04.08.2016
Ideas to transform our movement
This year’s Communist University runs from Saturday August 6 to Saturday August 13 in west London. As Ben Williams says, it comes during a significant upswing in political struggle and engagement
In response to the shameless (and often seemingly suicidal) attempts of the Labour right and their cheerleaders in the establishment to overthrow Jeremy Corbyn, the mass of the Labour Party membership has been rallying - turning out in huge numbers, defying the state of martial law within Labour by meeting in their constituencies and pulling out all the stops to defend Corbyn. Barring a disaster of huge proportions, all the indicators point towards his successful re-election as Labour leader, which will leave Owen Smith, Angela Eagle and these other luminaries of ‘socialism’ wondering whether it would in fact be better if the Parliamentary Labour Party could elect a new membership.
In the face of such a fierce class war within Labour, it is perhaps unsurprising that this year’s Communist University - co-sponsored by the CPGB and Labour Party Marxists - looks as though it could be one of the best-attended in recent years, with rooms already booked out and scores of comrades registering. No surprise, perhaps: a cursory glance at the timetable underlines both the quality of the speakers and the breadth of topics on display, from Marx’s Capital through to space systems, via Noam Chomsky!
Many comrades attending our school will have been heavily involved in the struggle to fend off the right wing’s advances and to defend the Corbyn leadership. As we in Labour Party Marxists have constantly stressed, however, our defence of Corbyn should be unwavering, but not uncritical. Indeed, on various occasions in the course of the past year or so, the response of Team Corbyn and Momentum to the incessant stream of abuse, slander and character assassination has often been timid, conciliatory and unimaginative: instead of fighting fire with fire, instead of calling bullshit where it needed to be called, far too many compromises have been made to the right.
Thus the ludicrous ‘anti-Semitism’ crusade against Corbyn and his supporters gave rise to the Chakrabarti inquiry; the media-led slaughter has led to Corbyn’s team throwing their lot in with Twitter, Facebook and ‘indie’ outlets such as Vice. Moreover, most Corbynistas seem to be focused not on fundamentally reshaping the party and arming it for socialism, but with banking everything (including their radical politics?) on winning the election in 2020. It is to overcoming this sort of unimaginative short-termism that our school is dedicated. Sessions on Corbyn and the Labour Party; the history of the CPGB and its relationship to Labour; democratic centralism and the accountability of workers’ representatives; the early Comintern; etc - all will stress the need for a greater sense of history, perspective and long-term strategic thought.
And, when it comes to the enduring talk of ‘anti-Semitism’ in the Labour Party, the school is extremely well-placed to provide activists with counter-arguments and evidence. Who best to have speaking on the so-called ‘new anti-Semitism’ than the indefatigable critic of Israeli expansionism, Dr Norman Finkelstein? Instead of ceding ground to the smears against Labour MP Naz Shah for posting a cartoon depicting Israel being moved to the United States from his own website (or even totally collapsing to them, as in the case of Momentum’s self-appointed grandee, John Lansman), Finkelstein wrote a piece for Open Democracy which absolutely ripped to shreds the hypocrisy of those such as the Zionist thug, John Mann.1 In addition, Norman will give a talk on ‘The future of Palestine’ and introduce a more theoretical session, discussing John Stuart Mill’s On liberty.
Finkelstein has something of a reputation for sharp and frank exchanges. And this is precisely the kind of environment we wish to engender at CU. He will be joined by the Israeli socialist Moshé Machover - a long-time friend of the CPGB - and Tony Greenstein, who is perhaps one of the few people who can lay claim to being a Jewish Labour Party activist suspended for alleged anti-Semitism.
With further sessions on contemporary topics such as Brexit, the world economy and the Irish question, we are surely heading towards one of our best yet universities. We very much hope that readers will be able to take part and contribute. As usual, each of our planned sessions last just under three hours, facilitating as much discussion from the floor as possible.
For those of our readers around the world who are unable to attend, we are currently making arrangements to live-stream the sessions, so that as many can be a part of this exciting week as possible. Comrades will appreciate that this event - the annual highpoint of our organisations - requires both a huge amount of work on the part of our comrades and incurs very large costs in terms of hiring accommodation, travel and so on. Even if you cannot attend (or can only do so virtually), any donations you have towards covering those costs would be greatly appreciated. As usual, all of the cutting-edge material and research will be posted to watch online and transcribed for the Weekly Worker.
Notes
1. See www.opendemocracy.net/uk/jamie-stern-weiner-norman-finkelstein/american-jewish-scholar-behind-labour-s-antisemitism-scanda. For a brief overview of his life and work, see the film ‘American radical: the trials of Norman Finkelstein’ on YouTube.
Communist University 2016
A week of provocative and stimulating debate sponsored by
Labour Party Marxists and CPGB
Saturday August 6 to Saturday August 13 (inclusive)
Westminister University,
Harrow House, Watford Road, Northwick Park, Harrow HA1 3TP
Nearest stations: Northwick Park (Metropolitan line), Kenton (Bakerloo and overground).
Full week, including accommodation in en suite single rooms:
£250 (£150 unwaged). Solidarity price: £300.
First/final weekend, including one night’s accommodation: £60 (£30).
Full week, no accommodation: £60 (£30).
Day: £10 (£5). Single session: £5 (£3). Reservation: £30.
We have also a few twin rooms available.
Cheques: Make payable to CPGB and send to:
BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX.
PayPal: Go to the CPGB website: www.cpgb.org.uk.
Bank transfer: email tina@cpgb.org.uk for details.