When the wicked rule, the people groan.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. …
– Book of Proverbs 29:2 and 18 (written before 700 BCE
Socialist World Media, the online media platform for the
Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), recently published a fascinating
article called "The Man Trotsky".[1]
This was published on December 14, 2025. It was initially
written by the State Capitalist Rae Spiegel (later known as Raya Dunayevskaya) when
she was 22 years old. Spiegel served as
Leon Trotsky's personal secretary in Mexico. It was submitted to Max Shachtman
for publication in the press of the newly formed Workers Party, but it was
never printed.
The piece offers a rare, intimate look at Trotsky’s personality
and his vision for a socialist future. The article is well worth a read despite
her glorification of the GPU and FBI agent Joseph Hansen.
Given that the article offers fascinating insight into how
Leon Trotsky worked, one wonders how he would have responded to the new WSWS Socialism
AI platform. My feeling is that he would have welcomed it with open arms and
would have had a field day on it. This was my initial reaction to it. I still need
more time to develop a deeper understanding of it and its technology, but it
appears to be a fantastic aid in the fight for Socialism in the 21st
century.
Socialism AI is a specialised chatbot designed to provide
workers, students, and activists with access to over 175 years of Marxist
theory and nearly 30 years of WSWS historical analysis. It should be seen as a library
for the mind, with a fantastic librarian at the helm.
Users can pose questions about historical events, political
theory, and current labour struggles (e.g., how to oppose layoffs at specific
companies) and receive responses grounded in scientific socialism. While being
a little surprised that some features require a paid subscription to cover
operational costs, I agree with the initiative to "democratize
access" to revolutionary perspectives.
As David North points out, “The historical significance of
Socialism AI is sharply revealed when examined in the objective context of its
public launch, amid the deepening world capitalist crisis. The working class
faces a highly complex economic, geopolitical and social reality, while the
bourgeoisie has thoroughly dismantled traditional centres of study and
discussion. Under these circumstances, a system that synthesises and connects
the insights of Marxist theory with current developments is no mere novelty. It
is a means of intellectual counter-attack, of recovering the historical memory
of the working-class movement.”[2]
North’s point about recovering the memory of the working
class is extremely valid. This has always been the attitude of the Marxist
movement, but the development of Socialism AI takes it to a whole other level. This
change in how the Marxist movement operates, while not as fundamental as the
shift from the Newspaper form to the Internet, is pretty close to that
fundamental change. While not a replacement for the World Socialist Website
(WSWS), it should be seen as a complement to it.
It has not taken the Pseudo Left fraternity long to start attacking
the WSWS’s use of AI for revolutionary purposes. On a forum run by the
Socialist Party of Great Britain, titled "WSWS group to launch a
‘Socialism AI’," the SPGB published several unopposed comments that
broadly attacked the WSWS’s launch of Socialism AI and expressed hostility to both
orthodox Marxism and AI in general.[3]
The WSWS recently published an attack by “Dmitri. The WSWS has
issued an extensive reply to his short comments, saying “ Dmitri’s remarks,
notwithstanding his use of technical jargon, exemplify the widespread lack of
understanding of AI and hostility to the Marxist approach to technology within
the milieu of middle-class radicalism.”[4]
Socialist AI is fit for purpose, and workers and students
should embrace the concept behind Socialism AI and use it in their struggle for
Socialism in the 21st Century.
[1]
https://www.socialistworld.net/2025/12/14/the-man-trotsky/
[2]
Technology and the working class: Responding to an opponent of Socialism AI www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/12/19/thbn-d19.html
[3]
www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/topic/wsws-group-to-launch-a-socialism-ai/
[4] Technology and the working class: Responding to an opponent of Socialism AI -www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/12/19/thbn-d19.html
