World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to some of those who attended the Socialist Equality Party event held in London on November 22,“The American Volcano: Towards Fascism or Socialism”.

A lecture was delivered by David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS, titled, “Where is America Going? Oligarchy, dictatorship, and the revolutionary crisis of capitalism”.

North also used the occasion to announce the WSWS’s imminent launch of Socialism AI, a revolutionary tool that will harness artificial intelligence for the development of socialist consciousness in the international working class.

Temari, a music student from Derby, attended her first meeting of the Socialist Equality Party.

She said, “I have an interest in what is happening around the world: the geopolitical issues and how they affect us locally. I am looking for a party that I can get behind, one that has a methodology.

“Everything that is happening in the US is not what I want to be happening, but at the same time is also predictable. I look at what is happening with the ICE raids in Portland, Chicago, California. The attempt to use the Insurrection Act; this should not be used at all.

“These events reminded me of Nuremberg. This is also happening in the UK. With the immigration laws here, I would say that we are getting to be like the US-style attacks. The plans announced by Labour to take the possessions of asylum seekers to pay for their stay; what are we talking about here? This is what they did to the Jews in the H|olocaust.

“Starmer is in a mess. They introduced the digital ID, then the increasing xenophobia against immigrants. During the election I thought they are just trying to toe the line so they can win the election, but rather than holding back, straight after the election they have gone so much further to the right.

“For me one of the most important parts of David’s speech was the ‘Socialism AI’ plan that he talked about. AI is something I am interested in. Like David said, you can’t delete or put it back in the box.

“Socialism AI can create power. An AI platform that is coded and trained in Marxism and socialism, that is so accessible and useful, can be a foundation for revolution. There is a resource that exists that we are using already and we can shape it to drum up support for revolution.”

Robin, a materials engineer, said “I have been reading the WSWS for a long time but actually hearing a talk directly from David North, it really makes quite a big difference and helps one understand it quite a lot.

“The meeting was well presented, well managed and the subject of the talk today was bang on the money, in terms of what’s important. It is possibly the most important event unfolding today, so it was a privilege to be here.

“There were a few things discussed that are quite deeply rooted in my own personal family history. My father was a refugee from fascist Germany and the resurgence of fascism in a quite unmistakable way today and something like this chills the blood.”

Asked what he thought was required for the working class to fight back against dictatorship and oligarchy, Robin said, “I think it needs information, intellect and be able to organise to bring things into focus with some kind of platform to resist.

“These have been largely broken up over the years and the level of awareness, I think, is much lower than it has been. So, what you’re doing here with educating and raising awareness is the first real footsteps towards a recovery of that.

“I was instinctively very much a person who believed in reformist politics and not a person for revolution. But I think that the prospect of an approach for reform is not going to be viable. But for people from my layer, I was always led to believe that we had to follow a line of reform. And now I don’t think it can be the way forward.”

Robin said the statistics presented by David North “relating to the depth of American debt are truly jaw-dropping and my feeling is it cannot continue much longer like this. I think we are very close to a precipice, so something’s got to happen.”

Alenke is studying psychology and neuroscience. He said, “I came today because I’m really interested in seeing the socialist perspective and how things are playing out in the world and what we can do to resolve the situation. Hopefully it will lean more towards a more socialist outcome instead of a fascist one.

“The capitalist system and its companies and people driven by wealth and profit are completely destabilising things on a global scale and that is a big problem. And I think we really need a radical change in the system in order for the world and all of humanity to survive and prosper.

“I think it’s time for a new change. Because the world isn’t as it used to be. Everything is changing really fast and I really think that we need something new, something more radical.

“I think if we just protest based on anger alone, people can be easily led into another existing party or someone else’s false promises into bringing about a reform or some kind of new renaissance or something like that. But we need to actually be educated in a scientific way in order for us to proceed in a proper way for new and better systematic political change.”

Asked his thoughts on the oligarchy in every capitalist country carrying out similar policies as in the US, Alenke replied, “I think it’s pretty universal the wealth disparity and it is only going to keep getting worse and worse. Because the rich are going to keep exploiting the poor as much as they can and inflate their wealth. And they’re just going to continue this constant cycle of greed, while the poor continue to suffer and strain.

“And it gets even worse because the rich are the people who pay the least taxes. The rich paying tax won’t solve the problem itself, but it just goes to demonstrate that they accumulate so much of the wealth in this world and still it’s the poor that are forced to face the consequences of their actions.”

Alenke was interested in what North said about the revolutionary potential of the use of AI in the fight for socialism. He said “I think actually using AI, socialist AI, that’s a pretty cool initiative to take. Because I know there’s so many people who don’t have the time or the proficiency to read all the socialist literature. Yeah, so I think that’s a really cool way to condense all the knowledge and bring it to people.”

Ken works in the financial sector in London. He came to the meeting because he wanted to know more about the rise of China and its impact on the crisis in the United States. “I came to ask that question, but really it was great to hear David and his perspective on the current situation, the way forward, basically, for the working class.

Ken said he thought China and Russia would have used their United Nations veto to stop Trump’s “peace” plan in Gaza under which the US and Israel plan to turn the strip into a colonial protectorate.

“It hasn’t stopped Israel from still committing genocide. The other day they were trying to ethnically cleanse by sending people to South Africa. So nothing has changed, even though they’re supposed to be implementing this ‘peace’ plan. I thought they would have vetoed it, but they didn’t. You know, they just abstained and it went through, but nothing has changed.

“What really impressed me was David North’s analysis of the economic developments in the States and the relationship between the falling rate of profit and the collapse of the dollar. And then the rise of the oligarchy as a reflection of what is going on objectively.

“Another thing he said that I thought was very important is that the objective changes by themselves will not bring about socialism. You still need a political organisation to do that, irrespective of the falling rate of profit, this will not automatically bring about the collapse. I’m glad I came, I learned a lot.”