Socialist Workers Party

Economics of the Madhouse

A Day School on Marx, Capital and the Economic Crisis

Saturday 25th April 2009

3-6 pm Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin 2

With Special Guest Speaker, Chris Harman (author of Economics of the Madhouse and editor of the International Socialism Journal)

Chris Harman, a leading Marxist economist, is the editor of the
International Socialism Journal and author of numerous books including A
People's History of the World and Economics of the Madhouse. His book on
1968, The Fire Last Time, was recommended by rock band Rage Against the
Machine in their album sleeve notes for Evil Empire.

Harman will speak on the current economic crisis engulfing the world
economy, a crisis that represents the greatest failure of the free market
since the Second World War.

For some time now, economic experts have argued that the market is
self-regulating and self-correcting; this fantasy has been destroyed. The
crisis has led to a run on the international banking system, a stock market
crash, and has opened the door to what will be the longest and deepest
recession of the post-Second World War period.

Not too long ago we were told there is no alternative to the free market.
What we are now told is that there is no alternative to government
intervention and regulation. Governments attack wages, public services and
the unemployment and give billion euro handouts to banks and big business.

Chris Harman will offer a specifically Marxist analysis of the current
capitalist crisis and will argue that this is not a typical cyclical crisis,
which capitalism generally has every decade or so, but a systemic crisis
that will not be easy escaped.

He will argue that there is an alternative to the current system, an
alternative that prioritises the interest of people, not banks and big
business.

Organised by Socialist Workers Party. Everyone is welcome.

For more details see www.swp.ie or phone 086-261 2634

A Day School on Marx, Capital and the Economic Crisis
Saturday 25th April 2009
3-6 pm Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin 2
With Special Guest Speaker, Chris Harman (author of Economics of the Madhouse and editor of the International Socialism Journal)

Session 1

The Slump of the 1930s and the Crisis today

Session 2

The Marxist theory of Crisis

SUGGESTED READING

Chris Harman, “The Slump of the 1930s and the Crisis today” in International Socialism Journal, Issue 121, Winter 2008.

“Exploring the logic of capital”, Joseph Choonara interviews David Harvey”
Socialist Review April 2009

Also download Chris Harman's pamphlet: The Economics of the Madhouse