This petition is in support of a student-led campaign at the University of Cambridge for the Faculty of Philosophy to keep the existing paper and lecture course on Marxism on its syllabus, against the Faculty's decision to reduce coverage of this and other radical philosophy papers such as Power by subsuming them all under a single third-year option, where they will receive drastically reduced or no coverage.  The students' petition, which is reproduced below, has been presented to the Faculty and been dismissed. 

Please add your NAME and AFFILIATION below if you are a current or former student or lecturer in philosophy or a related discipline AT ANY INSTITUTION and would like to show support for the students' demand for a balanced curriculum.  Please share widely. 

"We are given to understand that it has been suggested that a number of topics from throughout the syllabus - including 'Power' (IB), 'Marxism' (II) and 'Anarchism' (from the IA 'political obligation’ topic) - be subsumed under a single paper in part II.

 We are concerned that vastly reducing the non-liberal content of the syllabus in this way narrows the focus of the undergraduate philosophy course and reduces students' ability to discover where their true academic interests lie.

 Putting all of the radical political philosophy topics on one part II paper is likely to prevent students from studying all of these topics, since in practice it is not possible to prepare every topic on each paper, and it is rare for every topic on a paper to be lectured on. Given that both the Power and the Marxism lectures are extremely popular and well-attended, this decision certainly would not reflect the interests of students. Furthermore, if all of these topics are put in part II, students who may not wish to take Political Philosophy in part II are only offered a narrow view of political philosophy, as opposed to the varied and comprehensive introduction one might expect.

We are concerned in general that a variety of papers should be preserved throughout the philosophy syllabus. We understand that there are financial and staffing considerations, nonetheless we, as students, wish to express our interest in a variety of different philosophical subjects and traditions. Where possible, we ask that staff appointments reflect this variety of interests, including in non-analytic philosophy, to preserve papers such as part II Hegel and Nietzsche into the future.

Yours,

Concerned philosophy students:"

Part II:

1.Hannah Graham 
2.Zoe Cunliffe 
3.Oscar Addis 
4.Ben Adams 
5.Franklin Dawson 
6.Will Heilpern 
7.Bridey Addison-Child 
8.Vittoria Fallanca 
9.Christopher Lynch 
10.Ellen Judson 
11.Conor McMahon
12.Amy Provan

Part IB:

13.Lukas Fuchs
14.Thomas Saunders
15.Benedetta Maisano
16.Callum Rodgers
17.Connie Benjamin
18.Tom Harvey
19.Teresa Baron
20.Emily Dyson
21.Parris Sammut
22.Mattias Ahlgren
23.Manon De La Selle
24.Connor Seaton-Moorey
25.Rebecca Moore
26.Paul Almond
27.Charlotte Roderer
28.Dan Stanyon
29.Sylvie Craig
30.Liam Livesley
31.Jack Wearing
32.Tessa Standen
33.Francis Smallwood
34.Jasmine Walter
35.Matthew Bradley
36.Lauren Downing
37.Zoe Walker
38.Emma Rubery
39.Mirjam Goedkoop

Part IA:

40.Anna Lambert
41.Isaac Jarratt Barnham
42.Charlotte Owens
43.Eliot Watkins
44.Abby Wong
45.Jonathan Emery
46.Vashti Kashian-Smith
47.Bea Shepherd
49.Alexander Murphy
50.Lizzi Hawkins
51.Reuben Oreffo
52.Kate Emden
53.Mireille Evagora-Campbell
54.Jake Lewis
55.Ryan Young
56.Euan Godbold
57.Christopher Masterman
58.Husna Rizvi
59.James Adams
60.Millie Paine
61.Katharine Wiggell
62.Patrick Bradbury
63.Fergus Egan

Students associated with philosophy:

1.Amelia Horgan
2.Meera Somji (PPS Part IIB)
3.Greg Burke (Part IB Politics)
4.Dustan Rodriguez (Part II History)
5.Gladys Poon (IA Natural Science)
6.Cornelius Ram (MPhil Anthropology)
7.Danny M’Gratt (IIB Politics)
8.Dexter Chau (IA Mathematics)
9.Barney Mccay (IB Politics)
10.Leo Kellaway (IB Politics)
11.Jasmine Hackett (IB Linguistics)
12.Beth Smith (IB HSPS)
13.Jack Andrews (IB Psychology)
14.Ben Platt (IB Politics)