Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival 2012

We went to the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival this year. Check out some of our photos.

You can see more photos on Facebook.

Tips on making Marxism unmissable

Outside the university sphere it becomes difficult to access authors, academics and political figures – but the annual Marxism Festival provides an unparalleled opportunity to see renowned leftist commentators whilst meeting like-minded people. 

Expertly organised by the SWP, there are more than 200 talks over five days on a wide range of topics including philosophy, history and contemporary issues – all from a Marxist perspective. The most expensive ticket – £65 for the whole festival – gives access to people like Tariq Ali, Owen Jones and Slavoj Zizek. If you fill your diary, it works out about £3 a talk. If you're unwaged, you pay half that and the SWP will also help provide (basic) accommodation for free. If you're interested in social sciences at any level then this is an unrivalled opportunity.

However, as with everything, there is always a drawback. Whilst it’s clear that the SWP isn’t doing this to make vast quantities of money (they are socialists after all) there are many pitfalls that you need to be aware of to get the most out of the experience. We have been attending the festival for 10 years and have compiled our top 5 tips and tricks for you:

1. Don’t pick a topic, pick a speaker

This is the most important point. You might have an interest in a specific area and be tempted to pick talks relating to it – but don’t always do this. We make this mistake every year. Many talks are given by SWP members themselves and will reflect a Trotskyist line you’ll soon become familiar with. At worst, some sessions can be factually inaccurate (depending on speaker). For instance, in a talk on the Cuban Revolution, the speaker asserted that Cuba is still run by Fidel and operates a “dollar currency”.

Try to research the speakers beforehand. Many of the most interesting talks which attract the most debate will be from non-SWP figures. If you don’t recognise any speakers, pick the largest rooms. The best talks I have been to are on things I previously wasn’t interested in. Michael Rosen for example really opened my eyes to the dangerous education strategy Michael Gove is employing. Get to meetings early to secure a seat.

2. Don’t be threatened

When the main speaker has finished, the Chair will open the meeting to contributions from the floor. The first people called will probably be ones known to the organisers and you’ll hear the same dull SWP party line being repeated again and again. You know stuff, challenge them! There aren't enough people who do this. You might get booed but there will be people like me in the audience who think you are cool (I won’t show you any overt support though). On a number of occasions I have been humbled by some of the excellent points by contributors who have mind-blowing levels of knowledge. There are a lot of clever people around and sometimes the topics are so niche you might not have much of a clue what’s going on.

3. Social media is cool

You don’t have to stand up and speak to join the debate. The Marxism Twitter hashtag provides a great way to debate even when a talk is in progress. It was fascinating to view the online fallout when David Harvey suggested groups like the SWP sometimes puncture organic movements by trying to hijack them as recruitment exercises.

4. Don’t be afraid to be on your own – you won’t be  

The festival is a really friendly place and the demographic of attendees is diverse. People are there for similar reasons and many attend on their own. I was engaged in conversation many times in the talks and bumped into the same people time and again – even though I make minimal effort myself. Social media is good for connecting with people since two of you might be tweeting in the same room.

5. Don’t be afraid of eccentricities

In any low cost event with thousands of attendees, you get a fair share of eccentrics. You’ll meet people coming to verbal blows over North Korea or the role of the peasantry in the revolution – why not join in? Immerse yourself in it as much as you can. Talk to the International Bolshevik Tendency and the Revolutionary Communist Group. Buy the New Worker or Workers’ Vanguard. By the time you’re done, you’ll know why the term “loony left” was invented.

Have you been to Marxism before? Why not post your own tips below?

Marxism Festival 2012 Highlights

We’ve been going to the annual Marxism Festival for nearly ten years and this year – with over 5000 attendees – was definitely the biggest we’ve been to. Whether it’s a result of austerity at home, a weak Labour opposition, organic movements like Occupy or Anonymous, the Arab Spring, the rise of the left in Greece or the continuing growth of progressive movements in Latin America, the left is growing and we should be encouraged by the fact Marxism is enjoying a Renaissance. Whatever you think about the SWP – and we’ve certainly disagreed a lot with them in the past – they deserve credit for organising the event which remains the biggest celebration of socialist ideas in Britain.

Here are just a few of our highlights from this year’s festival.  

A No Nonsense Guide to Equality, Danny Dorling

In a special session launching his new book, A No Nonsense Guide to Equality, Human Geographer Danny Dorling provided a powerful and engaging overview of why greater equality is good for us all – even the super rich. The talk was rich with empirical evidence and compelling statistics and placed the growing trend towards inequality within a historical context.

Dorling’s book differs to the monumental Spirit Level because more focus is placed on discovering an alternative. He investigated countries that have mapped out an alternative to savage austerity and looked at key ways we can restore levels of greater equality.

Perhaps most shockingly of all, Dorling demonstrated that – for the first time – the amount that the United States (that infamous beacon for socialism) spends on public services as a proportion of GDP is set to overtake the UK in 2015. This helps show how enthusiastically the government have adopted slash-and-burn neo-liberalism – but Dorling’s book helps arm the movement with a positive framework for a genuine alternative.


Hacktivism & Anonymous: A Marxist analysis, Kieran Crowe

This was a good overview of the relatively recent rise to prominence of hacking groups such as Anonymous and Lulzsec. Crowe attempted to relate their (often anti-corporate and anti-oppression) actions from a traditional leftist standpoint which gave the lecture a nice twist. The bulk of the talk was an interesting historical overview of 'hacktivist' targets such as Scientologists, the Iranian government and immoral US companies and the methods used to attack them (including the interesting cross-over from online to physical protests). Paired with a genuinely inquisitive, forward-looking and positive welcoming of the potential political role activist hackers can play, this made for a refreshing talk.

With the increasingly aggressive measures being imposed against people who infringe copyright and frequent attempts to curb internet freedom it was interesting, and probably quite realistic, to hear the speaker conclude that it was 'hard to imagine any future left wing movement without a hacking element.'

The press, power & the phone-hacking scandal, Nick Davies

Nick Davies – the man who helped break the phone-hacking scandal – provided a witty and withering analysis of the modern media. Based on his peerless study, Flat Earth News, Davies outlined how big business and corporations have tightened their grip on popular media since the Wapping dispute of the 1980s smashed the trade unions.

Through a mixture of emotive anecdotes and robust factual evidence, Davies urged the left to move away from its traditional view that powerful media moguls set the political agenda through personal diktat and advertising pressure. As Davies declared, “Replace Rupert Murdoch with Rupert the Bear and everything would be exactly the same”. 

Instead, a corporate culture emerged as a result of ingrained fear combined with the strangulation of the journalistic profession. The defeat of the unions undermined working conditions meaning that fewer and fewer journalists have to produce more and more copy. This means journalists no longer have time to check their stories or produce original research. A study commissioned by Davies found that 12% of news stories originate from independent research by a journalist; 8% of stories have an unknown origin and a whopping 80% come from news agencies or public relation companies – all of which go unverified by journalists. This effectively means that 80% of news is created, manufactured and distorted by corporate interests.

Dear Mr Gove, Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen began his talk in inimitable style by reading what was essentially a Twitter-poem decrying the education reforms being pursued by Michael Gove and the Conservatives. Following this Rosen got more serious and gave fascinating insights into the methods and motivations being employed by the government to transform education in this country. Arguably the most worrying of these was the link between Gove and Rupert Murdoch which could see the media proprietor and his corporate ilk setting up privately-owned schools throughout Britain.

In addition to the cosy Tory-corporate relationship in the education sector (among others), Rosen also highlighted the distorted and out-dated curriculum models Gove is introducing to our schools. The discussion that followed contained many illuminating comments from people who work in various parts of the education sector from teachers to HR. Unsurprisingly the unifying theme of both the talk and discussion was a disdain for Gove's regressive reforms and an encouraging sense that the education unions and - equally importantly - parents were not willing to sit back and take what would be a hugely negative blow for our education system and equality in the this country in general.

Class politics in austerity Britain, Owen Jones

Owen Jones was the last speaker we saw at this year's Marxism and was a great way to end the festival. He easily made it into our highlights for inspiration and sheer clarity of message. Jones focused on how class warfare is alive and well under the coalition government and gave concrete, practical suggestions as to how working class people can resist the onslaught of unfair cuts they are facing. This included linking the different sections of society under attack to help create a united front, 'telling stories' (as in creating a narrative, not making things up like the right-wing press) that people will relate and respond to and using the combined power of unions to organise industrial action and hold the Labour Party to its original purpose of representing working class people. Throughout his lecture Jones managed to be not only pragmatic and reasoned but above all inspirational.


You can read our thoughts on previous Marxism Festivals here and here