Next Friday 13th August: Paul Gilroy’s Against Race (2002) — Chapter 1

In Ukania Perpetua?, Anderson evaluates the analytic weaknesses and successes of the New Left Review’s political commentary over the last five decades through the prism of interlocking twenty-first century crises in British society. …

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution was published in 2017 at the centenary of the Russian Revolution. It emerged alongside a raft of memorial efforts in Britain the same year. Major exhibitions at the British Library, UCL SEES and the Marx Memorial Library demonstrated how 1917 retains a hold…

Next Friday, Black Lamp Reading Group will be discussing the introduction and chapter 1 of China Miéville’s ‘October’, a narrative history of the lead up to the 1917 Russian revolution. Discussion begins on Friday October 16th at 20:30 GMT. E-mail blacklamprg@mail.com to join. All welcome.

The Party (1974) depicts a socialist meeting in London that coincides with the early Paris student riots. Reading it in 2020 drives home just how far the unresolved conflicts of the 1968 events continue to define political discourse. These tensions are embodied by two different understandings of twentieth century history…

Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire’s 1968 classic asked how a humane society might emerge from one where a dominating class reduces ‘everything to the status of objects at its disposal’. For Freire, like Marx, such wholescale social transformation can only come from struggles waged by the oppressed. Unlike many other Marxist…

Next Friday, Black Lamp Reading Group will be discussing a classic of critical pedagogy. Based on Paulo Freire’s experiences as an adult educator, it sketches a non-hierarchical model of education where both learner and teacher co-produce knowledge. Discussion begins 20:00 GMT October 2nd 2020. E-mail blacklamprg@mail.com for the Zoom link.