The discussion material for this short course is the Second Edition of Labour: a party fit for imperialism by Robert Clough. The recommended format is a six-part reading group, following the reading guide below.
Copies of the text are available to buy here (where you will also find a video interview with the author): www.revolutionarycommunist.org/pub/84-publications/3943-labour-party-fit-for-imperialism
You can join an FRFI reading group by contacting your local RCG branch here: https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/branches
READING GROUP
Labour: a party fit for imperialism by Robert Clough
FIRST SESSION
Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction to the First Edition
Part One: The foundation of the Labour Party
Appendix: Lenin on ‘the bourgeois labour party’
SECOND SESSION
Part Two: The Labour Party and British imperialism 1900-45
THIRD SESSION
Part Three: Labour and the reconstruction of the imperialist order 1945-51
Part Four: Labour and British imperialism since 1951
FOURTH SESSION
Part Five: Labour and the working class 1918-45
Part Six: Labour and the working class 1945-97
FIFTH SESSION
Part Seven: Labour in government 1997-2010
Part Eight: Towards the 2015 general election
SIXTH SESSION
As the Second Edition of Labour: a party fit for imperialism was published in 2014 we recommend, by way of a postscript, the following two FRFI articles dealing with Jeremy Corbyn’s brief leadership of the Labour Party and the changing character of the working class electorate:
FRFI 279, December 2020/January 2021, ‘The rise and fall of Corbynism’, Robert Clough:
https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/britain/labourtrade-unions/6073-the-rise-and-fall-of-corbynism
FRFI 274, February / March 2020, ‘General election 2019: The legacy of Thatcherism’, Robert Clough: https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/britain/labourtrade-unions/5790-general-election-2019-the-legacy-of-thatcherism
