Again
this year, the CPGB will be hosting the Marxism Fringe
at this year's Marxism, the annual school of the Socialist
Workers Party. Oli Rahman - the first elected Respect
councillor - will be speaking at one of these meetings.
(See below).
Our
comrades from the SWP dub their annual school as a "festival
of ideas". And there is no doubt that the event
is an impressive one, bringing together a range of interesting
and talented speakers and 1000s of comrades for the
five-day event of meetings, forums, films and cultural
events. (See www.marxismfestival.org.uk).
If you have time, we would certainly urge comrades to
attend. (It runs from July 3-7).
The
weaknesses of Marxism flow - naturally enough - from
the flaws of the group that organises it. First, it
is hampered because of the culture of the SWP - one
where differences in its own ranks are treated as conspiracy
and where minorities are not allowed to publicly air
their disagreements. Thus, the interventions from the
floor in the various sessions tend to be repetitive
and uncontroversial. Too often they are simply anecdotal
confirmations of the views of the (SWP) speakers: People
are not encouraged to think critically, in other words.
But
- more tellingly - the SWP hardly ever features debates
and controversies within the revolutionary left itself.
So, it is happy to debate, say, Tony Benn on 'Reform
versus revolution'. That's easy work. By definition,
reformism is incapable of producing any body of theory
as coherent and deep as Marxism - even bad Marxists
can win debates like that.
However, it will never debate other explicitly revolutionary
groups on programme - ie: on how a series of immediate
demands relate to the end goal of socialism, why one
method of fighting for reforms is 'reformist' and another
revolutionary.
So,
in truth, the annual Marxism event is actually a "festival"
of a certain body of ideas - the dominant ideas of the
present leadership of the SWP, in fact. Other trends in
revolutionary Marxism are disappeared and - indeed - SWPers
often react with anger and occasionally violence when
these 'dissenters' have the temerity to actually turn
up at the "festival of ideas". (See www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/681/swp%20thuggery.htm
and www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/489/mfjb_statement.html).
This
is why the CPGB has taken the initiative of organising
the Marxism Fringe alongside the official event. This
is the schedule of this year's fringe meetings:
[All meetings at 5pm]
