Since the birth of socialist ideas, there have been two schools of thought amongst socialists. On the one hand, gradualists, often described as social democrats, believe that the road to socialism is one of progressive improvements to the capitalist system, to the point where it can be replaced by socialism.

The opposing view is that any attempts to move gradually from capitalism to socialism is doomed to failure. The capitalist system has proved far too resilient, and while socialist and social democratic parties have achieved significant and lasting change for ordinary people, capitalism is able to absorb any challenges.

My blog sits firmly with the second view.

But for socialists who believe in the need for a transformative or revolutionary change, the challenge is how to build support for socialist policies and programs when socialist movements are so weak. My articles here focus on how we can formulate transformative demands and programs that are believable to ordinary people, but which could not be quickly reversed by the established political and economic systems.