Last Tuesday (12/11/13) members of KCL Marxists, along with other groups of the left, assembled in the Strand Lobby at King’s College to help protest the failure of the King’s College Council to establish the London Living Wage (LLW) for all its employees, despite having promised to do so over three years ago. The KCL Living Wage Campaign was started by several PHD students approaching the cleaning staff in March of this Read more…
While out selling the Socialist Appeal newspaper in the centre of Sheffield this weekend, an elderly gentleman informed me that I will change my mind about socialism when I get older and start “earning a wage”. Given the prospects of a low-paying job, or no job at all, that current students face upon graduating, this oft-repeated truism rings hollow. Across all measures of economic success, graduates’ prospects are in free-fall – Read more…
The existence of nations, nation states, and national consciousness, is a characteristic feature of the capitalist epoch. Before the advent of capitalism, there was no genuine national consciousness in the modern sense. Feudal society was dominated by particularism, where peoples identified themselves as members of villages, towns, localities, regions, and principalities. It took the development of capitalism, an economic revolution, to bring about the home market and the assimilation of peoples Read more…
Recently, Cambridge University signed a deal with the Saudi monarchy to establish a research centre KACST-Cambridge (King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology – Cambridge Centre) dedicated to biological, chemical and engineering research. This is supposed to be the first physical site established outside the UK in Cambridge’s 800 year history. The Saudi Monarchy The true face of the Saudi Arabian monarchy is evident to everybody all over the world. The regime is Read more…
From 15th-17th November the International Marxist Tendency held the IMT Winter School 2013, hosted by UCLU Marxist Society.Over 130 attendees from across the country and the rest of northern Europe – and even the USA! – descended on UCL for the weekend to discuss why ‘Marx Was Right’ and debate the relevance of Marxism today. The school included talks on subjects ranging from the struggle for women’s liberation to the Great Crash Read more…
The Fire Brigades Union is currently squaring up to the government in a dispute over pensions and pay. Fire fighters have now been on strike three times, most recently on the morning of Monday 4th November when a two-hour walk-out took place across England and Wales. The action has been reported in the mainstream press as retaliation for the government’s decision to raise the retirement age for firefighters from 55 to 60, Read more…
On Tuesday 12th November 2013 students and staff at Kings College London will be demonstrating for the living wage for University staff. Despite its promise to do so, KCL still hasn’t increased staff pay to £8.80/hour – the living wage in London. Meanwhile the University and its Vice-Chancellor are up to their necks in cash. Below is a statement from the KCL Marxist Society on the fight for the living wage at Kings. See the Read more…
Standing between the working class and the socialist transformation of society is a colossal state machine. Where did it come from? What purpose does it serve? can it be reformed, or must it be done away with altogether? What should replace it, indeed should it be replaced at all? In the first place what is “it”? In their writings on the state, Marx and Engels set themselves the task of demystifying it, Read more…
Thursday 31st October 2013 saw joint strike action between UCU, Unite and Unison members working in higher education. The strike was nominally over the issue of pay, but reflected the anger that has been building up over a longer period of time at the conditions of staff and the creeping privatisation of higher education. Marxist Students wholeheartedly supported the strike. Below we publish a number of reports from our comrades on the Read more…
When one looks at history, it appears to be a mass of contradictions. Events are lost in a maze of revolutions, wars, periods of progress and of decline. Conflicts of classes and nations swirl around in the chaos of social development. How is it possible to understand and explain these events, when it appears that they have no rational basis? From the beginning, human beings have sought to discover the laws which Read more…
Up and down the country Marxist Students have been preparing their support for university staff taking strike action tomorrow. The Marxist Student Federation’s model resolution (See 31st October – Support the Strike!) has been discussed and passed in almost every society affiliated to the Federation. A number of Marxist Societies have rearranged their meetings from Thursday to Wednesday this week so as not to break the strike. Delegations from every society will Read more…
What is a philosophy? At each stage in human history, men and women have worked out some sort of picture of the world and their place in it. They develop a Philosophy. The pieces they use to make up this picture have been obtained by observing nature and through generalising their day to day experiences. Some people believe they have no need of such a philosophy or world outlook. Yet in practise Read more…
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