By Espe Espigares
March 2000
On the weekend of January 29/30th we held the first Marxist Education School organisedby Youth For International Socialism (YFIS). The common theme of the discussions was"revolutions" and the aim was to study some of the most important events inworking class history and draw the main lessons from them.
We started with the Russian Revolution of 1917 and we discussed the key role of theBolshevik party in the taking of power by the working class.
We also felt it was very important to discuss the Spanish Revolution of 1931-37. We sawthe film "Land and Freedom" by Ken Loach on this subject and then we had aninteresting debate about the Stalinist betrayal of the revolution and other aspects of theprocess which feature in the film (like the role of women, the role of the Church, etc).
Later on we had a question and answer session with Ted Grant in which we had theopportunity to comment on a wide range of issues from science and economy, to history andsociety, always from a Marxist standpoint. We finished the first day with a social.
On Sunday we discussed the lessons of the German revolutionary process from 1918 to1923 and the consequences of the betrayal of the Social democratic leaders for the wholeof the European labour movement.
Finally, Peter Johnson, from the US explained the current situation in that country andthe growing interest in Marxist ideas. He is the editor of the newyouth.com web site so wealso commented on the use of the internet to spread socialist ideas and the impact whichour web pages are already having all over the world. As a practical application of thisdiscussion we showed all comrades how to get an e-mail address and the basics of the web.
All those present, around 25 comrades, felt that the school had been very useful. Thegeneral mood at the end was: "when are we having the next school?." It is alsointeresting to note that there were comrades present from many different countries(Austria, Ecuador, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Australia, etc) giving the meeting agenuine internationalist flavour.
A common thread throughout the weekend was the need to strengthen the work through theMarxist discussion groups and societies at the different universities and to establishthem where they don't exist yet. The enthusiasm of all those present was also reflected inthe amount of money raised at the bar, the bookshop and the collection: £230.