Marxism 2008 - a festival of resistance

Audio Files from Marxism 2007

These streaming audio files should give you an idea of what Marxism is like - both the kind of issues the meetings cover, and the style of the different speakers. The files are in four sections:

highlights from meetings
highlights from the closing rally
highlights from arts and cultural events
the introductions to six meetings in full

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Highlights from Meetings
	5 mins 35 secs	Gary Younge Katrina to Obama: black leadership in the post civil rights era Katrina revealed the centrality of poverty and racism in US society. Meanwhile Barack Obama's politics reflect the fact that he comes from the generation after the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
	2 mins 55 secs	Tony Benn The left in power: possibilities and prospects Change comes from below - it was my experience of government that made me into a socialist. Now I've moved from protesting to demanding
	3 mins 40 secs	Ghada Karmi Palestine: the case for a one-state solution People talk of a two-state solution - but this would mean Palestine would lose half its territory to the illegal Israeli "settlements".
	5 mins 20 secs	Weyman Bennett and Paul Gilroy Why is multi-culturalism in crisis? Attacks on multi-culturalism divert people from the real problems in society. • We should reject US models of how to build a multi-cultural society.
	2 mins 14 secs	Kamal Khalil Building resistance in the Middle East Resistance in the Middle East and in Europe is part of a common struggle against capitalism. We both protested against the war, we both oppose imperialism.
	2 mins 50 secs	Jeremy Corbyn Mexico The US government exploits and abuses Mexican migrants, while NAFTA allows the exploitation of Mexican workers in their own country.
	5 mins 15 secs	Mike Gonzalez Latin America and the rising of the people Latin America is a key reference point for revolutionary struggles today. This is a living and complex movement that began with anti-privatisation struggles in 1999.
	2 mins 30 secs	Dean Ryan and Patrick Vernon Gun crime: who's to blame? Gun crime is sensationalised in the media and described in a racist way. • Young people need inspiration and access to public services and housing.
	2 mins 30 secs	Jane Loftus Building fighting unions Postal workers will carry on fighting, though we'd also prefer to unite with other groups of workers. The Labour Party offers trade unionists nothing - Respect supports us.
	3 mins 00 secs	Matt Wrack Building fighting unions Trade unions need politics. We've faced thirty years of neo-liberal attacks, from Tories and then Labour. We need to have a political strategy, just like the right did.
	2 mins 40 secs	John McDonnell Building fighting unions Brown has made no pledges on trade union rights. We need to prevent bullying like that by Gate Gourmet bosses. Support the Trade Union Freedom Bill.
	4 mins 20 secs	Mark Serwotka Building fighting unions Unions should fight on their own if they have to. But we really need to fight together - to strike and campaign politically. Rank and file activity is key to make that happen.
	5 mins 45 secs	Chris Harman Why did capitalism go neo-liberal? We're against privatisation. Not that nationalisation and state corporations meant socialism. But privatisation makes workers' opposition harder.
	4 mins 45 secs	Lindsey German Marxism and feminism Women have made advances, but the experiences of middle-class and working-class women are still very different.
	3 mins 20 secs	Lindsey German Love, marriage and the family Attitudes to sex and marriage have changed hugely in the last fifty years. For example sex outside of marriage, taboo then, is now commonplace.
	2 mins 30 secs	Judith Orr Sexism and the system: a rebel's guide to women's liberation While women have made advances, there has also been an increase in gross sexist attitudes.
	3 mins 35 secs	Jonathan Neale Stop global warming: change the world Most world leaders want to stop climate change. But free market solutions aren't the answer, and personal solutions aren't either.
	3 mins 55 secs	Charlie Kimber The new scramble for Africa US intervention has caused harm in Africa for decades. EU companies and governments are also implicated. Now China is a rising power in the developing scramble.
	2 mins 25 secs	Jinan Coulter The fight for LGBT liberation in the Middle East Islam is not uniquely homophobic. Gay men travelled to the Middle East in the recent past to find sexual pleasures forbidden at home.
	3 mins 10 secs	Ghassan Makarem The fight for LGBT liberation in the Middle East Recent LGBT campaigning advances in Lebanon emerged from the anti-war movement. "Pro-democracy" groups associated with the West, meanwhile, attack gays.
	6 mins 00 secs	Simon Assaf Hezbollah: is it a force for liberation in the Middle East? Hezbollah's victory over Israel resulted from Lebanese people rejecting sectarianism.
Highlights from Closing Rally
	1 min 30 secs	Siân Ruddick Students are involved in radical struggles throughout the world. In the UK, Student Respect has made massive gains since it was founded two years ago.
	1 min 5 secs	Salvinder Dhillon We need to send a strong message agaist war and New Labour's cuts in public services.
	2 mins 5 secs	Moazzam Begg I heard about the UK anti-war movement while I was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, and it was the first ray of hope I received there.
	2 mins 40 secs	Paul Garraway Last week postal workers struck and this week we will again. We are confident, but we would be stronger if we struck alongside civil servants in the PCS.
	5 mins 35 secs	Martin Smith The SWP stand with workers and the oppressed - so it's good to see post managers getting stressed by the strike. Workers' potential is wasted in our society.
Highlights from Arts and Cultural Events
	5 mins 43 secs	Alistair Beaton What's so funny about politics? Does satire change anything? Certainly radical theatre gives heart to campaigners, while TV calls accepted ideas into question and can outrage right-wing critics.
	12 mins 21 secs	Michael Billington, David Edgar, Charlotte Westenra, Tom Stoppard Theatre in revolt Four major theatre practitioners address the theme from a variety of different points of view.
	11 mins 31 secs	Tony Benn and Roy Bailey The writing on the wall Tony Benn reads inspiring texts from the radical movements of the past and Roy Bailey sings. The excerpt deals with the English Revolution of the 1640s and 50s.
	3 mins 59 secs	Lemn Sissay and Mike Rosen Black and white unite and write Lemn and Mike read a selection of their political poetry.
	4 mins 11 secs	John Molyneux A revolution in paint: 100 years since Picasso's Demoiselles Picasso's painting of five prostitutes is a landmark in the development of Western art.
	4 mins 35 secs	Esther Leslie and Noel Douglas Rebel art from dada to Banksy What is rebel art? Some of the greatest artists could be counted as rebels • A round-up of art from the anti-capitalist and anti-war movements.
	1 mins 34 secs	Peter Kennard and Cat Picton Phillips Capturing the movement Beware sponsorship - though sometimes you can get free stuff from corporates, or commissions from right wing papers like the Telegraph.
Meeting Introductions in Full
	37 mins 55 secs	Grace Lally Against Postmodernism Though fashionable among academics, postmodern ideas have little to offer anyone who wants to change the world for the better.
	26 mins 38 secs	Viv Smith What's wrong with identity politics? For many it's common sense to organise on the basis of being black, a woman or gay - yet such ideas have often been a dead end. The talk proposes an alternative.
	36 mins 25 secs	Dan Swaine Toni Negri Negri's book Empire is one of the best-known texts inspired by the anti-capitalist movement. Yet Negri's though is in many ways fundamentally flawed.
	29 mins 00 secs	Guy Taylor Samir Amin Amin is one of the leading writers addressing globalisation as part of the anti-capitalist movement. Whatever our differences with him, we owe him a great debt.
	39 mins 31 secs	Colin Wilson Michel Foucault: friend or foe of the left? Foucault is widely influential in the anti-capitalist movement. But he was also popular among people who rejected socialism in the 1980s. Which side is he on?
	41 mins 39 secs	John Molyneux Marxism and Morality Does Marxism have anything to say about morality? Are moral questions often in fact political ones?
	35 mins 44 secs	Gareth Jenkins Cultural relativism It's argued that universal values hold society together, while "cultural relativism" leads to division. We defend multi-culturalism and the fight against racism.