Administrator
Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
On from 16-18th November in Dublin, the festival has a very large number of sessions and speakers, Irish and international. Some are from revolutionary socialist backgrounds, and others (Vincent Browne, Terry Eagleton, Michael Taft) very definitely not.
http://www.marxismfestival.net/when-a-where
Something for everyone.
Hope to get some report-backs from people going.
“ We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act. ”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
Senior Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Probably wont be there myself but can just mention check out James O Toole, very good speakerOriginally Posted by C. Flower
On in Camden St hotel
- Hotel FMCause I can’t change, I can’t change the world alone
I need you all, everybody, start dreaming of it
And take your step that’s gonna make a difference and change your world
www.fluffybiscuits.org - Alternatives and Opinions on the World...
Senior Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Looks great.
It is an annual event afaik.
A lot of people who once would have attended dont now have the time to attend.
And that is a problem for the revolutionary left.
The unemployed fall into apathy, despair, or emigrate.
The still in work are so busy and under such pressure they have no time or energy for political education, even if they had that inclination.
The youth are distracted by .....being young... at a time when ideologies are jaded and idealism is idiotic.
Sell out after sell out after sell out...
And still some believe.
People came together to make this festival of Marxism a reality.
Year after year.
And while such determination exists there is still hope.
Senior Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Looks great. Might stretch the wallet a bit for me unfortunately.
"Fascinating, watching the world act as though it still had a financial system. Using the toilet, when the pipes are gone." - some guy on twitter
Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Terry Eagleton was a long time member of the SWP while he was a prof in Oxford. By all accounts he was a good comrade and got stuck in.
Administrator
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Interesting. But he is a proponent of religion, from my reading, so is an opponent of Marxism, which is based on the scientific understanding of the objective world, and which is opposed to religion as an explanation of the way things are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Eagleton
“ We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act. ”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
I think he drifted away from the SWP and that sort of coincided with his interest in religion. I think I read somewhere that he either was or about to become a seminarian. So, he was interest in religion before he got involved with the SWP. I don't think he has rejected marxism, he wouldn't have written in 2011 'Why Marx Was Right' if he had, but I think he's taken a more nuanced view of things and is seeking to operate in what may appear to him to be the common ethical impulses that inform some variants of Christianity (i.e. liberation theology) and marxism. An interesting writer if not a fantastic speaker, from what I've heard.
Senior Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Nobody in the SWP is from a revolutionary background, you can be sure of that.
Senior Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Is everyone going to turn up, check their pockets and make sure they rearrange the result so everyone has the same resources?
Or will the Comrade Leaders be getting in for free?
Think National. Act Local. Oh- and superstition is just the dark matter of human history.
Moderator
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
How much is it?
Administrator
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Eagleton seems to me, from looking at his career, to always have been a believer in Christian religion. I haven't read "Why Marx was Right" but I am quite sure that if he had been around, Marx would have written something on "Why Eagleton was Wrong"
“ We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act. ”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
Administrator
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Tickets €26 waged / €18 student & unwaged
Early Bird price (valid till Oct 25th) €23 waged / €15 student & unwaged
For tickets & information contact
Phone 01-8722682 | Email info@swp.ie | www.swp.ie | Text REVOLUTION 2012 to 087 260 4143
“ We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act. ”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
Senior Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
True Cass but he also never had to deal with the realities of holding State power as a Socialist. Lenin & the Bolsheviks did & they wouldnt have stood for any of that kind of talk if you were around back then.Eagleton seems to me, from looking at his career, to always have been a believer in Christian religion. I haven't read "Why Marx was Right" but I am quite sure that if he had been around, Marx would have written something on "Why Eagleton was Wrong"
Administrator
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Lenin wrote constantly against all forms of religious ideology: in the years up to 1917 one of his most important pieces of work was his study of Hegel's dialectics, which he "turned upside down" and placed on a materialist basis, in the years of WW1 (Vol. 34 of his collected works). This work enabled the political analysis that led him to believe that the working class could take power in the conditions prevailing in Russia, in a "leap" - in opposition to the view that first capitalism must first be developed.True Cass but he also never had to deal with the realities of holding State power as a Socialist. Lenin & the Bolsheviks did & they wouldnt have stood for any of that kind of talk if you were around back then.
The Bolsheviks when they took power ridiculed religion and constantly and militantly campaigned against the Church.
It was only much later that Stalin accommodated with it.
“ We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act. ”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
Senior Member
Re: Marxism Festival 2012 - Organised by the SWP (I think)
Will there be speakers from the Communist Party of Ireland, the Workers Party and maybe even the Labour Party and Sinn Fein or is it just a love-in for one self-righteous group?
Regarding Eagleton's book CF, you can have mine. It doesn't do what it says on the cover - just a few essays setting up imaginary views and knocking them down. If you want that kind of thing just look at the threads on the ULA or even this one.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks