Autumn programme

37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU T: 02072531485 E: admin@mml.xyz www.marxlibrary.org.uk

EVENTS THIS AUTUMN TERM @ MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY All events start at 7pm at the Library and cost ÂŁ3 on the door

Dialectics, Materialism, Thought and Language 15 Oct Lev Vygotsky and the Dialectics of Working Class Struggle with John Foster Vygotsky founded the Soviet school of psychology that roots human language and thought in the evolution of collective labour.

Labour historian John Foster will examine its relevance to the understanding of working class mobilisation.

22 Oct Dialectics and Science with Sue Michie and Richard Clarke Sue Michie and Richard Clarke will lead an exploratory conversation on the relation between dialectics and scientific method. Sue Michie is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of London; Richard Clarke is an ecologist who teaches at Westminster University.

Black History Month 19 Oct Black Self-Organisation in the British Labour Movement With Roger McKenzie, Assistant General Secretary at UNISON and Wilf Sullivan, Race Equality Officer at TUC.

Political Economy 29 Oct The Current Capitalist Crisis with Tony Norfield Giving examples from recent developments, this lecture uses Marxist theory to show how what appears as a 'financial' crisis has roots in a more fundamental crisis of the capitalist system of production.

Tony Norfield worked for nearly 20 years in City of London bank dealing rooms and recently completed a PhD on British imperialism and the global financial system today.

NEW- Online Course October - December Capitalism, Crisis and DemocracyThis provides an introduction to Marxist approaches to the development of monopoly and imperialism and to the crises that have punctuated the past century. The course is at an introductory level and involves students in discussing questions collectively with the support of a tutor. The course has four fortnightly sessions and will begin on Saturday 17th October and continue till midDecember.

The course fee is ÂŁ20. Registration details can be found at http://marx-memoriallibrary.org.uk/education

Historical Memory 5 Nov Spain and the War to Defend Democracy against Fascism Helen Graham, Geoff Martin & Meirian Jump A panel discussion on the recuperation of historical memory in Spain to mark forty years since the end of the Francoist dictatorship with Professor Helen Graham from Royal Holloway University; Geoff Martin, researcher and blogger on the Francoist repression in the Costa Blanca http://costablancacivilwar.blogspot.co.uk/ and Meirian Jump, Archivist & Librarian at the Marx Memorial Library.

Panelists will consider how the Franco dictatorship retrospectively constructed the civil war as an instrument of dictatorial rule; at how and why that legacy remains damagingly ‘live’ in Spain’s ongoing memory – and history – wars today; and it will look at some of the stakes in those wars for the political future and identity of twenty-first century Spaniards.

12 Nov

The Chinese Cultural Revolution with Eric Gordon

Eric Gordon, Editor of the Camden New Journal, will reflect upon his time in China in the 1960s. Gordon worked as a sub-editor in the English Book Section of the Foreign Language Bureau 1965-6. He was arrested in 1967 and detained in a small hotel room for two years, before being deported and returning to Britain.

19 Nov

The Victory over Fascism 1945 with Mike Jones

Mike Jones, historian, will be re-evaluating World War Two's eastern front: with the Red Army from Stalingrad to Berlin. He will draw on documentary material and eye witness testimony to present the broader context of what Red Army soldiers went through and what civilians suffered and also look at some individual case studies to portray a fuller and fairer human dimension to the war on the eastern front.

Pictures and Politics with Nick Wright Nick Wright trained as a graphic designer, typographer and art historian and has edited trade union journals for several decades.

6 Nov

The contribution of Hans Hess to Marxism in Britain

Hans Hess brought to the academy and the working class movement a rigorous Marxist analysis of art and a clear exposition of the relationship between pictures and politics.

3 Dec

From the Workers' Weekly to Picture Post

Picture Post was the most widely read illustrated paper of the two decades that ended fascism and saw the start of the Cold War. It roots lay in part in the remarkable media strategy of the Comintern.