Over the weekend of the 26th and 27th of January, Socialist Appeal supporters from Scotland and the North of England came together in Newcastle University Students’ Union to discuss the fundamental ideas of Marxism. This was the second annual Marxist Weekend School to be held in Newcastle and provided all those who attended with an opportunity to take part in extensive discussions on a variety of topics.
Over the weekend of the 26th and 27th of January, Socialist Appeal supporters from Scotland and the North of England came together in Newcastle University Students’ Union to discuss the fundamental ideas of Marxism. This was the second annual Marxist Weekend School to be held in Newcastle and provided all those who attended with an opportunity to take part in extensive discussions on a variety of topics.
We had a number of young suppoerters present from the Marxist Societies at Newcastle, Durham, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, as well as from the wider labour movement around the North East of England, which allowed for a wide range of experience and knowledge, and which provided us with ample fuel for quite lively discussions.
We kicked off the first day of the school with a session on “Why does Capitalism enter into crisis?”, which was introduced by Terry McPartlan, a member of Gateshead Unison and a supporter of Socialist Appeal. After going over the theoretical ideas underpinning the Marxist analysis of capitalist crisis and the history of capitalist development since World War 2, Terry went on to talk about the nature of the current crisis and how it is impacting upon all the social and political structures in Britain and around the world. What followed was a very active debate and discussion about how this crisis is likely to pan out in the future and the various effects that it is having on the leadership, not only of the trade unions and the Labour Party but also of the capitalist class itself. Of the different possibilities of the course of development going forward, we all ended in general agreement that the only real solution to the current crisis would be a fundamental shift in the way we organise our society, with a socialist transformation.
After a break for lunch, where food and drinks were sold to raise money for the fighting fund and at which a bookstall was on display, we reconvened for our second session of the day which was introduced by John Pickard, former editor of the Militant newspaper and author of “Behind the Myths: the origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam”. The session itself was on “Religious ideas and historical materialism” and after a comprehensive overview of this subject a wide ranging discussion was held. Questions were raised about the way in which ideology and religious ideas have developed as an expression of varying class interests within society at particular times, what sort of religious and philosophical ideas will exist after a socialist revolution, and also how ideological struggles today impact upon the development of the class struggle. We were lucky to have John with us, to introduce this session and give his views of the different issues and questions that were raised, due to his expertise and experience on the subject, and would like to offer our thanks to him for coming to speak and take part in our event. It is fair to say that everyone who took part in this session took a lot away from it and some of the ideas raised definitely made us think about things in a different way than when we had begun.
The first day of the Marxist Weekend School proved to be an incredibly long one for some comrades who had spent time in the morning travelling to Newcastle and after two sessions of deep theoretical discussions needless to say we were all in the mood to let our hair down a bit. This allowed us to indulge in that other fine old revolutionary tradition of going for a drink and a sing song in some of Newcastle’s finest watering holes. Comrades got the chance to get to socialise and to share their own experiences of fighting for Marxist ideas and against austerity in their own areas and this provided a perfect environmen to quite simply relax and collect our thoughts before the next day’s activities.
Opening up the first session on the second day was Lee Singh Gill, a comrade from Newcastle Marxists and a member of Unite, who introduced the subject of “The Pakistani Revolution 1968-9: Lessons for today”. He explained that the current turmoil within Pakistan must be put into the context of the preceding history of the development of Pakistan’s economy and the inherent contradictions which were left over from the Partition of the south Asian subcontinent in 1947. A lot of Comrades raised a number of questions about the history of the subcontinent, the national question and the state of left wing forces in Pakistan throughout its history. It was argued that after nearly 66 years of independence it has been proven patently obvious that capitalism can not solve the problems posed by the working masses of Pakistan and that these questions can not be answered within the bounds of small national states. To overcome the problems that exist we would need a socialist revolution and for this to spread beyond nationl borders, leading to a voluntary socialist federation of the subcontinent as a step towards a world socialist federation.
The final session on the weekend school was a discussion on “The Role of the Revolutionary Party”. In the introduction given by Rachel Gibbs, a comrade from Glasgow Marxists, it was explained that revolutionary movements themselves will develop off the back of the conditions which pertain within the working class, as workers fight to defend their interests and the standard of living they have been able to win they will come up against the limits of the capitalist system itself and in so doing will need to fight for something beyond. This is specially the case during this time of profound crisis. But, just because revolutionary movements will develop does not mean they will be successful on their own, but rather they will need to be conscious of what is happening to make the best of the developing situation. It is the role of the revolutionary party to not only generalise this experience but to offer workers a broad understanding and perspective for how society has developed and consequently how we can fight to transform society today. This is the role that Marxist theory itself can play in these struggles. Rachel’s introduction gave us plenty to get our teeth into and lead to a very productive discussion where comrades spoke about how the analysis of events and history must be rooted in concrete conditions and how through doing this we can develop tactical approaches to the working class movement. In order to win the masses to revolution and to successfully transform society we need to build the tool necessary for the working class to wield to finish of the ruling class and their system for good.
We finished the weekend with a traditional rendition of the Internationale, which was sung in at least four different languages by comrades present (five if you count Geordie!) and comrades left Newcastle not only buoyed by the discussions held, but also determined to go forward and fight to build the forces of revolutionary Marxism on campuses in Scotland and in the north of England.
Through a collection, the sale of food and drink, and a raffle which was held, we also managed to raise £210 for the fighting fund to help concretely in the building of the forces of Marxism, which showed a willingness to sacrifice from those comrades present. We also sold a number of books and pamphlets and, coupled with the high level of discussion and the questions that were raised throughout the weekend, this shows the thirst for knowledge which comrades have and the passion they show in going forward and fighting for revolutionary Marxist ideas.
All in all the weekend was a roaring success and we can only thank all of those comrades who came and took part, from the speakers to those who chaired sessions and helped with the running of the event, to everyone who contributed to the discussions, asking questions and making interventions, both during the sessions and over the whole of the weekend.
Without the support of comrades from Glasgow and Edinburgh and from those who attended from the north-east, we would probably not have been able to hold such an event and even it we had it would not have been anywhere near as successful. We look forward to the next Marxist Weekend School.
