With only one week to go until the founding conference of the Marxist Student Federation, we publish here the full agenda for the one-day conference, being held in SOAS, London, on Saturday 15th February. We encourage all our student readers to attend what promises to be a fantastic event.
With only one week to go until the founding conference of the Marxist Student Federation, we publish here the full agenda for the one-day conference, being held in SOAS, London, on Saturday 15th February. We encourage all our student readers to attend what promises to be a fantastic event.
See here for more details or email contact@marxiststudent.com to find out more.
The conference will be held at SOAS, University of London in the main building, room L67. A special “Valentine’s Day” social and bookfair will be held on Friday 14th February in room G2 of SOAS.
10:00 Registration
All those attending the conference should sign in at the registration desk from 10am onwards. It will be possible to sign up to the Marxist Student Federation on the day by filling in a membership form at the registration desk.
10:30 – 12:30: The relevance of Marxism today
A session that will be introduced by Fred Weston, editor of In Defence of Marxism (www.marxist.com), the website and magazine of the International Marxist Tendency. There will be plenty of time for comments, questions and discussion from the floor so come along to share your own thoughts, examples and experiences of the relevance of Marxism to today’s world.
12:30 – 13:30: Lunch
13:30 – 14:00: International greetings and reports
All genuine socialists are internationalists – as Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto: “Workers of the world unite!”. The Marxist Student Federation has strong links with comrades and organisations overseas from whom we have received messages of support and solidarity that will be read out at the conference. We also have a delegation from our sister organisation in Italy, Sempre in Lotta (http://www.sempreinlotta.org/), who will address the conference and a delegation from Belgium to report on the student movement in Belgium and Holland.
14:00 – 15:30: The student movement in Britain and the role of the Marxists
This discussion on the role of Marxist students in Britain will be introduced by Scott Shaw, President of the Sheffield Marxist Society, and will be based around the perspectives document that has been circulated to the Marxist Societies that can be found here. We’ll be discussing the student movement in the context of what’s happening in Britain and internationally. We’ll be getting to grips with the state of the student movement so that we can effectively intervene in it over the coming period. A vote will be taken on the perspectives document with the aim of adopting it as a guide for the work of the MSF this year.
15:30 – 16:00: Break
16:00 – 17:00: Proposals and reports from the Marxist societies
The Marxist societies up and down the country have been working hard to spread the ideas of Marxism on campus and beyond. This session will be an opportunity to pool the experiences and plans of all the Marxist societies around the country. The UCL Marxists have produced an organisational resolution for the conference to discuss and vote on which will be circulated to the Marxist societies. Come along with a brief report of the work of the Marxist society in your area or university from which all comrades can take lessons and inspiration.
17:00 – 17:15: Steering committee report and election
The steering committee of the MSF is made up of one member from each affiliated society. This body will be responsible for the running of the MSF between conferences. Each society will put forward one member to represent them on the steering committee and these names will be put to the conference for approval.
17:15 – 18:00: Closing remarks
The conference will close with some short remarks about the year ahead and the exciting future that lies ahead for the ideas of Marxism and the role of the Marxist Student Federation in the student movement.
Socials
On both Friday and Saturday evenings there will be socials in SOAS at which cheap snacks and drinks will be provided. All conference attendees are encouraged to come along to socialise with Marxist students from all over Britain and beyond.
