Youth

Education under capitalism is organised for one purpose – to prepare the next generation of workers for a life of exploitation and to ‘update the skills’ of the current ones according to the needs of the labour market. We are conditioned to absorb information and not question it or the world around us.

Colin Waugh has worked in adult education for more than 25 years and will be talking about his recently published account of the Plebs League – the founding movement inspired by the notion that the working classes should produce their own thinkers and organisers!

The Plebs League eventually became a national movement, providing what was called independent working-class education (IWCE). Later it was called the National Council of Labour Colleges. Through this movement, which was still functioning in 1964, tens of thousands of working-class people both taught and learnt.

The basic aim behind IWCE was that the working class should produce its own thinkers and organisers. The autobiographies and reminiscences of many labour movement leaders in the 1930s, 40s and 50s refer to the Plebs League and the Ruskin strike. In contrast, few academic historians have paid attention to these initiatives. Most histories of adult education, for example, assume that what counts is the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA). They either ignore IWCE altogether or see it as an obstacle that briefly hampered the WEA.

Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/371959769497170/

An introduction to Marxist ideas, organised by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty
12-7pm, Saturday 19 April 2008, University of East London Docklands campus (Cyprus DLR)

Sweatshop labour, soaring inequality, privatisation, war, racism, destruction of the environment, women's oppression... why is the world like it is? And how can we change it?

Workers' Liberty is a Marxist, revolutionary socialist organisation. We believe that the problem is capitalism, and all societies based on class exploitation; and that workers' struggle and working-class revolution can create a new society, one without exploitation or oppression, in which human beings are able to develop their individuality freely.

This year is the 40th anniversary of 1968, when French workers and students rose up against the rule of capital, in the vanguard of a worldwide upsurge against capitalism and Stalinism. We will be discussing both the lessons of 1968 and the significance of the struggles by workers and young people that are shaking France today.

Plenty of time for debate, discussion and questions

11.45am Registration

12.15pm Welcome and introduction to the event

12.45pm
i) Why the working class? Young workers, class struggle and rebuilding the labour movement
ii) Marx’s ecology: rediscovering a forgotten tradition

2pm Lunch

2.30pm
i) “Radical chains”: how does class struggle relate to the fight against women’s, black, LGBT and other forms of oppression?
ii) Socialism, democracy, revolution and violence

3.40pm
i) What do “imperialism” and “anti-imperialism” mean?
ii) How (and how not) to fight the BNP

4.50pm
i) Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba: models of 21st century socialism?
ii) Why is the left so divided? How do we get socialist unity? A debate between the AWL and the Socialist Party

6pm Assessment of the day and closing plenary, with a speaker on the lessons of 1968 and the class struggle in France today.

7pm Close

Reading available soon. For some ideas of what kind of questions we will be discussing, see here.

Tickets for the event £5 waged, £3 unwaged - with a £1 discount if you pay in advance. You can just turn up on the day, but please preregister if you can by emailing skillz_999@hotmail.com or ringing 020 7207 0706.

Cheap vegetarian and vegan food provided.
We can find you somewhere to stay if needed.

Followed from 8pm by a fundraising social with Marxist hip-hop artist the Ruby Kid @ the Ivy House, 8-10 Southampton Row, Holborn (a couple of minutes from Holborn tube).