IMU2022: DON’T MISS Alan Woods on Marxism and art! Image: In Defence of Marxism Share TweetThe final countdown is on for the International Marxist University, with just under THREE weeks to go before we launch! Over 3,800 people (and counting!) across the world have now registered for what promises to be the world’s foremost event for revolutionary theory and discussion. Sign up now!What can you expect from this four-day festival of Marxist ideas? Will you just be exposed to the lifeless ‘dogma’ of Marxism, which reduces everything to economics alone?Far from it! Marxism is a rich philosophy with something to say about all aspects of life, science and struggle. Accordingly, the IMU will consist of 14 diverse, exciting sessions on Marxist philosophy, history and economics. This includes the plenary session on ‘Marxism and Art: Unshackling Culture from Capitalism’, with Alan Woods speaking on the significance of striving for culture as a vital part of the revolutionary fight for socialism. You can watch a clip of Alan Woods introducing this topic below: View this post on Instagram A post shared by In Defence of Marxism (@marxistcom)To understand the development of society up to the present day, and how the current rotten capitalist system can be brought down, we must look beyond bread-and-butter questions concerning the working class. A world devoid of art, music, colour, cinema, literature and so on would reduce human existence to unbearable dreariness. The role of culture in society is paramount to understanding the scope of the fight for a better existence for humanity. This goes hand in hand with fighting against the degenerate capitalist system, in which art is the preserve of a privileged few, and the great majority are excluded from active participation in culture, fed a thin gruel of degrading, dull and derivative ‘culture’ by profiteering fat cats.Marxists strive for a world in which the full creative potential of humanity is unleashed, so that, as Trotsky writes, man will infinitely exceed all the artistic and cultural accomplishments of the past.You can prepare for this important discussion at #IMU22 by diving into the following reading list: Art and the Class Struggle Capitalist fetishism and the decay of art Marxism and art: introduction to Trotsky's writings on Art and Culture Literature and Revolution - Leon Trotsky
