movements for real change and a socialist future.

Join us in Arise — a Festival of Left Ideas events and campaigns throughout 2025 to this end.

Online rally, Tuesday February 11, 6.30pm — Winning a socialist future: Ending Austerity, Racism and War.

Jeremy Corbyn, Apsana Begum, Stand Up to Racism, Strikemap and speakers from across the Union Lefts.

Register at http://bit.ly/winningasocialistfuture.

Matt Willgress will be speaking at the Socialism or Barbarism in-person day-school in London on Saturday March 29, alongside John McDonnell, campaigner Jess Barnard, socialist economist Michael Roberts and campaigns such as PSC, CND and Stand Up to Racism. Register and info at bit.ly/socialismorbarbarism.