Mike Foster
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There are still a few spaces available for Summer School, so bookings remain open for now. For more information about the event see the previous posts in this thread or go to http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2023/ , which includes details about how to book a place.
The event will now also include a bonus session – a Saturday afternoon of mosaic-making!
There are still spaces available for Summer School, so bookings are still open. For more information about the event see the previous posts in this thread or go to http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2023/ , which includes details about how to book a place.
If you’re planning on coming along to Summer School on 21st – 23rd July in Birmingham, please make a booking before 17th May. For more information about the event see the previous posts in this thread or go to https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2023/ , which includes details about how to book a place.
Hot on the heels of the previous announcement, I’m happy to confirm the remaining Summer School session. Richard Field will give a talk about ‘The Need For Work – And How To Avoid It’:
Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?
Philip Larkin
Work has a complex and curious history, one that’s central to human experience. Yet what is it? And why does it seem so contradictory? Work is obligatory. We desire it. We rely on it for a sense of purpose and belonging, maybe even for identity. And yet as Sunday draws to a close and Monday approaches the thought of it can leave us clammy and hollow inside. Perhaps…
This is a lightning tour through the story of work, from the open Savannah to the open-plan office and beyond. On the way it attempts to throw some light on the brutish toad and maybe offers a pitchfork or two in consolation.Please see the previous post for further information about the event, and bookings should be made within the next few days.
I’m pleased to confirm the Saturday evening session at this year’s Summer School: An evening of puzzle-solving and code-breaking, starting with a message hidden in a jigsaw. Work together in teams to follow the clues to find the answers.
There is still one more talk to be announced, and details will follow soon. As with previous years, the event will also include an exhibition of how the Socialist Standard has reported on the topic of ‘Work’ over the years, an exclusive publication and a re-stocked bookstall.
Bookings should be made before 17th May, which isn’t far away now! For more details, including how to make a booking, see here: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2023/
Details of another of the Summer School talks can be announced! Howard Moss will be speaking on ‘Work: Paid and Unpaid’: This talk will look at the nature of the work, paid and unpaid, that the speaker and others close to him have engaged in over the years and draw conclusions about the experience of that in the context of the system we live under. It will then reflect on some of the implications of that for the possible nature of work in a future socialist society.
Please see earlier posts in this thread for further details about the event. Bookings should be made by 17th May. Stay tuned for details of the other two sessions.
Here are details of another talk at Summer School. Paddy Shannon will be speaking about ‘AI and the Future of Work’: Much as we hate capitalist employment, our lives depend on finding it. So what are we to make of the impending Artificial Intelligence revolution which, combined with robotics, threatens to destroy up to 30% of all jobs by the mid-2030s? 90% of the world’s most successful companies are already investing in AI, so is the future for workers going to be rosy, with high pay and abundant leisure time, a hellish Dickensian nightmare, or the much-vaunted Singularity beyond which capitalism as we know it may not even exist?
More announcements are on the way soon!
I’m happy to announce one of the talks at Summer School! Bill Martin will be speaking on ‘The Mysteries of the Pyramids’: Ancient monuments are a testament to the skills and abilities of humanity through the ages: and they are also clues as to how and why people laboured in the past. This talk will look at some of this evidence, and use it to discuss how human labour time is a constant factor in historical modes of production whilst also varying in how and why it was used. It will also look at how this evidence of human ingenuity is refracted through a modern ideological prism.
For more details about the event, see the previous posts in this thread.
Here’s a reminder of this year’s Summer School on the theme of ‘Work’, being held over the long weekend 21st – 23rd July in Birmingham. For more details, see here: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2023/
Please make a booking before 17th May, as attendee numbers need to be confirmed early. Unfortunately, full refunds may not be available for non-attendance or cancellations after this date.
Details of sessions at this year’s Summer School will be announced in the coming weeks!
Well done Paddy! Good show! I thought you put your points across in a really clear and persuasive way, and used some lively examples (I liked the ‘bottle of milk’ one!). You got more time than I expected, so fair dos to the presenter for that, despite some of his questions missing the point (such as ‘who pays the nurses?’). Not sure I got the other person’s definitions, but hey ho.
There’s only a week to go before the Climate Justice Coalition’s events next Saturday. If anyone else would like a batch of leaflets sent out to them to hand out, please let me know and we’ll see if there’s still time to send some on.
Bookings for Summer School have now closed. Anyone not coming along to Fircroft will be able to tune in to the talks on the party’s Discord platform. A reminder of when they’ll be taking place will be sent out nearer the time.
There’s a planned strike on the London Underground on Friday 19th August which may affect those travelling through London to Birmingham for Summer School. It’s likely to be confirmed on or after 2nd August. For more information, see here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62311206
Hopefully it won’t affect the travel plans of anyone coming to Summer School, but please note that there will be train strikes on Thursday 18th and Saturday 20th August. For more details, see here: https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/national-rail-strikes-set-for-18-and-20-august/
Also, remember that bookings for the event will be closing at the end of July. To make a booking or for more information, see here: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2022/
Here are details of the last-to-be-announced talk at Summer School:
How Middle Class Are You?
A talk by Mike Foster
Regardless of the economic reality of the class divide, there’s a widespread assumption that a middle class has characteristics and interests of its own. What is this belief based on, and how does it persist? If we go looking for the middle class, we’re likely to learn that reaching this status hinges on having a particular type of job or getting paid a certain amount of wages, or even whether we’d rather go to a musical or to a gig. This talk will examine different attempts to classify the middle class, and to what extent it can be defined into existing.Bookings for the event will have to close at the end of July, so if you’d like to come along or want more details, visit here: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2022/
