Newcastle – Marxism in a day
Entry is FREE and you can attend any or all of the sessions:
11:00-12:15 Marx & Economics, John Westmoreland
12:45-2:00 Marx & Ecology, Elaine Graham-Leigh
2:15-3:30 Marx & Revolution, Alex Snowdon
The world is more unstable than at any time since the second world war. The Middle East is in flames. Eastern Europe is in turmoil. The far right is on the rise. But from the Palestine protests to the streets of Seoul and Paris, there is resistance to war, austerity and authoritarianism.
War is thus endemic to capitalism. So are racism, nationalism and all the other divisions and prejudices that divide working class people against each other, therefore weakening the working class and strengthening our rulers’ power.
But the system’s huge expansion since 1848 – a year of revolution in Europe, and the year Marx wrote his Communist Manifesto – means capitalism is now a truly global system, with a global working class capable of resistance.
Transforming society, however, is only possible if we seize control of the means of production, i.e. if we control our workplaces and the resources our economy depends upon, as well as political institutions, to create a truly democratic and equal society. That is the beginnings of socialism.
Marx was a revolutionary. We build revolutionary organisations today – in the context of wider movements and struggles – in his tradition. This revolutionary tradition is founded on Marx’s conviction that the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class. We have to liberate ourselves, through collective resistance.
Join us to discuss Marx’s ideas and how they relate to our struggles to transform society today.
Entry is FREE and you can attend any or all of the sessions:
11:00-12:15 Marx & Economics, John Westmoreland
12:45-2:00 Marx & Ecology, Elaine Graham-Leigh
2:15-3:30 Marx & Revolution, Alex Snowdon
John Westmoreland is a history teacher and UCU rep. He is an active member of the People’s Assembly and writes regularly for Counterfire.
Elaine has been an environmental campaigner for more than a decade. She speaks and writes widely on issues of climate change and social justice, and is a member of Counterfire. She is the author of A Diet of Austerity: Class, Food and Climate Change and Marx and the Climate Crisis.
Alex Snowdon is a Counterfire activist in Newcastle. He is active in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition and the National Education Union. He is the author of A Short Guide to Israeli Apartheid (2022).
Those books and more can be found here: https://shop.counterfire.org/collections/books
Counterfire is a revolutionary socialist organisation committed to transforming our society from one based on the profit motive to one built on the needs of working people: https://www.counterfire.org/who-we-are/
Join Counterfire here: https://www.counterfire.org/join/