Study courses

Working class and trade unions I: Marx

Marx argues that class struggle and working-class combination (trade unions) is endemic in capitalism, at all stages. "The contest between the capitalist and wage-labourer dates back to the very origin of capital..." (Ch.15.5). Workers' "struggles for the standards of wages are incidents inseparable from the whole wages system" (WPP); the basic "activity of the trade unions... cannot be dispensed with so long as the present system of production lasts" (TUPPF). The trade unions become "centres of organisation of the working class", and if deliberately developed as such can become "organised...

Brisbane Workers' Liberty study group, December/January 2005/6

Discussion group on Working class and trade unions: Marx and today . Dates: Tuesday 13 December 2005, Monday 2 January 2006, Monday 9 January 2006. 1. Marx on the evolution of the working class Reading: Marx, "Capital", volume 1, chapter 15 and part of the "extra" chapter printed in the Penguin edition, "Results of the Immediate Process of Production" ; and excerpts from Marx collected here . Discussion notes . 2. The working class today Reading: Doug Henwood, Talking about work , Monthly Review July-August 1997. Paul Hampton, The Fight for Independent Working-Class Politics in the 'Third...

Marx on trade unions

Three key excerpts. From The Poverty of Philosophy In England… permanent combinations have been formed, trades unions, which serve as ramparts for the workers in their struggles with the employers... The organization of these strikes, combinations, and trades unions went on simultaneously with the political struggles of the workers, who now constitute a large political party, under the name of Chartists. The first attempt of workers to associate among themselves always takes place in the form of combinations. Large-scale industry concentrates in one place a crowd of people unknown to one...

"AWL vs SWP" day school (Nov/Dec 2005): discussion points

Agenda: Short plenary introduction Small-group discussions one: Transitional programme vs fake ultra-leftism Small-group discussions two: Marxism vs Apparatus Marxism Small-group discussions three: Striving to be "the memory of the class" vs invention of tradition Discussion points: 1. Transitional programme vs fake ultra-leftism A. Consider the following slogans advanced by the SWP. i. "TUC must call a General Strike!" (1992) ii. "March on Parliament!" (1994) iii. "Troops Out Now!" (yesterday Ireland, today Iraq) iv. "One solution, revolution!" For each: What arguments can be given for them...

Notes and discussion points on Beverly Silver's "Forces of Labor"

The notes and discussion points are classified under three headings: Auto workers and textile workers (Silver's ch.2 and ch.3 to p.97) Overall trends (Silver's ch.4 and ch.1) The future (Silver's ch.3 from p.97 onwards, ch.5, and ch.1. The notes were prepared for a Brisbane Workers' Liberty discussion series in August/ September 2005. Click here for a review of "Forces of Labor" by Martin Thomas . 1. Auto workers and textile workers a. Silver more or less assumes that auto workers' struggles belong to the past, except perhaps in China. Why? The motor vehicle industry is still expanding...

Workers in globalisation

The working class in "globalised" capitalism

Draft review by Martin Thomas of Nigel Harris's book The return of cosmopolitan capital (Rtf file, 53k. November 2003.)


Notes from a Marxist discussion group organised by Workers' Liberty activists in Brisbane, Australia, in July-September 2003, around the book The End of Organized Capitalism, by Scott Lash and John Urry.

1. Introduction

2. Chapter-by-chapter summary and brief discussion

3. The rise and fall of 'organised capitalism'

4. Sunk in the suburbs?

5. Disorganised capital, disorganised labour?

6. Has politics become fractal?

7. Radicalism, nomadism, and working-class communities

8. Trade unionism, capitalist competition and fragmentation of bargaining

Publications
Culture and Reviews
Issues and Campaigns

Marxism and Imperialism



Marxism and imperialism


A seven-week discussion course

Course outline

Week 1. (a) Marx: On The Question of Free Trade

Week 1. (b) Engels on the Mexican-American war of 1846-8

Week 1. (c) Marx: The Future Results of British Rule in India

Week 2. Karl Kautsky: from Socialism And Colonial Policy (1907) (see also the full text and introduction to this text.)

Week 3. (a) Rosa Luxemburg: from Social Reform and Revolution

Week 3. (b) Rosa Luxemburg: from the Junius Pamphlet

Week 3. (c) Hilferding: Finance Capital - a summary, and a review by Kautsky

Week 4. Lenin: from Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism

Week 5. (a) Dependency theory: adapted from Workers' Liberty 28

Week 5. (b) Samir Amin on The Political Economy of the 20th Century

Week 5. (c) Decolonisation. From Workers' Liberty 63

Week 6. Globalisation. From Two Critiques, in Workers' Liberty 2/3

Week 7. (a) The Iraq war and perspectives (from Solidarity)

Week 7. (b) Ellen Wood: Back to Marx


Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 1. Introduction

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 2. The white man as cannibal

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 3. How Britain ruined India

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 4. Looting El Dorado

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 5. The spoils of the Sultanates

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 6. Levelling and uneven development

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 7. The grey revolution

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 8. Three variants

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 9. Development: whose, and and what cost?

Publications
Marxist Theory and History
Issues and Campaigns

Study course on Marxist philosophy

This coming Saturday (10 July) sees the start of a six-part summer course on Marxist philosophy. Classes take place in Hackney on Saturday afternoons. Full course details are below. a 6-part course based on Marx's 'Theses on Feuerbach' 1. July 10 & 17 Why is crude materialism not good enough? (Theses 1, 9 and 10) What is 'crude' (ie. non-dialectical) materialism? What class interests does it reflect? How is it related to idealism? What is Marx's solution? How does this relate to Lenin's 'Materialism and Empiro-Criticism'? 2. July 24 Can we really know the world? (Thesis 2) What is wrong with...

Stalinism study course

Understanding the history of the 20th century in order to make the history of the 21st A Marxist study course on the rise and the nature of Stalinism London Workers' Liberty study course, 2002 (partial notes) In week 1 we discussed what made the Russian Revolution of 1917 different from the other avowedly socialist revolutions of the 20th century - China, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, and so on - its nature as a radically democratic working-class revolution. In week 2 we looked at the measures to which the workers' government felt it had to resort when faced with civil war, invasion by the armies of 14...

Course outline: Marxism and Imperialism

Week 1. Marx In the Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels presented the spreading-out of industrial capitalism across the world as a revolutionary, civilising process. "The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world-market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood... By the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, [it] draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into...

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