Tag: Trotsky

Marxism 2015 7: Sunday Morning

An account of the first part of Sunday at Marxism 2015 and a fistful of important links.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my experiences at Marxism 2015, the five day political festival in central London organised by the Socialist Workers Party. Check out the previous posts in the series. As well as the post itself I have some important links to share – and on the subject of sharing I hope you will be inspired to share this post!

GETTING THERE

The journey in had two variations on previous days – firstly my host was able to give me a lift to Walthamstow Central, saving some money on the Oyster Card, and secondly I decided to change to the Piccadilly line at Finsbury Park because Russell Square is actually the closest station to the Institute of Education. My dislike of lifts reduced the theoretical benefits of saving distance because the only other method of access to street level is via the stairs, of which there are 175.

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These balloon pictures are from the southbound Piccadilly line platform at Finsbury Park.

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The Piccadilly line is currently constituted.
The Piccadilly line is currently constituted.
A new style of schematic diagram now on display at many stations.
A new style of schematic diagram now on display at many stations.

AT THE EVENT

Here is my program of meetings for the day…

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You might not expect a theoretical meeting first thing on a Sunday morning to be lively, but it was. However I will settle for sharing a few photographs…

Speaker Sue Caldwell and chair (and SWP student organiser) Lewis Nielsen before the first meeting of the day.
Speaker Sue Caldwell and chair (and SWP student organiser) Lewis Nielsen before the first meeting of the day.

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Sue during her opening speech.
Sue during her opening speech.
A contributor from the floor during the discussion
A contributor from the floor during the discussion
A close up shot of picture on his t-shirt
A close up shot of picture on his t-shirt
When they contributed from the floor...
When they contributed from the floor…
...I was able to get a picture of the front showing which union it was.
…I was able to get a picture of the front showing which union it was.
This was the back of someone' shirt
This was the back of someone’ shirt

From this meeting I ascended two floors to Nunn Hall for my next meeting, Amy Leather (organiser of the whole event) on fracking. Here are some lowlights associated with fracking…

  • Uses vast quantities of water – millions of gallons per site
  • 2 – 2,500 lorry trips per well required
  • Tap water near fracking sites so polluted that folk can set fire to it
  • and 15 million Americans live within one mile of a fracking site – and it would be worse in this country because we are more densely populated.
  • We are still talking FOSSIL FUELS – every part of the process increases emissions
  • Process leaks methane – which is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than methane

Instead of supporting this means of generating power we should be looking more deeply in renewables (for which Cameron and his cronies have cut funding while they are pushing fracking like billy-ho).

I will end this section with a few more photos…

Amy and chair Dave Gilchrist before the meeting.
Amy and chair Dave Gilchrist before the meeting.
Amy during her opening speech.
Amy during her opening speech.

LINKS

TWO PETITIONS

Each of these petitions comes with two links, the petition itself and a related article. First up, a petition calling on SeaWorld to release Tillikum the orca:

1)The petition

2)An open letter to Harry Styles of One Direction, who recently urged his fans not to go to SeaWorld.

The second petition I am sharing with this post is the one calling on Theresa May to establish a legal exclusionary zone around abortion clinics:

1)The Petition

2)A related article in the Guardian

OTHER LINKS

My penultimate link is to a story on Take Part Daily about how roads could be made from plastic waste.

Last up, a story from Vox Political about the Speaker of the House making some very revealing remarks about the way in which Iain Duncan Smith conducts himself.