The 20th century Italian revolutionary Marxist Antonio Gramsci defined a moment
of profound crisis as one in which “the old is dying” but the new cannot be
born”. In such situations, he said, “monsters”, or a great variety of morbid
symptoms appear”.
This is the main theme of RedFest 2026. Scotland’s largest annual left-wing
event, RedFest is a forum for socialists to debate collective responses to the
crises affecting people and planet, featuring book launches, workshops and
culture.
Gramsci was writing in the 1930s at the time of the greatest crisis of the
capitalist system ever. This was an epoch of social polarisation: of the rise of
fascism - but also of mass resistance and working class revolution.
The defeat of the left paved the way for the horrors of the Second World War and
the Holocaust.
Today, a new epoch of crisis has fuelled the collapse of the political centre
and polarisation right and left.
Why is the old dying, and what was the old’ anyway? How can ‘the new’ be born?
How do we fight today’s ‘monsters and all the ‘morbid symptoms’ of a system in
deep crisis?
Themes will include:
- How empires fall: the end of US hegemony?
- The political economy of Artificial Intelligence: will it save capitalism?
- Fascism, the far-right, Islamophobia & anti-fascist strategy
- Don’t turn the clock back, don’t tell us we ‘have it too good’: fighting for real liberation
- Taps aff today, pure baltic tomorrow: Marxism and the climate disaster
- ‘Gravediggers of capitalism’? The global working class today
- How revolutions happen - and how they can win
