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The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. That is all written history. For the majority of human history man did not live in a class society. But with the development of technique came the production of a surplus of wealth over and above the means of subsistence. This produced a flourish of art, science and philosophy as part of the population was freed for the first time from the toil of everyday labour. Mick Brooks talks on the application of Marxist philosophy to the development of society.
On Friday, December 7th, Al Jazeera's programme 
At the University of East Anglia recently Rob Sewell of the Socialist Appeal gave a talk on the Miners strike in Britain 1984-5. The strike was a culmination of the inevitable build up of tension between the ruling and working class. In the post-war period the decline of British imperialism had occured. The Tories of the 1980s were a rabid reaction to that phenomenon, determined to destroy the organised labour movement by taking on its most militant section, the National Union of Miners.
Fred Weston of the International Marxist Tendency, and editor of 'In Defence of Marxism', talks on Leon Trotsky's theory of the Permanent Revolution. This marxist concept constitued the main ideological opposition to Stalin's theory of 'socialism in one country', which came to be the dominant outlook of the Soviet bureaucracy, that grew out of the isolation and degeneration of the young workers state.
At a meeting in London recently Linda Clarke of the Socialist Appeal talks about Marxism in relation to the national Question. Linda talks about the history and evolution of the nation state, the meaning of bourgeois nationalism, and deals with the particular circumstances of the national question in relation to Scotland, Ireland and the position of the Marxists during the Falklands war.
Supporters of the Venezuelan revolution held a meeting at Cardiff University on Wednesday evening. This
meeting was held in order to explain the significance of events that have taken
place in Venezuela over the last 10 years and to spread the message that is
coming out of Latin America: that there is an alternative to capitalism in the
21st century - socialism.
This month’s show includes extended features on the constitutional
reform and opposition attempts to sabotage the process, an analysis of
Socialism for the 21st Century and lots of information on the upcoming
Hands Off Venezuela 
Mick Brooks of the Socialist Appeal Editorial Board spoke recently at a meeting organised by Socialist Appeal supporters in London on Britain and the World Economy, looking in particular at the financial panic that began in August.
Alan Woods talks to the ULU Marxist Society on the topic of 'Marxism and Religion'. Alan explains the materialist conception of the world, integral to the theory of Marxism, and contrasts it to the idealist perspective that gives rise to religion. Alan explains the nature of religion as a means of consoling the oppressed with a life after death, the tendency of the church to break down along class lines, as well as the trade union credentials of God.
Alan Woods, editor of 
In the first of a series of talks, Alan Woods adresses the Greenwich branch of the Socialist Appeal on the need for philosophy, especially for those who are interested in the perspective of revolution. This talk begins with the materialist pre-Socratics of Greece, where real philosophy began, and the father of dialectics - Heraclitus. In politics dialectics explains the apparent static reality of things, which is in fact a surface appearance that conceals maturing contradictions.
This recording was made at the Socialist Appeal day school in London this July, where comrades gathered to hear Fred Weston, editor of www.marxist.com, talk on the current situation in the Middle East. The talk covers primarily the situation in Israel and Palestine, the war last summer between Israel and Lebanon and the situation in Iraq. Listen to 
Fred Weston, editor of the website 