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'Labour & Socialism' is a new publication which aims to discuss some of the most pressing questions that confront the Labour Movement today.

The name of our publication reflects the belief that socialism - that is some way of running human society along lines other than 'the market' - remains on the order of the day, and that the organised workers movement will supply the decisive forces in any attempt to seriously challenge capitalism in the years ahead.

'Labour & Socialism' is a Marxist journal, for as we put it in our first issue, 'Marx's ideas remain an extraordinarily rich source for understanding the world as it is today and seeing how it could be transformed', and still retain 'the potential to inspire movements against the monster that is global capitalism with the vision of a truly humane society'.

In our view, some of the principles that would guide such a humane society include -

* The right to live a productive life

* For this right not to be denied anyone due to the accident of their birth

* Social justice

* The benefits of technology and industry to be spread across humanity

* An end to the domination of every aspect of human life by commercial interests

By a productive life, we mean not only access to paid work in order to receive the necessities of life, but the opportunity for human beings to express themselves through their activity. This is a much broader concept, which may cover what some people do for a living but need not do so. It means, in other words, not only an end to unemployment, but also a reduction in the working week for all those whose jobs are simply a means of getting the money to live, without their standard of living suffering as a result.

And we believe this right should be extended to every human being, no matter where they live, their gender, race, religion, sexual preference or whatever. Social justice we define in this fast moving world as the ability of those affected by change to have their consent needed before such change goes through. This is really a question, then, of power and democracy.

The final two principles flow into one another. In the world today, almost every human activity, from sex to sport to art, as well as the more traditional economic spheres, has been invaded by commercial interests in pursuit of profits and transformed into the production of commodities for sale. More and more human relationships take place purely within this commercial context and are distorted beyond all recognition as a result.

At the same time, intense global competition and the search for higher profits has lead to massive increases in productivity and therefore to less and less demand for workers.

The combination of these two processes catches the vast majority of humanity in the grasp of a giant pincer movement. On the one the hand, every sphere of activity formerly outside the global capitalist economy is being invaded by the products of transnational corporations, driving people either from their traditional forms of life and culture, or else from areas previously sheltered by the state - whether public sector employees or workers in the former 'socialist' countries. On the other hand, workers within the global economy are constantly under threat from 'downsizing' as rising productivity reduces the demand for their labour.

The end result of this process is the familiar picture of massive under and unemployment across the globe, and an extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of a small percentage of the world's population, since the only ones to benefit are those with a stake in the transnational corporations that dominate the world.

The solution has to lie in the removal of these two pincers. If the bulk of humanity were allowed access to the benefits of technology and industry without having to participate in the present form of the global economy - that is if the production of the necessities of life could take place with the aim of satisfying basic human needs rather than simply providing a source of profits, then human beings would be free to engage in all kinds of activities, and not only those with a commercial value, without having to worry about their day to day survival. These activities in turn, could develop into genuine forms of interaction between people without being dominated by the need to make money at every step.

It was a vision of this kind that inspired Marx and the founders of the workers movement. Today, this movement has yet to develop an effective response to the challenge of global capital, rooted as it still is in the national soils of different nation states. But within the movement today there is a wide recognition of the need for such a global response, and strenuous efforts are being made to build the unity needed to roll back the present power of the transnational corporations and finance capital.

'Labour & Socialism' lends its support to all such efforts, in all their forms, and hopes through its pages to make its own small contribution in this mighty struggle.