Marxism in a Day: A review

I visited London today to go to Marxism in a day. A smaller conference than the annual Marxism festival and organised by the SWP in Birkbeck University, it featured talks by several prominent activists both from and outside of the SWP (including Wayman Bennet, Geoff Brown, Paul Holborrow, Alex Callinicos and Joseph Choonara), it acted as a pleasant space by which people of many age groups could discuss and gain insight into various pressing political topics alongside a very knowledgeable panel, to which our involvement was highly appreciated. 

The conference was opened with with excellent talks by Professor Alex Callinicos and SWP activist Katie Coles on the ever growing importance of Marxism in today’s society, and its evolution in its application economics and political sciences over time. This was then followed by Yuri Prasad’s talk on the need for revolution in understanding and fighting against racism, which inspired a lot of discussion. It was through listening to this that I began to really take in the sheer absurdity of the extent by which society remains so heavily divided by ridiculous social constructs of gender and race, that political differences, class struggle, and things that truly matter appear to be viewed as merely trivial matters that are hugely overshadowed. Some interesting points were also raised about unionisation and whether this was really the major revolutionary solution that many view it as in relation to these issues.

After breaking for lunch and having a discussion with the specific student wing of the SWP (in which, along with my Portsmouth comrades I was there with, I heard from many others about their recent activism), we reconvened to hear from the founders of the Anti-Nazi League. I particularly enjoyed listening to Wayman Bennett’s commentary on the defeat of the far right in London during the National Front’s formative years, and found his story telling style and use of humour relating back to today’s situation to be engaging, and exactly the way to motivate us and give us hope for the future revolution. 

As I left the university lecture hall after the final plenary and the closing words, this was exactly what I was feeling: truly inspired and filled with hope for my generation (who were the majority of the audience) to bring about change. Events such as this are hugely important for, not only educating and encouraging others to strive to improve society, but to allow more modern and up to date perspectives on Marxism to be understood, bringing the theory to life and increasing its accessibility. Because of this, I would highly recommend them to both the politically knowledgeable and those just beginning to develop their understanding. I also felt that this one being held in a university as opposed to a conference venue to be a very nice touch which perfectly added to this sentiment.