Marxism 2011 part two

Above pic is the man himself, Tony Benn, guest speaker at Marxism 2011. He has been attending Marxism for many many years.

Although I didn't attend many meetings of Marxism 2011, the ones I did go to were good, interesting and thought provoking. It would be nice to participate in the debates though and that remains a criticism I have of the event this year, its good to debate in meetings but not every one gets a chance at this, therefore in order to make it a really full and appealing event, debating should be a conducive element, encouraged all over the venue(s).

Many good events had taken place in the run up to Marxism this year, like the events in the Middle East and North Africa, and the strikes on the 30th June ( the first day of the five day Marxism event), so a certain amount of euphoria could be expected, although I am uncomfortable with prolonged collective euphoria in any sphere of life. There was actually quite a bit of euphoria at this years event, and people really giving it some welly and cheering things that I really thought they should think better of doing.

A small example was the first meeting I went to which was a meeting about the web, social networking on the net and organising, it was called "Tweeting about a revolution: social media and social movements", and near enough the concluding comment that almost raised the roof was when a comrade said that the young should teach the old how to use new technology !!!! It was an Ernest point being made but a poor idea as a future strategy since so many older people are using the net, and many young people shy away from the political potentialities it creates, or they are unconfident and inexperienced politically.

But for that remark to be applauded and cheered sent alarm bells ringing through my ears. One of the reasons for such euphoria was because of the person who made the comment, not the content - which was, if people thought about it, a weak point. However, it was an interesting talk and debate, despite a level of passivity and confusion. A memorable moment was when one comrade got up to say that although the technology was poor back in the old days, any new innovation in technology was seized upon then for its use in enhancing the struggle, and that is not happening today with the net as much as it should or could be.

Moving on ...

Our Tony Benn was fantastic, just so good that he continues to support us and so many others getting together to fight and struggle for a better world. He didn't speak for very long and he is in his nineties now, still fit mind you but more frail than I have seen him before. He is an inspiration, so kind and encouraging, he said that the same effort that some people put into making war they should put into making peace. He said that no one ever says they can't afford to bomb a place or not to have a battle in war because of cost cuts, so, the same effort and the same finances need to be made to make peace in the world. He also said that we would all benefit and so would society as a whole benefit from looking after the elderly, a point that although may sound obvious and simple is actually far reaching and true.

The above meeting and debate was called "Socialist and the Welfare State" and was really interesting all round. A young man got up to disagree with socialists, he spoke on the side of capitalists, I was glad he spoke and I was interested to hear his defence of this dreadful system ...

Basically he said that things were worse in places like Russia and Eastern Europe where there was communism, and that we scared him ( or something like that). Of course the vast majority of people now accept that the Eastern European countries were not socialist in any way and in Russia the new formed socialist society ( from the 1917 revolution), renamed USSR, was strangled and died in infancy. The old order gradually retook control under Stalin and was socialist only in name. Tony Cliff who founded the SWP wrote an extremely comprehensive book called 'State Capitalism in Russia' in 1947 outlining how it is a myth to say Russia was or is socialist, it is capitalist and was involved, even way back then, 1947 and before, in international competition and trading with the west, its economy being capitalist was run heavily by the state.

I wish I could remember the gist of this young pro capitalist's other arguments, but I have forgotten, sorry, next time I will listen more keenly and take notes ... Or then again maybe there were and are more pressing and sensible debates to be getting involved in.

The only other meeting I went to was called "Why we defend Multiculturalism", a great meeting again, and I look forward to writing up about it in the next post.