Communist University of Britain 2008

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Event

Title:Communist University of Britain 2008When: 17.10.2008 - 19.10.2008 Where: Ruskin House - Croydon, London Category: Communist Party & Young Communist League Regional/Local events Description

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Venue



Venue:
Ruskin House - Website Street: 23 Coombe Rd ZIP: CR0 1BD City: Croydon, London Country: EventList powered by schlu.net

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), Britain’s only consistently anti-imperialist and revolutionary political party, was founded in 2004. Unlike all other political parties in Britain, our party has no interests separate from those of the international working class and oppressed peoples. We are proud to stand in the tradition, and to base ourselves on the teachings, of such great revolutionary leaders as Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. We stand in solidarity with nations and peoples around the world who are fighting imperialism, whether it is with a gun, a pen or a voice. We support the brave men, women and children of Palestine, ...

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[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Renewed interest

By editor on October 3rd, 2008
A new generation of students is coming into politics. Communist Students has been recruiting through the country and, as our three short reports show, it is clear that a new mood exists

Communist Students: spreading ideas

Manchester

Communist Students made a very successful intervention at the University of Manchester’s freshers fair, meeting some interesting new comrades and signing up 80 students to the new student society.


The continued trend towards commodification of university life was very much in evidence. Many students seemed to have turned up merely for freebies, with banks and businesses just as rife as union societies.
Comrades had the rather amusing experience of witnessing the various clubs and businesses competing against each other - which almost led to a ruckus on more than one occasion. After last year’s failure to ban the military from campus, army recruitment officers were, as ever, out in force.


With the Socialist Worker Student Society and Socialist Students also having stalls, comrades faced the oft asked question, ‘Why are there so many left groups?’ We responded to what is, after all, sometimes a healthy frustration by explaining the CS view that the left must come together - on a principled Marxist basis.


This was generally well received - even the politically inexperienced are incredulous at the notion that the left can only unite by watering down its politics. Iranian students were particularly receptive to our message and many were impressed by the consistent work of CS within the Hands Off the People of Iran campaign in general, and its links with Students for Freedom and Equality in particular.


Another feature of freshers week was the rather dubious treat of very loud ‘Christian rap’ booming at us throughout the fair. But we were able to talk to a good number of Christian students, many of whom were interested to hear our ideas on what a ‘better sort’ of society would entail.


There were the usual questions to be fielded. Were we Stalinists, who wholeheartedly supported the Soviet Union? Is Marxism relevant at all? Of course, in the present economic climate, increasing numbers of students are now giving this serious consideration - something the left must actively encourage.
Robbie Folkard
Kings College

The Kings College London freshers fair of September 18 and 19 was a good opportunity for the recently established KCL Hands Off the People of Iran group to put across its politics.


Although, perhaps unsurprisingly, the ‘campaigns’ section of the fair was generally less populated than elsewhere, the reception was good, with many interesting discussions, and over 80 signatories to the campaign statement obtained. Some of these students will hopefully become committed supporters involved with the campaign, especially following the upcoming Hopi launch at KCL.


The security presence at the fair was incredibly excessive, with every student subject to a search prior to entrance. This resulted in a terribly slow incoming flow of people. Bureaucratic regulations which permitted a maximum of just two people staffing each stall was another difficulty. This entirely unwarranted restriction proved almost impossible to police, however, despite the best efforts of the authorities.


At least the Communist Students stall outside the main hall was able to benefit from the long, slow-moving queues, allowing those waiting to get into the fair plenty of time to examine the stall’s contents and debate with our comrades. Again, much interest was shown, and the freshers fair edition of Communist Student was widely distributed (and hopefully read!).
The intervention was, then, largely a success, upon which activities both for CS and Hopi can be built at KCL.
John Sidwell
SOAS

The fair at School of Oriental and Asian Studies was successful. Lots of people showed an interest in the CS stall and were happy to talk when approached. Hopi also went down well.


Most people we spoke to had some grasp of leftwing politics, and I had some productive discussions about anarchism, Stalinism, Iran, etc. In general there was a more political feel to the event than previous freshers fairs I have attended.


Personal highlights included trying to explain myself to a distraught Falun Gong supporter, being laughed at by a bloke who after some discussion turned out actually to be a communist, and being asked by a future Sandhurst recruit if there were any socialist organisations that “weren’t completely anti-war”. I resisted the temptation to direct him to the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty.
Carey Davies

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

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Posted by Steven Martin on 27 September 2008 | category NATIONAL
Communist University of Britain


Come join us for this years Communist University. With speakers including Bob Crow (RMT) and John McDonnell (Labour Party).

FURTHER UPDATES TO BE ANNOUNCED

when: 17.10.2008 - 19.10.2008

Where: CPB Head Offices, Ruskin House - Croydon

Location CPB Head Offices, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, CR0 1BD



YCL
Ruskin House
23 Coombe Road
London CR0 1BD
Tel: 020 8686 1659
email
EVENTS

Communist University of Britain
on 17 Oct 2008
organised by: CPB and YCL
More detials>>

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

JIMMY Thomson's letter (M Star October 3) proves that it is far easier to demolish a caricature than it is to take on a real argument and beat it with reason.


At successive congresses, the CPB has characterised new Labour as the open representatives of monopoly capital in the Labour Party and a break from traditional social democracy.

The party's general secretary spelled it out in his speech to congress when he talked about the continuing need for a mass party of labour in Britain, "not for a front organisation manipulated by a small ultra-left sect or for a new party backed by just one or two unions but for a mass party based on large sections of the trade union movement, capable of winning elections, forming a government and enacting policies in the interests of the working class and the clear majority of the population."

The Communist Party stands for the unity of the labour movement on a clear socialist basis.

We have never sought to replace Labour but, unlike others on the left, to break the stranglehold of right-wing social democratic thinking within it so that we can begin the real business of getting our country and our people on the road to socialism.

The Communist Party accepts that it may well be necessary to re-establish a new mass party of labour. Such a development would only be desirable and viable if it was on the basis of taking the majority of the organised working-class movement with it.

That's not tailism or anything like it, just recognising the importance of keeping the movement united and, in time and through struggle, winning it for socialist ideas.

There are no short cuts. The collective fate of all those avowed alternatives to Labour is a warning, not a pointer to the future.

SIMON STEEL
Glasgow

Originally Posted by Thinking Man's Idiot

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), Britain’s only consistently anti-imperialist and revolutionary political party, was founded in 2004. Unlike all other political parties in Britain, our party has no interests separate from those of the international working class and oppressed peoples. We are proud to stand in the tradition, and to base ourselves on the teachings, of such great revolutionary leaders as Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. We stand in solidarity with nations and peoples around the world who are fighting imperialism, whether it is with a gun, a pen or a voice. We support the brave men, women and children of Palestine, ...

read full text view pdf

http://www.rinf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3440

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

PostScript to the First Edition

This pamphlet was written in August and September 1917. I had already drawn up the plan for the next, the seventh chapter, "The Experience of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917". Apart from the title, however, I had no time to write a single line of the chapter; I was "interrupted" by a political crisis--the eve of the October revolution of 1917. Such an "interruption" can only be welcomed; but the writing of the second part of this pamphlet ("The Experience of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917") will probably have to be put off for a long time. It is more pleasant and useful to go through the "experience of revolution" than to write about it.
The Author
Petrograd
November 30, 1917

The State and Revolution Index
Collected Works Volume 25
Collected Works Table of Contents
Lenin Works Archive

(Emphasis in pink by The Thinking Man's Idiot)

I find the subjects discussed in the Torvbråten blog very interesting.