Preparing for Power 1989

Front cover of Preparing for Power, published by the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1989.

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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 21 - 28 July 1989 and was held at the University of London. The full document can be viewed on Scribd.

Speakers / Schedule

• Friday 21 July

Registration. A choice of sessions starting at 8pm including 'An absolute beginner's guide to the RCP'.

• Saturday 22 July

Morning: Opening plenary 10.30am. 1789-1989: Hard-learned lessons for today.

Afternoon: Various workshops and debates on key issues of British and international politics:

Designer Capitalism

Agenda for women's liberation

Britain's Secret State

Freedom and the individual

The Greening of British politics

Workers and their unions

Peace breaks out? Angola, Afghanistan, Kampuchea

Is fascism a threat?

Ireland: 20 years of resistance

What is a revolution?

Ten years of Thatcherism

The Bush presidency

1992 made simple

Armenia erupts

What about the British left?

Inside South Africa

• Sunday 23 July - Thursday 27 July

Morning: Specialist courses running from Sunday to Thursday:

Frank Richards - Introduction to Marxism

Mike Freeman - Social movement and class politics

John Gibson - Marxism and the environment

Daniel Nassim - Imperialism in the nineties

Joan Phillips - New thinking and Marxism

Alan Harding - The French Revolution and its legacy

Tony Kennedy - The making of Marx's Capital

Charles Longford - The Irish War for non-beginners

Afternoon: Specialist courses running from Sunday to Thursday:

Anne Burton - Women's oppression and liberation

Phil Murphy - An introduction to the Irish War

Kenan Malik - The roots of racism

John Fitzpatrick - Marxism and culture

Helen Simons - Issues in contemporary capitalism

Rob Knight - The Soviet Union in the glasnost era

Mick Hume - Strategic problems of the British revolution

Christina Braun and Sabena Norton - Germany today