Lectures and Important Documents

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Equality, the Rights of Man and the Birth of Socialism

By David North, 24 October 1996

The following is a lecture given by David North, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on 24 October 1996.

Leon Trotsky, Soviet Historiography, and the Fate of Classical Marxism

By David North, Chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site
December 1, 2008

This paper was presented at the 2008 National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), held in Philadelphia on November 20-23, as part of a panel devoted to “The Intellectual and Political Legacy of Leon Trotsky.”

Marxism and the Frankfurt School

Presented here is a series of polemical essays defending the foundations of scientific socialism against pseudo-Marxist conceptions influenced by the Frankfurt School and contemporary neo-utopianism.

2007 SEP/WSWS Summer School

Published here are selected lectures from the Socialist Equality Party summer school held in August 2007 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

2006 WSWS International Editorial Board Meeting

Published here are reports delivered by leading members of the World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board (IEB) to an expanded meeting of the WSWS IEB hosted by the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) and held in Sydney from January 22 to 27, 2006.

2005 SEP/WSWS Summer School
Marxism and the Historical Foundations of the Fourth International

The Socialist Equality Party (US) and the World Socialist Web Site held a summer school entitled “Marxism and the Historical Foundations of the Fourth International” from August 14 to August 20, 2005, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

During the course of the week, participants in the school heard nine lectures on important theoretical and historical problems of the twentieth century. One theme centered on the significance of post-modernism, the Frankfurt school and various forms of anti-Marxism. The lectures encompassed a broad range of interrelated topics, including the origins of the First World War, the rise of fascism in Germany, the origins and counter-revolutionary character of Stalinism in the Soviet Union, Leon Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution, and an examination of problems of art and culture in the Soviet Union.

1998 Socialist Equality Party International Summer School
Marxism and the Fundamental Problems of the 20th Century

These seven lectures were delivered at the Socialist Equality Party International Summer School, held in Sydney, Australia from January 3 to 10, 1998, the first such international symposium organised by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the world Trotskyist movement.

Was there an alternative to Stalinism?

Republished here is a lecture delivered 25 October 1995 by David North at Glasgow University in Scotland.