Thursdays 7pm: Marx and party building

September 7 2023: Introduction to series
Speakers: Ian Spencer and Nick Wrack

September 14: Marx, Engels and the party question: from the Communist League to the First International
Speaker: Kevin Bean

Recommended readings:

Marx joins the First International: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1864/letters/64_11_04-abs.htm
Inaugural Address: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1864/10/27.htm
Provisional Rules: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/iwma/documents/1864/rules.htm
Instructions to delegates to the Geneva Congress 1866: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/iwma/documents/1866/instructions.htm
Letter from Karl Marx to Ferdinand Freiligrath in London
Address of the International Working Men’s Association to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America

September 21: Debating party and programme: Marx and Engels versus Bakunin and the anarchists 1868-72
Speaker: Ian Spencer
Recommended reading:

Frederick Engels: The Bakuninists at Work
Michael Bakunin: Marxism, Freedom and the State

September 28: Developing a Social Democratic party and programme: Eisenachers, Lassallians and Erfurt 1864-1875
Speakers tbc

October 5: Developing revolutionary socialist consciousness: the programme of the French Workers Party and the origins of the Second International
Speakers tbc

October 12: Party and programme in Britain: Marx and Engels and the Labour movement in Britain 1844-1895
Speakers tbc

October 19: German social democracy, the minimum-maximum programme and the fusion formula: Engels and Erfurt
Speakers tbc

October 26: Party life and discipline: ‘democratic centralism’ in the SPD 1870s-1890s
Speakers tbc

November 2: Marx and Engels and the Russian Marxists 1840-1890s
Speaker: Ian Spencer

November 9: Party, programme and trade union struggles; politics, mass struggles and strikes; Marxism and ‘syndicalism’ 1840s-1890s
Speakers: Ian Spencer

November 16: Conclusion and discussion of themes
Speakers tbc