Summer School 2024
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Bookings are now open for this year’s Summer School! The event is being held on the 16th – 18th August at a new venue of St John’s Campus at the University of Worcester. The weekend’s theme is Political Consciousness, and more details, including about the talks, will be announced in due course. For more information, and to make a booking, see here: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2024/
I’m pleased to announce the first of the talks at this year’s Summer School.
Keith Graham will be speaking on ‘Political Consciousness: What Can We Learn From Marx?’
Karl Marx’s views on political consciousness are best understood in the context of his wider views about human society in general and capitalist society in particular. This talk will assess the plausibility of the relevant elements in these theories and consider what implications they hold for the transition from capitalism to socialism. In particular, the question of inevitability will be addressed.More announcements coming soon! For further details about the event, see the link in the previous post.
I’m pleased to announce another talk at Summer School!
Darren Poynton will be speaking on ‘Socialist Consciousness, Solidarity and Democratic Virtues’
What is required for Socialist consciousness can be thought of as comprising two parts. One: a theoretical understanding of capitalist relations as a form of social compulsion that inevitably constrains the actions of both workers and capitalists. Two: a practical capacity to organise in a democratic and active way, that is required for both the establishment and continued reproduction of socialism. This talk will focus on this second aspect.More news soon!
Here are details of another talk at this year’s Summer School. For more details about the event, see here: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2024/
“They are many, we are few” The Political Consciousness Of The Capitalist Class?
Brian Gardner (Glasgow branch) presents a talk on political consciousness that he dubiously claims was given at the annual convention of the global capitalist class held in the Swiss Alps at Davos in January.
Allegedly smuggled out in a delegate’s complementary Faberge egg, the secret talk celebrates the diverse and inventive propaganda efforts passed on by each ruling class throughout history to help preserve their position of privilege over the ungrateful global masses, – from royalty, religion and racism, to patriotism, consumerism and culture wars.
To help maintain the current order, concerted acts of good old-fashioned violence are of course still an option available to many of the rich. But in this snowflake era, concepts such as democracy and freedom are gaining strength, and brutal, semi-genocidal state terror does carry significant PR and reputational downsides.
The talk supposedly goes on to warn the global elite attending that many of the old ideologies used by the 1% – and that could previously be relied upon to distract, divide and demoralise the 99% – are just not proving to be so effective anymore. Our citizens are increasingly reluctant to fight our turf wars for us. They are unwilling to ignore economic crises and pandemics. And despite being effectively trespassers on the planet, they appear to think they have some interest in its health. “Fooling some of the people some of the time” may have proved a sufficient strategy over the centuries, but there are worrying signs that “the few” may be running out of new arguments to manage “the many”. Our authority was once unquestioned, conveniently handed down by various Gods. Then we found we had to actually argue the point by championing capitalism. Now, our PR advisers tell us not to defend capitalism but just try and change the subject. We once had philosophers on our side, writing passionate speeches for Margaret Thatcher to deliver. Now it’s GB News and Liz Truss.
The alternative is to join Elon Musk’s rocket trip and escape to Mars. But if the prospect of bunking down for six months in class solidarity with the likes of Nigel Farage, Prince Andrew and Michelle Mone doesn’t attract you, what arguments are now left for the poor, misunderstood, class-conscious elite? … And, most of all, what might the workers be making of it all?A fourth session at Summer School has been confirmed! Paddy Shannon will be giving a talk with the title ‘Political Consciousness – Could GenZ Be Onto Something?’
Class consciousness is all about passion as well as politics. The revolution is not an academic exercise. It needs workers to rage against the machine, not just stand around enumerating its functions and labelling its parts. But passion is an unreliable guide. We worry that today’s educated first-world workers have no interest in class politics, and are instead motivated by moral imperatives like social and climate justice, concerns about emotional health and interpersonal relationships, and a pious desire not to oppress others. Few foresaw that identity politics would become such a battleground, one which some Marxists argue is a big mistake and a distraction from the class struggle.
That could be an overly dismal view. Was 20th century anti-racism a distraction from the class struggle, or an intrinsic part of it? What if 21st century progressive workers, rather than drifting away from class unity, are actively struggling to confront one of the last barriers to it?For more information about the weekend, see here: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2024/
There are still spaces available at Summer School, and please note that the deadline for bookings is 15th July. The weekend’s four talks have been announced in previous posts, and details of another session will be confirmed soon. The event will also include a bookstall, and an exhibition and exclusive publication on the Political Consciousness theme. For more information about the weekend, see here: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2024/
I’m pleased to announce another session at Summer School:
Political Consciousness: The Board Game
In real life, the extent to which people are thinking critically and politically can’t be reduced to a number, but it can in a board game! Players move around the board, answering questions and making choices which affect the level of political awareness. Can enough of the right decisions be made to reach peak political consciousness?For more details about the event, see here: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2024/
Remember that the deadline for bookings is 15th July.
I take it you’ve heard of this board game?
I hadn’t heard of that game, no. It sounds a bit different to what’s planned for Summer School, which is probably less detailed.
There are still spaces available at Summer School, and the deadline for bookings is only a week away on the 15th July. The event is being held on the weekend of 16th – 18th August at in Worcester. As well as four talks on the theme of Political Consciousness, there’s also a board game evening, exhibition of how the Socialist Standard has covered the theme, bookstall and exclusive publication. For more information, including about how to make a booking, see here: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2024/
The deadline for Summer School bookings is tomorrow – 15th July, so there’s not long left! To make sure that a last-minute booking is logged, please email me at spgbschool[at]yahoo.co.uk as well as making the booking. An extra session is being planned, which will hopefully be announced soon!
The Summer School page on the website is here: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2024/I’m very pleased to announce an extra session at Summer School! Guest speaker Cat Rylance of Communist Future will give an introduction to the organisation, which is “both a political collective and an affirmation that a world beyond capitalism is possible”. This new project has been established in Manchester, where Cat stood as a candidate in the recent general election. Communist Future holds that “The political power of the majority — the working class — is a force that can transform the world. The communist future would not result in replacing the dominance of one group with another, but through collective ownership would do away with the need for a class system at all. This is what we mean when we speak about revolution: an overcoming of the limitations of the system, an absolute reorganisation of society as a whole”.
If anyone who hasn’t yet booked would like to attend, please email me at spgbschool[at]yahoo.co.uk before Thursday afternoon.
She also stood as a candidate in Manchester Central in the general election and got the same sort of vote, both in terms of numbers and percentage, as we did in Clapham and Brixton Central:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001352
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