24.07.2025
Communist University 2025, July 31-August 7
Jointly organised by CPGB, TAS and Prometheus
Jointly organised by CPGB, TAS and Prometheus
Venue: International Student House, 229 Great Portland Street, London W1 (nearest tube: Great Portland Street)
Cost: All sessions, including accommodation: £250 (£150 unwaged)
Weekend, including one night’s accommodation: £60 (£30)
Full day: £10 (£5) Single session: £5 (£3)
If you cannot attend in person, join us online - Zoom webinar registration link for all sessions:
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QtdT4ipeR5qbWU52mA_5PA
CU is different from the run-of-the-mill schools put on by other left groups.
Plenty of time is allocated to contributions from the floor.
Controversial debate is positively welcomed and, needless to say, there are no three-minute time limits.
Timetable
Thursday July 31
Registration from 12 noon
1.30pm to 3.30pm: Opening roundtable
Forging Communist Unity
4pm to 6pm: Rida Vaquas
War, peace and communist strategy
6.30pm to 8pm: Darko Suvin
Bertolt Brecht’s version of The communist manifesto
Friday August 1
10am to 12 noon: Michael Roberts
The world economy with Trump
1.30pm to 3.30pm: Marc Mulholland
Class analysis and social transformation
4pm to 6pm: Ed Potts, Yassamine Mather and Archie Woodrow
Debate: nationalism, anti-colonial struggles and strategy
6.30pm to 8pm: Esther Leslie
Bertolt Brecht’s The exception and the rule
Saturday August 2
10am to 12 noon: David Broder
Far-right uses of a ‘workerist’ identity politics, and their roots in Labourism
1.30pm to 3.30pm: Nick Wrack
Envisioning the communist future
4pm to 6pm: Ted Reese
The transition to fully automated communism and the role of abundance
6.30pm to 8pm: Esther Leslie
Walter Benjamin’s Angel of history
Sunday August 3
10am to 12 noon: Moshé Machover and Yassamine Mather
Anti-imperialism and the Middle East
1.30pm to 3.30pm: Cat Rylance and Joe Carman
How do we take the project of a Communist Party forward?
4pm to 6pm:
Debate: how to build a healthy communist culture
6.30pm to 8pm: 7pm:
CPGB Summer Offensive meal - tickets: £25 (£15)
Monday August 4
10am to 12 noon: Peter Kennedy
The difference between socialism and communism
1.30pm to 3.30pm:
Debate: the transition
4pm to 6pm: Roundtable
Experiences of our international allies
6.30pm to 8pm: Finn Iunker
Play alter native
Tuesday August 5
10am to 12 noon: Lawrence Parker
Can we distance ourselves from Stalinism?
1.30pm to 3.30pm:
Understanding the global rightwing surge
4pm to 6pm: Chris Knight
Revisiting historical communist visions
6.30pm to 8pm: Chris Knight, Camilla Power, et al.
Radical pantomime
Wednesday August 6
10am to 12 noon: Roxy Hall and Mike Macnair
Transgender rights, justice and social change
1.30pm to 3.30pm: Ian Wright
The macro-dynamics of the law of value
4pm to 6pm: Bill McGuire
The climate crisis and eco‑socialist futures
6.30pm to 8pm: Bill McGuire and Tam Dean Burn
Culture against climate catastrophe
Thursday August 7
10am to 12 noon: Ian Spencer
Health and social care work
1pm: Concluding roundtable
Building a mass Communist Party
Followed by:
Evaluation of Communist University
For the latest updates visit communistuniversity.uk