Why we fight

Why I Fight – For revolutionary optimism, not reformist pessimism

The development of class consciousness is of prime interest to Marxists. The working class runs society, as Ted Grant said “not a wheel turns, not a lightbulb shines without the kind permission of the working class”. Despite this fact, the leadership of the left fails to see the development of class consciousness in the working class. This leads to demoralisation and pessimism. On the other hand, Marxists have complete optimism; not in the idea that capitalism can change, but that the working class can overthrow this decrepit system.

By Daisy Goddard, 5 months5 months ago

Why I Fight – For revolutionary optimism, not idealist pessimism

“Growing up as a working class Muslim, I faced the sharp end of the horrors of capitalism. As I became political, I developed a deep pessimism that nothing could change. Finding the Marxist Student Federation allowed me to understand the genuine Marxist ideas that we need to fight capitalism. It gave me the optimism to fight. “

By Shari Khan, Scarborough Marxists, 6 months6 months ago

Why I fight: for revolutionary optimism

I knew that coming to university would allow me to meet people that shared my political views. Coming from a small college, I’d never talked about the issues that face human beings and our planet with my friends at home. Most political talk was limited to surface level drama Read more…

By Marxist Student, 3 years2 years ago

Why I fight: we must defend Corbyn, and fight for socialism

It took half a decade of deliberation before I joined the Labour party. Born at the start of the millennium, I’m not quite old enough to remember the Blair years with any clarity – I was two years old on the onset of the Iraq War, and still wearing Read more…

By Marxist Student, 3 years2 years ago

Why I fight: the importance of theory

Like many people today, I first encountered Marxism online. With a growing interest amongst young people in socialism and Marxism, there is equally a growing number of online “Marxist meme” pages, Twitter accounts and Facebook groups. Quickly, social media became my go-to for Marxist theory, history and politics. Although Read more…

By Marxist Student, 4 years2 years ago

Why I Fight: Lenin, Prevent, and the struggle for socialism

The book that made me a Marxist was Lenin’s State and Revolution, which I first read at the age of 13. It was almost revelatory in how it showed me the façade of the ‘democracy’ that we live in. This was no ‘free society’, with elections where people have a Read more…

By Marxist Student, 4 years2 years ago

Why I Fight: there is an alternative to capitalism

I arrived at Marxism for one reason: my search for an alternative. I’ve lived all my life, bar the period I spend studying at Swansea University, in the strong Labour constituency that is the Torfaen County Borough. This year is the 35th anniversary of the county’s inception, and it Read more…

By Marxist Student, 4 years2 years ago

Why I Fight? Plaster Politics Doesn’t Work

I am a primary school teacher from London and I used to believe in reformism. I wished for someone like Corbyn to come along with new ideas and shake everything up. Sure enough, he has now come along and promises housing, free education and childcare. However, now he is Read more…

By Marxist Student, 4 years2 years ago

Why I Fight: to change the world from Norwich to Nairobi

In truth, there are many experiences and thoughts which have led me to Marxism. Having traveled extensively as a child, it’s hard not to visit the Global South and its poor masses and question the economic structures which exploit them. Also, as the son of a father whose childhood Read more…

By Marxist Student, 4 years2 years ago

Why I Fight: we have to change society just to survive

The most significant turning point in my life to date was a brief conversation in the Fitzroy Tavern in central London, after a demonstration against tuition fees in 2011. My friend had taken me along to meet some supporters of the organisation she’d got involved with that summer, the Read more…

By Marxist Student, 5 years2 years ago

Why I Fight: the point is to change it

I was brought up by French financiers and former Cambodian aristocrats, which is an unusual childhood through which to develop communist ideas. Ever since primary school I was taught that you cannot redistribute wealth because “people are inherently greedy”. These ideas characterised my upbringing. But the society I lived Read more…

By Marxist Student, 5 years2 years ago

Why I Fight: we have a world to win

Things have been getting worse. Students are being saddled with debt and their mental health is deteriorating as a result. At the same time, the NHS is being bled dry and can no longer take care of an ailing population. It seems the only jobs available for young people Read more…

By Marxist Student, 5 years2 years ago

We aren’t born revolutionaries, we all come to revolutionary conclusions in different ways. This series is about how our comrades came to revolutionary politics.