Preparing for Power 1990

Preparing for Power, published by the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1990.

Preparing for Power was published by the Revolutionary Communist Party. It was used to highlight a week of 'discussion and debate about the current state of the world and how to change it.' The event ran from 20 - 27 July 1990 and was held at the University of London. The full document can be viewed on Scribd.

Speakers / Schedule: 20-27 July 1990

Workshops

• Current issues: Speculation and the stock market / The left and perestroika / Can the market take off in the Soviet Union? / What is history? / Race, religion and culture / What's so special about Islam? / The new anti-Semitism / Eco hot-spots / Charity and poverty / Rogues and robbers: the idea of the criminal class / Removing the brakes on technology / The information society

• British politics: Middle class protest under Thatcher / The Tory factions / Conservatives and the family / The changing role of the modern monarch / Bent coppers / Scab unions / Welsh nationalism / alcohol, drugs and morality / Women and the demographic timebomb

• Art, sport and culture: Post-modernism and the end of rationality / Realism in British cinema / War photography / The music theatre of Weill and Brecht / Glasgow - City of Culture? / Architecture: the Prince Charles debate / Why is British food so bad? / What happened to good music? / Is boxing all bad? / Cricket and the decline of the British Empire

• Science and technology: The quest for beauty in science / Proletarian science / In defence of Darwin / Genetic engineering / Physics and metaphysics / Consciousness, man and thinking machines / Why capitalism can't cure the common cold / Inventions for the 1990s

• Britain and Ireland: Class war in Ireland / British counter-insurgency strategy in Ireland / Ian Paisley / Ireland - the open economy / Cinema in Ireland

• International: Noriega and the decline of US imperialism / Religion and the US right / Poland and Solidarity / Social problems of the Soviet Union / The disintegration of Africa / The ANC and the 1990s / Dictators and bankers - Nigeria and the West / Israel and Palestinians / Myths about Japan / Japanese aid to the third world / Imperialism in the South Pacific / Cambodia - a second Lebanon?

• Women, sex and gay oppression: The ABC of motherhood / Women's labour and childcare in the 1990 / Childhood / Origin of the family / Homosexuality / Private lives / Mr and Mrs / Slimming magazines / Prohibition and the family in the USA

Morning Courses

• Frank Richards - Introduction to Marxism
• Mike Freeman - Advanced Marxism
• John Gibson - Marxism and science
• Tony Kennedy - Contemporary capitalism
• Daniel Nassim - Between East and West: the third world
• Alan Harding - History and progress
• Anne Burton - Advanced course on women
• Kerry Dean - The Marxist theory of the state

Afternoon Courses

Kenan Malik - The roots of racism

Phil Murphy - An introduction to the Irish War

Sara Hardy - Women's oppression: an introduction

Andrew Calcutt - Visions of the future

Helen Simons - New international relations

Mick Hume - Reform or revolution?

Joan Phillips - Sociology and Marxism

Rob Knight - The Soviet bloc in transition