John Pickard

At 6pm, on the 12th of March the Marxist society of the University of London Union met for a discussion on ‘Marxism and Darwinism’. The topic of this meeting was chosen in order to coincide with the recent exhibitions and publicity surrounding the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s masterwork, ‘Origin of the Species’ in November this year, and John Pickard, author of “150th anniversary of publication of Origin of the Species” led off for the first time (at a political meeting) for 15 years before a meeting of about fifteen people, comprising students, Socialist Appeal supporters and other interested people.

Alongside the rather incongruous musical backing of ULU’s Campus Ministry, who were holding a religious sing-a-long in the room next door, John’s lead off was interesting, informative and concise, covering many different points while leaving plenty to be discussed in greater depth during the meeting. Treated in the lead off and subsequent discussion were topics such as Darwin’s ideas, the reason for the apparent lack of ‘isms’ surrounding other famous scientific discoveries such as those of Newton and Dalton, the objections of organised religion (particularly the Christian church) toward Darwin’s theory, perversions of Darwin’s theory such as the ‘science’ of eugenics, similarities and links between the two materialist viewpoints of Darwinism and Marxism, and the possibility of ideas such as those of the Marxist view of Darwinism to penetrate and ‘compete’ successfully with those of the current mainstream.

ULU Marxist Society meeting on Marxism and Darwinism

All who were present were greatly impressed and inspired by John’s lead off, and the discussion was one of the most thorough and inclusive that we have had at ULU. Several of those who attended the meeting remarked at the quality of the answers given by John to questions posed during the discussion, and seemed genuinely keen to discuss further some of the ideas that had been brought up when the meeting inevitably retired to nearest pub. Above all, as well as being both educational and enjoyable, this meeting represents the ability of the ULU Marxist society to provide a consistent platform to promote Marxist ideas, and particularly the ideas of Socialist Appeal to the advanced layers of youth in education.

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Darwin’s challenge, By John Pickard, Friday, 13 February 2009

Darwin's Untimely Burial , By Stephen Jay Gould in 1976, Friday, 20 March 2009

Engels and Human Development, By John Pickard in 1984, Friday, 27 February 2009

From the Marxist Education plan

Science and Dialectical Materialism

Level 3: Engels' Applications of Dialectical Materialism to the Question of Evolution

The Origins of Our Species - Rob Sewell