Online and Onsite Seminars: Marxist concepts and perspectives in the contemporary context

Please join us for this series of seminars, jointly organised by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust (BAMNT) and the Marx Memorial Library and Worker’s School (MML).

This first series sets out to explore Marxist concepts and their application to contemporary theoretical debates and struggles. A second series will be planned for early 2023.

These will be hybrid events, hosted by the Marx Memorial Library at 37a, Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R ODU – with zoom links for those unable to join in person. 

Each seminar will be introduced by a speaker, followed by a discussant, in order to highlight questions for the discussion that follows. 

The sessions
October 10th: Session 1: Defining capitalism in the contemporary context: Donald Sassoon: discussant: Victoria Brittain
How has capitalism developed and changed over time?

October 24th: Session 2: Defining imperialism in the contemporary context:  Kenny Coyle: discussant: to be confirmed
What do we mean by imperialism in a post-colonial world? 

November 7th: Session 3: Competing imperialisms: a new Cold War? Andrew Murray: discussant: Kate Hudson 
Is a new Cold War developing –risking further conflicts on a global scale?

November 21st: Session 4: Viewing decolonisation through a Marxist lens: Vijay Prashad: discussant: Mary Davis
What does decolonisation actually involve, from a Marxist perspective?

December 5th: Session 5: Understanding China in the New World Order? Peter Nolan: discussant: Jenny Clegg.
How has China been changing? And what are the wider implications?

The Speakers

Donald Sassoon is Emeritus Professor of Comparative European History at Queen Mary, University of London. His publications include One Hundred Years of Socialism, Morbid Symptoms, an Anatomy of a World in Crisis and The Anxious Triumph: A Global History of Capitalism, 1860-1914. He is currently writing a comparative history of revolutions. 
Kenny Coyle has been based in Asia for more than a decade, writing on Asian and other issues. He is the author of several pamphlets, YouTube videos and articles, including articles for Communist Review and Morning Star.

Andrew Murray is a Morning Star Columnist, a founder and vice-president of the Stop the War Coalition and a former Chief of Staff of Unite the union and advisor to Jeremy Corbyn. He is the author of several books including Flashpoint World War III, A New Labour Nightmare: Return of the Awkward Squad, The T & G Story and The Fall and Rise of the British Left.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian Marxist historian. He is an executive-director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books. He was the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and a professor of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, from 1996 to 2017. His publications include Red Star over the Third World.

Peter Nolan holds the Chong Hua Chair (Emeritus) in Chinese Development and is the Founding Director of the University’s Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge. His most recent publications include Understanding China: The Silk Road and the Communist Manifesto, China and the West: Crossroads of Civilisation, China in the Asian Financial Crisis and Finance and the Real Economy: China and the West since the Asian Financial Crisis.

The Discussants

Victoria Brittain is a journalist and author who has lived and worked in Washington, Nairobi, Saigon, Algiers and London. Her publications include Shadow Lives: The forgotten Women of the War on Terror and Love and Resistance in the Films of Mai Masri by Victoria Brittain, published by Palgrave Macmillan New York https://g.co/kgs/FX16Cu

Kate Hudson is the General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) having served as Chair of CND from 2003 to 2010. Her publications include CND – Now More Than Ever: The Story of a Peace Movement and The New European Left: a socialism for the twenty-first century?

Mary Davis is a labour historian who has written, broadcast and lectured widely from a Marxist perspective on women’s history, labour history, imperialism and racism. She is secretary of the Marx Memorial Library. Her publications include Sylvia Pankhurst: a life in radical politics, Comrade or brother and Unite History, Volume 1 (with John Foster).

Jenny Clegg is a China specialist and a former senior lecturer in Asia Pacific and International Studies. Her publications include China’s Global Strategy: Towards a multipolar world. ’Storming the Heavens: Peasants and Revolution in China, 1925-1949 - viewed through a Marxist lens’ is forthcoming.

Science for the future – 7pm on Wednesday evenings 9th 16th and 23rd November 2022

"Where speculation ends — in real life — there real, positive science begins"  Marx, The Materialist Conception of History

The past few years have proven the enormous potential of science to transform the world. Science is not a monolithic enterprise cut off from the rest of society. Yet it is often cast as such in political discourse. In order to look behind the neutral facade, we need to explore the ways in which it is used to shape and control our lives. What is science? Why does it take the forms it takes today? How could it be done differently? This series will cover these questions by taking three different perspectives on science: as technology, as health, and as work. Presented by the authors of the Morning Star's science column (Science & Society).

Wed 9 November: Science as Technology

Science is closely linked to technology. But technology doesn't always mean progress. As data science, multifunctional devices and algorithmic control of workers and citizens becomes the norm, how do we reclaim this power for the Left?

Wed 16 November: Science as Health

The Covid-19 response showed how the power of science can be mobilised - for some. But it also emphasised existing inequalities in health, both nationally and globally. Should it change what we imagine is possible for the future of human health?

Wed 23 November: Science as Work

Science cannot be separated from the workers who carry it out - scientists. At certain points in history, science has had a rich relationship with radical politics. But the link is no longer obvious. Is there an inherent radical potential in science workers or even in the practice of science itself?

Presented by the Morning Star Science and Society team; Rox Middleton, Liam Shaw and Joel Hellewell plus invited speakers.