The Cambridge Marxist Society, founded shortly after the
crisis began in 2008, is now in its fourth year of existence. Over these years,
the society has grown to become the largest political society in Cambridge
University, with 350 people signing up at this year’s freshers’ fair. This was
followed up by an excellent first meeting of the new academic year, with over
90 people attending to hear Alan Woods, editor of www.marxist.com, speak on “Why Marx was
right”.
The Cambridge Marxist Society, founded shortly after the
crisis began in 2008, is now in its fourth year of existence. Over these years,
the society has grown to become the largest political society in Cambridge
University, with 350 people signing up at this year’s freshers’ fair. This was
followed up by an excellent first meeting of the new academic year, with over
90 people attending to hear Alan Woods, editor of www.marxist.com, speak on “Why Marx was
right”.
The meeting was held in the ironically titled venue of the Keynes Hall
in Kings College, named after the British economist John Maynard Keynes, who
was based at Cambridge, and whose economic ideas are currently in vogue amongst
the reformist leaders of the labour movement. A bronze bust of Keynes sits in
the hall and was looking over the 90-strong attendance as Alan Woods talked
about the failure of Keynesian measures in trying to avert the crisis of
capitalism.
Alan Woods provided a Marxist explanation for the current
crisis, and gave a number of examples about how even mainstream economists are
turning to Marx’s ideas and saying “Marx was right”. Alan referred to the
Communist Manifesto, and pointed out that this 164-year-old document is
actually the most relevant writing for today’s situation – even more relevant
now than when it was written in 1848 by Marx and Engels.
The discussion that followed spanned a range of issues,
including the nature of the working class and the prospects for revolution in
the industrialised countries, the economic and political perspectives for
rapidly-industrialising countries like China and Brazil, and the causes behind
the bureaucratic degeneration of the workers’ state in Russia following the
1917 revolution. Interestingly, nobody present questioned Marx’s ideas or said
“maybe Marx was actually wrong”. The general mood was incredibly positive and
inquisitive, with people keen to understand how we can fight for socialism in
Cambridge, in Britain, and internationally.
Alan summed up by encouraging people to read the classics of
Marxism and carry on coming to the Marxist Society in order to deepen our
understanding and our analysis of the world around us, in order to be able to
confidently intervene in the movements that are taking place every day and in
every country.
The
enthusiasm with which we, the Cambridge Marxists, have been greeted has been
replicated in universities across the country, where members of the International
Marxist Tendency have been intervening in order to establish strong societies
for the discussing of Marxist ideas – the only ideas that can change society.
