Dissatisfaction with capitalism grew across the world in 2025. Reformists used this discontent to increase votes in elections without any damage to the capitalist system.
Details. In America, the stronghold of capitalism during the Cold War, a survey showed that only 54% of Americans held a positive opinion on capitalism, a fall from 60% in previous years. In the UK, the birthplace of industrial capitalism, a majority of under-35s prefer socialism, whilst another survey showed that one third of 18-30 year olds have lost faith in liberal democracy and would prefer a so-called “authoritarian system”.
► Numerous reformist left-wing parties and candidates – many styling themselves as socialists – have made electoral advances on this basis. In Germany, Die Linke (The Left) grew from stagnating around 3% of the vote to nearly 9%, securing 60 seats in this year’s federal elections. In the UK, the new “socialist” Your Party initially polled strongly before collapsing into public infighting; this, alongside the election of its “eco-socialist” leader, coincided with a notable increase in support for the Green Party.
► In the United States, self-proclaimed democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York elections on a left-populist campaign. His election has come as a section of the Democratic party pushing for more left phraseology and reforms, with other notable figureheads of this wing being Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have spearheaded campaigns such as ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ this year.
► Dissatisfaction achieved particular acuteness in many dependent nations, culminating in “Gen Z” protests, overthrowing governments in some cases. The new governments placated protestors by promising to act in the name of the people. Nepal even saw a new coalition of 9 revisionist “communist parties” assume governance – one of these parties being the one that was just removed by uprisings – preaching “socialism with Nepali characteristics”.
Context. Poorer American workers are experiencing a slowing of wage-growth, and they bear the brunt of Trump’s aggressive tariff campaign, which increases prices domestically. European workers are having their welfare state curtailed to fund a rapid remilitarisation campaign and to support Ukraine.
► The countries that are experiencing riots and protests suffer from particularly appalling social inequality, economic instability and in many cases a sharpening of tensions with neighbouring countries – sometimes leading to armed clashes. Workers are often brutally suppressed for demanding better living conditions.
► Reformist parties have historically been used as a tool to suppress workers’ revolutions and defend capitalist rule. The British Labour Party, whilst even nominally preaching common ownership of the means of production, vehemently opposed the workers’ government in Russia and declared, along with reformists in Germany, Austria, Italy, and France, that capitalism is preferable to the Soviet example.
Important to Know. Reformists today play the same role. They advocate for a strengthening of the welfare state, hiding the fact that the current cuts and declining living conditions do not happen arbitrarily, but occur due to definite material reasons, such as the weakening of the labour movement, the needs of capital to increase profits amidst a growing general crisis and the drive towards a larger imperialist war.
► Reformists feed workers the illusion that capitalism can be fixed. The possibility of workers building a socialist system with public ownership of the means of production and the elimination of the capitalist class is disregarded. Once the working class is disarmed by these illusions, capital intensifies its dictatorship to protect its profits.
► As Lenin once said: “Reformism is bourgeois deception of the workers, who, despite individual improvements, will always remain wage-slaves, as long as there is the domination of capital.”