In his May Day message for the Morning Star, RICHARD BURGON says the call for peace, equality and socialism has never been more relevant
How communism improved the lot of workers in the West and saved capitalism
Numerous studies and analysts agree that whether socialists actually come to power or not, the ‘threat’ of socialism inspires the capitalist class to make all of our lives better, regardless of our own politics, explains IAN SINCLAIR

WHILE conventional wisdom has it that capitalism triumphed over communism in the cold war, in 2019 the journalist Aditya Chakrabortty provided a more nuanced, largely ignored, analysis.
“Communism didn’t topple capitalism, but kept it honest — and so saved it from itself,” he argued in the Guardian.
“The very presence of a powerful rival ideology frightened capitalists into sharing their returns with workers and the rest of the society, in higher wages, more welfare spending and greater public investment.”
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