Past Events

Michael Robert's publications include The Great Recession – a Marxist view (2009); The Long Depression (2016); Marx 200: a review of Marx’s economics (2018). He edited, jointly with Guglielmo Carchedi, The World in Crisis (2018) and this year, also with Guglielmo Carchedi, published Capitalism in the twenty first century through the prism of value. He has worked as an economist in the City of London. The meeting will be chaired by Nina Hilton.

The 1973 Shrewsbury Trial Conspiracy: state power, big business and trade union freedom

5 October 2023

A panel marking 50 years since the Shrewsbury ‘conspiracy’

On the 50th anniversary of the Shrewsbury ‘conspiracy’ trial Eileen Turnbull and Terry Renshaw will detail the conspiracy between the Tory government, building contractors and the police to frame and imprison 24 pickets for their participation in the building workers strike the previous year. The meeting will be chaired by John Hendy KC.

Eileen Turnbull is Researcher for the Shrewsbury 24 Campaign and author of A Very British Conspiracy: the Shrewsbury 24 and the Campaign for Justice published this year. A trade union lawyer, she received a doctorate for her research on the trial from the University of Liverpool in 2018. Terry Renshaw, a convicted Shrewsbury picket, is a member of the Campaign Committee.

50 years Since the Fascist Coup in Chile

14 September 2023

A panel discussion reflecting on the anniversary of General Pinochet's CIA backed coup against Chile's democratically elected socialist government in 1973

Panelists:

Kate Clark (former Morning Star correspondent)
Carlos Insunza Rojas (CC CP Chile and CUT Central Committee)
Carlos Patricio Gonzalez (CP Chile in Britain)

Marx and India with Spencer Leonard

20 July 2023

Commemorating British Labour History

6 July 2023

An event celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Marx Memorial Library and the 50th anniversaries of the Modern Records Centre and the South Wales Miners' Library.

The Peace Movement in Britain: Challenges Past and Present

22 June 2023

With Kate Hudson on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Liz Payne on British Peace Assembly (British Peace Committee) and Andrew Murray on Stop the War. Meirian Jump in the Chair.

At a time of mounting international crisis the meeting will examine the respective roles, past and present, of Britain’s peace organisations. First, the British Peace Assembly developed at the height of the first Cold War in 1949-1950 as part of the World Peace Council which continues today as the major peace movement in the global south. Second, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament formed in 1956 and is today Britain’s major movement opposing nuclear weapons. Thirdly Stop the War was formed to oppose the invasion of Iraq and is today the major organisation mobilising for peace. The chair, Meirian Jump, will highlight the Library’s Bernal Collection, the major documentary archive of one of the founders of the World Peace Council.

Tony Benn and Labour’s 1973-74 programme for “an irreversible shift of wealth and power in favour of working people”

8 June 2023

With Richard Burgon MP

Richard Burgon MP examines the contemporary relevance of Labour’s 1973 programme and the role of Tony Benn in its development and in its contested implementation.

Jesus: Life in Class Conflict

1 June 2023

With authors James Crossley and Robert Myles and Richard Clarke in the Chair

The authors will discuss their new book which, by situating the life of Jesus of Nazareth in the turbulent troubles of first-century Palestine, provides a historical-materialist take on the historical Jesus.

Class mobilisation and class consciousness: contemporary understandings

25 May 2023

Jonathan White with John Foster in the Chair

This lecture will examine the current strike wave as a period of class mobilisation, looking at the extent to which we can see class consciousness emerging within it and the offering thoughts on the prospects for sustaining and building this consciousness.

Class mobilisation and class consciousness: language and the ‘practical moment’

18 May 2023

John Foster with Jonathan White in the Chair

This lecture will examine the role of language in class mobilisation and why such moments are both difficult to sustain and critical for social transformation

What Kind of Federalism?

11 May 2023

Labour peer Pauline Bryan, Beth Winter MP, Jon Trickett MP, Sean Griffin & Clare Williams discuss how to develop a democratic challenge to the British state

Labour peer Pauline Bryan will chair a discussion on how to develop a democratic challenge to the British state, one that can enhance the power of the many not the few and secure institutions that can, in a developing process of struggle and mobilisation, advance the class interests of working people across the nations and regions of Britain. Others on the panel include Beth Winter MP, Jon Trickett MP, Sean Griffin who wrote the Labour Party report on "Remaking the British State: For the Many, Not the Few", and Clare Williams, Regional Secretary Unison Northern.

Understanding Imperialism Today

20 April 2023

Kenny Coyle, regular contributor on international politics for the Morning Star and director of Praxis Press, will examine the economic and political forces which have led to the new cold war and to the current confrontations in the Far East, Middle East and Europe.

Capitalism in the 21st Century through the Prism of Value

13 April 2023

Michael Roberts introduces this new analysis of the contradictions of capitalism in the present century with Mary Davis in the Chair

Marxist economists Guglielmo Carchedi and Michael Roberts have a new book: Capitalism in the 21st century - through the prism of value. Basing themselves on Marx's theory of value, Carchedi and Roberts analyse the key contradictions of 21st century capitalism: climate change; economic crises; inflation; robots and AI; imperialism and war; and the transition to socialism.

A Completed New Edition of Marx's Capital Vol 1

22 March 2023

Professor Thomas Kuczynski, an economic historian and one of the leading Marxist scholars in Germany, will be discussing his new text edition of Capital vol 1, recently published (Hamburg, VSA-Verlag 2017).

Professor Kuczynski writes

After the French edition of Capital vol. I was published, Marx demanded of potential translators into a third language that they always carefully compare the second German edition with the French edition, where he had made many important changes and additions and greatly improved his presentation. Engels did not know anything about these communications from Marx, nor of the instructions Marx had written in preparation for a translation planned but not realised in the USA. He therefore assumed that the entries made by Marx in his hand copies in this connection served to prepare a third German edition; this was a misconception. The new text edition I have compiled is based on the comparison demanded by Marx. The lecture shows some of the major innovations.

Inflation & the Developing Economic Crisis

23 February 2023

A lecture from economist Michael Roberts

Economist Michael Roberts, author of Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century (Pluto 2022), will probe the prevalent explanations of the current crisis and argue that inflation is a symptom not a cause of a crisis whose roots lie in the nature of capitalist accumulation.

The Energy Crisis

9 February 2023

An accessible discussion of the current energy crisis, its impact on the industry, workers and the economy and possible ways forward

Simon Coop (Unite National Officer for Energy) discusses the consequences of the private ownership of energy for his members, for consumers and for the British economy. Community energy campaigner Stephanie Martin will examine campaigning initiatives and energy economist Stewart McGill will argue that energy can be taken back into public ownership with minimal longer term cost. Join us for what promises to be a timely discussion on this pressing issue.

Socialist Solutions to the Climate Crisis

2 February 2023

A discussion on how Nicaragua, China, Cuba and other socialist and progressive countries are rising to the challenge of saving the planet.

At this event, we will describe the evolving and diverse strategies being pursued in socialist and progressive countries (with a specific focus on Nicaragua, Cuba and China) in relation to preventing climate breakdown, the collapse of biodiversity, and other key ecological challenges. The speakers will compare these efforts with the alarmingly slow progress being made in the neoliberal West, which has been touting its ‘market-based solutions’ to humanity’s environmental crisis for the last three decades.

Speakers:
Dan Kovalik is a US-based lawyer, activist and teacher. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which is Nicaragua: A History of US Intervention and Resistance.
Guisell Morales Echaverry is Ambassador of the Republic of Nicaragua to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Iceland.

Lauren Collins is an honorary research fellow at the University of Nottingham and a member of the executive committee of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.

Paul Atkin is a retired teacher and NEU activist, involved in setting up the NEU Climate Change Network. He is part of the Greener Jobs Alliance Steering Group and is active with No Cold War Britain.

Ben Chacko (chair) is editor of the Morning Star.

Event joint with Friends of Socialist China, Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group and the Morning Star.

Engels and the Housing Question: 150 years on

29 January 2023

Three housing experts, Linda Clarke. Michael Edwards and Paul Watt examine Engels' analysis of the housing question.

Is Engels’ analysis of the housing question still relevant today? Three housing experts, Linda Clarke. Michael Edwards and Paul Watt, debate this question. How far does the current housing crisis in Britain resemble the housing question as Engels analysed it? Market forces continue to drive people out of city centres, for a start. Our panellists identify some of the issues that weren’t so evident in Engels’ time, such as the changing nature of state intervention, building industry organisation, the expansion of social housing, the roles of local authorities and the unions, and the increasing influence of the financial sector. What could a progressive government be doing in response? How to ensure that decent housing is provided as a right? And how to link housing struggles with the wider struggles that are being waged, fighting for a more sustainable future for us all?

Linda Clarke is Emeritus Professor at the University of Westminster, researching labour and vocational education and training (VET) in the construction industry across Europe. She is very active in current policy debates and contemporary housing struggles, with a focus on VET, gender equality, zero carbon construction and the role of unions.

Michael Edwards has been based at University College, London, teaching and researching on planning and property markets, both internationally and in London. For many years he has been and continues to be very actively involved in housing and planning struggles.

Paul Watt is Professor of Urban Studies in the Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London. His latest book 'Estate Regeneration and Its Discontents: Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London' was published by Policy Press in 2021. Paul is also actively involved in housing struggles and policy debates.

Israel’s extremists in power: An audience with MK Dr. Ofer Cassif

20 January 2023

Dr. Ofer Cassif, Member of the Israeli Knesset (MK) representing the Hadash-Ta’al* coalition will offer on-the-ground insight on the social and political context that has led to Israel’s most extreme right government ever, and the threats it poses to peace, justice and self-determination for Palestinians.

This event is jointly hosted by Liberation and Marx Memorial Library.

Israel’s new government is the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the country’s 74-year history. It is so extreme Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now considered a moderating influence on his extreme right-wing coalition partners. Among his ministers is one who once kept a portrait in his home of a man who massacred dozens of Palestinian worshippers.

2022 was a terrible year for the Palestinians, with the largest number of casualties inflicted by Israeli forces in many years, and the ongoing ethnic cleansing and a massive increase in Jewish settler violence against the Palestinian people.

Netanyahu’s plans to further expand illegal Zionist settlements in the occupied West Bank and his government’s vicious retaliatory actions in the face of the momentous UN resolution to seek an International Court of Justice opinion on Israel's occupation of Palestine threaten an even grimmer 2023.

Hear from a seasoned progressive Israeli politician, activist and friend of Palestine how we got here - and what we can do in Britain, Europe and the US to demonstrate meaningful international solidarity in this most troubling phase in the struggle for peace, justice and self-determination for Palestinians.

About the speaker: During the First Intifada, MK Dr Cassif was the first person to refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories, for which he was imprisoned four times. He was quoted in Haaretz (April 18, 2021) as saying: "I object to the idealogy and practice of Zionism...it's a racist ideology and practice which espouses Jewish supremacy."

*Hadash-Ta’al is a progressive coalition formed of the Arab-Jewish Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), and the Arab nationalist Ta’al (Arab Movement for Change).

Engels and the Second Foundation of Marxism

30 November 2022

John Bellamy Foster, Editor of Monthly Review (New York, USA) gives our annual Engels Memorial Lecture, joint with the Working Class Movement Library Twenty years ago, John Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature pioneered a new understanding of Karl Marx’s revolutionary ecological materialism. More than simply a study of Marx, it commenced an intellectual and social history, encompassing thinkers from Epicurus to Darwin, who developed materialist and ecological ideas. More recently, with The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, Foster has developed this narrative, revealing a long history of efforts to unite issues of social justice and environmental sustainability that can help us comprehend and counter today’s unprecedented planetary emergencies. In this fifth Engels Memorial Lecture John Bellamy Foster focuses particularly on the contribution of Friedrich Engels from his The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) to his Dialectics of Nature (1883) and The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) and Engels’ contribution to a Marxist understanding of human impacts on our planetary ecosystem today.

Marx Memorial Library