Classes and Reading Groups

MEP organizes political education in a number of formats, all geared to support you in your work, study and political engagement. Typically meeting weekly, we have reading groups, similar to topical book clubs. We also have focused study and classes, meeting weekly, twice a month or monthly, with recommended readings, questions for reflection, participant presentations, and special guests.

Join any of the selections here at any time.

Events

Today

  • Monthly Literature Group: ‘Tijuana Straits’

    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Reading Group

    The MEP Literature Group’s new monthly series meets on or about the last Saturday of each month. Our August selection is ‘Tijuana Straits’ by Kem Nunn, a noir fiction set along the US-Mexico border.

    Free

  • Adam Smith and ‘The Wealth of Nations’

    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Reading Group

    Read and discuss the works of Adam Smith in this ongoing study group. The group is currently reading Book 4 of Smith’s ‘The Wealth of Nations’. Smith’s notion of capital was important to Marx in the development of Marx’s understanding of capital, and Marx frequently quoted from Smith in his discussions in Capital and other writings.

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  • Marx’s Capital, Volume I – A Short Course on Capitalist Production

    Featured
    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Virtual Event
    Reading Group

    Have you always wanted to study Marx’s Capital, Vol 1, and hesitated because of the time commitment to read the entire volume from start to finish? Join us for a 12-week study group covering key sections of the book.

  • Antonio Gramsci Studies

    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Reading Group

    The ongoing 2026 Gramsci Study Sessions meet on Sundays at 11 am ET. We are reading and exploring ‘Selections from the Prison Notebooks’, ‘Selections from Cultural Writings’, ‘Selections from Political Writings’, and Gramsci’s writings on international politics, as they relate to contemporary issues and conflicts.

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  • Tenants march for "Our City, Our Homes"

    The Works of Henri Lefebvre: Four Lectures

    Featured
    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Virtual Event
    Reading Group

    We introduce the work of French Marxist theorist Henri Lefebvre through four monthly lectures presented by cultural studies scholar Iván Zatz-Díaz.

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  • Lev Vygotsky

    Historical-Materialist Psychology: Vygotsky’s Contribution

    Featured
    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Reading Group

    Carl Ratner presents a new edition of this six-week series, in which we explore Lev Vygotsky’s approach to historical-materialist culture. Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a dedicated academic Marxist who was active in efforts during the revolutionary period to develop socialist cultural institutions and social sciences. He said, “We must learn from Marx’s whole method how to build a science, how to approach the investigation of the mind.”

    Free

  • Topics in Political Strategy: End Times Fascism

    Featured
    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Virtual Event
    Reading Group

    As we head toward the US fall elections, the Topics in Political Strategy reading group will continue our mix of currently-published substantive analytical pieces and a monthly book-length treatment of important topics of political theory. Readings include ‘We Still Here’ by Marc Lamont Hill, and ‘The Nerd Reich’ by Gil Duran.

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  • Highlights of Capital Volume III: The Automatic Fetish

    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Virtual Event
    Reading Group

    A weekly study group on Marx’s Capital, Volume III, based on Beverley Best’s ‘The Automatic Fetish.’ Marx’s work integrates and completes his analysis of capital, enabling us to understand and make sense of how the phenomena we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the underlying system.

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  • Hegel for Radicals: On Art and Literature

    Featured
    Online Event – Zoom Meeting
    Reading Group

    Francis Fukuyama proclaimed The End of History in the 1990’s; art critic Arthur C. Danto proclaimed The End of Art in the 1960s. The genesis of both concepts are credited to Hegel. The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals resumes with a seminar on Hegel’s Lectures on Aesthetics, where we will study his understanding of art and literature.

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