Southampton-Based Socialist Workers Party Under Fire for Celebrating Death of Charlie Kirk
Socialist Workers Party (SWP) which has a branch listed in Southampton, is facing mounting criticism after publishing a news post that openly celebrated the death of right-wing US commentator Charlie Kirk. The post, which appeared on the SWP’s website and circulated on social media, described Kirk’s killing as “chickens come home to roost” and delivered an uncompromising negative critique of the late Turning Point USA founder.
Kirk, who was shot dead on Wednesday during the opening leg of his American Comeback Tour, was a prominent supporter of former US President Donald Trump and the founder of the conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA. The SWP article focused on Kirk’s history of inflammatory remarks, pointing to a 2023 speech in which he argued that “some gun deaths every single year” were “worth it” to preserve the Second Amendment.
The piece, written under the subheading “anti-racism” by Judy Cox, did not hold back in its condemnation. “He felt a small fraction of the violence against Palestinians, black people, women and other oppressed groups that he glorified,” it read. The SWP accused Kirk of building his career on “far right lies, vile racism, transphobia and anti-abortion bigotry,” and referenced his podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show, which the group described as a “cesspit” of reactionary rhetoric. Cox, who is described as a lifelong socialist writer, speaker, and retired teacher, led the charge in the article’s uncompromising tone.
The use of “KKK”—a pointed reference to the Ku Klux Klan in the headline, was intended to portray Kirk as not only a far-right figure but as someone ideologically aligned with white supremacists.
Kirk’s activism and influence extended across the Atlantic. In December 2018, he visited Britain to help launch branches of Turning Point, where he was welcomed by Conservative politicians such as Jacob Rees-Mogg and former Home Secretary Priti Patel. The SWP piece mocked Turning Point’s campus antics and accused the organisation of targeting progressive educators.
While the article did acknowledge the tragedy of loss for Kirk’s family, it made clear the party’s stance: “Those human beings who devote their lives to oppressing, marginalising and humiliating should expect their chickens to come to roost.” The article drew parallels to other high-profile shootings and accused the US establishment of perpetuating violence and enabling “the genocide in Gaza and… mass shootings in the US.”
The post concluded with a call for “mass, collective resistance against Trump, the far right and the system, not individual acts of terror,” urging readers: “Don’t mourn for Kirk. Mourn for the tens of thousands of victims of the US gun lobby and the MAGA fantasies of imperialist domination—and organise against it.”
These remarks have sparked outrage among political opponents and members of the public, who have condemned the SWP for celebrating violence and dehumanising Kirk in death. Others, meanwhile, have defended the post as a blunt but honest critique of a divisive figure. The SWP has not yet issued a statement in response to the controversy.
In Southampton, the Socialist Workers Party regularly organises “anti-racism” events and positions itself as an opponent of hate, making the tone of the recent article all the more contentious in the eyes of critics and observers.
