[Fri 11th Nov 2011] Socialist Appeal Marxist Weekend School: The Fundamentals of Marxism (WC1E 7HY)

[dynamicbaddog]

2 days of discussions on the nuts and bolts of Marxist theory and its application today.

The discussions will be broken up into 3 pairs, each pair beginning with an explanation of a fundamental aspect of Marxist theory, and ending with a more concrete discussion on its contemporary relevance and validity.

Programme:

Friday November 11th

2pm

Registration and Introduction

3pm

Introduction to Marxist Economics
Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal

5pm

Reason in Revolt: Marxist Philosophy and Modern Science
Alan Woods, author of Reason in Revolt

Saturday November 12th

10am

Introduction to Marxist Philosophy: Dialectical Materialism
Dan Morley, Militant Student editorial board

12noon

Lunch

1pm

Introduction to Historical Materialism
John Pickard, former editor of Marxist newspaper Militant

3pm

The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State
Jorge Martin, leading member of the International Marxist Tendency

5pm

Global Economic Crisis - Where is Capitalism going?
Fred Weston, Editor of www.marxist.com

After 7pm we will break to get some food and then go for a well deserved drink in a booked pub to celebrate a successful weekend school!

 

[Nigel]

Looks Good!

 

[love detective]

bit daft having it on the same weekend as the historical materialism event 2 mins down the road from this

 

[butchersapron]

Bit daft having it tbf

 

[dynamicbaddog]

bit daft having it on the same weekend as the historical materialism event 2 mins down the road from this

well at least you ain't going to get fleeced for £75 at this event

 

[articul8]

Fred West(on)

 

[Rob Ray]

I recently discovered that Ipswich (of all places) has an active Socialist Appeal group, so was wondering, whats the Urbanites' view on em? Typical Trots or have they got an edgy USP it's worth knowing about?

 

[Pickman's model]

I recently discovered that Ipswich (of all places) has an active Socialist Appeal group, so was wondering, whats the Urbanites' view on em? Typical Trots or have they got an edgy USP it's worth knowing about?

weren't they a split off militant, ted grant and allan wood's lot after they got chucked out. always thought socialist appeal a particularly crap name, sounds like one of the appeals blue peter might have run in the glory years of noakes, purves and valerie singleton

 

[chilango]

There's an active Socialist Appeal stickerer in my neighborhood. Never (knowingly) met them though.

 

[Pickman's model]

There's an active Socialist Appeal stickerer in my neighborhood. Never (knowingly) met them though.

earnest people carrying a lollipop to show the progress of their fundraising

 

[Rob Ray]

Yeah Alan Wood's the main theoretician, Rob Sewell's the paper editor churning out not particularly interesting Trot-left orthodoxy from what I can see. Apparently they have quite an active student recruitment sector, which would chime with the youthful faces behind the banners that I've seen. Seem to have fairly typical "anything but the West, especially in a red shirt" international slants (helped found Hands off Venezuela, on board with StW's negotiated settlement position on Ukraine etc).

 

[hitmouse]

I recently discovered that Ipswich (of all places) has an active Socialist Appeal group, so was wondering, whats the Urbanites' view on em? Typical Trots or have they got an edgy USP it's worth knowing about?

I think their USP was that they and the AWL were pretty much the only two groups to stick with the "Labour is the mass party of the working class" line, which didn't do them much good from their formation up to 2015, but meant they were in a great position to recruit as The Best Fighters For Corbynism between 2015-2019 - obviously all the other trot groups were trying to do the same at the time, but think SA and the AWL were the ones who could most convincingly claim to be committed to it. Otherwise pretty opposite to the AWL, think they've come out with some dodgily pro-Russia stuff over Ukraine, are or were very keen on Fighting The Antisemitism Witch Hunt within Labour, etc. Notable within Unison politics cos the current president of Unison got expelled for Labour for posting two of their articles on social media - don't think she's even a member afaik, just someone who read a forbidden trot article.
If you listen to the zoom public meetings the ACG did during lockdown (think it was the No Safety No Work one?), there's one of them where a member of Socialist Appeal calls in and tries telling them why they should all join Labour, can't knock them for trying I suppose?

 

[Rob Ray]

Ah thanks that's very helpful

 

[LDC]

I recently discovered that Ipswich (of all places) has an active Socialist Appeal group, so was wondering, whats the Urbanites' view on em? Typical Trots or have they got an edgy USP it's worth knowing about?

Voted most ironically named socialist group ten years in a row?

 

[mx wcfc]

There's an active Socialist Appeal stickerer in my neighborhood. Never (knowingly) met them though.

I bought a paper off them outside the station, out of sympathy mainly. Looked like three students and a 30 something bloke.

 

[hitmouse]

Found it, it's from about here in this video. I'd only listened to the podcast version before, it's only just now that I've learned that the SA guy put on a tie for his intervention at the zoom meeting, bless.
Oh, and they (along with the YCL) do a fair bit of visible flyposting near my work, but I've not seen them make it to the actual picket lines when we've been on strike, unless I missed it.
For Russia/Ukraine stuff, they come up a few times in the pro-Putin left thread:

The Pro-Putin Left

Don't know if this is actually a good idea tbh. But I thought I'd start a thread on this as this topic has come up quite regularly and there has been accusations of Stop the War and some in the RMT of being 'Pro-Putin'. I guess I'm really asking for Urbz to post any evidence of this and...

www.urban75.net

The Pro-Putin Left

Well perhaps we all need reminding that our news is going to be full of propaganda and that it’s healthy to look beyond the narrative especially when we are engaged in a proxy war. Hmmm. :hmm:

www.urban75.net

 

[Serge Forward]

I went to one of their meetings several years ago. It was just like being in an early 80s Militant meeting (except the numbers were smaller).