Marxism festival London 2012

[revolutionary student]

Hi guys, Marxism festival is coming, just wanted to see whos booked up and what people think about it. Should be a great gathering really looking forward to it. Speakers include David Harvey, George Galloway and many more.

[Manic Impressive]

George Galloway?!?!? Why the fuck is he speaking? oh right it's run by the SWP that explains everything

[Deicide]

I would like to go. I need to find a place to sleep, though.

[revolutionary student]

George Galloway?!?!? Why the fuck is he speaking? oh right it's run by the SWP that explains everything

LOL whats wrong with the swp?

[revolutionary student]

I would like to go. I need to find a place to sleep.

They give free accommadation I hear.

[ed miliband]

they invite people like george galloway and laurie penny to talk about marxism.

[Deicide]

I'd only be going to see David Harvey, the SWP are tools.

[ed miliband]

ew owen jones as well. but then again he'll appear at the opening of a box of chocolates. same with tony benn. why do they get people who aren't marxists/know very little about marxism to talk at an event that is supposed to be about... marxism?

andrew kliman is good tho. i think he criticises harvey for being an underconsumptionist in his latest book so would be interesting if they got the two together for a chat/fight.

[Rafiq]

Gallaway can talk to us about how atheists are evil and how Saddam and Hamas are glorious fighters of global zionist conspiracy

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[Manic Impressive]

LOL whats wrong with the swp?


Reformist
Opportunist
Populist
Takes sides in bourgeois wars
Demo stealing
Poor education of membership


That's just off the top of my head. SWP are basically social democrats with some revolutionary rhetoric. That's why it's not surprising to see Old Labour Politicians speaking at their events.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

:rolleyes:Galloway on Marxism? Really?

The guy that supports the Islamic fundamentalist Iranian regime, said Hezbollah wasn't a terrorist organization, donated money to Hamas, supported Saddam Hussein, ....do I need to go on?

Hey, at least David Harvey will be there! :D

[Q]

George Galloway?!?!? Why the fuck is he speaking? oh right it's run by the SWP that explains everything

In principle I would favor having diverse persons present that represent real currents within the working class movement for the purpose of letting different viewpoints clash and be debated as to achieve clarity through this process. Actual debates are very educational and it is the main thing that attracts me in the Communist University (http://www.revleft.com/vb/communist-university-2012-t169094/index.html) that'll be held in August.

The main vibe I get from SWP's Marxism event though (I went to their Dutch equivalent a few years) is that it is geared towards promoting the own club as being the real bad ass revolutionaries (it's easy to portray yourself as such when contrasting with the likes such as Galloway I suppose) and to recruit to compensate for the dropouts.

[Deicide]

Is this venue near Karl Marx's grave by any chance.. ?

[ed miliband]

Is this venue near Karl Marx's grave by any chance.. ?

not really; theoretically in the same borough (camden) tho highgate is right at the north and kinda separates into two neighbouring boroughs, whilst soas is in the south of camden. you'd be able to get there quite easily from tottenham court road station - close to soas - by getting the northern line, but that isn't in service from tcr atm

[ed miliband]

you should walk along tottenham court road and do they pub crawl marx did with karl liebknecht, walk up to regents park and through to primrose hill and find engels house, up through hampstead heath where marx had picnics with his kids, and along to highgate cemetery

[i've never done this incase any thinks i'm sad enough to arrange 'marx daytrips' or summin]

[escapingNihilism]

I too thought the Galloway invite was a touch ridiculous. but I suppose it is important to remember that it is important to get coverage through free media, as a form of advertising, and Galloway will do just that.

[ed miliband]

ahahaha counterfire's rip-off event looks even worse:


http://dangerousideas.org.uk/

[brigadista]

ahahaha counterfire's rip-off event looks even worse:


http://dangerousideas.org.uk/

hoxton - nuff said...

[ed miliband]

if you're gonna claim it's some "hipster" thing there is nothing even slightly hip about that site or event or counterfire though, i guess an arts venue in hoxton was cheaper to rent than soas or something

[brigadista]

if you're gonna claim it's some "hipster" thing there is nothing even slightly hip about that site or event or counterfire though, i guess an arts venue in hoxton was cheaper to rent than soas or something

will be avoiding both events

[ed miliband]

yeah that's for the best

i wonder if benn will do the same speech at both? whatever he says we all know what the punchline will be - "join the labour party" lol

[brigadista]

tony benn is a quaker

[ridethejetski]

This shits expensive. I can guess what most the speakers will say too.

Its funny to see the different sects get into arguments tho e.g SParts on China or RCG on Cuba

[Hit The North]

George Galloway?!?!? Why the fuck is he speaking? oh right it's run by the SWP that explains everything

I guess the aim is to reach out to the wider labour movement and, like it or not, Galloway represents RESPECT which has made electoral inroads into the working class vote recently. Of course, he won't be talking about Marxism, a subject he knows crap all about, but may deliver speeches on fighting austerity that people can critique and debate. Many non SWP speakers are invited not because the SWP agree with them, but often because they don't. As Q remarks, debate is central to a living political tradition.

It beats a little sect talking to itself in a local library. Which is all anyone needs to know about how bad the SPGB are.

[The Idler]

Ian Bone writes that Marxism 2012 is more Oxbridge than the cabinet (http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/marxism-2012-more-oxbridge-than-the-cabinet/).

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

you should walk along tottenham court road and do they pub crawl marx did with karl liebknecht, walk up to regents park and through to primrose hill and find engels house, up through hampstead heath where marx had picnics with his kids, and along to highgate cemetery

[i've never done this incase any thinks i'm sad enough to arrange 'marx daytrips' or summin]

Apparently Marx got massively bladdered on that pub crawl.

Can't remember where, but I read an account of it. He smashed some shit up and was, to all intents and purposes, a disgrace that day/night!:lol:

Also, SWP in shit festival shocker. How much will this one cost, too?:rolleyes:

SWP members are bloody uneducated when it comes to Marxism. Great at selling papers though.

[Manic Impressive]

I guess the aim is to reach out to the wider labour movement and, like it or not, Galloway represents RESPECT which has made electoral inroads into the working class vote recently. Of course, he won't be talking about Marxism, a subject he knows crap all about, but may deliver speeches on fighting austerity that people can critique and debate. Many non SWP speakers are invited not because the SWP agree with them, but often because they don't. As Q remarks, debate is central to a living political tradition.

It beats a little sect talking to itself in a local library. Which is all anyone needs to know about how bad the SPGB are.
Oooh I missed this one. This will forever be my response to criticism from an SWPer.


“The fact of the matter is that the credit for this particular form of state capitalism should go back to the Socialist Party of Great Britain who taught Jock Haston his Marxism in the first place and had promulgated the theory as far back as 1918. For it was Haston who first raised the question of state capitalism within the Revolutionary Communist Party, not only as a purely Russian phenomenon but in global terms, both in the group’s internal bulletin (War and the International, pp. 182-5) and in a series of articles in Socialist Appeal (mid-August to mid-September 1947). In fact Cliff’s remit from Mandel when he first came to Britain was specifically to argue against these incipient ‘state capitalist’ heresies, and what happened was that in the course of the dispute the contestants changed sides. Anyone who wishes to make a serious investigation of the whole topic should consult the above sources, as well as the SPGB’s position, which was reissued as a pamphlet in the same year as Cliff first published his own, though we have to admit that Cliff’s logic is inferior to theirs, since they dated Russia’s capitalist revolution back to 1917.”


Even your Dear Leader Alex Callinicos says we're better. Prole Art Threat you're too good for the SWP. Let us know when you want to join a real revolutionary party. ;)

[Raúl Duke]

It cost money to get into this event? How much?

[ed miliband]

sort of off topic but you know up there (^^^) i suggested that counterfire were still desperate to be the swp? more proof, if proof was needed... they're releasing their own 'history of the world', a la chris harman. :laugh:

[Permanent Revolutionary]

I can't really understand why people are dissing Tony Benn.
Sure, he may not be a revolutionary, but has has done a lot of good work for the working people of Britain

[ed miliband]

I can't really understand why people are dissing Tony Benn.
Sure, he may not be a revolutionary, but has has done a lot of good work for the working people of Britain

like, uh... what?

when he held a position of power he oversaw the use of troops against strikers, closed down mines, and didn't resign from the cabinet when the callaghan government brought the imf in and made their monetarist turn. when he wasn't in a position of power he criticised policies that amounted to a continuation of his own work, whilst still upholding the very institutions that allowed his attacks on the working class to take place.

is his "good work" twenty-odd years of giving speeches that end "... and join the labour party"?

[Vanguard1917]

It cost money (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=2454851#) to get into this event? How much?


£55 for the five days. Less for students and the unwaged.

http://www.marxismfestival.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=78

[Red Future]

Will be going.

[The Idler]

Marx on the piss; a London pub crawl with Karl Marx in the late ... (http://libcom.org/history/marx-piss-london-pub-crawl-karl-marx-late-1850s-wilhelm-liebknecht)

[Raúl Duke]

£55 for the five days. Less for students and the unwaged.

http://www.marxismfestival.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=78

hmm, I'm going to imagine that 55 pounds is equal to 55 dollars but it's not.

It's not exactly expensive, but a bit tad pricey. For a second I was going to complain if it was priced like some 3 day music festival (however, I did go to one that cost right about 55 dollars...so)

Do they have an analogous Marxism thing in North America?

Personally, If I were to go (unlikely) I would probably organize with my Brit friends a pub crawl alla Marx at night and call that the highlight of the whole thing.

[Vanguard1917]

It's not exactly expensive, but a bit tad pricey.

...

Personally, If I were to go (unlikely) I would probably organize with my Brit friends a pub crawl alla Marx at night and call that the highlight of the whole thing.


Throw in a meal to line the stomach, and a pub crawl in central London won't cost you much less than £55.

[Firebrand]

Throw in a meal to line the stomach, and a pub crawl in central London won't cost you much less than £55.

In central London you can spend that much on two shots and a packet of pork scratchings.

[Vanguard1917]

In central London you can spend that much on two shots and a packet of pork scratchings.

:laugh:

I base my calculations beer prices. Ten pints (a couple too many for me at the best of times) would cost you around £40 in most pubs in central London. Maybe a little less if you stick to ales.

[ellipsis]

£55 for the five days. Less for students and the unwaged.

http://www.marxismfestival.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=78

Thanks for linking. This should have been done by the OP. Also please post the location and date in the thread title.

[ed miliband]

shit, my idea for a marx walk is already a thing 'cept they do it the other way around:

http://hutnyk.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/marx-trot-2012-july-7/

[Terminator X]

Is this the same festival from this thread? (if so, these are some of my favorite images from the event :laugh: )

http://www.revleft.com/vb/vice-magazine-boldly-t138369/index.html?p=1799727

http://www.viceland.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/117-635x476.jpg

http://www.viceland.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/119-476x635.jpg

http://www.viceland.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/120-635x476.jpg

[Deicide]

Marx on the piss; a London pub crawl with Karl Marx in the late ... (http://libcom.org/history/marx-piss-london-pub-crawl-karl-marx-late-1850s-wilhelm-liebknecht)


''There loud singing issued from a public house; we entered and learned that a club of Odd Fellows were celebrating a festival. We met some of the men belonging to the “party,” and they at once invited us “foreigners” with truly English hospitality to go with them into one of the rooms. We followed them in the best of spirits, and the conversation naturally turned to politics – we had been easily recognised as Germany fugitives; and the Englishmen, good old-fashioned people, who wanted to amuse us a little, considered it their duty to revile thoroughly the German princes and the Russian nobles. By “Russian” they meant Prussian nobles. Russia and Prussia are frequently confounded in England, and not alone of account of their similarity of name. For a while, everything went smoothly. We had to drink many healths and to bring out and listen to many a toast.

Then the unexpected suddenly happened…

Edgar Bauer, hurt by some chance remark, turned the tables and ridiculed the English snobs. Marx launched an enthusiastic eulogy on German science and music – no other country, he said, would have been capable of producing such masters of music as Beethoven, Mozart, Haendel and Haydn, and the Englishmen who had no music were in reality far below the Germans who had been prevented hitherto only by the miserable political and economic conditions from accomplishing any great practical work, but who would yet outclass all other nations. So fluently I have never heard him speak English.''



Now we had enough of our “beer trip” for the time being, and in order to cool our heated blood, we started on a double quick march, until Edgar Bauer stumbled over some paving stones. “Hurrah, an idea!” And in memory of mad student pranks he picked up a stone, and Clash! Clatter! a gas lantern went flying into splinters. Nonsense is contagious – Marx and I did not stay behind, and we broke four or five street lamps – it was, perhaps, 2 o'clock in the morning and the streets were deserted in consequence. But the noise nevertheless attracted the attention of a policeman who with quick resolution gave the signal to his colleagues on the same beat. And immediately countersignals were given. The position became critical.

Happily we took in the situation at a glance; and happily we knew the locality. We raced ahead, three or four policemen some distance behind us. Marx showed an activity that I should not have attributed to him. And after the wild chase had lasted some minutes, we succeeded in turning into a side street and there running through an alley – a back yard between two streets – whence we came behind the policemen who lost the trail. Now we were safe. They did not have our description and we arrived at our homes without further adventures.

Haha. I recall he used to have sword duels at University :lol:

[ed miliband]

Is this the same festival from this thread?

http://www.revleft.com/vb/vice-magazine-boldly-t138369/index.html?p=1799727

http://www.viceland.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/117-635x476.jpg

http://www.viceland.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/119-476x635.jpg

http://www.viceland.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/120-635x476.jpg

yep, hahaha.

[ed miliband]

kinda embarassed of my posts in that thread. i should have been pointing out how great the article was.

[Os Cangaceiros]

That first picture with the guy w/ what looks like a bottle of booze is hilarious to me for some reason.

[Die Neue Zeit]

As much as I disagree quite a bit with the SWP's politics, there are some events worth attending if I were a Brit:

The Latin American left: results & prospects
The Paris Commune

The extreme centre: how capitalism is destroying democracy

The urbanisation of class struggle
Debating how 'precarious workers' can fight back

[ed miliband]

the other day i saw a scruffy 40-odd-year old fella with two young teens hastily sticking up marxist 2012 posters with that most powerful of adhesives, pritt stick, along the high street. they're probably still at it, poor guys.

[Hit The North]

^^^ Austerity flyposting :lol:. Even the SWP are not immune to the crisis.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

^^^ Austerity flyposting :lol:. Even the SWP are not immune to the crisis.

I can't imagine comrade Callinicos living in squalor.

Probably lives in some ivory tower in North West London, driving a Prius or some shit cos he loves the planet.