Again this year, the CPGB will be hosting the Marxism Fringe at this year's Marxism, the annual school of the Socialist Workers Party. Oli Rahman - the first elected Respect councillor - will be speaking at one of these meetings.

Our comrades from the SWP dub their annual school as a "festival of ideas". And there is no doubt that the event is an impressive one, bringing together a range of interesting and talented speakers and 1000s of comrades for the five-day event of meetings, forums, films and cultural events. (See www.marxismfestival.org.uk). If you have time, we would certainly urge comrades to attend. (It runs from July 3-7).

The weaknesses of Marxism flow - naturally enough - from the flaws of the group that organises it. First, it is hampered because of the culture of the SWP - one where differences in its own ranks are treated as conspiracy and where minorities are not allowed to publicly air their disagreements. Thus, the interventions from the floor in the various sessions tend to be repetitive and uncontroversial. Too often they are simply anecdotal confirmations of the views of the (SWP) speakers: People are not encouraged to think critically, in other words.

But - more tellingly - the SWP hardly ever features debates and controversies within the revolutionary left itself. So, it is happy to debate, say, Tony Benn on 'Reform versus revolution'. That's easy work. By definition, reformism is incapable of producing any body of theory as coherent and deep as Marxism - even bad Marxists can win debates like that.
However, it will never debate other explicitly revolutionary groups on programme - ie: on how a series of immediate demands relate to the end goal of socialism, why one method of fighting for reforms is 'reformist' and another revolutionary.
So, in truth, the annual Marxism event is actually a "festival" of a certain body of ideas - the dominant ideas of the present leadership of the SWP, in fact. Other trends in revolutionary Marxism are disappeared and - indeed - SWPers often react with anger and occasionally violence when these 'dissenters' have the temerity to actually turn up at the "festival of ideas". (See www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/681/swp%20thuggery.htm and www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/489/mfjb_statement.html).

This is why the CPGB has taken the initiative of organising the Marxism Fringe alongside the official event. This is the schedule of this year's fringe meetings:
[All meetings at 5pm]

* Friday, July 4
'Pre-launch meeting the manifesto of the Campaign for a Marxist Party'.
Room 541, Birkbeck University, Malet Street WC1. Hillel Ticktin and Mike MacNair introduce themes that will be explored in detail in a CMP publication coming soon. Forms for pre-ordering the manifesto will be available at the meeting.

* Saturday, July 5
'Iran: how to fight the war drive'.
Torab Saleth (Hands Off the People of Iran) and Alex Callinicos (SWP - invited). Room 403, Birkbeck University, Malet Street WC1. Hopi was barred from affiliating to the Stop the War Coalition at the organisation's 2007 AGM. Leaving aside some of the more silly accusations that were levelled at the time (see www.hopoi.org/media.html), Hopi's application was rejected because of its distinct approach to anti-war solidarity. As this year's StWC AGM appears on the horizon, we will discuss the principles that underpin the controversy.

* Sunday, July 6
'The lessons of Respect'.
Cllr Oli Rahman (Respect's first elected councillor) and Mark Fischer (CPGB). Room 541, Birkbeck University, Malet Street WC1.