RedFest 2026: Scotland's Marxist festival
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🎟️ tickets and more info: https://red.scot/
🗓️6-8 November 2026
📍QMU, Glasgow uni
🚩Hosted by the Socialist Workers Party
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:
- 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
🎨👶Free childcare: we run a free crèche with qualified carers during sessions. Advance registration is essential. To book a place, email [email protected] before Sunday 18 October.
🚌 Advice and support with transport & accommodation: you can find a cheap accommodation guide at red.scot
You can also email [email protected] to be put in touch with local organisers who can provide advice.
🗓️6-8 November 2026
📍QMU, Glasgow uni
🚩Hosted by the Socialist Workers Party
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:
- 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
🎨👶Free childcare: we run a free crèche with qualified carers during sessions. Advance registration is essential. To book a place, email [email protected] before Sunday 18 October.
🚌 Advice and support with transport & accommodation: you can find a cheap accommodation guide at red.scot
You can also email [email protected] to be put in touch with local organisers who can provide advice.
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Where is it happening?
Queen Margaret Union - QMU, 22 University Gardens,Glasgow, United Kingdom
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherRedFest, Scotland's anti-capitalist festival
