SOAS Communist Students Society

The first CS meeting of the year agreed a discussion programme based around the ideas of Party – how revolutionaries should organise – and Programme – what we should fight for. All are welcome to attend these meetings, and we are also building two public meetings, on women’s liberation and anarchism. We are inviting guest speakers to these meetings and aiming for a debate format.

We are also planning film showings, and to coincide with the week of action organised by ‘Hands Off the People of Iran,’ CS members are organising a gig on Friday 19th Feb. Visit the Facebook event page for more info.

Meetings are on Wednesdays, at 7:30pm in Room T101 in the SOAS Language Center at 22 Russell Square. Call or text Laurie for more information and help finding the room: 07514 500 298. Or join our Facebook group for more frequent updates. Suggested readings for discussion are listed under the title of each meeting.

Meeting Programme for February and March:

17th Feb: Reading week – no meeting

24th Feb: Public meeting on feminism – room number and time TBC

3rd Mar: Do we need a Programme?

#Reading 1: John Molyneux, ‘The necessity of Respect’
http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=8764

#Reading 2: Jack Conrad, ‘Programme and its structure’
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=455

10th Mar: The Transitional Programme

#Reading: Err, the Transitional Programme
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm

17th Mar: Dilution and dogmatism; ‘broad’ and ‘fat’ programmes

#Reading 1: Platform of TUSC (Trade Unionist & Socialist coalition)
–not available yet–

#Reading 2: Contents page of Bukharin’s ‘ABC’s of communism’
http://marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1920/abc/index.htm
And in particular Section 84: ‘Extra-scholastic instruction’:
http://marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1920/abc/10.htm#084

24th Mar: Democracy and the Marxist programme

#Reading 1: Karl Marx & The Programme of the Parti Ouvrier
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/05/parti-ouvrier.htm

#Reading 2: Jack Conrad, ‘Prioritise democracy’
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1000519

Capitalism across the world is in crisis. The ongoing spectre of wars, environmental destruction and poverty is all too apparent. This crisis is not simply down to the greed or corruption of individuals but is endemic to a capitalist system in decline. The need for a higher form of society based upon the principle of human need as opposed to the needs of capital is more obvious than ever. Communist Students believes that Marxism is the best way of understanding the world and changing it.

Communist Students exists to promote Marxism on our campuses, campaign for democracy in all spheres of life, and fight to replace capitalism with communism. Communism is the emancipation “of all human beings without distinction of sex or race” (Marx). It has nothing to do with the nightmare that was the Soviet Union under the suffocating rule of the bureaucracy. Likewise, other countries that claim the mantle of communism do so dishonestly. We are going to wrest back the word for what it genuinely means – the emancipation of humanity. This can only come about through the agency of the working class, the world’s majority – seperated from the means of production – who have no objective interest in the continuation of this rotting system.

In order to overcome the striking theoretical and organisational failings of today’s left we fight for a radical political culture of democracy and openess. Unlike the rest of the left we encourage our members and supporters to think critically and argue their differences out openly. Only in this way can our class educate itself to the level whereby it can take on the running of society as a whole. Rather than ignore other left groups who we disagree with we engage with them, arguing vigorously for the unity of Marxist students in an openly communist and democratic organisation.