The points are tongue in cheek, but I do mean what I say above them – it was a very worthwhile conference and well done to the organizers. It was very tiresome to hear people making the same points (‘This stuff is not ‘revolutionary’ – revolutionary being whatever definition I am running with today- , so therefore it must be ‘reformism’ and reformism is a load of rubbish’).
This is not to say that Wright’s talk was above criticism. I had a very interesting discussion with a person who frequents these parts and they took issue with his notion that we should build a moral argument for socialism. The individual in question had several practical and philosophical objections to this. It would have made for an interesting question except that there were about ten querists ahead of them who wanted to lecture Prof. Wright on why the working class were going to seize power today right after the Liverpool match.
I did want to shout out at some of the interlocutors that, if their view of revolution precluded building structures, why were they at the Teacher’s Club having a debate rather than out throwing grenades or the like? Although, if the Tony Blair book launch/egg launch fiasco is anything to go by, the Trots could not hit the broad end of a barn.