Topics and themes
There are around 200 meetings and events at Marxism covering a wide range of topics. Here are just a few tasters.
Explaining the crisis
In the wake of the global credit crunch, many economic commentators are forecasting the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
As their glib enthusiasm for capitalism turns to blind panic, we will be analysing the system and explaining the crisis. Our introduction to Marxist economics will examine capitalism’s basic “laws of motion”, explaining how exploitation and accumulation drive the system forward, and the contradictions that lead it repeatedly into crisis.
Three writers of major works on capitalism – Chris Harman, Costas Lapavitsas and Ben Fine – and economics editor of the Guardian Larry Elliott will discuss the crisis today, considering the nature of neoliberalism, the relationship of finance and debt to the wider system, and comparisons between this and earlier economic crises.
The year the world caught fire - 1968 and its legacy
In 1968 struggles against the global order broke out everywhere. In Paris a general strike followed mass student protests, in the US people rioted and marched against war, and a mass uprising took place in Czechoslovakia.
For millions of people a new world seemed possible. Such was the impact of 1968 that supporters of capitalism still bemoan it. But the legacy of 1968 is highly contested. In this series key figures from the time including Alain Krivine, one of the leaders of the May 1968 revolt in Paris, discuss what happened in 68, the lessons of those events and how we fight to realise the unfinished business of that era.
We also explore the manifestations of 1968 in cinema, art, theatre and music with film maker Peter Whitehead, playwright David Edgar and Leo Burley, producer and director of Revolution 1968.
The world at war
When George Bush Senior announced a “New World Order” at the end of the Cold War, politicians and academics rushed to proclaim that the age of imperialist rivalries had ended with the dominance of the US and the free market.
This vision now lies in tatters. The “war on terror” has exposed the fragility of US military power; rivals such as Russia and China are increasingly asserting themselves; and the global anti-war movement has mobilised millions. A series of meetings will discuss how the Marxist theory of imperialism remains vital to understanding global politics. We will also hear from activists resisting imperialism in the Middle East.
Latin America’s revolt
Latin America stands at the forefront of the anticapitalist movement of the new century.
At Marxism the Venezuelan union leader Stalin Perez Borges asks where the Bolivarian Revolution is going. Andy Brown looks at Bolivia, which has witnessed the highest level of revolutionary struggle in recent years. The past also holds vital lessons for the future. Chilean exile Mario Nain introduces The Battle of Chile, a film about the Pinochet coup.
Esme Choonara looks at developments in Cuba since the revolution and asks what the future holds after Castro. Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and writer Mike Gonzalez each consider the struggle in Latin America as a whole and discuss the strategy for the movement.
Women’s liberation
Women today enjoy a level of freedom that their grandmothers could never have dreamed of. Our entry into the global workforce on a huge scale, along with successive struggles for equality, has totally reshaped the way we live, work and play.
Yet inequality still exists. Women are paid less than men, and expected to bring up children and be career women and domestic goddesses – all at the same time! With “Raunch Culture” heralding a return of old fashioned sexism in a new disguise, and fresh attacks on abortion rights, we ask the question, “What will it take to achieve real liberation?”