The “New” Lukács

An on-line talk to mark the anniversary of the publication of History and Class Consciousness
Speaker Andrew Feenberg

The initial reception of Lukacs’s History and Class Consciousness was almost entirely negative. Non-Marxists didn’t like his Marxism and Marxist disliked his borrowings from contemporary social science and philosophy. From 1923, when the book was first published, until the 1960s when a new generation of readers discovered it, History and Class Consciousness largely disappeared from both history and consciousness. Read on ...

The Silence of Oppression

Hugh Brody and Merilyn Moos discuss how the experiences of imperialism and of exile from Nazism generate and rely on silences in both personal and political realms.
Hugh Brody’s books include Living Arctic, Maps And Dreams,The Other Side of Eden and Landscapes of Silence; his films include Nineteen Nineteen, England’s Henry Moore and Tracks Across Sand.
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“Uncomradely and un-communist”- the CPGB and CPA Debate, 1947-1948

Speaker: Gregory Billam

The Communist Parties of Great Britain and Australia until May 1943 were dutiful members of the Comintern, however, when this body was disbanded by Stalin, both Parties were notably excluded from the newly established Cominform in late 1947. Deemed to be on the periphery of international communism, this newly found ‘independence’ prompted a turn towards Communist Parties developing their own ‘roads’ to socialism, and by extension unofficial organising hubs or spheres of influence. Read on ...

Willie Thompson (1939 – 2023)

We are saddened to learn of the death of Professor Willie Thompson, President of the Socialist History Society, and author of numerous books on socialist history. A full appreciation will follow in due course. We send our deepest sympathies to his family and all his loved ones. Willie made an enormous contribution to the SHS and our work, including editing our journal for many years. Read on ...