BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Marxist Education Project - ECPv6.18.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Marxist Education Project
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://marxedproject.net
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Marxist Education Project
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20270314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20271107T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20270314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20271107T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261017T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261017T153000
DTSTAMP:20260828T153822Z
CREATED:20260812T170005Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260828T153822Z
UID:10008411-1792245600-1792251000@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:'The Future of Revolution' with Jasper Bernes
DESCRIPTION:How might a twenty-first-century revolution against class society succeed? Join us for a conversation with Jasper Bernes\, author of The Future of Revolution: Communist Prospects from the Paris Commune to the George Floyd Uprising (Verso\, 2026). Communism comes from the future\, but its hopes haunt our past. Bernes reads the revolutionary history of workers’ councils and communes in the light of thinkers from Karl Marx to Paul Mattick and C.L.R. James. \n“In this extraordinary study into revolutionary histories and possibilities\, Jasper Bernes does not let his reader off lightly. He pushes us to think hard alongside him about the logics and activities of collective emancipation—in this task\, we couldn’t ask for a more brilliant guide than Bernes. We need this book now\, and will continue to need it long into the future.” —Natasha Lennard\, author of Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life \nJasper Bernes lives in Oakland and teaches in the English Department at the University of California\, Berkeley. A regular contributor to the Field Notes section of the Brooklyn Rail\, he is the author of The Work of Art in the Age of Deindustrialization and two books of poetry\, We Are Nothing and So Can You and Starsdown.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/future-of-revolution/
CATEGORIES:Anarchism,Bolshevism,Book Event or Panel,Book talks,Class,Classes/Events,communism,Fall 2026,featured,Italian history,Labor History,Marx,Organizing,Political Strategy,Revolutions,Rosa Luxemburg,Russian Revolution,Seminars and Talks,Syndicalism,Workers’ Inquiry
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/FutureRevnCover.webp
LOCATION:https://marxedproject.net/event/future-of-revolution/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261013T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261013T203000
DTSTAMP:20260927T143219Z
CREATED:20260927T143126Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260927T143219Z
UID:10008425-1791918000-1791923400@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Topics in Political Strategy: End Times Fascism
DESCRIPTION:Weekly on Tuesdays\, 7-9 pm ET\n \n“The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous\, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them” —Naomi Klein’s website. \nAs we sink deeper into the fall election season\, 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. This month\, we read Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s just published End Times Fascism\, a compelling look at three separate yet overlapping political currents of the modern right and how to stop them. \nWe study together to understand the wave of reaction which once again has washed over politics\, its reflection in both long historical currents and fast-changing global trends\, and ways to think strategically about new directions for the socialist left.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/topics-in-political-strategy-end-times-fascism/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Artificial Intelligence AI,Classes/Events,Fall 2026,Fascism,featured,Multi-session Classes,Political Strategy,Reading Group
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026-09-27_10-28-57.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Political Strategy Study Group":MAILTO:info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261011T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261011T173000
DTSTAMP:20261007T150254Z
CREATED:20260826T165920Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261007T150254Z
UID:10008415-1791734400-1791739800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Historical-Materialist Psychology: Vygotsky's Contribution
DESCRIPTION:Carl Ratner presents a new edition of this six-week series\, in which we seek to solve the riddle Marx posed in his first thesis on Feuerbach: “in contradistinction to materialism\, the active side [the subjective side of human behavior] was developed abstractly by idealism – which\, of course\, does not know real\, sensuous activity as such.” Exploring a materialist theory of subjectivity which does know sensuous activity\, we will see how historical materialism can be extended to reveal how it is compatible with psychology and how human psychology is itself a historical-materialist phenomenon. \nThe most sophisticated approach to historical-materialist psychology was developed by the Russian psychologist\, Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)\, who formulated a “cultural-historical psychological theory.” This was a comprehensive psychological theory that encompassed child development\, adolescence\, cognition\, perception\, personality/self. Read more… \nCarl Ratner went through college and graduate school in the 1960s. He was a professor of social psychology in the California State University system for 31 years. He adopted Vygotsky’s work when it was first translated in the 1980s\, writing extensively on Vygotsky and authoring the Preface to vol. 5 of his Collected Works. Ratner was one of the few followers of Vygotsky who emphasized his Marxist orientation and developed it. Ratner is the author of Macro Cultural Psychology: A Political Philosophy of Mind (Oxford\, 2012); his most recent book is Cultural Psychology\, Racism\, and Social Justice (Springer\, 2022). Carl has been active in the cooperative movement and served on the board of directors of California’s largest food coop in the 1970s and 80s. He lived in China from 1981-1983 and taught the first course on social psychology in Peking University since it had been banned after the Revolution.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/marxist-psychology-2/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Critical Theory,Fall 2026,featured,historical materialism,Intro to Marxism,Marx,Marxist Method,Multi-session Classes,Philosophy,Political Economy,Psychology,Reading Group,Science and Method
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/vygotsky.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261011T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261011T153000
DTSTAMP:20260922T160927Z
CREATED:20260826T183903Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T160927Z
UID:10008413-1791723600-1791732600@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:The Works of Henri Lefebvre: Four Lectures
DESCRIPTION:We introduce the work of French Marxist theorist Henri Lefebvre through four monthly lectures presented by cultural studies scholar Iván Zatz-Díaz. \nLecture 1—October 11\nMetaphilosophy: This introduction to Lefebvre’s work presents a framework to situate the overarching purpose of his thought as a form of political activism. Metaphilosophy sets an intent to move the act of thinking beyond itself and towards the living world\, beyond formal philosophy and sociology and towards the transformative. A brief look at Lefebvre’s work on Modernism\, Hegel\, Marx\, and Nietzsche will provide further context. \nLecture 2—November 15\nCritique of Everyday Life is Lefebvre’s overarching project from the immediate aftermath of WWII until his death in 1990. Volume 1 (1947) looks at Marx’s concept of alienation as a central explanation of life under capitalism. Volume 2 (1961) aims to set the path for a sociological analysis of late capitalist alienation. A brief account of his analysis of the French events of May-June 1968 will complete the presentation of this initial phase of the Critique. \nLecture 3—December 6\nThe Production of Space is Lefebvre’s best-known work in English and the reason he is often viewed reductively as an urban studies theorist\, especially in the United States. This presentation will approach the book rather as metaphilosophy\, highlighting its politically transformative intent. We will also address other Lefebvre writings on cities as an integral part of his look at everyday life. \nLecture 4—January 10\nCritique vol. 3 and Rhythmanalysis: In the last decade of his life\, Lefebvre returned to the Critique of Everyday Life in order to confront the imbrication of new technologies with the alienated life of latter-day capitalism. Rhythmanalysis\, his final work\, incorporates time into the analysis of everyday life\, particularly in the form of street rhythms seen from his window or observed in the spaces of Mediterranean cities. \nIván Zatz-Díaz is a retired Professor of Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute in New York City. He has been a resident of three cities: Mexico City (by birth and upbringing)\, New York City (for much more than half his life)\, and Madrid (for the past two years and counting).
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/four-lectures-lefebvre/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Alienation,Classes/Events,Critical Theory,Cultural Resistance,Fall 2026,featured,France,Hegel,historical materialism,Marx,Marxisms,Modernity,Multi-session Classes,Philosophy,Reading Group,Seminars and Talks,Urbanism
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/lefebvre1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261011T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261011T123000
DTSTAMP:20261007T150351Z
CREATED:20250116T185114Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261007T150351Z
UID:10008331-1791716400-1791721800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Antonio Gramsci Studies
DESCRIPTION:The ongoing Gramsci Study Sessions meet on Sundays at 11 am ET.\n \nAt present we are reading and exploring: \n\nSelections from the Prison Notebooks\nSelections from Cultural Writings\nSelections from Political Writings\nGramsci’s writings on international politics\, as they relate to contemporary issues and conflicts.\n\nParticipants may join in at any time. We share a vast archive of articles and secondary sources on Gramsci research and application of Gramsci’s approach to specific realities of our interest. \nPiruz Alemi\, PhD\, and Trudy Mercadal\, PhD\, facilitate this program. In addition\, all participants have the opportunity to lead discussions\, and we transcribe\, edit\, archive and share our discussion commentaries among the group. In effect\, we will collectively write on international issues of current interest\, applying Gramsci’s approach. \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/antonio-gramsci-studies-2026-sessions/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Classes/Events,Fall 2026,featured,Gramsci,Multi-session Classes,Political Strategy,Reading Group
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Gramsci2.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261010T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261010T153000
DTSTAMP:20260915T184451Z
CREATED:20260812T161948Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T184451Z
UID:10008410-1791640800-1791646200@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Refusal of Work: The Writings of Harry Cleaver
DESCRIPTION:Refuse work. Revolt against capitalism. Read Harry Cleaver. In that order. Repeat. \n(Postponed from September 20) \nJoin editors Robert Ovetz and Kevin Van Meter for a discussion of Points of Departure: Refusal of Work and the Crisis of Capitalism: The Collected Writings of Harry Cleaver\, a definitive collection of Harry Cleaver’s best unpublished\, translated\, or lesser known writings – both historical and current – on the refusal of work\, class composition\, and the “inversion of the class perspective.” The book puts essential theoretical weapons into the hands of a new generation of militant workers and organizers re-energizing the class struggle. In these essays\, Cleaver rereads Marx to advance our collective search for points of departure from capitalism\, so we can end it before it ends us. \nRobert Ovetz holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas–Austin and is a senior lecturer in Political Science at San José State University\, where his work focuses on academic labor organizing and the labor movement. He is the author of When Workers Shot Back\, We the Elites\, and the forthcoming Rebels for the System. He writes on labor for Dollars & Sense and other publications. \nKevin Van Meter holds a PhD in Geography\, Environment and Society from the University of Minnesota\, serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Labor and Society\, and is a union organizer and labor educator who writes on contemporary labor issues\, labor history\, and working-class self-organization. He is author of Guerrillas of Desire and the forthcoming Reading Struggles: Working-Class Self-Activity from Detroit to Turin and Back Again. His work has appeared in New Politics\, Notes from Below\, Dollars & Sense\, and other publications.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/writings-of-harry-cleaver/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Alienation,automation,Book Event or Panel,Book talks,Capital vs. Labor,Class,Classes/Events,communism,Fall 2026,featured,historical materialism,Insurgency,Labor History,Marx,Political Economy,Political Strategy,Precarity,Radical Literature,Seminars and Talks,Solidarity,Workers’ Inquiry
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2-PointsOfDeparture-cover.webp
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261004T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261004T153000
DTSTAMP:20260922T162223Z
CREATED:20260817T212508Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T162223Z
UID:10008418-1791122400-1791127800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Capitalism: The Insatiable Machine with Trevor Jackson
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a conversation with Trevor Jackson on his book The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Conquered the World. Today\, a vast majority of us live under the economic system called capitalism—it touches almost every aspect of our lives\, and most people alive have never known another. Yet a cursory look at the world around us reveals that things can’t stay this way forever: an economy built on infinite amassing and consumption of resources is at odds with a finite planet. How did this happen? As Jackson argues in this powerful book\, It wasn’t always capitalism\, it didn’t have to be capitalism\, and capitalism didn’t have to be this way. \nWith a firm grasp on history and economics and a keen eye for the telling anecdote\, Jackson explains where capitalism came from\, how it spread across the globe\, and how it came to be the dominant way of organizing life. He traces capitalism’s development from the accidental construction of an international monetary system to the creation of banking\, the emergence of a new form of slavery in the eighteenth century\, fossil-fuel industrialization\, and finally the global capitalist system spread by imperialism in the nineteenth century. Along the way\, readers learn about the surprising role of Chinese mulberry trees\, Dutch cheese\, whale blubber\, imperial gin and tonics\, Spanish conquistadors\, Mexican mine workers\, and English bankers in the history and development of capitalism. \nFull of memorable characters and lively vignettes as well as sweeping quantitative analysis and historical synthesis\, The Insatiable Machine makes clear that capitalism is neither a natural\, permanent\, nor inevitable feature of human life but rather an economic system that has a history. And just as it was made by people\, it can also be unmade by them.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/insatiable-machine/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Accumulation of Capital,Asia,Book Event or Panel,Book talks,British Imperialism,Capital Studies,Classes/Events,Fall 2026,featured,Globalization,historical materialism,History,Imperialism,Modernity,Money,Political Economy,Slavery,US History,Working Class History
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/InsatiableMachine-cover-1.webp
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260829T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260829T160000
DTSTAMP:20260927T181720Z
CREATED:20260121T174211Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260927T181720Z
UID:10008389-1788012000-1788019200@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Monthly Literature Group: 'Tijuana Straits'
DESCRIPTION:Monthly sessions\, on or about the last Saturday of each month \nThe MEP Literature Group continues its summer noir tradition with a dark beach read. Tijuana Straits by Kem Nunn is the story of how an ex-con\, Fahey\, a former champion surfer and now a worm farmer\, finds redemption. After saving a Mexican environmental activist\, Magdalena\, from a wild-dog attack\, he joins her in a confrontation against cartels profiting from toxic dumping in the border region between the United States and Mexico\, polluting not only the Pacific Ocean\, but the shanty towns of maquiladora workers. Nunn’s writing style recalls the cadences of his childhood within an evangelical church and the pacing of successful television script writing. \nReview our previous selections here. \nConvened by Jacqueline Cantwell and the MEP Literature Group. Jacqueline became involved with the MEP’s Literature Group because of her love of Victor Serge’s novels. Participating in an MEP reading group led by Serge translator Richard Greeman eight years ago\, Jacqueline found a community of readers eager to be challenged by the ambitions of international writers devoted to the creative potential of political fiction. Since the death of Michael Lardner\, who hosted and organized the Literature Group for so many years\, Jacqueline has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/monthly-literature-group/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Classes/Events,Fall 2026,featured,Literature,Multi-session Classes,Reading Group
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/TijuanaStraits-cover.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="MEP Literature Group":MAILTO:info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260803T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260803T200000
DTSTAMP:20260728T170340Z
CREATED:20260429T154838Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260728T170340Z
UID:10008404-1785781800-1785787200@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:A People's Guide to Capitalism
DESCRIPTION:Summer introductory sessions on the political economy of capitalism\nIn ten weekly sessions we are reading and discussing Hadas Thier’s A People’s Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics. This work offers a lively\, accessible\, and timely guide for those who want to understand\, dismantle\, and replace the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote capitalism as the greatest and most efficient economic and political system ever to grace the planet. Despite the efforts of mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise\, growing numbers have begun to question why this system has produced vast inequality\, recurring war\, and wanton disregard for the destruction of our planet. Hadas Thier’s book develops answers to these questions\, grounded in  key concepts from Marx’s Capital and related works. \n“A People’s Guide to Capitalism is a breath of fresh air on the left. Avoiding the obscure jargon of economics\, Hadas Thier provides a rich\, accessible introduction to how capitalism works. Ranging from exploitation at work to the operations of modern finance\, this book takes the reader through a fine-tuned introduction to Marx’s analysis of the modern economy. Along the way\, Thier combines theoretical explanation with contemporary examples to illuminate the inner workings of capitalism. In addition\, A People’s Guide to Capitalism reminds us of the urgent need for alternatives to a crisis-ridden system.” —David McNally \nFacilitated by Fred Murphy. Fred has led numerous MEP study groups on Marx’s Capital\, political economy\, ecosocialism\, science and technology\, history\, and Latin American politics. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. \nRegistration for this study group is now closed.\nFor information contact info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/peoples-guide-to-capitalism-2026/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:_Seasons,Accumulation of Capital,automation,Capital Studies,Classes/Events,Crisis,featured,Globalization,historical materialism,History,Imperialism,Intro to Marxism,Labor Process,Marx,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Money,Multi-session Classes,Neoliberal Authoritarianism,Political Economy,Reading Group,Social Reproduction,Spring 2026,Summer 2026
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/capitalism.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260714T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260714T203000
DTSTAMP:20260705T172349Z
CREATED:20260617T165410Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260705T172349Z
UID:10008409-1784055600-1784061000@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Muskism\, Global Trends\, and Political Strategy Today
DESCRIPTION:Tuesdays\, 7-9 pm ET Beginning July 14\n \nFor July\, read Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed with the Strategic Studies reading group. Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff offer us much more than an assessment of the person of Musk. And they assess his business ventures and forays into government and politics only to go further. They invite us to consider what the new technology- and artificial intelligence-driven industries and the growing concentration of wealth and power mean for capitalism\, for the world’s peoples\, and for political struggles ahead. \nTo aid in this discussion\, we will make available and mix in recently published and forthcoming texts from wide sources\, ranging from Pope Leo’s Encyclical on artificial intelligence to strategies for the “Third Reconstruction.” Participants have access to our community chat and our regularly updated study guide. \nWe study together to understand the wave of reaction which once again has washed over politics\, its reflection in both long historical currents and fast-changing global trends\, and ways to think strategically about advancing in new directions for the socialist left.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/muskism-and-political-challenges-today/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Artificial Intelligence AI,Classes/Events,featured,Gramsci,Multi-session Classes,Political Strategy,Reading Group,Summer 2026
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/9780241805114-jacket-large.jpeg
ORGANIZER;CN="Political Strategy Study Group":MAILTO:info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260711T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260711T153000
DTSTAMP:20260618T153906Z
CREATED:20260616T152445Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260618T153906Z
UID:10008407-1783778400-1783783800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Porn\, Gambling\, and the American Psyche with Dennis Broe
DESCRIPTION:Novelist and film critic Dennis Broe takes a critical look at the pornography and gambling industries – the new bread and circuses\, only without the bread. \nWith the American empire in decline and with working and living conditions worsening for most American workers as prices rise\, wages stagnate and AI comes for their jobs\, these twin “vices” are on offer as diversions. Both have penetrated deeply into US society and have reached astronomical levels of profit. Porn is now four times more profitable than the Hollywood film industry\, though the two have a symbiotic relationship. Likewise\, sports betting is now ubiquitous as many states have thrown off legal restraints and online betting houses like Kalshi and Polymarket are flourishing. Even the Financial Times now quotes Polymarket\, rather than pollsters\, as a predictive service. While these modes of exploitation mainly target the working class\, they also have upper-class expressions\, from the Epstein scandals to insider manipulation of the stock market by figures in and around the Trump regime. \nDennis will address the alure of porn and gambling\, the addictive quality of both\, the ways they intersect with the American family structure\, and how workers in these industries are resisting their bosses and in some cases have formed or joined trade unions. \nDennis Broe is a journalist\, critic and novelist who has taught at the Sorbonne and spoken at numerous MEP events. The latest of his six Harry Palmer novels is Pornocopia\, featuring the porn and gambling industries in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the confluence of financial capital\, the mob\, and the state.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/porn-gambling/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:_Seasons,Alienation,Capital vs. Labor,Class and Gender,Cultural Resistance,featured,Film and television,Labor Organizing,Literature,Media Criticism,Political Economy,Present Moment,Seminars and Talks,Summer 2026
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/vegas-skyline.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260627T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260627T160000
DTSTAMP:20260712T224810Z
CREATED:20260526T130209Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260712T224810Z
UID:10008406-1782568800-1782576000@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Late-Stage Capitalism? Accumulation in the Ruins
DESCRIPTION:A video of this June 27\, 2026\, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. \nA panel celebrating the 2026 edition of Socialist Register \nThe newly published 2026 volume of Socialist Register – entitled “Late-Stage Capitalism? Accumulation in the Ruins” – interrogates anew the notion that global capitalism is in its end time (a recurring theme among Marxists since 1848). At the heart of this concept are indications that capital accumulation is running up against some inherent limits. just as the hucksters of private capital are crowing that so-called Artificial Intelligence will usher in a capitalist utopia of unlimited prosperity (for whom?). Socialists warn the world’s working classes to prepare instead for a late-capitalist dystopia\, characterized by irreversible damage to the natural environment\, wars brought on by new modes of global competition among capitals\, and the inevitable squeeze on capitalist profits and human labor if robotic production alters the organic composition of capital to the extent predicted by the AI boosters. Based on their essays in the 2026 Socialist Register\, our panelists speak to the utility of the concept of “late-stage capitalism\,” both for understanding contemporary political economy and for devising strategies for the working class to defend itself and advance a universalist vision of human emancipation. \nPanelists: Michael Roberts\, “Capitalism in the 2020s and Beyond”; Alfredo Saad-Filho\, “The Rise of Neoliberal Fascism and the Challenges for the Left”; and Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno\, “Profitable Immiseration: Finance Capital at the End of the World.” Invited commentator: Catarina Principe\, a political activist from Portugal\, a co-editor of Europe in Revolt\, and a contributing editor of Jacobin magazine.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/socialist-register-2026/
LOCATION:Recording available on YouTube
CATEGORIES:Accumulation of Capital,Artificial Intelligence AI,Capital Studies,Class,Crisis,Fascism,featured,Financialization,Globalization,History,Imperialism,Marxist Method,Money,Neo-fascism,Neoliberal Authoritarianism,Panel Discussion,Political Economy,Political Strategy,Present Moment,Seminars and Talks,Socialist Register,Summer 2026,Transition from Capitalism,Video Available,War
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/cover_issue_3016_en_US.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260621T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260621T153000
DTSTAMP:20260502T153056Z
CREATED:20260502T153056Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260502T153056Z
UID:10008405-1782050400-1782055800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Marx and the Body with Søren Mau
DESCRIPTION:In this talk\, Søren Mau will argue that Marx’s writings on the body have been underestimated and that a critical reconstruction of his analysis contains the basis for a theory of the corporeal roots of historicity and freedom. Throughout the history of Western thought\, the body has often been overlooked\, devalued\, or treated with mistrust and hostility. The failure to fully acknowledge human corporeality and its entanglement with the rest of nature is deeply connected to contemporary ecological crises\, and has since the 1980s been subjected to a thorough-going critique by scholars across the humanities and social sciences. Mau argues that the body occupies a central place in Marx’s thought\, and that a critical reconstruction of his dialectical understanding of the relationship between humans and the rest of nature and his concepts of corporeal organization\, labor\, tools and metabolism provides a foundation for an eco-Marxist theory of human nature and the corporeal roots of human historicity and freedom. \nThis talk is based on Søren Mau’s article “Karl Marx and the Body: Towards an Eco-Marxist Philosophical Anthropology” in Body & Society 32(1). \nSøren Mau is a political philosopher and the author of Mute Compulsion: A Marxist Theory of the Economic Power of Capital (Verso Books\, 2023). His work centers on critical theories of capitalism\, power\, ecology\, the body\, technology\, human nature\, and utopian thought\, with the central theme of freedom: its nature and sources\, the political and economic barriers to its realization under contemporary capitalism\, and its potential forms in a post-capitalist world.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/marx-and-the-body/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Class and Gender,Critical Theory,Ecosocialism,featured,historical materialism,Marx,Political Economy,Seminars and Talks,Summer 2026,Women
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/tamayo2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260616T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260616T203000
DTSTAMP:20260610T165940Z
CREATED:20260206T191344Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260610T165940Z
UID:10008392-1781636400-1781641800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Topics in Strategic Studies - Spring 2026 Series
DESCRIPTION:Tuesdays\, 7-9 pm ET\n \nJoin us for a new format for the “Historical Roots…” study\, reworked for 2026 as Topics in Strategic Studies. We will select and read one significant book of political theory or history a month\, focused on understanding the stresses and directions for change in the present moment. Each week\, we will invite one of us or a guest to present a current topic along with optional readings. This new format will enable us to dig into breakthrough studies and analyses while also ensuring continuing new and lively discussions on topics of interest. \nThis month\, we are reading The Choice of Civil War: Neoliberal Strategy and the Politics of the Enemy by Pierre Dardot et al. Alberto Toscano calls this work “a trenchant and provocative study of the symbolic\, legal and material violence that has been deployed over the past half-century to secure the rule of capital across the planet. The Choice of Civil War breaks with antiseptic images of neoliberalism as the production of docile subjects or the marketization of everyday life\, revealing it as the theory and practice of class warfare.” \nAs we confirm additional readings for the spring and summer\, we will add them to a new syllabus which you can request\, while continuing to update our long-term bibliography of supplementary readings.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/political-strategy/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Classes/Events,featured,Multi-session Classes,Political Strategy,Reading Group,Spring 2026
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/choice-of-civil-war.webp
ORGANIZER;CN="Political Strategy Study Group":MAILTO:info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260615T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260615T183000
DTSTAMP:20260608T220609Z
CREATED:20260312T002003Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260608T220609Z
UID:10008395-1781542800-1781548200@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Reading Science Fiction and Speculative Literature Politically - Spring 2026 Edition
DESCRIPTION:Alternate Mondays\, next on June 15\, 5-6:30 pm ET \nMEP’s alternative literature group begins a new series of novels\, short fiction and non-fiction. Speculative fiction\, reborn from traditional science fiction\, and also known by its alter ego “visionary fiction” and other identities\, including horror\, more than ever offers space for exploration of class\, race\, gender\, freedom struggles and authoritarian repression. Join with us to sample the best of this socially conscious and political literature. We read it to envision the futures we seek and empower our commitments\, enliven our reflection\, and energize our communities. \nIn May\, we read:\nWe Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest\, Resistance\, and Hope\, edited by Malka Older\, Annalee Newitz and Karen Lord \nOther Spring readings have been:\nThe Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist\, Emile Habibi\n“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience\,” Rebecca Roanhorse\n“Delhi\,” Vandana Singh\nShikasta\, Recolonized Planet 5\, Doris Lessing \n\nConvened by the Science and Speculative Fiction Reading Group.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/speculative-fiction-politically-spring-2026/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:_Seasons,American Literature,Class and Gender,Cultural Resistance,Dystopian literature,featured,Literary Studies,Literature,Multi-session Classes,Radical Literature,Reading Group,Science Fiction,Speculative fiction,Spring 2026,Visionary Fiction,Visionary Fiction,Women
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/we-will-rise-again-9781668095959_lg-1.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="S Backman":MAILTO:jpchiworks@gmail.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260607T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260607T160000
DTSTAMP:20260515T145655Z
CREATED:20260429T163607Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260515T145655Z
UID:10008398-1780840800-1780848000@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Approaching the Limit: Panel 2\, Extremities
DESCRIPTION:Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture\nBoundary\, border\, threshold\, edge—to approach the limit is to look beyond the familiar landmarks of cultural studies. From geographical borders to epistemological categories\, limits and edges initiate the dialectical moment of thought\, overturning or transcending the axioms and foundations from which it has sprung. Setting limits to the working day (minimums\, then maximums) or to wages (maximums\, then minimums\, as Marx describes in Capital‘s chapters on primitive accumulation’s legislative efforts) are only the tip of the iceberg. So where do we experience the limits—or limitlessness—of our worlds? \nIn two linked panels\, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture explores the limits and limitations of our world—sensory\, spatial\, temporal\, social\, cultural\, political. In their geographical and methodological variety\, our papers collectively map out the terrain of this keyword\, and seek to determine the bounds\, so to speak\, of studying\, theorizing and making culture at the limit. \nIn this our second panel we question the socio-spatial manifestations of the limit and its political and property avatars: the border the boundary\, and the zone. Across these contributions\, to think at the extremity is to reevaluate the whole\, querying how limits animate entire systems of thought and distinction. (Panel 1 details here) \nNathaniel LaCelle-Peterson examines the function of infrastructure in the thought of Louis Althusser\, where it appears as substitute for “base” as the opposing category of “superstructure” in his structuralist articulation of the mode of production. Alan J. Alaniz analyzes the built and unbuilt architectural projects of the midcentury Mexico-United States borderlands to illuminate the spatial consequences of geopolitics at the international divide.  Madeleine Han examines the role of contemporary art in the transformation of Korea’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)—a geographical and imagined ‘limit’ marked by dreams of deferred reunification—into a visitation site. Javier Porras Madero explores how combined and uneven development along the Mexico-Guatemala borderlands produced newly alienated subjects who became the central social components of twentieth-century nationalisms. \nThe Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture is an interdisciplinary cultural studies research group that has been practicing at Yale University since 2003 Over the years\, we have presented our collective work at Crossroads in Cultural Studies the Irish Association for American Studies\, the Cultural Studies Association\, Historical Materialism\, the Marxist Education Project\, and the World Social Forum. Past projects have appeared as “Going into Debt\,” online in Social Text’s Periscope\, and as “Space and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology; a collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” was published in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. Nathaniel LaCelle-Peterson is a doctoral researcher in Film & Media Studies and Comparative Literature at Yale University. Alan J. Alaniz is a doctoral researcher in the Yale School of Architecture. Madeleine Han is a doctoral researcher in the Yale American Studies program. Javier Porras Madero is a doctoral researcher in the history department at Yale University.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/yale-wggc-extremities/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Book Event or Panel,Critical Theory,Cultural Resistance,featured,Globalization,historical materialism,History,Immigration,Latin America,Modernity,Panel Discussion,Political Economy,Present Moment,Race and Class,Seminars and Talks,Spring 2026
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/YaleWGGC-Panel2a.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260606T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260606T160000
DTSTAMP:20260515T145511Z
CREATED:20260429T191328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260515T145511Z
UID:10008397-1780754400-1780761600@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Approaching the Limit: Panel 1\, Thresholds
DESCRIPTION:Panel Presentation by the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture\nBoundary\, border\, threshold\, edge—to approach the limit is to look beyond the familiar landmarks of cultural studies. From geographical borders to epistemological categories\, limits and edges initiate the dialectical moment of thought\, overturning or transcending the axioms and foundations from which it has sprung. Setting limits to the working day (minimums\, then maximums) or to wages (maximums\, then minimums\, as Marx describes in Capital‘s chapters on primitive accumulation’s legislative efforts) are only the tip of the iceberg. So where do we experience the limits—or limitlessness—of our worlds? \nIn two linked panels\, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture explores the limits and limitations of our world—sensory\, spatial\, temporal\, social\, cultural\, political. In their geographical and methodological variety\, our papers collectively map out the terrain of this keyword\, and seek to determine the bounds\, so to speak\, of studying\, theorizing and making culture at the limit. \nThe first panel\, Thresholds: Limit Cases\,  takes on the exceptions that determine the rule. These limit cases of sound\, shock\, spirit\, and symbol problematize and contest the generic and ideological frames they operate within. Probing the thresholds of perception\, we address experience that re-taxonomizes the social and sensorial order. (Panel 2 details here) \nSuvij Sudershan asks why the qawwal (a traditional Sufi devotional form that often puts written poetry to music) came to enjoy uniquely prominent position within the global meta-genre of “World Music”? Michelle Chow explores Asian/American transnational ecopoetics\, an the literary\, philosophic\, cultural\, and botanical attempts to contend with the post-nuclear environment\, by centering around one tree\, the gingko. Jane Zhang links the origins of the first aid kit in railway surgery to the broader exchange between emergency protocol and industrial management. Michael Denning takes up Fredric Jameson’s challenge to “political” readings of Marx in the context of recent “republican” re-readings of the political dimension of “Citizen Marx\,” reconsidering the limits of and barriers to\, the political. And Sam Levin charts the shifting limits of belonging on the global far right as it coalesced in the last quarter of the 20th century. \nThe Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture is an interdisciplinary cultural studies research group that has been practicing at Yale University since 2003 Over the years\, we have presented our collective work at Crossroads in Cultural Studies the Irish Association for American Studies\, the Cultural Studies Association\, Historical Materialism\, the Marxist Education Project\, and the World Social Forum. Past projects have appeared as “Going into Debt\,” online in Social Text’s Periscope\, and as “Space and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology. A collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” was published in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. Suvij Sudershan is a doctoral researcher at Yale’s Department of English. His dissertation is on the representation of ground-rent and class-formation in 19th and early-20th century novels from Ireland\, England\, India\, and South Africa. Michelle Chow is a doctoral researcher in Yale’s English Literature and Film & Media Studies program\, and a Graduate Fellow of Yale’s Center for the Study of Race Indigeneity\, & Transnational Migration (RITM). Jane Zhang is a doctoral researcher in Yale’s Combined Program in Comparative Literature and Film & Media Studies. Her research focuses on the intersecting histories of popular literature and vernacular medicine from the 19th century onwards. Michael Denning teaches cultural studies in the American Studies program at Yale University; among his books are Culture in the Age of Three Worlds and Noise Uprising. The Twofold Labors of Marx is forthcoming from Verso. Sam Levin is a doctoral researcher in the American studies program at Yale University. He studies religion and the global far right in the 20th century.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/yale-wggc-thresholds/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Book Event or Panel,Critical Theory,Cultural Resistance,featured,Globalization,historical materialism,History,Marx,Media Criticism,Modernity,Panel Discussion,Political Strategy,Republicanism,Seminars and Talks,Spring 2026
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/WGGC-Image1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260502T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260502T153000
DTSTAMP:20260502T223333Z
CREATED:20260403T142245Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260502T223333Z
UID:10008396-1777730400-1777735800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:'Black History Is for Everyone' with Brian Jones
DESCRIPTION:A video of this May 2\, 2026\, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. \nLongtime educator Brian Jones explores how the study of Black history challenges our understanding of race\, nation\, and the stories we tell about who we are. In Black History Is for Everyone\, Jones offers a meditation on the power of Black history\, using his own experiences as a lifelong learner and classroom teacher to question everything — from the radicalism of the American Revolution to the meaning of “race” and “nation.” With warmth and immersive storytelling\, Jones encourages us to delve deeper into our collective history\, explores how curiosity about our world is essential—and reminds us that with stakes so high\, the effort is worth it. \nBrian Jones has taught many ages and grades in New York City’s public schools and the City University of New York. He served as the inaugural director of the Center for Educators and Schools at the New York Public Library and was the associate director of education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The author of The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History\, his writing has also appeared in The New York Times\, the Guardian\, and Jacobin.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/black-history-jones/
LOCATION:See link above to watch the recording on YouTube
CATEGORIES:Africa,African American History,Book Event or Panel,Book talks,Civil War,Colonialism,Du Bois,featured,History,Labor History,Race and Class,Spring 2026,US History,Working Class History
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/JonesBlackHistory-WebImage.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260208T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260208T173000
DTSTAMP:20260202T145354Z
CREATED:20251119T160315Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260202T145354Z
UID:10008383-1770566400-1770571800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Marxist Psychology: Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Theory
DESCRIPTION:A six-week workshop with Carl Ratner\, in which we will seek to solve the riddle Marx posed in his first thesis on Feuerbach: “in contradistinction to materialism\, the active side [the subjective side of human behavior] was developed abstractly by idealism – which\, of course\, does not know real\, sensuous activity as such.” Exploring a materialist theory of subjectivity which does know sensuous activity\, we will see how historical materialism can be extended to reveal how it is compatible with psychology and how human psychology is itself a historical-materialist phenomenon. \nBridging political economy and psychology\, we will review Marx’s writings on the structure of social systems that encompass cultural emergents such as religion. As emphasized by Wendy Brown in her Foreword to the Reitter-North translation of Capital\, “Marx developed an understanding of political economy as the distinctive mode through which we build entire worlds through our singular cooperative powers—transforming nature\, elaborating divisions of labor and organizations of ownership\, producing wealth\, creating ways of life\, institutions\, social forms\, subjects\, and subjectivities… Capital brings into being not only particular kinds of markets\, technologies\, and industries\, but classes\, families\, and political structures; race and gender orders; relations with ‘nature’; new formations of space and time; and legal codes and conflicts.” \nTurning to the field of cultural psychology\, we will explore how cultural forms stimulate and organize human psychology. Here we will focus on the work of the Russian psychologist\, Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)\, who formulated a “cultural-historical psychological theory.” Vygotsky was a dedicated Marxist who was active in efforts during the revolutionary period to develop socialist cultural institutions and social sciences. Vygotsky said\, “We must learn from Marx’s whole method how to build a science\, how to approach the investigation of the mind.” Read more… \nCarl Ratner went through college and graduate school in the 1960s. He was a professor of social psychology in the California State University system for 31 years. He adopted Vygotsky’s work when it was first translated in the 1980s\, writing extensively on Vygotsky and authoring the Preface to vol. 5 of his Collected Works. Ratner was one of the few followers of Vygotsky who emphasized his Marxist orientation and developed it. Ratner is the author of Macro Cultural Psychology: A Political Philosophy of Mind (Oxford\, 2012); his most recent book is Cultural Psychology\, Racism\, and Social Justice (Springer\, 2022). Carl has been active in the cooperative movement and served on the board of directors of California’s largest food coop in the 1970s and 80s. He lived in China from 1981-1983 and taught the first course on social psychology in Peking University since it had been banned after the Revolution. \nRegistration for this series is now closed.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/marxist-psychology-ratner/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Critical Theory,featured,historical materialism,Intro to Marxism,Marx,Marxist Method,Multi-session Classes,Philosophy,Political Economy,Psychology,Reading Group,Science and Method,Winter 2026
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251217T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251217T203000
DTSTAMP:20251224T170853Z
CREATED:20251117T153043Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251224T170853Z
UID:10008382-1765998000-1766003400@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Hegel\, Marx\, and Capital
DESCRIPTION:A video of this December 17\, 2025 event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. \nAndy Blunden presents insights from two new books on Marx’s use of Hegel’s Logic in the writing of Capital. The Capital/Logic Debate offers a critique of the discourse around the relation between the two thinkers. Previous writers have looked for homologies between the Logic and Capital\, despite the fact that the Logic has no definite content\, while any positive science\, political economy included\, does have definite content originating from some problem or phenomenon with its own logic. In Marx’s Capital: Hegelian Sources\, Blunden explores the three-layered structure of Capital\, where each layer has a basis in Hegel. The distinct ethical strata of Capital – bourgeois society\, productive capitalism\, and finance capital –  parallel Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Marx applies a Hegelian syllogism in which the immediate production of capital (volume 1) and the circulation of capital (volume 2) combine to yield capitalist production as a whole (volume 3). These two synthetic processes are built on 15 “units” – unique products of analysis\, as detailed in the penultimate chapter of Hegel’s Logic\, “The Idea of Cognition.” \nAndy Blunden has long been active on the Left as an activist and educator. Since the early 2000s he has been Secretary of the Marxists Internet Archive (marxists.org). Andy has presented courses on Activity Theory\, Marx and Hegel at summer schools at Melbourne University. currently retired from waged work\, he has worked as a teacher\, a technician\, or an engineer\, and has been an active trade unionist throughout. Among his other books are Hegel for Social Movements; Hegel\, Marx\, and Vygotsky; and Concepts: A Critical Approach. All are available from Haymarket Books.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/hegel-marx-blunden/
LOCATION:Recording available on YouTube
CATEGORIES:Capital Studies,Critical Theory,Fall 2025,featured,Hegel,historical materialism,Marx,Marx and Hegel,Marx's Capital,Philosophy,Political Economy,Science and Method,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/HegelMarx.jpeg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251216T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251216T133000
DTSTAMP:20251212T184309Z
CREATED:20251023T193359Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251212T184309Z
UID:10008377-1765886400-1765891800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Animals and Capitalism: Metabolic Labor
DESCRIPTION:Final session\, December 16 \nA study group on nonhuman animals’ relationship with capital as living\, breathing\, “commodified” beings. What differentiates nonhuman animals from non-living commodified objects is the way their metabolic and reproductive capacities are harnessed in production. A vibrant discourse is currently emerging around the question of nonhuman labor and the ways in which non-waged forms of labor contribute to value accumulation under capitalism. In this study group\, we will focus on how metabolic labor has been theorized in feminist studies and contemporary Marxist environmental and animal studies\, with a specific focus on the particular function of nonhuman animals for capitalism. We will consider how harnessing and enhancing the metabolic labor of nonhuman animals is connected to fields such as waste management\, biomedical research\, big data\, and the reproduction of the human labor force. \nConvened by Gizem Haspolat and Terike Haapoja. Gizem holds a PhD in Anthropology and specializes in critical animal studies\, animal geographies\, and human-nonhuman animal relations. In her dissertation research\, she explored live animal trade as a site that intensifies the translations between ‘animal’ and capital\, through an investigation of live cattle imports in Turkey. Her current research project examines the application of ‘smart’ technologies and artificial intelligence in industrial agricultural settings. Terike is a visual artist based in Berlin. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations\, videos\, writings\, and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world. Her current research on animal labor and multispecies anticapitalist struggle\, with an extensive open bibliography\, can be found on animalcapitalism.org.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/metabolic-labor/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Agribusiness,Animals and Capital,Capital Studies,Fall 2025,featured,Labor Process,Marxisms,Multi-session Classes,Science and Technology,Social Reproduction
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/pigs-piglets.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251129T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251129T160000
DTSTAMP:20251130T213211Z
CREATED:20251025T171850Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251130T213211Z
UID:10008378-1764424800-1764432000@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Slavery and Capitalism: A Book Talk by David McNally
DESCRIPTION:A video of this November 29\, 2025\, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. \nA book talk by David McNally on Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History. McNally injects new life into Karl Marx’s writings on enslavement and labor\, presenting a new\, systematic Marxist account of the capitalist character of Atlantic slavery—using colonial travel literature\, planter records and diaries\, and slave narratives—to support the provocative claim that enslaved labor in the plantation system is a form of capitalist commodity production. Weaving together history\, political economy\, and radical abolitionism\, McNally demonstrates that plantation slaves formed a modern working class and highlights the self-activity of enslaved people fighting for their freedom. He reframes their resistance as labor struggles over production and reproduction\, with significant implications for US and Atlantic history and for understanding the roots of racial capitalism. \n“David McNally’s deft application of Marx’s theory and method not only unearths the hidden dynamics of slavery’s political economy but radically broadens our understanding of modern capitalism and its class struggles. The result: a new history of slavery that centers the enslaved—the chattel proletariat—not as ‘constant capital’ or fungible cogs in the machine but as its gravediggers.”—Robin D. G. Kelley\, author of Race Rebels: Culture\, Politics\, and the Black Working Class \nDavid McNally is the author of many works of Marxist analysis and history\, including Blood and Money: War\, Slavery\, Finance and Empire; Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance; and Monsters of the Market: Zombies\, Vampires and Global Capitalism. David is Cullen Distinguished Professor of History and Business at the University of Houston (UH) and Director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism. Earlier he taught political economy at York University Toronto for over thirty years. David is the editor-in-chief of Spectre\, a biannual and online journal of Marxist theory\, strategy\, and analysis. \nJoin our five-week reading group on Slavery and Capitalism starting December 1.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/mcnally-slavery-capitalism/
LOCATION:Recording available on YouTube
CATEGORIES:African American History,Anti-colonialism,British Imperialism,Capital vs. Labor,Caribbean Studies,Colonialism,Du Bois,Emancipation,Fall 2025,featured,historical materialism,History,Labor History,Marx,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Race and Class,Seminars and Talks,Slavery
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/McNallySlavery_WebBanner.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251101T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251101T153000
DTSTAMP:20251103T183706Z
CREATED:20251008T150407Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251103T183706Z
UID:10008376-1762005600-1762011000@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary\, with Mitchell Abidor
DESCRIPTION:A video of this November 1\, 2025\, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. \nMitchell Abidor\, author of Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary presents the book in conversation with Jacob Plitman\, former publisher of Jewish Currents. \nToday\, thanks to his classic memoirs and novels\, Victor Serge is highly esteemed by virtually all segments of the left. But who was this man\, who led such a thrilling life on the frontlines of history? An anarchist? A Bolshevik? A Trotskyist? Or did he evolve into something else entirely? In this comprehensive account of Serge’s life\, work\, and political evolution\, Mitchell Abidor rescues his subject\, in all his complexity\, from the constraints of any single label. Painting a portrait of a man whose political ideas shifted continually in response to the major events of his life\, we are introduced to several Victor Serges: the youthful anarchist in Belgium and France; the leading Bolshevik in Moscow; the anti-Stalinist who faced imprisonment and expulsion from the Soviet Union. Examining the lacunae and errors of fact in his memoirs\, Abidor reveals the hidden Serge for what he ultimately was: an unruly revolutionary of both great courage and contradictions. \nMitchell Abidor is a writer and translator living in Brooklyn\, New York. In addition to his many translation works\, he is the author of May Made Me and I’ll Forget It When I Die!: The Bisbee Deportation of 1917. Abidor is the translator and editor of Victor Serge’s anarchist writings\, Anarchists Never Surrender\, and translated with Richard Greeman Serge’s Notebooks (1936-1947). \nA 30% discount code for Victor Serge and other Pluto Press books by Mitchell Abidor will be provided to all ticket purchasers.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/serge-unruly-revolutionary/
LOCATION:Recording available on YouTube
CATEGORIES:Anarchism,Anti-capitalist Literature,Anti-fascism,Art and politics,Bolshevism,Book talks,communism,Fall 2025,featured,France,History,Literature,Marxisms,Poetry,Radical Literature,Russia,Russian Revolution,Seminars and Talks,Video Available,War,Working Class History
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251026T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251026T160000
DTSTAMP:20251028T134216Z
CREATED:20250827T165124Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251028T134216Z
UID:10008360-1761487200-1761494400@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Karl Marx in America with Andrew Hartman
DESCRIPTION:A video of this October 26\, 2025\, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. \nHistorian Andrew Hartman introduces his new book\, Karl Marx in America. To read Karl Marx is to contemplate a world created by capitalism. People have long viewed the United States as the quintessential anti-Marxist nation\, but Marx’s ideas have inspired a wide range of people to formulate a more precise sense of the stakes of the American project. Historians have highlighted the imprint made on the United States by Enlightenment thinkers such as Adam Smith\, John Locke\, and Thomas Paine. Marx is rarely considered alongside these figures\, yet his ideas are the most relevant today because of capitalism’s centrality to American life. Karl Marx in America argues that even though Marx never visited America\, the country has been infused\, shaped\, and transformed by him. \nAndrew Hartman is professor of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of Karl Marx in America (2025) and A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars (2015)\, both published by the University of Chicago Press\, and Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School (2008). He is also the coeditor of American Labyrinth: Intellectual History for Complicated Times (2018). Hartman has been published in a host of academic and popular venues\, including the Washington Post\, The Baffler\, Chronicle of Higher Education\, American Historian\, Journal of American Studies\, Reviews in American History\, Journal of Policy History\, Salon\, Jacobin\, Bookforum\, and In These Times.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/marx-in-america/
LOCATION:Recording available on YouTube
CATEGORIES:African American History,American Imperialism,Book talks,Civil War,Fall 2025,featured,historical materialism,History,Intro to Marxism,Marx,Marx's Capital,Political Economy,Political Strategy,Race and Class,Republicanism,Revolutions,Seminars and Talks,Socialism,US History,Video Available,War
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Hartman-webimage-ok.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250929T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250929T183000
DTSTAMP:20250917T141011Z
CREATED:20250725T190734Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250917T141011Z
UID:10008355-1759165200-1759170600@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Resisting Oppression: Reading Science Fiction Politically
DESCRIPTION:Next on Monday September 29\, 5:00 pm \nWe will begin Ryka Aoki’s\, Light From Uncommon Stars\, our third in a set of three novels of oppression and resistance perfect for times like these. We also read Woman on the Edge of Time and Rosewater\, each featuring protagonists living and struggling on the margins of their societies. Each comes to envision a better world for themselves and their communities. Each draws on usual strengths\, makes use of new technologies\, and finds unusual allies. \n\nRyka Aoki’s In Light from Uncommon Stars\, Katrina Nguyen\, a runaway teen\, trans violinist\, finds her life entangled with world-famous violin teacher Shizuka Satomi and Lan Tran\, retired starship captain\, interstellar war refugee\, mother of four\, and California donut shop entrepreneur. All three address the complexity of technology in oppressive societies\, alienation and true aliens\, choice and unfreedom in contemporary capitalist social orders. This is a story for our challenging political and social times\, a wild and fun read to challenge what it means to create political science fiction.\nIn Tade Thompson’s award-winning Rosewater\, government agent and former thief Kaaro contends with social and class contradictions in contemporary Nigerian society\, the government and alien powers for a positive\, freer future for the city of Rosewater and beyond. The first-person novel features mesmerizing collages of scenes and conversations\, mirroring perhaps the mysteries of the “Xenosphere” which frames the story. Join us to read this debut novel which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.\nMarge Piercy’s classic Woman on the Edge of Time tells the story of Connie\, a working class Latina of the 1970s Los Angeles who envisions and pursues a utopian future from with involuntary institutionalization in the oppressive mental health system.\n\nBook covers for current reading list\nWritten in different eras of our modern times\, exploring different communities and peoples\, and ultimately defining radical reimagining in unique ways\, the three novels together will provide powerful reference points for our own dilemmas and choices. \nOur format: we meet every other Monday; we give each monthly selection two takes; we all share responsibilities for shaping the discussion on each work as literature\, each writer as a contributor to social change\, and each vision as a reflection of and an intervention in our aspirations for a better world.  Drop to read one novel that interests you with us\, stay and while if it suits you\, and always help shape our course. Our long term reading list. \nAlso watch for our next selection\, Susana Morris’ new biography of Octavia Butler. \nConvened by Steve Backman\, reading visionary fiction since introduced to the liberating power of Alice in Wonderland and Jules Verne at a very young age.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/resistance-to-oppression-reading-science-fiction-politically/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Africanfuturism,Classes/Events,Fall 2025,featured,Literature,Multi-session Classes,Science Fiction,Visionary Fiction
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ryka-aoki.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250924T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250924T200000
DTSTAMP:20250926T163654Z
CREATED:20250820T222913Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T163654Z
UID:10008358-1758740400-1758744000@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:'Fake Work' with Leigh Claire La Berge
DESCRIPTION:A video of this September 24\, 2025\, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. \nUsing the most banal of office settings – corporate documentation – in the most extraordinary of circumstances – a looming Y2K apocalypse\, Leigh Claire La Berge‘s newly published Fake Work offers not only a unique experience of alienated labor\, but a novel type of Marxism: Marxist humor. The book recounts how a young white-collar worker discovers what capitalism is\, what it does\, and for whom. Described by the New York Times as a “memorable portrait of the mad hunger of corporate toil … superbly committed to its own beliefs — truthful\, dryly funny and often subtly moving\,” Fake Work is a story for anyone who has ever needed a job. \nLeigh Claire La Berge is Professor of English at Borough of Manhattan Community College\, CUNY\, and author of Fake Work\, Marx for Cats\, and Wages Against Artwork: Decommodified Labor and the Claims of Socially Engaged Art. She was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Free University of Berlin in 2021-2023.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/fake-work-la-berge/
LOCATION:Recording available on YouTube
CATEGORIES:Book talks,Capital Studies,Fall 2025,featured,humor,Intro to Marxism,Labor Process,Media Criticism,Political Economy,Seminars and Talks,Video Available
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/fakework-web.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250828T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250828T210000
DTSTAMP:20250827T152254Z
CREATED:20250711T161922Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250827T152254Z
UID:10008354-1756407600-1756414800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Summer in France in the Shade of Noir
DESCRIPTION:The MEP Literature Group continues its tradition of easy summer reading focusing on the noir genre. Our two selections are both set in France and both deal with corruption in high places by right-wing politicians and corporations who manipulate inept investigators of low social standing and morals. \n\nCommand Performance\, by Jean Echenoz; translated by Mark Polizzotti (New York Review Books\, 2020).  A hapless unemployed flight attendant thinks he can solve his financial problems by becoming a private detective\, but he ends up in the employ of a fractious right-wing political party. Things do not go well.  Be prepared to discuss the entire book at our first session on August 6.\nCreation Lake\, by Rachel Kushner (Scribners\, 2024). Sadie Smith once worked as a government undercover operative within an environmental rights group. She got fired for entrapment and went to work in corporate espionage. Her summer assignment in France is to provoke an incident by an environmental rights group that will justify government action. Will Sadie’s honey trap tactics succeed? (August 13\, 20\, 24)\n\n\nConvened by Jacqueline Cantwell and the MEP Literature Group. Jacqueline became involved with the MEP’s Literature Group because of her love of Victor Serge’s novels. Participating in an MEP reading group led by Serge translator Richard Greeman eight years ago\, Jacqueline found a community of readers eager to be challenged by the ambitions of international writers devoted to the creative potential of political fiction. Since the death of Michael Lardner\, who hosted and organized the Literature Group for so many years\, Jacqueline has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation.
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/shade-of-noir/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:_Seasons,Anti-capitalist Literature,Classes/Events,featured,France,Literary Studies,Literature,Multi-session Classes,Noir Fiction,Reading Group,Summer 2025
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/noir-collage.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="MEP Literature Group":MAILTO:info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250714T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250714T183000
DTSTAMP:20250707T135806Z
CREATED:20250707T135806Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250707T135806Z
UID:10008353-1752512400-1752517800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Reading Science Fiction Politically: Severance by Ling Ma
DESCRIPTION:Next\, Monday July 14\, 5:00 pm \n  \nGet started with the Science and Visionary Fiction book group with our July Book Selection: Severance\, by Ling Ma.  Severance combines two things. It offers a satirical\, sardonic look at 21st century lives\, loves and labor as experienced by Candace Chen. Candace has both the classic dilemmas of a first generation immigrant and the here and now reality of a millennial New Yorker setting out in today’s world. \nInto this world comes Shen Fever\, which brings an apocalypse not unlike what Covid 19 might have been. Ling Ma published the book in 2018\, which makes its dystopian vision all the more remarkable.  Candace winds up in a group of like minded would-be survivors and the tale unfolds. \nThe novel does offer a brisk pace yet we mostly read it for the author’s eyes and ears on our current dilemmas as we struggle to survive. \n  \nFor more than three years\, the MEP Science and Visionary Fiction reading group has explored topics of oppression and resistance\, history and science\, capitalist and post-capitalist future\, human and nonhuman intelligence. We read with an overall commitment\, To build a better future\, we have to envision it first (adapted from Walidah Imarisha). Reading science\, speculative and visionary fiction\, discussing it together\, and reading it politically\, offers one tool for envisioning a future worth building. \nGive it a try for your summer reading: drop in\, stay for a while\, and contribute to lively\, present day-centered discussions. Everyone has something to contribute\, whether you read this sort of thing regularly or have hardly ever given it a second thought. Convened by Steve Backman. \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/reading-science-fiction-politically-severance-by-ling-ma/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Africanfuturism,Classes/Events,featured,Literature,Multi-session Classes,Science Fiction,Visionary Fiction
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-07-07_09-56-35.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250701T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250701T203000
DTSTAMP:20250926T163514Z
CREATED:20250624T143442Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T163514Z
UID:10008352-1751396400-1751401800@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Book Talk: Brian Kwoba on Hubert Harrison
DESCRIPTION:A video of this July 1\, 2025\, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. \nBrian Kwoba speaks on his newly published book Hubert Harrison: Forbidden Genius of Black Radicalism and Harrison’s prominent role in the early Socialist Party\, IWW\, and Black radicalism during the 1910s and 20s.  Brian’s visit forms part of our current study group on the Historical Roots of American Fascism. \nThe following excerpt from the Introduction to Kwoba’s book gives a taste of his new approach: \n“In the face of the superexploitation of working people by the likes of John D. Rockefeller\, Andrew Carnegie\, and J. P. Morgan—the capitalist robber barons of the Gilded Age—Harrison crystallized a secular Black revolutionary Socialist politics. In so doing\, he theorized the role of anti-Black racial oppression in preventing the emancipation of the working class from the wage slavery of industrial capitalism. \nIn contrast to the Eurocentric mass media and education systems\, Harrison’s spellbinding street-corner speaking\, commitment to grassroots empowerment\, fearless journalism\, and encyclopedic knowledge allowed him to crystallize a new and revolutionary model—what some called the “Outdoor University”—for free urban Black emancipatory education. It stood in stark contrast to both the industrial education symbolized by Booker T. and Margaret Murray Washington’s Tuskegee Institute and the “higher” elite education of the colleges and universities that were inaccessible to the masses of Black people. Perched atop a sidewalk stepladder at 135th Street and Seventh Avenue and addressing audiences large enough to block traffic\, Harrison spoke on subject matter ranging across such topics as African American art and popular culture\, sociology\, scientific racism\, English literature\, evolutionary biology\, theological criticism\, African history\, macroeconomics\, and global geopolitics. A. Philip Randolph aptly described this model of education as “one of the great intellectual forums in America.” \nIn the face of rampant racism in white society and President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to take the United States of America into World War I\, Harrison helped crystallize Harlem’s political “New Negro” movement. Calling for voting rights for Black men and Black women\, federal antilynching legislation\, armed self-defense\, and an end to Jim Crow racial oppression\, Harrison’s Liberty League of Negro-Americans cohered a pan-African and people-centered movement for Black self-empowerment. By recruiting and training an unknown Jamaican immigrant by the name of Marcus Garvey\, Harrison’s Liberty League catalyzed the emergence of the largest international organization of Black people in modern history. \nHarrison spoke out about injustices taking place all over the globe. Standing against European colonialism and the predatory imperial powers of the world\, Harrison crystallized a new form of radical internationalism in his groundbreaking theorization of the “Colored International.” As a revolutionary political alliance of colonized peoples in the Islamic world\, India\, the Caribbean\, Latin America\, Africa\, Europe\, and Asia\, the Colored International he envisioned would smash the giant triplets of capitalism\, imperialism\, and white racial domination. \nIn a city where white people put a Congolese man named Ota Benga on display in the Bronx Zoo\, Harrison self-identified as an “untamed\, untamable African” and crystallized a model of African consciousness for the Black diaspora based on his deep study of African history\, culture\, and politics. \nAfter a childhood upbringing steeped in the Anglican Church\, Harrison broke with Christianity and religion more generally. He would later emerge as the most prominent Black freethinker of his generation. As against the conservative dogmas of the church\, Harrison crystallized—for a new generation—a Black agnosticism grounded in modern science\, empirical evidence\, and rational explanation over religious dogma. As a militant “truth seeker\,” he demanded the taxation of church properties\, an end to prayers in school and courtroom Bible oaths\, and a complete separation of church and state. \nIn the face of federal government censorship\, repression\, and criminalization of sexuality—and widespread policing of sexual morality by the church—Harrison crystallized a Black free love politics. In that respect\, he emerged among the earliest of Black voices advocating for legalizing access to contraception\, offering public-facing courses in sex education\, and explicitly advancing a conception of love based on variety and freedom from compulsory monogamy and the Puritanical sex-negativity of US culture and society. \nAs a result of crystallizing so many political breakthroughs\, Harrison developed a kaleidoscopic radicalism that connected multiple worlds of counter-hegemonic knowledge. As Kirnon put it\, “Harrison was the first Negro who boldly preached racialism and all forms of radicalism in New York. He preached them continuously and consistently. He was the first Negro whose radicalism was comprehensive enough to include racialism\, science\, politics\, sociology and education in a thorough-going\, scientific manner.”… \nScholars of a particular figure or organization are often ideologically partisan toward it and therefore less comfortable remembering—let alone actually engaging with—forceful internal critics like Harrison. As Harrison once observed\, “Even savants are prone to forget that they do most of their thinking with their desires\, beliefs\, prejudices and subconscious urges\, which they then proceed to rationalize.”23 This explains\, in part\, why those who are partial to one or another ideological framework that Harrison criticized have so often run from him—whether consciously or subconsciously—like a rich person avoiding a beggar. His legacy has been forbidden precisely because it forces us to rethink fundamentally what we think we know—about everything from poverty\, war\, and racism\, to love\, sex\, and religion. \nAnd this is precisely why it is so revealing to study Hubert Henry Harrison. \nOn the one hand\, the most relevant historiographies—of Black Marxism\, Black freethinkers\, Garveyism\, Black sexual liberation\, and the New Negro “Renaissance”—have either marginalized or omitted him entirely. On the other hand\, Harrison played a groundbreaking role in the crystallization of each of these formations. Therefore\, putting him back into the picture opens multiple highly revealing angles of vision on the conjunctures both within and between them. \nRecovering Harrison’s legacy requires us to: reexamine the history of Black people in relation to the Socialist and Communist Parties; recover a forgotten strand of Black class-conscious\, anti-imperialist\, “colored” internationalism; reframe the spatial and intellectual possibilities for Black liberatory education in light of Harlem’s “Outdoor University”; rethink the genealogy of the Black secular and freethinking traditions; reappraise the origins and pitfalls of the global Garvey movement; reinterrogate the mythology of the “Harlem Renaissance”; excavate an onyx crystalline layer in the historical geology of free love politics. In short\, to reimagine the horizons of the Black radical tradition.”
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/kwoba_on_harrison/
LOCATION:Recording available on YouTube
CATEGORIES:Classes/Events,featured,Multi-session Classes,Reading Group,Summer 2025,Video Available
ORGANIZER;CN="Political Strategy Study Group":MAILTO:info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250630T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250630T183000
DTSTAMP:20250620T193944Z
CREATED:20250313T184630Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250620T193944Z
UID:10008340-1751302800-1751308200@marxedproject.net
SUMMARY:Reading Death of the Author by Nigeria's Nnedi Okorafor
DESCRIPTION:Next\, Monday June 30\, 5:00 pm   \nAfricanfuturism is concerned with visions of the future\, is interested in technology\, leaves the earth\, skews optimistic\, is centered on and predominantly written by people of African descent (black people) and it is rooted first and foremost in Africa. It’s less concerned with “what could have been” and more concerned with “what is and can/will be”. It acknowledges\, grapples with and carries “what has been.”   —NNedi Okorafor  \nDip into the growing realm of Africanfuturism reading NNedi Okorafor’s most recent novel\, Death of the Author.  Her science fiction successful and highly popular today\, Okorafor here provides both an introduction to Nigerian science fiction for those that need it and a reflection on its cultural meaning for those who have read Binti\, others from Okorfor\, or other Nigerian- or African-inspired visionary and speculative fiction today. \nDeath of the Author centers on a Nigerian woman setting out to write science fiction\, perhaps like Okorafor herself years and many novels back. The novel explores Zelu’s dilemmas and doubts\, her relationship with family and community\, the world of publishing  in ways that may reflect Okorfor’s past. It also features a story within the story about intelligent robots in a futuristic African context.  The two stories blend together in unusual and unexpected ways\, and fit well with concerns of politically conscious readers of fiction and science fiction today. \n  \n  \nJuly Book Selection: Severance\, by Ling Ma.\nWatch this page for more information. \nFor more than three years\, the MEP Science and Visionary Fiction reading group has explored topics of oppression and resistance\, history and science\, capitalist and post-capitalist future\, human and nonhuman intelligence. We read with an overall commitment\, To build a better future\, we have to envision it first (adapted from Walidah Imarisha). Reading science\, speculative and visionary fiction\, discussing it together\, and reading it politically\, offers one tool for envisioning a future worth building. \nGive it a try for your summer reading: drop in\, stay for a while\, and contribute to lively\, present day-centered discussions. Everyone has something to contribute\, whether you read this sort of thing regularly or have hardly ever given it a second thought. Convened by Steve Backman \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.net/event/reading-science-fiction-politically-summer-25/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Africanfuturism,Classes/Events,featured,Literature,Multi-session Classes,Science Fiction,Visionary Fiction
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-05-30_12-17-26.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR