Marxism 2012 - some thoughts on a festival

I had a minor organising hand in last year's event; this year seemed at least as big and went at least as well as last year. My only quibbles were the meetings filling up on Saturday, it's not good having people pay for tickets but being turned away on the busiest day, we need bigger rooms next year, that and the lack of air conditioning in many rooms...

I saw very good meetings on Victor Serge, World War Two, Revolutions and the Military and Cities Under Siege, the last of which, if the book is as good as the talk, it will rival Mike Davis's 90s works on Los Angeles, City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear. It's good to see the Green Zone theory of ruling class practice elaborated more precisely than I ever could; not that I invented the theory of course, it's just good to know that I'm more than a peddler of whimsy. 

Speaking of which, more on Marxism Meeting Title Tombola and other lists and bits of nonsense later. Also, I came away with the new ISJ, a book on Occupy (very kindly given to me) and the new edition of the Liberal Defence of Murder, finally out in paperback and which I'm sure steams a good ham.