The following session has been added to the programme of the Socialist Party Summer School:
Dr Edmund Griffiths of the Communist Corresponding Society will be giving a talk titled ‘For Marxist Pluralism’"Breaking news: Marxists don’t always agree. And yet the idea has got about that Marxism ought to be something unitary, monolithic, and unquestionable. This talk will argue instead that debate and disagreement are no bad thing: in fact, it’s hard to see how Marxism could be either a democratic movement or a scientific theory (and it claims to be both) without them. Socialist society itself will probably include an enormous diversity of opinions, on all sorts of topics: some of them innovative, some bracing, some pedantic, some plainly wrong-headed (William Morris’s vision of socialism in News from Nowhere includes a ‘grumbler’ who thinks capitalism probably had a lot to recommend it). The talk will sketch out a case for Marxist pluralism on both democratic and scientific grounds, and will suggest that Marxism is only strengthened by the existence of a range of views—but if you don’t agree, you are of course welcome to come along and argue the other side. (You’re also welcome to come along and agree.)"
Where did I put my hostility clause?
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