You can now browse all MEP programs going back to 2014. Our programs have included weekly classes and reading groups as well as book talks, panels and other special events.
| Title | Content | Excerpt | Date | Permalink | Tags | Event Categories | _EventStartDate | _EventEndDate | |
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| The Origins and Development of Bolshevism: 1900-1914 | 11 Sessions Starts October 6, 2014 5:30-7:30pm at The Brooklyn Commons $95-125 (no one turned away for inability to pay) This course will explore the evolution of Bolshevik theory and organizational practice in the 15-year period leading up to the 1914 outbreak of World War One. We will seek to understand their praxis with reference to the Russian context and the Second International’s Social Democratic Marxism, and explore its applicability to our context today. The Revolutions Study Group is a cooperative educational effort, and all levels of knowledge and expertise are welcome at the table. Fall 2014 conveners are: Rust Gilbert has been an activist in labor and socialist organizations, and in movements fighting for human liberation since 1964. Nat Winn is a communist and a student of historical revolutionary moments. He is currently a participant in the Kasama Project and an editor at kasamaproject.org. Jim Kreegan has organized since the 1960s, including with SDS, Spartacist League, International Bolshevik Tendency, and the labor movement. A philosopher by training, he is now unaffiliated but unresigned. David Worley is a just-retired college administrator. He entered the Left in the 1960s through the civil rights and anti-war movements, was a labor union activist for some years, and is a former member of the Brecht Forum board of directors. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, and a member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW) Caucus. Amy Dalton is a cook and community organizer. She has organized with the movement to end mass incarceration, the sanctuary movement, the global indymedia network, and other efforts. | 10/22/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-origins-and-development-of-bolshevism-1900-1914/2014-10-06/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 10/6/2014 17:30 | 10/6/2014 19:30 | |||
| Fanon Black Skin, White Masks with Kazembe Balagun | A Reading and Writing Group on the Seminal Work of Frantz Fanon With deft analysis and radical fervor, Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) was the patron saint of the revolutionary movements of the global south. As a psychiatrist and writer he played a key part in the liberation of Algeria. His seminal work Wretched of the Earth is still considered “The Handbook of Black Revolution” and influenced everyone from the Black Panthers to cultural workers like film maker Gillo Pontecorvo, Marlon Riggs and bell hooks. This group will focus on Fanon’s first published work Black Skin, White Masks. Mixing and remixing the colonized experience with critical readings of Marx, Hegel and Lacan, Black Skin, White Masks prefigured many contemporary conversations on race, gender and sexuality. We will read Black Skin, White Masks along with the works of Richard Wright, Karl Marx, bell hooks, G.W.F Hegel and Amiri Baraka. In addition to our reading, this group will be charged with producing their own written reflections and will present at a public symposium to take place in late 2014 or early 2015. Kazembe Balagun has a BA in Philosophy and Black Studies from Hunter College/CUNY and a MS in Education from Pace University. He has been featured in Time Out New York, The UK Guardian, German Public Radio and the New York Times and contributed “We Be Reading Marx Where We From” to the critically acclaimed anthology Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. As a cultural activist he has continually sought to create intersections between Marxism, queer theory, feminism and Black liberation movements. He works as Project Manager at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office. | 10/22/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fanon-black-skin-white-masks-with-kazembe-balagun/2014-10-03/ | Amiri Baraka|bell hooks|Fanon|Hegel|Lacan|Richard Wright | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/3/2014 17:30 | 10/3/2014 19:30 | ||
| Jean Jaurès 100 Years Later: His Life and Legacy | A panel discussion with Mitch Abidor and Dennis Broe Jean Jaurès, who consistently countered the rise of militarism and opposed the war, was assassinated July 31, 1914, by a right-wing fanatic. Days later, World War I began the French socialists supported it. is presentation and discussion will examine the work of this remarkable man: working-class leader, fighter for human rights and against imperialism, journalist and editor, and historian of the French Revolution. We will also examine his posthumous fate as martyr and symbol, one made use of by all sections of the political spectrum. Mitch Abidor is the translator of hundreds of documents from the French revolutionary tradition from the mid-18th to the late 20th centuries. His forthcoming books include Jaurès’ Socialist History of the French Revolution and an anthology of Victor Serge’s writings on anarchism, Anarchists Never Surrender. Dennis Broeis a professor of media arts at Long Island University. His previous book, Film Noir, American Workers and Postwar Hollywood was a Choice Outstanding Academic Book. He has written widely on political economy, movie studio history and the western in Cinema Journal, Jump Cut, Situations and other journals. He is also a film critic on Pacica Radio. Class, Crime & International Noir: Globalizing America’s Dark Art was recently published by Palgrave/Macmillan. Suggested donation: $6 / $10 / $12 No one turned away for inability to pay | Jean Jaurès, who consistently countered the rise of militarism and opposed the war, was assassinated July 31, 1914, by a right-wing fanatic. Days later, World War I began the French socialists supported it. | 10/23/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/jean-jaures-100-years-later-his-life-and-legacy/ | French Revolution|Jaures | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/12/2014 19:30 | 11/12/2014 21:00 | |
| Tlatelolco in 1968, Guerrero Today: The State and Mass Murder in Mexico | On September 26, 43 students at a rural teachers’ college in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, disappeared after a confrontation with police who opened fire on them. The students were trying to raise money to participate in protests of discriminatory hiring practices in the Mexican education system. This was not an isolated incident but the latest in a long series of repressive actions by the Mexican state against its own citizens. These panels bring together activists and scholars on both sides of the border to explore the historical roots of the current crisis, its implications both inside and outside of Mexico, and how to organize meaningful solidarity.
Panels moderated by Lisa Maya Knauer Event co-sponsored NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America) Suggested donation: $10 / $15 / $20 No one turned away for inability to pay. Funds to organizing efforts in Guerrero. | On September 26, 43 students at a rural teachers’ college in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, disappeared after a confrontation with police who opened fire on them. | 10/23/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/tlatelolco-in-1968-guerrero-today-the-state-and-mass-murder-in-mexico/ | Guerrero|Mexico|NACLA|Tlatelolco | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/1/2014 16:00 | 11/1/2014 22:00 | |
| Victor Serge: Midnight in the Century | In 1933, Victor Serge was arrested by Stalin’s police, interrogated, and held in solitary confinement for more than eighty days. Released, he spent two years in exile in remote Orenburg. These experiences were the inspiration for Midnight in the Century, Serge’s searching novel about revolutionaries living in the shadow of Stalin’s betrayal of the revolution. Among the exiles—-true believers in a cause that no longer exists—-gathered in the town of Chenor, or Black Waters, are the granitefaced old Bolshevik Ryzhik, stoic yet gentle Varvara, and Rodion, a young, self-educated worker who is trying to make sense of the world and history. ey struggle in the unlikely company of Russian Orthodox Old Believers who are also suffering for their faith. Against unbelievable odds, the young Rodion will escape captivity and find a new life in the wild. Surviving the dark winter night of the soul, he rediscovers the only real, and most radical, form of resistance: hope. Edwin Frank has been the editor of the the New York Review Books Classics series since its beginning in 1999. His Snake Train: Poems 1984-2013 will come out in 2014, and he is working on a book about the novel in the twentieth century and the twentieth century in the novel. Richard Greeman is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890–1947). Greeman also writes regularly about politics, international class struggles and revolutionary theory. Co-founder of the Praxis Research and Education Center in Moscow, and director of the International Victor Serge Foundation, Greeman splits his time between Montpellier, France and New York City. Christopher Winks is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Queens College/The City University of New York and a translator. His scholarship has particular emphasis on Caribbean and Latin American literature and African-American studies. He is the author of Symbolic Cities in Caribbean Literature, published by Palgrave Macmillan, an incisive comparative study that analyzes Caribbean literary representations of magic and invisible cities in new and exciting ways. Jenny Greeman is an artist and educator living and working in NYC. Suggested donation: $6 / $10 or $12 No one turned away for inability to pay | In 1933, Victor Serge was arrested by Stalin’s police, interrogated, and held in solitary confinement for more than eighty days. Released, he spent two years in exile in remote Orenburg. These experiences were the inspiration for Midnight in the Century, Serge’s searching novel about revolutionaries living in the shadow of Stalin’s betrayal of the revolution. | 10/23/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/victor-serge-midnight-in-the-century/ | literature|Russia|Serge | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/3/2014 19:30 | 12/3/2014 21:00 | |
| Beyond Capitalism: Art, Performance & Politics | A presentation by Jim Costanzo (a/k/a the Aaron Burr Society) In 2008 artist and activist Jim Costanzo began appearing on Wall Street as the Aaron Burr Society, drawing upon a little-known figure from America’s past as a way of critiquing and offering alternatives to the current dysfunctional capitalist system. In this talk illustrated with slides and video, Costanzo will analyze some of the artistic and political interventions he has undertaken, highlighting the Free Money Movement, launched on April Fool’s Day 2009. The ABS distributed 100 one-dollar bills on Wall Street stamped with “Free Money” on one side and “Slave of New York” on the other. The Federal Reserve Bank was authorized to bail out Wall Street Banks with tax dollars from the 99% that was given as Free Money after the 2008 crash. Government deregulation and the subsequent corporate fraud caused the crash and resulted in people losing their jobs and homes. In 2013 the Society added another stamp: “Common Good/Commonwealth”. According to the ABS, there are now two choices: either we have Free Money for the Common Good of the 99% paid for by the nation’s Commonwealth, or we can continue to be Slaves of Wall Street with unending bailouts for the 1%. Today the Common Good would include environmental sustainability based on economic and social justice. Jim Costanzo continues to work with Occupy Wall Street working groups Strike Debt and Making Worlds based on the Commons. He has participated on panels organized by the Union for Radical Political Economics and the Eastern Sociology Society, and was a presenter at the Public Banking Institute conference “Funding the New Economy.” He recently helped organize and participated in panels for Free University’s “Decolonize Climate Justice” initiative. Suggested donation: $6 / $10 / $15 No one turned away for inability to pay | In 2008 artist and activist Jim Costanzo began appearing on Wall Street as the Aaron Burr Society, drawing upon a little-known figure from America’s past as a way of critiquing and offering alternatives to the current dysfunctional capitalist system. The ABS distributed 100 one-dollar bills on Wall Street stamped with “Free Money” on one side and “Slave of New York” on the other. The Federal Reserve Bank was authorized to bail out Wall Street Banks with tax dollars from the 99% that was given as Free Money after the 2008 crash. Government deregulation and the subsequent corporate fraud caused the crash and resulted in people losing their jobs and homes. | 10/23/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/beyond-capitalism-art-performance-politics/ | Aaron Burr Society|banking|occupy|wall street | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/4/2014 19:30 | 12/4/2014 21:30 | |
| Precarious Labor, Precarious Lives Reading Group | Late capitalism has been characterized by rupture, instability, and contingency. Since the 1990s, scholars and activists have written about the impact of practices like “flexible accumulation” on workers and communities. These processes have intensified in the last two decades, and especially so since the recent global financial crisis. Concurrently, a number of cultural and social theorists have highlighted precariousness (or precarity) as a hallmark of this particular phase of neoliberal globalized capitalism. We experience this in a very empirical and existential way, as so many of us can no longer count upon having (or keeping) a stable, secure job with benefits, or maintaining a roof over our heads. “Contingent labor” is not an abstraction but a harsh reality. We are witnessing the systematic and seemingly permanent marginalization of a substantial portion of the global working class—from day laborers and street vendors to adjunct professors and other professionals. Neoliberal urban regimes, gentrication, rezoning, and the foreclosure crisis have all contributed to residential precarity. Precarity does not, of course, affect all of us equally—-how we live through precarity is shaped by age, race, gender, citizenship status, able-ness, geographical location and other factors. This collaboratively-run reading group is exploring precariousness both theoretically and empirically. In this six-week session, we will read selections from A Precariat Charter, and Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s The Second Machine Age, and then discuss directions for future readings. For the first meeting, please read Chapter 1, and if possible Chapter 2 of A Precariat Charter. Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved in Marxist education in New York since 1977. She was a founder of the NY Marxist School, and taught classes on a variety of topics from Marx’s Capital to radical women’s fiction. Currently she is a tenured radical at a public university. In addition to her participation in the Marxist Education Project, she works on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous resistance movements in Guatemala. David Worley, a retired college administrator, has been a socialist since the 1960s, when he was active in the civil rights and anti-war movements. He was subsequently active in labor union work. He served for several years on the board of directors of the Brecht Forum. He is currently a co-convener of the Revolutions Study Group with the Marxist Education Project and is a supporter of Health Care Now!, a group agitating for universal single-payer medical insurance in the U.S. Suggested tuition: $65 / $85 No one turned away for inability to pay | Since the 1990s, scholars and activists have written about the impact of practices like “flexible accumulation” on workers and communities. We experience this in a very empirical and existential way, as so many of us can no longer count upon having (or keeping) a stable, secure job with benefits, or maintaining a roof over our heads. “Contingent labor” is not an abstraction but a harsh reality. | 10/23/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/precarious-labor-precarious-lives-reading-group/2014-11-02/ | precarity | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 11/2/2014 14:30 | 11/2/2014 16:30 | |
| An Indigenous People’s Reading Group | Today, in the United States, there are more than 500 federally recognized indigenous communities and nations comprising nearly three million people. These are the descendants of the 15 million people who once inhabited this land and are the subject of the latest book by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the indigenous peoples was genocidal and imperialist—designed to crush the original inhabitants. We will read this history that spans more than 300 years, along with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead as a companion “fictional” narrative. Almanac of the Dead takes place against the backdrop of the American Southwest and Central America. It follows the stories of dozens of characters. Much of the story takes place in the present day, although lengthy flashbacks and indigenous mythology interweave throughout. The novel’s numerous characters are often separated by both time and space. Many of characters are involved in either crime or revolution. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz of San Francisco, grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a farmer and half-Indian mother. She has been active in the American Indian Movement for more than four decades and is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. Leslie Marmon Silkowas was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Silko has noted herself as being one-quarter Laguna Pueblo (a Keres-speaking tribe), also identifying as Anglo American and Mexican American. Silko grew up on the edge of pueblo society at the edge of the Laguna Pueblo reservation. While her parents worked, Silko and her two sisters were cared for by their grandmother, Lillie Stagner, and great-grandmother, Helen Romero, both story-tellers. Silko learned much of the traditional stories of the Laguna people from her grandmother, whom she called A’mooh, her aunt Susie, and her grandfather Hank during her early years. The Indigenous Peoples’ Reading Group has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America who were here before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this hemisphere and those peoples under their control and exploitation, following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz this past September. Suggested donation: $95 to $125 No one turned away for inability to pay | The Indigenous Peoples’ Reading Group has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America who were here before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this hemisphere and those peoples under their control and exploitation, following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz this past September. | 10/24/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/an-indigenous-peoples-reading-group/2014-11-05/ | American history|indigenous people|literature|reading groups | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 11/5/2014 19:30 | 11/5/2014 21:30 | |
| Spectres of the Dialectic from the Big Bang to the Multiverse: Explorations with Hegel, Marx & Engels on the Philosophy of Nature | Explorations with Hegel, Marx & Engels on the Philosophy of Nature Through writings, videos, and other media we will engage in issues in modern physics and biology that get to the core of the current crisis in science and take us beyond the limitations of the mechanical picture of the world we have inherited. This class will be a deep engagement in fundamental philosophical and scientific questions concerning space, time, matter, motion, entropy, evolution and origins. We will be engaged in readings and presentations in philosophy as well as biological and physical science. Debates in contemporary physics and biology will be highlighted for their implications for a dialectical philosophy of nature. No prior background is required. Alex Steinberg taught Engels and the Dialectics of Nature at the Brecht Forum in the Spring of 2014. He has previously given classes on Hegel and Marxist philosophy and been a presenter at the Left Forum. He has also served on the local and national boards of radio station WBAI. Suggested tuition: $95 / $125 • No one turned away for inability to pay | Through writings, videos, and other media we will engage in issues in modern physics and biology that get to the core of the current crisis in science and take us beyond the limitations of the mechanical picture of the world we have inherited. | 10/25/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/spectres-of-the-dialectic-from-the-big-bang-to-the-multiverse-explorations-with-hegel-marx-engels-on-the-philosophy-of-nature/2014-09-30/ | Engels|Marx|science | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 9/30/2014 19:30 | 9/30/2014 21:30 | |
| Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx Volume 1 | Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. On top of that, many (though not all) sections of Volume I are surprisingly accessible and beautifully written. The class will aim to cover major sections of Volume I by the holiday break, with its pace to be determined by participants’ needs, and may continue after that to finish Volume I. Along with our own intensive reading of the text, we’ll use new on-line and visual aids and current articles that illustrate capitalism’s developmental tendencies or what Marx calls its laws of motion. Participants will be encouraged to be as active as they desire through reports and presentations. Juliet Ucelli has taught Capital at the New York Marxist School and labor economics for labor unions, as well as adult basic education and GED preparation. Currently a high school social worker, she has written on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, the politics of inner city public schooling and other topics. Her “Introduction to Capital, Volume I” can be accessed at http://thecommonsbrooklyn.org/intensive-readings-2014. Suggested donation: $95 to $125 No one turned away for inability to pay | Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 10/25/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/captial-a-critique-of-political-economy-by-karl-marx-volume-1/2014-09-28/ | Capital|Marx | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/28/2014 17:00 | 9/28/2014 19:00 | |
| Fanon: Black Skin White Masks | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=141 | 6/10/2019 | 6/10/2019 | |||||
| The Long French Revolution in Literature and Life: 1789-1871 | For Marxist and democratic historians, France remains the ‘model’ country for the analysis of class struggles and political revolutions, which overthrew the established order in 1789, 1830, 1848 and 1871 (and profoundly threatened the bourgeois order again in 1968). We will examine these successive revolutions chronologically through the eyes of both radical historians and novelists. When considering the Sans Culottes and the French Revolution we will look at this first great revolution from the point of view, not of the “great men” who led it, but of the popular classes that made it and tried to ensure that it met the needs of the French people. Their role on the great events — the taking of the Bastille, the September Massacres among others — will be examined using Kropotkin’s The Great French Revolution as the source text, as well as excerpts from the soon to be published translation of Jean Jaures’ A Socialist History of the French Revolution. The French Revolution was the first popular uprising to run out of steam and regress, and we will read Anatole France’s novel The Gods are Thirsty to examine these phenomena. We will then read novels by Stendhal, Balzac and others while concurrently reading Marx’s major writings on France, Class Struggles in France, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and The Civil War in France. Other contemporary accounts of the revolutionary waves of France in the 19th century will be consulted. MITCH ABIDOR is the translator of several books, including the forthcoming edition of Jean Jaures’ A Socialist History of the French Revolution and Emmanuel Bove’s novella A Raskolonikov and the author of Communards: The Paris Commune of 1871 as Told by Those Who Fought for It. CRAIG CHISHOLM is a poet and editor at Gigantic Sequins. He has been a key participant in ongoing workshops on the relationship of literature to revolutionary movements and has just completed a summer of reviewing literary works as they related to World War I. RICHARD GREEMAN is a Marxist scholar long active in environmental and labor struggles, splits his time between France and New York City. He is best known for his studies and translations of the novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890–1947). Suggested tuition: $95 / $125 • No one turned away for inability to pay | For Marxist and democratic historians, France remains the ‘model’ country for the analysis of class struggles and political revolutions, which overthrew the established order in 1789, 1830, 1848 and 1871 (and profoundly threatened the bourgeois order again in 1968). We will examine these successive revolutions chronologically through the eyes of both radical historians and novelists. | 10/25/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-long-french-revolution-in-literature-and-life-1789-1871/2014-09-29/ | Balzac|France|French Revolution|history|Marx|Stendhal | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 9/29/2014 19:30 | 9/29/2014 19:30 | |
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | Hegel’s philosophy has had a great influence on much of what has happened in the world since his time (1770 – 1831) and is crucial to understanding much of modern social thought and philosophy as well as to understanding Marxism and the socialist tradition in its varied aspects. Hegel’s Science of Logic is considered by many the most important and developed of all of Hegel’s works. It is essential for understanding Hegel’s other works and therefore it is essential for understanding the works of Marx and Engels as well. We will discuss in detail the text of roughly the book’s first third, called “The Doctrine of Being”, and how it relates to Hegel’s overall system and European social theory after Hegel, including Hegel’s patriarchy and white-supremacy and their influence on the development of capitalism. We will be reading the edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic translated by A. V. Miller, and published by Humanity Books. (Arrangements will be made for students who cannot afford to buy a copy of this book which costs about $33 new online.) RUSSELL DALE is an activist and a philosopher. He teaches philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. He taught classes on Hegel and various other topics at the now-no-more Brecht Forum for the last five years of that institution’s existence. Russell is also on the Manuscript Collective and Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society, as well as on the Local Station Board of radio station WBAI, 99.5 FM (wbai.org). Suggested donation: $95 to $125 or $10 per session No one turned away for inability to pay | Hegel’s Science of Logic is considered by many the most important and developed of all of Hegel’s works. It is essential for understanding Hegel’s other works and therefore it is essential for understanding the works of Marx and Engels as well. | 10/25/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic/2014-09-19/ | Hegel|philosophy | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/19/2014 19:30 | 9/19/2014 21:30 | |
| The Science and Politics of our Ecological Crisis | This eight-week course will examine our ecological crisis, the reasons for it and how we might find solutions to it. A Marxist approach will be taken to explain the origins of modern science as a cultural production of our socio-economic system, in order to examine the roots of our ecological crisis. Particular attention will be paid to the science, politics and economics of climate change and energy production. e course should interest anyone who would like to know more, or better understand, historical materialism as a methodology for understanding the world and our place in nature, situated in the context of climate change and 21st century capitalism. CHRIS WILLIAMS is a long-time environmental activist and author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis (Haymarket, 2010). He chairs the Science Department at Packer Collegiate Institute and is an adjunct professor at Pace University in the Department of Chemistry and Physical Science. His has written in numerous US and international publications, and spoken across the country, while also appearing on radio and television new programs to discuss the science and politics of the ecological crisis, climate change and how we might effect change. He reported from Fukushima in 2012. He was awarded the Lannan 2013-4 Cultural Freedom Fellowship to continue this work and has spent the past year visiting Vietnam, Morocco, Bolivia and Kenya investigating development pathways in the context of climate change. Suggested donation: $75 to $95 No one turned away for inability to pay | A Marxist approach will be taken to explain the origins of modern science as a cultural production of our socio-economic system, in order to examine the roots of our ecological crisis. | 10/25/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-science-and-politics-of-our-ecological-crisis/2014-10-02/ | ecology|environment|science | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 10/2/2014 19:30 | 10/2/2014 21:30 | |
| The Commons: An All-Day Seminar with Siliva Federici | While evoking a pre-capitalist past, the idea of the “common(s)” is embraced today by feminists, anarchists, greens, Marxists/socialists as the formative principle of a non-capitalist society. The workshop will examine :
| 10/25/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-commons-an-all-day-seminar-with-siliva-federici/ | anarchism|commons|feminism | 10/12/2014 9:30 | 10/12/2014 17:00 | |||
| Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 | Hubert Harrison, (1883-1927) was a brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist, who was described by the historian Joel A. Rogers as “the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time” and by A. Philip Randolph as “the father of Harlem Radicalism.” Harrison played unique, signal roles in the largest class radical movement (socialism) and the largest race radical movement (the New Negro/Garvey) movement of his era. He was the foremost Black organizer, agitator, and theoretician of the Socialist Party of New York, the founder of the “New Negro” movement, the editor of the “Negro World,” and the principal radical influence on the Garvey movement. A self-described, “radical internationalist,” he was also a highly praised journalist and critic (reportedly the first regular Black book reviewer), a postal labor unionist, a union organizer (with both the Hotel Workers and the Pullman Porters), an IWW supporter, a speaker at the 1913 Paterson strike, a freethinker and early proponent of birth control, a supporter of Black writers and artists, a leading community-based public intellectual, and a bibliophile who helped transform the 135th Street Public Library into an international center for research in Black culture (known today as the world-famous Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture). JEFFREY B. PERRY edited A Hubert Harrison Reader and authored Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918. Perry also contributed new front and back matter to the new edition of Allen’s The Invention of the White Race and he authored “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy”. | Hubert Harrison, (1883-1927) was a brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist, who was described by the historian Joel A. Rogers as “the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time” and by A. Philip Randolph as “the father of Harlem Radicalism.” | 10/25/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hubert-harrison-the-voice-of-harlem-radicalism-1883-1918/ | Harlem Radicalism|Hubert Harrison|race | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/19/2014 19:30 | 11/19/2014 21:30 | |
| Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of The White Race | Theodore W. Allen (1919-2005) was an independent, anti-white supremacist working class scholar. A former coal miner, factory worker, teacher, postal mailhandler, and Brooklyn Public Library worker, Allen pioneered “white skin privilege” analysis in 1965, co-authored White Blindspot in 1967, wrote the ground-breaking Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race in 1975 (Center for Study of Working Class Life, SUNY Stony Brook), and authored the two-volume classic The Invention of the White Race. (1994, 1997; Verso Books, 2012). JEFFREY B. PERRY edited A Hubert Harrison Reader and authored Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918. Perry also contributed new front and back matter to the new edition of Allen’s The Invention of the White Race and he authored “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy”. | A former coal miner, factory worker, teacher, postal mailhandler, and Brooklyn Public Library worker, Theodore Allen pioneered “white skin privilege” analysis in 1965, co-authored White Blindspot in 1967. | 10/25/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/theodore-w-allens-the-invention-of-the-white-race/ | race|Theodore Allen | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/17/2014 19:30 | 12/17/2014 21:30 | |
| Fanon: Wretched of the Earth | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”587″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 12/21/2014 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fanon-wretched-of-the-earth/2015-01-30/ | Fanon|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 1/30/2015 17:30 | 1/30/2015 19:30 | ||
| Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes of Anti-Imperialist Defense | The settler makes history and is conscious of making it. And because he constantly refers to the history of his mother country, he clearly indicates that he himself is the extension of that mother country. Thus the history which he writes is not the history of the country which he plunders but the history of his own nation in regard to all that she skims off, all that she violates and starves. —Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth Continuing the reading and writing of Frantz Fanon’s works, we will open up this winter with a film on the role of violence furthering or hindering liberation. This term begins with the film on January 30 at Interference Archive. In the course of 2014 Interference Archive and the Marxist Education Project held study groups regarding Frantz Fanon. On January 30 we will come together for a screening of Concerning Violence, based largely on Fanon’s seminal text, The Wretched of the Earth. We hope this film can advance our discussions forward in light on strategy and tactics within the growing anti-police brutality and militarization campaigns. The screening is also kick off of a six week class on The Wretched of the Earth taking place at the Commons Friday nights for six weeks, beginning February 6. Concerning Violence is a bold and fresh visual narrative on Africa, based on newly discovered archive material covering the struggle for liberation from colonial rule in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, accompanied by text from Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. Contributions accepted | No one turned away for inability to pay | 1/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fanons-the-wretched-of-the-earth-film-at-interference-archive/ | Fanon|film|interference archives|verso | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/30/2015 20:00 | 1/30/2015 21:30 | ||
| Capital: Volume I, Chapters 15-33 | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”538″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, the stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. On top of that, many (though not all) sections of Volume I are surprisingly accessible and beautifully written. | 1/12/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-chapters-15-33/2015-02-01/ | Capital|Marx|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 2/1/2015 17:00 | 2/1/2015 19:00 | |
| Introduction to Autonomist Marxism: From Its Roots to Cyber-Marx | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”584″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-autonomist-marxism-from-its-roots-to-cyber-marx/2015-01-29/ | autonomism|Marx|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 1/29/2015 17:30 | 1/29/2015 19:25 | ||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Note that there will be no class meeting Friday, February 20 in support of attendance of an event for political prisoners at St. Peter’s Church (East 54th Street and Lexington Avenue). For more information visit LynneStewart.org[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”589″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-2/2015-01-30/ | Hegel|Marx|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 1/30/2015 19:30 | 1/30/2015 21:30 | ||
| An Indigenous People’s Reading Group: Almanac of the Dead | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”582″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/an-indigenous-peoples-reading-group-almanac-of-the-dead/2015-01-21/ | indigenous people|reading groups|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 1/21/2015 19:30 | 1/21/2015 21:30 | ||
| Nietzsche, Heidegger, Fascism & Left Nietzscheans: A Marxist Assessment | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”586″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/nietzsche-heidegger-fascism-left-nietzscheans-a-marxist-assessment/2015-02-05/ | Heidegger|Marx|Nietzsche|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/5/2015 19:30 | 2/5/2015 21:30 | ||
| Black Literature & Revolutionary Consciousness | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”565″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-literature-revolutionary-consciousness/2015-02-02/ | 50 Cent|black literature|Frederick Douglass|race|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/2/2015 17:30 | 2/2/2015 19:30 | ||
| Black Reconstruction in America: W.E.B. DuBois | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”581″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-in-america-w-e-b-dubois/2015-02-04/ | race|W.E.B. DuBois|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/4/2015 17:30 | 2/4/2015 19:30 | ||
| 21st Century Struggles: Precarity, Repression, and Organizing Resistance | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”568″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/21st-century-struggles-precarity-repression-and-organizing-resistance/2015-02-09/ | labor|precarity|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/9/2015 19:30 | 2/9/2015 21:30 | ||
| Fridays at the Movies: Class, Crime, and International Film Noir | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”591″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-at-the-movies-class-crime-and-international-film-noir/2015-02-20/ | film|noir|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/20/2015 19:00 | 2/20/2015 21:30 | ||
| Fridays at the Movies: Class, Crime, and International Film Noir | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”591″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-at-the-movies-class-crime-and-international-film-noir-2015-02-27/ | film|le jour se leve|noir|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/27/2015 19:00 | 2/27/2015 21:30 | ||
| Fridays at the Movies: Class, Crime, and International Film Noir | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”591″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-at-the-movies-class-crime-and-international-film-noir-2015-03-06/ | film|noir|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/6/2015 19:00 | 3/6/2015 21:30 | ||
| Fridays at the Movies: Class, Crime, and International Film Noir | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”591″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-at-the-movies-class-crime-and-international-film-noir-2015-03-13/ | film|noir|winter 2015 | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/13/2015 19:00 | 3/13/2015 21:30 | ||
| Wages for Housework Archive Workshop | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”654″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 3/6/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/wages-for-housework-archive-workshop/ | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/21/2015 11:00 | 3/21/2015 15:00 | |||
| Wages for Housework Archive Workshop | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][dhvc_woo_product_page_description][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=664 | domestic|feminism|housework|labor|wages | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/21/2015 11:00 | 3/21/2015 15:00 | ||
| The Death and Life of American Labor – with Author Stanley Aronowitz | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”687″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 3/16/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-death-and-life-of-american-labor-with-author-stanley-aronowitz/ | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/14/2015 19:30 | 4/14/2015 21:30 | |||
| Theories of Capitalist Development: Sweezy, Aglietta, Dobb | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”691″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 3/17/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/theories-of-capitalist-development-sweezy-aglietti-dobb/2015-03-27/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 3/27/2015 17:30 | 3/27/2015 19:30 | |||
| Eleanor Marx: A Book Party & Author Reception | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”701″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 3/17/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/eleanor-marx-a-book-party-author-reception/ | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/7/2015 19:30 | 4/7/2015 21:30 | |||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”742″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 7/9/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-3/2015-07-10/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/10/2015 18:00 | 7/10/2015 20:00 | |||
| For the Long Haul: Care, Intention & Steadiness in Radical Organizing with Author Chris Dixon | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”764″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/1/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/for-the-long-haul-care-intention-steadiness-in-radical-organizing-with-author-chris-dixon/ | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/10/2015 19:30 | 4/10/2015 21:30 | |||
| Canyons of Doom: A stroll between the dark towers of the Finance Capital | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”781″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/5/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/canyons-of-doom-a-stroll-between-the-dark-towers-of-the-finance-capital/ | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/9/2015 11:00 | 5/9/2015 14:00 | |||
| The Manhattanization of Brooklyn: A Walking Tour | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”791″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/5/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-manhattanization-of-brooklyn-a-walking-tour/ | walking tour | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/23/2015 10:00 | 5/23/2015 14:00 | ||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”742″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/1/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-3-2015-06-24/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 6/24/2015 18:00 | 6/24/2015 20:00 | |||
| Between The Wage and The Commons | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”822″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/between-the-wage-and-the-commons/ | feminism|housework|right to work|wages | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/17/2015 11:00 | 5/17/2015 16:00 | ||
| Space, Place and Class Struggle | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][recent_products per_page=”12″ columns=”4″ orderby=”” order=””][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=826 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | ||||
| Ujamaa & Women’s Emancipation: Wages for Housework & African Socialism | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”827″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ujamaa-womens-emancipation-wages-for-housework-african-socialism/ | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/30/2015 16:00 | 4/30/2015 18:00 | |||
| Space, Place and Class Struggle | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”817″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/space-place-and-class-struggle/2015-05-07/ | class politics|gentrification|lisa|space struggles|urban struggles | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 5/7/2015 7:30 | 5/7/2015 21:30 | ||
| Precarity Task Force: National and International Proposals and Strategies for Proletarian Response to Crisis of Capitalism | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”831″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/precarity-task-force-national-and-international-proposals-and-strategies-for-proletarian-response-to-crisis-of-capitalism/2015-04-13/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 4/13/2015 19:30 | 4/13/2015 21:30 | |||
| Cold War Expressionism: Perverting the Politics of Perception Bombast, Blacklists and Blockades in the Postwar Art World | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”842″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cold-war-expressionism-perverting-the-politics-of-perception-bombast-blacklists-and-blockades-in-the-postwar-art-world/ | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/22/2015 19:30 | 4/22/2015 21:30 | |||
| Free Time, Free Money: 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Struggles and Developing Revolutionary Demands | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”712″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/free-time-free-money-21st-century-anti-capitalist-struggles-and-developing-revolutionary-demands-2/2015-05-11/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 5/11/2015 17:30 | 5/11/2015 19:30 | |||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-06-10/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 6/10/2015 19:30 | 6/10/2015 21:30 | ||
| Free Time, Free Money: 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Struggles and Developing Revolutionary Demands | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”712″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/free-time-free-money-21st-century-anti-capitalist-struggles-and-developing-revolutionary-demands-2/2015-06-29/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 6/29/2015 17:30 | 6/29/2015 19:30 | |||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-07-01/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/1/2015 19:30 | 7/1/2015 21:30 | ||
| MAY8 4AKP—A Benefit for AK Press | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”880″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 5/3/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/may8-4akp-a-benefit-for-ak-press/ | 5/8/2015 18:30 | 5/8/2015 23:55 | ||||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=886 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-07-08/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/8/2015 19:30 | 7/8/2015 21:30 | ||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-07-15/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/15/2015 19:30 | 7/15/2015 21:30 | ||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-07-22/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/22/2015 19:30 | 7/22/2015 21:30 | ||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-07-29/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/29/2015 19:30 | 7/29/2015 21:30 | ||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-08-05/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/5/2015 19:30 | 8/5/2015 21:30 | ||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-08-12/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/12/2015 19:30 | 8/12/2015 21:30 | ||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-08-19/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/19/2015 19:30 | 8/19/2015 21:30 | ||
| Summer of 2015 Intensive | During this era, when capitalist relations have penetrated every nook and cranny of our planet and the most intimate realms of our lives, a growing proportion of the world’s population is incorporated into the global proletariat—those who work and our families, the underemployed and unemployed, and the growing numbers who will never be employed. This is happening even as global capital makes many individual workers redundant through the introduction of robots, automation, digitization and strategic relocation of work. Basing production solely on accumulating capital and appropriating social wealth, the capitalists expand into new areas and produce more commodities and devour more natural resources while dispossessing ever more individuals from their means of subsistence. Today, we see a continuation of processes like the enclosures that forced the peasantry off their land in medieval Europe. Throughout the global south, displaced peasants are forced to migrate to urban centers or across national borders, working in factories or informal economies, often living on the streets or in shanty-towns. Today, there are more than 300 million manual workers in China alone. The working part of today’s global proletariat is greater than what the world’s entire population was at the end of the Vietnam War 40 years ago. Despite competing interests between various sectors or corporations, the global capitalist class has established an interconnected global system of accumulation, starting with extraction of raw materials and continuing through to the final sale and the return of capital back into their hands—each stage interlinked to the next. Now, workers from all parts of the globe often work for the same boss. Today, after more than three decades of assault on organized labor, we as workers confront the collective social power of capital. Privatization, austerity and structural adjustment regimes have gutted social programs for working people and their families that were won through more than a century of hard struggle. The combined force of these attacks coupled with the technological developments, have left many people feeling demoralized. The eight-hour workday, the right to strike, the right to form a union are becoming distant memories in some regions of the world, particularly here in the United States. Our response as a proletariat has not been capable of mounting an effective response to capitalist domination, and within our proletarian movements there has been difficulty presenting a viable socialist alternative. Over the four days of this Intensive, we will study the causes behind these developments; learn about the obstacles to organizing and the challenges facing workers in their different work places and within their communities; and consider various left theories about social realities and the prospects for organizing. Our explorations will be global and trans-historical, assessing the lessons of workers’ movements from the past, and from around the world with an emphasis on the global south. Through collaborative study and discussion, we aim to give participants the tools to advance our organizing and movement building work to broaden opposition to capital locally, nationally and internationally. The Program Thursday, July 23rd, 4:30 to 6:30 pm The Streets Are Polyphonic: Marxism and Improvisation Kazembe Balagun and Ras Moshe (with guest Lewis Gordon) Ras Moshe Burnett (tenor saxophonist) and Kazembe Balagun (Marxist Education Project) will discuss the tradition and uses of improvisation in music and movement building. There may even be some improvised music during the talk! Can the Working Classes Consciously Unite? Features of the Generalization of the Proletariat Lewis Gordon, Silvia Federici and Manny Ness Lewis will address race and class questions around consciousness and revolutionary ethics Silvia will report on local organizing of peasants and workers in Mexico and Argentina (and do a 2 hour presentation on Sunday in more detail Manny will report on insurgent working class movements throughout the global south, with particular emphasis on South Africa even though he will be arriving from a one month fact-finding tour of India. Friday, July 24 10 am to noon Juliet Ucelli on Marxist method noon to 1 lunch 1-3pm The Sans-Culottes: Proletarian Revolution in the French Revolution? Mitch Abidor The class will examine the role and social makeup of the sans-culottes, the most radical segment of the French nation between 1789-1796. Could they have made of the Great French Revolution the first proletarian revolution? We will also examine the ways in which the history of the French Revolution has itself been a political battlefield. 3 to 3:30 Break 3:30 to 5:30 Working class organic intellectuals of the 21st Century Harmony Goldberg, speaking to Gramsci’s concept of the Organic Intellectual and what that means for the proletariat at this stage of capitalism and our anti-capitalist movements circa 2015. 5:30 to 7 Dinner break 7 to 9 pm Bhaskar Sunkara Technology and the Strategy for Socialism With powerful class movements behind it, technology can promise emancipation from work, not more misery. Addressing redundancy of manual and intellectual labor and the consequences along with potential for liberatory transition such developments have. 9 pm to midnight Bar cafe open for mingling Saturday the 25th 9am to 12 noon Marie-Claire Picher and others from Theater of the Oppressed Workshop on expressing rage and combating the abuses and oppressiveness character of capital. Freire’s, Brecht’s and Boal’s aesthetics will be explored along with some interactivity with Intensive attendees. 12 noon to one pm: Lunch 1 to 3 pm Cornelius Collins and Polina Kroik Labor and Capital in Contemporary Literature As our social world continues to be reconfigured by transformations in capital and labor, for analytic insight we turn to those works of imaginative literature especially alert to current conditions. This workshop session will explore depictions of processes of exploitation, migration, and marginalization in examples drawn from such leading writers as Gloria Anzaldua, T. C. Boyle, Thomas Pynchon, and Roberto Bolaño. 3 to 3:30 break 3:30 to 5:30 When the Mountains Tremble Lisa Maya Knauer Lisa will look at the structural violence of capitalist development in Guatemala from the colonial invasion to the 36-year long armed internal conflict to most recent invasion by transnationals, exploring issues of race, gender and class formation, and the politics of resistance. Guatemala is an interesting case study for examining some key theoretical questions, since the last 500 years of its history have been shaped by the evolving capitalist world system, from mercantilism to maquiladoras to narco-capital. The majority of its population is indigenous and most are rural subsistence farmers, whose livelihoods are endangered by extractivism, hydroelectric projects, biofuels and export-oriented agriculture. She will explore the relationship between these developments and the flow of Guatemalan (mostly indigenous) migrants northward, and also how applicable concepts like “the generalized proletariat” are to countries like Guatemala. 5:30 to 6:30 Dinner 6:30 to 8:30 pm Manny Ness Discussion: The Third World Proletariat and Capital’s rate of exploitation there Examination of the growth of manufacturing, the growing divisions in labor, and development of a labor solidarity strategy. 8:30 pm Special film showing On Vient Pour La Visite (Coming for a Visit) 2013 • 54 Minutes • French (English subtitles) Directed by Lucie Tourette Paris, 2009. More than 6000 undocumented migrants (sans-papiers) go on strike to demand their legalization. French law requires their prior agreement for any legalization, and sans-papiers workers must find a way to obtain it. But their employers know that undocumented migrants will not accept the same working conditions once they have secured legal status. Some temp agency managers say it without joking at the beginning of the film: they lack labor that is “ready to do anything”. Company occupations are as playful as they are risky. Action after action, workers gain confidence in their struggles. As undocumented migrants, they constantly risk being arrested. Yet as workers they have the right to strike and occupy their work site. Assisted by unionists, over the months they learn to negotiate with canny employers and obtain from them what previously seemed out of reach. For the first time, a camera had unrestricted access to the daily life of the strike during several months. Striker meetings, negotiations with employers, discussions with the police: Coming for a Visit tightly follows the courage, occasional hopelessness, conflicts and camaraderie of sans-papiers who learned how to strike by doing it.no papers, Mohamed, Diallo, Hamet and others have worked and paid taxes in France for years in restaurants, cleaning companies, or construction. They have invested all their energy in this battle: now that their status has been disclosed publically, there is no way back. Sunday, July 26th 10 am to 12 noon Silvia Federici (and maybe George Caffentzis) Reportage on organizing in Chiapas, Buenos Aires and other worker/peasant collectives in Mexico and Latin America 12 to 1 Lunch 1-3 pm Mike Bento, Ibrahim Diallo and Rakhee Kawada Capital and class formation in Africa focussing on Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania An examination of the huge influx of investments from the US and China, competing for raw materials and transformation of a variety of peoples into a first generation industrial workers. 3-3:30 break 3:30 – 5 Dan Karan Organizing within. How can we in the US develop working class institutions, such as people’s banks and other cooperative movements that are explictly anti-capitalist, in the here and now. 5-6 pm Dinner 6-8 pm Prospects for the Generalized Proletariat in North America and Europe Presenters to be determined. Will the anti-austerity, ecological and racial justice movements develop to become a force against actually existing capitalism. Bibliography of relevant readings | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=921 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | ||||
| Summer of 2015 Intensive | [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Actually Existing Capitalism and the Generalized Proletariat Summer Intensive to Advance Working Class Consciousness[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”922″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/25/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-of-2015-intensive/2015-07-23/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/23/2015 | 7/26/2015 23:59 | |||
| Summer of 2015 Intensive | [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Actually Existing Capitalism and the Generalized Proletariat Summer Intensive to Advance Working Class Consciousness[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”922″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/25/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-of-2015-intensive/2015-07-24/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/24/2015 | 7/27/2015 23:59 | |||
| Summer of 2015 Intensive | [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Actually Existing Capitalism and the Generalized Proletariat Summer Intensive to Advance Working Class Consciousness[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”922″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/25/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-of-2015-intensive/2015-07-25/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/25/2015 | 7/28/2015 23:59 | |||
| Summer of 2015 Intensive | [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Actually Existing Capitalism and the Generalized Proletariat Summer Intensive to Advance Working Class Consciousness[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”922″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/25/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-of-2015-intensive-2015-07-26/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/26/2015 | 7/29/2015 23:59 | |||
| Migration & Marginalization – When Boom Went to Bust in the USA | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”935″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/migration-marginalization-when-boom-went-to-bust-in-the-usa/2015-06-15/ | 6/15/2015 19:30 | 6/15/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Migration & Marginalization – When Boom Went to Bust in the USA | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”935″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/migration-marginalization-when-boom-went-to-bust-in-the-usa/2015-06-29/ | 6/29/2015 19:30 | 6/29/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Migration & Marginalization – When Boom Went to Bust in the USA | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”935″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/migration-marginalization-when-boom-went-to-bust-in-the-usa/2015-07-06/ | 7/6/2015 19:30 | 7/6/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Migration & Marginalization – When Boom Went to Bust in the USA | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”935″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/migration-marginalization-when-boom-went-to-bust-in-the-usa/2015-07-13/ | 7/13/2015 19:30 | 7/13/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Migration & Marginalization – When Boom Went to Bust in the USA | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”935″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/migration-marginalization-when-boom-went-to-bust-in-the-usa/2015-07-20/ | 7/20/2015 19:30 | 7/20/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Migration & Marginalization – When Boom Went to Bust in the USA | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”935″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/migration-marginalization-when-boom-went-to-bust-in-the-usa/2015-07-27/ | 7/27/2015 19:30 | 7/27/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Migration & Marginalization – When Boom Went to Bust in the USA | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”935″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/migration-marginalization-when-boom-went-to-bust-in-the-usa/2015-08-03/ | 8/3/2015 19:30 | 8/3/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Peoples of the World Spring Forth – The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”949″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-of-the-world-spring-forth-the-indigenous-peopless-reading-group/2015-05-06/ | 5/6/2015 19:30 | 5/6/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Peoples of the World Spring Forth – The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”949″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-of-the-world-spring-forth-the-indigenous-peopless-reading-group/2015-07-01/ | 7/1/2015 19:30 | 7/1/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Peoples of the World Spring Forth – The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”949″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-of-the-world-spring-forth-the-indigenous-peopless-reading-group/2015-07-08/ | 7/8/2015 19:30 | 7/8/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Peoples of the World Spring Forth – The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”949″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-of-the-world-spring-forth-the-indigenous-peopless-reading-group/2015-07-15/ | 7/15/2015 19:30 | 7/15/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Peoples of the World Spring Forth – The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”949″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-of-the-world-spring-forth-the-indigenous-peopless-reading-group/2015-07-22/ | 7/22/2015 19:30 | 7/22/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Marxism and the Oppression of Women | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product id=”864″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 4/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-oppression-of-women/2015-08-26/ | feminism|Gender Studies|Women and Marxism|Women’s Studies | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/26/2015 19:30 | 8/26/2015 21:30 | ||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”742″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 7/9/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-3/2015-07-17/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/17/2015 18:00 | 7/17/2015 20:00 | |||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”742″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 7/9/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-3/2015-07-24/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/24/2015 18:00 | 7/24/2015 20:00 | |||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”742″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 7/9/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-3/2015-07-31/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/31/2015 18:00 | 7/31/2015 20:00 | |||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”742″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 7/9/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-3/2015-08-07/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/7/2015 18:00 | 8/7/2015 20:00 | |||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”742″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 7/9/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-3/2015-08-14/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/14/2015 18:00 | 8/14/2015 20:00 | |||
| Hegel’s Science of Logic | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”742″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 7/9/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-3/2015-08-21/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/21/2015 18:00 | 8/21/2015 20:00 | |||
| The Ecology of a Police State | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”1020″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 8/3/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1023/ | 8/6/2015 | 8/6/2015 23:59 | ||||
| Late Marx | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=1033 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | ||||
| Research of the Late Marx | Kevin Anderson In his final years, 1877-82, Marx studied three non-capitalist agrarian societies in great depth: (1) Russia’s communal villages were increasingly penetrated by capitalist social relations, undermining the older agrarian collectivism, but new revolutionary movements had also grown there. (2) In South Asia, British colonialism had uprooted much of the precapitalist village structure, with many forms of revolt along the way. (3) Two millennia earlier, Rome had transitioned from an agrarian social order based upon a free peasantry to one based upon slave labor, amid both plebeian resistance and slave uprisings. These writings, some of them still to be published and not taken up in Anderson’s Marx at the Margins, offer new insights into Marx’s concept of transition and of revolution. Kevin Anderson teaches Sociology, Political Science, and Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has written on Marx, Hegel, the Frankfurt School, Foucault, the Orientalism debate, and on social upheavals, particularly in the Middle East and Europe. Among his books are the Rosa Luxemburg Reader (coedited with Peter Hudis, 2004) Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (with Janet Afary, 2005) and Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies (2010). He is a member of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization. THIS EVENT WILL BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 7:30 PM | In his final years, 1877-82, Marx studied three non-capitalist agrarian societies in great depth. Kevin will offer new insights into Marx’s concept of transition and of revolution. | 8/29/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/late-marx/ | Classes/Events | 9/10/2015 19:30 | 9/10/2015 21:15 | ||
| Peoples of the World Spring Forth – The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”949″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-of-the-world-spring-forth-the-indigenous-peopless-reading-group/2015-07-29/ | 7/29/2015 19:30 | 7/29/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Peoples of the World Spring Forth – The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”949″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-of-the-world-spring-forth-the-indigenous-peopless-reading-group/2015-08-05/ | 8/5/2015 19:30 | 8/5/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Peoples of the World Spring Forth – The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group | [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][product_page id=”949″][/vc_column][/vc_row] | 6/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-of-the-world-spring-forth-the-indigenous-peopless-reading-group/2015-08-12/ | 8/12/2015 19:30 | 8/12/2015 21:30 | ||||
| Extraction | Expulsions | Resistance | Lisa Maya Knauer & Fred Murphy Extraction / Expulsions / Resistance Six sessions with Lisa Maya Knauer & Fred Murphy Mondays, October 26 to November 30 7:30 to 9:30 pm Within the hypermodern global economy, neoliberal regimes and private capital are turning more and more to very old forms of exploitation. Theorized by Marxists and other critical scholars as renewed primitive accumulation, “accumulation by dispossession” or just plain “expulsions,” projects launched or proposed by mining and energy multinationals, biofuel producers, dam builders, and timber harvesters are affecting lands, livelihoods, and resources across the planet. In the global South, a growing number of such “megaprojects” are spearheaded by investors and governments from the BRICS countries. Debates are raging over neo-extractivism’s value for needed economic development, and resistance by indigenous and working people is challenging such projects on the ground. This class explores the history and contexts of extractivism and the activist responses to it, through a series of case studies. The topics we will address including mining; oil and gas extraction; hydroelectric dams and struggles over water rights; land grabs, biofuels and GMOs. Our starting points are some of the classic writings on capital accumulation by Marx and Luxemburg, along with more contemporary works by Sassen and Galeano. LISA MAYA KNAUER has been collaborating with anti-extractivist groups in Guatemala for the last several years. She is currently researching a book on indigenous resistance, autonomy and alternative citizenships and the neoliberal extractivist state. FRED MURPHY has traveled extensively in Latin America as a journalist and studied and taught Latin American history at The New School. He is currently translating the memoirs of Hugo Blanco, a leader and activist in Peru’s peasant and indigenous movements since the 1950s. | This 6-week class explores extractivism and activist responses to it. There will be a related event during the life of this class which entrance fee is included with payment. | 8/31/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/extraction-expulsions-resistance/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/26/2015 19:30 | 10/26/2015 21:30 | ||
| Hegel’s Philosophy of Right | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=1139 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||||
| Hegel’s Philosophy of Right | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=1140 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||||
| Hegel’s Philosophy of Right | Russell Dale Hegel’s philosophy has had a great influence on much of what has happened in the world since his time (1770 – 1831) and is crucial to understanding much of modern social thought and philosophy as well as to understanding Marxism and the socialist tradition in its varied aspects. Hegel’s Philosophy of Right is Hegel’s political and ethical theory in its most mature form. It is essential for understanding Hegel’s overall project and therefore it is essential for understanding the works of Marx and Engels as well. Marx’s first book-length work, in fact, was Critique of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right”, which is generally taken to be the work which marks the beginning of Marx’s break from Hegelianism and the start of his own mature conceptions. (We will read be reading this work of Marx’s in a class next year, so this current course will be excellent preparation for that.) This term we will read and discuss the entirety of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right over 12 weeks. The course will start with an historical and philosophical introduction so that nobody will be lost, even if they have not studied much philosophy before. An important part of our discussion will be the socially reactionary conclusions that Hegel ultimately drew, while at the same time Hegel’s work became inspirational for so many radical and progressive thinkers as well, including Marx and Engels. We will give special attention to and treatment of the fact that Hegel had white-supremacist, racist views, and played an important role in the development of the pseudo-science of biological race theory. We will look at what these views mean for the tradition of thought that stems from Hegel, which includes some of the greatest thinkers of African descent in the twentieth century, such as W. E. B. DuBois, C. L. R. James, Frantz Fanon and others. We will be reading the edition of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right translated by T. M. Knox, and published by Oxford University Press. (Arrangements will be made for students who cannot afford to buy a copy of this book which costs about $17 new online.) Russell Dale is an activist and a philosopher. He teaches philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. He taught classes on Hegel and various other topics for the last six years. Russell is also on the Manuscript Collective and Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society, as well as on the Local Station Board of radio station WBAI, 99.5 FM (wbai.org). | In this 12-class, we will read and discuss the entirety of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right over 12 weeks. | 9/1/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-philosophy-of-right-4/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/18/2015 18:00 | 9/18/2015 20:00 | ||
| The Russian Revolution 1917—1921 | From the Fall of the Tsar to the “October Revolution,” February-November, 1917 Is another world possible? We see today numerous examples of mass action disrupting societies: the Arab Spring, the Movement of the Squares, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, etc. We know that mass movements can destabilize and bring down governments. The larger question is, can mass action create something new? Can it change the world? In 1917, the Russian people thought so! Whatever you may think or have heard, it cannot be denied that the 1917 Russian Revolution moved millions of people to political action intended to create a better world. Russian workers and peasants overthrew their government, defeated a counterrevolution, and embarked on one of the most radical experiments in mass democracy ever undertaken. To gain a deeper understanding of these events that did change the world, the MEP Revolutions Study Group will spend this fall and next spring studying the Russian Revolution, 1917-1921, debating its successes and its failures in terms of the ideals and purposes of the revolutionary movement. The fall term will bring the class to the establishment of a government based on the soviets (workers councils) in November 1917, with emphasis on the rising influence of the Bolshevik Party. The spring term will cover the new Soviet state through the period of civil war to the consolidation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Members of our group come to these studies with differing Left political perspectives. Our goal is not to confirm a “correct” point of view, but to refine all our understandings of this history to inform our political praxis. All viewpoints are welcome. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. While individual participants may come and go, the group has held together, studying in depth a range of history including the French Revolution, the Mau-Mau Revolt, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the Italian Autonomia, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and the 1905 Russian revolution and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | This 11-week class considers the establishment of a government based on the workers councils (soviets) in November 1917, emphasizing the rising influence of the Bolshevik Party. | 9/1/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-russian-revolution-1917-1921/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/5/2015 19:30 | 10/5/2015 21:30 | ||
| An Evening with Diana Block | Told from the points of view of five different women who cross paths with Luba over four decades, Clandestine Occupations explores the difficult decisions that activists confront about the boundaries of legality and speculates about the scope of clandestine action in the future. It is a thought-provoking reflection on the risks and sacrifices of political activism as well as the damaging reverberations of disaffection and cynicism. “Clandestine Occupations is a triumph of passion and force. A number of memoirs and other nonfiction works by revolutionaries from the 1970s and ‘80s, including one by Block herself, have given us partial pictures of what a committed life, sometimes lived underground, was like. But there are times when only fiction can really take us there. A marvelous novel that moves beyond all preconceived categories.” —Margaret Randall, author of Che on My Mind PM Press/Spectacular Fiction • ISBN: 978-1-62963-121-9 • Published: 10/2015 • 248 pages Diana Block was a founding member of San Francisco Women Against Rape and the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee. She spent thirteen years living underground with a political collective committed to supporting the Puerto Rican independence and Black liberation movements. Since returning voluntarily from clandestinity in 1994, Diana has committed herself to anti-prison work, becoming a founding member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and the Jericho Movement. Previous writings include her memoir, Arm the Spirit. She is a member of the editorial collective of The Fire Inside newsletter, which has been giving voice to women and transgender prisoners since 1996. She lives in San Francisco with her life partner, former political prisoner Claude Marks. | Clandestine Occupations explores the difficult decisions that activists confront about the boundaries of legality and speculates about the scope of clandestine action in the future. | 9/1/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/an-evening-with-diana-block/ | Classes/Events | 10/9/2015 19:30 | 10/9/2015 21:30 | ||
| Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class | Immanuel Ness introduced with commentary by Frances Fox Piven Even as labor in the developed world seems to be in retreat, industrial struggle continues elsewhere–and with particular force in the Global South. In Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class, Immanuel Ness provides a thorough and expert perspective of three key countries where workers are fighting the spread of unchecked industrial capitalism: China, India, and South Africa. In each case, he considers the broader historical forces in play, such as the effects of imperialism, the decline of the international union movement, class struggle, and the growing reserve of available labor. He then narrows his focus in each case on the specifics of the current grassroots insurgency: the militancy of miners in South Africa, new labor organizations in India, and the rise of worker insurgencies in China. The product of extensive firsthand field research, Southern Insurgency paints a picture of the new industrial proletariat in the Global South—a group that lives a precarious, frightening existence yet at the same time offers hope for new approaches to solidarity and the anti-capitalist struggle. Distributed by Pluto Press, 224 pages | 5 1/3 x 8 1/2 | © 2015 | Immanuel Ness provides a thorough and expert perspective of three key countries where workers are fighting the spread of unchecked industrial capitalism: China, India, and South Africa. | 9/5/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1205/ | Classes/Events | 10/22/2015 19:30 | 10/22/2015 21:30 | ||
| Reason and Revolution | An 8-Week course with Chad Kautzer Herbert Marcuse (1889-1979) was one of the most influential critical theorists of the twentieth century. He was associated with the early Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany—later known as the Frankfurt School. After he emigrated to the U.S., Marcuse joined the war effort against Nazi Germany and taught at several U.S. institutions, including UC San Diego where Angela Y. Davis was his student. In Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory (1940), Marcuse masterfully delineates the methodological foundations of critical theory and reconstructs the development of Hegel’s philosophy and its influence on Marx. He identifies and defends a form of critical reason, originating in Hegel, which is social, historical, and dialectical, and therefore in opposition to so-called positivist thought. “Reason is in its very essence contradiction, opposition, negation as long as freedom is not yet real,” writes Marcuse. “If the contradictory, oppositional, negative power of Reason is broken, reality moves under its own positive law and… unfolds its repressive force. Such decline in the power of Negativity has indeed accompanied the progress of late industrial civilization”. In this eight-week course we will investigate this power of negativity and trace its path between reason and revolution in the Hegelian-Marxist tradition. Along the way, we will improve our understanding of several important concepts, such as alienation, materialism, idealism, recognition, the dialectic, and revolution. Any edition of Marcuse’s text will suffice for the course. Arrangements will be made for students who cannot afford to buy a used or new copy of the book. Chad Kautzer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado Denver and a Visiting Research Scholar at CUNY Graduate Center. He has studied in Frankfurt, translated the work of Axel Honneth and Walter Benjamin, and is author of Radical Philosophy: An Introduction (Routledge/Paradigm, 2015). Currently, he is working on a manuscript titled Hegel and the Colonial World: From European Freedom to Decolonial Resistance. Chad can be reached at chadkautzer2003@yahoo.com. | In this eight-week class Chad Kautzer will review how Marcuse masterfully delineated the methodological foundations of critical theory and reconstructed the development of Hegel’s philosophy and its influence on Marx. | 9/5/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reason-and-revolution/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/30/2015 19:30 | 9/30/2015 21:30 | ||
| Extractivism in Africa: The Role of the “BRICS” Countries | Patrick Bond Co-sponsors: Haymarket Books and System Change Not Climate Change As economies North and South engage in the “race for what’s left” around key natural resources, extractivism – plundering solely for profit – is playing an increasingly central role in their capitalist development and accumulation patterns. Extractivism and now neo-extractivism (which refers to an expanded role for the national state) are hotly debated throughout the left globally. For some it is seen as the only option for growth, and thus it must be socialized and mobilized as a lever of social and economic development. For others, it only enhances dependence on capitalist world markets controlled by monopolistic corporations, a problem further exacerbated by its ecological contradictions and reliance on practices of dispossession. This talk will focus on the “new scramble for Africa” and controversies surrounding the role of rising powers such as China, Russia, and South Africa. Patrick Bond directs the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society in Durban and is a political economist at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is author of Elite Transition (Pluto Press 2014) and Politics of Climate Justice (UKZN Press 2012) and co-editor of BRICS: An Anti-Capitalist Critique (Haymarket 2015). | Co-Sponsors: Haymarket Books and System Change Not Climate Change This talk will focus on the “new scramble for Africa” and controversies surrounding the role of rising powers such as China, Russia, and South Africa. | 9/6/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/extractivism-in-africa-the-role-of-the-brics-countries/ | 10/19/2015 19:30 | 10/19/2015 21:30 | |||
| Reading Gramsci | Reading Antonio Gramsci: Hegemony, War of Position and the Historic Bloc 3 Sessions remain with Harmony Goldberg Tuesdays, 7:30 pm / October 13, 20 and 27 Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks is one of the most powerful left strategy documents developed in the last hundred years. It offers us a number of helpful concepts that can help us think about the revolutionary process in places like the United States, where the capitalist system is maintained through a dynamic approach to class rule—which Gramsci calls hegemony—that combines “force” and “consent”. The class will begin with a basic introduction to Gramsci’s historical context and the fundamentals of his approach in order to support the participation of people who are new to Gramsci’s thought. Over the course of four sessions, we will learn about the concepts of “hegemony”, the “war of position”, and the “historic bloc”. We will examine several historic examples and discuss the relevance of this concept to our political work today. Because Gramsci╒s writing can be difficult, much of our class reading happens during the sessions themselves. The class combines close readings with group discussion and interactive exercises. A founding member of SOUL: School of Unity & Liberation in Oakland, HARMONY GOLDBERG has run left political education programs for grassroots organizations in the Bay Area and New York City for more than a decade. Recently completed her PhD in Cultural Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and she continues to support grassroots organizations and the broader left as a popular educator, writer and facilitator. Sliding Scale: $25-45 https://www.facebook.com/events/1046235348729766/ | Harmony Goldberg will guide this 4-week class covering concepts essential to an understanding of the work of Antonio Gramsci. | 9/6/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-gramsci/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/13/2015 19:30 | 10/13/2015 21:30 | ||
| Highlights of Capital, Volume 1 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx Volume 1 Nine Sessions Class and Discussion with Juliet Ucelli October 14 through December 16 Over the past 40 years, many of us have needed to work longer and longer hours—and often more than one job—in order to survive. This longer working day has also become more intense and saps more of our energy. These trends, which Marx predicted and analyzed in Capital, also make it harder for workers and activists to read Capital all the way through. Therefore, we are trying a new approach and highlighting the main sections and concepts of Volume I in a 10-week course. Key topics that we will cover include: use-value, value and commodity fetishism; the labor process, the working day and surplus value; competition, innovation, productivity growth and the concentration of capital; the sources of ecological destruction; capital’s need for unemployed people and a reserve army of labor; and the bloody origins of capitalism and white supremacy in expropriation and enslavement. The course will provide a basic grounding for participants to pursue further study on their own or collectively. We’ll refer to new resources such as on-line and visual aids and current articles that illustrate capitalism’s developmental tendencies, which Marx calls its laws of motion. Juliet Ucelli has taught Capital at the New York Marxist School and labor economics for labor unions, as well as adult basic education and GED preparation. Currently a high school social worker, she has written on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, the politics of inner city public schooling and other topics. Her “Introduction to Capital, Volume I” can be accessed at http://thecommonsbrooklyn.org/intensive-readings-2014. | A new approach: Highlighting the main sections and concepts of Capital, Volume I. Nine sessions until mid-December. | 9/8/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-capital-volume-1/ | 10/14/2015 17:30 | 10/14/2015 19:30 | |||
| Outside Views/Inside Stories: The Algerian Experience | The Indigenous People’s Reading Group presents Outside Views/Inside Stories Writing on Algeria: From Colony to Independence and Ongoing Liberation Movements October 1 through December 17. We will not meet on October 22. This fall we will read from four novels concerning Algeria. We start with Assia Djebar’s Children of the New World, concerning the war of liberation against French occupation. On October 8 we will read and discuss the first 4 chapters. We then step back to look at the influential The Stranger of Camus and the popular The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud and understand the occupation of the Algerian mind in Camus and look to see where Daoud is with that occupation today. We will complete our autumn look at North Africa as represented by Algeria with Ahlam Mosteghanemi’s Memory in the Flesh, concerned with Algeria’s struggle against foreign domination as well as its post-independence struggle with itself and the fate of revolutionary ideals in a post-revolutionary society. Throughout this study and later in the year we will refer to Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism. Said argues that, although the “age of empire” largely ended after World War II, when most colonies gained independence, imperialism continues to exert considerable cultural influence in the present. To be aware of this fact, it is necessary, according to Said, to look at how colonialists and imperialists employed “culture” to control distant land and peoples. We will be reviewing the first chapter entitled “Overlapping Territories, Intertwined Histories” of Culture and Imperialism on October 8 The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group, which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Writing on Algeria: From liberation movements as a French colony to new struggles of liberation in post-colonial Algeria. | 9/9/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/outside-viewsinside-stories-the-algerian-experience/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/8/2015 19:30 | 10/8/2015 21:30 | ||
| The Factory, a film by Rahul Roy | Directed by Rahul Roy India | 2015 | 132 mins A presentation by and discussion with Rahul Roy will immediately follow the presentation of the film The Factory traces the monumental struggle of Indian auto workers of Maruti Suzuki, Manesar in their historic fight to form a union and the violent repression they faced at the hands of the corporate-sponsored state labor regime. The film focuses on the three year criminal prosecution of hundreds of workers which exposed a widespread system of injustice, geared to protect the profits of shareholders invested in the global auto industry, investigating the underbelly of class conflict and the skewed nature of capitalist justice. What follows is from Scroll.in: “The production process had to become a very important element,” director Rahul Roy says. “That was a huge challenge, since I didn’t have access to the management. How do you create a narrative around the production process without putting people to sleep?” The fact that the Maruti management obdurately refused to talk to Roy or give him permission to shoot inside the plant also influenced the narrative. The Factory is seen through the eyes of the workers and their supporters. There is no attempt to establish equivalence by seeking the other side of the story. Maruti’s views on the matter come through in indirect ways: through a presentation that plays out on a giant screen as dancers writhe before it in silhouette, media reports and the legal representations made by the company. Maruti appears in the film as a malevolent presence that instituted an unhealthy work culture to ensure profit at all costs, actively blocked the workers’ legitimate demands to allow them to form a union, and influenced villagers living near the plant through corporate social responsibility programs into providing them with muscle power when the workers went on strike. Sweat and blood The Factory is in the same mould as the landmark 1976 documentary Harlan County, USA, Barbara Kopple’s exhaustive account of a lengthy and complicated strike by coal mine workers in Kentucky in 1973. Kopple spent a few years with the workers and their families and captured the crests and troughs of the movement. Some of Harlan County, USA’s most stirring sequences are of the solidarity and courage displayed by the mine workers and their families, who battle violence, litigation and changes within the union with utmost clarity about their basic rights and their unquestionable contributions to their employer’s bottomline. Rahul Roy has previously examined working-class lives in his films Majma, When Four Friends Meet and The City Beautiful, but he has mostly been engaged with the informal sector, such as handloom weavers in The City Beautiful. “Labor has been an abiding interest, so there is a continuum with my previous films, but I have always worked with unorganized labor,” said Roy, who graduated from the Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi in 1987 and was a part of the generation of documentarians who worked on video and investigated the economic and social divisions that opened up in India after the Emergency. The Factory is one of the several films funded by the Justice Project, which examines political, social and economic conflicts across the subcontinent. Filmmakers and researchers in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka have produced films as well as academic studies on such varied subjects as the Ayodha mosque dispute, the death of garment workers in Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in 2013, and post-civil war compensation in Sri Lanka. For the complete article visit: http://scroll.in/article/731388/a-new-documentary-brings-the-maruti-struggle-alive-through-the-stories-of-its-arrested-workers | “The production process had to become a very important element,” director Rahul Roy says. “That was a huge challenge…. How do you create a narrative around the production process without putting people to sleep?” The Factory traces the monumental struggle of Indian auto workers of Maruti Suzuki, Manesar in their historic fight to form a union. | 9/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-factory-a-film-by-rahul-roy/ | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 9/28/2015 19:00 | 9/28/2015 21:30 | ||
| Baldwin/Fanon: After Colonialism Dies, Fighting New Forms of Imperialism | After Colonialism Dies: Fighting the New Imperialism 9 Sessions Kazembe Balagun with The Fanon Studies Task Force This class will read from The Fire Next Time and Studies in a Dying Colonialism and look to where liberation movements go after the first stages of demands are met, even after overthrowing an old regime or colonial occupier, and often get absorbed into new systems of domination, especially under globalized capitalism. Kazembe Balagun has a BA in Philosophy and Black Studies from Hunter College/CUNY and a MS in Education from Pace University. He has been featured in Time Out New York, The UK Guardian, German Public Radio and the New York Times and contributed “We Be Reading Marx Where We From” to the critically acclaimed anthology Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. As a cultural activist he has continually sought to create intersections between Marxism, queer theory, feminism and Black liberation movements. He works as Project Manager at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office. Suggested donation: $85 / $110 No one turned away for inability to pay | Read from Baldwin and Fanon as the capitalist powers occupy without the colonial apparatus and how to proceed to combat the new forms of imperialism. | 9/14/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/baldwinfanon-after-colonialism-dies-fighting-new-forms-of-imperialism/ | 10/22/2015 17:30 | 10/22/2015 17:30 | |||
| Resistencia: The Fight for Aguan Valley | A Documentary on Honduran Rural Workers followed by discussion with the filmmaker 91 mins, 2015 Film showing on the current struggle in Honduras and discussion with director Jesse Freeston When a 21st century coup d’etat overthrows the only president they ever believed in, the farmers take over the plantations. With no plans to ever give them back. June 28th, 2009. The Honduran people are preparing to vote in the first referendum in the country’s history. But, instead of waking up to ballot boxes, they see soldiers carrying out the first coup d’Ätat in Central America in three decades. This is the story of the two thousand farming families who challenged the coup project by taking over the plantations of the most powerful landowner in the country and converting them into worker-run cooperatives. Shot over four years, Resistencia is both a testament to the capacity of an organized movement to transform the most fertile land in the country, as well as an account of the coup regime’s violent attempts to get the land back. Jesse Freeston is a filmmaker and video-journalist based in Montréal, Québec. He was a key member of The Real News Network where from 2009 to 2011 he produced more than 100 investigative video pieces on economics, politics and social movements in North and Central America. Since 2012, he has directed five documentaries for teleSUR, the world’s largest public Spanish-language broadcaster. His other video collaborations include working as: a co-producer for Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines, a member of Montréal’s CUTV news collective during the 2012 ‘Printemps ârable’, and a shooter/editor for the Montréal chapter of Vice News. He has completed two independent documentaries—the first 2013’s Revolutionary Medicine: A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital (co-directed by Beth Geglia) and in 2015 Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley was released, his first feature-length documentary. You can find links to much of his work at jessefreeston.com. | When a 21st century coup d’etat overthrows the only president they ever believed in, Honduran farmers take over the plantations. They have no plans to ever give them back. | 9/21/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/resistencia-the-fight-for-aguan-valley/ | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 10/16/2015 19:00 | 10/16/2015 21:30 | ||
| 1871-2015: Voices of The Paris Commune | Mitch Abidor and Zoe Beloff The Paris Commune of 1871 was the first instance of a working class seizing power from capitalists and their allies. Mitch Abidor and Zoe Beloff will speak about how the Commune is presented and represented, both politically and artistically. In what ways was it unique and in what ways did it serve as an example? What lessons for today are to be gathered from what was experienced during the Commune? What further lessons might we learn while performing a Commune-based play during a peak activist moment? MITCH ABIDOR is the translator and editor of the new collection of translations of writings by Communards, Voices of the Paris Commune, published by PM Press. ZOE BELOFF directed a series of street performances of Brecht’s play The Days of the Commune in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. She will present filmed excerpts. Suggested donation: $6 / $10 / $15 No one turned away for inability to pay Subway: A, C to Hoyt Schermerhorn/F, G to Bergen / 2, 3, B, D, N, Q to Atlantic Ave. | Communards speak to us from the Commune in Paris about lessons they learned that we could take to our struggles against capital today | 10/4/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1871-2015-voices-of-the-paris-commune/ | 11/11/2015 19:30 | 11/11/2015 21:30 | |||
| December Dialectics Workshop | Alex Steinberg Dialectics is rightly considered to be linked to revolutionary politics. But the meaning of the term evades easy description. There are as many myths and half-truths told about dialectics as there are about Santa Claus. In this class we will demystify dialectics and demonstrate that it does not have to be an esoteric topic reserved for a tiny group of initiates. This 3 session series will be a hands-on workshop in dialectical analysis. After a brief introduction of some of the leading concepts of dialectical thinking we will examine several examples of dialectics in different areas ranging from our everyday experience, to political and social phenomena to the most radical scientific theories about the origin of the universe. Participants will be asked to create their own dialectical construction in the final workshop. The goal is a greater understanding of that which is hidden in plain sight, our dialectical world and how we can change it. ALEX STEINBERG taught three classes at The Commons: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature during the Spring of 2014, Dialectics of Nature and the Multiverse in the Fall of 2014 and a class on Nietzsche, Heidegger, Fascism and Left-Nietzscheans last Spring. He has previously given classes on Hegel and Marxist philosophy and been a presenter at the Left Forum. He has also served on the local and national boards of radio station WBAI. Alex participated in the revolutionary events leading up to the historic “NO” vote against austerity in Greece this past summer and capped his activity with a lecture in Athens to an audience of activists on the subject of The Dialectics of Revolutionary Strategy and Tactics. | In this class we will demystify dialectics and demonstrate that it does not have to be an esoteric topic reserved for a tiny group of initiates. | 10/4/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/december-dialectics-workshop/ | 12/2/2015 19:30 | 12/2/2015 19:30 | |||
| Expulsions—Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy | EXPULSIONS: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy a talk by SASKIA SASSEN In her most recent book, Expulsions—Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy, Saskia Sassen examines soaring income inequality and unemployment, expanding populations of the displaced and imprisoned, along with the accelerating destruction of land and water. For Sassen, these phenomena are best understood as expulsions from livelihoods, from living space, even from the very biosphere that makes life possible. From finance to mining, the complex types of knowledge and technology we have come to admire are used too often in ways that produce elementary brutalities. Sassen’s work lays bare the extent to which the sheer complexity of the global economy makes it hard to trace lines of responsibility for the displacements, evictions, and eradications it produces—and equally hard for those who benefit from the system to feel responsible for its depredations. SASKIA SASSEN is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. Her research and writing focuses on the social, economic and political dimensions of globalization, immigration, global cities, and changes within the liberal state during the current phase of transnational capitalism. In her research she has focused on the unexpected and the counterintuitive as a way to cut through established “truths.” No one turned away for inability to pay A, C TO HOYT SCHERMERHORN/F, G TO BERGEN / 2, 3, B, D, N, Q TO ATLANTIC AVE | The current capitalist global economy represents expulsions from livelihoods, from living space, even from the very biosphere that makes life possible. | 10/24/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/expulsions-brutality-and-complexity-in-the-global-economy/ | 11/30/2015 20:00 | 11/30/2015 21:45 | |||
| Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence | KILLING TRAYVONS: An Anthology of American Violence Ibrahim Diallo, Kevin Alexander Gray and JoAnn Wypijewski Tuesday, November 17 7 pm Join two of the editors and a contributing author of Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence, published by CounterPunch. The endemic violence in America against black and brown bodies can no longer be hidden. Highly accessible digital technologies, such as mobile phones and police body or dashboard cameras, allow us to witness not only routine beatings, but also outright killings, and share these images with millions of others around the world. Beatings and murders, like those of Rodney King and Trayvon Martin, are harder to hide. Nonetheless, nearly every week, we learn of a woman dying after being jailed for a routine traffic violation, or a teen murdered in a park. To make the onslaught of this violence worse, the perpetrators are getting away with it, despite evidence of attempted and actual murder. No longer does the American system of justice seem rigged╤it plainly is. Our collective grief has led to outrage and despair, but also to the beginnings of a broad movement, challenging the state-supported violence. Join us for an evening with two editors and a contributing author to the newly-published anthology Killing Trayvons, for an evening exploring the genesis and evolution of this emerging movement. How can we effectively curtail racism in the hands of the state throughout the whole chain of law enforcement? How can we address the systemic racism aimed at the American working classes with an eye toward building a broad anti-capitalist movement? IBRAHIM DIALLO is a native of Guinea, West Africa. He moved to Brooklyn, New York at the age of 12. Ibrahim is a graduate of Trinity College where he studied Political Science and Human Rights. He is a contributing author to Killing Travons: An Anthology of American Violence. KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY is a civil rights organizer in South Carolina and a co-editor of Killing Trayvons. He is also the author of Waiting for Lightning to Strike! The Fundamentals of Black Politics (CounterPunch/AK Press) and a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion. He can be reached at kagamba@bellsouth.net. JOANN WYPIJEWSKI is a writer and editor based in New York. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines, including The Nation and CounterPunch, where she writes a monthly column, “Diamonds and Rust.” She is a co-editor with Kevin and Jeffrey St.Clair of Killing Trayvons. JoAnn is currently working on a book called Valiant, about progress and survival in a time of crack-up, and this fall is the BelleZeller Visiting Professor in political science at Brooklyn College. | Join two of the editors and a contributing author of Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence, published by CounterPunch. | 10/24/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/killing-trayvons-an-anthology-of-american-violence/ | 11/17/2015 19:30 | 11/17/2015 21:30 | |||
| How to Care for the Revolution? | A talk by EVA von REDECKER The talk will discuss the Marxist notion of unalienated labor against the dystopia of reproductive labor under patriarchy. It searches for collective practices in which need-oriented labor is rehearsed in an anticipatory-utopian way. Can we care in a way that momentarily disrupts both the logic of valuation and of (hetero)sexism, or can we only develop the radical need to do so? EVA von REDECKER is based at the Philosophy Department of Humboldt-University, Berlin. This fall of 2015, she’s the Heuss Lecturer at the New School for Social Research. Her work is in Critical Theory and focuses on topics such as history, revolution, gender, sexuality and property. Suggested donation: $6 / $10 / $15 No one turned away for inability to pay The Brooklyn Commons 388 Atlantic Avenue/Brooklyn • mepnet.wpenginepowered.com • thecommonsbrooklyn.org A, C TO HOYT SCHERMERHORN/F, G TO BERGEN / 2, 3, B, D, N, Q TO ATLANTIC AVE | This forum addresses this question: How can we construct forms of solidarity that are not mired in capitalist and (hetero)sexist objectification? | 10/26/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/solidarity-and-the-need-to-fulfill-needs/ | 12/2/2015 19:30 | 12/2/2015 21:30 | |||
| Book, Poster and Print Sale | Join AK Press, Autonomedia, Common Notions, Haymarket Books, Interference Archive, Justseeds, NYC Zines, New York Review of Books, PM Press, Verso Books, D&B’s Pop Up Radical Lit Station and others for an all day celebration and sale of books, posters, prints. Food and drinks available throughout. The Brooklyn Commons 388 Atlantic Avenue/Brooklyn • mepnet.wpenginepowered.com • thecommonsbrooklyn.org A, C TO HOYT SCHERMERHORN/F, G TO BERGEN / 2, 3, B, D, N, Q TO ATLANTIC AVE | Support left artists and publishers this winter holiday season. Food and drinks available throughout. Some live readings throughout the event. | 11/8/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/book-poster-and-print-sale/ | 12/6/2015 12:00 | 12/6/2015 20:00 | |||
| TOPLAB turns 25 | “We must emphasize: What Brecht does not want is that the spectators continue to leave their brains with their hats upon entering the theater, as do bourgeois spectators.” —Augusto Boal The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) turned 25-years-old this year and we are celebrating with a low-keyed birthday party on Sunday, November 22, 2015 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm No long-winded speeches, no somber introspection, no academic discourse and analysis. Just good company, good conversation and light-spirited merry-making. Snacks, wine and beer from The Commons’ cash bar. TOPLAB, an all-woman teaching collective, was founded in 1990 and is the oldest group in the United States offering training in the techniques and methodology of the Theater of the Oppressed (TO). We have enjoyed a close relationship with Augusto Boal, the founder of TO, and our facilitators have collaborated closely with him from our start until his death in 2009. TOPLAB offers monthly training workshops, open to the general public, and also creates and facilitates workshops for specific communities, organizations and constituencies designed to meet the needs of the people involved. Since our beginning, TOPLAB has been committed to making TO accessible to as many people as possible by keeping our fees and tuition rates low. We do not seek funding from foundations or government agencies, and we certainly do not seek money from corporations and for-profit enterprises—and we never will. Most of all, we are committed to changing the world, to abolishing an unjust, exploitative economic system and transforming the world into a place where wealth is owned, shared and controlled by society as a whole, for the benefit of all. TOPLAB owes its success to its many friends, associates and comrades, and all are invited to celebrate our 25th birthday. Please RSVP to toplabnyc@gmail.com to let us know that you will be coming. “I believe that all the truly revolutionary theatrical groups should transfer to the people the means of production in the theater so that the people themselves may utilize them. The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it” —Augusto Boal | No long-winded speeches, no somber introspection, no academic discourse and analysis. Just good company, good conversation and light-spirited merry-making. | 11/11/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/toplab-turns-25/ | 11/22/2015 17:00 | 11/22/2015 19:00 | |||
| Last night: Seven Essential Steps in Marx’s Dialectical Method | Last night with Bertell Ollman January 27 Concluding night open to public The seven essential steps in the dialectical method developed by Karl Marx are ontology, epistemology, process of abstraction, inquiry, self-clarification, exposition and practice. Most distortions of Marx’s dialectics result from leaving out one or more of these steps, confusing the order in which to present them, playing down or dismissing their internal relations, and neglecting to repeat these steps, again and again, once you arrive at the end. This allows what one has learned about ‘practice’, for example, to play a role in the application of the earlier steps. There is also the problem of getting one or more these steps wrong, but among Marxists this may be even less frequent, and therefore less serious, than the ones listed. My aim throughout goes beyond explaining Marx’s method to helping people think, study and act more dialectically. BERTELL OLLMAN is a professor of politics at NYU. He received his D.Phil. at Oxford University in 1967, and has also taught at the University of the West Indies (Jamaica) and been a Visiting Professor at Oxford and Columbia Universities. Since 1970, he has given about 280 lectures in a dozen countries on different aspects of Marxist theory. Professor Ollman has written and edited fifteen books, including Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society, Social and Sexual Revolution: Essays on Marx and Reich, Dialectical Investigations, How to Take an Exam…and Remake the World, and most recently Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Method. He is also the creator of Class Struggle, the world’s first Marxist board game—from 1978-1983 he was president of Class Struggle, Inc., the company that produced and marketed the game. In 1978, after being offered and then denied the chairmanship of the Government Department at the University of Maryland, he became the principal in one of the most important academic freedom struggles of the last half century. Ballbuster? True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman (2002) offers an autobiographical account of both struggles, missing neither the politics nor the humor. In 2001, Bertell Ollman won the first Charles McCoy Life Achievement Award from the New Political Science section of the American Political Science Association. Most of his writings, including the chapters in the two books recommended above, can be found on his website www.dialecticalmarxism.com All registered students are admitted No one turned away for inability to pay The Brooklyn Commons auditorium 388 Atlantic Avenue/Brooklyn • mepnet.wpenginepowered.com • thecommonsbrooklyn.org | “My aim throughout goes beyond explaining Marx’s method to helping people think, study and act more dialectically. ” —Bertell Ollman | 11/29/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/seven-essential-steps-in-marxs-dialectical-method/ | Marxist Method | 1/27/2016 19:30 | 1/27/2016 21:30 | ||
| Russia: 1917-1921, The October Revolution to the End of the Civil War | Revolutions Study Group The “October Revolution” through the End of the Civil War, 1917-1921 Mondays, 7:30-9:30 p.m., begins January 25 and ends April 25 Contact: https://www.facebook.com/RevolutionsStudyGroup/ This is a 12-week session One has the option to pay $10 per session (no one is turned away for inability to pay) Over this year, the MEP Revolutions Study Group is studying the Russian Revolution of 1917, debating its successes and its failures in terms of the ideals and purposes of its participants and its relevance in the 21st century. This term will cover the new Soviet state through the long civil war to the consolidation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Previously, we have reviewed the establishment in November 1917 of a government in Russia based on soviets (workers councils) and led by the Bolshevik Party. Those who participate in the Revolutions Study Group come to these studies with differing left political perspectives. Our goal is not to confirm a “correct” point of view, but to refine all our understandings of this history to inform our political praxis. All viewpoints are welcome. There is not a prerequisite this upcoming study. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. While individual participants may come and go, the group has held together, studying in depth a range of history including the French Revolution, the Mau-Mau Revolt, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May 1968 movement in France, a survey of the Italian left after WWII, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International with an emphasis on German Social Democracy, and the 1905 Russian revolution and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. Texts and readings for this term are: • Rabinowitch, Alexander, The Bolsheviks in Power (the primary text for the study) • Chamberlin, William Henry, The Russian Revolution, 2 volumes (selections; both semesters; scans will be available in Drop Box ) • Avrich, Paul, Kronstadt, 1921 (scan will be available in Drop Box) • Serge, Victor, Year One of the Russian Revolution • Supplemental articles and primary documents (most available at Marxist Internet Archive, at www.marxists.org or will be posted in Drop Box) | “…those who lived through the enthusiasm of the first years of the first victorious socialist revolution ought not to forget it. ” ― Victor Serge | 12/13/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/russia-1917-1921-the-october-revolution-to-the-end-of-the-civil-war/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 1/25/2016 19:30 | 1/25/2016 19:30 | ||
| Hegel’s Philosophy of History (1837) | Seminar of the NYC Marxist Hegel-Studies Collective Spring 2016 / Conducted by Russell Dale Fridays, 6 to 8 pm February 19 through May 6 Hegel’s philosophy has had a great influence on much of what has happened in the world since his time (1770 – 1831) and is crucial to understanding much of modern social thought and philosophy as well as to understanding Marxism and the socialist tradition in its varied aspects. Hegel’s Philosophy of History gives Hegel’s theory of the nature and development of history. It is essential for understanding Hegel’s overall project and therefore it is essential for understanding the works of Marx and Engels as well. Marx and Engels’s own theory of historical materialism was explicitly developed in opposition to Hegel’s theory of history. (We will read be reading Marx and Engels’ German Ideology in which they first gave their materialist conception of history in a class next year, so this current course will be excellent preparation for that.) This term (Spring 2016) we will read and discuss the entirety of Hegel’s Philosophy of History over 12 weeks. The course will start with an historical and philosophical introduction so that nobody will be lost, even if they have not studied much philosophy or Hegel before. An important part of our discussion will be the socially reactionary conclusions that Hegel ultimately drew, while at the same time Hegel’s work became inspirational for so many radical and progressive thinkers as well, including Marx and Engels. We will give special attention to and treatment of the fact that Hegel had white-supremacist, racist views, and played an important role in the development of the pseudo-science of biological race theory. We will look at what these views mean for the tradition of thought that stems from Hegel, which includes some of the greatest thinkers of African descent in the twentieth century, such as W. E. B. DuBois, C. L. R. James, Frantz Fanon and others. The course will run for 12 weeks on Friday evenings from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM starting on Friday, February 19 and continuing until Friday, May 6, 2016. We will be reading the edition of Hegel’s Philosophy of History translated by J. Sibree, and published by Dover. (Arrangements will be made for students who cannot afford to buy a copy of this book, which costs about $10 new online.) Russell Dale is an activist and a philosopher. He teaches philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. He taught classes on Hegel and various other topics for the last six years. Russell is also on the Manuscript Collective and Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society, as well as on the Local Station Board of radio station WBAI, 99.5 FM (wbai.org). No one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx and Engels’s own theory of historical materialism was explicitly developed in opposition to Hegel’s theory of history. | 12/14/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-philosophy-of-history-1837/ | 2/19/2016 18:00 | 2/19/2016 20:00 | |||
| The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play | A 10-week course with Dan Karan Mondays, February 1-April 4, 5:30 to 7:30 pm This 10-week class will explore the music of Frank Zappa, one of the most important (and delectably enjoyable) composers of the late 20th century. Racist, sexist/misogynist, homophobe, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, Zappa was accused of them all at one point or another in his nearly 30 year career. Misunderstood? Well, Zappa was no socialist for sure; yet, from his first release, Freak Out, in 1966 until his premature death in 1993, he was always a keen (and often very funny) observer and critic of American society; its popular culture, politics, organized religions, mainstream education, censorship, and everything in between. Freak Out included “Trouble Every Day” about the Watts riots while Absolutely Free, the Mothers second release in 1967 included “Plastic People”, Zappa’s critical take on hippie culture. Later came songs such as “Dickie’s Such an Asshole” (about Richard Nixon) and “Lonesome Cowboy Burt (Swaggert Version)” and “Jesus Thinks You’re a Jerk” (about televangelists Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Baker and Pat Robertson) and the full-length musical (?) Thing-Fish about an evil, racist prince/theater critic who creates a disease intended to wipe out African Americans and homosexuals and tests it on prisoners who are turned into “Mammy Nuns” led by the story’s narrator, Thing-Fish (a reference to the “Kingfish” character from the 1920-1950s Amos and Andy radio program). And then there’s the music…some of the most creative and complex compositions that drew from, combined, deconstructed and or thoroughly destroyed rock, “pop,” jazz, classical, music concrete, blues, R&B, doo-wop, Broadway show-tunes and more. We will explore Zappa’s music by: • We will be reading Ben Watson’s Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play (informed by Frankfurt School theorist Theodore Adorno’s Negative Dialectics). The book is out of print but reasonably priced used copies are available through Abebooks.com, Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com; • Listening to Zappa’s music; music that influenced him (e.g., Edgar Varese, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern); and music influenced by him (e.g., the legendary Czech band The Plastic People of the Universe; England’s Henry Cow; Italy’s Area (an “Autonomia” movement band); German “Krautrock” band Faust; Sweden’s Zamla Mannas Manna; Maryland’s The Muffins; Cleveland’s Pere Ubu; and, many other bands you may well have never heard). • Viewing a classic early mid-70s Zappa concert. Dan Karan has been studying Marxist theory and listening to all manner of music for 40 years. The first record he ever owned was Zappa’s 1969 Hot Rats. His first concert at age 14 was a Zappa show. | “A mind is like a parachute—it doesn’t work unless it’s open.” —Frank Zappa | 12/14/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-negative-dialectics-of-poodle-play/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/1/2016 17:30 | 2/1/2016 19:30 | ||
| Prison and Social Death | A presentation on his book with Joshua M. Price Discussion to be moderated by Silvia Federici The United States imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. To be sentenced to prison is to face systematic violence, humiliation, and, perhaps worst of all, separation from family and community. It is, to borrow Orlando Patterson’s term for the utter isolation of slavery, to suffer “social death.” In Prison and Social Death, Joshua Price exposes the unexamined cost that prisoners pay while incarcerated and after release, drawing upon hundreds of often harrowing interviews conducted with people in prison, parolees, and their families. Price argues that the prison separates prisoners from desperately needed communities of support from parents, spouses, and children. Moreover, this isolation of people in prison renders them highly vulnerable to other forms of violence, including sexual violence. Price stresses that the violence they face goes beyond physical abuse by prison guards and it involves institutionalized forms of mistreatment, ranging from abysmally poor health care to routine practices that are arguably abusive, such as pat-downs, cavity searches, and the shackling of pregnant women. And social death does not end with prison. The condition is permanent, following people after they are released from prison. Finding housing, employment, receiving social welfare benefits, and regaining voting rights are all hindered by various legal and other hurdles. The mechanisms of social death, Price shows, are also informal and cultural. Ex-prisoners face numerous forms of distrust and are permanently stigmatized by other citizens around them. A compelling blend of solidarity, civil rights activism, and social research, Prison and Social Death offers a unique look at the American prison and the excessive and unnecessary damage it inflicts on prisoners and parolees. Joshua M. Price, is an associate professor of sociology at SUNY Binghamton. Prison and Social Death, Rutgers University Press, 2015, has come out of a project in which Joshua participated between 2004 and 2007, together with students and other community members, investigating the healthcare conditions of prisoners in upstate New York. He interviewed 150 people at the Broome County Correctional Facility and twenty former prisoners at the office of the NAACP. Among the organizations he contacted in the course of his project there were INCITE, Critical Resistance and the New York Prison Justice Network. Joshua Price is also the author of Structural Violence: Hidden Brutality in the Lives of Women. He is the Director of the Broome County Jail Health Project based in upstate New York. Silvia Federici is a feminist activist, writer, and a teacher. In 1972 she was one of the co-founders of the International Feminist Collective, the organization that launched the international campaign for Wages For Housework. From 1987 to 2005 she taught international studies, women studies, and political philosophy courses at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. All through these years she has written books and essays on philosophy and feminist theory, women’s history, education and culture, and more recently the worldwide struggle against capitalist globalization and for a feminist reconstruction of the commons. No one turned away for inability to pay | …social death does not end with prison. The condition is permanent, following people after they are released from prison…the mechanisms of social death, Price shows, are also informal and cultural. | 12/16/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/prison-and-social-death/ | 2/15/2016 19:30 | 2/15/2016 21:30 | |||
| Living Radical, Living Female | A 10-week course with Lisa Maya Knauer Mondays, 5:30 to 7:30 pm THIS CLASS WILL BE DELAYED FOR ONE WEEK AS LISA KNAUER CAN NOT GET OUT OF GUATEMALA ON TIME DUE TO EAST COAST SNOWSTORM—NEW STARTING DATE IS FEBRUARY 1 Women have played an important role in nearly every radical and revolutionary movement in modern times — as activists, theorists and visionaries. However, they have often had to struggle against not only societal expectation of women but also the machismo of their male comrades in struggle. This class will explore how radical women have narrated their lives and imagined different futures through a consideration of fictional and autobiographical works by and about women radicals, ranging from Alexandra Kollontai to Black Panther women. We will begin by reading Olive Schreiner’s The Story of An African Farm, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1441/1441-h/1441-h.htm, Alexandra Kollontai’s Love of Worker Bees, Emma Goldman’s Living My Life (excerpts: entire 993-page book is available at http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-living-my-life), Meridel LeSueur’s The Girl, and continue with works by Tillie Olsen, Josephine Herbst, Alice Walker, along with selections from the autobiographies of Angela Davis and Elaine Brown. Lisa Maya Knauer has been collaborating with anti-extractivist groups in Guatemala for the last several years. She is currently researching a book on indigenous resistance, autonomy and alternative citizenships and the neoliberal extractivist state. (no class on March 14) | We will examine how radical women have narrated their lives and imagined different futures through a consideration of both fictional and autobiographical works . | 12/16/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/living-radical-living-female/ | 2/1/2016 17:30 | 2/1/2016 19:30 | |||
| Our Mother Ocean | Book discussion with Silvia Federici Our Mother Ocean: Enclosure, Commons, and the Global Fishermen’s Movement By Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Monica Chilese Translation and Preface by Silvia Federici The ocean today is a central protagonist in the ongoing battle for life on earth. It is the site of a violent clash between the right to live and the right to profit, as corporate interests enclose the ocean’s vast common of living riches through tourism and industrial fishing—distorting landscapes, depleting fish stocks, and destroying barriers to protection against climate disaster. Our Mother Ocean tells the story of the Fisherman’s Movement from its beginnings in Southern India to its central role in the struggle against neoliberal globalization. Since the 1970s, the Fisherman’s Movement has been one of the ocean’s closest and most impassioned protectors, raising key questions concerning the relationship between work and the safeguarding of common resources, the provision of community needs and environmental limits of the devastating industrialization of our oceans. While a remarkable political awareness has spread over the last 40 years around questions of food, agriculture and land, the issues of the sea have remained concealed, despite the protracted struggles between fish workers and those who oversee the sector and the exploitation of the ocean’s resources. In this crucial intervention, Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Monica Chilese offer the ocean to the land-locked history of food sovereignty movements led primarily workers in the global South against dispossession. Dalla Costa and Chilese draw attention to the polyvalent functions of the ocean as a source of food, medicine, raw materials, biodiversity and culture—and as a site of human labor and livelihood threatened by vast enclosures through industrial fishing and tourism. This book is an urgent reminder that the ocean is today the site of a heroic struggle for the preservation of life on earth. It points crucially to impassioned sectors of the movement of movements that endure in the global South, and details the stakes of the struggles and its outcomes on land and at sea as central for the future of life on earth. The emergence of [the] fisher as part of the movement against neoliberal globalization is beautifully understood in this book. I applaud the authors’ passionate portrayal of workers on the sea as an organic part of those of us who wish to protect Nature against the rapacious excesses of capitalism. —George Katsiaficas, author of Asia’s Unknown Uprisings, Vols. 1 and 2, and The Subversion of Politics Silvia Federici is a feminist writer, teacher, and activist. Her most recent book is Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (Common Notions/PM Press, 2012). She was cofounder of the International Feminist Collective, an organizer with the Wages for housework campaign, member of Midnight Notes Collective, as well as ongoing and far-ranging participant in movements around the world. Mariarosa Dalla Costa is an influential author and international feminist who has devoted her theoretical and practical efforts to the study of the female condition in capiitalist development. In addition to her seminal book The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community, coauthored with Selma James, her most recent books include Our Mother Ocean: Enclosure, Commons, and the Global Fishermen’s Movement (Common Notions, 2014) as well as Family, Welfare, and the State: Between Progressivism and the New Deal (Common Notions, 2015). Monica Chilese is a political sociologist at the University of Padua, where she devotes her study to the question of ecology, giving special attention to the marine environment, the impoverishment of the fisheries, and the analysis of social problems. Our Mother Ocean: Enclosure, Commons, and the Global Fishermen’s Movement Author: Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Monica Chilese ISBN: 978-1-942173-00-7 Publisher: Common Notions Publication Date: March 1 2015 List Price: $15.95 More book info: http://www.commonnotions.org/our-mother-ocean | I applaud the authors’ passionate portrayal of workers on the sea as an organic part of those of us who wish to protect Nature against the rapacious excesses of capitalism. —George Katsiaficas | 12/17/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/our-mother-ocean/ | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/3/2016 19:30 | 2/3/2016 21:30 | ||
| Death to Bourgeois Society | Book Release and Discussion with Mitch Abidor Death to Bourgeois Society: The Propagandists of the Deed Perhaps no period has so marked, so deformed, or so defined the anarchist movement as the three years in France from 1892 to 1894, the years known as the Age of Attentats, the years dominated by the Propagandists of the Deed. Death to Bourgeois Society tells the story of four young anarchists who were guillotined in France in the 1890s. Their courage was motivated by noble ideals whose realization they saw their bombs and assassinations as hastening. In a time of cynicism and political decay for many, they represented a purity lacking in society, and their actions when they were captured, their forthrightness, their defiance up to the guillotine only added to their luster. The texts collected in Death to Bourgeois Society focus on the main avatars of this movement: the grave robber/murderer/terrorist Ravachol; Auguste Vaillant, who bombed the Chamber of Deputies; Emile Henry, who attacked both the bourgeois in their class function and their very existence; and the Italian immigrant Santo Caserio, who brought down the curtain on the age when he assassinated the French president Sadi Carnot. The volume contains key first person narratives of the events, from Ravachol’s forbidden speech and his account of his life, to Henry’s questioning at his trial and his programmatic letter to the director of the prison in which he was held, to Vaillant’s confrontation with the investigators immediately after tossing his bomb, and Caserio’s description of the assassination and his defense at his trial. “Excellently edited collection of inspired and thoughtful reflections.” —Andrej Grubacic, coauthor of Wobblies & Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History Mitchell Abidor is the principal French translator for the Marxists Internet Archive and has published several collections of his translations. Mitch recently translated Jean Jáurès’ Socialist History of the French Revolution and A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove and is currently working on translations of further unpublished works by Victor Serge and Daniel Guérin. PM Press/Revolutionary Pocketbooks ISBN: 978-1-62963-112-7 Published: 02/2016 Format: Paperback Size: 8×5 Page count: 128 | Death to Bourgeois Society tells the story of four young anarchists who were guillotined in France in the 1890s. | 12/17/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/death-to-bourgeois-society/ | 1/26/2016 19:30 | 1/26/2016 21:30 | |||
| Latin America: Colonized and Post-Colonial Attempts at Liberation | Outside Views / Inside Stories: Indigenous People’s Reading Group 10 more weeks Our group will really get going on Thursday, January 28 beginning first with Elena Poniatowska’s investigation and Bolaño’s novel on the 1968 massacre at Tlatelolco, setting the stage for the history of Latin America, Mexico in particular. On Elena Poniatowska’s Massacre in Mexico: Elena found out about the massacre on the evening of October 2, 1968, when her son was only four months old. Afterwards, Poniatowska went out on the streets in the neighborhood and began interviewing people while there was still blood on the streets and shoes strewn about and women searching for the children who had not come home. The books contains interviews with informants, eyewitnesses, former prisoners which are interspersed with poems by Octavio Paz and Rosario Castellanos, excepts from pre Hispanic texts and newspaper as well as political slogans Massacre in Mexico was the only book published on the subject for twenty years, contradicting the government’s account of the events and the number dead. The government offered her the Xavier Villaurrutia Award in 1970 for the work but she refused it. On the Tlatelolco massacre, Poniatowska achieves two things. One, is that she documents the utter chaos of the killings. Second, she makes clear the immense level of organization there was to the killings. Lets start with the chaos. This comes mostly from the initial reactions of those who were there. There is the anthropologist, Magarita Nolasco, who can’t wrap her head around the amount of blood that is spilled. She uses the word “sticky”, and indeed to track the amount of times the word “blood” is used in her account helps that detail “stick” in a reader’s mind. Nolasco also notes the indistinguishable bodies piling up, how she thought any one of them might be her son. Then, there is Jose Ramiro Munoz’s story of his confusion when his friend never returned from the Plaza. One mother, Elvira B. de Concheiro expressed how dumbfounded she was when the helicopter began firing-like in a movie. She stated, “I wandered around in a daze….until finally someone grabbed me by the arm and stopped me” John Schultz, University of Wooster Roberto Bolaño’s Amulet embodies in one woman’s voice the melancholy and violent history of Latin America. It begins: “This is going to be a horror story. A story of murder, detection and horror. But it won’t appear to be, for the simple reason that I am the teller. Told by me, it won’t seem like that. Although, in fact, it’s the story of a terrible crime.” The speaker is named Auxilio Lacouture, dubbed “the mother of Mexican poetry”, though her own take is, “I could say I am the mother of all Mexican poets, but I better not”. Tall, thin, blonde, and old enough to actually be their mother, she’s a Uruguayan exile living illegally in Mexico City since the 1960s, lending a maternal hand to those in need (even her forename means Help in Spanish), doing odd jobs for old writers and at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature. We will then simultaneously read Galeano’s Open Veins and Fuentes’ Christopher Unborn. In Open Veins of Latin America, Eduardo Galeano analyzes the history of Latin America as a whole, from the time period of the European settlement of the New World to contemporary Latin America, describing the effects of European and later United States economic exploitation and political dominance over the region. Contrast that a Library Journal review stated, “Well written and passionately stated, this is an intellectually honest and valuable study.” We will address the fact that Galeano was openly critical of his work near the end of his life. In Christopher Unborn, Carlos Fuentes depicts a dark future for Mexico. It is a story about disaster and survival. The lead character Christopher Palomar, a wonder boy with excellent language skills and total recall, is the narrator who travels through this pessimistic future, where the people still struggle since the last big earthquake in 1985. The novel has a chapter for each of the nine described months of the story, spread out over Christopher’s whole life, as he follows in his parents’ steps, as they try to save themselves in a chaotic country entering into twilight. “In Christopher Unborn, Carlos Fuentes has imagined the worst for his country’s near future, but he’s done it with so much humor, verve, invention, erudition and baroque whirligig plotting that the result is a vital, hopeful book, a great salvage operation in the trash heaps of Western culture, Spanish literature and Mexican history” —Suzanne Ruta, NY Times The Indigenous People’s Reading Group, which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America. Following an autumn of considering European and Algerian visions of Algeria we will now focus on the Americas this term. This group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous People’s History of the United States. | A unique opportunity to read and discuss the documentary history of the massacre at Tlatelolco side by side with Bolaño’s novel of the same. | 12/21/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/latin-america-colonized-and-post-colonial-attempts-at-liberation/ | 2/4/2016 19:30 | 2/4/2016 21:30 | |||
| Hillary Clinton: Born Again Progressive or Architect of Empire? | Doug Henwood In the current presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton has been acting like some sort of born-again progressive, the reincarnation of Eleanor Roosevelt. Many people are falling for this act. But there’s nothing in her history of hawkishness and service to money and imperial power that should inspire anyone to believe her. Join us for an afternoon with Doug Henwood, who reviews that history in his book My Turn (OR Books http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/my-turn-by-doug-henwood/). Doug Henwood is editor of Left Business Observer, host of Behind the News, and author of Wall Street. He is working on a study of the American ruling class as a rotting social formation. | Doug notes of her review of a book by Henry Kissinger, [S]he praised his “breadth and acuity” and described him as “a friend,” on whose “counsel” she relied while Secretary of State. Her appreciation of her predecessor seems apt. There’s something reminiscent of Kissinger about Hillary – the ruthlessness, the admiration of toughness and force, the penchant for deception and secrecy, the view of diplomacy as war continued by other means. | 12/22/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hillary-clinton-born-again-progressive-or-architect-of-empire/ | 2/28/2016 14:00 | 2/28/2016 16:00 | |||
| Marx, Nature and Capital: A Study Group | An 8-week Session Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Tuesdays, February 2 through March 22 7:30-9:30 p.m. This group will read and discuss works that bring Marxist theory to bear on the environmental crisis and climate change. While it is often asserted that Karl Marx cared only about industrial growth and the development of the productive forces, Marx’s Ecology by John Bellamy Foster reveals Marx’s deep interest in natural science and his lesser-known work on capitalist agriculture, philosophical naturalism, and evolutionary theory. Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life offers a challenging new approach to the capital/nature relationship, grounded in Marxist economics and world-systems analysis. Steve Knight is involved in eco-advocacy as a member of 350NYC, a GreenFaith Fellow working with faith communities, and a certified energy efficiency auditor for multifamily buildings. He has been interested in Marxian analysis and ecosocialism since 2004, when he studied Capital with David Harvey. Fred Murphy studied and taught historical sociology at The New School and has traveled extensively in Latin America as a journalist. He is currently translating the memoirs of Hugo Blanco, a leader and activist in Peru’s peasant, indigenous and environmental movements since the 1950s. | This group will read and discuss works that bring Marxist theory to bear on the environmental crisis and climate change. | 12/23/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-nature-and-capital-a-study-group/ | 2/2/2016 19:30 | 2/2/2016 21:30 | |||
| Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism | Launch event for Palgrave’s Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism Manny Ness with Eric Draitser and Christos Mais The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism is a brand new, two-volume publication which presents theoretical explanations and historical accounts of imperialism and anti-imperialism from the 16th Century to the present day. An indispensable resource for anyone studying or interested in development of capitalism studies, history, anti-imperialist organizing, politics, sociology, or economics, this work contains over 170 entries written by an international team of experts and scholars in the field of imperialism and anti-imperialism. Immanuel Ness is a political economist and professor of Political Science at City University of New York. He edits Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society and is the author of numerous works including Guest Workers and Resistance to U.S. Corporate Despotism and Southern Insurgency: The Making of a Global Working Class. He has worked and organized in the food, maintenance, and publishing industries. Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City and the founder of StopImperialism.com. He is a regular contributor to RT, Counterpunch, New Eastern Outlook, Press TV, and many other news outlets. Visit StopImperialism.com for all his work. Christos Mais was born in Cyprus. He has been involved in the antiwar, anti-imperialist and the internationalist solidarity movements since his student years in Greece. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden focusing his research on the radical publishing of the long 1960s. | Presenting theoretical explanations and historical accounts of imperialism and anti-imperialism from the 16th Century to the present day. | 12/23/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/encyclopedia-of-imperialism-and-anti-imperialism/ | 2/9/2016 19:30 | 2/9/2016 21:30 | |||
| Cambodia: Forced Eviction and the Violence of Law | Rethinking Property and (Dis)possession in Cambodia Simon Springer Monday, February 8, 7:30 to 9:30 pm The unfolding of a legal property-lined system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally recognized antecedents and the written word of law have been at the heart of the recent wave of dispossessions throughout Cambodia. In contrast to the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this talk argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. Whereas possession is a well-understood and accepted concept in Cambodia, a cultural basis rooted in what James C. Scott refers to as orality, coupled with a long history of subsistence agriculture, semi-nomadic lifestyles, barter economies and—until recently—widespread land availability have all ensured that notions of property are vague among the country’s majority rural poor. In drawing a firm distinction between possessions and property, where the former is premised upon actual use and the latter is embedded in exploitation, this talk examines how proprietorship is inextricably bound to the violence of law. Simon Springer, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria, Canada. Prior to this he worked at the University of Otago and the National University of Singapore. Simon’s research agenda explores the political, social, and geographical exclusions that neoliberalization has engendered in post-transitional Cambodia, emphasizing the spatialities of violence and power. He cultivates a cutting edge theoretical approach to his scholarship by foregrounding both poststructuralist critique and a radical revival of anarchist philosophy. He is the author of The Discourse of Neoliberalism: An Anatomy of a Powerful Idea (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Towards Spatial Emancipation (University of Minnesota Press, 2016), Violent Neoliberalism: Development, Discourse and Dispossession in Cambodia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and Cambodia’s Neoliberal Order: Violence, Authoritarianism, and the Contestation of Public Space (Routledge, 2010). | In contrast to the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this talk argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. | 12/23/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cambodia-forced-eviction-and-the-violence-of-law/ | 2/8/2016 19:30 | 2/8/2016 21:30 | |||
| Mexican Workers and the Mexican Labor Movement: A History | Presented by Dan La Botz This course will deal with the history of Mexican workers and their union and political organizations from ancient times until today. The course will look at the political economy and the organization of work from indigenous communal organizations in the pre-Columbian period to the self-organization of workers in the colonial and early independence periods, through the era of the Porfiriate, the Mexican Revolution, and into the modern era. We will look at the interaction between the United States and Mexico and between the U.S. and Mexican labor movements in the modern era and touch on Mexican immigrant workers in the United States. The course will be taught through a combination of lectures, readings, and discussions. Student will read about one or at most two articles of about 70 pages per week. Dan La Botz is the author of several books on Mexican labor and social movements as well as a biography of César Chávez. He was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, later a Socialist Party candidate in Ohio for the U.S. Senate. He was for 20 years the editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis and is currently a co-editor of New Politics (newpol.org). He was a Fulbright scholar in Mexico and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. Most recently he taught Comparative Labor, the Latin American Labor Movement, at the Murphy Institute. | This course will deal with the history of Mexican workers from ancient times until today. The course will look at the political economy and the organization of work from indigenous communal organizations of the pre-Columbian period through the era of the Porfiriate, the Mexican Revolution, and into the modern era including today. | 12/28/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mexican-workers-and-the-mexican-labor-movement-a-history/ | Classes/Events|Labor History | 2/4/2016 17:30 | 2/4/2016 19:30 | ||
| Family, Welfare, and the State: Between Progressivism and the New Deal | A discussion with Silvia Federici concerning Family, Welfare, and the State: Between Progressivism and the New Deal By Mariarosa Dalla Costa with a Preface by Silvia Federici Monday, February 29, 7:30 to 9:30 pm Written in the ten years following the publication of The Power of Women and the Subversion of Community (1972) and the international organizing efforts of the Wages for Housework Campaign, Mariarosa Dalla Costa’s Family, Welfare and the State reflects on the history of struggles around the New Deal in which workers’ initiatives forced a new relationship with the state on the terrain of social reproduction. Were the New Deal and the institutions of the welfare state the saviors of the working class, or were they the destroyers of its self-reproducing capacity? By analyzing the relationship of women and the state, Dalla Costa offers a comprehensive reading of the welfare system through the dynamics of resistance and struggle, the willingness and reluctance to work inside and outside the home, and the relationship with the relief structures that women expressed in the United States during the Great Depression. Three decades later, revisiting the origins of this system on a sociopolitical level its policies governing race, class, and family relations, especially in terms of the role that was delegated to women’s labor power remains vital for a deeper understanding of the historical relationship between women and the state, crisis and resistance, and possibilities for class autonomy. “Dalla Costa shows that with the New Deal, the state began to plan the “social factory” —that is, the home, the family, the school, and above all women’s labor—on which the productivity and pacification of industrial relations was made to rest. Family, Welfare, and The State leaves no doubt that the New Deal was not only the last resort to “save capitalism” from the danger of working class revolution, but was also in essence a productivity deal that was structured to maintain a patriarchal and racist order.” —Silvia Federici, from the Preface Mariarosa Dalla Costa is an influential author and international feminist who has devoted her theoretical and practical efforts to the study of the female condition in capitalist development. In addition to her seminal book The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community, coauthored with Selma James, her most recent books include Our Mother Ocean: Enclosure, Commons, and the Global Fishermen’s Movement (Common Notions, 2014) as well as Family, Welfare, and the State: Between Progressivism and the New Deal (Common Notions, 2015). Silvia Federici is a feminist writer, teacher, and activist. Her most recent book is Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (Common Notions/PM Press, 2012). She was cofounder of the International Feminist Collective, an organizer with the Wages for housework campaign, member of Midnight Notes Collective, as well as ongoing and far-ranging participant in movements around the world. ISBN: 978-1-942173-01-4Ê ¥ÊPublished by Common Notions http://www.commonnotions.org/family-welfare-state | “Family, Welfare, and The State leaves no doubt that the New Deal was not only the last resort to save capitalism from the danger of working class revolution, but was also in essence a productivity deal that was structured to maintain a patriarchal and racist order.” —Silvia Federici, from the Preface | 12/28/2015 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/family-welfare-and-the-state-between-progressivism-and-the-new-deal/ | 2/29/2016 19:30 | 2/29/2016 21:30 | |||
| Oil, War and Value Creation: A Marxist Perspective | Three-session mini-class with George Caffentzis Wednesdays, March 16, 23 and 30 The petroleum industry operates at the intersection of some of the most important political phenomena concerning capitalism of our time, from climate change, to ISIS’s self-declared Caliphate, to volatile oil prices. Thus, understanding its behavior is necessary for any anti-capitalist project. This is the purpose of the course. In the first session we will deal with the fundamental political question of the course: does a Marxist theory of class struggle in capitalism (originating in the 19th century) offer useful conceptual tools for understanding the oil industry in the 21st century? My answer is “Yes,” but bring your “No”s or “Maybe”s for discussion. In the second session we will attend to recent crises and wars in the major oil extracting areas, focusing on the two Gulf Wars, aiming to explain from a Marxist perspective why they occurred and why they have not ended. The third session will deal with the class struggle in and around the oil industry, present and future, especially in the struggle between capitalist planning for an energy transition that will preserve value accumulation and in the creation of an anti-capitalist petroleum commons. Readings include selections from the following books: George Caffentzis ebook, No Blood For Oil!: Essays on Energy, Class Struggle and War, 1998-2012 Karl Marx, Capital Vols. I and III V.I. Lenin, Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism Cyrus Bina, A Prelude to the Foundation of Political Economy: Oil, War and Global Policy Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate Greg Mottitt, Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq Jason Moore, Capitalism in the Web of Life To all those who pre-register I will email a pdf of these selected readings or make another arrangement by contacting me @ caffentz@maine.edu George Caffentzis is a political philosopher and founder of the Midnight Notes Collective. He is also a founding member of the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa. His recent work is In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines and the Crisis of Capitalism, published by PM Press. | Understanding the petroleum industry is necessary for any anti-capitalist project. This is the purpose of the course. | 1/13/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/oil-war-and-value-creation-a-marxist-perspective/ | Class|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 3/16/2016 17:30 | 3/16/2016 19:30 | ||
| On Rebel Friendships and Affinity Groups | An Interactive Talk and Workshop with Benjamin Shephard Rebel Friendships considers the interplay between individuals and their friendships with social movements. The intersections between individual and community, the ways we experiment with social change, explore, create, and reduce the harms of modern living are the work of social movements. Yet, the process is rarely simple. Through auto-ethnographic reflections of experiences with the Beats, ACT-UP, Occupy Wall Street, anti-consumer, queer rights, and non-polluting transportation movements Shepard explores the way friendship infuses social movements with the social capital necessary to move bodies of ideas forward. Such innovation is rarely seen in more institutionalized social arrangements. Rebel Friendships offers a new take on the ties between friends who are connected through affinity and efforts aimed at social change. This workshop explores both the history and applications organizing around friendships. It will begin with a talk and finish with a longer conversation and workshop about friendships. Hopefully we can all make a few along the way. “A daring and innovative approach to social movements – Shepard’s book is a treasure and tool. Taking on the importance of affect, friendship, care and trust in movements he at once teaches the reader and entertains simultaneously. This trailblazing book addresses an area of social movements studies woefully under researched and does a stupendous job of capturing theory, history and feeling – all the while using a narrative form that makes the reader not want to put down the book.” —Marina Sitrin, author of Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina and co-author of They Can’t Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy. Benjamin Shepard, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Human Service at New York School of Technology/City University of New York. As a social worker he worked in AIDS housing settings from San Francisco to Chicago to New York, where he directed the start ups for two congregate housing programs for people with HIV/AIDS, as well as served as Deputy Director at CitiWide Harm Reduction.. Much of Dr. Shepard’s scholarship is based on the ethnographic study of social services and social movements. Recent works include Play, Creativity, and the New Community Organizing (Routledge, 2011), Queer Political Performance and Protest (Routledge, 2009), The Beach Beneath the Streets: Exclusion, Control, and Play in Public Space (co-written with Greg Smithsimon) (SUNY Press, 2011) and Community Projects as Social Activism (Sage). He has done organizing work with Occupy Wall Street, AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), SexPanic!, Reclaim the Streets New York, Times UP, the Clandestine Rebel Clown Army, the Absurd Response Team, CitiWide Harm Reduction, Housing Works, the More Gardens Coalition, and the Times UP Bike Lane Liberation Front and Garden Working Groups. Combing ethnography with social change activism, his work considers the interplay between lived experience and history, between theory and practice. From Ben: “We need rebel friends, not facebook friends,” declared John Jordan. When I heard him say that, I started writing Rebel Friendships: “Outsider” Networks and Social Movements. It is a book inspired by the world of organizing we have all created, along with the lovely and messy ways we go about creating change through our own invisible committees, affinity groups, and networks of comrads. Some of the chapters I’ve been drafting for years now. The work covers my experiences with the first person I know to die of AIDS, my godfather Fred, who worked at Keller’s bar on the West Side of Manhattan, my recollections of towel snapping and high school football, identify blurring AIDS activism in San Francisco, drag marches in New York, anarchist bikers, Occupiers, and universal stories of friends still taking care of each other and their friends coping with premature losses, overdose, and struggles over what we hope our world can be. | Benjamin Shepard explores the way friendship infuses social movements with the social capital necessary to move bodies of ideas forward…offering a new take on the ties between friends who are connected through affinity and efforts aimed at social change. | 1/20/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/on-rebel-friendships-and-affinity-groups/ | 3/14/2016 19:30 | 3/14/2016 21:30 | |||
| István Mészáros’ The Challenge & Burden of Historical Time | 10 Sessions:Wednesdays, February 17 – April 20 21st Century Socialism Study Group Capital cannot tolerate any limitations to its own mode of social metabolic reproduction. Accordingly, considerations of time are totally inadmissable to it if they call for restraining its uncontrollable imperative for capital expansion. There can be no exemption from that imperative. Not even when the devastating consequences are already glaringly obvious both in the field of production and on the terrain of the ecology. The only modality of time in which capital can be interested is exploitable labor time. —István Mészáros, from the Introduction to The Challenge and Burden of Historical Time Over ten weeks, we will read through this important book by Iztvan Mézáros. From a recent interview with Mézáros Eleonora de Lucena: What are your expectations about socialism or communism in the future? Will it happen? Is it simply an unattainable goal? How about the risk of barbarism? István Mészáros: I wrote in a book [The 21st Century: socialism or barbarism] published also in Brazil that if I had to modify today Rosa Luxemburg’s famous words about “socialism or barbarism” I would have to add: “Barbarism if we are lucky.” Because the extermination of humanity is the unfolding menace. For as long as we fail to solve our grave problems, which extend over all dimensions of our existence and relationship to nature, that danger will remain on our horizon. The 21st Century Socialism Study Group will begin this term and continue with a range of works that pose essential questions for developing a critique of the capitalist world order and prospects for building a movement towards socialism in our time, now 150 years since Karl Marx published Volume I of Capital and one century since the first socialist revolution took place in Russia near the end of the capitalist bloodbath of World War I. | Capital cannot tolerate any limitations to its own mode of social metabolic reproduction…not even when the devastating consequences are already glaringly obvious both in the field of production and on the terrain of the ecology. The only modality of time in which capital can be interested is exploitable labor time. | 1/27/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/istvan-meszaros-the-challenge-burden-of-historical-time/ | 21st Century Socialism|Marxist Theory|Strategy | 2/17/2016 19:30 | 2/17/2016 21:30 | ||
| Student, Worker and People’s Movements in South Africa | The Practice of Popular Politics and Urban Land Occupations Camalita Naicker From a recent piece by Camalita written in Kafila: There is no doubt therefore, that what we are witnessing is a revolutionary political moment in history. Midnight’s children are learning to walk and talk. They are also learning that they have not been ‘born free,’ and their freedom is necessarily and inextricably linked to the freedom of those around them. If sustained, this collective form of politics and mass mobilization reminiscent of the 1980s people’s power movements could change the country’s political trajectory and demonstrate to Zuma and the shadowy figure of what was once the African National Congress that, as the shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo puts it: Amandla ngawethu inkani (the power is ours by force). Camalita Naicker is a PhD candidate at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa with a focu on urban land occupations. She is an important student activist in the student movement and particularly in the recent “stop-all fees- movement.” She has also done studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi | “There is no doubt therefore, that what we are witnessing is a revolutionary political moment in history. Midnight’s children are learning to walk and talk. ” —Camalita Naicker | 1/28/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/student-worker-and-peoples-movements-in-south-africa/ | South Africa|South African students | 1/31/2016 14:30 | 1/31/2016 16:30 | ||
| Abe and Julia: Honor and Survival During Hoover’s Reign | A celebration of the lives of Abe and Julia Kotelchuck An evening with David Kotelchuck, author of a new book on his parents just published by Blue Thread, an imprint of Jewish Currents Abe and Julia Kotelchuck were pursued as Communist Party activists by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI with a relentless vindictiveness that reached deep into their work and family lives for well over two decades. This thoroughly researched memoir by their adult son, Dr. David Kotelchuck, uses 2,200 pages of Abe’s and Julia’s FBI files, interviews with family members, news articles (particularly by the great independent journalist, I.F. Stone), books by historians of the McCarthy Era, and personal memory to create a portrait of resistance to government repression that is at once chilling and heartwarming. Kotelchuck reveals his parents as “persons of great moral courage” who “refused to change their views in the face of governmental persecution.” He also reveals Hoover’s FBI as using dirty tricks, forgeries, illegal wiretaps, and intimidation while “hounding . . . domestic opponents of U.S. policies during the Cold War period, often illegally, without prior evidence of or subsequent findings of wrong-doing,” a pattern that “deserves public attention as our country continues to this day to struggle with individual citizens’ rights to dissent from and organize against governmental policies on the one hand, and the nation’s right to investigate and protect itself from potential domestic and foreign threats on the other.” You can order the book from Jewish Currents as follows: http://jewishcurrents.bigcartel.com/product/abe-and-julia-honor-and-survival-during-hoover-s-reign-by-david-kotelchuck Dr. David Kotelchuck is Professor Emeritus of Occupational and Environmental Health at the Hunter College School of Health Sciences, City University of New York. His Ph.D. is in high-energy physics from Cornell University, and he holds an MPH in Occupational Health from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Kotelchuck has worked as director of health and safety for the United Electrical Workers union and was a founder of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at Hunter. He has a long record of civil rights, labor, environmental, and public health activism, and has worked closely with several unions on worker safety issues. He and his wife Ronda, who has had a distinguished career in preventive and primary-care medical delivery, have two children and six grandchildren. | Kotelchuck reveals his parents as “persons of great moral courage” who “refused to change their views in the face of governmental persecution.” He also reveals Hoover’s FBI as using dirty tricks, forgeries, illegal wiretaps, and intimidation while “hounding . . . domestic opponents of U.S. policies during the Cold War period, often illegally… | 1/28/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/abe-and-julia-honor-and-survival-during-hoovers-reign/ | Anti-communism|courage|honesty|surveillance|wiretapping | 4/26/2016 19:30 | 4/26/2016 21:30 | ||
| It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment | Book release celebration and discussion with Pete Dolack It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment analyzes the 20th century attempts to supplant capitalism to gain understandings for the emerging and future movements that seek to overcome the political, economic and environmental crises of today. As millions of people around the world question the economic assumptions that they have long lived with, it is inevitable that they will want to know more about attempts to supplant capitalism in the past. It’s Not Over examines this history, from the Paris Commune to the fall of the Soviet Union. The book analyzes the development of the October Revolution, fully in context with its isolation after the failure of the German revolution, and the Soviet Union╒s trajectory and fall. The Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia and Sandinista Nicaragua are also examined in detail. The book concludes with a chapter on the limitations of capitalism, and ideas and discussion of what a better world might look like. This history lives through the words and actions of the men and women who made these revolutions, and the everyday experiences of the millions of people who put new revolutionary ideas into practice under the pressures of enormous internal and external forces. As Cold War taboos on honest discussions of capitalism and socialism lose their force, important books like this are emerging. They ask why capitalism keeps provoking movements to go beyond it, why they have not yet achieved that goal, and what we must learn from them so the next efforts prove more effective. Dolack here contributes to the vital emerging answers. —Rick Wolff, author of Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism and host of the Economic Update radio program Pete Dolack is an activist, writer and photographer who has worked with several organizations focusing on human rights, social justice, environmental and trade issues. He writes about the economic crisis and the political and environmental issues connected to it on the Systemic Disorder blog. His articles have appeared in popular publications including CounterPunch, ZNet, The Ecologist and Green Social Thought. It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment Publisher: Zero Books Publication date: February 26, 2016 http://www.zero-books.net/books/its-not-over | This history lives through the words and actions of the men and women who made these revolutions, and the everyday experiences of the millions of people who put new revolutionary ideas into practice under the pressures of enormous internal and external forces. | 1/30/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/its-not-over-learning-from-the-socialist-experiment/ | Socialism | 3/7/2016 19:30 | 3/7/2016 21:30 | ||
| Paget Henry’s 70th Year: A Symposium and Celebration | Organized by The Caribbean Philosophical Association Co-sponsors: The Caribbean Philosophical Association and The Marxist Education Project Special tributes by: Donna Edmonds Mitchell First Nation activist, community scholar, poet and creative artist Elaine Olaoye Professor and poet Participants Include: Linda Alcoff, Philosophy, Hunter College & CUNY Karida Brown, Sociology, Brown University Drucilla Cornell, Political Science and WGSS, Rutgers University Jane Gordon, Political Science and Africana Studies, UCONN Lewis Gordon, Philosophy and Africana Studies, UCONN Aaron Kamugisha, Cultural Studies, UWI, Cave Hill, Barbados Ashmita Khasnabish, Writing, Literature and Publishing, Emerson College Teodros Kiros, Liberal Arts, Berklee College of Music Natasha Lightfoot, History, Columbia University Susan Lowes, Teacher’s College, Columbia University James Manigault-Bryant, Africana Studies, Williams College Rekha Menon, Liberal Arts, Berklee College of Music Tracey Nicholls, Philosophy, Lewis University Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Stony Brook; New York Institute for the Arts, NYU Neil Roberts, Africana Studies and Political Science, Williams College Ambassador Walton Watson All are welcome. Attendance is free. For more information contact info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com or Jane Gordon (janeannagordon@gmail.com) | 1/30/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/paget-henrys-70th-year-a-symposium-and-celebration/ | Caribbean Studies | 4/2/2016 9:00 | 4/2/2016 17:00 | |||
| Marxism, Science and the Anthropocene | A Study Group convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Tuesdays, April 12 through June 7, no class May 17 This group will read and discuss classic and contemporary works in the Marxist tradition that address the nexus of capitalism, science, nature, and climate change. The central text will be McKenzie Wark’s Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene, along with selections from Engels’s Dialectics of Nature and work by Donna Haraway, Carolyn Merchant, George Caffentzis, Jason Moore and others. As Wark has noted, “the Western Marxist tradition typically disqualified the sciences as fetishes of the particular, unable to grasp the totality. But climate science in particular takes as its object totality in a quite different sense: the totality of metabolic processes that take place on a planetary scale, and in particular the contribution of collective human labor to those processes. Given what we now know about climate change, the nexus of labor, techne and nature seems like an important one.” Steve Knight is involved in eco-advocacy as a member of 350NYC, a GreenFaith Fellow working with faith communities, and a certified energy efficiency auditor for multifamily buildings. He has been interested in Marxian analysis and ecosocialism since 2004, when he studied Capital with David Harvey. Fred Murphy studied and taught historical sociology at The New School and has co-led several MEP courses. His adolescent dream of a career as a research chemist was diverted by the sixties radicalization, but he has never lost interest in the sciences. | This group will read and discuss classic and contemporary works in the Marxist tradition that address the nexus of capitalism, science, nature, and climate change. | 2/21/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-science-and-the-anthropocene/ | Anthropocene|Climate Change|science | Climate Change|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/12/2016 7:30 | 4/12/2016 21:30 | |
| What Is Capitalism? | Dan Karan Mondays, 5:30 to 7:30 pm a Nine Week Course from March 28 to May 23 Capitalism is written and talked about all the time by both its critics and defenders, yet surprisingly, the term is rarely if ever defined. Many simply assume we all know and agree on what capitalism is and so there is no need for any further description or definition. This simply isn’t true. In fact, there are huge debates and little agreement on this very question. “So what”, we hear you say? “Who cares? Does this even matter? Isn’t this just another silly armchair academic debate over how many 1-percenters can dance on the head of a pin?” Actually, it matters a lot. Why? Well, for one thing, if we don’t define what capitalism is then what does it means to be ”anti-capitalist”? Don’t we first have to know what something is to know what it is we’re against? Otherwise, how can we ever know if the movement we’re building is based on strategies, tactics, issues and demands that, even if successful, will actually move us beyond capitalism instead of once again simply reinforcing its rule? This class will explore what capitalism is through a close and critical reading of The Origins of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood, whose range as a scholar was extraordinary, covering subjects as diverse as ancient Greece, early modern political thought, contemporary political theory, Marxism and the structure and evolution of capitalism. Sadly, Ellen Meiksins Wood died January of this year. Some of the topics the class will cover include the relationship between capitalism and: * Class, Race and Gender * Waged and Unwaged Labor * Imperialism and “Globalization” * Money, Credit, Debt and “Financialization” * The State * The Environment * Economic Crisis (Capitalism as a system of internal contradictions) * And Many Others. Each week we will read approximately 20-30 pages in Wood’s book along with a supplementary article on the main topic (some of those listed above) we will focus on in the upcoming session. As much as possible, the class will be participatory and discussion-based (not lecture). No prior knowledge of either Marxism or other theories of capitalism are necessary. All are welcome! Dan Karan has been studying Marxist theory and history for more than 40 years and has been working for NYC non-profit housing and community development organizations for the last 25 years before which he worked in construction for more than a decade. | …if we don’t define what capitalism is then what does it means to be ”anti-capitalist”? Don’t we first have to know what something is to know what it is we’re against? Otherwise, how can we ever know if the movement we’re building is based on strategies, tactics, issues and demands that, even if successful, will actually move us beyond capitalism instead of once again simply reinforcing its rule? | 2/22/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/what-is-capitalism/ | Definition of Capitalism|Intro to Marxism|Political economy | Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy | 3/28/2016 17:30 | 3/28/2016 19:30 | |
| Crossing Borders: Novels and other writing on the Southwest Borderlands | 10 Week Session Indigenous People’s Reading Group Spring Session Thursdays • April 28 – June 23 • 7:30 pm This reading and watching study will meet each Thursday to look at the continually contested terrain and the peoples on both sides of the borders of the U.S. and Mexican nations and the indigenous peoples who had and have nothing to say in the placement of these borderlines. Together, we will read and discuss two studies, Border Bandits by Camilla Fojas and Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa along with two novels, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and T.C. Boyle’s Tortilla Curtain. We will also read Alejandro Lugo’s essay “Reflections on Border Theory, Culture, and the Nation”. The films tobe viewed include El Mariachi, Red River, and El Norte. 10 sessions / sliding scale $95 / $110 / $125 $10 per session—no one turned away for inability to pay | Each Thursday we will look at the continually contested terrain and the peoples on both sides of the borders of the U.S. and Mexico, | 3/25/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/crossing-borders-novels-and-other-writing-on-the-southwest-borderlands/ | Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 4/28/2016 19:30 | 4/28/2016 21:30 | ||
| Spring and Summer Book, Poster and Print Fair | Join AK Press, Autonomedia, Common Notions, Haymarket Books, Interference Archive/Just Seeds, OR Books, PM Press, Verso Books, Zero Books and more to be announced. An opportunity to see many of the new offerings from a wide range of left publishing. For brief moments during the day, there will be readings from selected texts. Food and drink available at the Commons Cafe all day. | 3/28/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/spring-and-summer-book-poster-and-print-fair/ | 4/24/2016 11:00 | 4/24/2016 19:00 | ||||
| Big Farms Make Big Flu | The Marxist Education Project is delighted to host the launch of Rob Wallace’s new book, Big Farms Make Big Flu (Monthly Review Press). In Big Farms Make Big Flu, a collection of dispatches by turns harrowing and thought-provoking, Wallace tracks the ways influenza and other pathogens emerge from an agriculture controlled by multinational corporations. With a precise and radical wit, Wallace juxtaposes ghastly phenomena such as attempts at producing featherless chickens with microbial time travel and neoliberal Ebola. Wallace also offers sensible alternatives to lethal agribusiness. Some, such as farming cooperatives, integrated pathogen management, and mixed crop-livestock systems, are already in practice off the agribusiness grid. While many books cover facets of food or outbreaks, Wallace’s collection is the first to explore infectious disease, agriculture, economics, and the nature of science together. Big Farms Make Big Flu integrates the political economies of disease and science into a new understanding of infections. “If you’ve missed the wit and brilliance of Stephen Jay Gould, here’s consolation: holistic, radical science from the frontlines of the battle against emergent diseases. Using the wide-angle lens of political ecology, Rob Wallace demonstrates the central roles of the factory-farming and fast-food industries in the evolution of avian flu and other pandemics that threaten the entire planet. Bravo to Monthly Review Press for publishing this landmark collection of essays.” —Mike Davis, author, Monster at Our Door and Planet of Slums “These essays put you in the company of a delightful mind. Wallace is filled with curiosity, deep learning, and robust skepticism. In his company, you’ll learn about phylogeography, clades and imperial epizoology. He can also weave a mean story, with the kinds of big picture analysis that puts him alongside minds like Mike Davis’s. Who else can link the end of British colonial rule in China or the devaluation of the Thai Baht to the spread of bird flu? This collection is a bracing innoculant against the misinformation that will be spewed in the next epidemic by the private sector, government agencies and philanthropists. My copy is highlighted on almost every page. Yours will be too.” —Raj Patel, Research Professor, University of Texas at Austin, author, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System Rob Wallace was born and raised in New York City. He is an evolutionary biologist presently visiting the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Global Studies. His research has addressed the evolution and spread of influenza as it relates to the economics of agriculture, the social geography of HIV/AIDS in New York City, the emergence of Kaposi’s sarcoma herpes virus out of Ugandan prehistory, and the evolution of infection life history in response to antivirals. Wallace is co-author of Farming Human Pathogens: Ecological Resilience and Evolutionary Process (Springer) and blogs at ‘Farming Pathogens.’ He has consulted on influenza for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wallace lives in St Paul, Minnesota, with his daughter. | “If you’ve missed the wit and brilliance of Stephen Jay Gould, here’s consolation: holistic, radical science from the frontlines of the battle against emergent diseases…. Bravo to Monthly Review Press for publishing this landmark collection of essays.” —Mike Davis | 3/28/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/big-farms-make-big-flu/ | Agribusiness|Evolutionary biology|Science and Method | 6/14/2016 19:30 | 6/14/2016 21:30 | ||
| Resistance and Solidarity Across the US-Mexican Border | Gerardo Renique will cover the history and political implications of the making of the US-Mexican international for contemporary struggles for labor, immigrant and civil rights across the US-Mexican border. Significant consideration will be given to the tensions and contradictions generated by the uneven interdependence of capitalist development in the borderlands; the long history of solidarity, struggle and resistance against racial and capitalist oppression waged by Native Americans, Mexican Americans and the multinational working class in the region; and, the potential of these developments for the political challenges posed by transnational capitalism and globalization in Mexico and the United States. Gerardo Renique teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research looks at the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America; race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. He co-directed with Tami Gold the video-documentary Frozen Happiness. Elections, Repression and Hope in Oaxaca, Mexico; and co-authored with G. Katsiaficas “A New Stage of Insurgencies: Latin American Popular Movements, the Gwangju Uprising, and the Occupy Movement” in Socialism and Democracy. | This event will provide essential background information for those who will participate in the Crossing Borders reading group which begins on Thursday, April 28 | 4/2/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/resistance-and-solidarity-across-the-us-mexican-border/ | border and politics|borderlands|class and race|class struggle|drug wars|immigrant rights|immigration|indigenous rights|internationalism|la frontera|Mexico|southwest u.s. | Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History | 4/18/2016 19:30 | 4/18/2016 21:30 | |
| It’s Not Over: Lessons from the Socialist Experiment | A special six session class taught by Pete Dolack from his recent book. Pete Dolack is presenting this class over six weeks, one week to each section of his book that has been ten years in the making. Some reduced-price copies may be available here: http://www.zero-books.net/books/its-not-over Thinking about the basic contours of a better world is a prerequisite to becoming effective in bringing about this improved world. The march forward of human history is not a gift from gods above nor presents handed us from benevolent rulers, governments, institutions or markets — it is the product of collective human struggle on the ground. It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment analyzes attempts to supplant capitalism in the past in order to draw lessons for emerging and future movements that seek to overcome the political and economic crises of today. It’s Not Over’s historical focus is on the Russian Revolution, the failed German Revolution, the early years of the Soviet Union, the Prague Spring, the Sandinista Revolution and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The concluding chapter analyzes why capitalism is a failed system for working people and offers ideas for discussion in what the contours of a better world might look like. This history lives through the words and actions of the men and women who made these revolutions, and the everyday experiences of the millions of people who put new revolutionary ideas into practice under the pressures of enormous internal and external forces. “As Cold War taboos on honest discussions of capitalism and socialism lose their force, important books like this are emerging. They ask why capitalism keeps provoking movements to go beyond it, why they have not yet achieved that goal, and what we must learn from them so the next efforts prove more effective. Dolack here contributes to the vital emerging answers.” —Rick Wolff, author of Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism and host of the Economic Update radio program Pete Dolack is an activist, writer and photographer who has worked with several organizations focusing on human rights, social justice, environmental and trade issues. He writes about the economic crisis and the political and environmental issues connected to it on the Systemic Disorder blog. His articles have appeared in popular publications including CounterPunch, ZNet, The Ecologist and Green Social Thought. | The book’s historical focus is on the Russian Revolution, the failed German Revolution, the early years of the Soviet Union, the Prague Spring, the Sandinista Revolution and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. | 4/2/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/its-not-over-lessons-from-the-socialist-experiment/ | occupy|Revolution|Russian Revolution|Sandinistas|Social Change|Socialist history|Socialist planning|Soviet Union | 4/27/2016 19:30 | 4/27/2016 21:30 | ||
| Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit | 14 week course Seminar of the NYC Marxist Hegel-Studies Collective Spring and Summer, 2016 Conducted by Russell Dale Hegel’s philosophy has had a great influence on much of what has happened in the world since his time (1770 – 1831) and is crucial to understanding much of modern social thought and philosophy as well as to understanding Marxism and the socialist tradition in its varied aspects. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit is generally considered the first exposition of and an introduction to Hegel’s later work, what is often referred to as Hegel’s “system.” Thus, knowledge of the Phenomenology is indispensable for anyone interested in today’s world. At the same time, the Phenomenology is an extremely difficult work to read, so it really helps to do so with a group of fellow-readers. In this course, we will read the entire Phenomenology of Spirit. Discussion will focus on Hegel’s view of history, the history of philosophy, subjectivity, the self, and society, and Hegel’s influence on later thinking and history. An important part of our discussion will be the socially reactionary conclusions that Hegel ultimately drew, while at the same time HHegel’s work became inspirational for so many radical and progressive thinkers as well, including Marx and Engels. We will give special attention to and treatment of the fact that Hegel had white-supremacist, racist views, and played an important role in the development of the pseudo-science of biological race theory. We will look at what these views mean for the tradition of thought that stems from Hegel, which includes some of the greatest thinkers of African descent in the twentieth century, such as W. E. B. DuBois, C. L. R. James, Frantz Fanon and others. The course will run for 14 weeks on Friday evenings from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM starting on Friday, May 27, 2016 and continuing until Friday, August 26, 2016. We will be reading the edition of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit translated by A. V. Miller, and published by Oxford University Press. (Arrangements will be made for students who cannot buy a copy of this book, which costs about $11 – $15 online.) Russell Dale is an activist and a philosopher. He teaches philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. He taught classes on Hegel and various other topics for the last six years. Russell is also on the Manuscript Collective and Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society, as well as on the Local Station Board of radio station WBAI, 99.5 FM (wbai.org). | Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit is generally considered the first exposition of and an introduction to Hegel’s later work, what is often referred to as Hegel’s “system.” Thus, knowledge of the Phenomenology is indispensable for anyone interested in today’s world. | 4/4/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-phenomenology-of-spirit/ | Dialectics|Hegel|Hegelian|Marx|philosophy | 6/10/2016 18:00 | 6/10/2016 20:00 | ||
| Solidarity Without Borders | Gramscian Perspectives on Migration and Civil Society Alliances with Martin Bak Jørgensen and Mark Bergfeld This presentation will consider the micropolitics of migrants as political actors by observing alliances between migrants and trade unions, worker organizations and different constituencies from a Gramscian context. Solidarity Without Borders presents an argument for Gramsci’s theory of the formation of a transnational counter-hegemonic bloc, methods of modern resistance and new forms of solidarity between these groups in formation. With case studies of the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey, social movements in Ireland and the Lampedusa in Hamburg among others, the argument is explored via national contexts and structured around political dimensions. These four essential themes of our times are discussed: the diversity of new migrant political actors; solidarity and new alliances across borders; avoiding misplaced alliances; and spaces of resistance. Migrants are often deprived of agency and placed outside the mobilizations taking place across Europe. Solidarity Without Borders will demonstrate how new solidarity relations are shaped and how these may construct a new common ground for struggle and for developing political alternatives. Martin Bak Jørgensen is Associate Professor at CoMID at the Department for Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark. He works within the fields of sociology, political sociology and political science. With Óscar García Agustín he has co-edited the book Politics of Dissent (Peter Lang, 2015) and Solidarity Without Borders: Gramscian Perspectives on Migration and Civil Society Alliances (Pluto Press, 2016). Together with Óscar García Agustín he started the initiative Democratic Transformations to bring researchers and activists closer together. Mark Bergfeld is a writer and organizer. He has written for media outlets such as Al-Jazeera English, the Nation, New Statesman among others. He has been active in social movements in Europe and served on the Executive Council of the National Union of students in the UK. He currently is writing his PhD on the relationship between trade unions and immigrant workers at Queen Mary University of London. | Borderlands Studies: These four essential themes of our times will be discussed: the diversity of new migrant political actors; solidarity and new alliances across borders; avoiding misplaced alliances; and spaces of resistance. | 4/7/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/solidarity-without-borders/ | class struggle|International capital|Migration|working class solidarity | 5/16/2016 19:30 | 5/16/2016 21:30 | ||
| Left Noir 3: “You Talkin’ To Me?” | Cops, Corruption and Capitalism in Crime Fiction S.A. Solomon, Ken Wishnia and Steven Wishnia The depiction of cops by American crime writers ranges from the hopelessly corrupt (James Ellroy) to the heroic (Michael Connelly) to the conflicted (Richard Price). Recent high-profile cases such as the killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in Staten Island, as well as the wholesale use of “stop and frisk” tactics in black and Latino neighborhoods, have thrust the ages-old issue of discriminatory policing fully into the public eye. Some people argue that police exist solely to enforce order for the ruling capitalist powers; some question whether we even need cops. Yet, we expect police to come quickly when we call, and ask them to put themselves between us and danger when our bodies or property are threatened. Should we turn our backs on cops when they crack under the strain? Aren’t bad cops just a mirror of our corrupt society? Writers Kenneth Wishnia, Steven Wishnia, and S.A. Solomon take on these questions and more in a panel on cops, corruption, and capitalism in crime fiction. S.A. Solomon has published crime fiction and poetry in New Jersey Noir (Akashic Books), Grand Central Noir (Metropolitan Crime), Jewish Noir (PM Press), The Five-Two Crime Poetry Weekly, and Heroes: Stories to Benefit PROTECT, Vol. 2. She’s a member of the Mystery Writers of America, New York chapter, a freelance writer on legal topics, and an attorney licensed in New York and Florida. You can find her on twitter @sa_solomon. Kenneth Wishnia’s novels include 23 Shades of Black, an Edgar Allan Poe Award and Anthony Award finalist; Soft Money, a Library Journal Best Mystery of the Year; Red House, a Washington Post Book World “Rave” Book of the Year; and The Fifth Servant, an Indie Notable selection, a Jewish Press Best Mystery of the Year, winner of a Premio Letterario ADEI-WIZO, and a finalist for the Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery Award. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Queens Noir, Long Island Noir, Send My Love and A Molotov Cocktail!, and elsewhere. Most recently, he edited the anthology Jewish Noir for PM Press. He teaches writing, literature and other deviant forms of thought at Suffolk Community College on Long Island. Steven Wishnia is author of the rock’n’roll novel When the Drumming Stops (Manic D Press); the short-story collection Exit 25 Utopia; and The Cannabis Companion, which has been translated into six languages. His fiction has also appeared in Jewish Noir and Long Island Noir. As a journalist, he’s won two awards for reporting on New York housing issues; covered urban politics, labor, drugs, and civil liberties; and written and edited for publications from High Times to Junior Scholastic. He works as a reporter at LaborPress and editor of Tenant, and freelances regularly for Gothamist and The Indypendent. Bassist in the ‘80s punk band False Prophets, he currently plays guitar in Blowdryer Punk Soul and bass in the Brooklyn Klezmeroids and the multimedia shows of artist Mac McGill. | Cops, Corruption and Capitalism in Crime Fiction: Do police exist solely to enforce order for the ruling capitalist powers and ensure their continual domination? | 4/7/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/left-noir-3-you-talkin-to-me/ | corruption|extortion|graft|mob cops|officials as criminals|on the take|organized crime and the police | 5/10/2016 19:30 | 5/10/2016 21:30 | ||
| Greece at the Crossroads | Alex Steinberg Frank Brenner George Caffentzis Live via Skype from Greece, Savas Michael Matsas, Secretary of the Workers Revolutionary Party of Greece BOOK LAUNCH The book, Greece at the Crossroads, concentrates on the fateful year 2015 when for the first time in generations a radical left wing party took power with a promise of ending the vicious austerity regime imposed by the EU. The year began with euphoria about the victory of Syriza in January, continued through the spring with increasing frustration at the willingness of the new government to make one concession after another and was capped by the referendum of July. The mass mobilizations supporting a NO vote in the referendum were unlike anything seen in Greece in several decades. The landslide victory of the NO promised a historic confrontation with the EU and the capitalist system in general. But Prime Minister Tsipras overnight repudiated the results of the referendum and negotiated the most onerous agreement yet with the EU. The year ended with a series of general strikes against the Syriza government. Those actions continue in the new year. How to make sense of these developments? What are the implications of the events in Greece for the project of fighting the austerity regime of the EU? Is socialism a viable alternative to austerity? These are just some of questions that we will deal with in the Panel | The landslide victory of the NO promised a historic confrontation with the EU and the capitalist system in general. But Prime Minister Tsipras overnight repudiated the results of the referendum and negotiated the most onerous agreement yet with the EU. The year ended with a series of general strikes against the Syriza government. Those actions continue in the new year. | 4/10/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/greece-at-the-crossroads/ | anti-austerity|Greece|revolutionary politics|solidarity|working class | 4/12/2016 18:30 | 4/12/2016 21:00 | ||
| Celebration of Nuit Debout | Less than one month ago, on March 31, the movement became real in Paris. Soon there were nightly occupations throughout France and now in Spain, Belgium and in Berlin. We now see solidarity all over the globe. Tomorrow, there will be more. Join the growing movement of all opposed to the dictates of the capitalists and their allies — students, workers, refugees, those discriminated against, the precariat, the imprisoned, the homeless and barely housed, feminists, migrants, and anti-racists. We will show films, talk, and reach out to comrades in struggle as what began in Paris continues to grow and cross boundaries as our many struggles converge. Our celebration and conversation will begin at 6, and continue until 10 pm or longer if people desire. Long live Nuit Debout! Skype visits with assemblies in France, a showing of Merci Patron! at 7:30, discussion, and more. For current information about what is taking place in Europe, and now all over the world: https://www.convergence-des-luttes.org | Tomorrow, more of us will join this global movement. | 4/16/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/celebration-of-nuit-debout/ | anti-austerity|convergence of struggles|global democracy|migrant rights|worker and student solidarity | 4/16/2016 18:00 | 4/16/2016 23:55 | ||
| James Connolly Songs of Freedom | PM Press, The Brooklyn Commons and The Marxist Education Project present Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore The 100 Year Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising Tour Come celebrate James Connolly and the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising with Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Ireland’s Easter Rising. But what could a failed uprising of a hundred years ago have to tell us now? Three major themes, arising again in contemporary struggles, give the Easter Rising, and especially James Connolly’s leadership, urgency and relevance today. 1. National liberation and popular sovereignty: who are the people and how will the people be united? The Easter Rising was a harbinger of all that was to follow in the 20th Century-most significantly, the wave of decolonization that began after World War II and continued throughout the 1960s and 70s including the Chinese, Cuban and Vietnamese revolutions. It need hardly be mentioned that these struggles are far from resolved, hardly a corner of the globe remaining unscathed by the violent convulsions they manifest. 2. Armed struggle, the popular will, and the legitimacy of the state: what conditions must prevail for non-violent, civil disobedience to give way to insurrection? The Easter Rising confronted the monopoly of violence on the part of the state in a context framed by the rebels-not parliamentary representatives. The Rising proclaimed in word and deed the illegitimacy of British authority, laying bare the irreconcilable conflict between that authority and liberty or democracy of any conceivable kind. This furthermore exposed the deeper rifts in Irish society itself giving voice to the demands of the oppressed against the deeply entrenched reaction of the church and landed aristocracy. 3. Leadership, Socialism, Connolly. The role of James Connolly is pivotal. Not only did Connolly tirelessly battle for a Workers’ Republic of public ownership under workers’ direction, but he made the analysis and took the practical steps to ensure the historic moment offered by Easter 1916 was not lost. It was Connolly and his Irish Citizen Army that dispelled all uncertainty on the part of various rebel factions, to make insurrection the means through which history would speak. That the Easter Rising would be followed a year later by the Russian Revolution gives a perspective on the world-historic moment presented by first imperialist world war. History does not exactly repeat itself but certain crucial features of our current dilemma more closely resemble those preceding WW I than those prevailing in the Sixties, the last great revolutionary upsurge. In particular, inter-imperialist conflict dwarfs and drowns out popular attempts to resist. Factions and sectarian squabbling characterize a battered and demoralized Left. Similar conditions faced revolutionaries in 1916. We can learn from their example. From the publication of Songs of Freedom in 1907 to the declaration of the Irish Republic on the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin 1916, Connolly’s vision was a beacon in the struggle for liberation. Using Connolly’s own songs along with others made famous in Ireland’s fight for independence, Callahan and Moore perform a spirited tribute to the rebels of Easter Week and the leadership of James Connolly. http://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=596 | From the publication of Songs of Freedom in 1907 to the declaration of the Irish Republic on the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin 1916, Connolly’s vision was a beacon in the struggle for liberation. Using Connolly’s own songs along with others made famous in Ireland’s fight for independence, Callahan and Moore perform a spirited tribute to the rebels of Easter Week. | 5/1/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/james-connolly-songs-of-freedom/ | Easter Rising|James Connolly|Mat Callahan|Music|Songs of Freedom|Yvonne Moore | 5/20/2016 19:30 | 5/20/2016 22:00 | ||
| Some Reflections On The Russian Revolution | Five sessions with The Revolutions Study Group May 9-June 13 (no meeting May 30) Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Conveners of the Revolutions Study Group, which has been reading on this topic over the past year, invite all to join them in some precentennial reflections on this history and its continuing significance for the world socialist movement. On May 9 and 16, Jim Creegan, Amy Dalton, Brandon Rippey, and David Worley make short presentations as a way of opening class discussion, expected to focus on issues of cognitive dissonance: the impotence of democratic reformism when an old regime disintegrates; the grinding of revolutionary ideals by the relentless realities of civil war and economic collapse; and the heroism of revolutionary optimism in the face of savage resistance and foreign intervention. We will view and discuss these films: May 23 Tsar to Lenin (1937 documentary narrated by Max Eastman) June 6 Reds (1981 drama directed by Warren Beatty) June 13 Bed and Sofa (1927 Soviet silent film set in the civil war period). The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. While individual participants may come and go, the group has held together, studying in depth a range of history including the French Revolution, the Mau-Mau Revolt, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May 1968 movement in France, a survey of the Italian left after WWII, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International with an emphasis on German Social Democracy, and the 1905 Russian revolution and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We expect to focus on issues of cognitive dissonance in the early years after the Russian Revolution: the impotence of democratic reformism when an old regime disintegrates; the grinding of revolutionary ideals by the realities of civil war and economic collapse; and the heroism of revolutionary optimism in the face of savage resistance. Discussion with three important films during the five week session. | 5/2/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/some-reflections-on-the-russian-revolution/ | 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution|Bed and Sofa|Reds|Russian Revolution|Tsar to Lenin | 5/9/2016 19:30 | 5/9/2016 21:30 | ||
| The Politics of James Joyce and the Easter Rising | A Discussion with author Robert Seidman, moderated by Alex Steinberg As we approach the anniversary of Leopold Bloom’s peripatetic journey around Dublin we will consider why Joyce matters to radicals and socialists. We will discuss the radicalism of his work and his singular contribution to our understanding of modernity. And nowhere is this more evident than in his masterpiece Ulysses which explores a multitude of themes and genres. The discussion will be led by Robert Seidman. This event is a prelude to the celebration of Bloomsday that is taking place all over the world on June 16. ROBERT SEIDMAN is a novelist, Emmy-winning screenwriter, and literary critic. With Don Gifford, he is co-author of Ulysses Annotated: An Annotation of James Joyce’s Ulysses, University of California Press, 1988. His recent novel, Moments Captured, based loosely on the work and life of the pioneering nineteenth century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, was published in the U.S. by the Overlook Press in 2012 and in England by Duckworth Press in 2014. One Smart Indian, his novel about a Northern Cheyenne set in mid-nineteenth century America, was published by the Overlook Press in 1980. He co-wrote Margaret Mead: An Observer Observed, a docu-drama about Mead’s life, intellectual contributions, and the creation of her legend. He is co-writer of Waiting for Beckett, which won the Golden Apple of the National Educational Film and Video Festival and the Silver Hugo Award. He also wrote Wallace Stevens: Man Made Out of Words, which appeared in the Voices and Visions series. Seidman was co-writer of Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life, winner of the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Documentary, a George Foster Peabody Award, and the Emmy for Best Documentary, 2007. ALEX STEINBERG has taught Engels and the Dialectics of Nature and most recently, Spectres of the Dialectic from the Big Bang to the Multiverse in the fall of 2014. He has previously given classes on Hegel and Marxist philosophy and been a presenter at the Left Forum. He has also served on the local and national boards of radio station WBAI. | Leopold Bloom’s peripatetic journey around Dublin and reasons why Joyce enlightens radicals and socialists. | 5/14/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-politics-of-james-joyce-and-the-easter-rising/ | Ireland|Irish Nationalism|James Joyce|Stream of consciousness|The Easter Rising|Ulysses | 6/13/2016 19:30 | 6/13/2016 21:30 | ||
| Resistance and Solidarity Across the US-Mexican Border: 1946-2016 | A presentation by Gerardo Renique This presentation will cover the history and political implications of the making of the waves of US-Mexican international policy for contemporary struggles for labor, immigrant and civil rights across at the US-Mexican border region. We will look at the cross-border urban areas that depend on the same water, air and other natural resources, such as the broad expanse of San Diego to Tijuana metropolitan region. Significant consideration will be given to the tensions and contradictions generated by the uneven interdependence of capitalist development in the borderlands; the long history of solidarity, struggle and resistance against racial and capitalist oppression waged by Native Americans, Mexican Americans and the multinational working class in the region; and, the potential of these developments for the political challenges posed by transnational capitalism and globalization in Mexico and the United States. Gerardo Renique teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research looks at the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America; race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. He co-directed with Tami Gold the video-documentary Frozen Happiness. Elections, Repression and Hope in Oaxaca, Mexico; and co-authored with G. Katsiaficas “A New Stage of Insurgencies: Latin American Popular Movements, the Gwangju Uprising, and the Occupy Movement” in Socialism and Democracy. | Significant consideration will be given to the tensions and contradictions generated by the uneven interdependence of capitalist development in the borderlands; the long history of solidarity, struggle and resistance against racial and capitalist oppression waged by Native Americans, Mexican Americans and the multinational working class in the region. | 5/14/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/resistance-and-solidarity-across-the-us-mexican-border-1946-2016/ | immigrant rights|internationalism|Latin America|Mexico|Migrant Labor|Organizing resistance|Refugees|solidarity|US|Workers Rights | 6/20/2016 19:30 | 6/20/2016 21:30 | ||
| Re-Discovering Fanon: Preview to a work in progress | Re-Discovering Fanon: Preview to a work in progress An evening with outtakes and director Rico Speight Re-Discovering Fanon will make evident Fanon’s unrelenting hatred of racism and his uncompromising determination to set forth a dialectic of disalienation in order to bring about a new humanity. Using quotes from his writings, archival footage, still images, and interviews with scholars, colleagues and family members, the documentary will probe the question, “Who was Frantz Fanon?” Rico Speight is an independent producer/director/writer of film and theatre; he is also a film and video editor and educator. His production credits include documentaries, narratives, television productions, web productions and live theatre. His documentary, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?, the first installment of a two part series on the parallel lives of African American and Black South African young people was released in 1997; in 1999, that documentary screened at the 52nd Cannes International Film Festival. In 2007, Speight released a follow-up production titled, Where Are They Now?, that is a sequel to Who’s Gonna Take The Weight? For Re-Discovering Fanon, Rico traveled to Martinique in 2005 and conducted extensive research for the documentary; in November of 2007 he began actual production in Martinique, interviewing members of Fanon’s family in Fort de France. He currently lectures on film production at Sarah Lawrence College and is a freelance television studio director for CUNY Television and NYU-TV in New York City. | Re-Discovering Fanon will make evident Fanon’s unrelenting hatred of racism and his uncompromising determination to set forth a dialectic of disalienation in order to bring about a new humanity. | 5/25/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/re-discovering-fanon-preview-to-a-work-in-progress/ | Algeria|Anti-colonialism|Anti-racism|Fanon|Independence|National Liberation | 6/22/2016 19:30 | 6/22/2016 22:00 | ||
| When Droplets Become Rain | A film on the anti-austerity movement in Spain Colectivo Miradas, 2015 (77 mins) Director and photographer: José Gayà Producer and assistant director: Enrique González Music: Oscar Jareño In co-production with Telesur Introduction and discussion with Enrique González Human rights vs. neoliberal “democracy” When Droplets Become Rain is a feature length-documentary that explores the dynamics of capitalism in present-day Spain, and the increasingly disobedient social movements that are challenging the social and political landscape in the “kingdom”. The documentary is a “sui generis” road movie that takes place in five different regions of the State, portraying several social movements in collective struggle for basic human rights and needs: right to health, right to education, right to housing, right to land and labor, and right to the city and to social services. Social movements on the move: • We witness the occupation of a building by the Platform of People Affected by the Crisis and the Mortgage Credits (PAHC), a massive social movement that has sprung to life as a result of countless evictions that followed the housing bubble. • We accompany the failed occupation of large estate land by Andalusian Workers’ Union (SAT), a social movement whose leader, Juan Manuel Gordillo, has been in office in the small township of Marinaleda for almost four decades, setting out a collective, participatory and alternative organization model that aims at guaranteeing social rights for all. • We smile at the debate of young students discussing the exploitative nature of the education system, who later take to the streets to protest against the Free Trade Agreement that is being secretly negotiated between the government of the US and the unelected elite that rules the European Union. • We feel the rage of Hepatits C patients that struggle for a life-saving treatment that is been denied by the government, in a criminal twist of the decades long process of privatization of the social health public system. Reflection leads to action: The documentary aims at promoting reflection, through an emotional, collective portrayal from the inside of these and other social movements, in collective action for social struggle. It offers a historical background to authoritarianism, inequality and the debt crisis in Spain, emphasizes alternative organization and increasing disobedience of popular movements affected by the so called “austerity measures”, and includes a radical critique of capitalism and its present and future consequences through the action of both urban and peasant social movements, and the voice of intellectual activists. Increasing repression against social movements and police violence are put in the spotlight, and critique includes mainstream media, climate change denial, migration crisis and more. At the same time, When Droplets Become Rain is a celebration of collective values and organization, and offers a message of hope through popular mobilization and love for living beings and mother earth, as summarized in the title. The film takes place in five different regions, along five areas of concern of social struggle, and portrays several social movements in action: Andalucía – Right to land and to work Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores and Coordinadora Unitaria de los Trabajadores (SAT/CUT) – rural and urban worker’s union struggling for land and collective self-labor, and corresponding labor party that leads for decades now the alternative anti-capitalistic government of the rural township of Marinaleda Madrid – Right to health Marea Blanca – social movement for the defense of public health Plataforma de Afectados por la Hepatitis (PlafHC) – plataform of Hepatitis C patients fighting for last generation live-saving treatment Yo Sí Sanidad Universal – doctors/activists desobedient plataform against a decree excluding migrants with no papers from health assistance service Madres contra la Represión (Mothers against Repression) – part of the movement against increasing represion of social and political activism Sabadell (Barcelona) – Right to housing Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca y la Crisis – plataform of people affected by mortgage credits and the crisis Gamonal (Burgos) – Ritght to the city and to social services Asamblea de Gamonal – popular assembly of a workers’ barrio La Marina Alta (Alicante) – Right to education Moviment Juvenil L’Espenta – youth organization Director José Gayà has spent over a decade between Chiapas, Central America, Venezuela and Cuba, documenting social struggle, alternative organization, and crimes against humanity, among other subjects. He has directed over 30 documentaries about issues such as the Guatemalan genocide, the Honduran resistance movement against the US-backed 2009 coup, Plan Puebla Panama (an extension of CAFTA that is related with the recent killing of indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, whom he was close friends with), the Caracazo (the Venezuelan 1989 uprising against neoliberal agenda imposed by the IMF and so-called liberal “democracy”), and more. Producer Enrique González has lived for over 15 years in Caracas, where he worked as a human rights activist, was involved in alternative communication movement, and took part in several documentary projects. They both met in Venezuela, and teamed for the first time to produce this film, when coming home to Spain where they are both from. Composer and musician Oscar Jareño is leader of the Valencian folk fussion group Felah Mengus. His brilliant work for the movie is key for the cinematographic experience sought by Colectivo Miradas. | WHEN DROPLETS BECOME RAIN is a celebration of collective values and organization, and offers a message of hope through popular mobilization and love for living beings and mother earth, as summarized in the title. | 5/26/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/when-droplets-become-rain/ | anti-austerity|Barcelona|Madrid|Neo-liberalism|peoples movements|Spain | 6/6/2016 19:30 | 6/6/2016 22:00 | ||
| Fiction from The Busted Boom | Summer Reading Series America Between The Wars: Fiction From The Busted Boom 10 sessions with Craig Chisholm and Michael Lardner Thursdays, July 14 to September 8, 7:30 PM Fascism has overtaken Europe and the desperate, reeling Americans are being sold a dream through the New Deal in a broad attempt to mitigate empty dinner plates and joblessness for more than one in four. Nearly a million farms are foreclosed. Schools close, kids separate from their parents, migrating in all directions doing whatever it takes just to get by. The 30s were a time of turmoil for most and a decade shaping the terrain of the way life was to be lived on the edge—in shadow or in light. There is no shortage of literature that can provide insight into that era. This summer’s reading group will look at the following five works of fiction: The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes, Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, The Unpossessed by Tess Slesinger, In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck, and It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Poems and vignettes of the period will be shared, each participant is welcome to be part of the sharing. Craig Chisholm is a writer and editor at Gigantic Sequins. For much of the past year Craig has been active with the Indigenous Peoples’ History Reading Group. Michael Lardner has spent years doing typography and during the summers help coordinate these literature sessions. | The 30s were a time of turmoil for most and a decade shaping the terrain of the way life was to be lived on the edge—in shadow or in light. | 5/30/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fiction-from-the-busted-boom/ | capitalist crisis|Depression literature|fiction|James M. Cain|John Steinbeck|Langston Hughes|marxist literary group|Nathaniel West|noir writing|racism|Sinclair Lewis|strike literature | 7/14/2016 19:30 | 7/14/2016 19:30 | ||
| Ecology, Justice and Revolution in Pope Francis’s ‘Laudato Si’” | A Study Group Convened by Steve Knight 3 more Tuesdays, July 19 thru August 2, 2016, 7:00 to 9:00 PM Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home has become a rallying cry for environmental and social justice activists since its publication in June 2015. Francis calls upon all segments of civil society to join in creating a healing “integral ecology” that hears both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. In the process, he constructs a scathing critique of neoliberal capitalism that challenges dominant paradigms of technology, bioethics, preservation of the commons, and many other issues. We will undertake a close reading of Laudato Si supplemented by selected readings in liberation theology, the movement from the Global South combining Christian principles and Marxist praxis that is a major influence on Laudato Si. Steve Knight is a former college English instructor who has been both a co-convenor and student in Marxist Education Project study groups on ecosocialism and Hegel. He has also been active in faith-centered eco-justice advocacy as a GreenFaith Fellow, and as a member of The Beloved Earth Community at Manhattan’s Riverside Church. | We will undertake a close reading of “Laudato Si” supplemented by selected readings in liberation theology, the movement from the Global South combining Christian principles and Marxist praxis that is a major influence on “Laudato Si.” | 6/12/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-justice-and-revolution-in-pope-franciss-laudato-si/ | 21st Century Socialism|Christianity|Eco-socialism|ecology|Laudato Si|Liberation Theology|Pope Francis | 7/19/2016 19:00 | 7/19/2016 21:00 | ||
| Marxist Summer Intensive: July 15-17 | 21st Century Class Struggles and the Generalized Proletariat: Further Lessons towards Working Class Consciousness within our Social Movements Thursday, July 14 through Sunday, July 17 Featuring: Mitch Abidor, Kazembe Balagun, Mark Bergfeld, Rebecca Boger, Dennis Broe, Charmaine Chua, Claude Copeland, Marika Diaz, Russell Dale, Walter Daum, Pete Dolack, Kate Doyle-Griffiths, Mark Dudzic, Anthony Galluzzo, Janet Gerson. Harmony Goldberg, Marcus Graetsch, Ursula Huws, Dan Karan, Lisa Maya Knauer, Kristin Lawler, Laurel Mei-Singh, Ras Moshe, Fred Murphy, Manny Ness, Stuart Newman, Marie-Claire Picher, David Schwartzman and Yuko Tonohira. Writings to read if you have the time: Susan Watkins from New Left Review, survey 2014 https://newleftreview.org/II/90/susan-watkins-the-political-state-of-the-union Susan Watkins, 2016 https://newleftreview.org/II/98/susan-watkins-oppositions Marc Dudzic and Adolf Reed Jr from Socialist Register on Crisis of Left and Labor in the US http://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/dudzic_and_reed_the_crisis_of_labour_and_the_left_in_the_united_states_sr_2015.pdf A Selection from the blog of Ursula Huws (if you have time read more of her postings, listed off to the side on her blog) https://ursulahuws.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/the-unmaking-of-the-english-working-class/ https://ursulahuws.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/uber-and-under/ https://ursulahuws.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/a-workhouse-without-walls/ Mitch Abidor On Paris, May ’68 http://insurgentnotes.com/2016/06/may-68-revisited/ Ian Birchall’s response to Mitch: http://insurgentnotes.com/2016/06/response-to-may-68-revisited/ Kazembe Balagun In The Guardian, 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/17/race-protest on the Fanon Phenomenon in The Indypendent: https://indypendent.org/2014/12/16/fanon-phenomenon-documentary-unearths-africas-anti-colonial-struggles Mark Bergfeld https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/05/the-next-portuguese-revolution/ About Mark in 2011 as activist: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8440413/Student-protests-The-Marxist-revolutionary-aiming-to-lead-the-NUS.html Dennis Broe On the World Film Beat with recent Cannes reports: http://politicalfilmcritics.blogspot.fr/p/world-film-beat.html? The most most recent article of Dennis in Situations on Mediterranean Noir: http://ojs.gc.cuny.edu/index.php/situations/article/view/1706/1614? Russell Dale from Situtations: http://ojs.gc.cuny.edu/index.php/situations/article/view/1631/1581 Charmaine Chua: https://thedisorderofthings.com/2014/09/09/logistics-capitalist-circulation-chokepoints/ https://thedisorderofthings.com/author/charmchua/ https://thedisorderofthings.com/2015/02/07/the-chinese-logistical-sublime-and-its-wasted-remains/ https://thedisorderofthings.com/2015/01/27/landlessness-and-the-life-of-seamen/ Harmony Goldberg On McDonald’s http://www.salon.com/2014/04/06/how_mcdonalds_gets_away_with_rampant_wage_theft_partner/ Ras Moshe An interview from Jazz Right Now: https://jazzrightnow.com/2014/03/10/interview-ras-moshe/ Walter Daum Exchange in NY Review of Books: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/04/03/imperialism-and-world-war-i-exchange/ Stuart Newman all – https://legacy.nymc.edu/sanewman/social.htm especially https://legacy.nymc.edu/sanewman/PDFs/CNS_GM_foods_09.pdf https://legacy.nymc.edu/sanewman/PDFs/CNS%20Synbio_12.pdf David Schwartzman https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/cop-21-paris-climate-change-global-warming-fossil-fuels/ http://tratarde.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Schwartzman-Saul-CNS-2015.pdf http://www.redandgreen.org/Documents/Solar_Communism.htm As capitalist relations penetrate every nook and cranny of our planet and the most intimate realms of our lives, a growing proportion of the world’s population is incorporated into the global proletariat—paid and unpaid workers and our families, the unemployed and underemployed, and the growing numbers who will never work. The laboring part of today’s global proletariat is greater than the world’s entire population 40 years ago. Now there are workers from all parts of the globe working for the same set of bosses. Capitalists continually seek new avenues to expand their capital and commodify all that exists. The digital revolution has sped all this up, quickening accumulation which lays the basis for more frequent crises. Capital continues in ever new forms the process of enclosures that began with the forcible removal of the peasantry from the land in medieval Europe. Throughout the global south, displaced peasants are forced to migrate to cities or internationally, working in factories or informal economies. Many others are conscripted into comprador armies to protect the extractive industries ravaging their regions. There is also outright robbery: the Panama Papers reveal the extent to which capital has fleeced the global proletariat. After more than three decades of assault on organized labor, privatization, austerity and structural adjustment have gutted hard-won social programs. Automation, digitization and strategic relocation of work, combined with just-in-time assembly, make millions “redundant”. At the same time Walmartization, Uberization, Amazonification exemplify our marginalization and precarity. As we plan this intensive, workers and students are in motion throughout France, from Nuit Debout gatherings to general strikes against austerity. Greek workers, hit harder still by austerity, are reaching out to support the tide of refugees. The contract just won by the Verizon workers in the U.S. after a nation-wide strike represents a major victory. The Sanders campaign has helped normalize the concept of socialism, but the Left and social movements have not figured out how to articulate a viable socialist alternative and build a corresponding movement. Over the four days of this Intensive, we will study the causes behind these developments, learn about some obstacles to organizing and the challenges facing workers at work and in their communities, and consider various left analyses about social realities and the prospects for organizing. We will assess the lessons of workers’ movements globally and historically, with emphasis on prospects in the US and the global south. Through collaborative study and discussion, we aim to provide a challenging learning environment so each participant can develop his/her own theoretical and analytic tools to advance our organizing and movement building work in order to broaden opposition to capital locally, nationally and internationally. FRIDAY, JULY 15 / 10:00 am • Imperialism Today: Super-Exploitation & Marxist Theory • WALTER DAUM • 1:00- 4:00 pm • Class Consciousness, Class Struggle & Self-Organizing Using Image Theater • presented by The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) • facilitated by JANET GERSON • MARIE-CLAIRE PICHER • 5:30 pm • Public Banking: A Marxist Response to Finance Capital • DAN KARAN • 7:30 pm • Southern Insurgency: Mass Movements Throughout the Global South • LISA MAYA KNAUER SATURDAY, JULY 16 / 10:00 am • Slackers, Sabotage, & Syndicalism: American Labor History & The Refusal of Work • KRISTIN LAWLER • 1:00 pm • Beyond Bernie: The Crisis of Labor & The Left in the United States • MARK DUDZIC • 3:30 pm • Prometheus in Ruins?: Uses & Abuses of the Hero Who Stole Fire • ANTHONY GALLUZZO • 5:30 pm • Logistics, Capitalist Circulation, Chokepoints • CHARMAINE CHUA • 7:30 pm • Devils & Dust: Resisting War in New York, the Pacific, & the Middle East • CLAUDE COPELAND • LAUREL MEI-SINGH • YUKO TONOHIRA SUNDAY, JULY 17 / 11:00 am • It’s Not Over: Lessons for Socialists from the October Revolution, Prague Spring and the Sandinistas • PETE DOLACK • 1:00 pm • Labor in the Global Digital Economy • URSULA HUWS • 3:30 pm • Sexuality, Gender & Neoliberal Capitalism • KATE DOYLE-GRIFFITHS • LISA MAYA KNAUER • 5:30 pm • Approaching Science from the Left: Uses & Abuses of Knowledge in the Planetary Crisis • REBECCA BOGER • STUART NEWMAN • DAVE SCHWARTZMAN • moderated by FRED MURPHY As capitalist relations penetrate every nook and cranny of our planet and the most intimate realms of our lives, a growing proportion of the world’s population is incorporated into the global proletariat—paid and unpaid workers and our families, the unemployed and underemployed, and the growing numbers who will never work. The laboring part of today’s global proletariat is greater than the world’s entire population 40 years ago. Now there are workers from all parts of the globe working for the same set of bosses. Capitalists continually seek new avenues to expand their capital and commodify all that exists. The digital revolution has sped all this up, quickening accumulation which lays the basis for more frequent crises. Capital continues in ever new forms the process of enclosures that began with the forcible removal of the peasantry from the land in medieval Europe. Throughout the global south, displaced peasants are forced to migrate to cities or internationally, working in factories or informal economies. Many others are conscripted into comprador armies to protect the extractive industries ravaging their regions. There is also outright robbery: the Panama Papers reveal the extent to which capital has fleeced the global proletariat. After more than three decades of assault on organized labor, privatization, austerity and structural adjustment have gutted hard-won social programs. Automation, digitization and strategic relocation of work, combined with just-in-time assembly, make millions “redundant”. At the same time Walmartization, Uberization, Amazonification exemplify our marginalization and precarity. As we plan this intensive, workers and students are in motion throughout France, from Nuit Debout gatherings to general strikes against austerity. Greek workers, hit harder still by austerity, are reaching out to support the tide of refugees. The contract just won by the Verizon workers in the U.S. after a nation-wide strike represents a major victory. The Sanders campaign has helped normalize the concept of socialism, but the Left and social movements have not figured out how to articulate a viable socialist alternative and build a corresponding movement. Over the four days of this Intensive, we will study the causes behind these developments, learn about some obstacles to organizing and the challenges facing workers at work and in their communities, and consider various left analyses about social realities and the prospects for organizing. We will assess the lessons of workers’ movements globally and historically, with emphasis on prospects in the US and the global south. Through collaborative study and discussion, we aim to provide a challenging learning environment so each participant can develop his/her own theoretical and analytic tools to advance our organizing and movement building work in order to broaden opposition to capital locally, nationally and internationally. THURSDAY, JULY 14 / 10:00 am • Marx and Engels & Classical German Philosophy • RUSSELL DALE • 1:00 pm • Anti-Austerity in France: Live Report from Paris on Bastille Day • DENNIS BROE • 3:30 pm • May ’68 in France: Revisited • MITCH ABIDOR • 5:30 pm • What Jazz Would Karl Marx Listen to in 2016 • RAS MOSHE • 7:30 pm • Solidarity Without Borders • KAZEMBE BALAGUN • MARK BERGFELD • HARMONY GOLDBERG • MARCUS GRAETSCH • moderated by MARIKA DIAS FRIDAY, JULY 15 / 10:00 am • Imperialism Today: Super-Exploitation & Marxist Theory • WALTER DAUM • 1:00- 4:00 pm • Class Consciousness, Class Struggle & Self-Organizing Using Image Theater • presented by The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) • facilitated by JANET GERSON • MARIE-CLAIRE PICHER • 5:30 pm • Public Banking: A Marxist Response to Finance Capital • DAN KARAN • 7:30 pm • Southern Insurgency: Mass Movements Throughout the Global South • MANNY NESS • LISA MAYA KNAUER SATURDAY, JULY 16 / 10:00 am • Slackers, Sabotage, & Syndicalism: American Labor History & The Refusal of Work • KRISTIN LAWLER • 1:00 pm • Beyond Bernie: The Crisis of Labor & The Left in the United States • MARK DUDZIC • 3:30 pm • Prometheus in Ruins?: Uses & Abuses of the Hero Who Stole Fire • ANTHONY GALLUZZO • 5:30 pm • Logistics, Capitalist Circulation, Chokepoints • CHARMAINE CHUA • 7:30 pm • Devils & Dust: Resisting War in New York, the Pacific, & the Middle East • CLAUDE COPELAND • LAUREL MEI-SINGH • YUKO TONOHIRA SUNDAY, JULY 17 / 11:00 am • It’s Not Over: Lessons for Socialists from the October Revolution, Prague Spring and the Sandinistas • PETE DOLACK • 1:00 pm • Labor in the Global Digital Economy • URSULA HUWS • 3:30 pm • Sexuality, Gender & Neoliberal Capitalism • KATE DOYLE-GRIFFITHS • LISA MAYA KNAUER • 5:30 pm • Approaching Science from the Left: Uses & Abuses of Knowledge in the Planetary Crisis • REBECCA BOGER • STUART NEWMAN • DAVE SCHWARTZMAN • moderated by FRED MURPHY | Through collaborative study and discussion, we aim to provide a challenging learning environment so each participant can develop his/her own theoretical and analytic tools to advance our organizing and movement building work in order to broaden opposition to capital locally, nationally and internationally. | 7/5/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxist-summer-intensive-july-14-17/ | anarchism|Anti-racist|Augusto Boal|Brexit|class politics|Communism|Dudzic|Engels|feminism|Global South|Globalization|Gramsci|Hegel|Marx|Socialism|Theater of the Oppressed | 7/15/2016 10:00 | 7/15/2016 21:30 | ||
| Day 1, Session 1: Marx and Engels and Classical German Philosophy | A session with Russell Dale Our discussion will focus on the basic, immediate philosophical background in classical German philosophy represented primarily by Kant, Hegel, Fichte and Schelling that Marx and Engels inherited. Russell will also mention a number of the other philosophical, economic, and political background issues that came into being and mixed in for Marx and Engels with classical German philosophy in the creation of their unique revolutionary thought—for example, the newly emerging systematic study of political economy, the positivism of August Comte (which also arises in the 1830s), and the various “utopian” socialist projects of that period. Russell Dale is an activist and a philosopher. He teaches philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. He taught classes on Hegel and various other topics for the last six years. Russell is also on the Manuscript Collective and Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society, as well as on the Local Station Board of radio station WBAI, 99.5 FM (wbai.org). | Our discussion will focus on the basic, immediate philosophical background in classical German philosophy represented primarily by Kant, Hegel, Fichte and Schelling that Marx and Engels inherited. | 7/5/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-and-engels-and-classical-german-philosophy/ | Comte|Fichte|Hegel|Kant|Marx and Engels|Schilling|utopian socialism | 7/14/2016 10:05 | 7/14/2016 12:00 | ||
| Day 1, Session 2: Live from Place de La Republique on Bastille Day | Live report from Paris with Dennis Broe Dennis will report on the current wave of strikes, Nuit Debout, and the Labor Law, called the El-Kourmi Law, named for the Labor Minister, would have the effect of lowering wages. Strikes are now disrupting gas delivery, power, garbage pickup, airlines and train transport, all led by the most radical union, the CGT, and all part of a life and death struggle to force the cancellation of the work law which a few months ago passed the general assembly not by a vote but by an archaic decree which allows legislation that is too controversial to come to a vote to simply be passed. This decree, section 49.3 has now been invoked four times in the course of passing unfavorable, so called “reform”, legislation to “open up” the French labor market. This year is also the 80th anniversary of the great strike month of June 1936 where workers occupied most of the major factories and which the female philosopher Simone Weil famously termed “un joie, un joie pur” a joy, a pure joy. The show which I would be doing over SKYPE will consist of a short documentary including interviews with three key players in the events of the past months: Francois Ruffin, editor of the satiric journal Fakir and director of Merci Patron (Thanks Boss), a Roger and Me type film that inspired Nuit Debout; a member of the CGT, the union that is leading the strikes; and an academic who will provide a critical analysis of the labor law. I and my director Frederic Lean, an award-winning filmmaker whose Iraq: the Wind of Hope has one of highest ratings for any film on IMDB, will shoot the documentary in La Republique where Nuit Debout began and is headquartered and we will screen the documentary, which is mainly sound, at the top of the hour. I will then speak about what has been happening over the last few months and link it to the period of Strikes of 1936 as well as describing a film that has just been rereleased with a new print here, Jean Renoir’s La Vie Est Nous (Life is Ours), a recounting of the worker’s movement in 1936, which last week got a negative review in Le Monde, meaning that it is still controversial. Dennis Broe is a critic and political correspondent on Prairie Millers Arts Express. He teaches film and television in Paris at the Sorbonne, and has written a number of books on the American and Global Working Class and Film Noir on Maverick and countering the myth of the American West and on how Abstract Expressionism helped cancel American social art. Every year he is a featured correspondent from the Cannes film festival and around Parisian cinema and European television, art and literature the year round. | This will consist of a short documentary including interviews with three key players in the events of the past months: Francois Ruffin, editor and director of Merci Patron (Thanks Boss); a member of the CGT, the union that is leading the strikes; and an academic who will provide a critical analysis of the labor law. | 7/5/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/live-from-place-de-la-republique-on-bastille-day/ | anti-austerity|Bastille Day|CGT|Convergence|Nuit Debout|Paris protest|Place de La Republique|Rising | 7/14/2016 13:00 | 7/14/2016 15:00 | ||
| Day 1, Session 3: May 1968 in France: Learning from the Participants | A presentation by and discussion with Mitch Abidor In preparation for an oral history of the events of May 1968 in France, Mitch Abidor interviewed over thirty participants in the events from all political tendencies and from all over the country. He’ll discuss what he learned of the experiences of those who were there and what can be learned from them. Mitchell Abidor’s translation work and studies include anthologies of Victor Serge, the Paris Commune, the left of the French Revolution, as well as the novella A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove. He lives in Brooklyn. | “May ’68 seemed to portend the beginning of a revolutionary period in Europe, but it didn’t. Even so, in France and in so much of the world, it remains a marker, a moment when it was forbidden to forbid, when it seemed the imagination was about to seize power.” | 7/6/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-1-session-3-may-1968-in-france-learning-from-the-participants/ | Battle of the Imagination|Critique of Everyday Life|General Strike|May 68|Oral History|Revolt|Student power|Uprising | 7/14/2016 15:30 | 7/14/2016 17:30 | ||
| Day 1, Session 4: What Would Karl Marx be Listening to on Bastille Day in 2016 | with Ras Moshe and John Pietaro Ras Moshe hails from a musical and political family in Brooklyn. Ras has been playing music for 30 years and keeps the family tradition going as a life-long radical political activist. He was part of the Neues Kabarett series and founder of the Music Now series, which presented new revolutionary jazz at The New York Marxist School for 14 years, continuing today at The Brooklyn Commons. Ras believes strongly in the power of creativity involved with jazz as one of the main components of socio/poltical engagement. John Pietaro is a revolutionary writer, percussionist and cultural organizer. A native of Brooklyn, his work has been published in Z, The Nation, CounterPunch, People’s World and many other progressive journals; he is a Staff Writer of the NYC Jazz Record newspaper. As a musician Pietaro has performed with Karl Berger, Amina Baraka, Pete Seeger, Ras Moshe, among others and frequently performs on the current Free Jazz scene. He is the producer of the annual Dissident Arts Festival. For more info see DissidentArts.com and theCulturalWorker.blogspot.com | 7/6/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-one-session-4-what-would-karl-marx-be-listening-to-on-bastille-day-in-2016/ | Found sounds|Jazz|Music in revolt|Reeds | 7/14/2016 17:30 | 7/14/2016 19:15 | |||
| Day 2, Session 1: Imperialism Today: Super-Exploitation and Marxist Theory | Presentation and discussion with Walter Daum Imperialism was first analyzed by Marxist theorists a century ago. Today it still dominates the world but has greatly changed: production, not just trade, is globalized; profits rely on the super-exploitation of hundreds of millions of proletarians in the Global South. This session will discuss the transformation of the imperialist-ruled world and what it means for Marxist theory. Initial reading: John Smith, “Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century,” Monthly Review July-August 2015; online at http://monthlyreview.org/2015/07/01/imperialism-in-the-twenty-first-century/ Walter Daum taught mathematics at City College in New York for 37 years. He has been a revolutionary activist and Marxist theorist, affiliated with the League for the Revolutionary Party. He wrote a book, The Life and Death of Stalinism and is working on another, on the subject of imperialism. He is proud to have been denounced by the New York Post and the CUNY Board of Trustees in 2001 for explaining at a teach-in that the 9/11 terrorist attack was “ultimately the responsibility of U.S. imperialism. | 7/6/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-2-session-1-imperialism-today-super-exploitation-and-marxist-theory/ | Globalization|Imperialism|Marxist Theory|Militarism|Resistance | 7/15/2016 10:00 | 7/15/2016 12:00 | |||
| Day 2, Session 2: Looking at Class Consciousness, Class Struggle and Self-Organizing Using Image Theater | Presented by The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) Facilitated by Janet Gerson and Marie-Claire Picher “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point is to change it.” —Karl Marx In capitalist society, class is the hub from which other forms of oppression emanate; class is the foundation that gives rise to racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and other modes of injustice, cruelty and systemic brutality. These various -isms function as bulwarks of hierarchical class society—they are necessities for perpetuating class division and the domination and control of society, social structures and people by capitalism and its ruling elites. Such bigotry divides people; instead of acting in a unified manner to defend their collective self-interests, sizable sectors of the populace fall prey to capital’s cynical use of prejudice, bias and hatred as mechanisms to separate people from each other and compromise societal cohesion and solidarity—and always based on superficial qualities and characteristics such as skin color, place of familial origin, sexual orientation or gender identity, etc. This dynamic maintains and enables class division, and allows the elites to continue to assert and legitimize their proprietary claims to social wealth and their control over society. Oppression, in the many forms it takes, causes people vs. people strife to keep going, unfettered, and gives the rulers of society potent tools to extract and claim for themselves unfathomable profits through the exploitation of people, the natural world and the social commons. Never before, in the history of the United States, have class divisions and polarity been as pronounced or extreme as they are today, in these first decades of the twenty-first century. This country is on a precipice. The ruling class is moving rightward at an accelerated pace, yet society is moving to the left. Class awareness is becoming increasingly heightened and socialism, once a dreaded bugaboo, is now a credible part of national political discourse, with more and more people seriously embracing socialism as a critically needed antidote to the systemic and ongoing crisis that has negatively impacted so much of the population. This three-hour Theater of the Oppressed (TO) workshop is a shortened version of a full-day workshop on the same topic, which will be presented on Saturday, July 30 (for more details or registration information write to toplabnyc@gmail.com). This workshop will use Image Theater—a basic TO technique—to look at class, how it affects us collectively, and how awareness and consciousness of one’s place and role in class society can be used as a tool for mobilizing and organizing people and communities to fight for social justice, economic equality and a world where wealth is shared by all, for the benefit of all, and not owned by a small clique of capitalists who have appropriated it for their own use. Drawing on the theories of popular education developed by his friend and colleague, Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal (1931-2009), who created and founded the methodology called Theater of the Oppressed, appropriated theater games and exercises for use as organizing tools by communities in struggle. These tools are designed to develop individual skills of observation and self-reflection, and cooperative group interactions. Image Theater is the ideal starting point for training in Theater of the Oppressed techniques. In Image Theater, leadership- and consensus-building games and techniques are used to explore relations of power and group solutions to concrete problems of oppression through “living body imagery”. Discussions begin to take place through the language of images, offering a fresh approach to power analysis and new opportunities for the exchange of ideas. Suggested reading for this workshop: The Retreat from Class: A New “True” Socialism, by Ellen Meiksins Wood. London and New York: Verso, 1986, revised 1998, 202 pp. ISBN: 978-1-85984-270-6. This three-hour workshop is open to people participating in the MEP’s Summer Marxist Intensive and there will be no extra tuition fee. People not enrolled in the Intensive are also invited to attend this workshop. The tuition is on a sliding scale, from $15 to $25. No prior theater experience is necessary to participate. “I believe that all the truly revolutionary theatrical groups should transfer to the people the means of production in the theater so that the people themselves may utilize them. The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it. —Augusto Boal Janet Gerson, has been a TOPLAB facilitator since 1997, and studied with Augusto Boal and TOPLAB facilitator Marie-Claire Picher. She is the Education Director of the International Institute on Peace Education. She won the Peace and Justice Studies Association 2014 Award for Public Deliberation on Global Justice for her work on the World Tribunal on Iraq. She was the Co-Director of the Peace Education Center at Teachers College in New York from 2001 to 2010, and was the Founder-Director of Dance Stream, a community-based organization that produced professional and children’s dance, outdoor arts festivals, and community television throughout New York City from 1981 to 2000. Marie-Claire Picher, Ph.D, is a co-founder (1990) of the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB), the oldest group in the United States offering facilitation training in the techniques and methodology of the Theater of the Oppressed (TO). She has worked and collaborated closely with TO founder and creator Augusto Boal until his death in 2009. One of the most experienced Theater of the Oppressed practitioners in North America, she has presented thousands of hours of training workshops in New York and throughout the United States. She has worked in Cuba; in Quiche, Guatemala on several projects involving community rebuilding and healing following the 36-year-long civil war that resulted in the near-genocide of the Mayan people and the murders of more than 200,000 indigenous Guatemalans; in Mexico City with street children, and also with peace and social justice groups; in Tabasco, Mexico with a youth community; and in the Mexican state of Chiapas with the Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas in the cities of Comitan and San Cristobal, and in autonomous Zapatista communities elsewhere in the state. “We must emphasize: What Brecht does not want is that the spectators continue to leave their brains with their hats upon entering the theater, as do bourgeois spectators.” —Augusto Boal The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB), is an all-women facilitation-training collective. It was founded in 1990 and is the oldest group in the United States offering training in the techniques and methodology of the Theater of the Oppressed (TO). We have enjoyed a warm relationship with Augusto Boal, the founder of TO, and our facilitators have collaborated closely with him from our start until his death in 2009. TOPLAB offers monthly training workshops, open to the general public, and also creates and facilitates workshops for specific communities, organizations and constituencies designed to meet the needs of the people involved. Since our beginning, TOPLAB has been committed to making TO accessible to as many people as possible by keeping our fees and tuition rates low. We do not seek funding from foundations or government agencies, and we certainly do not seek money from corporations and for-profit enterprises—and we never will. Most of all, we are committed to being active players seeking to change the world by abolishing the unjust, exploitative capitalist economic system and transforming the world into a place where wealth is owned, shared and controlled by society as a whole, for the benefit of all. | “I believe that all the truly revolutionary theatrical groups should transfer to the people the means of production in the theater so that the people themselves may utilize them. The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it. —Augusto Boal | 7/6/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-2-session-2-looking-at-class-consciousness-class-struggle-and-self-organizing-using-image-theater/ | Popular Education|Theater|Theater of the Oppressed|Theater Workshop | 7/15/2016 13:00 | 7/15/2016 16:00 | ||
| Day 3, Session 1: Slackers, Sabotage, and Syndicalism | American Labor History and the Refusal of Work Kristin Lawler In this session, we will consider the labor movement tactic most associated with the Industrial Workers of the World — sabotage, or the collective withdrawal of efficiency — engaging the history of the American slacker to think through possibilities for working-class freedom and power vis-a-vis capital today. The term slacker originated during WWI and disparaged those (primarily Irish) coded “lazy,” “vagrant,” and resistant to a proper Protestant work ethic; it also referred to those who would not fight on the side of the Americans (and of course, the British) during WWI. We can deploy this history to analyze the relationship between labor supply and worker power, and between anti-imperialist national liberation struggles (like Ireland’s) and struggles at the point of production, drawing out these connections for a new generation of scholars taking a look at the militant radicalism of the IWW in the context of a resurgence in the US and Europe, since at least 1999, of an anarcho-syndicalist, direct action-oriented politics. Kristin Lawler is Associate Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. Her first book, The American Surfer: Radical Culture and Capitalism, was published by Routledge in 2011 and examined the politics of American surf culture during the twentieth century. She is a member of the editorial collective of the journal Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination; her work has been published there as well as in several edited collections, Z Magazine, and the digital forum of the Social Science Research Council. She is currently at work on her new book, Shanty Irish: the Roots of American Syndicalism. | The term “slacker” originated during WWI and disparaged those (primarily Irish) coded “lazy,” “vagrant,” and resistant to a proper Protestant work ethic; it also referred to those who would not fight on the side of the Americans (and of course, the British) during WWI. | 7/6/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-3-session-1-slackers-sabotage-and-syndicalism/ | anarchism|Anti-capitalism|Class Consciousness|IWW|Labor History|Syndicalism|Wobblies|Wobbly|Work Ethic | 7/16/2016 10:00 | 7/16/2016 12:00 | ||
| Day 2, Session 3: Public Banking | A Marxist Response to the Financial Crisis and the “Financialization” of Capitalism? Presentation and discussion with Dan Karan Financial crises and “financialization” are nothing new for capitalism. Yet, the vast majority of self-proclaimed “Marxists” have only two responses: Revolution or reregulation i.e., a new 21st “Glass Steagall” that once again separates commercial and investment banks. Reregulating the banks, however, is the very (Einsteinian) definition of insanity i.e., doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. The private banksters will always be at least two steps ahead of the regulators. Moreover, it doesn’t get to the fundamental question of who should control public monies and decide how they should be invested. There is a third alternative however: Public Banking. There is also an existing model: The Bank of North Dakota. Founded in 1919 after populist North Dakota farmers organized the Nonpartisan League and won both houses of the state legislature in the elections of 1918, The Bank of North Dakota is the only public state bank in the country. It collects state tax revenues and then invests them in public projects. There should be 50 state banks along with a public federal bank so that all public monies (taxes and public pension funds) are deposited in them and invested for public purposes. In New York, for example, the public pension funds of New York City municipal workers has over $160 billion in assets. Imagine what “we” could do with $160 billion invested in everything from affordable housing to rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, to making all of our buildings energy efficient to reduce our use of fossil fuels and creating a 21st century clean-energy economy to supporting worker-owned cooperative businesses to give workers ownership over the means of production etc. This session will explore the concept of public banking as an organizing and programmatic strategy for fighting the power of the private banksters and for raising the fundamental question of who should control public monies and decide how they are invested. Dan Karan has worked for NYC housing and community development organizations for 25 years and studied Marxism for nearly 40. | This session will explore the concept of public banking as an organizing and programmatic strategy for fighting the power of the private banksters and for raising the fundamental question of who should control public monies and decide how they are invested. | 7/7/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-2-session-3-public-banking/ | banking|Bankruptcy|Insolvency|Public Banking|Strategies on building or reforming banks|Workers Banking | 7/15/2016 17:30 | 7/15/2016 19:30 | ||
| Day 3, Session 3: Prometheus in Ruins? Uses and Abuses of the Hero Who Stole Fire | A presentation and discussion with Anthony Galluzzo Mechanical Prometheanism was for long the signature myth of Western modernization. Both capitalists and socialists embraced the Greek myth of Prometheus’s theft of fire from the gods as shorthand for Progress — technological determinism and human domination of the natural world — while neglecting the ethico-political dimensions of the myth. Prometheanism achieved its apotheosis during the twentieth century, when futurism and productivism shaped capitalism and state socialism alike. Today the taste for such techno-scientific drive to mastery has waned, at least among many Marxists and ecosocialists coming to grips with the environmental costs of industrial modernization. But as planetary civilization and the planet itself confront ecological collapse, techno-utopianism is making a come-back, from the cyber-libertarian solutionists of Silicon Valley to the ostensibly left accelerationists who seek to revive Prometheus — without ever asking which Prometheus they want to revive. This talk will trace the history of Promethean ideology, beginning with the Godwin/Malthus debates of the 1790s, through its current revival within certain precincts of the left, particularly as it intersects with the ecological crisis and Anthropocene theory today. We will contrast this to alternative Prometheanisms, from the Shelleys through Marx to present-day ecosocialist currents. Anthony Galluzzo is a lecturer at NYU. He studies radical transatlantic literary culture of the 1790s and its afterlives in socialism, utopian fiction, and the gothic novel. He has contributed several articles to Jacobin and other journals. His home base is in Brooklyn, where he grew up. | This talk will trace the history of Promethean ideology, beginning with the Godwin/Malthus debates of the 1790s, through its current revival within certain precincts of the left, particularly as it intersects with the ecological crisis and Anthropocene theory today. | 7/7/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-3-session-3-prometheus-in-ruins-uses-and-abuses-of-the-hero-who-stole-fire/ | accelereationism|Anthropocene|ecosocialism|Marx|modernism|prometheanism|Shelley|techno-utopians | 7/16/2016 15:30 | 7/16/2016 17:25 | ||
| Day 3, Session 2—Beyond Bernie: The Crisis of Labor & The Left in the United States | A presentation and discussion with Mark Dudzic The rise of neoliberalism has weakened and demoralized labor and left movements throughout the advanced capitalist world but its impact has been particularly devastating in the U.S. We will discuss the reasons for that as well as the various dysfunctional responses from the U.S. left to this crisis as it became increasingly marginalized and powerless. We will review the 1990’s effort to launch a Labor Party in the U.S. based primarily in the institutional labor movement and the reasons for its demise. We will explore the prospects and possibilities for independent working class politics in the wake of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Mark Dudzic is the National Coordinator of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer and is a former local union and district council president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (now part of the United Steelworkers). He served as National Organizer of the Labor Party after the death of party founder Tony Mazzocchi. | What are the prospects and possibilities for independent working class politics in the wake of the Sanders campaign? | 7/8/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-3-session-2-beyond-bernie-the-crisis-of-labor-the-left-in-the-united-states/ | After Sanders|American politics|Class Consciousness|Class Struggles|Oil Workers|Organizing|Post Bernie|Socialist campaigns|Steelworkers|Tony Mazzocchi|Unionism | 7/16/2016 13:00 | 7/16/2016 15:00 | ||
| Day 3, Session 4—Logistics, Capitalist Circulation, Chokepoints with Charmaine Chua | Since the 1970s, capital’s encounters with the crisis of profitability has led it to seek out new strategies of accumulation, notably, in shifting its focus from sites of production to the conduits of circulation. No longer able to generate substantial profit from the mechanized and labor-saving technologies of factory manufacturing, firms began to experiment with increasing the speed and efficiency through which commodities could circulate across the globe. Thus the rise of business logistics: the management of complex networks that coordinate the stocking, distribution, and transportation of services and commodities in international space. In the process, logistics has led to a profound reorganization of the global working class, fragmenting sites of production far from their sites of consumption, and stretching the industrial working class far across the globe. Yet, in anti-capitalist and anti-colonial struggle across the deindustrialized North, activists and organizers have repeatedly found ways to interrupt these intensifying circuits of distribution, responding to the rapid spatial expansion of logistics with their own strategic seizures of the chokepoints of capital flow. Chokepoints – the concentration of the circulation of commodities at certain key sites along the supply chain – might thus present the possibility for resistance to be waged not only symbolically but also materially, by literally grounding capitalist circulation to a halt. Can we understand the highway takeover, the port blockade, and the storefront die-in as connected instances of disruption, revealing an arena of struggle that capital’s turn to accumulation through logistical circulation has made available? What do they teach us about the possibilities of disrupting capital’s circuits as a whole? In short, why occupy chokepoints, and why now? Charmaine Chua is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Minnesota and visiting instructor at Macalester College. She works on the rise of logistics capitalism in the context of labor along the U.S.-China supply chain, and is part of the Empire Logistics collective. To read: https://thedisorderofthings.com/2014/09/09/logistics-capitalist-circulation-chokepoints/ | Can we understand the highway takeover, the port blockade, and the storefront die-in as connected instances of disruption, revealing an arena of struggle that capital’s turn to accumulation through logistical circulation has made available? What do they teach us about the possibilities of disrupting capital’s circuits as a whole? In short, why occupy chokepoints, and why now? | 7/9/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-3-session-4-logistics-capitalist-circulation-chokepoints-with-charmaine-chua/ | alternative forms of struggle|Capitalist circulation|Chokepoints|container ships|crisis|Logistics|occupation|occupy|ports|shipping | 7/16/2016 17:30 | 7/16/2016 19:25 | ||
| Day 4, Session 4—Approaching Science from the Left | Approaching Science from the Left: Uses and Abuses of Knowledge in the Planetary Crisis Rebecca Boger, Stuart Newman, Dave Schwartzman, moderated by Fred Murphy As awareness has grown – among both working people and the global capitalist class – about the scope and complexity of the multiple crises facing the planet and its biosphere, a wide gamut of solutions and palliatives have been put forward across the physical and biological sciences. These range from dystopian geoengineering projects to genetic modification schemes to renewable and sustainable forms of energy use and agriculture. With this closing panel we aim to open a conversation among scholars and activists about how scientific knowledge and practice can help point the way forward, as well as about how science is abused in efforts to preserve and extend capitalist power over labor and resources. Rebecca Boger has a background in geospatial technologies, marine science, and science education. Before coming to Brooklyn College, she worked for an international science and education program, GLOBE, where she worked with teams of scientists and educators to develop classroom materials, conduct workshops, and facilitate international collaborations. She continues to work with GLOBE to develop online training materials and a citizen science network. At Brooklyn College, CUNY, she teaches geospatial technologies and works with anthropologists and archaeologists in Barbuda on socio-ecological resilience research, community based mapping, and environmental modeling. In the NYC area, she works with NYC Parks and Gateway National Recreation on historical mapping and trends analysis of marshes and shoreline. She continues her education work with a greater emphasis on sustainability, resilience, and climate change topics where she is helping to build an urban sustainability program and online materials. Stuart Newman is a professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York. He has contributed to several scientific fields, including biophysical chemistry, developmental biology, and evolutionary theory. He has been a critic of genetic determinism in biology and an opponent of eugenic applications of biotechnology since his student days in the 1960s. Newman was a founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics and is a columnist for Capitalism Nature Socialism. David Schwartzman is Professor Emeritus, Howard University (biogeochemist, environmental scientist, PhD, Brown University). An active member of the DC Statehood Green Party/Green Party of the United States. Website with his older son Peter Schwartzman is www.solarUtopia.org. Publications include: Life, Temperature and the Earth (2002), several recent papers in Capitalism Nature Socialism (CNS). Member of the following Advisory Boards: Science & Society, Capitalism Nature Socialism, Institute for Policy Research & Development. | This panel aims to open a conversation among scholars and activists about how scientific knowledge and practice can help point the way forward, as well as about how science is abused in efforts to preserve and extend capitalist power over labor and resources. | 7/9/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-4-session-4-approaching-science-from-the-left/ | agriculture|Anthropocene|cell biology|crisis|Eco-socialism|ecological crisis|genetic engineering|genetics|geospatial technologies|green politics|inquiry|science|sustainability | 7/17/2016 17:30 | 7/17/2016 19:45 | ||
| Day 4, Session 3—Sexuality, Gender and Globalization | Sexuality, Gender and Globalization Kate Doyle Griffiths and Lisa Maya Knauer What do sexuality and gender have to do with the global economy? What role do sex and desire — some of the most intimate aspects of our lives — play in the emergence and evolution of capitalism, and how are they in turn shaped by capital? Why have women, particularly in the global South, often been at the forefront of resistance to neoliberal capitalism? How can Marxism(s) help us understand these issues, and formulate strategies for change? This workshop will explore these questions from multiple perspectives — spanning generations and different local, regional and national contexts. Lisa Maya Knauer is a founding member of the MEP and its predecessor, the Brecht Forum. She has taught a variety of classes on feminism and Marxism, and gender and capitalism. She is currently working with indigenous resistance movements in Guatemala, and with immigrant women workers in the U.S. In her day job, she is the chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. (you don’t need to include the academic affiliation if you don’t want) Kate Doyle Griffiths is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and teaches at Hunter College. She has conducted research in South Africa, on reproductive labor, health, gender and politics. | What role do sex and desire — some of the most intimate aspects of our lives — play in the emergence and evolution of capitalism, and how are they in turn shaped by capital? | 7/9/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-4-session-3-sexuality-gender-and-globalization/ | division of labor|domestic work|domination|gender roles|Global South|Globalization|Neo-liberalism|sex|sexuality|women and capitalism|Women and Marxism | 7/17/2016 15:30 | 7/17/2016 17:25 | ||
| Day 4, Session 2—Labor in the Global Digital Economy: Ursula Huws | A presentation and discussion with Ursula Huws This presentation will tie together disparate economic, cultural, and political phenomena of our last few decades to form a provocative narrative about the shape of the global capitalist economy at present. Ursula will examine the way that advanced information and communications technology has opened up new fields of capital accumulation: in culture and the arts, in the privatization of public services, and in the commodification of human sociality by way of mobile devices and social networking. These trends are in turn accompanied by the dramatic restructuring of work arrangements, opening the way for new contradictions and new forms of labor solidarity and struggle around the planet. Ursula Huws is Professor of Labour and Globalisation at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, and founder of Analytica Social and Economic Research. She is the author of Labor in the Global Digital Economy and The Making of a Cybertariat: Virtual Work in a Real World. Copies of Labor in the Global Digital Economy will be available for purchase during the Intensive. The supplied image is from a protest staged within China by Chinese workers against conditions imposed in factories manufacturing iPads. | This presentation will tie together disparate economic, cultural, and political phenomena of our last few decades to form a provocative narrative about the shape of the global capitalist economy at present. Ursula will examine the way that advanced information and communications technology has opened up new fields of capital accumulation… | 7/9/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-4-session-2-labor-in-the-global-digital-economy-ursula-huws/ | behavior commodificaiton|capital accumulation|digital labor|global economy|global work|new forms of solidarity|social media|social space enclosures|worker’s resistance | 7/17/2016 13:00 | 7/17/2016 15:00 | ||
| Day 4, Session 1—It’s Not Over: Lessons for Socialists with Pete Dolack | It’s Not Over: Lessons for Socialists from the October Revolution, Prague Spring and the Sandinistas Pete Dolack The transition from feudalism to capitalism spanned centuries, and although humanity does not have the luxury of waiting for a transition to socialism taking that length of time, the struggle to overcome capitalism has already spanned a century with no victory in sight. Countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Nicaragua fell back into capitalism, but that does not mean we have nothing to learn from a study of those revolutions. This is history that was shaped by flesh-and-blood human beings — leaders of movements and uncounted men and women in the streets and in the workplaces motivated by a desire to create a better world. That the results of uprisings as diverse as the October Revolution, the Prague Spring and the Sandinista Revolution did not meet the revolutionaries’ expectations is a tragedy that requires explanation, but does not require us to deem those revolutionaries as failures. The edifice of the Soviet Union was something akin to a statue undermined by water freezing inside it; it appears strong on the outside until the tipping point when the ice suddenly breaks it apart from within. The “ice” here were black marketeers; networks of people who used connections to obtain supplies for official and illegal operations; and the managers of enterprises who grabbed their operations for themselves. Soviet bureaucrats eventually began to privatize the economy for their own benefit (fulfilling a prediction made by Leon Trotsky half a century earlier); party officials, for all their desire to find a way out of crisis, lacked firm ideas and direction; and Soviet working people, discouraged by experiencing the reforms as coming at their expense and exhausted by perpetual struggle, were unable to intervene. The Prague Spring and the Sandinista Revolution provide disparate examples. History has concentrated on the tragedy of Czechoslovakia’s political leaders, but much of the innovation of Prague Spring came at the grassroots level, where self-organized workers began to devise the beginnings of a system of social control over industry free of bureaucratic shackles. Grassroots creativity propelled forward a Spring begun by leaders of a monopoly party who believed that the full democratic and human potential of socialism had to be allowed to blossom, requiring dramatic changes. The Sandinista Revolution’s goal was a mixed economy, not the creation of a socialist system, but although that mixed economy created a new set of problems it also improved the lives of Nicaraguans. Nonetheless, the Sandinistas left economic power in the hands of the country’s capitalists, leaving them with the ability to undermine the revolution. Thinking about the basic contours of a better world is a prerequisite to becoming effective in bringing it into being. The march forward of human history is not a gift from gods above nor presents handed us from benevolent rulers, governments, institutions or markets — it is the product of collective human struggle on the ground. Toward this end, an understanding of today and finding a path to the future is impossible without an understanding of the past: Erasing the past is erasing the future. Pete Dolack is the author of It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment, which includes studies of each of these revolutions and a final chapter that looks to the future. Different nations will find different paths forward and it is impossible to apply any formula across multiple societies at differing levels of development and possessing divergent cultural traditions, so no blueprint for the future is possible. Nonetheless, with capitalism in deep crisis with no answer for working people, the time is now for us to think about the contours of a better world. | That the results of uprisings as diverse as the October Revolution, the Prague Spring and the Sandinista Revolution did not meet the revolutionaries’ expectations is a tragedy that requires explanation, but does not require us to deem those revolutionaries as failures. | 7/9/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-4-session-1-its-not-over-lessons-for-socialists-with-pete-dolack/ | bureaucracy|democracy|hybrid economies|Nicaragua|October Revolution|planing|Prague Spring|Revolution|revolutionary compromise|Sandinista|Socialist Experiment|Socialist planning|state capitalism | 7/17/2016 11:00 | 7/17/2016 12:50 | ||
| Day 1, Session 5—Solidarity Without Borders | A panel with Kazembe Balagun, Mark Bergfeld, Harmony Goldberg and Marcus Grätsch — moderated by Marika Dias War, ecological crisis, automation, blurring of the rural and urban, the global North and the global South, along with development of precarity for all of global generalized proletariat lays material basis for internationalist solidarity. Kazembe Balagun has been featured in Time Out New York, The Guardian, German Public Radio and The New York Times and contributed “We Be Reading Marx Where We From” to Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. As a cultural activist he has sought to create intersections between Marxism, queer theory, feminism and Black liberation movements. He works as project manager at Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office. Mark Bergfeld is a writer and organizer. He has written for media outlets such as Al-Jazeera English, The Nation, New Statesman among others. He has been active in social movements in Europe and served on the Executive Council of the National Union of students in the UK. He currently is writing his PhD on the relationship between trade unions and immigrant workers at Queen Mary University of London. A founding member of SOUL: School of Unity & Liberation in Oakland, Harmony Goldberg has run left political education programs for grassroots organizations in the Bay Area and New York City for more than a decade. Recently completed her PhD in Cultural Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and she continues to support grassroots organizations and the broader left as a popular educator, writer and facilitator. Marcus Grätsch is a political scientist and activist. He currently works as Program Coordinator for Left Forum in New York. He is member of the large post-autonomous group “Interventionist Left” in Germany (introduction to this group: https://vimeo.com/167657035) ” in Berlin, he took part in the euromayday movement which fought against precarity and for the freedom of movement between 2004 and 2008 for more see here http://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Precarity_Movement . In 2009 he co-founded the “Meuterei” bar and social space operated as worker cooperative/collective in Berlin-Kreuzberg. In 2012 he took part in initiating the transnational “Blockupy” coalition which is a major actor of the European resistance against austerity. For more of this coalition see here: https://blockupy.org/en/ | Are we witnessing the formation of an historic bloc via precarity unlike formations in the prior history of capitalism? We are witnessing Greek workers welcoming refugees to Greece as the central European banks push them towards brutal levels of austerity not seen in Europe since WWII. | 7/11/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-1-session-5-solidarity-without-borders/ | anti-fascism|counter-austerity|immigration|internationalism|north/south question|precarity|refugee crisis|rural urban|working class movements | 7/14/2016 19:30 | 7/14/2016 21:30 | ||
| Day 2, Session 4—Southern Insurgency: Mass Movements Throughout the Global South | A presentation and discussion with Manny Ness and Lisa Maya Knauer Manny Ness provides an expert perspective of three key countries where workers are fighting the spread of unchecked industrial capitalism: China, India, and South Africa. He considers the broader historical forces in play, such as the effects of imperialism, the decline of the international union movement, class struggle, and the growing reserve of available labor. Lisa Maya Knauer will look at other responses to neoliberal capitalism focusing on the Americas: resistance to anti-extractivist projects, refugee/migrant flows to the U.S., and organizing efforts by Central American workers in the U.S. Lisa Maya Knauer is a founding member of the MEP and its predecessor, the Brecht Forum. She has taught a variety of classes on feminism and Marxism, and gender and capitalism. She is currently working with indigenous resistance movements in Guatemala, and with immigrant women workers in the U.S. In her day job, she is the chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. (you don’t need to include the academic affiliation if you don’t want) Immanuel Ness is a political economist and professor of Political Science at City University of New York. He edits Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society and is the author of numerous works including Guest Workers and Resistance to U.S. Corporate Despotism. He has worked and organized in the food, maintenance, and publishing industries. | It is essential that we considers the broader historical forces in play today throughout the Global South, such as the effects of imperialism, the decline of the international union movement, class struggle, and the growing reserve army of available labor on a global scale. | 7/11/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-2-session-4-southern-insurgency-mass-movements-throughout-the-global-south/ | China|Global South|Guatemala|India|labor militancy|mass precarity|Mexico|Nicaragua|peasant enclosures|Refugees|South Africa | 7/15/2016 19:30 | 7/15/2016 21:30 | ||
| Day 3, Session 5—Devils & Dust: Resisting War in New York, the Pacific, & the Middle East | Panel presentation with discussion Claude Copeland, Laurel Mei-Singh, Yuko Tonohira Claude, Laurel and Yuko will survey the tremendous resistance to US and other capitalist occupations taking place in the Pacific, the Middle East and speak about the network of resistance that is developing in NYC. Claude Copeland is active in community organizing in the Bronx and is a long-time member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Laurel Mei-Singh serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in American Studies at Princeton University. Her current research develops a genealogy of military fences and their relationship to Hawaiian struggles for national liberation and self-determination in Wai‘anae on the island of O‘ahu in Hawai‘i. She has worked with the Wai‘anae Environmental Justice Working Group, Hawai‘i Peace and Justice, and CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities. Yuko Tonohira is a member of Sloths Against Nuclear State (SANS). She is a graphic designer and illustrator working in a wide range of fields in healthcare, book publications, music, and across environmental and social justice movements internationally. | As capital powers vie for access to ocean routes for trade and military surveillance, peoples of the numerous sectors of the Pacific and Indian Oceans are joining in resistance against the rush to warfare and continuation of war throughout the Middle East. | 7/12/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/day-3-session-5-devils-dust-resisting-war-in-new-york-the-pacific-the-middle-east-2/ | anti-militarism|anti-nuclear|Anti-war|Fukushima|Hawai’i decolonization|National Liberation|Pacific peoples|peace|TPP | 7/16/2016 19:30 | 7/16/2016 21:30 | ||
| Marxism, Science and The Anthropocene | A Study Group convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight September 21 – November 23 This ongoing study group considers how Marxists and other critical thinkers address the nexus of capitalism, science, threats to human existence on planet Earth, and the fight for climate justice and ecosocialism. For the Fall 2016 session we will take up works by Andreas Malm (Fossil Capital), Jason Moore et al. (Anthropocene or Capitalocene?), and Ian Angus (Facing the Anthropocene). Steve Knight is involved in eco-advocacy as a member of 350NYC, a GreenFaith Fellow working with faith communities, and a certified energy efficiency auditor for multifamily buildings. He has been interested in Marxian analysis and ecosocialism since 2004, when he studied Capital with David Harvey. Fred Murphy studied and taught historical sociology at The New School and has co-led several MEP courses. His adolescent dream of a career as a research chemist was diverted by the sixties radicalization, but he has never lost interest in the sciences | Our studies address the nexus of capitalism, science, threats to human existence on planet Earth, and the fight for climate justice and ecosocialism. | 7/19/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-science-and-the-anthropocene-2/ | Anti-capitalism|capitalism|carbon fuels|Climate Change|climate justice|ecology|ecosocialism|fossil fuels | 9/21/2016 19:30 | 9/21/2016 21:30 | ||
| Revisiting Foucault and the Iranian Revolution | Revisiting Foucault and the Iranian Revolution in the Era of ISIS and of Islamophobia Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson This presentation and discussion will be moderated by Chad Krautzer We will discuss in light of today our 2005 book on Foucault and the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79. His fervent opposition to the Shah and US imperialism and his astute assessment of Iran as a new type of revolution, neither liberal nor leftist, were marred by a surprisingly uncritical stance toward the upsurge of radical Islamism and an untoward silence on the issues of gender and sexuality. We also discuss Marxist and feminist critiques of Foucault at the time, and their implications for today. Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson are the authors of Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism. They teach at University of California, Santa Barbara, in sociology and religious studies, respectively. Afary is also the author of Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (2009) and Anderson of Marx at the Margins (2010). | Foucault’s fervent opposition to the Shah and US imperialism and his astute assessment of Iran as a new type of revolution, neither liberal nor leftist, were marred by a surprisingly uncritical stance toward the upsurge of radical Islamism and an untoward silence on the issues of gender and sexuality. | 7/19/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revisiting-foucault-and-the-iranian-revolution/ | feudal imposition|gender oppression|Iran|ISIS|Islamophobia|national independence|religious governance | 9/9/2016 19:30 | 9/9/2016 21:30 | ||
| We Make Our Own History: On Marxism and Social Movements | We Make Our Own History: On Marxism and Social Movements in the Twilight of Neoliberalism Talk and Discussion with Alf Gunvald Nilsen We live in the twilight of neoliberalism: the ruling classes can no longer rule as before, and ordinary people are no longer willing to be ruled in the old way. Pursued by global elites since the 1970s, neoliberalism is defined by dispossession and ever-increasing inequality. The refusal to continue to be ruled like this — “ya basta!” — appears in an arc of resistance stretching from rural India to the cities of the global North. We Make Our Own History — a book co-written by Laurence Cox and Alf Gunvald Nilsen — investigates this scenario through an exploration of how social movements are forging new visions of a future beyond neoliberalism and by reclaiming Marxism as a theory born from activist experience and practice. In this talk, Alf Gunvald Nilsen will discuss some of the main arguments and ideas put forward in the book with reference to changing movement landscapes in different parts of the world-system. Alf Gunvald Nilsen is associate professor of sociology at the University of Bergen (Norway) and Visiting Senior Researcher at the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). He is the author of Dispossession and Resistance in India: The River and the Rage (Routledge, 2010) and the co-editor of numerous books on social movement theory and research, including Marxism and Social Movements (Brill/Haymarket, 2013) and New Subaltern Politics: Reconceptualizing Hegemony and Resistance in Contemporary India (Oxford University Press, 2015). | We live in the twilight of neoliberalism: the ruling classes can no longer rule as before, and ordinary people are no longer willing to be ruled in the old way. | 7/20/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/we-make-our-own-history-on-marxism-and-social-movements/ | activism|anti-austerity|Anti-capitalism|history|marxism|Marxist Theory|neoliberalism|occupy|Revolutionary practice|Social movements|Theory of Revolution | 10/18/2016 19:30 | 10/18/2016 21:30 | ||
| The Young Hegelians (1831-1842) | Seminar of the NYC Marxist Hegel-Studies Collective Marxist Education Project Conducted by Russell Dale Hegel’s philosophy has had a great influence on much of what has happened in the world since his time (1770-1831) and is crucial to understanding much of modern social thought and philosophy as well as to understanding Marxism and the socialist tradition in its varied aspects. Hegel himself died in 1831. In Berlin, where Hegel had taught for nearly a decade-and-a-half up to his death, a small group of philosophers – the so-called “Young Hegelians” – struggled with questions of interpreting Hegel in terms of the actual conditions of life in Germany and Europe at that time. The questions that this group of philosophers dealt with ranged from questions of re-interpreting religion, to the nature of the individual, society, and the state. Both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were involved in the work of the Young Hegelians, and ultimately it was the rejection of much of the thinking of Hegel and the Young Hegelians that allowed Marx and Engels to formulate what became the general outlook we today think of as Marxism. In this seminar, we will study various works of the Young Hegelians including David Strauss, Ludwig Feuerbach, Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner, and others, and including as well some early writings of Marx and Engels themselves. The philosophy of Hegel as well as numerous of the Young Hegelians also included reactionary, racist/white-supremacist thought, which we will give special critical attention to. The rejection of Hegel and the Young Hegelians by Marx and Engels is also in important ways a rejection of the racism and white-supremacy and all that that has historically entailed in the development of contemporary capitalist society. This theme will be of fundamental importance in this class as will be the critique of the system of patriarchy – the oppressive subordination of women to men – the struggle to end such oppressions being fundamental to Marxism. The course will run for 14 weeks on Friday evenings from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM starting September 16, 2016 and continuing until December 16, 2016. We will be reading the book The Young Hegelians: An Anthology, edited by Lawrence S. Stepelevich. (Arrangements will be made for students who cannot buy a copy of this book which costs about $12 online in a Kindle edition, or from about $25 and up for a used copy on abe.com or elsewhere.) Russell Dale is an activist and a philosopher. He teaches philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. He taught classes on Hegel and various other topics for the last six years. Russell is also on the Manuscript Collective and Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society, as well as on the Local Station Board of radio station WBAI, 99.5 FM (wbai.org). | The course will run for 14 weeks on Friday evenings from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM starting September 16, 2016 and continuing until December 16, 2016. We will be reading the book The Young Hegelians: An Anthology, edited by Lawrence S. Stepelevich. | 8/2/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-young-hegelians-1831-1842/ | Bauer|Bourgeois Philosophy|Dialectical Materialism|Engels|Feurbach|Hegel|History of Philosophy|Idealism|Marx|Materialism|philosophy|Revolutionary Philosophy|Stirner | 9/16/2016 18:00 | 9/16/2016 20:00 | ||
| Victor Serge: The Novels of Resistance | A 10-session class with Richard Greeman Tuesdays, 5:30 to 7:30 pm October 11 – December 13 This Fall we plan to read three novels by the Franco-Russian writer and revolutionary Victor Serge. The period covered (1933-1941) begins with Serge’s arrest by the GPU and deportation to the Urals (the setting of the novel Midnight in the Century), continues through the Moscow Trials and the Civil War in Spain (the background to Serge’s fictional Case of Comrade Tulayev), and ends with the Fall of France (experienced by Serge and fictionalized in The Long Dusk). The group is open to all, and no prerequisite familiarity with Serge is expected. Richard Greeman is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). Greeman also writes regularly about politics, international class struggles and revolutionary theory. Co-founder of the Praxis Research and Education Center in Moscow, and director of the International Victor Serge Foundation, Greeman splits his time between Montpellier, France and New York City. 10 session class: $95 / $110 / $125 no one turned away for inability to pay | From Victor Serge’s arrest by the GPU in 1933 through his experience of the fall of France in 1941, he wrote the three novels we will examine this term. No prior knowledge of Victor Serge or his work in required. | 8/8/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/victor-serge-the-novels-of-resistance/ | Comrade Tulayev|innovative novels|internationalism|Midnight in the Century|Moscow Trials|Revolutionary autobiography|revolutionary literature|Spanish Civil War|The Long Dusk | 10/11/2016 17:30 | 10/11/2016 19:30 | ||
| Victor Serge Read-In Day | A Victor Serge Sunday at the Brooklyn Commons Featuring Mitch Abidor, Mallory Brooks, Silvia Federici, Jenny Greeman, Richard Greeman and Christopher Winks Complete with a Serge Book Fair and other participation of Serge’s American publishers, Haymarket Books, New York Review Books and PM Press “Victor Serge died in exile and obscurity, apparently no more than a splinter of a splinter in the Marxist movement. But with the passage of the years, he looms up as one of the great moral figures of our time, an artist of such integrity and a revolutionary of such purity as to overshadow those who achieved fame and power. His failure was his success. I know of no participant in Russia’s revolution and Spain’s agonies who more deserves the attention of our concerned youth.” – I. F. Stone 2:00 pm: Talks and Discussion: Victor Serge: Revolution and its Illusions by Mitchell Abidor, translator of Serge’s Anarchists Never Surrender (PM Press) and Notebooks (NYRB Classics). Serge’s autobiography bears the title Memoirs of a Revolutionary (a title he didn’t choose), but at the beginning and end of his political life he posed serious questions about the efficacy of revolution and revolutionary activity. Inspired by Serge’s article “The Revolutionary Illusion,” Mitch Abidor will examine this aspect of Serge’s thought. Victor Serge’s Novels of Resistance by Richard Greeman, Serge scholar, translator and prefacer of five Serge novels (NYRB Classics, PM Press) Victor Serge and the Poetics of Revolutionary Memory by Christopher Winks, (Comparative Literature, Queens College, CUNY). A discussion of Serge’s poetry as a prolonged elegy for the fallen —“the cortège of his executed brothers” —and an affirmation of love and hope amidst the darkness of world counter-revolution. 3:30 pm: SERGE READ-IN: Pick your favorite Serge passage and join with other fans including Sylvia Federici (feminist writer), Christopher Winks, Melody Brooks and Jenny Greeman, New Perpectives Theater) who will be reading their own favorites and discussing them. | Featuring Mitch Abidor, Mallory Brooks, Silvia Federici, Jenny Greeman, Richard Greeman and Christopher Winks Complete with a Serge Book Fair and other participation of Serge’s American publishers, Haymarket Books, New York Review Books and PM Press | 8/8/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/victor-serge-read-in-day/ | Barcelona|Berlin|Comintern|GPU|Leningrad|modern novel|Moscow|Revolutionary autobiography|St. Petersburg | 10/2/2016 14:00 | 10/2/2016 17:00 | ||
| Anthropocene or Capitalocene?: Nature, History, & the Crisis of Capitalism | Jason W. Moore and Christian Parenti Jason W. Moore and Christian Parenti introduce a new essay collection, Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. The book challenges the theory and history offered by proponents of the “Anthropocene” and stresses how climate change and related crises are rooted in the rise and domination of capital.The book challenges the theory and history offered by proponents of the “Anthropocene” and stresses how climate change and related crises are rooted in the rise and domination of capital – hence the “Capitalocene.” This work offers a more nuanced and dialectical view of human environment-making, joined at every step with and within the biosphere. Jason W. Moore is a historical geographer and world historian at Binghamton University, where he is Associate Professor of Sociology and Research Fellow at the Fernand Braudel Center. He is author of Capitalism in the Web of Life (Verso, 2015) and editor of Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism (PM Press, 2016). He writes frequently on the history of capitalism, environmental history, and social theory. Moore is presently completing Ecology and the Rise of Capitalism, an environmental history of the rise of capitalism, and with Raj Patel, Seven Cheap Things: A World-Ecological Manifesto – both with the University of California Press. He is coordinator of the World-Ecology Research Network. Christian Parenti is a professor in the Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University. His latest book, Tropic of Chaos, explores how climate change is already causing violence as it interacts with the legacies of economic neoliberalism and cold-war militarism. Previous works analyzed the US occupation of Iraq and surveillance, police, and prisons in the United States. His contribution to Anthropocene or Capitalocene? focuses on the role of national states as environment-making institutions. | Jason W. Moore and Christian Parenti introduce a new essay collection, Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. The book challenges the theory and history offered by proponents of the “Anthropocene” and stresses how climate change and related crises are rooted in the rise and domination of capital. | 8/9/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/anthropocene-vs-capitalocene-nature-history-the-crisis-of-capitalism/ | Anti-capitalism|capitalism|Climate Change|Eco-socialism|ecological crisis|tipping point | 11/11/2016 19:30 | 11/11/2016 21:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume I | A 9 Session Class and Discussion with Juliet Ucelli Thursdays, 5:30 to 7:30 pm Over the past 40 years, many of us have needed to work longer and longer hours—and often more than one job—in order to survive. This longer working day has also become more intense and saps more of our energy. These trends, which Marx predicted and analyzed in Capital, also make it harder for workers and activists to read Capital all the way through. Therefore, we are trying a new approach and highlighting the main sections and concepts of Volume I in a 10-week course. Key topics that we will cover include: use-value, value and commodity fetishism; the labor process, the working day and surplus value; competition, innovation, productivity growth and the concentration of capital; the sources of ecological destruction; capital’s need for unemployed people and a reserve army of labor; and the bloody origins of capitalism and white supremacy in expropriation and enslavement. The course will provide a basic grounding for participants to pursue further study on their own or collectively. We’ll refer to new resources such as on-line and visual aids and current articles that illustrate capitalism’s developmental tendencies, which Marx calls its laws of motion. Juliet Ucelli has taught Capital at the New York Marxist School and labor economics for labor unions, as well as adult basic education and GED preparation. Currently a high school social worker, she has written on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, the politics of inner city public schooling and other topics. Her “Introduction to Capital, Volume I” can be accessed at http://thecommonsbrooklyn.org/intensive-readings-2014. | 8/17/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-i/ | capitalism|commodity fetishism|crisis|rate of accumulation and circulation. anti-bourgeois|surplus value|use value|working class | 10/6/2016 17:30 | 10/6/2016 19:30 | |||
| The German Revolution 1918-1924 | The German Revolution 1918-1924: False Hope or Missed Chance? Revolutions Study Group at The MEP 12-week session Mondays, October 3-December 19, 7:30-9:30 p.m. At the end of 1918, the workers of Germany rose up and overthrew the Kaiser. The Bolsheviks thought that the success of the Russian Revolution hinged upon the rapid unfolding of the a world revolution, and placed their hopes for its beginning on Germany more than any other country. For the next five years, fractious German revolutionaries agitated for and launched a series of uprisings aimed at the creation of a workers╒ state: the Sparticist uprising in 1919, in which Luxemburg and Liebknecht were killed; the March Action in 1921; the “German October” in 1923. They fought, but they lost. In the process, the working class was divided and demoralized, the capitalist class went looking for a savior, and the foundations of Nazism were laid. In it’s beginnings, the revolution in Germany appears very similar to the events in Russia the year before. Why was the outcome so different? We will try to answer many questions in the course of this reading group, but that is the essential question. Primary reading: Pierre Broue, The German Revolution. Other readings include selected original documents and selections from Haffner, Failure of a Revolution, and Angress, The Stillborn Revolution. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | In it’s beginnings, the revolution in Germany appears very similar to the events in Russia the year before. Why was the outcome so different? We will try to answer many questions in the course of this reading group, but that is the essential question. | 8/17/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-german-revolution-1918-1924/ | 2nd International|3rd International|Berlin|German History|Hamburg|Social Democracy|Spartacist Uprising|the road to fascism|Uprising|Weimar | 10/3/2016 19:30 | 10/3/2016 21:30 | ||
| Heavy Radicals | The FBI’s Secret War on America’s Maoists A talk and discussion with visuals by Aaron Leonard The RCP [Revolutionary Communist Party], RSB [Revolutionary Student Brigade], and its front groups…represent a threat to the internal security of the United States of the first magnitude. —FBI Internal Assessment, 1976 Between 1968 and 1978 the FBI conducted a far-reaching “Internal Security” investigation against the largest Maoist organization to arise in the United States out of the sixties, the Revolutionary Union – later named the Revolutionary Communist Party. As a result of research conducted by author and historian Aaron Leonard and Conor Gallagher, including systematic filings of Freedom of Information Act requests, we now know that this “investigation” included: office break-ins, poison-pen letters, ‘bad-jacketing’ (claiming dedicated members were police agents), deportations, firings, setting organizations and individuals against one another through rumor and provocation, and informant penetration into the very top of the group’s leadership. Highlights of the presentation include: • The Bureau’s secret efforts to split SDS—including backing what would be the Weatherman faction against the old left, Progressive Labor Party faction. • The super-secret “Ad Hoc Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Party,” a whole cloth construction of the FBI which claimed to be a “pro-Chinese entity within the old Communist Party USA,” which was in fact used to disrupt the CP and the Revolutionary Union. • The missionary couple the Bureau used to penetrate the Revolutionary Union’s executive committee and their later testimony to Congress. • The FBI informant who sat on the Revolutionary Union’s highest leading body and his successful effort to disrupt a merger between the RU and the Black Workers Congress and the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Worker Party, which had been the Young Lords Party. Aaron Leonard is a writer and historian. He is a regular contributor to Truthout, Rabble.ca, the History News Network, PhysicsWorld, and Canadian Dimension magazine. His research interests focus on twentieth century US history, particularly Sixties history. He is also a veteran political activist who has participated and written on events ranging from protests by Iranian students aiming to depose the Shah in the late 1970s, the street actions in the wake of the torture of Abner Louima in 1996, to the wave of demonstrations surrounding the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has a B.A. in Social Science with a concentration in History, magna cum laude, from New York University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. For additional information Aaron at: www.heavyradicals.com or leonaa01@nyu.edu Here is the link to Aaron and Connor’s book: http://www.zero-books.net/books/heavy-radicals | As a result of research conducted by author and historian Aaron Leonard and Conor Gallagher, including systematic filings of Freedom of Information Act requests, we now know that this “investigation” included: office break-ins, poison-pen letters, ‘bad-jacketing’ (claiming dedicated members were police agents), deportations, firings, setting organizations and individuals against one another through rumor and provocation, and informant penetration into the very top of the group’s leadership. | 8/21/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/heavy-radicals/ | Civil Liberties|cointelpro|counter-intelligence|double-agents|Infiltration|police spies|state-sponsored terror|surveillance | 10/27/2016 19:30 | 10/27/2016 21:30 | ||
| Contemporary Native American Fiction | Begins October 6 until December 15, no meeting November 24 10-week session Join the Indigenous Studies Literature and History Group for a 10-week study of several award-winning contemporary Native American novelists. We will begin with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony followed by Louise Erdrich’s Plague of Doves and Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer. We will give attention to uniquely Native themes, such as ceremony and ritual, land loss and relocation, rural and urban indigenous differences, tribal and gender politics, and what Alexie calls “reservation blues”— rage and survival strategies on the modern-day reservation in response to centuries of occupation, massacre, and corporate take-over. Literary criticism by Native scholars Vine Deloria, Jr. and Paula Gunn Allen will be provided for context. Participants are encouraged to share favorite Native poems to complement the primary texts. The Indigenous Peoples’ Literature and History Group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014. Her pioneering work, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, rightly condemns the history of the colonial setter state that the US was as founded and remains. The means by which capital inherently forms colonial settler states that depend upon the relentless exploitation and removal of indigenous peoples of North America and other continents of the world has formed the basis of our various thematic studies. | Join the Indigenous Studies Literature and History Group for a 10-week study of three award-winning contemporary Native American novelists—Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich’s and Sherman Alexie. | 8/24/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/contemporary-native-american-fiction/ | Colonial settler society|Contemporary Literature|Indigenous history|Native American Literature|Reservation life | 10/6/2016 19:30 | 10/6/2016 21:30 | ||
| See Something, Say Something (to benefit Ramsey Orta) | Bearing Witness in the Age of Ongoing Police Brutality With Kathleen Foster, Nabil Hassein, Ramsey Orta, Josmar Trujillo and Kazembe Balagun To “bear witness” is to speak truth in the face of power. For many, the Black Lives Matter movement and moment have been defined by everyday folks who have used the tools of social media to document police brutality. These actions have sparked protests and demands of police accountability, while developing a visual record of violence faced by communities of color. In See Something, Say Something we take the advice of the MTA in asking how ordinary New Yorkers are using community patrols, documentaries and community mapping to make our hoods safer. This event is a benefit for Ramsey Orta, who videoed the police murder of Eric Garner, and is scheduled to go to jail October 3. Tonight’s proceeds will go to Mr. Orta and his family. | To “bear witness” is to speak truth in the face of power. This event is a benefit for Ramsey Orta, who videoed the police murder of Eric Garner, and is scheduled to go to jail October 3. Tonight’s proceeds will go to Mr. Orta and his family. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=2021 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||
| See Something, Say Something (To Benefit Ramsey Orta) | THIS EVENT WILL BE AT VERSO’S LOFT AT 20 JAY STREET, BROOKLYN Bearing Witness in the Age of Ongoing Police Brutality With: Kathleen Foster, Nabil Hassein, Ramsey Orta, Josmar Trujillo and Kazembe Balagun To “bear witness” is to speak truth in the face of power. For many, the Black Lives Matter movement and moment have been defined by everyday folks who have used the tools of social media to document police brutality. These actions have sparked protests and demands of police accountability, while developing a visual record of violence faced by communities of color. In See Something, Say Something we take the advice of the MTA in asking how ordinary New Yorkers are using community patrols, documentaries and community mapping to make our hoods safer. This event is a Benefit for Ramsey Orta, who videoed the police murder of Eric Garner, and is scheduled to go to jail October 3. Tonight╒s proceeds will go to Mr. Orta and his family. | To “bear witness” is to speak truth in the face of power. This event is a benefit for Ramsey Orta, who videoed the police murder of Eric Garner, and is scheduled to go to jail October 3. Tonight’s proceeds will go to Mr. Orta and his family. Verso Books has been a great partner in putting this event together. Thank you Verso! | 9/1/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/see-something-say-something-to-benefit-ramsey-orta/ | Anti-racism|anti-violence|community organizing|Organizing|police brutality|racism | 9/28/2016 18:30 | 9/28/2016 21:30 | ||
| Transnational Feminism | Literary and Cultural Perspectives on Terror a talk by Basuli Deb co-sponsored by the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) toplab.org In this talk, writer and researcher Basuli Deb will discuss some of the issues addressed in her book, Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Terror in Literature and Culture, which offers a transnational feminist response to the gender politics of torture and terror from the viewpoint of populations of color who have come to be associated with acts of terror. Using the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, Deb visits other such racialized wars in Palestine, Guatemala, India, Algeria, and South Africa. Her research draws widely on postcolonial literature, photography, films, music, interdisciplinary arts, media/new media, and activism, and joins the larger conversation about human rights by addressing the problem of a pervasive public misunderstanding of terrorism conditioned by a foreign and domestic policy perspective. Diverging from an international security studies lens, Deb provides an alternative understanding of terrorism through a postcolonial and transnational feminist lens grounded in history. Her analysis brings counter-terror narratives into dialogue with ideologies of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, class, and religion, and addresses the situation of women as both perpetrators and targets of torture, and looks at the possibilities for a dialogue between feminist and queer politics that might lead to confronting securitized regimes of torture. Basuli Deb is a faculty member at CUNY and a 2016-2017 Global Scholar at the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Her first book, Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Terror in Literature and Culture is a gendered analysis of a pervasive public misunderstanding of terrorism conditioned by neoliberal foreign and domestic policy perspectives. It was published by Routledge in 2014. At Rutgers, Deb will be working on her next book, Indigenous Lives and Diasporic Aspirations, which brings together the abuses of indigenous and immigrant populations in a queer feminist conversation about national and international securitization and its blindspots. Deb’s queer feminist critique of securitization also extends to celebrity studies in another book project she is working on called Celebrity Lifestyles and Public Intellectualism. Her peer-reviewed essays have been published in leading feminist and postcolonial studies journals and collections, among them Frontiers, Meridians, Postcolonial Text, South Asian Review, Journal of Commonwealth Studies, and Atlantic Literary Review. She has also co-edited a celebrity studies collection and a special issue of Postcolonial Text. Deb is a nationally and internationally recognized public speaker on feminist and postcolonial issues with a record of long-standing feminist leadership in the academic profession. | In this talk, writer and researcher Basuli Deb will discuss some of the issues addressed in her book, Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Terror in Literature and Culture, which offers a transnational feminist response to the gender politics of torture and terror from the viewpoint of populations of color who have come to be associated with acts of terror. | 9/1/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/transnational-feminism/ | 21st century feminism|anti-torture|feminism|global feminism|queer theory|terror in literature | 10/12/2016 19:30 | 10/12/2016 21:30 | ||
| Black Marxism | Black Marxism: The Making of The Black Radical Tradition Nicholas Power Eight more sessions beginning October 18 through December 6, 7:30-9:30 pm As always, capitalism has crises. Again, a new generation turns toward Marxism. How do we apply this wide ranging and controversial revolutionary tradition to our current times? Writer and professor, Cedric Robinson╒s magnum opus, Black Marxism will be our lodestar for this class. We will discuss Robinson’s critique of Marx’s Eurocentric frame of reference and explore how and if Marxism has value for today’s multi-cultural left which at times turns much to anarchism, whether conscious or not of the Marxist tradition. We will also cover the Marxist legacy of C.L.R. James, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright on their own and as Robinson studied their relationships to Marxism. Nicholas Power is a poet, journalist and Associate Professor of Literature at SUNY Old Westbury. His second book The Ground Below Zero: 911 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street was published by Upset Press in 2013. His writings have appeared in The Indypendent, The Village Voice, Truth-Out and Alternet. Admissions are sliding scale. We do not turn anyone away if all they can pay is less or are without the ability to pay. $10 per session. | As always, capitalism has crises. Again, a new generation turns toward Marxism. How do we apply this wide ranging and controversial revolutionary tradition to our current times? Writer and professor, Cedric Robinson’s magnum opus, Black Marxism will be our lodestar for this class. | 9/3/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-marxism/ | African-American literature|Anti-racism|Atlantic slave trade|capital accumulation|capitalist development|Cedric Robinson|CLR James|Langston Hughes|Richard Wright|slave trade | 10/18/2016 19:30 | 10/18/2016 21:30 | ||
| Augusto Boal’s Marxism | Augusto Boal’s Marxism and the Origins of Theater of the Oppressed a talk by Geo Britto co-sponsored by the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) “I believe that all the truly revolutionary theatrical groups should transfer to the people the means of production in the theater so that the people themselves may utilize them. The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it.” —Augusto Boal Augusto Boal (1931-2009), the Brazilian Marxist who founded the methodology and set of techniques called Theater of the Oppressed (TO), was fond of telling the story of Theater of the Oppressed’s creation. In the late 1960s, he was involved in socially-conscious theater which took a definite, and very radical, political position. But the type of theater Boal practiced at that time remained fairly conventional in its form, with little or no breaching of the fourth wall. Actors were actors presenting staged action, and the audience watched, more or less passively, with little real interaction. One day, his company presented a play before a peasant audience in rural Brazil; the actors exhorted the local villagers to Revolution. When the play concluded, one of the village leaders approached Boal and said, “We like what you say! We have weapons…we can start the attack any time!” Boal, quite flustered, replied, “But you don’t understand. We are actors, not soldiers. We present plays about people’s horrible situations.” The village elder looked him in the eye and said, “So you are willing to shed other people’s blood, but not your own.” Quite abashed and embarrassed, Boal and his company returned to the city, and a long process of introspection and re-evaluation began; Boal realized that the people to whom he was preaching had a profound grasp on the reality of their lives, in ways that he and the privileged actors from his company could never fully understand. From this incident, Boal began to re-assess his role as a theater person and, most importantly, what the function of theater is, and how it should be presented. Out of his discussions and reflections came Theater of the Oppressed. This talk by Geo Britto, a long-time collaborator with Augusto Boal and practitioner of Theater of the Oppressed, will look at how Boal formulated and created that methodology called Theater of the Oppressed. Britto will look at Boal’s early exposure, as a student in New York, to the ideas of people like Irwin Piscator, Langston Hughes, Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio, Harold Clurman and others, and how his future path in theater was influenced by them. He will give an account of Boal’s involvement with the Experimental Black Theatre (Teatro Experimental do Negro T.E.N.) upon his return to Brazil, his later activities with the Arena Theater beginning in 1956, his embrace of the new and innovative popular education movement, and his engagement with the political debates, dialogues and currents that were integral to the Brazilian left at that time. Through an examination of the cultural role of the Brazilian Communist Party, and Boal’s differences with it and other left currents over questions of naturalism, realism, political theater, Epic Theater and other popular theatrical forms, Britto will show what led Boal to eventually formulate a dramatic method which he called Newspaper Theater. Newspaper Theater was the impetus, and the basis, for the creation, some years later, of Theater of the Oppressed. Britto will examine the Marxist theoretical and aesthetic roots on which Boal based Theater of the Oppressed, and the thinkers who were involved in mid-twentieth century discussions around Marxist culture, aesthetics and artistic practice, including Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, György Lukács, and Walter Benjamin, and especially Latin American thinkers like Abdias Nascimento, Antonio Candido, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Anatol Rosenfeld, and Nestor Garcia Canclini, among others. Geo Britto is a member of the Board of the Center of the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro ( CTO-Rio), where he has worked since 1990. In his work with the CTO Britto has coordinated a number of projects involving mental health issues, at-risk youth, and prisons and incarceration. He has presented many workshops in the favelas of Rio and has also presented sessions throughout the world, including Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Mozambique, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay and the United States. He worked extensively with Augusto Boal until Boal’s death in 2009. | This talk by Geo Britto, a long-time collaborator with Augusto Boal and practitioner of Theater of the Oppressed, will look at how Boal formulated and created that methodology called Theater of the Oppressed. Britto will look at Boal’s early exposure, as a student in New York, to the ideas of people like Irwin Piscator, Langston Hughes, Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio, Harold Clurman and others…. | 9/5/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/augusto-boals-marxism/ | Boal|Clurman|epic theater|experimental theatrical techniques|pedagogy of the oppressed|Piscator|political theater|theatrical method | 11/28/2016 19:30 | 11/28/2016 21:30 | ||
| It Spread Like Wildfire! A Celebration | A Teach-In and support meeting around capital’s new assault against university labor and how faculty and student actions secured a temporary victory. Spread like Wildfire: Faculty Lockout, Student Walkout. An evening with Members of the LIUFF discussing their struggle and the most recent and egregious attack on Higher Education and how faculty with students have secured a temporary victory. Join us in a discussion on the fight for academic freedom , equal pay for equal work, and the ongoing struggle of contingent faculty and the omnipresent student debt crisis. Michael Pelias, LIU Brooklyn Vidhya Swaminathan, LIU Brooklyn Melissa Antinori, LIU Brooklyn Manny Ness and more to speak Join The Institute for the Radical Imagination, The Marxist Education Project, Theater or The Oppressed, and other organizations and groups for a night of solidarity with the teaching faculty workers who were locked out of their jobs at Long Island University. Historically, this is the first time that capital has locked out an entire teaching body at a university. There will be report backs from union members, students and members of the community. Speakers and other organizational sponsors to add. We have been one, we shall be all! | Historically, this is the first time that capital has locked out an entire teaching body at a university. Please join your fellow workers against this fresh onslaught of capital on our lives and future. There will be report backs from union members, students and local residents along with solidarity messages from comrades. Email your message of solidarity if you cannot attend. | 9/13/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/solidarity-with-locked-out-liu-faculty/ | anti-austerity|Organizing|solidarity|strike|union busting|working class unity | 9/16/2016 18:30 | 9/16/2016 21:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3: A Reading Group | A 10 Session Reading Group with Sam Salour Saturdays, October 8 – December 17 (no session November 26) “But the basic reason for the amplitude and duration of these polemics lies in the fact that Volume 3 aims to answer the question: ‘Whither capitalism?’ It seeks to show that the system is intrinsically (‘immanently’) crisis-ridden: that neither the efforts of individual capitalists nor those of public authorities can prevent crises from breaking out. It seeks to show that inherent mechanisms, which cannot be overcome without abolishing private property, competition, profit and commodity production (the market economy), must lead to a final collapse.” —From an introduction to Capital, Volume 3, by Ernest Mandel This reading group convened by Sam Salour, an economics graduate student at the New School, will dig deep into Volume 3 of Marx’s Capital. Subtitled “The process of capitalist production as a whole,” this volume is concerned primarily with issues such as the internal differentiation of the capitalist class, the division of surplus value among individual capitals, and the definition and role of merchants’ capital, interest-bearing capital, and landed capital. In Part 3 Marx analyzes the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. $50-$10 per session, no one turned away for inability to pay | “The process of capitalist production as a whole,” this volume is concerned primarily with issues such as the internal differentiation of the capitalist class, the division of surplus value among individual capitals, and the definition and role of merchants’ capital, interest-bearing capital, and landed capital. In Part 3 Marx analyzes the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. | 9/20/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-a-reading-group/ | 10/8/2016 10:00 | 10/8/2016 12:00 | |||
| Current Prospects for a Socialist Movement in the USA | Current Prospects for a Socialist Movement in the United States An evening presentation and discussion with Victor Wallis Saturday, December 3, 7:30 PM This year has witnessed a major surge in popular receptivity to socialism in the United States. As a research journal for activists, now completing its 30th volume, Socialism and Democracy has long anticipated such a juncture. What new dangers and opportunities does it bring, and how can our work with Socialism and Democracy help illuminate them? Victor Wallis, who has been Socialism and Democracy’s editor for almost 20 years, responds to these questions, drawing partly on the collective work of the journal but also on his own research and activism, which have embraced environmental issues, anti-war, anti-interventionist, and prisoners’ rights struggles, and the recent history of the US Left. This discussion will be chaired by Johanna Fernández (Baruch College) with commentary from Marcella Bencivenni (Hostos, CUNY) and Hester Eisenstein (Graduate Center, CUNY) – all of whom are Socialism and Democracy editorial board members. We are co-sponsoring this event with Research Group on Socialism & Democracy | Victor Wallis, who has been Socialism and Democracy’s managing editor for almost 20 years, reflects on the recent major surge in popular receptivity to socialism in the United States. | 10/5/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/current-prospects-for-a-socialist-movement-in-the-usa/ | 21st Century Socialism|Anti-war|Democratic choice|popular movements|publlishing|Socialism in the USA | 12/3/2016 19:30 | 12/3/2016 21:30 | ||
| Organizing in the Era of The Gig Economy | Organizing in the Era of The Gig Economy Peter Rugh The gig economy has been called the future of work, but it’s really just plain 19th-century-style exploitation dressed up in techie garb, harkening back to ye auld days before the labor movement won things like the eight-hour work day, the right to unionize, pensions, health care benefits, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits and job security. Companies like Uber, Lyft, Taskrabbit and Handy are taking advantage of the 2008 recession that pushed workers off payrolls and into a precarious job market where there is less work to go around and wages aren’t close to what they used to be. In order to get by, today’s labor force has to take what it can get. More and more, they’re forced to turn to software platforms that hyper-exploit contingent labor. But while Silicon Valley is turning back the clock on workers rights and fracturing moments of class unity, workers all over the world are organizing and fighting back. Come to consider how we can become more organized as a class here in the New York City area. About the speaker: Peter Rugh is Associate Editor at The Indypendent. He has previously conducted journalism for BBC, VICE and VICE News. In addition to reporting on the gig economy, Peter has also worked in it and will share his first-hand experiences along with those of other on-demand workers. Suggested Reading: Apped to be Screwed Voices from the Gig Economy — Peter Rugh What’s Yours Is Mine; Against the Sharing Economy— Tom Slee Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus—Douglas Rushkoff | …as Silicon Valley is turning back the clock on workers rights and fracturing moments of class unity, workers all over the world are organizing and fighting back. Come to consider how we can become more organized as a class here in the New York City area. | 10/6/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/organizing-in-the-era-of-the-gig-economy/ | Casual Labor|Fractured labor movement|Gig Economy|Labor Rights|precarity | 12/5/2016 19:30 | 12/5/2016 21:30 | ||
| Ecological Imperialism, Settler Colonialism & Indigenous Resistance | A 10-Week Study Group led by Fred Murphy and Gerardo Renique February 8 – April 12, 2017 9 Sessions Remain The inspiring struggle at Standing Rock has united Native Americans across many tribes and countries against the Dakota Access Pipeline, in defense of water and life and for territorial sovereignty. Throughout the Americas, land grabs for massive energy and extractive projects are calling forth similar resistance from indigenous peoples, local farmers, and allies among urban working people. This study group will use materials from the #StandingRockSyllabus and other readings to deepen our understanding of ecological imperialism, settler colonialism, and indigenous resistance in both North and South America. We will also critically examine the varied approaches that Marxists have taken toward these questions. Fred Murphy studied and taught historical sociology at The New School and has traveled extensively in Latin America as a journalist. He is currently translating the memoirs of Hugo Blanco, a leader and activist in Peru’s peasant, indigenous and environmental movements since the 1950s. Gerardo Renique teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research looks at the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America; race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. | This study group will use materials from the #StandingRockSyllabus and other readings to deepen our understanding of ecological imperialism, settler colonialism, and indigenous resistance. We will also critically examine the varied approaches that Marxists have taken toward these questions. | 11/6/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecological-imperialism-settler-colonialism-indigenous-resistance/ | Air Rights|Colonial Settlers|Dakota Access Pipeline|ecological crisis|Extractivism|Indigenous Resistance|Land Struggles|Settler Colonialism|Standing Rock|sustainability|Territory|Water Rights|XL Pipeline | 2/15/2017 19:30 | 2/15/2017 21:30 | ||
| Left for the Holidays: 2nd Annual Book and Print Fair | Join Autonomedia, Common Notions, Haymarket Books, Interference Archive/Just Seeds, Jacobin Magazine, OR Books, PM Press, Socialism and Democracy, Verso Books and Zero Books with more to be announced for our 2nd Annual Holiday Books and Prints Fair. Support our publishers, magazines, writers and artists that keep us informed with great writing, research and beautiful and striking prints and posters to carry us, our friends and families into the coming year. Free admission. | Support our publishers, magazines, writers and artists that keep us informed with great writing, research and beautiful and striking prints and posters to carry us, our friends and families into the coming year. Free admission. | 11/7/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/2nd-annual-left-holiday-book-and-print-fair/ | 12/4/2016 12:00 | 12/4/2016 18:00 | |||
| Working The Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centers | An author presentation & discussion with Jamie Woodcock Co-sponsored and hosted by Interference Archive Call centers have become synonymous with low-paid and high stress work, dictatorial supervisors and terrifyingly precarious job contracts. However, rarely do we have access to the experience of workers in this context. For Working the Phones, Jamie Woodcock spent time working undercover in a UK call center in order to provide insights into the daily experiences of call center workers, and to understand and analyze methods of control and resistance that exist within the highly regulated environment. Call center work has become emblematic of the shift towards a post-industrial service economy, and all the issues that this produces, such as the destruction of a unionized work force, isolation and alienation, loss of agency and, ominously, the proliferation of surveillance and control which affects mental and physical well-being of the workers. The talk includes three parts: first, it makes an argument for the use of workers’ inquiry as a method to study contemporary work conditions, in this case involving an undercover activist ethnography; second, it draws on heterodox and critical Marxist theory to understand the transformation of work; third, it focuses on the challenges of resistance and organization in contemporary work through a concrete example. Jamie Woodcock completed his PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is currently a fellow at LSE. His research interests include: digital labour, technology, management, critical theory, and the sociology of work. Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres is published by Pluto Press, further information: https://t.co/O4wr47ZGF3 | The talk includes three parts: first, it makes an argument for the use of workers’ inquiry as a method to study contemporary work conditions, in this case involving an undercover activist ethnography; second, it draws on heterodox and critical Marxist theory to understand the transformation of work; third, it focuses on the challenges of resistance and organization in contemporary work through a concrete example. | 11/14/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/working-the-phones-control-and-resistance-in-call-centers/ | Call centers|capital control|challenges of isolation|Gig Economy|high stress work|late capitalism|Marx and resistance|modern exploitation methods|modern organizing methods|Organizing|resistance to capital|service economy|surveillance | Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/13/2017 19:00 | 2/13/2017 21:30 | |
| Finally Got The News (at Interference Archive) | We at the Marxist Education Project encourage one and all to visit Interference Archive. This upcoming exhibit is of particular significance, as there are reading/study/discussion groups forming to deepen our understanding of the history and lessons for today from this vital period from our history. http://interferencearchive.org/finallygotthenews/ The opening is January 26 from 7 to 10 pm All are also encouraged to attend the annual Interference Archive fundraising benefit this coming Friday, November 18 : http://interferencearchive.org/benefit/ | FINALLY GOT THE NEWS uncovers the hidden legacy of the radical left of the 1970s, a decade when vibrant social movements challenged racism, imperialism, patriarchy and capitalism itself. It uses original printed materials—from pamphlets to posters, flyers to record albums—to tell this politically rich and little-known story. | 11/14/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/finally-got-the-news-at-interference-archive/ | 1/26/2017 19:00 | 1/26/2017 22:00 | |||
| Finally Got The News (at Interference Archive) | The Marxist Education Project encourages all from our community to visit Interference Archive whenever possible and particularly during the upcoming FINALLY GOT THE NEWS exhibition. We will be putting together reading / study / discussion groups at Interference and The Commons at various times during the span of the exhibition. http://interferencearchive.org/finallygotthenews/ All are also encouraged to attend the upcoming annual fundraiser for Interference Archive at Verso this coming Friday, November 18: http://interferencearchive.org/benefit/ | Finally Got the News uncovers the hidden legacy of the radical left of the 1970s, a decade when vibrant social movements challenged racism, imperialism, patriarchy and capitalism itself. It uses original printed materials—from pamphlets to posters, flyers to record albums—to tell this politically rich and little-known story. Thursday: 1 — 9pm • Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 12 — 5pm | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=2237 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||
| Marx and Engels: 1841-1844 | Group is moving location to the CUNY Grad Center on 5th Avenue and 34th Street—the former B. Altman Store Contact sheila.hamanaka@gmail.com or russelleliotdale@gmail.com for more information Seminar of the NYC Marxist Hegel-Studies Collective at The Marxist Education Project 14 weeks Fridays, February 17 through May 19, 6:00 to 8:00 pm Conducted by Russell Dale This course will focus on two early works by Marx and one by Marx and Engels. The works by Marx are his doctoral dissertation of 1841 on ancient Greek atomistic theory and his Critique of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right” from 1843. The work by Marx and Engels is The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical Critique of 1844. These works by Marx and by Marx and Engels are too little studied nowadays, but play a fundamental role in the development of Marx’s thought, especially when see from the perspective of his break from Hegel and the Young Hegelians. We will be particularly interested in the influence of Hegel and the Young Hegelians in this course and will work at tracing what is retained and what is being left behind from the Hegelian tradition. We will also be particularly concerned with issues of gender, race, and white supremacy in these works as Marx’s philosophy is emerging from a tradition that was deeply steeped in patriarchy and the growing racism and white supremacy of the 18th and early 19th centuries. We will be reading (1) Marx’s doctoral dissertation (1841) (in volume 1 of Marx and Engels, Collected Works, International Publishers), (2) Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right” (1843) (translated by Joseph O’Malley, Cambridge University Press), and (3) Marx and Engels’ The Holy Family (1844) (translated by Richard Dixon and Clemens Dutt, Progress Publishers). (Arrangements will be made for students who cannot buy copies of these books.) Russell Dale is an activist and a philosopher. He teaches philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. He taught classes on Hegel and various other topics for the last six years. Russell is also on the Manuscript Collective and Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society, as well as on the Local Station Board of radio station WBAI, 99.5 FM (wbai.org). | This course will focus on two early works by Marx and one by Marx and Engels. The works by Marx are his doctoral dissertation of 1841 on ancient Greek atomistic theory and his Critique of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right” from 1843. The work by Marx and Engels is The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical Critique of 1844. | 11/14/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-and-engels-1841-1844/ | Dialectics|early engels|Early Marx|Hegel|Holy Family|Materialism|philosophy | 2/17/2017 18:00 | 2/17/2017 20:00 | ||
| Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn | A presentation and discussion with editor Theodore Hamm A collection of speeches by Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn, New York This new volume to be published January 3, 2017, compiles original source material illustrating the complex relationship between Frederick Douglass and the city of Brooklyn. Most prominent are his speeches at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Plymouth Church, and other leading Brooklyn institutions. Whether discussing the politics of the Civil War or recounting his relationships with Abraham Lincoln and John Brown, Douglass’s towering voice sounds anything but dated. An introductory essay examines the intricate ties between Douglass and Brooklyn abolitionists, while brief chapter introductions and annotations fill in the historical context. ‘A fascinating collection of Frederick Douglass’s controversial speeches in Brooklyn, N.Y., this volume compiles original source material that illustrates the relationship between the abolitionist and the then city of Brooklyn.” —Publishers Weekly Theodore Hamm is chair of journalism and new media studies at St. Joseph’s College in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. His previous books include Rebel and a Cause, The New Blue Media, and Pieces of a Decade (co-edited with Williams Cole). Hamm’s writings about New York City history and politics have appeared recently in the Village Voice, Vice News, the New York Daily News, and Jacobin. He lives in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. | Whether discussing the politics of the Civil War or recounting his relationships with Abraham Lincoln and John Brown, Douglass’s towering voice sounds anything but dated. An introductory essay examines the intricate ties between Douglass and Brooklyn abolitionists, while brief chapter introductions and annotations fill in the historical context. | 11/18/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/frederick-douglass-in-brooklyn/ | abolitionist|Black History|Brooklyn|Brooklyn Daily Eagle|Brooklyn Daily Times|Frederick Douglass|Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn|history|New York Tribune|speeches|Theodore Hamm|Walt Whitman|Williamsburg | 1/12/2017 19:30 | 1/12/2017 21:30 | ||
| Biology as Means of Production and Ideology | A presentation by Stuart A. Newman, New York Medical College Biological science is simultaneously the hegemonic narrative for understanding the living world in industrial societies and the basis for potential technological transformations of the biosphere and our own species. The 20th century notion of the gene as the primary determinant of living systems has supported rampant privatization of food production and medical and natural resources. With the increasing precision of gene alteration by the CRISPR DNA editing technique, genetic determinism is now generating proposals for ecological engineering and eugenicist manipulation of future humans. This talk will report on the current biotechnological landscape and describe challenges to its enabling genetic determinist ideology from dialectical and multi-causal explanatory modes within the emerging field of evolutionary developmental biology. Stuart A. Newman is a professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York. He has contributed to several scientific fields, including biophysical chemistry, developmental biology, and evolutionary theory. He has been a critic of genetic determinism in biology and an opponent of eugenic applications of biotechnology since his student days in the 1960s. Newman was a founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics and is a columnist for Capitalism Nature Socialism. | This talk will report on the current biotechnological landscape and describe challenges to its enabling genetic determinist ideology from dialectical and multi-causal explanatory modes within the emerging field of evolutionary developmental biology. | 11/25/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/biology-as-means-of-production-and-ideology/ | Bio futures|biosphere transformation|developmental biology|evolution|food production|future humans|gene alteration|genetic engineering|genetics | Agribusiness|Evolutionary biology|Science and Method | 2/3/2017 19:30 | 2/3/2017 21:30 | |
| Germany 1918-1924: False Hope or Missed Chance? | Presented by the Revolutions Study Group A 13-week study The reading focuses on the struggle to build a united and disciplined revolutionary party in the Germany after the defeats of the Spartacist and then the radical union uprisings in 1919. By 1921, it was clear that the Bolshevik revolution had not sparked successful socialist revolutions in the rest of Europe. The communists of Germany now struggled to reconnect with the German working class and rebuild a revolutionary movement in the Weimar Republic, a society that was, on the one hand, striving to return to normalcy and, on the other hand, slipped easily and often into economic and political chaos. They fought, but they lost. In the process, the working class was divided and demoralized, the capitalist class went looking for a savior, and the foundations of Nazism were laid. In it’s beginnings, the revolution in Germany appears very similar to the events in Russia the year before. Why was the outcome so different? We will try to answer many questions in the course of this reading group, but that is the essential question in this continuing study. Primary reading: Pierre Broue, The German Revolution. Other readings include selected original documents and selections from Haffner, Failure of a Revolution, and Angress, The Stillborn Revolution. Copies of the Broue book are available at a discount to reader participants in this study. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | The communists of Germany now struggled to reconnect with the German working class and rebuild a revolutionary movement in the Weimar Republic, a society that was, on the one hand, striving to return to normalcy and, on the other hand, slipped easily and often into economic and political chaos. They fought, but they lost. In the process, the working class was divided and demoralized, the capitalist class went looking for a savior, and the foundations of Nazism were laid. | 11/26/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/germany-1918-1924-false-hope-or-missed-chance/ | Broue|electoral politics|fascist studies|photo-fascism|Social Democracy|Spartacist|Weimar | 1/30/2017 19:30 | 1/30/2017 21:30 | ||
| African Literature: Colonialism, Liberation, Disillusionment | We will meet for nine more weeks Thursdays, February 9 through April 6, 7:30 to 9:30 pm Organized by Ibrahim Diallo of the Indigenous People’s History and Literature Group Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it’s far removed from your situation. … this is one great thing that literature can do – it can make us identify with situations and people far away. If it does that, it’s a miracle. –Chinua Achebe With the reading of novels by Ousmane Sembene (Senegal), Tayeb Salih (Sudan), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) and Ngugu wa Thiong’o (Kenya), we examine four different areas of Africa as the peoples there emerge from European colonization. We witness the struggles of workers on strike before their full independence, anti-colonial resistance spanning from Mount Kenya to academic circles in London. As nations become independent we discover new and recycled forms of oppression, exploitation and war. In the midst of disillusionment, we see resolve and signs of what remains possible. Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (God’s Bits of Wood) considered to be Ousmane Sembene’s masterpiece, rivaled only by Xala. The novel fictionalizes the real-life story of a railroad strike on the Dakar-Niger line that lasted from 1947 to 1948. Though the charismatic and brilliant union spokesman, Ibrahima Bakayoko, is the most central figure, the novel has no true hero except the community itself, which bands together in the face of hardship and oppression to assert their rights. Season of Migration to the North (Arabic: موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال Mawsim al-Hiǧra ilā ash-Shamāl) is a classic post-colonial Sudanese novel by the novelist Tayeb Salih. Salih was fluent in both English and Arabic, but significantly chose to write this novel in Arabic. The novel is a counter-narrative to Heart of Darkness. It was described by Edward Said as one of the 10 great novels in Arabic literature. Petals of Blood by Ngugu wa Thiong’o The novel largely deals with the skepticism of change after Kenya’s liberation from the British Empire, questioning to what extent free Kenya merely emulates, and subsequently perpetuates, the oppression found during its time as a colony. Other themes include the challenging of capitalism, politics, and the effects of westernization. Half of a Yellow Sun, a novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, tells the story of the Biafran War through the perspective of the characters Olanna, Ugwu, and Richard. The book jumps between events that took place during the early 1960s and the late 1960s, when the war took place, and extends until the end of the war. Ibrahim Diallo was born in Guinea but has lived in Brooklyn, New York since his childhood. He has lived, worked, studied and/or travelled in nearly a dozen African countries. Ibrahim is one of the initiators of The Indigenous People’s History and Literature Group at The MEP. | With the reading of novels by Ousmane Sembene (Senegal), Tayeb Salih (Sudan), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) and Ngugu wa Thiong’o (Kenya), we examine four different areas of Africa as the peoples there emerge from European colonization. We witness the struggles of workers on strike before their full independence, anti-colonial resistance spanning from Mount Kenya to academic circles in London. As nations become independent we discover new and recycled forms of oppression, exploitation and war. In the midst of disillusionment, we see resolve and signs of what remains possible. | 11/27/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/african-literature-colonialism-liberation-disillusionment/ | Cliques|Colonialism|corruption|Diaspora|Embourgeoisification|Identity|labor militancy|Migration|Militancy|National Liberation|Post Liberation|Strikes | 2/9/2017 19:30 | 2/9/2017 21:30 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse | February 11 to March 25 7 more sessions The Grundrisse, Session A The object before us, to begin with, material production. Readings and discussions led by Sam Salour and others Perhaps the most curious and least understood aspect of Marx’s work is his method of analysis. Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However, to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of The German Ideology and the Grundrisse. These works are perhaps the best representation of the process of thinking that found its culmination in Capital and we will be engaging with it during our study. Without a doubt, this will be a long and arduous process but we should always keep in mind that “there is no royal road to science and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits. For the first session, please read Grundrisse (Penguin edition): Chapter 1 with a focus on the first 2 sections (p. 83-100) The fees at the website are suggested fees and are optional. We are sliding scale and allow all to attend as they are able to afford. Session B of the Grundrisse will run from April 1 until June 17. | Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However, to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of The German Ideology and the Grundrisse. | 12/3/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/essential-marx-saturdays/ | capitalism|German Ideology|Grundrisse|Marxist Method|rate of profit | 2/11/2017 11:00 | 2/11/2017 13:00 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism | An eight week course with Sudeb Mitra February 6 through March 27 The purpose of this course is to give an introduction to some of the main ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, focusing on the materialist understanding of history, and the theory of surplus value. We will make a careful study of the following texts: “The part played by labor in the transition from ape to man”—Frederick Engels “Posture Maketh The Man”— Stephen Jay Gould Socialism: Utopian and Scientific—Frederick Engels Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy—Karl Marx Communist Manifesto—Marx and Engels “Karl Marx on Capital”—Frederick Engels Value, Price and Profit—Karl Marx The course will consist of readings and discussions. If time permits, we will also include some documents of the First International, especially the “Inaugural Address Of The International Working Men’s Association”—drafted by Marx. Sudeb Mitra is a professor of mathematics at the Queens College of the City University of New York, and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is especially interested in Marx/Engels and the Sciences. | In this course we will be concerned with some of the main ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, focusing on the materialist understanding of history, and the theory of surplus value. | 12/17/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism/ | Communism|evolution|historical materialism|labor|labor theory|marxism|Marxist Method|Materialism|Political economy|Revolution|Socialism|surplus value|use value|value | 2/6/2017 17:30 | 2/6/2017 19:30 | ||
| Highlights of Capital, Volume 1 | A 10 Session Class and Discussion with Juliet Ucelli Thursdays, 5:30 to 7:30 pm February 9-April 6, 2017 Capital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. Many of us have less time to study it because, as Marx predicted, we have to work longer hours— and often more than one job—in order to survive. Fortunately, even a basic familiarity with the key concepts of Volume I offers many tools for understanding capitalism’s dynamics. With current conditions, we’ve been offering this highlights approach, breaking down key concepts and sections: • use value, value and surplus value; • why capitalism has needed conquest, enslavement and white supremacy; • why capitalism drives technological innovation, overwork and unemployment and leads to ecological destruction; • how working-class people (employed and unemployed) have historically won improvements in living and working conditions. Participant reports and life experiences are welcome! The course provides a basic grounding for participants to pursue further study on their own or collectively. We’ll refer to new resources such as on-line and visual aids and current articles that illustrate capitalism’s developmental tendencies, which Marx calls its laws of motion. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for labor unions, and was a public high school social worker. She writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, the politics of inner city public schooling and Marxist understandings of human development. | CAPITAL is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. Many of us have less time to study it because, as Marx predicted, we have to work longer hours— and often more than one job—in order to survive. Fortunately, even a basic familiarity with the key concepts of Volume I offers many tools for understanding capitalism’s dynamics. | 12/17/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-capital-volume-1-2/ | accumulation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|industrial revolution|Organizing|Political economy|proletariat|Socialism|surplus value|use value|value|working class | 2/9/2017 17:30 | 2/9/2017 19:30 | ||
| Life, the Universe and Everything | Life, the Universe and Everything: A Dialectical Guide to the Galaxy 7 more sessions Tuesday, February 7 through March 21, 7:30 to 9:30 pm Facilitated by Alex Steinberg In this series we will be placing the dialectics of Marx and Engels within a broader philosophical tradition. We will look at Engels discussion of the fundamental forces of nature: matter, time, space and motion in the context of the philosophical conflict between a relational view of the world and a mechanical one. We will also look at the conflict between Newton and Leibniz and the subsequent vindication of the relational view with Mach and Einstein. Also examined will be the contemporary “crisis in physics” — the conclusion to which mechanical reductionism has led both in philosophy and in recent attempts to develop a cosmology that incorporates both relativity theory and quantum theory. Contributions of Hegel, Engels, C.S.Peirce, Einstein, and contemporary physicist such as Lee Smolin will form the basis for this discussion. The sessions will conclude by tying the idea of the cosmos as a living system of dynamic evolving complexity to the Notion in Hegel’s Logic and from there to an interpretation of Marx’s Capital that places it firmly within the same Hegelian dialectic that is being developed in contemporary cosmology. Alex Steinberg has previously taught a number of courses on Hegel at the New Space. He taught Engels and the Dialectics of Nature at the Brecht Forum. At the Marxist Education Project he has taught Spectres of the Dialectic, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Fascism and the Left Nietzscheans and Dialectics 101 previously, along with organizing a discussion of recent events in Greece and special events on The Radicalism of James Joyce. He has presented papers at the Left Forum and Historical Materialism Conferences.He has also lectured in Athens Greece on the subjects ranging from dialectics and the American political landscape. Alex has also served on the local and national boards of radio station WBAI. | We will conclude by tying the idea of the cosmos as a living system of dynamic evolving complexity to the Notion in Hegel’s Logic and from there to an interpretation of Marx’s Capital that places it firmly within the same Hegelian dialectic that is being developed in contemporary cosmology. | 12/19/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/life-the-universe-and-everything/ | Astronomy|astrophysics|Cosmology|Dialectics|Einstein|Galaxy|Hegel|Leibniz|Mach|Marx|Materialism|Relativity | 2/7/2017 19:30 | 2/7/2017 21:30 | ||
| Integrating Social and Natural Systems | Integrating Social and Natural Systems: Implications for Sustainability and Resilience in a Changing World Seven more sessions with Rebecca Boger February 9 to March, 23, 2017 Thursdays, 7:30 to 9:30 pm Although people around the world are increasingly living in cities such as New York City, we still exist in and are dependent on the natural environment. Whether we live in rural or urban places, we are greatly influencing Earth system processes, such as how water cycles between places, how soils are intricately linked to the movement of water, exchange of gases, and growth of plants even on Manhattan rooftop gardens, and how the composition of the atmosphere affects incoming and outgoing energy, which then impacts global climate change. To move toward sustainable and resilient societies, we need to realize that social and natural systems are interconnected and that both need to be considered when implementing change. Without considering the connectedness of natural and social systems, we run the risk of harming the environment or people even when intentions may be good. Focusing on the urban context, this course will focus on key concepts in Earth system science (water, air, soil, and life) and systems thinking. Gaining a perspective of how we exist in the natural world even in built environments influences the framing of questions and then how these questions might be answered in order to understand ways we can become sustainable and resilient societies. Rebecca Boger has a background in geospatial technologies, marine science, and science education. At Brooklyn College, CUNY, she teaches geospatial technologies and works with anthropologists and archaeologists in Barbuda on socio-ecological resilience research, community based mapping, and environmental modeling. In the NYC area, she works with NYC Parks and Gateway National Recreation on historical mapping and trends analysis of marshes and shoreline. She continues her education work with a greater emphasis on sustainability, resilience, and climate change topics where she is helping to build an urban sustainability program and online materials. | …this course will focus on key concepts in Earth system science (water, air, soil, and life) and systems thinking. Gaining a perspective of how we exist in the natural world even in built environments influences the framing of questions and then how these questions might be answered in order to understand ways we can become sustainable and resilient societies. | 12/20/2016 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/integrating-social-and-natural-systems/ | Climate Change|earth science|Earth system|ecology|resiliency|soil science|sustainability|water cycles|water science | 2/9/2017 19:30 | 2/9/2017 21:30 | ||
| Small is Necessary: Shared Housing on a Shared Planet | A presentation and discussion with activist-scholar Anitra Nelson, whose forthcoming book from Pluto Press argues for smaller homes with shared spaces and facilities Houses and apartments in countries like Australia and the US grew larger in the 20th century as household sizes shrank. Not only does this make housing less environmentally sustainable but contributes to the housing affordability crisis. The US mortgage fiasco triggered the Global Financial Crisis and many countries have experienced fluctuating or skyrocketing house prices since. Meanwhile, the withdrawal of state support for social and public housing means private ownership or rental seem like the only options for most people. The solutions analyzed are not just smaller dwellings in compact settlements but also shared spaces and facilities. The presentation will look at a range of practical options from co-living in a household to cohousing and ecovillages, weighing up the pros and cons of the tiny house movement and assessing the potential and limits of radical squats along the way. Anitra considers collaborative housing/living futures managed by quite different drivers: governments, market developers and sharing economy initiatives, and grassroots communities. Anitra has had ten years’ experience living in two distinctive Australian housing collectives but her forthcoming book is research-based, especially drawing on ecological footprint studies. Anitra Nelson is an activist-scholar whose research interests focus on housing and community-based sustainability, environmental justice and non-monetary futures. Associate Professor at the Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), in 2016–2017 she was a Carson Fellow at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich completing Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (forthcoming). She co-edited Planning After Petroleum: Preparing Cities for the Age Beyond Oil (2016), Sustainability Citizenship in Cities: Theory and Practice (2016) and Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (2011). | The solutions that will be analyzed are not just smaller dwellings in compact settlements but also shared spaces and facilities. The presentation will look at a range of practical options from co-living in a household to cohousing and ecovillages, weighing up the pros and cons of the tiny house movement and assessing the potential and limits of radical squats along the way. | 1/11/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/small-is-necessary-shared-housing-on-a-shared-planet/ | co-living|communal living|de-growth|ecological footprint|housing crisis|managed resources|planning|shared living|sustainability | 4/10/2017 19:30 | 4/10/2017 21:30 | ||
| The Emergence of a New Left | 4 multi-week sessions begin February 7. Participants include Mitch Abidor, Noble Bratton, Jenny Brown, Dan Karan, Michael Lardner, Peter Marcuse and Michael Pelias Sessions A: 9 more weeks, February 7 through April 4 Ginsberg’s Howl, C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite, Civil Rights from Reform to Revolutionary Politics, Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man Sessions B: Sartre’s Search for a Method, Anti-Psychiatry, R.D. Laing, Marat/Sade, 1968 Paris, Prague, Mexico City, The Revolution In Our Ears, Jeff Nuttall’s Bomb Culture, Che Guevara/Regis Debray, Revolution in the Revolution revisited 12 sessions starting April 11, 7:30 – 9:30 pm Sessions C: Women’s Liberation Renewed, History of SDS/Black Panther Party 11 sessions starting July 11, 7:30 – 9:30 pm Sessions D: Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life: An Overview 11 sessions begin October 3, 7:30 – 9:30 pm All four sessions from February 7 through December 19 for a discounted advance price of $300 or pay what you are able C. Wright Mills: The Power Elite Tuesday, January 31, February 7, 14 We will begin on Tuesday January 31 reading Allen Ginsberg’s Howl together: Out loud. When we have said what we want to say we will move into a discussion of the work and influence of C. Wright Mills. Mills’ The Power Elite was published in 1956, influencing generations of students and many others from that point forward. A main inspiration for the book was Franz Leopold Neumann’s book Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism in 1942, a study of how Nazism came into a position of power in a democratic state like Germany. Behemoth had a major impact on Mills and he claimed that Behemoth had given him the “tools to grasp and analyze the entire total structure and as a warning of what could happen in a modern capitalist democracy”. According to Mills, the power elites of the USA, in other words, our haute bourgeois who control the three dominant institutions (military, economy and political system) can be generally grouped into one of six types: • the Metropolitan 400 – members of historically notable local families in the principal American cities, generally represented on the Social Register • Celebrities – prominent entertainers and media personalities • the Chief Executives – presidents and CEOs of the most important companies within each industrial sector • the Corporate Rich – major landowners and corporate shareholders • the Warlords – senior military officers, most importantly the Joint Chiefs of Staff the Political Directorate – “fifty-odd men of the executive branch” of the U.S. federal government, including the senior leadership in the Executive Office of the President, sometimes variously drawn from elected officials of the Democratic and Republican parties but usually professional government bureaucrats. Mills’ biographer, Daniel Geary, writes that Mills’ writings had a “particularly significant impact on New Left social movements of the 1960s.”] It was Mills who popularized the term New Left in the U.S. in a 1960 open letter, Letter to the New Left. Mills acknowledged a general influence of Marxism; he noted that Marxism had become an essential tool for sociologists and therefore all must naturally be educated on the subject; any Marxist influence was then a result of sufficient education. Neo-Freudianism also helped shape Mills’ work. Mills was an intense student of philosophy before he became a sociologist and his vision of radical, egalitarian democracy was a direct result of the influence of ideas from Thorstein Veblen, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead. Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes dedicated his novel The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962) to Mills, “true voice of North America, friend and companion in the struggle of Latin America.” Fuentes was a fan of Mills’ writing on the Cuban Revolution called, Listen, Yankee. He appreciated Mills’ insight into what he believed Cubans were experiencing as citizens of a country undergoing revolutionary change. Civil Rights: From Politics of Reform to Revolution From CORE and SNCC to The Black Panther Party and other revolutionary organizations Noble Bratton February 21, 28, March 7, 14 Noble Bratton will conduct a 3-week history of the Civil Rights movement with CORE, SNCC and analyzing the growing militancy in African-American life that led to the revolutionary politics of The Black Panther Party as the 60s developed. Noble Bratton is a graduate of Cornell University and is on the editorial board of Working USA/Labor and Society. He taught a class on the US Presidency at The Brecht Forum. He has participated with the Leo Downes Harlem Y Study Group. He is also a former member of District Council 65 of the UAW, UNITE Local 169. Herbert Marcuse’s One Dimensional Man With one discussion with Peter Marcuse March 21, 28, April 4 “The free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.” ― Herbert Marcuse As UK theorist Andrew Robinson states: “Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man was written in 1962, but much of it reads as if it could have been written today: the flattening of discourse, the pervasive repression behind a veil of ‘consensus’, the lack of recognition for perspectives and alternatives beyond the dominant frame, the closure of the dominant universe of meaning, the corrosion of established liberties and lines of escape, total mobilization against a permanent Enemy built into the system as a basis for conformity and effort… It was product of a previous period of downturn and decomposition, similar in many ways to our own.” We will read through Marcuse’s work and have a discussion with his son Peter regarding the importance of One-Dimensional Man during the sixties, considered one of the most influential works on the left and in the student movements the world over, and look at how the book resonates today, following fifty years of the march of capitalist globalization and the repressive aspects of consumerist culture, far more pervasive than could have been imagined in the early 60s when One-Dimensional Man was written. Sessions B: April 11 through June 26 12 week session Sartre’s Search for a Method Dan Karan April 11, 18, 25, May 2 John Paul Sartre was one of the most important radical intellectuals of the 20th century yet he is largely forgotten or ignored by most Marxists and others on “the left.” This, despite the fact that as a philosopher, playwright, novelist, essayist and political activist Sartre’s primary concerns surrounded questions of individual freedom, choice and action (in his early career) and the relationship between individual freedom and collective good (in his later career) and developing a method for understanding history, the structure of class struggle and the fate of mass movements and popular revolt. Ronald Hayman, one of Sartre’s biographers, summarizes Sartre’s intellectual project as follows: “As a Marxist he wanted to believe that dialectical materialism offered a complete interpretation of history – that all the contradictions, conflicts, heterogeneities, anomalies could be subsumed in a single totalization. Sartre is simultaneously concerned to provide Marxism with an adequate theory of knowledge, both Marx and Lenin had worked without one – and to combat the Heideggarian existentialism which consistently makes Being its point of departure. Sartre insists that history is the history of human initiatives. What emerges as the crucial problem is how to map the jungle of obscure connections between historical movements and individual actions.” This 4 to 5 week section of the sessions will focus on Sartre’s 1957 text, Search For A Method, which reflects his growth from existentialist philosopher concerned with individual freedom to an anti-authoritarian existential Marxist who believed that individual freedom can only come about via one’s commitment to the collective good. Search for a Method consists of three major parts: The first part discusses Marxist and existentialist views of the world; the second, how the individual relates to structures; and, the third develops a methodology for understanding the individual, history and structures. Dan Karan has been studying Marxism for 40 years and was a student of John Gerassi, Sartre’s official biographer. The Anti-Psychiatry Movement Michael Pelias May 9 Behind the anti-psychiatry movement that came to life in the 1960s and blossomed during the 1970s was the fundamental post-Freudian work of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential psychoanalysis. This highly creative approach by Sartre was named “existential psychoanalysis” and was first articulated at the end of the classic , Being and Nothingness (1943). We will read a selection of this new approach to psychic individuation alongside the Laing/Cooper nexus that sprung the anti-psychiatry movement and resulted in open psychiatric institutions, mental health liberation activity, and a ongoing critique of “bourgeois” psychiatry and contemporary behaviorism, cognitive and psycho-pharmacological approaches to the question of what is mental health. We will also look at Laing’s famous proposition that schizophrenia is the sanest reaction to capitalism and engage the schizoid- analysis of Deleuze and Guattari alongside the anti-psychiatry moment of Basaglia and Radio Alice in Italy. Michael Pelias teaches both ancient and modern Philosophy at LIU Brooklyn and is one of the co-founders of the Institute for the Radical Imagination and co-managing editor of the journal Situations. Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade May 16 From Brittanica: “Weiss was a Marxist and an exponent of the Theatre of Cruelty: his stated theatrical purpose was to shock his audiences into suffering and atoning for the violent insanity of modern society. The play is set in 1808 and concerns a performance by members of the asylum in which the Marquis de Sade was incarcerated from 1801 to 1814. At the warden’s suggestion, de Sade directs his fellow inmates in a dramatic re-creation of the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat in 1793. What follows is an intense dialectical contest between de Sade and Marat. According to Weiss, de Sade personifies anarchy, self-indulgence, and individualism, while Marat, a pre-Marxist revolutionary, believes that the end justifies the means, no matter how violent the means may be.” We will read, watch and discuss. Paris, May 1968 Mitch Abidor May 23, 30 These talks will investigate the events May 68 in France through an analysis of the writings of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, one of the most important and interesting of its leaders, as well as the experiences of rank and file militants interviewed by Mitch Abidor for his forthcoming oral history, May Made Me. Mitchell Abidor is the principal French translator for the Marxists Internet Archive and has published several collections of his translations, among them Jean Jaurès’ Socialist History of the French Revolution and A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove, and previously untranslated works by Victor Serge and Daniel Guerin, as well as writings from the French Revolution, are forthcoming. His May Made Me will appear in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the May events in France. A Night of 60s Music on D-Day The Blues meet Hootenany/Stax Volt versus Motown/Brit Invasion/Psychedelic Revolutionary Flower Powered Invasion of Aural space the world over/Funk your Delic and Blast Your Moonbeams Surfin’ the Country East from the Dirty Charles River water to the Byrd fly over the Rio Grande: A Movement learns to get on the good foot To all [un]fortunate daughters and sons: “bring your favorite 60s music moment” June 6 Jeff Nuttall’s Bomb Culture June 13 “Bomb Culture, Jeff Nuttall’s 1968 chronicle of the emergence of internationalist counter-culture in Britain, remains a primary source and manifesto for the post-Hiroshima generation. “The vision of Jeff’s youth was grounded in “a faith that, given liberation, the human spirit would predominate. I imagined some kind of stone age village. People would build their own houses imaginatively and live there sophisticatedly and in a literate way and they would live with their hands and their minds and they would not be dictated to by anybody selling them anything. People would have the opportunity of coming into their true self, which was generous and creative and permissive”. —The Guardian “Disaffiliation was deliberate, and conscious, even self-conscious, among the demonstrators who appreared in the fifties—unavoidably, disaffiliation is a prerequisite of protest.” —Jeffrey Nuttall, Bomb Culture Che Guevara/Regis Debray Revolution in the Revolution Revisited June 20, 27 “In 1965 there appeared Debray’s article, “Latin America: the Long March,” which began his break with official Stalinism. (In 1967, there appeared an article, “Marxist Strategy in Latin America,” which was written in 1965 and rarely supplements the earlier article. Both appeared in New Left Review, Nos. 33 and 45.) Essentially he interprets the Cuban revolution to mean that the revolutionary “foco,” that is, guerrilla center, must be substituted for the vanguard party. He lists the many revolutionary experiences that were made in many South American countries, he describes the defeats and the victories, and he draws certain conclusions. In two years tha realities of the struggle destroyed his analysis and he proceeded to rewrite the analysis. This is what has appeared as Revolution In the Revolution? A comparison of the two works provides a valuable critique of Debray and an introduction to a theory of revolution for South America.” —Martin Glaberman, Regis Debray: Revolution Without a Revolution, 1968 | “The free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.” ― Herbert Marcuse “Disaffiliation was deliberate, and conscious, even self-conscious, among the demonstrators who appreared in the fifties—unavoidably, disaffiliation is a prerequisite of protest.” —Jeffrey Nuttall, Bomb Culture | 1/19/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-emergence-of-a-new-left/ | AIM|Angela Davis|Anti-war|Ban the Bomb|Beat Generation|Black Power|C. Wright Mills|Civil Rights|consciousness raising|free speech|Howl|lunch counter protest|Marcuse|One-Dimensional Man|protests|Sartre|SDS|Stokely Carmichael|Student movement|The Power Elite|Vietnam|Women’s Liberation | 2/7/2017 19:30 | 2/7/2017 21:30 | ||
| Frederick Douglass Walk in Brooklyn | Conducted and led by Ted Hamm WE HAVE MOVED THE WALKING TOUR TO APRIL 8 @ 11 AM BECAUSE THE WEATHER ON THE 18th WILL NOT DO OUR WALKING TOUR WELL. THE INITIAL APRIL 1 MOVE WAS IN CONFLICT WITH OTHER EVENTS FOR SOME ATTENDEES Meet on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall Frederick Douglass came to Brooklyn to work and speak with Brooklyn abolitionists. Ted Hamm, editor of Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn, will conduct this tour, visiting where Douglass did before and after the Civil War. We will visit the original locations of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and a nearby church where Frederick Douglass spoke in 1886; then Plymouth Church; then head over to Bridge Street (near Manhattan Bridge), where the Gloucesters lived, then see the original location of Bridge Street AME (where Douglass spoke in 1863), and from there go to Livingston Street where Tilton lived, then head back to Borough Hall. A fundraiser for the Marxist Education Project. All participants who pay $30 or $40 will receive a copy of Ted’s book. “A fascinating collection of Frederick Douglass’s controversial speeches in Brooklyn, N.Y., this volume compiles original source material that illustrates the relationship between the abolitionist and the then city of Brooklyn.” —Publishers Weekly THEODORE HAMM is chair of journalism and new media studies at St. Joseph’s College in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. His previous books include Rebel and a Cause, The New Blue Media, and Pieces of a Decade (coedited with Williams Cole). Hamm’s writings about New York City history and politics have appeared recently in the Village Voice, Vice News, the New York Daily News, and Jacobin. He lives in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. | This talk will cover the locations where Frederick Douglass organized and met with abolitionists before the Civil War and other areas of the downtown area of Brooklyn where Douglass made appearances. Note that the date has changed from March 18 to April 1. | 1/20/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/frederick-douglass-walk-in-brooklyn/ | 4/8/2017 11:00 | 4/8/2017 13:30 | |||
| The Life and Thought of Louis-Auguste Blanqui | A talk and discussion with Doug “Enaa” Greene In the revolutionary tradition, the name of the nineteenth-century French communist Louis-Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881) is remembered either with derision or—at best—as a noble failure. Yet during his lifetime, Blanqui was a towering figure of revolutionary courage and commitment as he organized nearly a half-dozen failed revolutionary conspiracies and spent half of his life in jail. His first street fight was in 1827. Blanqui inspired an uprising in 1839 by the League of the Just, a forerunner of the Communist League of which Marx was a member in Paris. He was imprisoned for his role in the revolutionary wave of activity in 1848. During the Commune of 1871, his ability to inspire was felt to be so strong that Thiers would not exchange him for the captured archbishop of Paris. He is known well for his phrase that we have inherited as “No Gods, No Masters”. Blanqui’s perspective was diametrically opposed to the reformers and utopians who abhorred revolution. Rather, he thought earnestly and without illusions about what it would take to actually make a revolution. In a time like today, when the old formulas of following the lesser evil, social democracy, and other such schemes are falling short, it is worthwhile to take a fresh look at Blanqui. Doug “Enaa” Greene is a Marxist writer and historian living in the greater Boston area. He is the author of Specters of Communism: Blanqui and Marx, forthcoming from Haymarket Books. | …during his lifetime, Blanqui was a towering figure of revolutionary courage and commitment as he organized nearly a half-dozen failed revolutionary conspiracies and spent half of his life in jail. He inspired revolutionary actions from the late 1820s until his death in 1881 and beyond. | 1/23/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-life-and-thought-of-louis-auguste-blanqui/ | 1830 revolution|1848 revolution|blanquist|defiance|early socialists|Paris Commune|Pere Lachaise|revolutionary figures | 3/11/2017 15:00 | 3/11/2017 17:00 | ||
| 60s New Left: National and International | A New Left Begins 2nd sessions Beginning Tuesday, May 2 — sessions continue through July with Mitch Abidor, Jenny Brown, Michael Pelias and others May 2, a reading and discussion of Marat/Sade. Watch the film if you have the opportunity May 9 and 16, RD Laing, counter-psychiatric / anti-psychiatry. The Politics of Experience and more. Presentations and discussion with Michael Pelias on May 9 and May 16. May 23 and 30. Paris. May, 1968. These talks will investigate the events May 68 in France through an analysis of the writings of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, one of the most important and interesting of its leaders, as well as the experiences of rank and file militants interviewed by Mitch Abidor for his forthcoming oral history, May Made Me. Mitchell Abidor is the principal French translator for the Marxists Internet Archive and has published several collections of his translations, among them Jean Jaurès’ Socialist History of the French Revolution and A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove, and previously untranslated works by Victor Serge and Daniel Guerin, as well as writings from the French Revolution, are forthcoming. His May Made Me will appear in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the May events in France. June 6 and 13. The music didn’t die. A look at the many cultural influences of the first generation born with the bomb and mutually assured destruction from day one. An overview and music and a reading and discussion of Jeff Nuttal’s Bomb Culture. The growth of Women’s liberation and the experience of the growth of this mass movement in the 1960s and what this meant for the new left. Jenny Brown from National Women’s Liberation will select and help focus these our discussion at dates to be determined. Jenny Brown is an organizer with National Women’s Liberation and has been involved in feminist theory and organizing since 1988, first with Gainesville Women’s Liberation in Gainesville, Florida and then with the Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action, a movement think-tank and archive based in New York. She co-authored the Redstockings book, Women’s Liberation and National Healthcare: Confronting the Myth of America and the Labor Notes book How to Jump Start Your Union: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers along with numerous essays and articles. She was also a co-chair of a Labor Party Local Organizing Committee in Gainesville, Florida and is a former editor of Labor Notes. | I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked….yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars, whole intellects disgorged in total recall for seven days and nights with brilliant eyes, —from Ginsberg’s Howl | 1/25/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mills-port-huron-the-u-s-new-left-begins/ | 60s|anarchism|anti-authoritarianism|Anti-conformist|anti-psychiatry|Anti-war|Beat Generation|C. Wright Mills|Cohn-Bendit|Counter culture|Existentialism|French Revolution|Left-wing Communism|liberation struggles|Marat/Sade|May 68|New Left|Paris|Port Huron|Power Elite|Radical aesthetics|RD Laing|SDS|Student movement|Women’s Liberation | 5/2/2017 19:30 | 5/2/2017 21:30 | ||
| The Emancipation of Labor | The Civil War and the Making of the American Working Class A talk and discussion with author Mark Lause Mark A. Lause will provide an overview of his widely acclaimed book Free Labor: The Civil War and the Making of the American Working Class (2016) and discuss his current project on the origins of American socialism, taking up little-known aspects of the emergence of a class-struggle perspective on the American left. He will consider why those dimensions have thus far received little attention from historians and socialists. Northern workers “took up arms because they understood the importance of the conflict in shaping the future value of ‘free labor,’” and a “rolling strike of the slaves” in the South became “the great incontrovertible and irreversible fact of the war”. Mark A. Lause is a professor of history at the University of Cincinnati who focuses on U.S. labor movements in the nineteenth century. A lifelong radical, his Free Labor: The Civil War and the Making of the American Working Class (2016) is the most recent in a series of works on the Civil War era. Others include studies of land reform, spiritualism, secret societies, and bohemianism, and Race & Radicalism in the Union Army, on the tri-racial experience of the Federal Army of the Frontier. A forthcoming book will address The Great Cowboy Strike and western labor struggles in the 1880s. His reviews and essays on contemporary politics have appeared in Against the Current, Counterpunch, Jacobin, and The North Star, where he serves on the editorial board. A veteran of SDS and the radicalization of the 1960s, Lause has joined various socialist organizations over the last half century – most expelled him and all disappointed him. Long interested in environmental issues, he has been identified with the Green Party since the 1990s and served on the state committee of the Ohio party. | Northern workers “took up arms because they understood the importance of the conflict in shaping the future value of ‘free labor,’” and a “rolling strike of the slaves” in the South became “the great incontrovertible and irreversible fact of the war”. | 1/28/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-emancipation-of-labor/ | abolition|armed struggle in the 19th century|civil war|liberation|race and class|reconstruction|Resistance | 3/27/2017 19:30 | 3/27/2017 21:30 | ||
| Fascism: Then and Now | Fascism Then and Now: A Community Roundtable Friends of the MEP and the Left community at large are invited to discuss the meaning and signficance of fascism and how to recognize it and struggle against it in world politics today. We hope to debate questions such as: What is the nature of fascism in relation to nationalism/racism, misogyny, social/community dissolution? Is or is not the Trump phenomenon an example or at least a precursor of fascism in the USA? Are there important political movements in other countries that could be called fascist? Is the social psychology of fascism the same today as it was in the 20th century? Are theAre there other forms of authoritarian capitalism that are not fascism, and why might it matter? Current facilitators are Peter Bratsis, Michael Pelias, Dan Karan, Alex Steinberg, David Worley (moderator). Others are welcome to join as facilitators; each facilitator will offer a three minute (no longer) opening statement, after which the floor will be open for general discussion. The image is from a deck of anti-fascist playing cards created during the Siege of Leningrad in 1943 | Discuss the meaning and signficance of fascism and how to recognize it and struggle against it in world politics today. We hope to debate questions such as: What is the nature of fascism in relation to nationalism/racism, misogyny, social/community dissolution? | 1/29/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-syriza-wave/ | Alt-right|Austerity|capitalist crisis|Counter neo-liberatlism|euro|fascism|Greece|Greek politics|LePen|Neo-fascists|neo-Nazis|neoliberalism|supremacists|transformation|trumpism | 5/24/2017 19:30 | 5/24/2017 21:30 | ||
| WINTER 2017 CLASSES BEGIN NOW | Registration is open now! Many new classes this Winter of growing discontent. | Our class and events are happening. There is a code break on this web site that will be fixed soon. You can register at the first class or events as they take place. | 1/29/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/winter-2017-classes-begin-now/ | African Literature|Biology as Ideology and Science|Capital Grundrisse|Eco-Imperialism|Integrating Society and Nature|Introduction to Marxism|Marxist Theory|New Left|Stephen Jay Gould|Winter courses in Marxism|Young Marx | 2/6/2017 13:30 | 2/7/2017 23:59 | ||
| Reading “Finally Got The News”: 3rd Sessions, Part 4 | The 3rd Four-Week Session A reading group facilitated by Lisa Maya Knauer of The Marxist Education Project and members of Interference Archive All are welcome to join at any session! The 70s were a turbulent decade for the left, both in the U.S. and worldwide – from the student protests against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia in 1970, through the Nicaraguan and Iranian revolutions. This reading group, designed to accompany Interference Archives’ exhibit Finally Got The News will explore some of the key liberation movements of the 1970s U.S. through the lens of written documents included in the exhibition, as well as excerpts from publications by the activists and intellectuals who led, chronicled and theorized about them. This is not a nostalgia trip, but an opportunity to critically examine some important and often-overlooked threads of our collective history in order to inform our own politics of liberation in the 21st century. Our reading will be divided into three four-week sessions, using key protest events as entry points into the larger issues that they embodied.In each session, we will try to put the social movements we examine into dialogue with each other — as they generally were at the time. Often, individuals became politicized through one specific protest or movement, which then opened up an array of questions and issues, so there were a lot of flows of people and ideas between and among movements. Reading sessions will take place at Interference Archive on the Saturdays listed below, from 3-5pm. Please email info@interferencearchive.org if you would like to participate, so that we can provide access to reading material. All who pre-register will receive reading materials for the first session in advance. The reading group is a collective undertaking, and we welcome those whose entry in radical politics came long after the events we are studying as well as veterans of those movements. Part One: (February 25 remaining session—come join in at any time!) We’ll start with the Detroit Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM), the role of race in the formation of the U.S. working class, and trade union radicalism as an alternative to business unionism. We will then read about the prisoners’ revolt and brutal put-down at Attica, looking at the naked exercise of militarized state power and the growth of the prison-industrial complex. Saturday, February 25 will be a discussion of the politics, writings and assassination of George Jackson and the aftermath. Part Two: (March 11, 18, 25, and April 1) Next, we turn to the American Indian Movement and the 1973 stand-off at Wounded Knee, echoes of which resonated through the encampments at Standing Rock. We’ll then continue to talk about the interaction of social movements and the state while looking at the New York City fiscal crisis, the politics of austerity, grassroots responses, and anti-authoritarianism. The role of finance capital in imposing deep cuts on working people’s lives in 1975 will begin in the second part of the discussion on March 25. Part Three: (April 15, 22, 29, and May 6) Thinking broadly about decolonization, we’ll look at how the 1975 Portuguese revolution and the independence struggle Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau provide an opportunity to explore the relationship between colonialism and national liberation. The 1979 Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua opens a window into Latin American revolutionary struggles and the challenges to U.S. imperialism in former client-states. We will then delve into radical feminism and its sometimes uneasy relationship with Marxism and socialism, and we’ll continue our discussion of sexual politics in the gay and lesbian movements. Lisa Maya Knauer is a lifelong radical who came of age politically in the 1960s and 1970s. She was active in the anti-war, civil rights, women’s, farmworkers support, anti-apartheid and other movements. She moved to New York in 1977 and quickly immersed herself in the New York left. She found the School for Marxist Education in the phone book and joined the Marxist Education Collective, and has been involved with this educational undertaking through its various incarnations, including the Marxist Education Project. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university and does research on indigenous resistance in Guatemala and immigrant worker organizing in the U.S. The Marxist Education Project (MEP) has been formed as a place to study, and to work to consciously identify what questions we must address and together answer, each bringing to the discussion our diverse locations and experiences within society as a whole. We are confronting great possibilities and great challenges which require that we socially and politically find common ground while embracing not only our own but also each others different needs as our own into one organized emancipatory voice that represents the needs and aspirations of all humanity with social and political programs to begin the remediation of ourselves and our relations to each other and the ecology of our planet. In this first quarter of the 21st Century it has become clear that we as a species have a great challenge and responsibility—to bring together all our different needs and knowledge into an organized and diverse political force that can not only impede the prerogatives of an imperialist capitalism but also start to put in place means for transitioning to different ways of producing while in doing so we take into account all the needs of nature. In the next year we will begin offering classes and events in other boroughs and neighboring cities including Saturday morning sessions in Newark. Interference Archive: The mission of Interference Archive is to explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in an open stacks archival collection, publications, a study center, and public programs, all of which encourage critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements. The archive contains many kinds of objects that are created as part of social movements by the participants themselves: posters, flyers, publications, photographs, books, tee shirts and buttons, moving images, audio recordings, and other materials. Through our programming, we use this cultural ephemera to animate histories of people mobilizing for social transformation. We consider the use of our collection to be a way of preserving and honoring histories and material culture that is often marginalized in mainstream institutions. As an all-volunteer organization, all members of our community are welcome and encouraged to shape our collection and programming; we are a space for all volunteers to learn from each other and develop new skills. We work in collaboration with like-minded projects, and encourage critical as well as creative engagement with our own histories and current struggles. As an archive from below, we are a collectively run space that is people powered, with open stacks and accessibility for all. We are supported by the community that believes in what we’re doing. Admission to the reading group is free to all. Contributions are accepted. | This reading group, designed to accompany Interference Archives’ exhibit Finally Got The News will explore some of the key liberation movements of the 1970s U.S. through the lens of written documents included in the exhibition, as well as excerpts from publications by the activists and intellectuals who led, chronicled and theorized about them. This is not a nostalgia trip, but an opportunity to critically examine some important and often-overlooked threads of our collective history in order to inform our own politics of liberation in the 21st century. | 2/5/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-finally-got-the-news-2/ | 70s activism|70s anarchism|American Indian Movement|Amilcar Cabral|anti-austerity|anti-capitalist|Anti-conformist|anti-fascism|anti-imperialism|Attica|Black Power|Detroit I Do Mind Dying|farm labor|feminism|George Jackson|migrant labor organizing|migrant rights|Militancy|punk|Revolutionary Union Movement|rock against racism|Vietnam|wildcat strikes|Wounded Knee | Climate Change|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 5/6/2017 15:00 | 5/6/2017 17:00 | |
| Money and Totality | MONEY AND TOTALITY: A Macro-Monetary Interpretation of Marx’s Logic In Capital and the End of the “Transformation Problem” a book discussion with author Fred Moseley at Unnameable Books 600 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn, NY Correcting a longstanding misinterpretation, Moseley argues that there is no ‘transformation problem’ in Marx’s economic theory. This ambitious book presents a comprehensive new ‘macro-monetary’ interpretation of Marx’s logical method in Capital which emphasizes two points: (1) Marx’s theory is primarily a macroeconomic theory of the total surplus-value produced in the economy as a whole; and (2) Marx’s theory is a monetary theory and the circuit of money capital, M-C-M, is its logical framework. “The complete form of the process is therefore M-C-M’, where M =M + ∆M, i.e. the original sum advanced plus an increment. This increment or excess over the original value I call ‘surplus-value’.” —Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1 “The capitalists, like hostile brothers, divide among themselves the loot of other people’s labor, so that on an average one receives the same amount of unpaid labor as another.” —Karl Marx, Theories of Surplus-Value, Volume 2 Fred Moseley is Professor of Economics at Mount Holyoke College. He is the author of The Falling Rate of Profit in the Postwar United States Economy and editor of Marx’s Logical Method: A Reappraisal, New Investigations of Marx’s Method, Heterodox Economic Theories: True or False?, and Marx’s Theory of Money: Modern Reappraisals. | Correcting a longstanding misinterpretation, Moseley argues that there is no ‘transformation problem’ in Marx’s economic theory. | 2/9/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/money-and-totality/ | Capital|circuits of capital|common equivalent|Das Kapital|macroeconomics|Marxist economic theory|monetary theory|Money|Political economy|surplus value|Transformation Problem | Capital Studies|Marxist Method | 4/19/2017 18:30 | 4/19/2017 20:30 | |
| Popular Struggles in South Africa | Popular Struggles in South Africa: Urban Revolt: State Power and the Rise of People’s Movements in the Global South and The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa A report on current and future liberation movements in South Africa with Trevor Ngwane, Luke Sinwell and Manny Ness On 16th August 2012, thirty-four black mineworkers were gunned down by the police under the auspices of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) in what has become known as the Marikana massacre. Luke Sinwell’s The Spirit of Marikana tells the story of the uncelebrated leaders at the world’s three largest platinum mining companies who survived the barrage of state violence, intimidation, torture and murder which was being perpetrated during this tumultuous period. What began as a discussion about wage increases between two workers in the changing rooms at one mine became a rallying cry for economic freedom and basic dignity. This gripping ethnographic account is the first comprehensive study of this movement, revealing how seemingly ordinary people became heroic figures who transformed their workplace and their country. The urban poor and working class now make up the majority of the world’s population and this segment is growing dramatically as the global population expands to 10 billion by mid-century. Much of the population growth results from the displacement of rural peasants to the urban cores, resulting in the vast expansion of mega-cities with 10 to 20 million people in the global South. The proliferation of informal settlements and slums particularly in the global south have created the conditions in which urban areas have become the principal sites of social upheaval as people seek to improve their living conditions. Drawing from case studies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, the various chapters in Urban Revolt: State Power and the Rise of People’s Movements in the Global South map and analyze the ways in which the majority of the world exists and struggles in the contemporary urban context. Trevor Ngwane and Luke Sinwell will discuss the current situation in South Africa where trade union militancy has spread more broadly in the five years since Marikana, the anti-austerity student movement remains strong at most universities and other schools, and socialist parties are experiencing growth and are at times uniting to fight the neoliberalism of the post-apartheid state. Mgcineni ‘Mambush’ Noki (imagined in the wall painting wearing a green blanket) was one of the 34 mineworkers killed by the South African police on August 2016 while on strike demanding a ‘living wage’ in the most potent episode of state violence against civilians in the post-apartheid period. Mambush and the others live on as the insurgency grows broader and deeper in South African society and beyond. Through detailed case studies, Urban Revolt unravels the potential and limitations of urban social movements on an international level. “A superb addition to the literature on the contemporary global crisis and its micro manifestations.” —Patrick Bond, BRICS: An Anticapitalist Critique The urban poor and working class now make up the majority of the world’s population. Much of the population growth results from the displacement of rural peasants to mega-cities. The proliferation of informal settlements and slums, particularly in the Global South, have created conditions ripe for social upheaval as people seek to improve their living conditions and win basic human rights. Drawing from case studies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, the chapters in this book map and analyze the ways in which the majority of the world exists and struggles in the contemporary urban context. “What emerges from this collection is a complex picture of resistance, which nevertheless provides nuanced hope for a universalist project of social transformation…. The result is often a refreshing and accessible journey into urban revolts that the reader may have less familiarity.” —Leo Zeilig, African Struggles Today: Social Movements Since Independence “Capitalism itself is in crisis so it means, as Marx said, the CEOs of the world, government leaders, have now become personifications of capital. They no longer have any control. They speak for capital. They are just meant to trample on our rights willy nilly. They did that in Greece until a left party took over and then now they are turning the screws on that left party. It’s harder in countries such as the USA where socialism is a swear word as it is in Eastern Europe.” —Trevor Ngwane, Counterfire, 2015 “Fanon somewhere quotes Marx on how the social revolution “cannot draw its poetry from the past, but only from the future.” The EFF, the student movement and the working class movement has to find a way forward without going back to nationalism as an ideology of struggle. The struggle against imperialism has to break out of the discourse of colonialism without denying this history and its legacy…at its heart will be proletarian internationalism rather than bourgeois nationalism.” —Trevor Ngwane, 2016 Trevor Ngwane is a scholar-activist who is active in the Socialist Group and the United Front, organizations that seek a pro–working class pro-poor future for South Africa and the world. His PhD thesis recently awarded by the University of Johannesburg is titled “Amakomiti as democracy on the margins: Popular committees in South Africa’s informal settlements.” Luke Sinwell is a senior researcher with the South African Research Chair in Social Change, University of Johannesburg. He has published widely on social movements and popular protest. His latest book is an ethnography called, The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa (Pluto Press, 2016). Immanuel Ness is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He has authored and edited of many books including: Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class (Pluto Press, 2015) and Ours to Master and to Own: Worker Control from the Commune to the Present (Haymarket Books, 2011). Ness is co-editor of the third world political economy quarterly, Journal of Labor and Society. Copies of Urban Revolt, The Spirit of Marikana and Southern Insurgency will be available for purchase. | What began as a discussion about wage increases between two workers in the changing rooms at one mine became a rallying cry for economic freedom and basic dignity. | 2/11/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/insurgent-south-africa-the-spirit-of-marikana/ | ANC|anti-austerity|liberation movements|Marikana|miner|miners strike|popular movements and labor|post-apartheid|Socialism|South Africa|strike|United Front|urban poor|Urban revolt | 3/6/2017 19:30 | 3/6/2017 21:30 | ||
| Emergence of a New Left: Civil Rights from Reform to Revolution | We begin with Malcolm Noble Bratton Two more sessions prior to One-Dimensional Man: February 28 and March 7 Noble Bratton will conduct a 3-week history of the Civil Rights movement with CORE, SNCC and analyzing the growing militancy in African-American life that led to the revolutionary politics of The Black Panther Party as the 60s developed. Noble Bratton is a graduate of Cornell University and is on the editorial board of Working USA/Labor and Society. He taught a class on the US Presidency at The Brecht Forum. He has participated with the Leo Downes Harlem Y Study Group. He is also a former member of District Council 65 of the UAW, UNITE Local 169. Readings for the next two weeks will include chapters from Manning Marable’s Race, Reform and Rebellion. | If we don’t do something real soon, I think you’ll have to agree that we’re going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. It’s one or the other in 1964. It isn’t that time is running out—time has run out! —Malcolm X, 1964 | 2/20/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emergence-of-a-new-left-civil-rights-from-reform-to-revolution/ | anti-racisim|black nationalism|Black Panther Party|Civil Rights|class struggle|CORE|Identity|Malcolm X|Martin Luther King|NAACP|nation of islam|Race Rebellion|Race Reform|racism|reform|Revolution|SCLC|segregation|SNCC|Urban Revolts|Urban Uprising | 2/28/2017 19:30 | 2/28/2017 21:30 | ||
| The Explosion of Deferred Dreams | The Explosion of Deferred Dreams: Musical Renaissance and Social Revolution in San Francisco, 1965–1975 Mat Callahan As the fiftieth anniversary of the Summer of Love floods the media with debates and celebrations of music, political movements, “flower power,” “acid rock,” and “hippies”; The Explosion of Deferred Dreams offers a critical re-examination of the interwoven political and musical happenings in San Francisco in the Sixties. Author, musician, and native San Franciscan Mat Callahan explores the dynamic links between the Black Panthers and Sly and the Family Stone, the United Farm Workers and Santana, the Indian Occupation of Alcatraz and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the New Left and the counterculture. Callahan’s meticulous, impassioned arguments both expose and reframe the political and social context for the San Francisco Sound and the vibrant subcultural uprisings with which it is associated. Using dozens of original interviews, primary sources, and personal experiences, the author shows how the intense interplay of artistic and political movements put San Francisco, briefly, in the forefront of a worldwide revolutionary upsurge. A must-read for any musician, historian, or person who “was there” (or longed to have been), The Explosion of Deferred Dreams is substantive and provocative, inviting us to reinvigorate our historical sense-making of an era that assumes a mythic role in the contemporary American zeitgeist. “All too often, people talk about the ’60s without mentioning our music and the fun we had trying to smash the state and create a culture based upon love. Mat Callahan’s book is a necessary corrective.” —George Katsiaficas, author of The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968 Mat Callahan is a musician and author originally from San Francisco, where he founded Komotion International. He is the author of three books, Sex, Death & the Angry Young Man, Testimony, and The Trouble with Music as well as the editor of Songs of Freedom: The James Connolly Songbook. He currently resides in Bern, Switzerland. | Callahan’s meticulous, impassioned arguments both expose and reframe the political and social context for the San Francisco Sound and the vibrant subcultural uprisings with which it is associated. | 2/24/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-explosion-of-deferred-dreams/ | 60s activism|60s radicalism|music of resistance|music of san francisco|Psychedelia|Summer of Love | 4/27/2017 19:30 | 4/27/2017 21:30 | ||
| The Three Worlds of Social Democracy | A book-launch and discussion with Ingo Schmidt (editor) and Mariano Féliz (contributor) Capitalists’ permanent pressure on the working and living conditions of the popular classes guarantees an equally permanent demand for social protections. Curiously enough, around the same time capitalists turned from class compromise to an all-out offensive against Western European welfare states, until then the showcase of social democratic success, popular classes in a number of post-colonial and post-communist countries turned to social democracy. Though the 1990s are usually seen as nothing but an age of neoliberal globalization, it is more accurate to say that the same decade also saw the globalization of social democracy. With Third Worldism in retreat under the pressure of the international debt crises and counterinsurgency measures and Soviet communism finally collapsing after an extended period of stagnation, social democracy was the last remaining project of the 20th century left. The ANC in South Africa, the Workers Party in Brazil, Communists in India and the former ruling parties in Eastern Europe eventually turned onto the social democratic road. But they did that at a time when social democracy in Western Europe was relabeled as a Third Way somewhere between the redistributive welfare state of the past and the present of unfettered global competition. However, the globalization of this Third Way turned out to be a dead-end. Wherever parties were elected on a moderately social democratic platform, soon after taking office the same parties would tell their voters that it was belt-tightening time. Ensuing anger, disappointment and frustrations opened the way for left- and right-wing alternatives to social democracy but also a quest for social democracy before the Third Way. The Three Worlds of Social Democracy presents the experiences of parties and governments of social democracy from Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America, India, and South Africa. The book offers cutting-edge case studies to present a truly global exploration of the methods, meanings, and limits of social democracy. It also explores the potential for left alternatives to social democracy and the dangers of surging right-wing populism. Mariano Féliz is an economist at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales and the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cient.ficas y Técnicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina. Ingo Schmidt is the coordinator of the Labour Studies Programme at Athabasca University, Canada. | The Three Worlds of Social Democracy offers cutting-edge case studies to present a truly global exploration of the methods, meanings, and limits of social democracy. It also explores the potential for left alternatives to social democracy and the dangers of surging right-wing populism. | 3/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-three-worlds-of-social-democracy/ | Austerity|capitalist crisis|concessions to capital|counter-hegemony|fighting back|global offensive|Social Democracy|social wage|third way|welfare state | Capital Studies|Marxist Method|Socialism | 4/5/2017 19:30 | 4/5/2017 21:30 | |
| Creating An Ecological Society | Towards a revolutionary transformation Why Capitalism Must Go to Save the Earth Capitalism is the problem and creating a new society is both possible and essential. Fred Magdoff is Professor Emeritus of Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont. Among his recent books are What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism (with John Bellamy Foster) and Agriculture and Food in Crisis (edited with Brian Tokar). no one turned away for inability to pay | With Fred Magdoff —co-author with Chris Williams of the new book Creating an Ecological Society, which assesses how capitalism is destabilizing Earth’s climate and envisions a society that is genuinely democratic, equitable, and ecologically sustainable. | 3/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/creating-an-ecological-society-part-1/ | agricultural crisis|capitalist crises|Climate Change|ecology|global warming|socialist transformation|transition | 4/30/2017 18:00 | 4/30/2017 20:00 | ||
| Emergence of a New Left: The Black Panther Party (extended to April 11) | Noble Bratton will conduct a 3-week reading and discussion of the essential history of the Black Panther Party, Black Against Empire. Please read the first two sections for March 21. Noble Bratton is a graduate of Cornell University and is on the editorial board of Working USA/Labor and Society. He taught a class on the US Presidency at The Brecht Forum. He has participated with the Leo Downes Harlem Y Study Group. He is also a former member of District Council 65 of the UAW, UNITE Local 169. Readings for the next three weeks will include chapters from Black Against Empire by Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin. A special price of $15 for April 4 and 11 | From the time that college students Bobby Seale and Huey Newton armed themselves and announced that they were going to patrol the police and fight police brutality, a cultural match was lit that sparked a revolution. | 3/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emergence-of-a-new-left-the-black-panther-party/ | 4/4/2017 19:30 | 4/4/2017 21:30 | |||
| The Grundrisse, The Chapter on Capital | Saturday sessions on essential works of Marx Reading and discussion sessions with Sam Salour and others This group will meet on Saturdays until June 17 “Forces of production and social relations — two different sides of the development of the social individual — appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse Perhaps the most curious and least understood aspect of Marx’s work is his method of analysis. Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However, to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of The German Ideology and the Grundrisse. These works are perhaps the best representation of the process of thinking that found its culmination in Capital and we will be engaging with it during our study. Without a doubt, this will be a long and arduous process but we should always keep in mind that “there is no royal road to science and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits. Starting April 1 we will read from The Chapter on Capital from the Penguin edition of Marx’s Grundrisse. These three-hour sessions will have a 30 minute break at 12:30 No one turned away for inability to pay. $10 per session suggested fee. | “Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However | to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts | 3/18/2017 | tribe_events | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-grundrisse-the-chapter-on-capital/ | C-M-C|capital circuits|capitalism|crisis|development|M-C-M|Marx’s Notebooks|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|productivity | ||
| Sartre’s Search For A Method | Five More Sessions with Dan Karan April 25-May23 A series within the Emergence of A New Left Programming John Paul Sartre was one of the most important radical intellectuals of the 20th century yet he is largely forgotten or ignored by most Marxists and others on “the left.” This, despite the fact that as a philosopher, playwright, novelist, essayist and political activist Sartre’s primary concerns surrounded questions of individual freedom, choice and action (in his early career) and the relationship between individual freedom and collective good (in his later career) and developing a method for understanding history, the structure of class struggle and the fate of mass movements and popular revolt. Ronald Hayman, one of Sartre’s biographers, summarizes Sartre’s intellectual project as follows: “As a Marxist he wanted to believe that dialectical materialism offered a complete interpretation of history – that all the contradictions, conflicts, heterogeneities, anomalies could be subsumed in a single totalization. Sartre is simultaneously concerned to provide Marxism with an adequate theory of knowledge, both Marx and Lenin had worked without one – and to combat the Heideggarian existentialism which consistently makes Being its point of departure. Sartre insists that history is the history of human initiatives. What emerges as the crucial problem is how to map the jungle of obscure connections between historical movements and individual actions.” This class will focus on Sartre’s 1957 text, Search For A Method, which reflects his growth from existentialist philosopher concerned with individual freedom to an anti-authoritarian existential Marxist who believed that individual freedom can only come about via one’s commitment to the collective good. Search for a Method consists of three major parts: The first part discusses Marxist and existentialist views of the world; the second, how the individual relates to structures; and, the third develops a methodology for understanding the individual, history and structures. Dan Karan has been studying Marxism for 40 years and was a student of John Gerassi, Sartre’s official biographer. | “Sartre insists that history is the history of human initiatives. What emerges as the crucial problem is how to map the jungle of obscure connections between historical movements and individual actions.” —Ronald Hayman | 3/19/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/sartres-search-for-a-method/ | 20th Century Marxism|60s|Existentialism|Freedom|French intellectuals|historical materialism|Methodology|New Left | 4/25/2017 18:00 | 4/25/2017 19:30 | ||
| African Literature: Post-Colonial Struggles | A 9-week reading group Thursdays, April 27 through June 22, 7:30 to 9:30 pm Organized with the Indigenous People’s History and Literature Group “Real misfortune is not just a matter of being hungry and thirsty; it is a matter of knowing that there are people who want you to be hungry and thirsty.” ― Ousmane Sembène During this term we will begin with Egypt with Mahfouz, visit West Africa with Chris Abani then travel south to South Africa with Zakes Mda then conclude in June with NoViolet Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Again we examine four different areas of Africa as the peoples there emerge first from European colonization, then face the forces of global domination in the long neoliberal phase we yet endure. Respected Sir Naguib Mahfouz Egypt, 1975 With this portrait of a misanthropic civil servant, Mahfouz devises a cunning send-up of egregious ambition, stodgy bureaucracy and cloying piety. The novel’s overblown language mirrors the grandiose aspirations of protagonist Othman Bayyumi, an archives clerk who schemes for a lofty appointment as Director General, expounding that “a government position is a brick in the edifice of the state, and the state is an exhalation of the spirit of God, incarnate on earth.” Song for Night Chris Abani Nigeria, 2007 Song for Night is the story of a West African boy soldier’s lyrical, terrifying, yet beautiful journey through the nightmare landscape of a brutal war in search of his lost platoon. Our guide is a voiceless protagonist who, as part of a land mine-clearing platoon, had his vocal chords cut, a move to keep these children from screaming when blown up, and thereby distracting the other minesweepers. The book is written in a ghostly voice, with each chapter headed by a line of the unique sign language these children invented. The Heart of Redness Zakes Mda South Africa, 2007 In Mda’s novel, there is Camugu, who left for America during apartheid, and has now returned to Johannesburg. Disillusioned by the problems of the new democracy, he follows his “famous lust” to Qolorha on the remote Eastern Cape. There in the nineteenth century a teenage prophetess named Nonqawuse commanded the Xhosa people to kill their cattle and burn their crops, promising that once they did so the spirits of their ancestors would rise and drive the occupying English into the ocean. A failed prophecy split the Xhosa into Believers and Unbelievers, dividing brother from brother, wife from husband, with devastating consequences. 150 years later, the two groups’ decendants are at odds over plans to build a vast casino and tourist resort in the village, and Camugu is soon drawn into their heritage and their struggles for a future worth living for. We Need New Names NoViolet Bulawayo Zimbabwe, 2012 Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad. But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America’s famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few. The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group, which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | During this term we will begin with Egypt with Mahfouz, visit West Africa with Chris Abani then travel south to South Africa with Zakes Mda then conclude in June with NoViolet Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Again we examine four different areas of Africa as the peoples there emerge first from European colonization, then face the forces of global domination in the long late-capitalist neoliberal phase we are living through. | 3/19/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/african-literature-post-colonial-struggles/ | African Literature|african state|boy soldiers|Chris Abani|corruption|Egypt|mahfouz|Mda|nationalism|Nigeria|NoViolet Bulawayo|post-colonial|Socialism|South Africa|Zimbabwe | 4/27/2017 19:30 | 4/27/2017 21:30 | ||
| Creating an Ecological Society | A reading group Five more Tuesdays We will read and discuss the just-published book by Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams, Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a Revolutionary Transformation. Sickened by the contamination of water, air, and the Earth itself, more and more people are coming to realize that it is capitalism that is, quite literally, killing us – and indeed, degrading the Earth’s very ability to support all forms of life. The authors identify the root causes of the global environmental crisis in capitalism’s imperative to make profits at all costs and expand without end. They lay out a program for building a society that is genuinely democratic, equitable, and ecologically sustainable. Fred Murphy has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Steve Knight has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History and the Crisis of Capitalism appeared last year in the journal Marx & Philosophy. No one turned away for inability to pay. Stated fees are sliding scale. | Sickened by the contamination of water, air, and the Earth itself, more and more people are coming to realize that it is capitalism that is, quite literally, killing us – and indeed, degrading the Earth’s very ability to support all forms of life. | 3/27/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/creating-an-ecological-society/ | democracy|ecological crisis|Revolutionary Transformation|science|sustainability|transformation | 6/13/2017 18:30 | 6/13/2017 20:30 | ||
| Challenging Militarism, Climate Change, and Human Nature | Challenging Militarism, Climate Change, and Human Nature: Revolutionary Mothering and A Politics of Responsibility Judith Deutsch Our ability to address urgent threats to our existence like climate change and nuclear weapons is hampered and undermined by questionable assumptions about “human nature” that underlie much political thought and action. In the book Revolutionary Mothering an anthology by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens, Mai’a Williams, and Loretta J. Ross, women of color start from the interdependence of the child and the mothering person to propose a very different perspective on human experience, and the interface between individuals and institutions. Mothering and revolution are messy – there are no pat formulas or fixed paradigms. They propose a politics of necessity and responsibility, emphasizing needs rather than rights: “There will be no liberation without us knowing how to depend on each other, how to be encumbered with and responsible for each other.” Judith Deutsch is a columnist for Canadian Dimension Magazine, former president of Science for Peace, and a psychoanalyst by profession. For reading prior to this presentation, please refer to Judith’s March 1 article in The Bullet: http://socialistproject.ca/bullet/1376.php | Our ability to address urgent threats to our existence like climate change and nuclear weapons is hampered and undermined by questionable assumptions about “human nature” that underlie much political thought and action…. “There will be no liberation without us knowing how to depend on each other, how to be encumbered with and responsible for each other.” | 4/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/challenging-militarism-climate-change-and-human-nature/ | anti-militarism|Climate Change|climate crisis|Militarism|mothering|mothering and revolution|nuclear weapons|nurture|revolutionary transition|science and society|Science for Peace | 5/20/2017 18:00 | 5/20/2017 20:00 | ||
| Trotsky in New York Walking Tour | With Jim Creegan and Alex Steinberg Meet in front the main entrance of The Great Hall of Cooper Union, behind the statue of Peter Cooper, East 7th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues A walking tour benefit for the Marxist Education Project Q: Where was one of the future leaders of the October Revolution and founder of the Red Army when the Tsar was overthrown in the first (February) Russian Revolution? A: New York City—living in the Bronx and working for a Russian-language newspaper on the Lower East Side. Join Alex Steinberg and Jim Creegan for a historical walking tour of Lower Manhattan as we explore some of the places where Leon Trotsky visited and worked during his nine week stay in New York 100 years ago. Trotsky’s sojourn in New York, while brief, had lasting historical significance for both the future of Russia and the United States. We will explore the culture of the radicalized immigrant communities of Yiddish-speaking Jews from Eastern Europe, of German, Russian, Italian and Greek immigrants who supported a thriving socialist movement in New York in 1917. This was a culture that sustained about a dozen foreign language daily newspapers, many of them having a radical socialist political orientation. The Yiddish language Jewish Daily Forward had a daily circulation of 200,000 at the time, rivaling the circulation of the New York Times. It was also a time of increasing ferment and struggle as America entered World War I on April 6, 1917 and Russia’s revolutionary wave was about to explode a few months later. After beginning at Cooper Union, we will walk to 77 St. Marks Place, where the offices of the Russian language newspaper Novy Mir, were housed in 1917. Here Trotsky and other future Bolshevik leaders worked daily. From there the tour will take a walk to the building of the Jewish Daily Forward in Seward Park, which was the scene of a dramatic confrontation between Trotsky and more conservative socialists. As we walk we will pass by a number of places that were important in understanding the history of the social struggles of immigrants in a New York very different than the city we know today. Alex Steinberg is an educator who has taught a number of classes with the Marxist Education Project. He wrote a review of the book, Trotsky in New York 1917: A Radical on the Eve of Revolution, by Kenneth D. Ackerman, Counterpoint Press, Berkeley, 2016 Jim Creegan is a participant in the Marxist Education Project, and a student of Marxism and Russian revolutionary history? | We will meet at the entrance to the Great Hall of Cooper Union and proceed to 77 St. Marks Place, where the offices of the Russian language newspaper Novy Mir, were housed in 1917. Here Trotsky and other future Bolshevik leaders worked daily. From there the tour will take a walk to the building of the Jewish Daily Forward. | 4/10/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/trotsky-in-new-york-walking-tour/ | Bolshevik Party|Exile in New York|Jewish Daily Forward|Leon Trotsky|Red Army|walking tour | 6/17/2017 12:00 | 6/17/2017 14:00 | ||
| Gowanus Canal Walking Tour: Where Environmental Justice and Housing Justice Meet | With Michael Higgins Meet on the steps of the of Brooklyn Public Library. Although people around the world are increasingly living in cities such as New York City, we still exist in and are dependent on the natural environment. Whether we live in rural or urban places, we are greatly influencing Earth system processes, such as how water cycles between places, how soils are intricately linked to the movement of water, exchange of gases, and growth of plants even on the Whole Foods rooftop garden along the Gowanus Canal, and how the composition of the atmosphere affects incoming and outgoing energy, which then impacts global climate change. Come join in for a walk from Prospect Park to the Gowanus Canal. Gowanus is an intensely contaminated community that is simultaneously undergoing multiple processes of environmental remediation and gentrification. The tour will explore these dynamics and the challenges and opportunities posed by the Gowanus Canal Superfund Clean Up, the rapid disappearance of commercial establishments and services that are affordable to low- and moderate-income households and the recently announced housing authority plan to build market-rate apartments at Wyckoff Gardens. Tour attendees will also learn about the Turning the Tide initiative, a multi-neighborhood effort that focuses on building social and environmental resiliency in five Brooklyn public housing developments. Michael Higgins, Jr. is a member turned organizer at FUREE, Families United for Racial and Economic Equality. A native of Fort Greene, Michael works with public housing tenants in developments around Downtown Brooklyn, building power in low-income communities around issues of accountable development, environmental justice and municipal governance. This tour will benefit The MEP and FUREE | Gowanus is an intensely contaminated community that is simultaneously undergoing multiple processes of environmental remediation and gentrification. The tour will explore these dynamics and the challenges and opportunities posed by the Gowanus Canal Superfund Clean Up. | 4/10/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gowanus-canal-walking-tour/ | displacement|Gowanus Canal|Local ecology|marine life|Science in Brooklyn|sustainability|watershed | 6/24/2017 14:00 | 6/24/2017 16:30 | ||
| The German Revolution: False Hope or Missed Chance | Postscript, 1924-1933 Revolutions Study Group Four more Mondays, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Brooklyn Commons, May 29–June 19 (sliding scale: no one is turned away for an inability to pay) In November 1923, with the Weimar Republic reeling from the French occupation of the Rhineland and the destruction of its economy by the Great Inflation, the Communist Party of Germany failed in its third attempt since 1919 to lead a workers revolution. Over the next nine years, while the German Left became more bitterly divided than ever, the extreme nationalist and revanchist element in Germany was coalescing around a new mass party, the Nazis, who found increasing numbers of powerful supporters in the army and among the capitalists. When the next potentially revolutionary moment occurred with the Great Depression of 1929, it was fascism that was poised to seize power. Taking off from our readings this past winter, the group will explore why and how this looming tragedy took over Germany, and looks for lessons for our own world. Readings will include: Richard Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich (1st two chapters; book is readily available in public libraries and reasonably priced as a paperback). Daniel Guerin, Fascism and Big Business (2 chapters; also readily available). L. Trotsky, The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany (Introduction by Ernest Mandel and essays 7,8, 10, and 19; can be purchased online; may be in some public libraries) The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. Image: combo of two works by John Heartfield | …Over the next nine years, while the German Left became more bitterly divided than ever, the extreme nationalist and revanchist element in Germany was coalescing around a new mass party, the Nazis, who found increasing numbers of powerful supporters in the army and among the capitalists. | 4/13/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-german-revolution-false-hope-or-missed-chance/ | anti-bolshevism|authoritarianism|crisis|depression|finance capital and fascism|German 20s|KPD|Militarism|rise of fascism in Germany|sectarianism|Social Democracy|SPD|Stalinism|Weimar Republic | 5/29/2017 19:30 | 5/29/2017 21:30 | ||
| The Condition of the Working Class in England | by Frederick Engels A reading and discussion group convened with Lisa Maya Knauer Four more Mondays, 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm June 12, 19, 26 and July 3 Everywhere barbarous indifference, hard egotism on one hand, and nameless misery on the other, everywhere social warfare, every… house in a state of siege, everywhere reciprocal plundering under the protection of the law, and all so shameless, so openly avowed that one shrinks before the consequences of our social state as they manifest themselves here undisguised, and can only wonder that the whole crazy fabric still hangs together. This sounds like a description of our contemporary moment, when so many communities around the globe are reeling from the havoc wrought by unfettered neoliberal capitalism, from structural adjustment to cuts in social spending to “free trade” agreements to the gig economy and the loss of affordable housing on a global scale. But this paragraph was written by Frederick Engels, in his 1845 book, The Condition of the Working Class in England. This reading group will take a close look at Engels’ master work, to help understand how the formation of industrial capital and the industrial working class in the nineteenth century has led us to the current conjuncture in contemporary capitalism — characterized by growing inequality, increasing precariousness for nearly everyone except the capitalist elite, and incessant attacks on the most vulnerable — and explore its lessons for our revolutionary politics in the twenty-first century. This class is open to those reading Marx and Engels for the first time, and would provide an excellent background for in-depth study of historical materialism. While this is a self-contained five-week session, it will also serve as a prelude to an exploration of Marx and Engels’ political writings in the fall. Lisa Maya Knauer is a lifelong radical who came of age politically in the 1960s and 1970s. She was active in the anti-war, civil rights, women’s, farmworkers support, anti-apartheid and other movements. She moved to New York in 1977 and quickly immersed herself in the New York left. She found the School for Marxist Education in the phone book and joined the Marxist Education Collective, and has been involved with this educational undertaking through its various incarnations, including the Marxist Education Project. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university and does research on indigenous resistance in Guatemala and immigrant worker organizing in the U.S. | This reading group is taking a close look at Engels’ master work, to help understand how the formation of industrial capital and the industrial working class in the nineteenth century has led us to the current conjuncture in contemporary capitalism — characterized by growing inequality, increasing precariousness for nearly everyone except the capitalist elite, and incessant attacks on the most vulnerable — and explore its lessons for our revolutionary politics in the twenty-first century. | 4/18/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-condition-of-the-working-class-in-england/ | 19th Century Working Class history|Demographics|Early Trade Union Activity|Exploitation|Manchester|Marxist science|Mills|Sociology|Working Class Consciousness|Working Class Life | 6/12/2017 18:00 | 6/12/2017 19:30 | ||
| Kluge’s News from Ideological Antiquity | News from Ideological Antiquity: Marx–Eisenstein–Capital Part I. Marx and Eisenstein in the Same House Saturday, June 17, 3-6:30 pm Intermission with discussion to follow Verso Loft 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn When Eisenstein had the idea to film Capital, he thought that the literary methods found in Joyce’s Ulysses would be helpful for his project. According to Fredric Jameson, what Eisenstein had in mind here is “something like a Marxist version of Freudian free association—the chain of hidden links that leads us from the surface of everyday life and experience to the very sources of production itself. Eisenstein’s idea was use the structure of Ulysses, a ‘day in the life’ narrative interrupted by stream-of-consciousness, together with his theories of montage to depict a narrative film version of Capital. ” Kluge’s film is divided into three parts: I. Marx and Eisenstein in the Same House; II. All Things are Bewitched People; III. Paradoxes of Exchange Society. If there is sufficient interest in this Part I showing, subsequent screenings of Parts II and III will be scheduled. | …a Marxian version of Freudian free association—the chain of hidden links that leads us from the surface of everyday life and experience to the very sources of production itself. —Fredric Jameson | 4/18/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/kluges-news-from-ideological-antiquity/ | 6/17/2017 15:00 | 6/17/2017 18:30 | |||
| 2 More Lectures With Stanley Aronowitz are postponed | Sponsored and presented by the Institute for the Radical Imagination May 13 Lecture: The Labor Question in the 21st century May 20 Lecture: Political Organization? Both lectures will take place at a later date Please visit: https://radicalimagination.institute for more information | 4/24/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-lectures-with-stanley-aronowitz/ | Class Consciousness|Orthodox Marxism | 5/13/2017 12:00 | 5/13/2017 14:00 | |||
| Women’s Liberation Movement: 1968-1975 | Jenny Brown Tuesday, July 18 and 25, 7:30-9:30 pm Readings provided by Jenny for this series: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_eXN8wqn-HgaEpVaVlLOU1UTVk JULY 18 Origins & Theory: The Women’s Liberation Movement is rooted in the Black-led Southern Civil Rights Movement and most of its theory pioneers, white and Black, were full-time workers in that movement. They also drew from Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. As the Black Freedom movement turned to Black Power, feminists took theory from Black Power and applied it to their newborn movement. We’ll read original sources from both the Black-led and majority-white branches of women’s liberation. JULY 25 The Power of History: This class will analyze what made the 1960s Women’s Liberation Movement spread fast and win victories, and also what made it vulnerable to watering down and liberal takeover. We will read analyses from Women’s Liberation Movement organizers written after the height of the movement’s power. Jenny Brown is an organizer with National Women’s Liberation and has been involved in feminist theory and organizing since 1988, first with Gainesville Women’s Liberation in Gainesville, Florida and then with the Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action, a movement think-tank and archive based in New York. She co-authored the Redstockings book, Women’s Liberation and National Healthcare: Confronting the Myth of America and the Labor Notes book How to Jump Start Your Union: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers along with numerous essays and articles. She was also a co-chair of a Labor Party Local Organizing Committee in Gainesville, Florida and is a former editor of Labor Notes. Those who have enrolled in the ongoing New Left series are already registered for these two sessions Prices below are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | As the Black Freedom movement turned to Black Power, feminists took theory from Black Power and applied it to their newborn movement. We’ll read original sources from both the Black-led and majority-white branches of women’s liberation. | 4/30/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/womens-liberation-movement-1968-1975/ | 60s Women’s Movement|consciousness raising|feminism|gender politics|liberation struggles|National Women’s Liberation|women and reform|women and revolution | 7/18/2017 19:30 | 7/18/2017 21:30 | ||
| Existentialism and the Anti-Psychiatry Movement | Existentialism and the Anti-Psychiatry Movement: Considerations on Laing, Cooper, Schizoid-analysis and Radio Alice A two-week presentation by Michael Pelias Tuesday, May 9 and 16, 7:30 to 9:30 pm Behind the anti-psychiatry movement that blossomed during the 1970s was the fundamental post-Freudian work of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential psychoanalysis. This highly creative approach by Sartre was named “existential psychoanalysis” and was first articulated at the end of the classic, Being and Nothingness (1943). We will read a selection of this new approach to psychic individuation alongside the Laing/Cooper nexus that sprung the anti-psychiatry movement and resulted in open psychiatric institutions, mental health liberation activity, and an on-going critique of “bourgeois” psychiatry and contemporary behaviorism, cognitive and psycho-pharmacological approaches to the question of what is mental health. We will also look at Laing’s famous proposition that schizophrenia is the sanest reaction to capitalism and engage the schizoid analysis of Deleuze and Guattari alongside the anti-psychiatry moment of Basaglia and Radio Alice in Italy. At minimum, please read this section from Laing’s Politics of Experience at Marxists.org: https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/laing.htm Michael Pelias teaches both ancient and modern Philosophy at Long Island University, Brooklyn and is one of the co-founders of the Institute for the Radical Imagination and co-managing editor of the journal Situations. Those who are participating in the New Left course on Tuesday evenings are already enrolled for these two sessions. Fees listed below are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | We are normal, and we want our freedom! We will read a selection of this new approach to psychic individuation alongside the Laing/Cooper nexus that sprung the anti-psychiatry movement and resulted in open psychiatric institutions, mental health liberation activity, and an on-going critique of “bourgeois” psychiatry and contemporary behaviorism, cognitive and psycho-pharmacological approaches to the question of what is mental health. | 4/30/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/existentialism-and-the-anti-psychiatry-movement/ | anti-authoritariianism|anti-psychiatry|behavior|capitalism and schizophrenia|Existentialism|mental health|mental health liberation|psycho-pharmacology|rights to mental health|therapy | 5/9/2017 19:30 | 5/9/2017 21:30 | ||
| Paris, May 1968 | Mitch Abidor Tuesday, May 30, 7:30 to 9:30 pm This second talk will investigate the events May 1968 in France through an analysis of the writings of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, one of the most important and interesting of its leaders, as well as the experiences of rank and file militants interviewed by Mitch Abidor for his forthcoming oral history, May Made Me. Mitchell Abidor is the principal French translator for the Marxists Internet Archive and has published several collections of his translations. Mitch recently translated Jean Jáurès’ Socialist History of the French Revolution and A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove and is currently working on translations of further unpublished works by Victor Serge and Daniel Guérin. Those enrolled in the New Left history course are already registered for these to sessions. Fees listed below are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | This talk will investigate the events May 1968 in France through an analysis of the writings of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, one of the most important and interesting of its leaders, as well as the experiences of rank and file militants | 4/30/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/paris-may-1968/ | Anti-capitalism|anti-Vietnam|Cohn-Bendit|French politics|French Revolutionary movements|General Strike|May 1968|Mitch Abidor|Sorbonne|working class | 5/30/2017 19:30 | 5/30/2017 21:30 | ||
| Existentialism, Anti-Psychiatry: 1960s and beyond | Existentialism and the Anti-Psychiatry Movement: Considerations on Laing, Cooper, Schizoid-analysis and Radio Alice Second presentation by Michael Pelias Tuesday, May 16, 7:30 to 9:30 pm Behind the anti-psychiatry movement that blossomed during the 1970s was the fundamental post-Freudian work of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential psychoanalysis. This highly creative approach by Sartre was named “existential psychoanalysis” and was first articulated at the end of the classic, Being and Nothingness (1943). We will read a selection of this new approach to psychic individuation alongside the Laing/Cooper nexus that sprung the anti-psychiatry movement and resulted in open psychiatric institutions, mental health liberation activity, and an on-going critique of “bourgeois” psychiatry and contemporary behaviorism, cognitive and psycho-pharmacological approaches to the question of what is mental health. We will also look at Laing’s famous proposition that schizophrenia is the sanest reaction to capitalism and engage the schizoid analysis of Deleuze and Guattari alongside the anti-psychiatry moment of Basaglia and Radio Alice in Italy. At minimum, please read this section from Laing’s Politics of Experience at Marxists.org: https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/laing.htm Michael Pelias teaches both ancient and modern Philosophy at Long Island University, Brooklyn and is one of the co-founders of the Institute for the Radical Imagination and co-managing editor of the journal Situations. Those who are participating in the New Left course on Tuesday evenings are already enrolled for these two sessions. Fees listed below are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Fees paid are applicable to ongoing Foundations of New Left, 1960-70 course which will continue until the end of July | e will read a selection of this new approach to psychic individuation alongside the Laing/Cooper nexus that sprung the anti-psychiatry movement and resulted in open psychiatric institutions, mental health liberation activity, and an on-going critique of “bourgeois” psychiatry and contemporary behaviorism. | 5/10/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/existentialism-anti-psychiatry-1960s-and-beyond/ | Capitalism and Mental Health|Desire|Felix Guatarri|mental health liberation|R.D. Laing|Radio Alice|Schizophrenia | 5/16/2017 19:30 | 5/16/2017 21:30 | ||
| Syriza Wave with Helena Sheehan | Helena Sheehan, author of the new book The Syriza Wave: Surging and Crashing with the Greek Left will speak. She will be joined by Nantina Vgontzas, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, NYU; Member, GSOC-UAW 2110 and AKNY-Greece Solidarity Movement. Welcome: Molly Nolan, Professor of History, NYU, and Brooklyn for Peace; Chair: Thomas Harrison, Co-Director, Campaign for Peace and Democracy. Sponsored by the NYU Department of History, co-sponsored by Campaign for Peace and Democracy, AKNY-Greece Solidarity Movement, Monthly Review Press, and The Marxist Education Project. https://www.facebook.com/events/1671073319855435/ A seasoned activist and participant-observer, Helena Sheehan adroitly places us at the center of the whirlwind beginnings of Syriza, its jubilant victory at the polls, and finally at Syriza’s surrender to the very austerity measures it once vowed to annihilate. Along the way, she takes time to meet many Greeks in tavernas, on the street, and in government offices, engage in debates, and compare Greece to her own economically blighted country, Ireland. Beginning as a strong Syriza supporter, Sheehan sees Syriza transformed from a horizon of hope to a vortex of despair. But out of the dust of defeat, she draws questions radiating optimism. Just how did what was possibly the most intelligent, effective instrument of the Greek left self-destruct? And what are the consequences for the Greek people, for the international left, for all of us driven to work for a better world? The Syriza Wave is a page-turning blend of political reportage, personal reflection, and astute analysis. Helena Sheehan is Professor Emerita at Dublin City University, where she taught history of ideas and media studies. She is also the author of several books, including Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History and Irish Television Drama: A Society and Its Stories, as well as magazine articles on politics, culture, and philosophy. | 5/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/syriza-wave-with-helena-sheehan/ | anti-austerity|Greece|Greek left|solidarity with Greece|Syriza | 5/25/2017 18:30 | 5/25/2017 21:00 | |||
| Hard Boiled Thursdays: Summer Fiction Series | SPILLING THE BEANS, SPLATTERING BLOOD: An 11-week group convened with the Indigenous People’s History and Literature Group Hard-boiled fiction and noir confirm capitalism’s violence with glaring facts, subtle twists of mind and plenty of broken bones and lives in between. Verbal sparring, physical clashes, between corrupt cops and the world-weary detectives, the calm façade smiling at the world concealing a maniacal murder machine, when distilled in a fast-paced pulp fiction or poetically narrated in a noir satisfy some of our needs to explain the violent social disorder thrown at us large and small by the contours of life lived by dictates of capital. These summer fictions we will read and discuss give voice to some of what we already know and shine light into the corners of stark realities these writers have taken on with twists and turns that surprise whether we are ready or not. July 13 Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935) uses truncated rhythms and a unique narrative structure to turn its account of a Hollywood dance marathon into an unforgettable evocation of social chaos and personal desperation. July 20 and 27 The Big Clock (1946), an ingenious novel of pursuit and evasion by the poet Kenneth Fearing, is set by contrast in the dense and neurotic inner world of a giant publishing corporation under the thumb of a warped and murderous chief executive. August 3 and 10 With In a Lonely Place (1947), Dorothy B. Hughes created one of the first full-scale literary portraits of a serial murderer. The streets of Los Angeles become a setting for random killings, and Hughes ventures, with unblinking exactness, into the mind of the killer. In the process she conjures up a potent mood of postwar dread and lingering trauma. August 17 and 24 In The Blunderer (1954), Patricia Highsmith tracks two men, strangers to each other, whose destinies become intertwined when one becomes obsessed with a crime committed by the other. Highsmith’s gimlet-eyed portrayals of failed marriages and deceptively congenial middle-class communities lend a sardonic edge to this tale of intrigue and ineptitude. August 31 and September 7 Two teenagers fresh out of stir set their sights on what looks like easy money in Dolores Hitchens’ Fools’ Gold (1958) and get a painful education in how quickly and drastically a simple plan can spin out of control. The basis for Jean-Luc Godard’s film Band of Outsiders, Fools’ Gold is a sharply told tale distinguished by its nuanced portrait of a shelteredof young woman who becomes a reluctant accomplice and fugitive. This classic novel is one of eight works included in The Library of America’s two-volume edition Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s, edited by Sarah Weinman. September 14 and 21 With its gritty realism, unrestrained violence and frequently outrageous humor, The Real Cool Killers (1959) is among the most powerful of Chester Himes’s series of novels about the Harlem detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. | Verbal sparring, physical clashes, between corrupt cops and the world-weary detectives, the calm façade smiling at the world concealing a maniacal murder machine, when distilled in a fast-paced pulp fiction or poetically narrated in a noir satisfy some of our needs to explain the violent social disorder thrown at us large and small by the contours of life lived by dictates of capital. | 5/28/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hard-boiled-thursdays-summer-fiction-series/ | capital through detective novels|cold-blooded fiction|crime fiction|detective fiction|hard boiled fiction|Noir fiction|Nouvelle Vague|pulp fiction|thrillers | 7/13/2017 19:30 | 7/13/2017 21:30 | ||
| Reading Capital Politically | A Six Session class: July 12, 19, 26, & August 2, 16, 23 (no class August 9) “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of contending classes.” —Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto For 150 years, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital has fascinated, frustrated and or confounded readers. It is most often read as a work of political economy whose aim is to understand how the capitalist economy works or even philosophically for its method (the influence of Hegel and his method continues to be debated). However Marx himself intended Capital to serve as a “weapon” in the hands of the working class. This makes Capital first and foremost a political work. But what does it mean to read capital politically? To answer this question, this class will examine Reading Capital Politically by Harry Cleaver (the most well known American exponent of what has come to be labelled “class struggle” or “Autonomist” Marxism after the Italian “Autonomia” movement of the 1970s). For the autonomists, Marx’s maxim that class struggle is the “motor force” of history is to be taken literally and not viewed as simply some literary metaphor. But what does this mean in the real world? How does this work? And, how should we read capital politically? Reading for this class will include: Reading Capital Politically by Harry Cleaver (https://libcom.org/files/cleaver-reading_capital_politically.pdf) Capital Volume 1, Chapter 1 (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm) CyberMarx by Nick Dyer-Witheford Chapter 4 (on Autonomist Marxism) https://libcom.org/library/cyber-marx-nick-dyer-witheford Dan Karan has been studying Marxism for 40 years and was a student of John Gerassi, Jean-Paul Sartre’s official biographer. | Marx’s maxim that class struggle is the “motor force” of history is to be taken literally and not viewed as simply some literary metaphor. But what does this mean in the real world? How does this work? And, how should we read Capital politically? | 6/5/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-capital-politically/ | Capital|Class Consciousness|Das Kapital|Hegel|Marx’s meaning|political activity|radical politics | 7/12/2017 18:00 | 7/12/2017 20:00 | ||
| A New Left Forms, June and July sessions on the 1960s | with Jenny Brown and others 6 Tuesdays, 7:30 – 9:30pm: June 13, 20, 27 & July 11, 18 and 25 (no class July 4) June 13-27. The music didn’t die. We will consider the many cultural influences of the first generation born who at day one were facing the bomb and the looming threat of mutually assured destruction. Reading and discussion of Jeff Nuttal’s Bomb Culture, and Tariq Ali’s Street Fighting Years, where Ali revisits his formative years as a young radical. July 11. Mexico’s 68 Experience. Tlatelolco. A look at the 1968 student movement in Mexico and the Tlatelolco Massacre in which a popular uprising was attacked by the Mexican military killing nearly 400 students, sympathizers and bystanders, just weeks before the 1968 Olympics. July 18 and 25. 60s Women’s Liberation Movement July 18 Origins & Theory: The Women’s Liberation Movement is rooted in the Black-led Southern Civil Rights Movement and most of its theory pioneers, white and Black, were full-time workers in that movement. They also drew from Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. As the Black Freedom movement turned to Black Power, feminists took theory from Black Power and applied it to their newborn movement. We’ll read original sources from both the Black-led and majority-white branches of women’s liberation. July 25 The Power of History: This class will analyze what made the 1960s Women’s Liberation Movement spread fast and win victories, and also what made it vulnerable to watering down and liberal takeover. We will read analyses from Women’s Liberation Movement organizers written after the height of the movement’s power. Jenny Brown is an organizer with National Women’s Liberation and has been involved in feminist theory and organizing since 1988, first with Gainesville Women’s Liberation in Gainesville, Florida and then with the Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action, a movement think-tank and archive based in New York. She co-authored the Redstockings book, Women’s Liberation and National Healthcare: Confronting the Myth of America and the Labor Notes book How to Jump Start Your Union: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers along with numerous essays and articles. She was also a co-chair of a Labor Party Local Organizing Committee in Gainesville, Florida and is a former editor of Labor Notes. Those who have enrolled in the ongoing New Left series are already registered for these two sessions | The bee on wheels has laments on a stick Wags weepy banners with gypsy ribbons … The tiny wheeled bee has the sky on a stick Idly waves as she buzzes through the afternoon Kicking the tears around like bean tins. —fragment of poem by Jeff Nuttall | 6/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-new-left-forms-june-and-july-sessions-on-the-1960s/ | 6/13/2017 19:30 | 6/13/2017 21:30 | |||
| Marxism / Leninism • Reform / Revolution • Role of a Vanguard Party | Abhinav Sinha, India (Mazdoor Bigul- “Workers Bugle”) Immanuel Ness, Journal of Labor and Society Jackie Di Salvo, Baruch College Our panelists assert that the failure of the socialist movement in the US is rooted in a binary between the opportunism of right wing reformism and ultra-leftist utopianism. As the storm clouds of fascism grow more ominous, and right wing reformists and their social democratic allies join forces with the Democratic Party sectarian ultra-leftists also offer no concrete vision for the future—leading to a dead end for any practical social transformation. Anarchists and syndicalists may document the militancy and spontaneity of the working class, but have no sense of building class power to counter the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Today, as most political efforts are moribund, disciplined and principled anti-capitalist socialist organization is more urgent than at any time in the US since the 1930s. How do we develop a political organization capable of avoiding the same traps of the past? Are communist parties inevitably social democratic and bureaucratic? Can existing parties in the US be saved? In this panel, Marxist organizations come together to learn from the experience in India and elsewhere. This public event is both a workshop and a frank and sober discussion about the road ahead. No one is turned away for inability to pay | How do we develop a political organization capable of avoiding the same traps of the past? Are communist parties inevitably social democratic and bureaucratic? Can existing parties in the US be saved? In this panel, Marxist organizations come together to learn from the experience in India and elsewhere. This public event is both a workshop and a frank and sober discussion about the road ahead. | 6/8/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-leninism-%e2%80%a2-reform-revolution-%e2%80%a2-role-of-a-vanguard-party/ | bureaucratism|marxism-leninism|Organizing|reformism|revolutionary politics|Strategy|vanguardism | 6/14/2017 19:00 | 6/14/2017 21:00 | ||
| An Intro to Marxism—in Newark, New Jersey | Convened by Branden Rippey and Rust Gilbert Five more Wednesdays July 12th to August 9th 6:00 to 8:00 pm Downtown Newark on Orchard Street (email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more info) Using Marx’s own writings and some accessible writing by interpreters, this course will introduce participants to basic Marxist concepts and analyses. With short readings, focused presentations, and discussions, we will look at the rise of industrial capitalism and nationalism, the general characteristics of capitalist political economy and class, and the state, imperialism and war, workers organizations and collective power, and, finally, political action and questions of reform or revolution. Sliding scale: $15 / $20 / $25 $5 per single session no one turned away for inability to pay | With short readings, focused presentations, and discussions, we will look at the rise of industrial capitalism and nationalism, the general characteristics of capitalist political economy and class, and the state, imperialism and war, workers organizations and collective power, and, finally, political action and questions of reform or revolution. | 6/11/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/an-intro-to-marxism-in-newark-new-jersey/ | an introduction to Marxism|class struggle|Communist Manifesto. political economy|imperialism and war|worker organizing | 7/12/2017 18:00 | 7/12/2017 20:00 | ||
| A People’s History of the World | In Downtown Newark Convened by Branden Rippey Saturdays throughout 2017-2018 school year Fall (12 weeks): September 23rd to December 16th Spring (16 weeks): January 20th to May 12th 10:30-12:30pm Sliding scale fees Both sessions (28 weeks) $100 / $120 / $140 Fall session $45 / $55 / $65 Spring Session: $65 / $75 / $85 $5 or $10 per session Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to the near present. From September through May we will read the book in its entirety, with participant presentations of chapters followed by thorough discussion and additional context. The goal of the course is not to understand every moment or every place in global history, but to use a Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, and how those trends and junctures have shaped our present. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and active in socialist politics. | The goal of the course is not to understand every moment or every place in global history, but to use a Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, and how those trends and junctures have shaped our present. | 6/11/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world/ | Chris Harman|historical materialism|Marxist history|trends in modern history|Understanding history | 9/23/2017 10:30 | 9/23/2017 12:30 | ||
| No Blood for Oil! | An author presentation with discussion, co-sponsored with Autonomedia No Blood For Oil! Essays on Energy, Class Struggle and War 1998–2016 George Caffentzis The oil industry is at the center of the major struggles of our time, but is Marxist theory able to explain its behavior? The oil industry presents a paradox to Marxist theory. How is it that oil companies employ relatively few workers and invest in a relatively large amount of machinery, but still are the largest and most profitable companies on the planet? It should be otherwise, if profits come from exploiting worker’s labor. In his book, No Blood for Oil, George Caffentzis shows how Marxism resolves this paradox and accounts for the peculiar role that the oil industry plays in contemporary capitalism as generator of ecological devastation, war and exploitation. Come to discuss the struggle over the exchange of blood for oil. George Caffentzis is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Southern Maine. He has taught courses on oil and class struggle in many venues in Africa, South America and Europe. He is a co-founder of the Midnight Notes Collective and is the author of In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines, and the Crisis of Capitalism (2013) and Exciting the Industry of Mankind: George Berkeley’s Philosophy of Money (2000). “The papers in this collection are weapons we use to deconstruct the politics of war and oil, to uncover the multilayered class meaning of contemporary energy policy, and are the treasure that gives us a different sense of alternatives. Caffentzis’ critical understanding dissolves the fatalism of peak-oil arguments and posits our struggles to reclaim the commons as the real limit of capitalist use of energy.” — Massimo de Angelis, author of The Beginning of History | In his book George Caffentzis shows how Marxism accounts for the peculiar role that the oil industry plays in contemporary capitalism as generator of ecological devastation, war and exploitation. | 6/18/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/no-blood-for-oil/ | class struggle|ecology|fossil fuels|no blood for oil|oil|oil economy|rate of profit|war | 7/12/2017 19:00 | 7/12/2017 21:00 | ||
| Kluge’s News From Ideological Antiquity. Part 2: All Things Are Bewitched People | When Eisenstein had the idea to film Capital, he thought that the literary methods found in Joyce’s Ulysses would be helpful for his project. According to Fredric Jameson, what Eisenstein had in mind here is “something like a Marxist version of Freudian free association—the chain of hidden links that leads us from the surface of everyday life and experience to the very sources of production itself. Eisenstein’s idea was use the structure of Ulysses, a ‘day in the life’ narrative interrupted by stream-of-consciousness, together with his theories of montage to depict a narrative film version of Capital. ” (See New Left Review, No 58 for Jameson’s review) “… important devices should be added: Russian Formalist defamiliarisation and Brechtian distancing. Never very far from didactic methods, Kluge insists: “We must let Till Eulenspiegel [a trickster figure in German folklore] pass across Marx and Eisenstein both, in order to create confusion allowing knowledge and emotions to be combined together in new ways.” — Julia Vassilieva, Screening The Past Kluge’s film is divided into three parts: Part III. Paradoxes of Exchange Society will be scheduled at a future July date. | “Commodified things are not thingly, they are crystallized human characteristics, metamorphosed human beings.” —Alexander Kluge | 6/20/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/kluges-news-from-ideological-antiquity-part-2-all-things-are-bewitched-people/ | Capital|commodity fetishism|Das Kapital|discussion|Eisenstein|German film|Grundrisse|Joyce|Kluge|Marx|Ulysses|verso | 7/8/2017 15:00 | 7/8/2017 18:30 | ||
| Five Explicit and Implicit Notions of Revolution in Capital, Volume I | Five Explicit and Implicit Notions of Revolution in Capital, Volume I, as Seen from a Multilinear, Peripheral Angle It is often said that Capital, Volume I is concerned with the enfoldment of the capital form, with many dialectical twists and turns, but not with revolution. However, such a picture severs Marx the revolutionary from Marx the social theorist. In fact, Capital I can be connected to five different notions of revolution: (1) a working class uprising that rises as a form of revolutionary negation of the centralized productive apparatus of modern industrial capitalism, but posed at a high level of abstraction; (2) four other notions of revolution that connect a class uprising to race, ethnicity, colonialism, and the need to abolish the state. Kevin B. Anderson teaches at University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked in social and political theory, especially Marx, Hegel, Lenin, Luxemburg, Marxist humanism, the Frankfurt School, Foucault, and the Orientalism debate. Among his books are Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism (1995), Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (with Janet Afary, 2005), and Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity and Non-Western Societies (2010/2016). He has also contributed to For Humanism: Explorations in Theory and Politics (ed. D. Alderson and R. Spencer, 2017) and the Transition from Capitalism (ed. S. Rahnema, 2017), and is the coeditor of the Rosa Luxemburg Reader (with Peter Hudis, 2004), Karl Marx (with Bertell Ollman, 2012), and the Dunayevskaya-Marcuse-Fromm Correspondence (2012, with Russell Rockwell). He is a member of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization. | It is often said that Capital, Volume I is concerned with the enfoldment of the capital form, with many dialectical twists and turns, but not with revolution. However, such a picture severs Marx the revolutionary from Marx the social theorist. In fact, Capital I can be connected to five different notions of revolution. | 6/27/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/five-explicit-and-implicit-notions-of-revolution-in-capital-volume-i/ | capitalism|Class Consciousness|Political economy|Revolution|revolutionary upheaval|science|Socialism|theory | 9/16/2017 14:00 | 9/16/2017 15:30 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through January 26 No session on Friday, November 24 or December 29 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas/2018-01-19/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 11/10/2017 18:00 | 11/10/2017 20:00 | ||
| The October Revolution of 1917 | The October Revolution of 1917 A seven-week overview featuring China Miéville’s October Mondays, October 9 through November 20, 7:30 to 9:30 pm The Revolutions Study Group Few historical events have been as widely misrepresented as the Russian Revolution of November, 1917 (called the “October Revolution”, according to the old Russian calendar). Especially since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. The Revolutions Study Group—which has recently taken an in-depth look at the events that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power—is marking the centennial of the October Revolution by offering an eight-week course for anyone interested in finding out what actually happened at this defining moment of the twentieth century, and beyond. We will read Verso Books’ recently published October, by China Miéville, along with other short readings, where appropriate. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2008. Individual participants have come and gone. However the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy in 1969, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The group has just this past June completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | ,,,since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-october-revolution-of-1917/2017-10-09/ | Bolshevik|China Miéville|Lenin|Mensheviks|October|October Revolution|Revolutionary moments|Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|soviet power|Trotsky | 10/9/2017 19:30 | 10/9/2017 21:30 | ||
| Reading Capital Politically Continues | 5 More Sessions: July 19, 26, & August 2, 16, 23 (no class August 9) “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of contending classes.” —Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto For 150 years, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital has fascinated, frustrated and or confounded readers. It is most often read as a work of political economy whose aim is to understand how the capitalist economy works or even philosophically for its method (the influence of Hegel and his method continues to be debated). However Marx himself intended Capital to serve as a “weapon” in the hands of the working class. This makes Capital first and foremost a political work. But what does it mean to read Capital politically? To answer this question, this class will examine Reading Capital Politically by Harry Cleaver (the most well known American exponent of what has come to be labelled “class struggle” or “Autonomist” Marxism after the Italian “Autonomia” movement of the 1970s). For the autonomists, Marx’s maxim that class struggle is the “motor force” of history is to be taken literally and not viewed as simply some literary metaphor. But what does this mean in the real world? How does this work? And, how should we read Capital politically? Reading for this class will include: Reading Capital Politically by Harry Cleaver (https://libcom.org/files/cleaver-reading_capital_politically.pdf) Capital Volume 1, Chapter 1 (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm) CyberMarx by Nick Dyer-Witheford Chapter 4 (on Autonomist Marxism) https://libcom.org/library/cyber-marx-nick-dyer-witheford Dan Karan has been studying Marxism for 40 years and was a student of John Gerassi, Jean-Paul Sartre’s official biographer. | Marx himself intended Capital to serve as a “weapon” in the hands of the working class. This makes Capital first and foremost a political work. But what does it mean to read Capital politically? | 7/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-capital-politically-continues/ | Autonomia|Capital|Organizing|theory and practice | 7/19/2017 18:00 | 7/19/2017 20:00 | ||
| Thursday Noirs: Summer fiction | SPILLING THE BEANS, SPLATTERING BLOOD A 10-week group convened with the Indigenous People’s History and Literature Group Hard-boiled fiction and noir confirm capitalism’s violence with glaring facts, subtle twists of mind and plenty of broken bones and lives in between. Verbal sparring, physical clashes, between corrupt cops and the world-weary detectives, the calm façade smiling at the world concealing a maniacal murder machine, when distilled in a fast-paced pulp fiction or poetically narrated in a noir satisfy some of our needs to explain the violent social disorder thrown at us large and small by the contours of life lived by dictates of capital. These summer fictions we will read and discuss give voice to some of what we already know and shine light into the corners of stark realities these writers have taken on with twists and turns that surprise whether we are ready or not. We have just discussed Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935) which used truncated rhythms and a unique narrative structure to turn its account of a Hollywood dance marathon into an unforgettable evocation of social chaos and personal desperation. July 20 and 27 The Big Clock (1946), an ingenious novel of pursuit and evasion by the poet Kenneth Fearing, is set by contrast in the dense and neurotic inner world of a giant publishing corporation under the thumb of a warped and murderous chief executive. August 3 and 10 With In a Lonely Place (1947), Dorothy B. Hughes created one of the first full-scale literary portraits of a serial murderer. The streets of Los Angeles become a setting for random killings, and Hughes ventures, with unblinking exactness, into the mind of the killer. In the process she conjures up a potent mood of postwar dread and lingering trauma. August 17 and 24 In The Blunderer (1954), Patricia Highsmith tracks two men, strangers to each other, whose destinies become intertwined when one becomes obsessed with a crime committed by the other. Highsmith’s gimlet-eyed portrayals of failed marriages and deceptively congenial middle-class communities lend a sardonic edge to this tale of intrigue and ineptitude. August 31 and September 7 Two teenagers fresh out of stir set their sights on what looks like easy money in Dolores Hitchens’ Fools’ Gold (1958) and get a painful education in how quickly and drastically a simple plan can spin out of control. The basis for Jean-Luc Godard’s film Band of Outsiders, Fools’ Gold is a sharply told tale distinguished by its nuanced portrait of a shelteredof young woman who becomes a reluctant accomplice and fugitive. This classic novel is one of eight works included in The Library of America’s two-volume edition Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s, edited by Sarah Weinman. September 14 and 21 With its gritty realism, unrestrained violence and frequently outrageous humor, The Real Cool Killers (1959) is among the most powerful of Chester Himes’s series of novels about the Harlem detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. | Verbal sparring, physical clashes, between corrupt cops and the world-weary detectives, the calm façade smiling at the world concealing a maniacal murder machine, when distilled in a fast-paced pulp fiction or poetically narrated in a noir satisfy some of our needs to explain the violent social disorder thrown at us large and small by the contours of life lived by dictates of capital. | 7/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/thursday-noirs-summer-fiction/ | crime fiction|detective fiction|dystunctional families|femme fatales|Hardboiled|noir|romance|sex stereotyping | 7/20/2017 19:30 | 7/20/2017 21:30 | ||
| Women’s Liberation Movement: The Power of History | The Power of History: This class will analyze what made the 1960s Women’s Liberation Movement spread fast and win victories, and also what made it vulnerable to watering down and liberal takeover. We will read analyses from Women’s Liberation Movement organizers written after the height of the movement’s power. Jenny Brown is an organizer with National Women’s Liberation and has been involved in feminist theory and organizing since 1988, first with Gainesville Women’s Liberation in Gainesville, Florida and then with the Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action, a movement think-tank and archive based in New York. She co-authored the Redstockings book, Women’s Liberation and National Healthcare: Confronting the Myth of America and the Labor Notes book How to Jump Start Your Union: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers along with numerous essays and articles. She was also a co-chair of a Labor Party Local Organizing Committee in Gainesville, Florida and is a former editor of Labor Notes. Readings provided by Jenny for this series: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_eXN8wqn-HgaEpVaVlLOU1UTVk Those who have enrolled in the ongoing New Left series are already registered for this event. Prices below are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | This class will analyze what made the 1960s Women’s Liberation Movement spread fast and win victories, and also what made it vulnerable to watering down and liberal takeover. National Women’s Liberation is a feminist group for women who want to fight back against male supremacy and win more freedom for women. | 7/19/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/womens-liberation-movement-the-power-of-history/ | Civil Rights|Class Struggles|Equality|Femiinism|Liberation theory|Mass Movements|Movement Building|Reproductive Rights|Socialism|Women’s Liberation|Women’s liberation history | 7/25/2017 19:30 | 7/25/2017 21:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Unconscious: Last Session | Hysteria, Surrealism, and Avant-Garde Dance Marija Krtolica October 1, 2017, 2:00 to 4:00 pm Through theory and practice we will examine the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious in the late 19th to 20th century. Starting with the fin-de-siècle Parisian hospital Salpêtrière, we will touch upon the historical resonances of the invention of mental pathology, and aesthetic forms that resonance has instigated. On September 17 we will look at the images of the mental patients of this period, many of which challenge the boundary between artistic representation and medical documentation. Next, we will examine the political meanings of Dadaist and Surrealist art, film and poetry and discuss grotesque dances by Valeska Gert (Weimar Era), and dance-theater of Pina Bausch and Mats Ek (1970s-80s). On the one hand, we will explore how the aesthetic de-hierarchization and commodity culture inform our practices as witnesses and makers. On the other, we will open up the concept of the unconscious and re-create it through imaginative practices. Performance practices will be related to the texts by Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Rancière. Marija Krtolica (b. 1973, Belgrade) is an international movement artist, dance researcher and teacher (BFA NYU, MFA UC Davis, MA NYU, completing PhD in dance at Temple University in Philadelphia). Her current research focuses on the meanings and symptoms of hysteria in the nineteenth century, and critical re-investigation of hysterical scenes in Tanztheater. Recently, she presented papers at CUNY at Graudate Center conference Approaching Dance, NCSA Caucus in Charleston, the Department of Visual Arts conference at UCSD (2015), ACLA 2015 in Seattle, a Graduate Conference of the Department of English at the University of Chicago (2014), and Choreography Symposium at the University of Cologne (2014), At the artistic residence in Spread Art in Detroit (2015), the University of Arts Belgrade (2015), and at the Le Couvent artistic residence in Auzits, France (2016). Marija has worked with the lecture/performance mode of examining elusive boundaries between practice and theory. Marija has published papers in The International Journal of the Arts in Society (2009 and 2011), and The Journal of Arts Theory and History (2013). She has written articles and conducted interviews for the Belgrade dance publication Orchestra. Fees are sliding scale. No one is denied participation for inability to pay. | Through theory and practice we will examine the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious in the late 19th to 20th century. Starting with the fin-de-siècle Parisian hospital Salpêtrière, we will touch upon the historical resonances of the invention of mental pathology, and aesthetic forms that resonance has instigated. | 7/19/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-politics-of-the-unconscious/ | anti-psychiatry|Avant Garde Dance|critical theory|critical theory of dance|Dadaism|Feminist theory|Lacan|mental pathology and the arts|Rancière|Surrealism|Surrealist Dance | 10/1/2017 14:00 | 10/1/2017 16:00 | ||
| Caribbean Literature: Breaking bonds before and after betrayed revolutions | 10 Weeks beginning October 12 through December 21 A reading and discussion group with the Indigenous People’s History and Literature Group During this term we will begin with Aimé Césaire’s cultural statement from the 30s, issued from the Caribbean to all those colonized by the capitalist powers, primarily of Europe. Following our discourse on his groundbreaking discourse we will consider three novels on the colonized Caribbean, long engaged in revolutionary struggle with just as long gains towards liberation and the centuries long experiences of counter-revolution, and the consequences of compromise and collaboration with former colonizers and the colossus US that treats the Caribbean like a backyard swimming pool and those of the islands, whether local agent of capital or exploited worker, as servants by that pool. “I admit that it is a good thing to place different civilizations in contact with each other that it is an excellent thing to blend different worlds; that whatever its own particular genius may be, a civilization that withdraws into itself atrophies; that for civilizations, exchange is oxygen; that the great good fortune of Europe is to have been a crossroads, and that because it was the locus of all ideas, the receptacle of all philosophies, the meeting place of all sentiments, it was the best center for the redistribution of energy. But then I ask the following question: has colonization really placed civilizations in contact? Or, if you prefer, of all the ways of establishing contact, was it the best? “I answer no. “And I say that between colonization and civilization there is an infinite distance; that out of all the colonial expeditions that have been undertaken, out of all the colonial statutes that have been drawn up, out of all the memoranda that have been dispatched by all the ministries, there could not come a single human value.” `—Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism Discourse on Colonialism Aimé Fernand David Césaire This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English, Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights and Black Power and anti-war movements. All Souls Rising Madison Smartt Bell 1995 The slave uprising in Haiti was a momentous contribution to the tide of revolution that swept over the Western world at the end of the 1700s. A brutal rebellion that strove to overturn a vicious system of slavery, the uprising successfully transformed Haiti from a European colony to the world’s first Black republic. From the center of this horrific maelstrom, the heroic figure of Toussaint Louverture–a loyal, literate slave and both a devout Catholic and Vodouisant–emerges as the man who will take the merciless fires of violence and vengeance and forge a revolutionary war fueled by liberty and equality. A Small Place Jamaica Kincaid Antigua, 2000 In A Small Place, Kincaid calls attention to the fact that in many ways, conditions in Antigua worsened with the achievement of independence; she communicates her frustration with her people and capitalism. In a nation free from colonialism, Antiguans “do to [themselves] the very things [colonists] used to do to [them]”. Through her critique of colonialism and the development of an exploitative tourist industry in A Small Place, Kincaid addresses several other major themes which include the influence of homeland on identity, culture, and the desire for independence. A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James Jamaica, 2014 Winner of the Man Booker Prize The first part of the novel is set in Kingston, Jamaica, in the build-up to the Smile Jamaica Concert, and describes politically motivated violence between gangs associated with the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP), especially in the West Kingston neighborhoods of Tivoli Gardens and Mathews Lane (renamed in the novel as Copenhagen City and Eight Lanes), including involvement of the CIA in the Jamaican politics of the time. As well as Marley (who is referred to as “the Singer” throughout), other real life characters depicted or fictionalized in the book include Kingston gangsters Winston “Burry Boy” Blake and George “Feathermop” Spence, Claude Massop and Lester Lloyd Coke (Jim Brown) of the JLP and Aston Thomson (Buckie Marshall) of the PNP. The Indigenous Peoples’s Reading Group, which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | “And I say that between colonization and civilization there is an infinite distance; that out of all the colonial expeditions that have been undertaken, out of all the colonial statutes that have been drawn up, out of all the memoranda that have been dispatched by all the ministries, there could not come a single human value.” `—Aimé Césaire Following our discourse on his groundbreaking discourse we will consider three novels on the colonized Caribbean, long engaged in revolutionary struggle. | 8/4/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/caribbean-literature-breaking-bonds-before-and-after-betrayed-revolutions/ | Antigua|Caribbean literature|Caribbean politics|Colonialism|gender politics|Haiti|independence movements|island culture|Jamaica|liberation movements|monoculture|neocolonialism|slavery | Caribbean Studies | 10/12/2017 19:30 | 10/12/2017 21:30 | |
| A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things | with Jason W. Moore Nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives: these are the seven things that have made our world and will shape its future. In making these things cheap, modern commerce has transformed, governed, and devastated Earth. Jason W. Moore presents a new book authored with Raj Patel, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things. Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Moore and Patel demonstrate that throughout the history of capitalism, crises have always prompted fresh efforts to restore the seven cheap things – regardless of the cost to working people and the environment. At a time of crisis in all seven cheap things, they propose radical new ways of understanding—and reclaiming—the planet in the turbulent twenty-first century. Jason W. Moore teaches world history and world-ecology at Binghamton University, and is coordinator of the World-Ecology Research Network. He is the author of Capitalism in the Web of Life and numerous award-winning essays in environmental history, political economy, and social theory. | Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Moore and Patel demonstrate that throughout the history of capitalism, crises have always prompted fresh efforts to restore the seven cheap things. | 8/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-history-of-the-world-in-seven-cheap-things/ | Anthropocene|Austerity|commodities|Culture and Ecology|Eco-socialism|ecology|environment|oil economy|Revolt | 11/10/2017 19:30 | 11/10/2017 21:30 | ||
| Science, Politics, and Culture in the Anthropocene | Science, Politics, and Culture in the Anthropocene Fred Murphy and Steve Knight A Reading Group, September 25 through November 20 9 sessions remain “Thinking the Anthropocene,” say Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, authors of Shock of the Anthropocene, “means taking the measure of industrialization and commodification, which have derailed the Earth beyond the stable parameters of the Holocene, and of the need to give our freedom different material foundations; it means mobilizing new environmental humanities and new political radicalisms (movements for common goods, transition, degrowth, eco-socialism and many more) in order to escape the blind alleys of industrial modernity.” This study group will take up three recent works on the scientific, political, and cultural implications of global warming and the crisis of the Earth system: Birth of the Anthropocene, by Jeremy Davies; Shock of the Anthropocene; and Richard Smith’s Green Capitalism: The God That Failed. Fred Murphy has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Steve Knight has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | …taking the measure of industrialization and commodification, which have derailed the Earth beyond the stable parameters of the Holocene, and of the need to give our freedom different material foundations; it means mobilizing new environmental humanities and new political radicalisms (movements for common goods, transition, degrowth, eco-socialism and many more) in order to escape the blind alleys of industrial modernity. | 8/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/science-politics-and-culture-in-the-anthropocene/ | culture and anthropocene|Eco-socialism|ecology|environmental culture | 9/25/2017 18:30 | 9/25/2017 20:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume One | A 9 Session Class and Discussion with Juliet Ucelli Wednesdays, 6:00 to 7:30 pm October 4-December 6, 2017 Capital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. Many of us have less time to study it because, as Marx predicted, we have to work longer hours— and often more than one job—in order to survive. Fortunately, even a basic familiarity with the key concepts of Volume I offers many tools for understanding capitalism’s dynamics. With current conditions, we’ve been offering this highlights approach, breaking down key concepts and sections: • use value, value and surplus value; • why capitalism has needed conquest, enslavement and white supremacy; • why capitalism drives technological innovation, overwork and unemployment and leads to ecological destruction; • how working-class people (employed and unemployed) have historically won improvements in living and working conditions. Participant reports and life experiences are welcome! The course provides a basic grounding for participants to pursue further study on their own or collectively. We’ll refer to new resources such as on-line and visual aids and current articles that illustrate capitalism’s developmental tendencies, which Marx calls its laws of motion. Suggested fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for labor unions, and was a public high school social worker. She writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, the politics of inner city public schooling and Marxist understandings of human development. | Many of us have less time to study it because, as Marx predicted, we have to work longer hours— and often more than one job—in order to survive. Fortunately, even a basic familiarity with the key concepts of the first Volume of Capital offers many tools for understanding capitalism’s dynamics. | 8/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-one/ | Absolute Surplus Value|capitalism|Class Consciousness|commodity fetishism|Exploitation|Laws of Motion of Capital|Primitive Accumulation|Profits|Relative Surplus Value|surplus value|use value|value|wages|working class|Working Day | 10/4/2017 18:00 | 10/4/2017 19:30 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-12-10/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 9/24/2017 11:00 | 9/24/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-10-01/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 10/1/2017 11:00 | 10/1/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-10-08/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 10/8/2017 11:00 | 10/8/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-10-15/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 10/15/2017 11:00 | 10/15/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-10-22/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 10/22/2017 11:00 | 10/22/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-10-29/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 10/29/2017 11:00 | 10/29/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-11-05/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 11/5/2017 11:00 | 11/5/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-11-12/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 11/12/2017 11:00 | 11/12/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-11-19/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 11/19/2017 11:00 | 11/19/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-11-26/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 11/26/2017 11:00 | 11/26/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-12-03/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 12/3/2017 11:00 | 12/3/2017 13:00 | ||
| Is Another World Really Possible? | A Collaborative Reading and Writing Project Convened with Richard Greeman 12 Weeks, September 24 through December 10 Stated admissions are for the entire course. Single admission are $10. No one is turned away for inability to pay. New York participants should join us at New Perspectives Theatre (458 W. 37th St) at 10:45 am on Sunday, 9/24 (tomorrow). The theater is accessible from the 34th St/Hudson Yards stop on the #7 train, or from Penn Station. Coffee, tea and cakes will be available. If you plan to watch online, the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eHTpHxoTc Prepare by reading Richard Greeman’s Then and Now at http://futurehistorians.org/doku.php?id=then_and_now and/or by watching Immanuel Wallerstein’s “Utopistics” lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK3dlgusrI 2017 taught us all that “No is not enough.” We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. Our project is to look backward a century to the year 2017 (the centenary of the unforeseen 1917 Soviet revolution) and reconstruct how our great-grandparents got us from here — today’s capitalist death-spiral to there — a livable, sustainable, global society free of oppression and exploitation. We will meet weekly, in-person at our New York studio and via teleconference with participants across several time zones (including philosopher Peter Hudis in Chicago and ecosocialist Michel Löwy in Paris) with the goal of collectively creating a popular future fiction of a realistically plausible better world – a vision that might go viral and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. World-wide participants as of September 1: MAELLA DOQUIN, Paris, activist since 1968 • ALEXEI GUSEV, Moscow, Historian of Russian Oppositions, Chair of Praxis Center for Research and Eduction • JULIA GUSEVA, Moscow, translator of Victor Serge, anarcho-syndicalist, co-founder of Praxis Center • HARRY HALPIN, Paris, Internet revolutionary and activist, team member World Wide Web Consortium, author: Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web • JASON HICKS, NYC transit worker, union activist, DSA member, philosopher • PETER HUDIS, Chicago, Marxist-humanist philosopher and activist. Author: Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, Franz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades • GEORGE KATSIFIACAS, Athens/Seoul, revolutionary historian (‘the Eros Effect”) and lifelong activist. Author: Asia’s Unknown Uprisings • MAATI MONJIB, Rabat Morocco. Historian of Africa and press freedom activist, currently facing 5 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges • WAYNE PRICE, NYC, libertarian socialist writer and activist (theanarchistlibrary.org) • ANNA REBRIL, Ukraine/NYC, student and activist • GERARDO RENIQUE, Cuernavaca, Mexico/NYC, prof of Latin American Studies at CCNY and longtime activist • DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Washington, D.C., geo-chemo-biologist, Green Party activist, author: Solar Communism, Life, Temperature, and the Earth • BRIAN TOKAR, Vermont, Institute of Social Ecology, activist, teacher in the movement, author: Toward Climate Justice • RAOUL VICTOR, Paris, veteran Marxist writer and activist • VICTOR WALLIS, Boston, Ecosocialist, activist, editor, Socialism and Democracy Co-sponsored by The Marxist Education Project and Victor Serge Foundation Richard Greeman, longtime internationalist, is best known for his studies and translations of novelist and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). | We need a positive vision of a better world and the roads leading to it. So let’s imagine we are future historians living in a peaceful, egalitarian, democratic society on a damaged, but stabilized, planet in the year 2117. | 8/14/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/is-another-world-really-possible/2017-12-10/ | another world|collectivity|Eco-crisis|egalitarianism|reading project|sustainiability|transformation|utopia|writing project | 12/10/2017 11:00 | 12/10/2017 13:00 | ||
| Paradoxes of Exchange Society | News from Ideological Antiquity: Marx–Eisenstein–Capital Part 3. Paradoxes of Exchange Society a film by Alexander Kluge The Verso Loft 20 Jay Street • Suite 1010 Brooklyn DUMBO / transit: A to High Street, F to York 3:00-6:45 pm (200 min) with intermission Discussion to follow The third part, “Paradoxes of Exchange Society,” inquires into the social contract that is both presupposed and reproduced in all human exchange. As the title of Kluge’s film indicates, the exposition of Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike (News from Ideological Antiquity) seeks to constitute an antiquity appropriate to today’s challenges. Its strong argument for a return to Marx is best captured by Fredric Jameson: “Marx is neither actual nor outmoded: he is classical.” “… important devices should be added: Russian Formalist defamiliarization and Brechtian distancing. Never very far from didactic methods, Kluge insists: “We must let Till Eulenspiegel [a trickster figure in German folklore] pass across Marx and Eisenstein both, in order to create confusion allowing knowledge and emotions to be combined together in new ways.” — Julia Vassilieva, Screening The Past No one turned away for inability to pay | “Paradoxes of Exchange Society,” inquires into the social contract that is both presupposed and reproduced in all human exchange. As the title of Kluge’s film indicates, the exposition of Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike (News from Ideological Antiquity) seeks to constitute an antiquity appropriate to today’s challenges. | 8/18/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/paradoxes-of-exchange-society/ | Alexander Kluge|Commodity Exchange|Das Kapital|Eisenstein|film at Verso|film of Capital|German Cinema|Jameson|Kluge|Marx|Part 3 of Kluge film | 10/14/2017 15:00 | 10/14/2017 18:45 | ||
| Whose Cities? Our Cities! | 10 sessions Organized with the Urban Class Struggles group by Thomas Wensing October 3 to December 12—no session November 21 In New York City, the self-proclaimed ‘real estate capital of the world’, working class housing has become either unaffordable or as cramped as 19th century conditions. The class that built, and continues to build New York and metropolises around the globe can no longer afford to live near where they work, while an international bourgeoisie of hyper-capital accumulation perch themselves in luxurious, multi-roomed occasional real estate. Whether it be New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, Rome or Lagos, the pattern repeats itself worldwide. Interconnectedness of global markets, deregulation of capital and mortgage markets, increased financialization of society, have all led to real estate in the metro centers serving as a prime instrument in the accumulation of global capital. Joining the mobile elite of hedge fund investors, Russian and Chinese oligarchs, oil sheiks, and billionaires are their criminal partners engaged in laundering, smuggling and multiple other illicit activities, all united hiding their identities and the source of their wealth through shell companies. These market forces that push the working classes out of the city and some into the ultimate austerity of homelessness are being met with growing resistance. Our group will read Friedrich Engels’ “The Housing Question”, David Harvey’s Rebel Cities, David Madden and Peter Marcuse’s In Defense of Housing, Fear City by Kim Phillips-Fein and conclude with Zoned Out, edited by Tom Angotti and Sylvia Morse. Our aim is to gain the historical and theoretical understanding that can inform our fight to wrest control of our cities from the capitalist class, and to discuss how cities can be reorganized to meet our human needs with a sustainable urban ecology. Thomas Wensing works on residential and commercial projects at Morris Adjmi Architects. He holds licenses as an architect in both the UK and the Netherlands. He grew up in Den Helder, The Netherlands, and graduated from Delft University and Columbia University. His teaching experience includes the AA in London, Eindhoven University, and the University of Kent, in Canterbury. Thomas is a regular contributor to Blueprint Magazine and other publications. | The class that built and continues to build New York City can no longer afford to live here. Meanwhile, the international bourgeoisie with hyper capital accumulation, perch themselves in luxurious multi-roomed lofty palaces as occasional residences. Our aim is to gain the historical and theoretical understanding that can inform our fight to wrest control of our cities from the capitalist class, and to discuss how cities can be reorganized to meet our human needs with a sustainable urban ecology. | 8/28/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/whose-cities-our-cities/ | affordable rent|anti-austerity|Austerity|Class Struggles|collapse|free housing|housing as a right|public housing|rights to the city|space|sustainable cities | 10/3/2017 19:30 | 10/3/2017 21:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels | Lessons for Today’s Politics A reading group convened by Lisa Maya Knauer Saturdays from 3:30-5:30 p.m. October 7-December 9 (no meeting November 25) 9 Session class “It was the first time that the bourgeoisie showed to what insane cruelties of revenge it will be goaded the moment the proletariat dares to take its stand against them as a separate class, with its own interests and demands.” This sentence was written by Karl Marx in 1871, just weeks after the French bourgeoisie crushed the Paris Commune, but it is just as applicable to today’s political situation in the U.S. and elsewhere. This reading group will delve into a selection of Marx and Engels’ political writings to gain both a better understanding of the history of working-class and socialist struggles of their times, and explore lessons for our political organizing now. This tasks takes on a special urgency in light of the events in Charlottesville and the increased visibility of racist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideologies. The reading group offers a very accessible entry-point into the works of Marx and Engels, so no previous study of Marxism is necessary. But it is also a good complement to the study of Capital and other more complex theoretical works. We will start with Marx and Engels’ writings about the Paris Commune and its aftermath, and collectively decide which other works to explore in our 10-week session. Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. | This reading group will delve into a selection of Marx and Engels’ political writings to gain both a better understanding of the history of working-class and socialist struggles of their times, and explore lessons for our political organizing now. This tasks takes on a special urgency in light of the events in Charlottesville and the increased visibility of racist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideologies. | 8/28/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-of-marx-and-engels/ | 1848|bourgeois politics|counter-revolution|military|Paris Commune|Revolution|state | 10/7/2017 15:00 | 10/7/2017 17:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse | Each Saturday 11 am to 2 pm Beginning September 16 and concluding December 16 13 Sessions “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse Perhaps the most curious and least understood aspect of Marx’s work is his method of analysis. Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However, to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of The German Ideology and the Grundrisse. These works are perhaps the best representation of the process of thinking that found its culmination in Capital and we will be engaging with it during our study. Without a doubt, this will be a long and arduous process but we should always keep in mind that “there is no royal road to science and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits. The Grundrisse (1857) is considered by many scholars to be the first draft of Capital. It was followed by the Manuscripts of 1861-63 and the Manuscripts of 1863-65, the second and third drafts, respectively. What we now refer to as Capital Volume I (1867) is effectively the fourth draft with Volumes II and III, which were edited by Engels and published after Marx’s death in 1883, drawing on the work developed by Marx in the earlier drafts. Starting September 16 we will read from Notebook Six of The Chapter on Capital from the Penguin edition of Marx’s Grundrisse. These three-hour sessions will have a 30 minute break at 12:30 No one turned away for inability to pay. $10 per session suggested fee. | Perhaps the most curious and least understood aspect of Marx’s work is his method of analysis. Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. | 8/28/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxs-grundrisse/ | 8/27/2017 8:00 | 8/27/2017 17:00 | |||
| Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value | September 28 to December 14 No session November 23 “A philosopher produces ideas, a poet poems, a clergyman sermons, a professor compendia and so on. A criminal produces crimes. If we take a closer look at the connection between this latter branch of production and society as a whole, we shall rid ourselves of many prejudices. The criminal produces not only crimes but also criminal law, and with this also the professor who gives lectures on criminal law and in addition to this the inevitable compendium in which this same professor throws his lectures onto the general market as ‘commodities’.” —Karl Marx, Theories of Surplus Value In this group we will read the three volumes of Theories of Surplus Value sometimes known as the 4th volume of Capital. These notebooks written in the years 1861-63 are perhaps one of the first and most thorough analysis of the history of economic thought. We will enter Marx’s laboratory to see how he reads and criticizes other writers from Hobbes and Locke in early bourgeois ideological formation to the physiocrats, Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, Bailey and many others. There is even a critique of Necker, finance and war minister for Louis XVI whose policies and mistakes and mountains of state debt laid much of the ground for the early stages of the French Revolution. Continuing on Thursday, September 28, we will read from the first volume of Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. $10 per individual class session. | These notebooks written in the years 1861-63 are perhaps one of the first and most thorough analysis of the history of economic thought. We will enter Marx’s laboratory to see how he reads and criticizes other writers from Hobbes and Locke in early bourgeois ideological formation to the physiocrats, Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, Bailey and many others. | 8/28/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxs-theories-of-surplus-value/ | Hobbes|Malthus|Physiocrats|Ricardo|Smith | 9/28/2017 19:00 | 9/28/2017 21:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse | Saturdays, 11 am to 2 pm Beginning September 23 through December 16 “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse Perhaps the most curious and least understood aspect of Marx’s work is his method of analysis. Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However, to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of The German Ideology and the Grundrisse. These works are perhaps the best representation of the process of thinking that found its culmination in Capital and we will be engaging with it during our study. Without a doubt, this will be a long and arduous process but we should always keep in mind that “there is no royal road to science and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits. The Grundrisse (1857) is considered by many scholars to be the first draft of Capital. It was followed by the Manuscripts of 1861-63 and the Manuscripts of 1863-65, the second and third drafts, respectively. What we now refer to as Capital Volume I (1867) is effectively the fourth draft with Volumes II and III, which were edited by Engels and published after Marx’s death in 1883, drawing on the work developed by Marx in the earlier drafts. Starting September 16 we will read from Notebook Six of The Chapter on Capital from the Penguin edition of Marx’s Grundrisse. These three-hour sessions will have a 30 minute break at 12:30 No one turned away for inability to pay. $10 per session suggested fee. | to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of The German Ideology and the Grundrisse. | 8/28/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxs-grundrisse-2/ | 9/23/2017 11:00 | 9/23/2017 14:00 | |||
| Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit | The inaugural vision of the modern age Fall Semester Part I Septemter 22 to December 1 Fridays, 8:00 – 9:30 PM 10 sessions. This class series will explore Hegel’s most influential and least understood work. While conceived as an Introduction to his system of logic and science, this work stands on its own as a masterpiece of the Western philosophical tradition. It is safe to say that many of the themes in the Phenomenology of Spirit have defined how we understand the modern world even though this work was written 210 years ago. Some of the themes we will discuss: How to Begin The Inverted World Skeptics and Stoics The Lord of the World The Dialectic of Master and Slave The Cynical Bohemian The Beautiful Soul Madness and Suicide The Age of Reason The Enlightenment Freedom and Terror The Moral Imperative Grace and Redemption Spirit Externalized as Nature and History The Absolute We will travel from the Ancient world, from the drama of Antigone to the Jacobin Terror of the French Revolution and the realization of the idea of Freedom and the World Historical Individual. At the end of this journey that Hegel likened to a philosophical “Stations of the Cross” we will gain an understanding of what it means to say “The True is the Whole”. We will discuss how this still has relevance for us in the 21st century, what is living in Hegel today and how this legacy was appropriated by Marx and the movement for human liberation. Alex Steinberg has previously taught the philosophy of Hegel and Marx at the New Space, the Brecht Forum and most recently the Marxist Education Project. He also taught classes ranging from the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He has presented papers on Marx and Hegel at the Left Forum and Historical Materialism Conferences. He has also organized events for the Marxist Education Project including a Trotsky in New York Walking Tour. Alex is a member of the Local Board of Radio station WBAI and its parent organization the Pacifica National Board. | We will travel from the Ancient world, from the drama of Antigone to the Jacobin Terror of the French Revolution and the realization of the idea of Freedom and the World Historical Individual. At the end of this journey that Hegel likened to a philosophical “Stations of the Cross” we will gain an understanding of what it means to say “The True is the Whole”. | 8/28/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-phenomenology-of-spirit-2/ | Cynical Bohemian|Dialectic of Master and Slave|Dialectics|Hegel|Idealism|Madness and Suicide|Nature and History|Skeptics and Stoics|The Absolute|The Enlightenment|The Moral Imperative | 9/22/2017 20:00 | 9/22/2017 22:00 | ||
| Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties | Presentation and discussion with author Thomas Grace In Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties, Thomas M. Grace details how the National Guard killings of antiwar students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, were not a mere tragic anomaly. Rather they were grounded in a tradition of student political activism that extended back to Ohio’s labor battles of the 1950s. The vast expansion of the university after World War II brought in growing numbers of working-class enrollees from the industrial centers of northeast Ohio, members of the same demographic cohort that eventually made up the core of American combat forces in Vietnam. As the Vietnam War’s rising costs came to be felt acutely in their home communities, Kent’s students joined the growing antiwar movement and clashed with the university administration and the political conservatives who dominated county and state government in Ohio. The battle over the memory and meaning of May 4 has continued to the present day. THOMAS M. GRACE is adjunct professor of history at Erie Community College. A 1972 graduate of Kent State University, he earned a PhD in history from SUNY Buffalo after many years as a social worker and union representative. | Thomas M. Grace details how the National Guard killings of antiwar students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, were not a mere tragic anomaly. Rather they were grounded in a tradition of student political activism that extended back to Ohio’s labor battles of the 1960s. | 9/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/kent-state-death-and-dissent-in-the-long-sixties/ | anti-militarism|Anti-war|armed struggle|Dissent|murder by the state|Protest|Social movements|state violence|The 1960s|The Sixties|Vietnam | 11/5/2017 15:00 | 11/5/2017 17:00 | ||
| Extreme Cities | A Conversation with Ashley Dawson co-host: NYC DSA Climate Justice Join us as climate-justice activists engage in a dialogue with Ashley Dawson, author of Extreme Cities Ashley Dawson argues that cities are ground zero for climate change, contributing the lion’s share of carbon to the atmosphere, while also lying on the frontlines of rising sea levels. He offers an alarming portrait of the future of our cities, describing the efforts of Staten Island, New York, and Shishmareff, Alaska residents to relocate; Holland’s models for defending against the seas; and the development of New York City before and after Hurricane Sandy. As Dawson sees it, our best hope lies not with fortified sea walls but in urban movements already fighting to remake our cities in a more just and equitable way. Ashley Dawson is a professor of English at the City University of New York, and also the author of Extinction: A Radical History. No one turned away for inability to pay | Ashley Dawson argues that cities are ground zero for climate change, contributing the lion’s share of carbon to the atmosphere, while also lying on the frontlines of rising sea levels. He offers an alarming portrait of the future of our cities. | 9/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/extreme-cities/ | carbons|Climate Change|climate justice|disaster capitalism|floods|hurricanes|sea coast. coastal waters|sea levels|urban air|urban water | 12/3/2017 15:00 | 12/3/2017 17:00 | ||
| The Politics of the Unconscious: Last Dance/Last Supper | The Politics of the Unconscious: Hysteria, Surrealism, and Avant-Garde Dance The Last Dance meets the Last Repast Presented by Marija Krtolica Surreal Meal à la Dalí Schedule: 2 p.m. Arrivals 2:15 a surprise improvisational event 2:45 discussion time, preparation for the meal 3-4 pm food is served, reflected on, and consumed 4 pm bye bye The event investigates the embodied self as a site of personal and cultural memories evoked through sense based experiences. It proposes a conscious engagement with the aesthetic dimension of viewing, hearing, consuming, and digesting happenings, thoughts, and nutrients. On the one hand, we will explore how the aesthetic de-hierarchization and commodity culture inform our practices as witnesses and makers. On the other, we will open up the concept of the unconscious and re-create it through imaginative practices. Mottos for a Sunday Afternoon: The jaws of my mind are in perpetual motion. The sensual intelligence housed in the tabernacle of my palate beckons me to pay greatest attention to food. I only like to eat what has a clear and intelligible form. —Salvador Dali, Gastro Esthetics The spectacle corresponds to the historical moment at which the commodity completes the colonization of social life. Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle Marija Krtolica (b. 1973, Belgrade) is an international movement artist, dance researcher and teacher (BFA NYU, MFA UC Davis, MA NYU, completing PhD in dance at Temple University in Philadelphia). Her current research focuses on the meanings and symptoms of hysteria in the nineteenth century, and critical re-investigation of hysterical scenes in Tanztheater. | The jaws of my mind are in perpetual motion. —Salvador Dali, Gastro Esthetics The spectacle corresponds to the historical moment at which the commodity completes the colonization of social life. Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle | 9/27/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-politics-of-the-unconscious-last-dancelast-supper/ | dance|dance theory|Debord|food and dance|hysteria and surrealism|menu de surrealism|salvador dali | 10/1/2017 14:00 | 10/1/2017 16:00 | ||
| Institute For Radical Imagination Fall Term Begins | Begins October 7 The Institute can be reached via: Email: info@radicalimagination.institute Phone: 718–687-0864 https://radicalimagination.institute/events-directory/ | 10/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/3333/ | 10/7/2017 8:00 | 10/7/2017 17:00 | ||||
| Trumping Trump: The New Wave of Resistance | The New Wave of Resistance in Our Time Co-sponsored by encuentro5 and Universalizing Resistance With the rise of the far right and its cynical exploitation of “class” as a mobilizing tool, the left has been forced onto the defensive. This event is a bold reassertion of a class politics that also validates the struggles and priorities of so-called “identity-based” groups. Public sociologist, Charles Derber draws on his new book, Welcome to the Revolution, to support a new wave of resistance to the intersectional system of militarized capitalism. He is joined by Janet MacGillivray, an environmental lawyer, indigenous activist, a founder of Seeding Sovereignty, who will speak to her organizing with young people at Standing Rock. Leading the conversation will be movement strategist, Jodeen Olguin-Tayler, an organizer of many transformative labor and community campaigns involving super-exploited workers and cross-sector movements. Both Janet and Jodeen contributed short interludes—accounts and analyses of resistance—to Charles’ book. For more information, see http://UniversalizingResistance.org | Charlie, Janet and Jodeen will offer a different vision of a universalizing resistance based on our diversity and opposition to an intersectional system of domination—militarized capitalism. | 10/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/welcome-to-the-revolution/ | broadening democracy|Indigenous Resistance|militarized capitalism | 10/20/2017 19:00 | 10/20/2017 21:00 | ||
| The October Revolution of 1917 | The October Revolution of 1917 A seven-week overview featuring China Miéville’s October Mondays, October 9 through November 20, 7:30 to 9:30 pm The Revolutions Study Group Few historical events have been as widely misrepresented as the Russian Revolution of November, 1917 (called the “October Revolution”, according to the old Russian calendar). Especially since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. The Revolutions Study Group—which has recently taken an in-depth look at the events that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power—is marking the centennial of the October Revolution by offering an eight-week course for anyone interested in finding out what actually happened at this defining moment of the twentieth century, and beyond. We will read Verso Books’ recently published October, by China Miéville, along with other short readings, where appropriate. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2008. Individual participants have come and gone. However the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy in 1969, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The group has just this past June completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | ,,,since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-october-revolution-of-1917/2017-10-16/ | Bolshevik|China Miéville|Lenin|Mensheviks|October|October Revolution|Revolutionary moments|Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|soviet power|Trotsky | 10/16/2017 19:30 | 10/16/2017 21:30 | ||
| The October Revolution of 1917 | The October Revolution of 1917 A seven-week overview featuring China Miéville’s October Mondays, October 9 through November 20, 7:30 to 9:30 pm The Revolutions Study Group Few historical events have been as widely misrepresented as the Russian Revolution of November, 1917 (called the “October Revolution”, according to the old Russian calendar). Especially since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. The Revolutions Study Group—which has recently taken an in-depth look at the events that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power—is marking the centennial of the October Revolution by offering an eight-week course for anyone interested in finding out what actually happened at this defining moment of the twentieth century, and beyond. We will read Verso Books’ recently published October, by China Miéville, along with other short readings, where appropriate. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2008. Individual participants have come and gone. However the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy in 1969, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The group has just this past June completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | ,,,since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-october-revolution-of-1917/2017-10-23/ | Bolshevik|China Miéville|Lenin|Mensheviks|October|October Revolution|Revolutionary moments|Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|soviet power|Trotsky | 10/23/2017 19:30 | 10/23/2017 21:30 | ||
| The October Revolution of 1917 | The October Revolution of 1917 A seven-week overview featuring China Miéville’s October Mondays, October 9 through November 20, 7:30 to 9:30 pm The Revolutions Study Group Few historical events have been as widely misrepresented as the Russian Revolution of November, 1917 (called the “October Revolution”, according to the old Russian calendar). Especially since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. The Revolutions Study Group—which has recently taken an in-depth look at the events that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power—is marking the centennial of the October Revolution by offering an eight-week course for anyone interested in finding out what actually happened at this defining moment of the twentieth century, and beyond. We will read Verso Books’ recently published October, by China Miéville, along with other short readings, where appropriate. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2008. Individual participants have come and gone. However the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy in 1969, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The group has just this past June completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | ,,,since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-october-revolution-of-1917/2017-10-30/ | Bolshevik|China Miéville|Lenin|Mensheviks|October|October Revolution|Revolutionary moments|Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|soviet power|Trotsky | 10/30/2017 19:30 | 10/30/2017 21:30 | ||
| The October Revolution of 1917 | The October Revolution of 1917 A seven-week overview featuring China Miéville’s October Mondays, October 9 through November 20, 7:30 to 9:30 pm The Revolutions Study Group Few historical events have been as widely misrepresented as the Russian Revolution of November, 1917 (called the “October Revolution”, according to the old Russian calendar). Especially since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. The Revolutions Study Group—which has recently taken an in-depth look at the events that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power—is marking the centennial of the October Revolution by offering an eight-week course for anyone interested in finding out what actually happened at this defining moment of the twentieth century, and beyond. We will read Verso Books’ recently published October, by China Miéville, along with other short readings, where appropriate. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2008. Individual participants have come and gone. However the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy in 1969, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The group has just this past June completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | ,,,since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-october-revolution-of-1917/2017-11-06/ | Bolshevik|China Miéville|Lenin|Mensheviks|October|October Revolution|Revolutionary moments|Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|soviet power|Trotsky | 11/6/2017 19:30 | 11/6/2017 21:30 | ||
| The October Revolution of 1917 | The October Revolution of 1917 A seven-week overview featuring China Miéville’s October Mondays, October 9 through November 20, 7:30 to 9:30 pm The Revolutions Study Group Few historical events have been as widely misrepresented as the Russian Revolution of November, 1917 (called the “October Revolution”, according to the old Russian calendar). Especially since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. The Revolutions Study Group—which has recently taken an in-depth look at the events that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power—is marking the centennial of the October Revolution by offering an eight-week course for anyone interested in finding out what actually happened at this defining moment of the twentieth century, and beyond. We will read Verso Books’ recently published October, by China Miéville, along with other short readings, where appropriate. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2008. Individual participants have come and gone. However the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy in 1969, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The group has just this past June completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | ,,,since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-october-revolution-of-1917/2017-11-13/ | Bolshevik|China Miéville|Lenin|Mensheviks|October|October Revolution|Revolutionary moments|Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|soviet power|Trotsky | 11/13/2017 19:30 | 11/13/2017 21:30 | ||
| The October Revolution of 1917 | The October Revolution of 1917 A seven-week overview featuring China Miéville’s October Mondays, October 9 through November 20, 7:30 to 9:30 pm The Revolutions Study Group Few historical events have been as widely misrepresented as the Russian Revolution of November, 1917 (called the “October Revolution”, according to the old Russian calendar). Especially since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. The Revolutions Study Group—which has recently taken an in-depth look at the events that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power—is marking the centennial of the October Revolution by offering an eight-week course for anyone interested in finding out what actually happened at this defining moment of the twentieth century, and beyond. We will read Verso Books’ recently published October, by China Miéville, along with other short readings, where appropriate. The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2008. Individual participants have come and gone. However the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy in 1969, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The group has just this past June completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | ,,,since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, defenders of the capitalist order, including respectable academic scholars, have attempted to portray it as a coup d’état by a small minority of revolutionary zealots, bent on imposing an authoritarian regime. These falsehoods have the aim of discrediting not only this revolution and its leaders, but the idea of revolution in general. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-october-revolution-of-1917/2017-11-20/ | Bolshevik|China Miéville|Lenin|Mensheviks|October|October Revolution|Revolutionary moments|Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|soviet power|Trotsky | 11/20/2017 19:30 | 11/20/2017 21:30 | ||
| Counter-cartographies of the global supply chain | Counter-cartographies of the global supply chain: An insurgent mapping workshop Supply chains justify their increasing reach into our daily lives by claiming that they provide us with critical necessities when we most need them. But do they? What are the unseen forms of violence, dispossession and exploitation that are concealed in the objects we buy with a simple click of the check-out button? Is there ethical consumption under capitalism? Does an ethical purchase at one site travel through multiple other sites of violence? How have logistical systems grown, developed, and shaped our spaces? Who funds them? Whose lives are considered expendable in their construction? This workshop will map the global supply chain through tracing the passage of everyday commodities from their point of production to your doorstep. In doing so, we will examine the infrastructure and ‘externalized costs’—human, economic, social and environmental—of the international flow of things. We will explore the potential for our own insurgent mapping projects, seeking to understand how supply chains are resilient yet vulnerable and fragile—and to identify where working-class solidarity has the greatest possibility to spread up and down the chain, across sectors, borders–and even oceans. Charmaine Chua is a member of the Empire Logistics collective and Assistant Professor of Politics at Oberlin College. Her work examines the rise of logistics and containerized shipping in the context of the transPacific supply chain, and seeks to uncover how supply chains that claim to provision life actually distribute inequality, containment, and ‘vulnerability to premature death’. Laurel Mei-Singh serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in American Studies at Princeton University. Her research interests include land and militarization, the relationship of race and indigeneity to histories of war, and the Pacific. She is writing a book on military fences and grassroots struggles for land and livelihood in Hawai’i. Tickets are sliding scale: no one turned away for inability to pay. | We will explore the potential for our own insurgent mapping projects, seeking to understand how supply chains are resilient yet vulnerable and fragile—and to identify where working-class solidarity has the greatest possibility to spread up and down the chain, across sectors, borders–and even oceans. | 10/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/counter-cartographies-of-the-global-supply-chain/ | capital circuits|dual nature of supply chains|insurgent mapping|Just In Time Manufacturing|Logistics|Off-shore invisible ecological destruction|science and organizing|Supertankers|supply chains | automation|Capital Studies|Immigration|Labor History|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 12/10/2017 14:00 | 12/10/2017 16:00 | |
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through January 26 No session on Friday, November 24 or December 29 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas/2017-11-17/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 11/17/2017 18:00 | 11/17/2017 20:00 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through January 26 No session on Friday, November 24 or December 29 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas/2017-12-01/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 12/1/2017 18:00 | 12/1/2017 20:00 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through January 26 No session on Friday, November 24 or December 29 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas/2017-12-08/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 12/8/2017 18:00 | 12/8/2017 20:00 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through January 26 No session on Friday, November 24 or December 29 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas/2017-12-15/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 12/15/2017 18:00 | 12/15/2017 20:00 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through January 26 No session on Friday, November 24 or December 29 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas/2017-12-22/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 12/22/2017 18:00 | 12/22/2017 20:00 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through January 26 No session on Friday, November 24 or December 29 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas/2018-01-05/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 1/5/2018 18:00 | 1/5/2018 20:00 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through January 26 No session on Friday, November 24 or December 29 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas/2018-01-12/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 1/12/2018 18:00 | 1/12/2018 20:00 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through February 2 No session on Friday, November 24, December 29 or January 19 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas-2018-01-19/2018-01-26/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 1/19/2018 18:00 | 1/19/2018 20:00 | ||
| Fridays As In Murder: Women, Violence & Genre Formulas | Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell Fridays, 6:00 to 8:00 10 meetings, November 10 through February 2 No session on Friday, November 24, December 29 or January 19 In traditional hard-boiled and crime novels, women either provoke violence as femme fatales or need protection as paying clients or wandering daughters. Some authors were dissatisfied with this pulp convention and worked in an extension of pulp, film noir, writing scripts with more complicated women. Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. As women’s opportunities improved and the conventions of the detective novel changed, women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. Our Friday readings will consist of the following: Attica Locke, The Cutting Season The body of a migrant worker is found on the grounds of a former plantation turned into an historical amusement park, complete with slave quarters. Outside the plantation, the hard-pressed owners of sugar cane fields are selling their land to a corporation that relies upon undocumented migrants. A mystery from the time of slavery parallels the modern murder. Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man Driving toward Phoenix, Densmore sees a young white woman hitchhiking. Even though he knows that a black man should not offer a white girl a ride, he fears for her safety. Then, he gets charged with her murder. Complicating his lackluster defense is that the woman has died from complications of an illegal abortion and he is a medical student. Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale Can a man portray a woman with a gun differently? Maybe when by Manchette. A woman comes to town to kill the corrupt. Stripped down language. Bloodier than Red Harvest. Manchette brought politics back to French thrillers. Nina Revoyr, Lost Canyon Four hikers whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds represent a diverse Los Angeles get lost in the mountains and find a murder. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception while examining the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | Drawing upon the potentials of film noir’s formula of restlessness, dread, and discontent within social corruption, women novelists wrote of threats to the domestic sphere and American society emerging as the global hegemon. Women writers explored crime and violence resulting from the racism and class exploitation while some male authors began writing of more complicated women. | 7/12/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fridays-as-in-murder-women-violence-genre-formulas-2018-01-19/2018-01-26/ | class exploitation|Detective|Dysfunction|Dystopia|Failed Families|femme fatale|fiction|gender|Gender roles according to genre formulas|Hardboiled|noir|Women and violence|Women Writers | 1/26/2018 18:00 | 1/26/2018 20:00 | ||
| Let’s Party Like It’s 1917! | A Benefit for The Indypendent honoring the 100th Anniversary of The Russian Revolution of 1917 Poetry Paraphernalia Pageant Dancing to the Music co sponsored by The MEP and Radical Poets 2 pm Steve Bloom’s epic poem 100 Years • 3 pm Richard Greeman interprets Victor Serge • 4 pm Participatory Pageant (read from [and dress as] your favorite 1917 person • 6 pm Music & Dancing | Poetry Paraphernalia Pageant Dancing to the Music co sponsored by The MEP and Radical Poets | 10/16/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lets-party-like-its-1917/ | 11/12/2017 14:00 | 11/12/2017 19:00 | |||
| Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason | A reading group of David Harvey’s Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason The MEP’s Capital Studies Group will readand discuss David Harvey’s recently published Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason over four weeks in January. Session one will cover the Prologue and the first two chapters. Arrangements can be made for purchasing the Oxford University Press book by contacting the MEP at info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com sliding scale: $30 / $45 / $60 no one turned away for inability to pay | From the book: “…a potential tendency for capital in searching to maximise its monetary profit to be drawn to invest in areas that produce no value or surplus value at all. Taken to extremes, either of these tendencies [the first being the problem of technology reducing value creation] could be fatal to the reproduction of capital. In combination, and the contemporary evidence is that both trends are discernible, they could be catastrophic” (Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey, Oxford University Press, p.105). | 11/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason/2018-01-27/ | Alienation|Capital|capitalist crisis|crisis|Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844|Globalism|Grundrisse|Neo-liberalism|rate of profit|revolutionary theory|Speculation|Theories of Surplus Value|value | 1/6/2018 11:00 | 1/6/2018 14:00 | ||
| Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason | A reading group of David Harvey’s Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason The MEP’s Capital Studies Group will readand discuss David Harvey’s recently published Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason over four weeks in January. Session one will cover the Prologue and the first two chapters. Arrangements can be made for purchasing the Oxford University Press book by contacting the MEP at info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com sliding scale: $30 / $45 / $60 no one turned away for inability to pay | From the book: “…a potential tendency for capital in searching to maximise its monetary profit to be drawn to invest in areas that produce no value or surplus value at all. Taken to extremes, either of these tendencies [the first being the problem of technology reducing value creation] could be fatal to the reproduction of capital. In combination, and the contemporary evidence is that both trends are discernible, they could be catastrophic” (Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey, Oxford University Press, p.105). | 11/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason/2018-01-13/ | Alienation|Capital|capitalist crisis|crisis|Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844|Globalism|Grundrisse|Neo-liberalism|rate of profit|revolutionary theory|Speculation|Theories of Surplus Value|value | 1/13/2018 11:00 | 1/13/2018 14:00 | ||
| Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason | A reading group of David Harvey’s Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason The MEP’s Capital Studies Group will readand discuss David Harvey’s recently published Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason over four weeks in January. Session one will cover the Prologue and the first two chapters. Arrangements can be made for purchasing the Oxford University Press book by contacting the MEP at info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com sliding scale: $30 / $45 / $60 no one turned away for inability to pay | From the book: “…a potential tendency for capital in searching to maximise its monetary profit to be drawn to invest in areas that produce no value or surplus value at all. Taken to extremes, either of these tendencies [the first being the problem of technology reducing value creation] could be fatal to the reproduction of capital. In combination, and the contemporary evidence is that both trends are discernible, they could be catastrophic” (Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey, Oxford University Press, p.105). | 11/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason/2018-01-20/ | Alienation|Capital|capitalist crisis|crisis|Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844|Globalism|Grundrisse|Neo-liberalism|rate of profit|revolutionary theory|Speculation|Theories of Surplus Value|value | 1/20/2018 11:00 | 1/20/2018 14:00 | ||
| Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason | A reading group of David Harvey’s Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason The MEP’s Capital Studies Group will readand discuss David Harvey’s recently published Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason over four weeks in January. Session one will cover the Prologue and the first two chapters. Arrangements can be made for purchasing the Oxford University Press book by contacting the MEP at info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com sliding scale: $30 / $45 / $60 no one turned away for inability to pay | From the book: “…a potential tendency for capital in searching to maximise its monetary profit to be drawn to invest in areas that produce no value or surplus value at all. Taken to extremes, either of these tendencies [the first being the problem of technology reducing value creation] could be fatal to the reproduction of capital. In combination, and the contemporary evidence is that both trends are discernible, they could be catastrophic” (Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey, Oxford University Press, p.105). | 11/2/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason/2018-01-27/ | Alienation|Capital|capitalist crisis|crisis|Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844|Globalism|Grundrisse|Neo-liberalism|rate of profit|revolutionary theory|Speculation|Theories of Surplus Value|value | 1/27/2018 11:00 | 1/27/2018 14:00 | ||
| Degenerate!: Art and the State | An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 The idea of this course is to reveal the state’s entrenchment in determining the direction and limitations of the visual art world in capital’s domination of society. We will be examining the extent to which the power structure will go to control our cultural imagination. For example, the CIA and other governmental agencies energetically promoted abstract expressionism as an art movement that pointed to the limitless freedoms capitalism signified, especially in its American form. The course would begin with a free screening of Architecture of Doom (dir. Peter Cohen, 1989, 119 min,)—a vivid documentary which presents the Nazi use of overt state control over visual art, with the premise that art had political and ideological functions. This film showing will occur at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library on Saturday, January 20, 2:30 pm. For the Nazis, modernist, socialist, Jewish artists were necessarily entartete (degenerate). In Munich in 1937, an enormous exhibition of Entartete Kunst was launched to express degeneracy and madness. Over 3 million people attended. We will project art from some of these designated artists such as Otto Dix, Georg Grosz, Max Beckmann in order to deepen an understanding of what was at stake. From here we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. We will discuss the trajectory of this upsurge upon museums and galleries, and upon the artists themselves, and its relevancy today. What is the underlying nature of political art today? Who is funding it, and why? Has there been a radical reversal in art’s function since the postwar years? Who owns the museums? Are they meant to inspire or to intimidate? And, most essentially: why are these questions important to society in general, at this point in time? There is a tremendous amount of material and resources, opinions and visual sources that pertain to this subject. The course will not be a series of lectures, but rather a guided discussion group, accessible to political thinkers, artists, and art lovers. A multitude of opinions will only enrich our understanding. Readings: 1. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art, by Serge Guilbaut, University of Chicago, 1983 2. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War a.k.a. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stoner Saunders, New Press, 1999 3. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 -1950, by Bram Dijkstra, Abrams Press 2003 Jeramy Turner’s primary concern has been for many years the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of ruling class hegemony. from 1975 through 1992 she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, “Shattering Screen”. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen, Norway, and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | …we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. | 11/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state/2018-03-12/ | Abstract Expressionism|Anti-communism|bourgeois aesthetics|bourgeois ideology|clandestine|cold war|culture wars|modernism|painting|philanthropy|Rockefeller|sculpture|subversion|The CIA and art|The CIA and culture | 1/22/2018 18:00 | 1/22/2018 19:30 | ||
| Degenerate!: Art and the State | An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 The idea of this course is to reveal the state’s entrenchment in determining the direction and limitations of the visual art world in capital’s domination of society. We will be examining the extent to which the power structure will go to control our cultural imagination. For example, the CIA and other governmental agencies energetically promoted abstract expressionism as an art movement that pointed to the limitless freedoms capitalism signified, especially in its American form. The course would begin with a free screening of Architecture of Doom (dir. Peter Cohen, 1989, 119 min,)—a vivid documentary which presents the Nazi use of overt state control over visual art, with the premise that art had political and ideological functions. This film showing will occur at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library on Saturday, January 20, 2:30 pm. For the Nazis, modernist, socialist, Jewish artists were necessarily entartete (degenerate). In Munich in 1937, an enormous exhibition of Entartete Kunst was launched to express degeneracy and madness. Over 3 million people attended. We will project art from some of these designated artists such as Otto Dix, Georg Grosz, Max Beckmann in order to deepen an understanding of what was at stake. From here we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. We will discuss the trajectory of this upsurge upon museums and galleries, and upon the artists themselves, and its relevancy today. What is the underlying nature of political art today? Who is funding it, and why? Has there been a radical reversal in art’s function since the postwar years? Who owns the museums? Are they meant to inspire or to intimidate? And, most essentially: why are these questions important to society in general, at this point in time? There is a tremendous amount of material and resources, opinions and visual sources that pertain to this subject. The course will not be a series of lectures, but rather a guided discussion group, accessible to political thinkers, artists, and art lovers. A multitude of opinions will only enrich our understanding. Readings: 1. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art, by Serge Guilbaut, University of Chicago, 1983 2. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War a.k.a. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stoner Saunders, New Press, 1999 3. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 -1950, by Bram Dijkstra, Abrams Press 2003 Jeramy Turner’s primary concern has been for many years the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of ruling class hegemony. from 1975 through 1992 she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, “Shattering Screen”. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen, Norway, and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | …we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. | 11/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state/2018-01-29/ | Abstract Expressionism|Anti-communism|bourgeois aesthetics|bourgeois ideology|clandestine|cold war|culture wars|modernism|painting|philanthropy|Rockefeller|sculpture|subversion|The CIA and art|The CIA and culture | 1/29/2018 18:00 | 1/29/2018 19:30 | ||
| Degenerate!: Art and the State | An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 The idea of this course is to reveal the state’s entrenchment in determining the direction and limitations of the visual art world in capital’s domination of society. We will be examining the extent to which the power structure will go to control our cultural imagination. For example, the CIA and other governmental agencies energetically promoted abstract expressionism as an art movement that pointed to the limitless freedoms capitalism signified, especially in its American form. The course would begin with a free screening of Architecture of Doom (dir. Peter Cohen, 1989, 119 min,)—a vivid documentary which presents the Nazi use of overt state control over visual art, with the premise that art had political and ideological functions. This film showing will occur at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library on Saturday, January 20, 2:30 pm. For the Nazis, modernist, socialist, Jewish artists were necessarily entartete (degenerate). In Munich in 1937, an enormous exhibition of Entartete Kunst was launched to express degeneracy and madness. Over 3 million people attended. We will project art from some of these designated artists such as Otto Dix, Georg Grosz, Max Beckmann in order to deepen an understanding of what was at stake. From here we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. We will discuss the trajectory of this upsurge upon museums and galleries, and upon the artists themselves, and its relevancy today. What is the underlying nature of political art today? Who is funding it, and why? Has there been a radical reversal in art’s function since the postwar years? Who owns the museums? Are they meant to inspire or to intimidate? And, most essentially: why are these questions important to society in general, at this point in time? There is a tremendous amount of material and resources, opinions and visual sources that pertain to this subject. The course will not be a series of lectures, but rather a guided discussion group, accessible to political thinkers, artists, and art lovers. A multitude of opinions will only enrich our understanding. Readings: 1. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art, by Serge Guilbaut, University of Chicago, 1983 2. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War a.k.a. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stoner Saunders, New Press, 1999 3. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 -1950, by Bram Dijkstra, Abrams Press 2003 Jeramy Turner’s primary concern has been for many years the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of ruling class hegemony. from 1975 through 1992 she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, “Shattering Screen”. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen, Norway, and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | …we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. | 11/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state/2018-02-05/ | Abstract Expressionism|Anti-communism|bourgeois aesthetics|bourgeois ideology|clandestine|cold war|culture wars|modernism|painting|philanthropy|Rockefeller|sculpture|subversion|The CIA and art|The CIA and culture | 2/5/2018 18:00 | 2/5/2018 19:30 | ||
| Degenerate!: Art and the State | An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 The idea of this course is to reveal the state’s entrenchment in determining the direction and limitations of the visual art world in capital’s domination of society. We will be examining the extent to which the power structure will go to control our cultural imagination. For example, the CIA and other governmental agencies energetically promoted abstract expressionism as an art movement that pointed to the limitless freedoms capitalism signified, especially in its American form. The course would begin with a free screening of Architecture of Doom (dir. Peter Cohen, 1989, 119 min,)—a vivid documentary which presents the Nazi use of overt state control over visual art, with the premise that art had political and ideological functions. This film showing will occur at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library on Saturday, January 20, 2:30 pm. For the Nazis, modernist, socialist, Jewish artists were necessarily entartete (degenerate). In Munich in 1937, an enormous exhibition of Entartete Kunst was launched to express degeneracy and madness. Over 3 million people attended. We will project art from some of these designated artists such as Otto Dix, Georg Grosz, Max Beckmann in order to deepen an understanding of what was at stake. From here we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. We will discuss the trajectory of this upsurge upon museums and galleries, and upon the artists themselves, and its relevancy today. What is the underlying nature of political art today? Who is funding it, and why? Has there been a radical reversal in art’s function since the postwar years? Who owns the museums? Are they meant to inspire or to intimidate? And, most essentially: why are these questions important to society in general, at this point in time? There is a tremendous amount of material and resources, opinions and visual sources that pertain to this subject. The course will not be a series of lectures, but rather a guided discussion group, accessible to political thinkers, artists, and art lovers. A multitude of opinions will only enrich our understanding. Readings: 1. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art, by Serge Guilbaut, University of Chicago, 1983 2. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War a.k.a. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stoner Saunders, New Press, 1999 3. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 -1950, by Bram Dijkstra, Abrams Press 2003 Jeramy Turner’s primary concern has been for many years the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of ruling class hegemony. from 1975 through 1992 she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, “Shattering Screen”. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen, Norway, and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | …we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. | 11/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state/2018-02-12/ | Abstract Expressionism|Anti-communism|bourgeois aesthetics|bourgeois ideology|clandestine|cold war|culture wars|modernism|painting|philanthropy|Rockefeller|sculpture|subversion|The CIA and art|The CIA and culture | 2/12/2018 18:00 | 2/12/2018 19:30 | ||
| Degenerate!: Art and the State | An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 The idea of this course is to reveal the state’s entrenchment in determining the direction and limitations of the visual art world in capital’s domination of society. We will be examining the extent to which the power structure will go to control our cultural imagination. For example, the CIA and other governmental agencies energetically promoted abstract expressionism as an art movement that pointed to the limitless freedoms capitalism signified, especially in its American form. The course would begin with a free screening of Architecture of Doom (dir. Peter Cohen, 1989, 119 min,)—a vivid documentary which presents the Nazi use of overt state control over visual art, with the premise that art had political and ideological functions. This film showing will occur at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library on Saturday, January 20, 2:30 pm. For the Nazis, modernist, socialist, Jewish artists were necessarily entartete (degenerate). In Munich in 1937, an enormous exhibition of Entartete Kunst was launched to express degeneracy and madness. Over 3 million people attended. We will project art from some of these designated artists such as Otto Dix, Georg Grosz, Max Beckmann in order to deepen an understanding of what was at stake. From here we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. We will discuss the trajectory of this upsurge upon museums and galleries, and upon the artists themselves, and its relevancy today. What is the underlying nature of political art today? Who is funding it, and why? Has there been a radical reversal in art’s function since the postwar years? Who owns the museums? Are they meant to inspire or to intimidate? And, most essentially: why are these questions important to society in general, at this point in time? There is a tremendous amount of material and resources, opinions and visual sources that pertain to this subject. The course will not be a series of lectures, but rather a guided discussion group, accessible to political thinkers, artists, and art lovers. A multitude of opinions will only enrich our understanding. Readings: 1. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art, by Serge Guilbaut, University of Chicago, 1983 2. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War a.k.a. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stoner Saunders, New Press, 1999 3. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 -1950, by Bram Dijkstra, Abrams Press 2003 Jeramy Turner’s primary concern has been for many years the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of ruling class hegemony. from 1975 through 1992 she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, “Shattering Screen”. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen, Norway, and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | …we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. | 11/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state/2018-02-19/ | Abstract Expressionism|Anti-communism|bourgeois aesthetics|bourgeois ideology|clandestine|cold war|culture wars|modernism|painting|philanthropy|Rockefeller|sculpture|subversion|The CIA and art|The CIA and culture | 2/19/2018 18:00 | 2/19/2018 19:30 | ||
| Degenerate!: Art and the State | An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 The idea of this course is to reveal the state’s entrenchment in determining the direction and limitations of the visual art world in capital’s domination of society. We will be examining the extent to which the power structure will go to control our cultural imagination. For example, the CIA and other governmental agencies energetically promoted abstract expressionism as an art movement that pointed to the limitless freedoms capitalism signified, especially in its American form. The course would begin with a free screening of Architecture of Doom (dir. Peter Cohen, 1989, 119 min,)—a vivid documentary which presents the Nazi use of overt state control over visual art, with the premise that art had political and ideological functions. This film showing will occur at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library on Saturday, January 20, 2:30 pm. For the Nazis, modernist, socialist, Jewish artists were necessarily entartete (degenerate). In Munich in 1937, an enormous exhibition of Entartete Kunst was launched to express degeneracy and madness. Over 3 million people attended. We will project art from some of these designated artists such as Otto Dix, Georg Grosz, Max Beckmann in order to deepen an understanding of what was at stake. From here we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. We will discuss the trajectory of this upsurge upon museums and galleries, and upon the artists themselves, and its relevancy today. What is the underlying nature of political art today? Who is funding it, and why? Has there been a radical reversal in art’s function since the postwar years? Who owns the museums? Are they meant to inspire or to intimidate? And, most essentially: why are these questions important to society in general, at this point in time? There is a tremendous amount of material and resources, opinions and visual sources that pertain to this subject. The course will not be a series of lectures, but rather a guided discussion group, accessible to political thinkers, artists, and art lovers. A multitude of opinions will only enrich our understanding. Readings: 1. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art, by Serge Guilbaut, University of Chicago, 1983 2. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War a.k.a. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stoner Saunders, New Press, 1999 3. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 -1950, by Bram Dijkstra, Abrams Press 2003 Jeramy Turner’s primary concern has been for many years the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of ruling class hegemony. from 1975 through 1992 she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, “Shattering Screen”. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen, Norway, and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | …we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. | 11/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state/2018-02-26/ | Abstract Expressionism|Anti-communism|bourgeois aesthetics|bourgeois ideology|clandestine|cold war|culture wars|modernism|painting|philanthropy|Rockefeller|sculpture|subversion|The CIA and art|The CIA and culture | 2/26/2018 18:00 | 2/26/2018 19:30 | ||
| Degenerate!: Art and the State | An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 The idea of this course is to reveal the state’s entrenchment in determining the direction and limitations of the visual art world in capital’s domination of society. We will be examining the extent to which the power structure will go to control our cultural imagination. For example, the CIA and other governmental agencies energetically promoted abstract expressionism as an art movement that pointed to the limitless freedoms capitalism signified, especially in its American form. The course would begin with a free screening of Architecture of Doom (dir. Peter Cohen, 1989, 119 min,)—a vivid documentary which presents the Nazi use of overt state control over visual art, with the premise that art had political and ideological functions. This film showing will occur at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library on Saturday, January 20, 2:30 pm. For the Nazis, modernist, socialist, Jewish artists were necessarily entartete (degenerate). In Munich in 1937, an enormous exhibition of Entartete Kunst was launched to express degeneracy and madness. Over 3 million people attended. We will project art from some of these designated artists such as Otto Dix, Georg Grosz, Max Beckmann in order to deepen an understanding of what was at stake. From here we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. We will discuss the trajectory of this upsurge upon museums and galleries, and upon the artists themselves, and its relevancy today. What is the underlying nature of political art today? Who is funding it, and why? Has there been a radical reversal in art’s function since the postwar years? Who owns the museums? Are they meant to inspire or to intimidate? And, most essentially: why are these questions important to society in general, at this point in time? There is a tremendous amount of material and resources, opinions and visual sources that pertain to this subject. The course will not be a series of lectures, but rather a guided discussion group, accessible to political thinkers, artists, and art lovers. A multitude of opinions will only enrich our understanding. Readings: 1. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art, by Serge Guilbaut, University of Chicago, 1983 2. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War a.k.a. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stoner Saunders, New Press, 1999 3. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 -1950, by Bram Dijkstra, Abrams Press 2003 Jeramy Turner’s primary concern has been for many years the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of ruling class hegemony. from 1975 through 1992 she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, “Shattering Screen”. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen, Norway, and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | …we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. | 11/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state/2018-03-05/ | Abstract Expressionism|Anti-communism|bourgeois aesthetics|bourgeois ideology|clandestine|cold war|culture wars|modernism|painting|philanthropy|Rockefeller|sculpture|subversion|The CIA and art|The CIA and culture | 3/5/2018 18:00 | 3/5/2018 19:30 | ||
| Degenerate!: Art and the State | An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 The idea of this course is to reveal the state’s entrenchment in determining the direction and limitations of the visual art world in capital’s domination of society. We will be examining the extent to which the power structure will go to control our cultural imagination. For example, the CIA and other governmental agencies energetically promoted abstract expressionism as an art movement that pointed to the limitless freedoms capitalism signified, especially in its American form. The course would begin with a free screening of Architecture of Doom (dir. Peter Cohen, 1989, 119 min,)—a vivid documentary which presents the Nazi use of overt state control over visual art, with the premise that art had political and ideological functions. This film showing will occur at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library on Saturday, January 20, 2:30 pm. For the Nazis, modernist, socialist, Jewish artists were necessarily entartete (degenerate). In Munich in 1937, an enormous exhibition of Entartete Kunst was launched to express degeneracy and madness. Over 3 million people attended. We will project art from some of these designated artists such as Otto Dix, Georg Grosz, Max Beckmann in order to deepen an understanding of what was at stake. From here we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. We will discuss the trajectory of this upsurge upon museums and galleries, and upon the artists themselves, and its relevancy today. What is the underlying nature of political art today? Who is funding it, and why? Has there been a radical reversal in art’s function since the postwar years? Who owns the museums? Are they meant to inspire or to intimidate? And, most essentially: why are these questions important to society in general, at this point in time? There is a tremendous amount of material and resources, opinions and visual sources that pertain to this subject. The course will not be a series of lectures, but rather a guided discussion group, accessible to political thinkers, artists, and art lovers. A multitude of opinions will only enrich our understanding. Readings: 1. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art, by Serge Guilbaut, University of Chicago, 1983 2. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War a.k.a. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stoner Saunders, New Press, 1999 3. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920 -1950, by Bram Dijkstra, Abrams Press 2003 Jeramy Turner’s primary concern has been for many years the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of ruling class hegemony. from 1975 through 1992 she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, “Shattering Screen”. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen, Norway, and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | …we travel to postwar America, where the elites also held that art should fulfill an ideological (if not overtly political) function, but were politically compelled to denigrate both Nazi and now Soviet control over culture. The CIA worked alongside corporations to install “corporate” non-partisan, inoffensive art that celebrated the individual (i.e. capitalist and not communist) and denigrated anything containing possible, even hinted at, socialist leanings. Abstraction, particularly Abstract Expressionism became their rallying cry. | 11/7/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state/2018-03-12/ | Abstract Expressionism|Anti-communism|bourgeois aesthetics|bourgeois ideology|clandestine|cold war|culture wars|modernism|painting|philanthropy|Rockefeller|sculpture|subversion|The CIA and art|The CIA and culture | 3/12/2018 18:00 | 3/12/2018 19:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-04-12/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 1/25/2018 19:30 | 1/25/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-02-01/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 2/1/2018 19:30 | 2/1/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-02-08/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 2/8/2018 19:30 | 2/8/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-02-15/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 2/15/2018 19:30 | 2/15/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-02-22/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 2/22/2018 19:30 | 2/22/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-03-01/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 3/1/2018 19:30 | 3/1/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-03-08/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 3/8/2018 19:30 | 3/8/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-03-15/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 3/15/2018 19:30 | 3/15/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-03-22/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 3/22/2018 19:30 | 3/22/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-03-29/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 3/29/2018 19:30 | 3/29/2018 21:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-04-05/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 4/5/2018 19:30 | 4/5/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-03-26/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 1/22/2018 19:30 | 1/22/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-01-29/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 1/29/2018 19:30 | 1/29/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-02-05/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 2/5/2018 19:30 | 2/5/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-02-12/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 2/12/2018 19:30 | 2/12/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-02-19/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 2/19/2018 19:30 | 2/19/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-02-26/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 2/26/2018 19:30 | 2/26/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-03-05/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 3/5/2018 19:30 | 3/5/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-03-12/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 3/12/2018 19:30 | 3/12/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-03-19/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 3/19/2018 19:30 | 3/19/2018 21:30 | ||
| Revolution in China: 1911-1949 | The Revolutions Study Group 10 weeks Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. Readings to include Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, and Edgar Snow, Red Star over China. “On the fringes of big Chinese cities the shadows of lofty factory chimneys fall across fields still tilled with wooden ploughs. On the wharves of seaports modern liners unload goods carried away on the backs of men or shipped inland on primitive barges. In the streets great trucks and jangling trams roar past carts drawn by men harnessed like animals to their loads. Sleek automobiles toot angrily at man-drawn rickshaws and barrows which thread their way through the lanes of traffic. Streets, lined with shops where men and women still fashion their wares with bare hands and simple tools, lead to huge mills run by humming dynamos. Aeroplanes and railways cut across vast regions linked otherwise only by footpaths and canals a thousand years old. Modern steamers ply the coasts and rivers, churning past junks of ancient design. Throughout the towns and villages, and on the tired land of the vast river valleys that stretch from the sea to the heart of Asia, these contradictions and contrasts multiply. They embody the struggle of nearly half a billion people for existence and survival.” —opening paragraph of Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, Harold Isaacs, 1938 THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. The RSG has just completed a year-long examination of the German Revolutionary period of 1918-1924. | Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Beginning this January, the Revolutions Reading Group undertakes an in-depth study of that 40-year struggle, from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 to the victory of the Communist Party after World War II. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-china-1911-1949/2018-03-26/ | Beijing|Chaing Kai Shek|China|Chinese Revolution|communist international|Japanese occupation|Kuomintang|Long March|Mao Tse Tung|Mao Zedung|peasant revolution|Shanghai|Sun Yat Sen | 3/26/2018 19:30 | 3/26/2018 21:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-03-29/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 1/25/2018 18:00 | 1/25/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-02-01/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 2/1/2018 18:00 | 2/1/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-02-08/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 2/8/2018 18:00 | 2/8/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-02-15/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 2/15/2018 18:00 | 2/15/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-02-22/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 2/22/2018 18:00 | 2/22/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-03-01/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 3/1/2018 18:00 | 3/1/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-03-08/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 3/8/2018 18:00 | 3/8/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-03-15/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 3/15/2018 18:00 | 3/15/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-03-22/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 3/22/2018 18:00 | 3/22/2018 19:30 | ||
| Climate Crisis, Climate Justice, Climate Fiction | A 10-week reading and discussion group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. The latter weeks of the group will take up the new genre of “climate fiction,” reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | This study group will examine the dire situations ordinary people confront as climate change and related crises accelerate, and the struggles for climate and environmental justice that are arising to meet these challenges. We will look at such cases as Puerto Rico (Irma-Maria), New York (Sandy), and the Mideast (drought, wars, refugees), through lenses provided by Ashley Dawson, Christian Parenti, and others. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-crisis-climate-justice-climate-fiction/2018-03-29/ | Climate Change|climate fiction|droughts|ecological disaster|ecological imagination|ecosocialism|floods|melting ice|sea rise | 3/29/2018 18:00 | 3/29/2018 19:30 | ||
| B. Traven’s Jungle Novels | convened with the Indigenous Peoples Reading Group “My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office.” —B. Traven The writer with the pen name B. Traven appeared on the German literary scene in 1925, when the Berlin daily Vorwärts, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, published the first short story signed with this pseudonym on 28 February. Soon, it published Traven’s first novel, Die Baumwollpflücker (The Cotton Pickers), of which the first book edition was Der Wobbly, then the common name for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Traven introduced for the first time the figure of Gerald Gales (in Traven’s other works his name is Gale, or Gerard Gales), an American sailor who looks for a job in different occupations in Mexico, often consorting with suspicious characters and witnessing capitalistic exploitation, nevertheless not losing his will to fight and striving to draw joy from life. Mexico was a good place for a European revolutionary refugee to re-make himself. The Mexican Revolution, ten years of armed conflict between 1920 and 1920, had ended the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The man to be known as the writer B. Traven, abandoned his past and immersed himself in Mexican culture, and by 1935 was receiving favorable reviews in The New York Times. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Death Ship, and the six volume series we will read this term. The Jungle Novels are a group of six novels published in the years 1930–1939 and set just before and during the Mexican Revolution from 1910-20. Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. The Jungle Novels are: The Carreta (1930) The hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Government (1931) Depicts the political corruption that infected even the smallest villages in Mexico, the novel tells the story of Don Gabriel, a minor government functionary who has a virtual license to steal from every village where he is secretary―except there is nothing to steal. March to the Montería (a.k.a. March To Caobaland) (1933) March to the Montería is the third of B. Traven’s six Jungle Novels, set in the great mahogany plantations (monterías) of Mexico in the years before the revolution. Celso works two years on a coffee finca, but when he returns home he must hand over his money to ladinos who claim his father has a debt to them. Trozas (1936) Trozas (the word means logs) captures the origins of the rebellious spirit that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’s rule. The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936) This fifth Jungle Novel culminates in a revolt by the long-oppressed workers against the owners and overseers of the camps, and in a treacherous march through the jungles at the height of the rainy season—a human feat of epic proportions. A General from the Jungle (1940) Juan Mendez leads an ill-equipped and hungry band against the government forces. With brilliance and cunning, Mendez brutally attacks the federally protected fincas. The sixth and last of The Jungle Novels is filled with marvelously drawn characters, yet the true hero is the army itself―illiterate, uneducated, and poor, but resourceful and dangerous. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | Traven’s purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for change, and to trace the beginnings of how consciousness changes and sometimes leads to revolt. | 11/15/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/b-travens-jungle-novels/2018-04-12/ | anarchism|Chiapas|Mexico|Revolution|Sierra Madre|Traven|Wobblies | 4/12/2018 19:30 | 4/12/2018 21:30 | ||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-05-06/ | 1/20/2018 10:30 | 1/20/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-01-21/ | 1/21/2018 10:30 | 1/21/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-01-28/ | 1/28/2018 10:30 | 1/28/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-02-04/ | 2/4/2018 10:30 | 2/4/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-02-11/ | 2/11/2018 10:30 | 2/11/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-02-18/ | 2/18/2018 10:30 | 2/18/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-02-25/ | 2/25/2018 10:30 | 2/25/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-03-04/ | 3/4/2018 10:30 | 3/4/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-03-11/ | 3/11/2018 10:30 | 3/11/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-03-18/ | 3/18/2018 10:30 | 3/18/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-03-25/ | 3/25/2018 10:30 | 3/25/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-04-01/ | 4/1/2018 10:30 | 4/1/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-04-08/ | 4/8/2018 10:30 | 4/8/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-04-15/ | 4/15/2018 10:30 | 4/15/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-04-22/ | 4/22/2018 10:30 | 4/22/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-04-29/ | 4/29/2018 10:30 | 4/29/2018 12:30 | ||||
| A People’s History of the World | Convened by Branden Rippey Downtown Newark on Orchard Street Using A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman, this course will study the broad trends in the history of our world, from early human civilization to today. We will complete the book during this term, covering events from 1750 through our present day. The goal of the course is to apply Harman’s Marxist perspective to understand major trends and significant junctures in world history, why Marx stated that the history of all prior societies has been the history of class struggle, and how that history of class struggles has shaped class and race relations today and provide us with valuable lessons for combating capitalism during our current stage of human development. Branden Rippey is a history teacher in Newark, New Jersey, a founding member of the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus), and is active in socialist politics. Sliding Scale: $60 / $70 / $80 $5 or $10 per session. No one turned away for inability to pay MEP Classes in Newark: A short walk from Newark Penn Station | 12/6/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-2/2018-05-06/ | 5/6/2018 10:30 | 5/6/2018 12:30 | ||||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | In Manhattan, For Women Only A 10 Session Class and Discussion with Juliet Ucelli Wednesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 pm February 21 through April 25 2067 Broadway, Manhattan Capital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. Many of us have less time to study it because, as Marx predicted, we have to work longer hours— and often more than one job—in order to survive. Fortunately, even a basic familiarity with the key concepts of Volume I offers many tools for understanding capitalism’s dynamics. With current conditions, we’ve been offering this highlights approach, breaking down key concepts and sections: • use value, value and surplus value; • why capitalism has needed conquest, enslavement and white supremacy; • why capitalism drives technological innovation, overwork and unemployment and leads to ecological destruction; • how working-class people (employed and unemployed) have historically won improvements in living and working conditions. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class this February through April for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Participant reports and life experiences are welcome! The course provides a basic grounding for participants to pursue further study on their own or collectively. We’ll refer to new resources such as on-line and visual aids and current articles that illustrate capitalism’s developmental tendencies, which Marx calls its laws of motion. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for labor unions, and was a public high school social worker. She writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, the politics of inner city public schooling and Marxist understandings of human development. | The course provides a basic grounding for participants to pursue further study on their own or collectively. We’ll refer to new resources such as on-line and visual aids and current articles that illustrate capitalism’s developmental tendencies, which Marx calls its laws of motion. This highlights class is for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 12/22/2017 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1/ | commodity fetishism|Laws of Motion of Capital|precarity|Primitive Accumulation|surplus value|Technological Innovation|unemployment|value|women and capital|working class|Working Class Consciousness | 2/21/2018 18:30 | 4/25/2018 20:30 | ||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-05-19/ | 3/3/2018 11:00 | 3/3/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-03-10/ | 3/10/2018 11:00 | 3/10/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-03-17/ | 3/17/2018 11:00 | 3/17/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-03-24/ | 3/24/2018 11:00 | 3/24/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-03-31/ | 3/31/2018 11:00 | 3/31/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-04-07/ | 4/7/2018 11:00 | 4/7/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-04-14/ | 4/14/2018 11:00 | 4/14/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-04-21/ | 4/21/2018 11:00 | 4/21/2018 14:00 | |||
| Politics of the Unconscious: Second Sessions | “If a truth is never communicable as such, it nevertheless implies, at a distance from itself, powerful reshapings of the forms and referents of communication.” (L’ethique: Essai sur la conscience du Mal (1993), Alain Badiou) The Politics of the Unconscious: Hysteria, Surrealism, and Avant-Garde Dance With a Surrealist Brunch on Day Two Marija Krtolica Two Sundays Starting with the fin-de-siècle Parisian hospital Salpêtrière, we will touch upon the historical resonances of the invention of mental pathology, and aesthetic forms that resonance has instigated. We will first engage Freud and Lacan on hysteria, and then consider feminist and other critical re-readings of their work. This will bring us to look at the images of the mental patients of this period, many of which challenge the boundary between artistic representation and medical documentation. In light of day one, during the following Sunday, over a Surrealist Brunch, the political meanings of Dadaist and Surrealist art, film and poetry will be discussed along with the grotesque dances by Valeska Gert (Weimar Era), and dance-theater of Pina Bausch and Mats Ek (1970s-80s). We will explore how the aesthetic de-hierarchicalization and commodity culture inform our practices as witnesses and art makers. We will investigate ways of synthesizing the critical writings on capitalism and schizophrenia (Gilles Deleuze, 1972) and the politics of aesthetics (Jacques Rancière, 2004 ), with a performance event. Marija Krtolica (b. 1973, Belgrade) is an international movement artist, dance researcher and teacher (BFA NYU, MFA UC Davis, MA NYU, completing PhD in dance at Temple University in Philadelphia). Her current research focuses on the meanings and symptoms of hysteria in the nineteenth century, and critical re-investigation of hysterical scenes in Tanztheater. Recently, she presented papers at CUNY at Graudate Center conference Approaching Dance, NCSA Caucus in Charleston, the Department of Visual Arts conference at UCSD (2015), ACLA 2015 in Seattle, a Graduate Conference of the Department of English at the University of Chicago (2014), and Choreography Symposium at the University of Cologne (2014), At the artistic residence in Spread Art in Detroit (2015), the University of Arts Belgrade (2015), and at the Le Couvent artistic residence in Auzits, France (2016). Marija has worked with the lecture/performance mode of examining elusive boundaries between practice and theory. Marija has published papers in The International Journal of the Arts in Society (2009 and 2011), and The Journal of Arts Theory and History (2013). She has written articles and conducted interviews for the Belgrade dance publication Orchestra. | We will look at the images of the mental patients in the fin-de-siècle Parisian hospital Salpêtrière, many of which challenge the boundary between artistic representation and medical documentation. In light of day one, during the following Sunday, over a Surrealist Brunch, | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-the-unconscious-second-sessions/2018-02-11/ | Aesthetics|Badiou|Bausch|Dada|Dali|dance|Deleuze|Ek|Gert|Rancière|sexuality|Surrealism|therapy|Unconsciousness | 2/11/2018 12:00 | 2/11/2018 14:00 | ||
| Politics of the Unconscious and Surrealist Brunch | “If a truth is never communicable as such, it nevertheless implies, at a distance from itself, powerful reshapings of the forms and referents of communication.” (L’ethique: Essai sur la conscience du Mal (1993), Alain Badiou) The Politics of the Unconscious and a Surrealist Brunch Marija Krtolica “If a truth is never communicable as such, it nevertheless implies, at a distance from itself, powerful reshapings of the forms and referents of communication.” (L’ethique: Essai sur la conscience du Mal (1993), Alain Badiou) Over brunch, the political meanings of Dadaist and Surrealist art, film and poetry will be discussed along with the grotesque dances by Valeska Gert (Weimar Era), and dance-theater of Pina Bausch and Mats Ek (1970s-80s). We will explore how the aesthetic de-hierarchicalization and commodity culture inform our practices as witnesses and art makers. We will investigate ways of synthesizing the critical writings on capitalism and schizophrenia (Gilles Deleuze, 1972) and the politics of aesthetics (Jacques Rancière, 2004). There may even be a performance event. Marija Krtolica (b. 1973, Belgrade) is an international movement artist, dance researcher and teacher (BFA NYU, MFA UC Davis, MA NYU, completing PhD in dance at Temple University in Philadelphia). Her current research focuses on the meanings and symptoms of hysteria in the nineteenth century, and critical re-investigation of hysterical scenes in Tanztheater. Recently, she presented papers at CUNY at Graudate Center conference Approaching Dance, NCSA Caucus in Charleston, the Department of Visual Arts conference at UCSD (2015), ACLA 2015 in Seattle, a Graduate Conference of the Department of English at the University of Chicago (2014), and Choreography Symposium at the University of Cologne (2014), At the artistic residence in Spread Art in Detroit (2015), the University of Arts Belgrade (2015), and at the Le Couvent artistic residence in Auzits, France (2016). Marija has worked with the lecture/performance mode of examining elusive boundaries between practice and theory. Marija has published papers in The International Journal of the Arts in Society (2009 and 2011), and The Journal of Arts Theory and History (2013). She has written articles and conducted interviews for the Belgrade dance publication Orchestra. | Over brunch, discover some of the grotesque dances by Valeska Gert (Weimar Era), and dance-theater of Pina Bausch and Mats Ek (1970s-80s). Dada and surrealism will not be left behind. We will explore how the aesthetic de-hierarchicalization and commodity culture inform our practices as witnesses and witnessed art makers. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-the-unconscious-second-sessions-2018-02-18/ | Aesthetics|Badiou|Bausch|Chocolate|Cream|Dada|Dali|dance|Deleuze|Ek|Gert|pastries|Rancière|sexuality|Surreal food|Surrealism|therapy|Unconsciousness | 2/18/2018 12:00 | 2/18/2018 14:00 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-04-10/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 1/23/2018 19:30 | 1/23/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-01-30/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 1/30/2018 19:30 | 1/30/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-02-06/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 2/6/2018 19:30 | 2/6/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-02-13/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 2/13/2018 19:30 | 2/13/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-02-20/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 2/20/2018 19:30 | 2/20/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-02-27/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 2/27/2018 19:30 | 2/27/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-03-06/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 3/6/2018 19:30 | 3/6/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-03-13/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 3/13/2018 19:30 | 3/13/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-03-20/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 3/20/2018 19:30 | 3/20/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-03-27/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 3/27/2018 19:30 | 3/27/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-04-03/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 4/3/2018 19:30 | 4/3/2018 21:30 | ||
| Manuals On Organizing, Version 1 | The 21st Century Anti-Capitalist Organizing Task Force presents a reading of Assembly and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age How can we develop a strong anti-capitalist movement as capitalists impose a level of austerity that the working class has not experienced since the Great Depression? Over the next several terms, this reading group will read works that help explore a spectrum of theories and methods for raising class consciousness and general organizing. We will read these books with a critical eye, looking for what we can relate to our personal experiences and what is useful in our organizing work in the struggle for socialism and against bourgeois barbarism. We will be reading Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts, and Assembly by Michael Hart and Antonio Negri. The latter is the latest entry in their series of books about how to be effective during the current conjuncture and beyond. 11 sessions remain. For January 30 read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Assembly along with the Introduction to No Shortcuts. Versions 2 (April – June), and 3 (September-December) and beyond will take up other significant works. | This group will read over the next period a number of books on raising consciousness, organization and various methods and theories on how to develop a strong anti-capitalist movement. | 1/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/manuals-on-organizing-version-1/2018-04-10/ | assemblies|gathering|leaderless organizing|meeting|methods of organizing|occupations|Organizing|pedagogy|strategy and tactics | 4/10/2018 19:30 | 4/10/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-04-16/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 2/5/2018 18:00 | 2/5/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-02-26/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 2/26/2018 18:00 | 2/26/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-03-05/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 3/5/2018 18:00 | 3/5/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-03-12/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 3/12/2018 18:00 | 3/12/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-03-19/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 3/19/2018 18:00 | 3/19/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-03-26/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 3/26/2018 18:00 | 3/26/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-04-02/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 4/2/2018 18:00 | 4/2/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-04-09/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 4/9/2018 18:00 | 4/9/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-04-16/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 4/16/2018 18:00 | 4/16/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-02-12/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 2/12/2018 18:00 | 2/12/2018 19:30 | ||
| The Universe: Past, Present, Future | Alex Steinberg 10 WEEK SERIES: NO CLASS ON FEBRUARY 19 This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. We will have two books from which we will read selected essays: Welcome to the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott and Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Note: There is also a problem book supplement to Welcome to the Universe. We will be using the initial Welcome to the Universe book and not the supplement in this class series. Of course some students may wish to get the problem book on their own. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. We will ask and look for answers to such questions as: 1. Is our universe finite or infinite? 2. Is it heading for a final state of entropy known as heat death 3. What exactly is meant by entropy? 4. What do we mean when we say two events happen at the same time? 5. Can you go backwards in time? 6. What was before the Big Bang? 7. How does understanding our galaxy, other galaxies, this broad universe, inform our living on our planet Earth? The facilitator of this class, Alex Steinberg, has previously taught widely including on the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the dialectics of nature, the implications of dialectics for contemporary science, and contemporary philosophical trends on the left and right inspired by Nietzsche. He recently conducted a walking tour centered on what Leon Trotsky did in his few months living in New York City prior to the Russian Revolution. | This class is for all who desire to explore together the mysteries and fascinations of our universe. No prior knowledge of astrophysics or mathematics is required. Together we will get to the bottom of a number of concepts that are widely discussed but poorly understood. | 1/11/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-universe-past-present-future/2018-02-19/ | astrophysics|Black Holes|Cosmology|Entropy|Galaxies|Infinity|science|Solar Systems|Time | 2/19/2018 18:00 | 2/19/2018 19:30 | ||
| Remembering Bill Koehnlein | On Saturday, March 24, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm family, friends and comrades are invited to gather to celebrate the life of Bill Koehnlein, a long-term supporter of our efforts at The New York Marxist School, Brecht Forum and a core builder and activist of the Marxist Education Project. | A celebration of the life of Bill Koehnlein. | 1/15/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/remembering-bill-koehnlein/ | 3/24/2018 13:00 | 3/24/2018 16:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-04-28/ | 4/28/2018 11:00 | 4/28/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-05-05/ | 5/5/2018 11:00 | 5/5/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-05-12/ | 5/12/2018 11:00 | 5/12/2018 14:00 | |||
| Capital: Volume 1 | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | This group will meet each Saturday to discuss Volume One of Capital. There will be a close reading of the text. All questions on each section will be addressed and the reading discussion leaders will be prepared to assist between sessions on areas that may be difficult to understand. | 1/1/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1/2018-05-19/ | 5/19/2018 11:00 | 5/19/2018 14:00 | |||
| Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, Part 2 | Capital Studies Group We are extending our study of David Harvey’s recent Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason. Those who convened starting on January 6 have decided to continue reading the book at a slower pace to allow for a full discussion of all that is contained in the chapters. We will finish reading this book and then begin reading Marx’s Volume 1 of Capital beginning Saturday, March 3. We will begin chapter three on January 20. $10 per session for January 20 and 27, no one turned away for paying less or the inability to pay. Registrations for Part 2 allow for attendance on January 20 and 27. | From the book: “…a potential tendency for capital in searching to maximise its monetary profit to be drawn to invest in areas that produce no value or surplus value at all. Taken to extremes, either of these tendencies [the first being the problem of technology reducing value creation] could be fatal to the reproduction of capital. In combination, and the contemporary evidence is that both trends are discernible, they could be catastrophic” (Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey, Oxford University Press, p.105). | 1/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason-part-2/2018-02-24/ | banking|bourgeoisie|Capital|crisis|development|economic crisis|economic theory|finance|Political economy|profit|proletariat|rate of profit|surplus value|sustainability | 2/3/2018 11:00 | 2/3/2018 14:00 | ||
| Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, Part 2 | Capital Studies Group We are extending our study of David Harvey’s recent Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason. Those who convened starting on January 6 have decided to continue reading the book at a slower pace to allow for a full discussion of all that is contained in the chapters. We will finish reading this book and then begin reading Marx’s Volume 1 of Capital beginning Saturday, March 3. We will begin chapter three on January 20. $10 per session for January 20 and 27, no one turned away for paying less or the inability to pay. Registrations for Part 2 allow for attendance on January 20 and 27. | From the book: “…a potential tendency for capital in searching to maximise its monetary profit to be drawn to invest in areas that produce no value or surplus value at all. Taken to extremes, either of these tendencies [the first being the problem of technology reducing value creation] could be fatal to the reproduction of capital. In combination, and the contemporary evidence is that both trends are discernible, they could be catastrophic” (Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey, Oxford University Press, p.105). | 1/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason-part-2/2018-02-10/ | banking|bourgeoisie|Capital|crisis|development|economic crisis|economic theory|finance|Political economy|profit|proletariat|rate of profit|surplus value|sustainability | 2/10/2018 11:00 | 2/10/2018 14:00 | ||
| Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, Part 2 | Capital Studies Group We are extending our study of David Harvey’s recent Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason. Those who convened starting on January 6 have decided to continue reading the book at a slower pace to allow for a full discussion of all that is contained in the chapters. We will finish reading this book and then begin reading Marx’s Volume 1 of Capital beginning Saturday, March 3. We will begin chapter three on January 20. $10 per session for January 20 and 27, no one turned away for paying less or the inability to pay. Registrations for Part 2 allow for attendance on January 20 and 27. | From the book: “…a potential tendency for capital in searching to maximise its monetary profit to be drawn to invest in areas that produce no value or surplus value at all. Taken to extremes, either of these tendencies [the first being the problem of technology reducing value creation] could be fatal to the reproduction of capital. In combination, and the contemporary evidence is that both trends are discernible, they could be catastrophic” (Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey, Oxford University Press, p.105). | 1/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason-part-2/2018-02-17/ | banking|bourgeoisie|Capital|crisis|development|economic crisis|economic theory|finance|Political economy|profit|proletariat|rate of profit|surplus value|sustainability | 2/17/2018 11:00 | 2/17/2018 14:00 | ||
| Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, Part 2 | Capital Studies Group We are extending our study of David Harvey’s recent Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason. Those who convened starting on January 6 have decided to continue reading the book at a slower pace to allow for a full discussion of all that is contained in the chapters. We will finish reading this book and then begin reading Marx’s Volume 1 of Capital beginning Saturday, March 3. We will begin chapter three on January 20. $10 per session for January 20 and 27, no one turned away for paying less or the inability to pay. Registrations for Part 2 allow for attendance on January 20 and 27. | From the book: “…a potential tendency for capital in searching to maximise its monetary profit to be drawn to invest in areas that produce no value or surplus value at all. Taken to extremes, either of these tendencies [the first being the problem of technology reducing value creation] could be fatal to the reproduction of capital. In combination, and the contemporary evidence is that both trends are discernible, they could be catastrophic” (Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey, Oxford University Press, p.105). | 1/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason-part-2/2018-02-24/ | banking|bourgeoisie|Capital|crisis|development|economic crisis|economic theory|finance|Political economy|profit|proletariat|rate of profit|surplus value|sustainability | 2/24/2018 11:00 | 2/24/2018 14:00 | ||
| Architecture of Doom | Free Film showing of Architecture of Doom at the Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village Architecture of Doom 119 minutes, color and b/w, 1991 MEP in Libraries Jefferson Market Library in the Village 425 6th Avenue Saturday, January 20, 2:30PM with discussion to follow Never before seen footage of Hitler’s “Degenerate Art” Exhibition, an experiment in propaganda against Jews and modern artists, that, instead of repelling the population, drew over 3 million patrons. The film is a stunning documentary of Nazi art and aesthetics, and how the state uses, and needs, art to enhance its ideology. This showing is open to all. It is also and opening to the course Degenerate!: Art and the State which begins on Monday, January 22 at 6 pm at The Brooklyn Commons | 1/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/architecture-of-doom/ | Aesthetics|architecture|Capitalist Aesthetics|cold war|Fascist Aesthetics | 1/20/2018 14:30 | 1/20/2018 17:00 | |||
| Friday Noir: Women and Murder | Genre Fiction: Women and Murder Last Fridays of each Month Jacqueline Cantwell March 30 and April 27 The March 30 author will be Shirley Jackson, notorious for writing The Lottery and the gothic The Haunting of Hill House. From 1943 until her death in 1965, she was popular and published by major magazines. Her stories of women’s social unease, inadequacy, and exclusion are the interior dialogues of victims limited by overbearing mothers and local gossips. Jackson also has a wicked wit. Her murderous children belong to the original Grimm’s fairy tales. For April’s 27th meeting, we will leave Jackson’s domestic and white world of unhappy women, murderous children, and local gossips and return to the American noir setting of social crime by reading Nella Larsen. Unlike the prolific Jackson, Larsen published a few short stories and only two novels between 1920 and 1930. We will read her second novel, Passing. Unlike Jackson’s women, Larsen’s women are not limited because they are over-sensitive; racism denies them the ability to act upon their ambitions. In Passing, two mixed-race women, who had known each other in childhood, meet as married women who have chosen very different lives. Clare’s black working class background denied her the advantages of the black bourgeoisie, but her light skin conceals her African-American background sufficiently so that she is able to marry a wealthy and racist white man. Irene has married a black man, a highly regarded doctor. The tensions that arise from their re-acquaintance end in either a crime, accident, or suicide. Nella Larsen’s life did not allow her to write much, but much has been written on her and about her in turgid academic prose. In this reading group, let’s look upon Nella Larsen as a woman involved in the writing and the issues of her day. She was an acclaimed modernist who wrote about racism, the major crime of American society. No one turned away for inability to pay $10 per single session Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | 1/29/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/friday-noir-women-and-murder/2018-04-27/ | Brooding Novels|Detective Novels|Murder mystery|noir|pulp fiction | 3/30/2018 18:00 | 3/30/2018 20:00 | |||
| Friday Noir: Women and Murder | Genre Fiction: Women and Murder Last Fridays of each Month Jacqueline Cantwell March 30 and April 27 The March 30 author will be Shirley Jackson, notorious for writing The Lottery and the gothic The Haunting of Hill House. From 1943 until her death in 1965, she was popular and published by major magazines. Her stories of women’s social unease, inadequacy, and exclusion are the interior dialogues of victims limited by overbearing mothers and local gossips. Jackson also has a wicked wit. Her murderous children belong to the original Grimm’s fairy tales. For April’s 27th meeting, we will leave Jackson’s domestic and white world of unhappy women, murderous children, and local gossips and return to the American noir setting of social crime by reading Nella Larsen. Unlike the prolific Jackson, Larsen published a few short stories and only two novels between 1920 and 1930. We will read her second novel, Passing. Unlike Jackson’s women, Larsen’s women are not limited because they are over-sensitive; racism denies them the ability to act upon their ambitions. In Passing, two mixed-race women, who had known each other in childhood, meet as married women who have chosen very different lives. Clare’s black working class background denied her the advantages of the black bourgeoisie, but her light skin conceals her African-American background sufficiently so that she is able to marry a wealthy and racist white man. Irene has married a black man, a highly regarded doctor. The tensions that arise from their re-acquaintance end in either a crime, accident, or suicide. Nella Larsen’s life did not allow her to write much, but much has been written on her and about her in turgid academic prose. In this reading group, let’s look upon Nella Larsen as a woman involved in the writing and the issues of her day. She was an acclaimed modernist who wrote about racism, the major crime of American society. No one turned away for inability to pay $10 per single session Jacqueline Cantwell has explored the depths of crime fiction along with the heights the desperate will often want to throw themselves from. These fictions will lay bare many of the facts of the cold as ice killings and cover-ups present in a modern world where we are expected to behave better—but very often do not. What better night than Fridays in Autumn for murder and mayhem. | 1/29/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/friday-noir-women-and-murder/2018-04-27/ | Brooding Novels|Detective Novels|Murder mystery|noir|pulp fiction | 4/27/2018 18:00 | 4/27/2018 20:00 | |||
| Irish Resistance Special | A benefit for The Independent and Marxist Education Project Film / Beer / Food / Music 4pm Film The Limerick Soviet a documentary produced by Frameworks Films of Cork, Ireland with the collaborative support of the Limerick Council of Trade Unions The Limerick Soviet tells the story of a revolution on the streets of Limerick, Ireland in April 1919 when the first soviet in Ireland was declared. It occurred as workers in the city refused the imposition of martial law in Limerick, which had been declared by the police and Brits following the police murder of a trade unionist and IRA member. This hard-line approach by the British authorities backfired and resulted in Limerick workers calling of a general strike and for control of the city to be taken by the workers. The workers then held the city for twelve days before the soviet was broken by the occupying Brit military. The Limerick Soviet was produced with the support of the Sound and Vision scheme, an initiative of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. For further information on purchasing this and other films from Frameworks, please contact Frameworks Films on 021-4211010, or info@frameworkfilms.com. Special thanks to Frameworks and the Limerick Council of Trade Unions 5:30 pm (READINGS) from the historyof Irish resistance 6:30 pm (MUSIC) THE BUSY BUSY Celtic Punky and Western | join The Independent and The Marxist Education Project in celebrating 500 years of Irish Resistance and an ongoing fight for liberation. Beer / Film / Music / Food | 2/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/irish-resistance-special/ | Beer|Bobby Sands Bernadette Devlin|IRA|Ireland|Irish Liberation|Limerick Soviet|The Busy Bust | 3/17/2018 15:30 | 3/17/2018 20:00 | ||
| Book Peddler’s Walking Tour of Wall Street | The Aaron Burr Society’s Book Peddler’s Walking Tour of Wall Street Meet on the steps of Federal Hall, 26 Wall Street DATE CHANGED BECAUSE OF WEATHER The Aaron Burr Society is dedicated to exposing the myths of free markets and free trade while challenging the integrity of Wall Street and their corporate cronies. Selling the book (published by Autonomedia will be available): wall street in black & white: fotos & text of an occupier for those of you who cannot attend visit autonomedia.org to purchase Jim’s book Walking tour (with book peddling) with Jim Costanzo JIM COSTANZO launched the Aaron Burr Society in the summer of 2008 with performances on Wall Street. This was before the Stock Market Crash that created the International Financial Meltdown which in turn was followed by the Great Recession and the return of strong tendencies towards fascism. As part of the walking tour, Jim will play the People’s Horn and read from his book while commenting on the Common Good & Commonwealth in the context of why Burr killed Alexander Hamilton, the hidden criminality of Wall Street and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Fundraiser for The MEP: $10 / $20 / $30 sliding scale | A benefit for Marxist Education walking through the canyons and alleyways of Wall Street | 2/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/book-peddlers-walking-tour-of-wall-street/ | Aaron Burr Society|crony capitalism|lower Manhattan walk|marxism|Occupy Wall Street|Stock Market|walking tour|wall street | 4/28/2018 15:30 | 4/28/2018 17:30 | ||
| Tales of the 1%: The Organizer | In turn-of-the-twentieth-century Turin, an accident in a textile factory incites workers to stage a walkout, which becomes a long strike, developing into an occupation. The capitalists summon in the army. The organizer (Marcello Mastrioanni) rallies the workers, converting fear into strength through collective action. The Organizer is a dramatically political statement from director Mario Monicelli. More commonly known for lighter films like Big Deal on Madonna Street, Monicelli created an expression of the necessity of collective action that is both gritty and entertaining. In making this period piece about a factory strike in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Turin (the rapidly industrializing Italian city that would come to be called “Italy’s Detroit”), Monicelli strove for the utmost realism, casting the film with actual workers and shooting on location in one of the area’s huge textile factories. “I wanted to show all of that. The truth about what happens in the working world.” —Mario Monicelli, interviewed in 2006 Discussion with the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force, workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | Join us for a discussion of Monicelli’s most political film. In addition to casting Marcello Mastrioanni, Monicelli cast the film with workers from the Turin area and shot on location in one of the area’s huge textile factories. “I wanted to show all of that. The truth about what happens in the working world.” —Mario Monicelli, interviewed in 2006 | 3/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/irish-resistance-special-2/ | Anti-bourgeois|anti-capitalist|Exploitation|General Strike|Gramsci|Italian cinema|labor organizing|Mastroianni|Monicelli|Neo realism|Organizing|strike|Togliatti|Torino|Turin | 3/31/2018 16:00 | 3/31/2018 18:30 | ||
| Revolutionary Columbia University Struggle of 1968 | THE BATTLE FOR HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION WITH LESSONS FOR TODAY’S MOVEMENT A word from Eric and Channing of the Labor/Community Strategy Center: Dear New York Friends of the Strategy Center. We are excited to be coming to New York on April 23 for Eric Mann’s talk on the Columbia Strike of 1968 in which he played an active role as a national organizer for SDS. Channing Martinez and Komozi Woodard will be part of the conversation. Today, 50 years later, we are in South L.A. still fighting the U.S. government. In 1968 Columbia University was a slumlord and gentrifier in Harlem—building a racist gym, that the movement called Gym Crow. Columbia faculty were making weapons to be used against the people of Vietnam in a Defense Department Institute for Defense Analyses. The movement of the Black community, the Student Afro-American Society and Students for a Democratic Society forced Columbia to stop construction of the gym and withdraw from the IDA. Today the Strategy Center is charging the Democratic Party ruling elite with a genocidal gentrification in South LA. We are fighting for Free Public Transportation, No Police on the trains and buses, and end to MTA attacks on Black Passengers. We call on the U.S. government to stop drone attacks and close down its 800 military bases all over the world. Columbia was a great workshop where The Movement challenged U.S. ruling circles and won a major struggle. We believe today’s movement needs to teach, learn, and make history. Please join us and purchase tickets below and please forward this to friends in New York. And please email us to let us know you can help! Our great appreciation to Michael Lardner of the Marxist Education Project for organizing this event. Eric and Channing  How the Black Movement in Harlem, Student Afro-American Society and Students for a Democratic Society took on the Columbia ruling class representatives, Mayor Lindsay, The New York Times and the New York Police Department and Won. Eric Mann, Director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, Veteran of the Congress of Racial Equality, Newark Community Union Project, Students for a Democratic Society, the Columbia University Struggle and the United Auto Workers, author of Playbook for Progressives: The 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer In Conversation with Komozi Woodard, author of Nation within a Nation: Amiri Baraka and Black Power Politics and Channing Martinez, lead organizer, Labor/Community Strategy Center, and Manager, Strategy and Soul Movement Center | The Battle for Historical Interpretation with Lessons for Today’s Movement How the Black Movement in Harlem, Student Afro-American Society and Students for a Democratic Society took on the Columbia ruling class representatives, Mayor Lindsay, The New York Times and the New York Police Department and Won. | 3/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolutionary-columbia-university-struggle-of-1968/ | 1968|Afro-American Society of Harlem|Black Movement|Channing Martinez|community organizing|Eric Mann|Harlem activism|History of New York City|Komozi Woodard|Mass Movements|Morningside Heights|NYC History|SDS|Student activism|Upper West Side|Youth Movement in Harlem | 4/23/2018 19:00 | 4/23/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-06-11/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 3/26/2018 19:30 | 3/26/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-04-02/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 4/2/2018 19:30 | 4/2/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-04-09/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 4/9/2018 19:30 | 4/9/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-04-16/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 4/16/2018 19:30 | 4/16/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-04-23/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 4/23/2018 19:30 | 4/23/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-04-30/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 4/30/2018 19:30 | 4/30/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-05-07/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 5/7/2018 19:30 | 5/7/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-05-14/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 5/14/2018 19:30 | 5/14/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-05-21/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 5/21/2018 19:30 | 5/21/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-06-04/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 6/4/2018 19:30 | 6/4/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 | An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group Of 20th-century revolutions, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war, interrupted by a Japanese invasion, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for updates to the reading list. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. | We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement, slaughtered militant workers and peasants, and declared war on Communists. After the war, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-06-11/ | anti-imperialism|Chain Kai Shek|Imperialism|Long March|Mao|National Liberation|nationalism|peasant and worker alliance|peasant rebellion|Revolution|revolutionary process|Stalinism|world war two|WWII|Yenan Way | 6/11/2018 19:30 | 6/11/2018 21:30 | ||
| Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner | William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. This May, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel, the Beacon Press anthology, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | In Styron’s novel and in the response from 10 African-American writers, numerous questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of James Baldwin’s essay concerning the work and subsequent controversy. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-31/ | American history|anti-slavery|fiction|Labor History|narrative|poetic license|race and class|racism|rebellion|right to history|slave revolt | 5/3/2018 19:30 | 5/3/2018 21:30 | ||
| Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner | William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. This May, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel, the Beacon Press anthology, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | In Styron’s novel and in the response from 10 African-American writers, numerous questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of James Baldwin’s essay concerning the work and subsequent controversy. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-10/ | American history|anti-slavery|fiction|Labor History|narrative|poetic license|race and class|racism|rebellion|right to history|slave revolt | 5/10/2018 19:30 | 5/10/2018 21:30 | ||
| Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner | William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. This May, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel, the Beacon Press anthology, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | In Styron’s novel and in the response from 10 African-American writers, numerous questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of James Baldwin’s essay concerning the work and subsequent controversy. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-17/ | American history|anti-slavery|fiction|Labor History|narrative|poetic license|race and class|racism|rebellion|right to history|slave revolt | 5/17/2018 19:30 | 5/17/2018 21:30 | ||
| Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner | William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. This May, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel, the Beacon Press anthology, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | In Styron’s novel and in the response from 10 African-American writers, numerous questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of James Baldwin’s essay concerning the work and subsequent controversy. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-24/ | American history|anti-slavery|fiction|Labor History|narrative|poetic license|race and class|racism|rebellion|right to history|slave revolt | 5/24/2018 19:30 | 5/24/2018 21:30 | ||
| Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner | William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. This May, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel, the Beacon Press anthology, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. | In Styron’s novel and in the response from 10 African-American writers, numerous questions concerning race, class, the rendering of historical presentation, claims on sectors of our shared history, etc. are raised. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of James Baldwin’s essay concerning the work and subsequent controversy. | 3/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-31/ | American history|anti-slavery|fiction|Labor History|narrative|poetic license|race and class|racism|rebellion|right to history|slave revolt | 5/31/2018 19:30 | 5/31/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-06-07/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 4/5/2018 19:30 | 4/5/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-04-12/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 4/12/2018 19:30 | 4/12/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-04-19/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 4/19/2018 19:30 | 4/19/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-04-26/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 4/26/2018 19:30 | 4/26/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-05-03/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 5/3/2018 19:30 | 5/3/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-05-10/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 5/10/2018 19:30 | 5/10/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-05-17/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 5/17/2018 19:30 | 5/17/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-05-24/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 5/24/2018 19:30 | 5/24/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-05-31/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 5/31/2018 19:30 | 5/31/2018 21:30 | ||
| The Political Economy of Money and Finance | Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force 10 sessions There has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? To understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. Lapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money, the creation of interest bearing capital, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system, the process of capitalist crisis, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | This reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then, including Marxist, Keynesian, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. | 3/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-06-07/ | 21st century Capitalism|destruction by finance|Financialization|Itoh|Lapavitsas|Money|Political economy|production | 6/7/2018 19:30 | 6/7/2018 21:30 | ||
| May Made Me | An oral history of the 1968 uprising in France With author Mitch Abidor at New Perspectives Studio 456-458 West 37th Street (near 10th Avenue)/Manhattan The mass protests that shook France in May 1968 were exciting, dangerous, creative and influential, changing European politics to this day. Students demonstrated, workers went on general strike, factories and universities were occupied. At the height of its momentum, the protests brought the entire national economy to a halt. The protests reached such a point that the French and international bourgeoisie feared civil war or revolution. Fifty years later, here are the eye-opening oral testimonies of those young rebels. By listening to the voices of students and workers, as opposed to those of their leaders, May ’68 appears not just as a mass event, but rather as an event driven by millions of individuals, creating a mosaic human portrait of France at the time. Published on the 50th anniversary of those days in the spring of 68, May Made Me presents the legacy of the uprising: how those explosive experiences changed the individuals who participated and their lives as lived since then. Mitch Abidor is a translator from Brooklyn whose many translations include A Socialist History of the French Revolution by Jean Jaurès and Anarchists Never Surrender and other works by Victor Serge. | Published on the 50th anniversary of those days in the spring of 68, “May Made Me” presents the legacy of the uprising: how those explosive experiences changed the individuals who participated and their lives as lived since then. | 3/25/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/may-made-me/ | 1968|60s|DeGaulle|France|General Strike|May 68|Nanterre|Oral History|Paris|situationists|Sixties|Sorbonne|Urban Uprising | 4/22/2018 15:30 | 4/22/2018 17:30 | ||
| Archive That Comrade! | Left Memory Politics, Toxic Fame and the Populist Archive A talk with author Phil Cohen “Don’t mourn, organize!” was a favored campaign slogan of the old Left, part of a commitment to struggles of long duration against social injustice and a belief in the ultimate triumph of socialism. But with the rise of identity politics, the importance of memory work, of recording and celebrating hitherto hidden and ignored life histories, has been widely recognized along with a nostalgic tendency in some quarters to mourn the “world we have lost” where working class culture, tied to the labor movement, was a major and progressive political force. But are the do-it-yourself archival practices of the me-too generation really an effective tool for building a shared sense of culture and community in which feelings of anger and loss can be addressed, so that grief does not have to be sublimated in grievance? By the same token, how successful has the New Left been in challenging the multi-media apparatus of fame and celebrity which has come to dominate the politics of public commemoration? How far can the rise of the populist archive, designed to communicate ‘positive images’ of maligned minorities, be seen as a response both to the death of the collective hero, and as a reaction against the competitive individualism promoted by the fame academy? In this talk Phil will address these questions by looking at some recent controversies surrounding public memorials, monuments and archives in both the UK and USA and by arguing for an alternative democratic politics of the archive. Phil Cohen is a scholar activist who has worked for over 40 years with working class and immigrant communities in the East End of London as they respond to the impact of large scale demographic and socio-economic change linked to globalization and de-industrialization. As an urban ethnographer he is especially interested in how political and cultural values are transmitted between generations—or not. Among his many books are Knuckle Sandwich: Growing Up in the Working Class City (Penguin 1978), Re-thinking the Youth Question (Palgrave 1998), Reading Room Only: Memoir of a Radical Bibliophile (Five Leaves 2013), Graphologies (Mica Press 2015) and Archive That Comrade: Left Legacies and the Counter Culture of Remembrance (PM Press 2018). Website and blog: www.philcohenworks.com Tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | …how successful has the New Left been in challenging the multi-media apparatus of fame and celebrity which has come to dominate the politics of public commemoration? How far can the rise of the populist archive, designed to communicate ‘positive images’ of maligned minorities, be seen as a response both to the death of the collective hero, and as a reaction against the competitive individualism promoted by the fame academy?how successful has the New Left been in challenging the multi-media apparatus of fame and celebrity which has come to dominate the politics of public commemoration? How far can the rise of the populist archive, designed to communicate ‘positive images’ of maligned minorities, be seen as a response both to the death of the collective hero, and as a reaction against the competitive individualism promoted by the fame academy? | 3/27/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/archive-that-comrade/ | activism|archive|archives|celebrity|fame|historical consciousness|housing struggles|identity politics|labor movement|memorials|memory|momuments|multi-media apparatus|proletarian culture|working class culture|youth culture | 5/9/2018 19:30 | 5/9/2018 21:30 | ||
| Small Is Necessary | Shared Living on a Shared Planet with author Anitra Nelson A presentation and discussion with activist-scholar Anitra Nelson, whose new book Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (Pluto Press) argues for ‘eco-collaborative housing’, i.e. smaller homes with shared spaces and facilities. Houses and apartments in countries like the US, Canada and Australia grew larger in the 20th century even as household sizes shrank. This has made housing less environmentally sustainable and it contributes to the housing affordability crisis. Since the US mortgage fiasco triggered the Global Financial Crisis many countries have experienced skyrocketing house prices. Meanwhile, the withdrawal of state support for social and public housing means that private ownership or rental are the only options. Small is Necessary advocates not only for smaller dwellings in compact settlements but for shared spaces and facilities. Anitra presents a range of practical options from co-living in a household to co-housing and eco-villages. She weighs the pros and cons of the tiny house movement and assesses the potential and limits of radical squats along the way. She considers the future of eco-collaborative housing managed by various different drivers—governments, market developers, and sharing economy initiatives, and grassroots communities. Anitra has had ten years’ experience living in two different Australian housing collectives, but her new book is research-based, especially drawing on ecological footprint studies. The author will sign books at the end of the program. Anitra Nelson is an activist-scholar whose research interests focus on housing and community-based sustainability, environmental justice and non-monetary futures. She is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia). She was a Carson Fellow at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2016–2017) and was a Visiting Scholar at the New School for Social Research (2012). She is a co-editor of Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (2011) and Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities (forthcoming). | This new book advocates not only for smaller dwellings in compact settlements but for shared spaces and facilities. Anitra presents a range of practical options from co-living in a household to co-housing and eco-villages. DUE TO A GENEROUS CONTRIBUTION, THIS IS NOW A FREE EVENT! | 4/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/small-is-necessary/ | eco-collaboration|Eco-socialism|ecology|habitats|housing|housing issues|rational living|responsible living arrangements|sharing space|species survival|sustainable habitation|urbanism | 5/29/2018 19:30 | 5/29/2018 21:30 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-08-30/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 6/14/2018 19:00 | 6/14/2018 21:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-08-25/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 6/9/2018 11:00 | 6/9/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-06-16/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 6/16/2018 11:00 | 6/16/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-06-23/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 6/23/2018 11:00 | 6/23/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-06-30/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 6/30/2018 11:00 | 6/30/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-07-07/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 7/7/2018 11:00 | 7/7/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-07-14/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 7/14/2018 11:00 | 7/14/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-07-21/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 7/21/2018 11:00 | 7/21/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-07-28/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 7/28/2018 11:00 | 7/28/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-08-04/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 8/4/2018 11:00 | 8/4/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-08-11/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 8/11/2018 11:00 | 8/11/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-08-18/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 8/18/2018 11:00 | 8/18/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume I | Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. | 5/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i/2018-08-25/ | automation|bourgeois economics|Bourgeoisie and proletariat|capital accumulation|capitalism|capitalist crisis|circuits of capital|commodity fetishism|currency|Exploitation|industrial revolution|labor power|Marxist Method|Money|Political economy|prices|Primitive Accumulation|profit|rate of profit|stock trading|surplus value|trade|value|wages | 8/25/2018 11:00 | 8/25/2018 14:00 | ||
| Climate Leviathan | The Political Challenge of Global Warming Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight How will anthropogenic climate disruption transform alter the world’s basic political arrangements? In their new book Climate Leviathan, Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright warn that global warming will push capitalist elites toward an authoritarian imposition of “planetary sovereignty” to confront the crisis. In this four-week reading group we will examine their argument and the alternative they present: “a global, grassroots, and broad-based network … driven by a desire for a deeper form of democracy, one that provides communities with real control over those resources that are most critical to collective survival—the health of the water, air, and soil.” FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. | How will anthropogenic climate disruption transform alter the world’s basic political arrangements? In their new book Climate Leviathan, Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright warn that global warming will push capitalist elites toward an authoritarian imposition of “planetary sovereignty” to confront the crisis. | 5/13/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-leviathan/ | 21st century politics|authoritarianism|Climate Change|eco-politics|Eco-socialism|global warming|planet sovereignty | 6/5/2018 18:00 | 6/5/2018 19:30 | ||
| Fighting for Space | How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction With author Travis Lupick Published by Arsenal Pulp Press / Distributed by AK Press Books will be available at the event All are encouraged to attend. No one turned away for inability to pay. Donations of $6, $10 or $15 accepted North America is in the grips of a drug epidemic; with the introduction of fentanyl, the chances of a fatal overdose are greater than ever, prompting many to rethink the war on drugs. There were more than 60,000 opiod overdose deaths in the United States in 2016—this annual death toll increases yearly. This is mass murder. While deaths across the continent continue to climb, Fighting for Space (published by Arsenal Pulp Press / Distributed by AK Press) explains the concept of harm reduction as a crucial component of a city’s response to the drug crisis. It tells the story of a grassroots group of drug users in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside who waged a political street fight for two decades to transform how the city treats its most marginalized citizens. Over the past twenty-five years, this group of residents from Canada’s poorest neighborhood organized themselves in response to the growing number of overdose deaths and demanded that drug users be given the same rights as any other citizen; against all odds, they eventually won. But just as their battle came to an end, fentanyl arrived and opioid deaths across North America reached an all-time high. The “genocide” in Vancouver finally sparked government action. Twenty years later, as the same pattern plays out in other cities, there is much that advocates for reform can learn from Vancouver’s experience. Fighting for Space tells that story—including case studies in Ohio, Florida, New York, California, Massachusetts, and Washington state—with the same passionate fervor as the activists whose tireless work gave dignity to drug users and saved countless lives. “The story of the Downtown Eastside is one of the most inspiring, moving, and enraging stories of our time. This beautiful and haunting book finally does it justice. This is essential history―and it isn’t over.” ―Johann Hari, author, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War On Drugs “Fighting for Space is a colourful, fast-paced, well-researched account of the unique circumstances, tragic and inspiring events, and the courageously maverick characters that established Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as North America’s harm-reduction capital. Also ranging across the continent, from Ohio to California to Florida, Travis Lupick’s fascinating book should help inform a more rational understanding of addictions treatment and drug policies everywhere.” ―Gabor Maté M.D., author, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction Travis Lupick is an award-winning journalist based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the author of Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction. He works as a staff reporter for the Georgia Straight newspaper and has also written about drug addiction, harm reduction, and mental health for the Toronto Star and Al Jazeera English, among other outlets. For Fighting for Space, he received the 2018 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Travis has also worked as a journalist in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal, Bhutan, Peru, and Honduras. Follow him on Twitter: @tlupick. | North America is in the grips of a drug epidemic; with the introduction of fentanyl, the chances of a fatal overdose are greater than ever, prompting many to rethink the war on drugs. There were more than 60,000 opiod overdose deaths in the United States in 2016—an annual death toll that increases yearly. This is mass murder. While deaths across the continent continue to climb, Travis Lupick’s work explains the concept of harm reduction as a crucial component of a city’s response to the drug crisis. | 5/13/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fighting-for-space/ | Class Struggles|community organizing|dependency|drug crisis|drug epidemic|drug user initiative|fentanyl|harm reduction|heroes|opiod epidemic|overdose deaths|struggle for space | 6/20/2018 19:30 | 6/20/2018 21:30 | ||
| Nicaragua in Crisis | A Forum with Father Octavio Altamirano • Jorge Blass • Dan La Botz • Lisa Maya Knauer • Nicaraguan Students co-sponsored with Haymarket Books, NACLA, New Politics and Democratic Socialists of America, NYC Chapter WITH THE CHANGE OF VENUE, THIS IS NOW A DONATIONS-BASED EVENT. Since late April the Nicaraguan Sandinista government of President Daniel Ortega has been challenged first by a popular uprising in which dozens were killed by the government and then by mass demonstrations demanding peace and justice. Now the Catholic Church is attempting to mediate between the Ortega government and the movement, but so far without success. What is the source of Nicaragua’s crisis today? And what are the roots of the problem in the experience of the last forty years? How does it affect Nicaraguan immigrants to the United States? What stand should progressive Americans take on the Nicaraguan crisis? SOME OF YOU HAVE PAID FOR TICKETS FOR THE OTHER VENUE. THESE PURCHASES CAN BE A DONATION OR WE CAN REFUND YOU IF YOU PROVIDE AN ADDRESS. info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | What is the source of Nicaragua’s crisis today? And what are the roots of the problem in the experience of the last forty years? What stand should progressive Americans take on the Nicaraguan crisis? | 5/19/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/nicaragua-in-crisis/ | anti-austerity|anti-left protests|Austerity|Central America|corruption|economic crisis|fake metal trees|Imperialism|Latin America|Nepotism|Nicaragua|Nicaragua crisis|Ortega government|poltical crisis|Sandinista|socialism and catholicism|State socialism|The Americas|Uprising|Workers Rights | 6/13/2018 18:00 | 6/13/2018 21:30 | ||
| Prague Spring: 50 Years Later | with Pete Dolack Histories of the 1968 Prague Spring tend to focus exclusively on the drama inside the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and the personality of reformer Alexander Dubček. The fuller story of the Prague Spring is the grassroots movement for workers’ control of industry and economic democracy. Although reformers within the Communist Party sought significant reforms to the overly centralized system copied from the Soviet Union, including advocacy of workers’ councils, there were significant differences between the more modest reforms put forth by Czechoslovak economists and the more thorough-going concepts of activists and workers themselves. This was a true grassroots effort, mostly organized by trade union officials and rank-and-file Communist Party members. One interesting wrinkle is that unions, representing members as individuals and freed from state control, would continue to exist alongside the workers’ councils. All this was to happen in a socialized economy in which formal ownership would continue to reside with the state but in which state and party control would be drastically curtailed. In this conception, which began to be implemented in some of the country’s biggest enterprises, the workforce as a whole would meet in assemblies to decide broad policies and freely elect a council from their ranks that would coordinate management. Each worker would be a part of the enterprise assembly and be members of independent unions that would represent workers as individuals in disputes with the collective or with higher administrative bodies. Thus each half of the duality would be represented through separate institutions. Statutes had been developed in several factories across the country, and a national conference that sought to codify a system of workers’ control took place in which approximately one-sixth of the country’s workers were represented, before the experiment began to be shut down. Naturally, such a well-developed movement did not spring into being spontaneously, but rather was the product of earlier experiments, years of debate, and memories of councils established in the 1940s. In part, it was also an attempt at reversing several years of economic stagnation, a stagnation that signaled that the model imposed by the Soviet Union had reached its limits. Pete Dolack is the author of It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment, a study of the 20th century’s attempts to transcend capitalism that includes a chapter analyzing the Prague Spring and the workers’ control movement. He is at work on his second book, focused on economic democracy, and writes the Systemic Disorder blog, which discusses the ongoing economic crisis of capitalism and the environmental and political issues connected to it. His writings also appear in popular outlets including CounterPunch and ZNet. | Although reformers within the Communist Party sought significant reforms to the overly centralized system copied from the Soviet Union, including advocacy of workers’ councils, there were significant differences between the more modest reforms put forth by Czechoslovak economists and the more thorough-going concepts of activists and workers themselves. | 5/31/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/prague-spring-50-years-later/ | 1968|bureaucracy|Counter culture|counter-revolution|Czechoslovakia|eastern Europe|Prague|Socialism|socialist experiiments|State socialism|transition|worker revolts|worker’s control|worker’s councils | 6/30/2018 15:30 | 6/30/2018 17:30 | ||
| Capital’s 21st Century Endgame | Capital’s 21st Century Endgame: Building a Planet-Wide Opposition A Reading and Discussion Group with The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force The conditions capital is making for all life on earth is playing out like a science fiction endgame. An international movement with profound social force that absolutely brings an end to this game is imperative. This critical reading/study is a beginning. Other related sessions will happen over the next few years. We will begin by studying two relatively recent works that trace the history of capitalist/imperialist development leading to where we are currently positioned as the world approaches having a population of eight billion: an updated Planet of Slums by Mike Davis and Samir Amin’s The World We Wish to See. In the fall we will take up Ernest Screpanti’s Global Imperialism and the Great Crisis: The Uncertain Future of Capitalism and more. Right now, a handful of individuals control as much wealth as half of the world’s population – an accumulation of capital made possible by the labor of the global working classes, past and present, and accompanied by rollbacks of democratic rights, increasing precarity of labor through automation and multiple other factors, and never-ending imperial wars. Our aim is to better understand the dynamics that have led to the global spread of capitalism, while also analyzing the successes and failures of global opposition to capitalism and imperialism, so we can become conscious political actors and help shape strong enough social movements worldwide that can overcome capitalist exploitation, permanent wars, and the destruction of our planet. The World We Wish to See Samir Amin The World We Wish to See presents a sweeping view of 20th century political history and a stirring appeal to take political culture seriously. Amin assesses the potential and limitations of the many movements to confront global capitalism in the 21st century. Amin explains that effective opposition must be based on a “convergence in diversity” of oppressed and exploited people—whether workers, peasants, students, or any other opponent of capitalism and imperialism. What is needed is a new “international” that has an open and flexible organizational structure to coordinate opposition movements around the world. Planet of Slums Mike Davis Davis presents an account of the rapid rise of the world’s slums. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people now live in the slums of the cities of the Global South. In Planet of Slums, Davis explores the future of a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world. From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization, and even from economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat is a wholly unforeseen development, and asks whether the great slums, as a terrified Victorian middle class once imagined, are volcanoes waiting to erupt. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | The conditions capital is making for all life on earth is playing out like a science fiction endgame. An international movement with profound social force that absolutely brings an end to this game is imperative. This critical reading/study is a beginning. Other related sessions will happen over the next few years. | 5/31/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitals-21st-century-endgame/ | Anti-capitalism|Capital crisis|contemporary anti-capitalism|Global South|internationalism|labor uprisings|socialist movements|working class growth | 6/25/2018 19:30 | 6/25/2018 21:30 | ||
| Capital’s 21st Century Endgame | Capital’s 21st Century Endgame: Building a Planet-Wide Opposition A Reading and Discussion Group with The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force THIS CLASS IS POSTPONED UNTIL LATER IN THE 2018/2019 SEASON The conditions capital is making for all life on earth is playing out like a science fiction endgame. An international movement with profound social force that absolutely brings an end to this game is imperative. This critical reading/study is a beginning. Other related sessions will happen over the next few years. We will begin by studying two relatively recent works that trace the history of capitalist/imperialist development leading to where we are currently positioned as the world approaches having a population of eight billion: an updated Planet of Slums by Mike Davis and Samir Amin’s The World We Wish to See. In the fall we will take up Ernest Screpanti’s Global Imperialism and the Great Crisis: The Uncertain Future of Capitalism and more. Right now, a handful of individuals control as much wealth as half of the world’s population – an accumulation of capital made possible by the labor of the global working classes, past and present, and accompanied by rollbacks of democratic rights, increasing precarity of labor through automation and multiple other factors, and never-ending imperial wars. Our aim is to better understand the dynamics that have led to the global spread of capitalism, while also analyzing the successes and failures of global opposition to capitalism and imperialism, so we can become conscious political actors and help shape strong enough social movements worldwide that can overcome capitalist exploitation, permanent wars, and the destruction of our planet. The World We Wish to See Samir Amin The World We Wish to See presents a sweeping view of 20th century political history and a stirring appeal to take political culture seriously. Amin assesses the potential and limitations of the many movements to confront global capitalism in the 21st century. Amin explains that effective opposition must be based on a “convergence in diversity” of oppressed and exploited people—whether workers, peasants, students, or any other opponent of capitalism and imperialism. What is needed is a new “international” that has an open and flexible organizational structure to coordinate opposition movements around the world. Planet of Slums Mike Davis Davis presents an account of the rapid rise of the world’s slums. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people now live in the slums of the cities of the Global South. In Planet of Slums, Davis explores the future of a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world. From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization, and even from economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat is a wholly unforeseen development, and asks whether the great slums, as a terrified Victorian middle class once imagined, are volcanoes waiting to erupt. The Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. | The conditions capital is making for all life on earth is playing out like a science fiction endgame. An international movement with profound social force that absolutely brings an end to this game is imperative. This critical reading/study is a beginning. Other related sessions will happen over the next few years. | 5/31/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitals-21st-century-endgame-2018-07-02/ | Anti-capitalism|Capital crisis|contemporary anti-capitalism|Global South|internationalism|labor uprisings|socialist movements|working class growth | 7/2/2018 19:30 | 7/2/2018 21:30 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-06-21/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 6/21/2018 19:00 | 6/21/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-06-28/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 6/28/2018 19:00 | 6/28/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-07-05/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 7/5/2018 19:00 | 7/5/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-07-12/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 7/12/2018 19:00 | 7/12/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-07-19/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 7/19/2018 19:00 | 7/19/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-07-26/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 7/26/2018 19:00 | 7/26/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-08-02/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 8/2/2018 19:00 | 8/2/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-08-09/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 8/9/2018 19:00 | 8/9/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-08-16/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 8/16/2018 19:00 | 8/16/2018 21:00 | ||
| Red/Green Revolution | The Politics and Technology of Ecosocialism with author Victor Wallis Red-Green Revolution is an impassioned and informed confrontation with the planetary emergency brought about by accelerated ecological devastation in the last half-century. Victor Wallis argues that sound ecological policy requires a socialist framework, based on democratic participation and drawing on the historical lessons of earlier efforts. In the age of Trump and with a lack of sound U.S. ecological policies, Wallis’s book could not come at a better time. Red-Green Revolution confronts the emergency produced by the accelerated devastation of the last half-century. The human species is in a race against time to salvage and restore what it can of the environmental conditions that make a healthy existence possible. This task requires us to reconsider not only the type of energy that we use, but also the institutions, the technology, and the social relationships that determine what is produced, in what quantities, by what methods, and to what ends. At the heart of Wallis’s call to action is the ever-vital debate of capitalism vs. socialism and their relationships to protecting ecological order. Arguing that proper ecological policy requires a socialist framework, based on democratic participation and drawing on the historical lessons of earlier efforts, Wallis writes about how the task of establishing such a framework may evolve through the convergence of popular struggles – against all forms of oppression – as these have emerged under conditions of crisis. Victor Wallis is a professor of Liberal Arts at the Berklee College of Music. For twenty years he was the managing editor of Socialism and Democracy and has been writing on ecological issues since the early 1990s. His writings have appeared in journals such as Monthly Review and New Political Science, and have been translated into thirteen languages. | At the heart of Wallis’s call to action is the ever-vital debate of capitalism vs. socialism and their relationships to protecting ecological order…. Wallis writes about how the task of establishing a socialist framework may evolve through the convergence of popular struggles – against all forms of oppression – as these have emerged under conditions of crisis. | 6/22/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/red-green-revolution/ | capitalist crisis|ecological activism|ecological crisis|ecosocialism|popular struggles|red-green revolution | 7/18/2018 19:00 | 7/18/2018 21:30 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-08-23/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 8/23/2018 19:00 | 8/23/2018 21:00 | ||
| Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 NOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929) Drawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) Moose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers, drug peddling psychics, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. The Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957) Set in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead, the question is, which of the self-deceiving, vicious, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. The Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972) This, like all good descendents of pulps, is a quick, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie, a troubled young woman, and her charge, an unpleasant orphan. Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. The Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006) Four friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor, despite the grisly realities. THE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. | Deals made in the shade by those packing heat Six noir novels for the Summer of 2018 | 4/30/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-08-30/ | Capitalism and literature|Chandler|crime fiction|detective fiction|gangsters and capital|Hammett|Highsmith|Jim Thompson|noir|pulp fiction|Summer Reading | 8/30/2018 19:00 | 8/30/2018 21:00 | ||
| Comrade Eli Messinger | The Marxist Education Project lost long-term comrade Eli Messinger today, June 22, 2018. The published obituary is below. In the middle of obituary are these key sentences: “A tireless activist for a wide range of anti-war, human rights, and revolutionary social change efforts. Eli was a committed fighter with a great sense of humor.” Eli joined The Marxist Education Collective in 1977 and worked more than tirelessly well into the 1980s. He never gave up interest nor lacked in support of the project to provide non-dogmatic non-sectarian Marxist education to as broad a public as possible. He was instrumental in establishing a Science Task Force at The New York Marxist School and did much to expand our focus on developments in science in classes, forums and other key parts of our curriculum. All of us at The Marxist Education Project express our sympathy to Eli’s family, many friends and the wide world of comrades he selflessly shared his life with. MESSINGER, Eli Charles MD Died June 22, 2018, aged 81.Beloved husband of Barbara Barnes. Wonderful father to Daniel [Batya], Miriam [Felicia], Adam [Kira], Benjie [Jamie]. Grandfather of 8, great-grandfather of 2. Survived by sister, Susan Avner, and former wife, Ruth Messinger. Beloved son of Ben and Edna Messinger. Child and adolescent psychiatrist, political activist, Marxist intellectual. Worked for 30 years in child and adolescent psychiatry at Metropolitan Hospital. A tireless activist for a wide range of anti-war, human rights, and revolutionary social change efforts. Eli was a committed fighter with a great sense of humor. Graduated Lafayette College 1955, Harvard Medical School 1959. Funeral service Tuesday, 12 noon, Plaza Funeral Home, 630 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10024. The family will be at 41 W 96th St. (Apt. 3A) Tuesday from 4-7 pm. Contributions may be made to Perlman Music Program https://perlmanmusicprogram.org/support/support-us, 19 W 69th St., Rm 1101, NY, NY 10023 or the Marxist Education Project https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/product/donation/ | “A tireless activist for a wide range of anti-war, human rights, and revolutionary social change efforts. Eli was a committed fighter with a great sense of humor.” | 6/23/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/comrade-eli-messinger/ | 6/26/2018 12:00 | 6/26/2018 14:00 | |||
| The Prince and The Modern Prince | Machiavelli, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects. The Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? This 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm) Participants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). | Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? | 6/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-08-27/ | class rule|consent|hegemony|liberty|modernity|post-modern|power | 7/9/2018 19:00 | 7/9/2018 21:00 | ||
| The Prince and The Modern Prince | Machiavelli, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects. The Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? This 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm) Participants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). | Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? | 6/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-07-16/ | class rule|consent|hegemony|liberty|modernity|post-modern|power | 7/16/2018 19:00 | 7/16/2018 21:00 | ||
| The Prince and The Modern Prince | Machiavelli, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects. The Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? This 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm) Participants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). | Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? | 6/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-07-23/ | class rule|consent|hegemony|liberty|modernity|post-modern|power | 7/23/2018 19:00 | 7/23/2018 21:00 | ||
| The Prince and The Modern Prince | Machiavelli, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects. The Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? This 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm) Participants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). | Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? | 6/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-07-30/ | class rule|consent|hegemony|liberty|modernity|post-modern|power | 7/30/2018 19:00 | 7/30/2018 21:00 | ||
| The Prince and The Modern Prince | Machiavelli, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects. The Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? This 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm) Participants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). | Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? | 6/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-08-06/ | class rule|consent|hegemony|liberty|modernity|post-modern|power | 8/6/2018 19:00 | 8/6/2018 21:00 | ||
| The Prince and The Modern Prince | Machiavelli, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects. The Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? This 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm) Participants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). | Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? | 6/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-08-13/ | class rule|consent|hegemony|liberty|modernity|post-modern|power | 8/13/2018 19:00 | 8/13/2018 21:00 | ||
| The Prince and The Modern Prince | Machiavelli, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects. The Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? This 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm) Participants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). | Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? | 6/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-08-20/ | class rule|consent|hegemony|liberty|modernity|post-modern|power | 8/20/2018 19:00 | 8/20/2018 21:00 | ||
| The Prince and The Modern Prince | Machiavelli, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects. The Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? This 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm) Participants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). | Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote? | 6/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-08-27/ | class rule|consent|hegemony|liberty|modernity|post-modern|power | 8/27/2018 19:00 | 8/27/2018 21:00 | ||
| Choke Points | Logistics Workers Disrupting the Global Supply Chain A discussion with editors Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Immanuel Ness Presented by The Marxist Education Project with The Left Front An important new book from Pluto Press (plutobooks.com) Global capitalism is always a precarious system. Relying on the steady flow of goods across the world, trans-national companies such as Wal-Mart and Amazon depend on the work of millions in docks, warehouses and logistics centers to keep goods moving. This is the global supply chain. If the chain is broken, capitalism grinds to a halt. This talk concerns the book of the same name, looking at case studies across the world to uncover a network of resistance by these workers who, despite their importance, face extreme exploitation and economic violence. Experiencing first hand wildcat strikes, organized blockades and boycotts, the authors have explored a diverse range of organizing and related activities, from South China dockworkers to the transformation of the port of Piraeus in Greece, and from the Southern California logistics sector, to dock and logistical workers in Chile and unions in Turkey. Join us for an evening of discussion on the potential strength our class has the ability to utilize in facing capital dominance during our period where capital has of necessity created this points that really give us the means of “choking” their power. “This phenomenal collection is a must-read for anyone interested in the dire state of the contemporary global economy. It offers an unprecedented analysis of supply chain capitalism through case studies from around the world that are beautifully written and carefully researched.”—Deborah Cowen, University of Toronto “Beyond analyzing logistical choke points as abstract sites for capital to route around or locations in which workers acquire untimely power, this volume takes us straight into these crucial nodes of labor struggle. Choke points in global supply chains are revealed as spaces of hazard and calculation, violence and negotiation, victory and loss, passion and organization.” —Brett Neilson, Research Professor, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University Jake Alimahomed-Wilson is Professor of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. He is the author of Solidarity Forever? Race, Gender, and Unionism in the Ports of Southern California (Lexington Books, 2016) and co-author of Getting the Goods: Ports, Labor, and the Logistics Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2008). Immanuel Ness is Professor of Political Science at City University of New York. He is author of Southern Insurgency (Pluto, 2015), Guest Workers and Resistance to U.S. Corporate Despotism (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2011), and numerous other works. He is editor of the International Encyclopaedia of Revolution and Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society. No one turned away for inability to pay | Join us for an evening of discussion on the potential strength our class has the ability to utilize in facing capital dominance during our period where capital has of necessity created this points that really give us the means of “choking” their power. | 7/31/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/choke-points/ | automation|Finance Workers|Labor Strategy|Logistics Workers|Messengers|Organizing|Platform workers|Port Workers|precarity|Shipping Workers|worker’s control|Workers Power | 9/28/2018 19:00 | 9/28/2018 21:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-11-28/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 9/26/2018 18:00 | 9/26/2018 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-10-03/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 10/3/2018 18:00 | 10/3/2018 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-10-10/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 10/10/2018 18:00 | 10/10/2018 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-10-17/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 10/17/2018 18:00 | 10/17/2018 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-10-24/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 10/24/2018 18:00 | 10/24/2018 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-10-31/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 10/31/2018 18:00 | 10/31/2018 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-11-07/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 11/7/2018 18:00 | 11/7/2018 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-11-14/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 11/14/2018 18:00 | 11/14/2018 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Energy and Power | A 10-week Study Group with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight Throughout the history of capitalism, energy sources and especially fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—have been critical to the system’s economic viability. The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. Competition and greed for readily extractable energy resources have fueled wars and evoked popular resistance, especially in the Middle East. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. We will read George Caffentzis’s recently published No Blood for Oil! and related work by Michael Klare, Andreas Malm, Timothy Mitchell, and others. FRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism, science, nature, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of MEP eco-socialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist with the DSA and faith-centered groups, and reviews books on eco-socialism for Marx & Philosophy | The crises associated with climate change are rooted in capital’s insatiable need to burn fuels in order to accumulate wealth and maximize profits. This study group will explore the history and political economy of oil, energy and capitalism. | 8/6/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-energy-and-power/2018-11-28/ | Climate Change|crisis|ecology|Extractivism|fossil fuels|melting ice|Militarism|oil|rate of profit|species destruction|warfare | 11/28/2018 18:00 | 11/28/2018 19:30 | ||
| Degenerate Art and The State | Part Ii: Notes of Discord An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner and Jack Shneidman It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and including two exemplary, radical films: Soleil O (dir. Mel Hondo, France/Mauritania, 1967), a scathing attack on colonialism and capitalism; and Council of the Gods, (dir. Kurt Maetzig, East Germany, 1950) a fictional film linking Monsanto, Rockefeller, and Hitler. Music selections will include works by John Coltrane (1926-1967), American jazz saxophonist, composer, and civil rights activist; Charles Haden (1938-2014) of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, American jazz bassist and composer, also engaged in anti-war and anti-imperialist movements; and Frederic Rzewski (1938- ), American composer and pianist, engaged in anti-prison industrial complex activity, as well as being an anti-fascist agitator. Among visual art considered will be work by German muralist Werner Tuebke (1929-2004), including Peasant Wars panorama; Josep Renau (1907-1982) Spanish Civil War Communist, with photomontages of great power and beauty; and Edward Keinholz (1927-1994), American anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. sculptor from the 1960s. JACK SHNEIDMAN earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and an MA from the City College of New York in music composition and jazz performance, respectively. He is the author of the instructional book, 1001 Jazz Licks published by the Cherry Lane Music Company (2000). He has led jazz ensembles in the New York area, and has also performed in Japan and London. He lectured at LaGuardia Community College for seven years. JERAMY TURNER’s primary concern for many years has been the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of countering ruling class hegemony. From 1975-1992, she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, Shattering Screen. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell University). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen (Norway), and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and film. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state-2/2018-11-28/ | art and fascism|Art criticism|art in revolt|Music|radical film | 10/3/2018 18:00 | 10/3/2018 20:00 | ||
| Degenerate Art and The State | Part Ii: Notes of Discord An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner and Jack Shneidman It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and including two exemplary, radical films: Soleil O (dir. Mel Hondo, France/Mauritania, 1967), a scathing attack on colonialism and capitalism; and Council of the Gods, (dir. Kurt Maetzig, East Germany, 1950) a fictional film linking Monsanto, Rockefeller, and Hitler. Music selections will include works by John Coltrane (1926-1967), American jazz saxophonist, composer, and civil rights activist; Charles Haden (1938-2014) of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, American jazz bassist and composer, also engaged in anti-war and anti-imperialist movements; and Frederic Rzewski (1938- ), American composer and pianist, engaged in anti-prison industrial complex activity, as well as being an anti-fascist agitator. Among visual art considered will be work by German muralist Werner Tuebke (1929-2004), including Peasant Wars panorama; Josep Renau (1907-1982) Spanish Civil War Communist, with photomontages of great power and beauty; and Edward Keinholz (1927-1994), American anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. sculptor from the 1960s. JACK SHNEIDMAN earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and an MA from the City College of New York in music composition and jazz performance, respectively. He is the author of the instructional book, 1001 Jazz Licks published by the Cherry Lane Music Company (2000). He has led jazz ensembles in the New York area, and has also performed in Japan and London. He lectured at LaGuardia Community College for seven years. JERAMY TURNER’s primary concern for many years has been the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of countering ruling class hegemony. From 1975-1992, she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, Shattering Screen. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell University). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen (Norway), and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and film. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state-2/2018-10-10/ | art and fascism|Art criticism|art in revolt|Music|radical film | 10/10/2018 18:00 | 10/10/2018 20:00 | ||
| Degenerate Art and The State | Part Ii: Notes of Discord An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner and Jack Shneidman It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and including two exemplary, radical films: Soleil O (dir. Mel Hondo, France/Mauritania, 1967), a scathing attack on colonialism and capitalism; and Council of the Gods, (dir. Kurt Maetzig, East Germany, 1950) a fictional film linking Monsanto, Rockefeller, and Hitler. Music selections will include works by John Coltrane (1926-1967), American jazz saxophonist, composer, and civil rights activist; Charles Haden (1938-2014) of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, American jazz bassist and composer, also engaged in anti-war and anti-imperialist movements; and Frederic Rzewski (1938- ), American composer and pianist, engaged in anti-prison industrial complex activity, as well as being an anti-fascist agitator. Among visual art considered will be work by German muralist Werner Tuebke (1929-2004), including Peasant Wars panorama; Josep Renau (1907-1982) Spanish Civil War Communist, with photomontages of great power and beauty; and Edward Keinholz (1927-1994), American anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. sculptor from the 1960s. JACK SHNEIDMAN earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and an MA from the City College of New York in music composition and jazz performance, respectively. He is the author of the instructional book, 1001 Jazz Licks published by the Cherry Lane Music Company (2000). He has led jazz ensembles in the New York area, and has also performed in Japan and London. He lectured at LaGuardia Community College for seven years. JERAMY TURNER’s primary concern for many years has been the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of countering ruling class hegemony. From 1975-1992, she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, Shattering Screen. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell University). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen (Norway), and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and film. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state-2/2018-10-17/ | art and fascism|Art criticism|art in revolt|Music|radical film | 10/17/2018 18:00 | 10/17/2018 20:00 | ||
| Degenerate Art and The State | Part Ii: Notes of Discord An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner and Jack Shneidman It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and including two exemplary, radical films: Soleil O (dir. Mel Hondo, France/Mauritania, 1967), a scathing attack on colonialism and capitalism; and Council of the Gods, (dir. Kurt Maetzig, East Germany, 1950) a fictional film linking Monsanto, Rockefeller, and Hitler. Music selections will include works by John Coltrane (1926-1967), American jazz saxophonist, composer, and civil rights activist; Charles Haden (1938-2014) of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, American jazz bassist and composer, also engaged in anti-war and anti-imperialist movements; and Frederic Rzewski (1938- ), American composer and pianist, engaged in anti-prison industrial complex activity, as well as being an anti-fascist agitator. Among visual art considered will be work by German muralist Werner Tuebke (1929-2004), including Peasant Wars panorama; Josep Renau (1907-1982) Spanish Civil War Communist, with photomontages of great power and beauty; and Edward Keinholz (1927-1994), American anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. sculptor from the 1960s. JACK SHNEIDMAN earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and an MA from the City College of New York in music composition and jazz performance, respectively. He is the author of the instructional book, 1001 Jazz Licks published by the Cherry Lane Music Company (2000). He has led jazz ensembles in the New York area, and has also performed in Japan and London. He lectured at LaGuardia Community College for seven years. JERAMY TURNER’s primary concern for many years has been the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of countering ruling class hegemony. From 1975-1992, she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, Shattering Screen. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell University). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen (Norway), and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and film. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state-2/2018-10-24/ | art and fascism|Art criticism|art in revolt|Music|radical film | 10/24/2018 18:00 | 10/24/2018 20:00 | ||
| Degenerate Art and The State | Part Ii: Notes of Discord An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner and Jack Shneidman It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and including two exemplary, radical films: Soleil O (dir. Mel Hondo, France/Mauritania, 1967), a scathing attack on colonialism and capitalism; and Council of the Gods, (dir. Kurt Maetzig, East Germany, 1950) a fictional film linking Monsanto, Rockefeller, and Hitler. Music selections will include works by John Coltrane (1926-1967), American jazz saxophonist, composer, and civil rights activist; Charles Haden (1938-2014) of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, American jazz bassist and composer, also engaged in anti-war and anti-imperialist movements; and Frederic Rzewski (1938- ), American composer and pianist, engaged in anti-prison industrial complex activity, as well as being an anti-fascist agitator. Among visual art considered will be work by German muralist Werner Tuebke (1929-2004), including Peasant Wars panorama; Josep Renau (1907-1982) Spanish Civil War Communist, with photomontages of great power and beauty; and Edward Keinholz (1927-1994), American anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. sculptor from the 1960s. JACK SHNEIDMAN earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and an MA from the City College of New York in music composition and jazz performance, respectively. He is the author of the instructional book, 1001 Jazz Licks published by the Cherry Lane Music Company (2000). He has led jazz ensembles in the New York area, and has also performed in Japan and London. He lectured at LaGuardia Community College for seven years. JERAMY TURNER’s primary concern for many years has been the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of countering ruling class hegemony. From 1975-1992, she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, Shattering Screen. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell University). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen (Norway), and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and film. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state-2/2018-10-31/ | art and fascism|Art criticism|art in revolt|Music|radical film | 10/31/2018 18:00 | 10/31/2018 20:00 | ||
| Degenerate Art and The State | Part Ii: Notes of Discord An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner and Jack Shneidman It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and including two exemplary, radical films: Soleil O (dir. Mel Hondo, France/Mauritania, 1967), a scathing attack on colonialism and capitalism; and Council of the Gods, (dir. Kurt Maetzig, East Germany, 1950) a fictional film linking Monsanto, Rockefeller, and Hitler. Music selections will include works by John Coltrane (1926-1967), American jazz saxophonist, composer, and civil rights activist; Charles Haden (1938-2014) of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, American jazz bassist and composer, also engaged in anti-war and anti-imperialist movements; and Frederic Rzewski (1938- ), American composer and pianist, engaged in anti-prison industrial complex activity, as well as being an anti-fascist agitator. Among visual art considered will be work by German muralist Werner Tuebke (1929-2004), including Peasant Wars panorama; Josep Renau (1907-1982) Spanish Civil War Communist, with photomontages of great power and beauty; and Edward Keinholz (1927-1994), American anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. sculptor from the 1960s. JACK SHNEIDMAN earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and an MA from the City College of New York in music composition and jazz performance, respectively. He is the author of the instructional book, 1001 Jazz Licks published by the Cherry Lane Music Company (2000). He has led jazz ensembles in the New York area, and has also performed in Japan and London. He lectured at LaGuardia Community College for seven years. JERAMY TURNER’s primary concern for many years has been the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of countering ruling class hegemony. From 1975-1992, she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, Shattering Screen. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell University). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen (Norway), and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and film. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state-2/2018-11-07/ | art and fascism|Art criticism|art in revolt|Music|radical film | 11/7/2018 18:00 | 11/7/2018 20:00 | ||
| Degenerate Art and The State | Part Ii: Notes of Discord An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner and Jack Shneidman It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and including two exemplary, radical films: Soleil O (dir. Mel Hondo, France/Mauritania, 1967), a scathing attack on colonialism and capitalism; and Council of the Gods, (dir. Kurt Maetzig, East Germany, 1950) a fictional film linking Monsanto, Rockefeller, and Hitler. Music selections will include works by John Coltrane (1926-1967), American jazz saxophonist, composer, and civil rights activist; Charles Haden (1938-2014) of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, American jazz bassist and composer, also engaged in anti-war and anti-imperialist movements; and Frederic Rzewski (1938- ), American composer and pianist, engaged in anti-prison industrial complex activity, as well as being an anti-fascist agitator. Among visual art considered will be work by German muralist Werner Tuebke (1929-2004), including Peasant Wars panorama; Josep Renau (1907-1982) Spanish Civil War Communist, with photomontages of great power and beauty; and Edward Keinholz (1927-1994), American anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. sculptor from the 1960s. JACK SHNEIDMAN earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and an MA from the City College of New York in music composition and jazz performance, respectively. He is the author of the instructional book, 1001 Jazz Licks published by the Cherry Lane Music Company (2000). He has led jazz ensembles in the New York area, and has also performed in Japan and London. He lectured at LaGuardia Community College for seven years. JERAMY TURNER’s primary concern for many years has been the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of countering ruling class hegemony. From 1975-1992, she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, Shattering Screen. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell University). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen (Norway), and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and film. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state-2/2018-11-14/ | art and fascism|Art criticism|art in revolt|Music|radical film | 11/14/2018 18:00 | 11/14/2018 20:00 | ||
| Degenerate Art and The State | Part Ii: Notes of Discord An 8-week study with Jeramy Turner and Jack Shneidman It is not our fellow artist who is the enemy, but those who have made art the booty of exploitation, and who use it as a deodorant for war and fascism. —Arnold Blanch, First American Artists Congress, 1936 Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and including two exemplary, radical films: Soleil O (dir. Mel Hondo, France/Mauritania, 1967), a scathing attack on colonialism and capitalism; and Council of the Gods, (dir. Kurt Maetzig, East Germany, 1950) a fictional film linking Monsanto, Rockefeller, and Hitler. Music selections will include works by John Coltrane (1926-1967), American jazz saxophonist, composer, and civil rights activist; Charles Haden (1938-2014) of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, American jazz bassist and composer, also engaged in anti-war and anti-imperialist movements; and Frederic Rzewski (1938- ), American composer and pianist, engaged in anti-prison industrial complex activity, as well as being an anti-fascist agitator. Among visual art considered will be work by German muralist Werner Tuebke (1929-2004), including Peasant Wars panorama; Josep Renau (1907-1982) Spanish Civil War Communist, with photomontages of great power and beauty; and Edward Keinholz (1927-1994), American anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. sculptor from the 1960s. JACK SHNEIDMAN earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and an MA from the City College of New York in music composition and jazz performance, respectively. He is the author of the instructional book, 1001 Jazz Licks published by the Cherry Lane Music Company (2000). He has led jazz ensembles in the New York area, and has also performed in Japan and London. He lectured at LaGuardia Community College for seven years. JERAMY TURNER’s primary concern for many years has been the appropriation of visual art and film for the purpose of countering ruling class hegemony. From 1975-1992, she directed alternative movie theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis, and edited the cinema journal, Shattering Screen. In 1986 she taught herself oil painting so as to visually depict the vulnerability of capitalism, and has been painting in this mode ever since. She established the radical feminist art collective, Sister Serpents in 1989, which Jesse Helmes decried as a “hate group” against unborn children. She has taught and lectured on the conjuncture of political involvement in art and feminism at numerous universities and institutions in the US (Chicago, Boulder, Jersey City, Cornell University). Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Hamburg, Bergen (Norway), and at many alternative and university galleries throughout the US. She lives in Brooklyn and Aigen, Austria. Her paintings can be seen at www.jeramyturner.com. | Art can become an alternative form of revolt that both deepens our consciousness and inspires resistance. We will explore selected pieces of music, visual art, and film. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/degenerate-art-and-the-state-2/2018-11-28/ | art and fascism|Art criticism|art in revolt|Music|radical film | 11/28/2018 18:00 | 11/28/2018 20:00 | ||
| General Law of Capitalist Forms of Accumulation | A talk and discussion with Daniel Campos Daniel’s book The End of the Corporations traces the crisis of capitalism since August 2007, first in the U.S. with the fall of Bear Sterns, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and then with the crisis spreading out to affect the whole world. This book examines the political changes brought to the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. It also draws a comparison between the current crisis and the one in 1929, analyzes the subsequent evolution of capitalism in the twentieth century, the post-war “boom”, the rise of multinational corporations, and the crisis of the ’70s. Globalization, the emergence of multinational corporations, the evolution of financial capital, and the Investment Banks are also evaluated. Finally, the book shows an analysis of capitalism throughout history, which suffered major crises and its link to the social and political phenomena. Following the guidelines of Marx, The End of the Corporations follows the history of capitalism, from its birth, in order to examine the facts and laws that explain how it came about and where the current crisis will go. In the face of the magnitude of the historic character of capitalism’s current crisis, it may be well worthwhile to stop and ask ourselves: Has capitalism ever been through crises of similar importance? In what way have these crises been overcome? What political and social phenomena spawned the crisis? And on the other hand: what political and social phenomena did the crises produce? This presentation will look at the General Law of Capitalist Forms of Accumulation and their relevance to the underlying global economic crisis that took place in 2007 and what tendencies there are for a similar or more profound crisis than that of 11 years ago. Daniel Campos was born in Argentina. Previously he was the congressional representative of the United Left Block for the Province of Buenos Aires. Daniel has more than 35 years of uninterrupted militancy as a Marxist and the Argentinian left, along with a long background of trade union and political struggle, In addition, he has written a number of Marxist economic books including The End of the Corporations, Toward Theory of Crisis and The Imperialism Today. His next book The 21st Century American Revolution will soon be published, and is also author of diverse articles on politics, economy and history. Had given lectures and courses in the World Social Forum in Florence (Italy), the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre (Brazil), and different workshops in England, Scotland, Argentina, Italy, Chile, and Brazil. Currently is member of leadership of Reagrupamiento Hacia el PST de Argentina, and the Committee for Revolutionary International Regroupment (CRIR). “Multinationals are a higher form of accumulation, containing and outperforming monopolies. With multinationals, capitalism went from a lower form of accumulation and concentration of capital to a higher one, but as we saw in Chapter I, this process was not peaceful. To move from one form of accumulation and concentration of capital to another, it took 30 years and 2 world wars, with the balance of millions dead, razed cities, and nations and infrastructure destroyed.” (The End of the Corporations, Chapter V: Forms) | This presentation will look at the General Law of Capitalist Forms of Accumulation and their relevance to the underlying global economic crisis that took place in 2007 and what tendencies there are for a similar or more profound crisis than that of 11 years ago. | 8/17/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/general-law-of-capitalist-forms-of-accumulation/ | capitalist crisis|derivatives|finance capital|Globalism|hedge funds|investment banking|multinationals | 9/22/2018 15:30 | 9/22/2018 17:00 | ||
| Marx at 200: Capital, Class and More | A talk and discussion with Kevin B. Anderson At Marx’s 200th anniversary, it is clear that the emancipation of labor from capitalist alienation and exploitation is a task that still confronts us. Marx’s concept of the worker is not limited to European white males, but includes Irish and Black super-exploited and therefore doubly revolutionary workers, as well as women of all races and nations. But his research and his concept of revolution go further, incorporating a wide range of agrarian noncapitalist societies of his time, from India to Russia and from Algeria to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, often emphasizing their gender relations. In his last, still partially unpublished writings, he turns his gaze eastward and southward. In these regions outside Western Europe, he finds important revolutionary possibilities among peasants and their ancient communistic social structures, even as these are being undermined by their formal subsumption under the rule of capital. In his last published text, he envisions an alliance between these non-working-class strata and the Western European working class. Kevin B. Anderson is a Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked in social and political theory, especially Marx, Hegel, Marxist humanism, the Frankfurt School, Foucault, and the Orientalism debate. Among his most recent books are Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (with Janet Afary, 2005) and Marx at the Margins: On Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Non-Western Societies (2010/2016), both published by University of Chicago Press. He is active in Los Angeles in the International Marxist-Humanist Organization and in the Coalition for Peace, Revolution, and Social Justice. | In the regions outside Western Europe, Marx found important revolutionary possibilities among peasants and their ancient communistic social structures, even as these are being undermined by their formal subsumption under the rule of capital. In his last published text, he envisions an alliance between these non-working-class strata and the Western European working class. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4323 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||
| Marx at 200: Capital, Class and More | A talk and discussion with Kevin B. Anderson At Marx’s 200th anniversary, it is clear that the emancipation of labor from capitalist alienation and exploitation is a task that still confronts us. Marx’s concept of the worker is not limited to European white males, but includes Irish and Black super-exploited and therefore doubly revolutionary workers, as well as women of all races and nations. But his research and his concept of revolution go further, incorporating a wide range of agrarian noncapitalist societies of his time, from India to Russia and from Algeria to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, often emphasizing their gender relations. In his last, still partially unpublished writings, he turns his gaze eastward and southward. In these regions outside Western Europe, he finds important revolutionary possibilities among peasants and their ancient communistic social structures, even as these are being undermined by their formal subsumption under the rule of capital. In his last published text, he envisions an alliance between these non-working-class strata and the Western European working class. Kevin B. Anderson is a Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked in social and political theory, especially Marx, Hegel, Marxist humanism, the Frankfurt School, Foucault, and the Orientalism debate. Among his most recent books are Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (with Janet Afary, 2005) and Marx at the Margins: On Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Non-Western Societies (2010/2016), both published by University of Chicago Press. He is active in Los Angeles in the International Marxist-Humanist Organization and in the Coalition for Peace, Revolution, and Social Justice. | In the regions outside Western Europe, Marx found important revolutionary possibilities among peasants and their ancient communistic social structures, even as these are being undermined by their formal subsumption under the rule of capital. In his last published text, he envisions an alliance between these non-working-class strata and the Western European working class. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-at-200-capital-class-and-more/ | Class|gender|Imperialism|Non-western societies|race|working class | 9/6/2018 18:30 | 9/6/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-12-04/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 10/2/2018 18:30 | 10/2/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-10-09/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 10/9/2018 18:30 | 10/9/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-10-16/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 10/16/2018 18:30 | 10/16/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-10-23/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 10/23/2018 18:30 | 10/23/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-10-30/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 10/30/2018 18:30 | 10/30/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-11-06/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 11/6/2018 18:30 | 11/6/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-11-13/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 11/13/2018 18:30 | 11/13/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-11-20/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 11/20/2018 18:30 | 11/20/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-11-27/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 11/27/2018 18:30 | 11/27/2018 20:30 | ||
| Introduction to Marxism for Women Only | with Juliet Ucelli co-sponsored with Left Focus We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. I believe that this theory can help us analyze the social and economic realities and structures we live in–who holds power and how–and fight more effectively for liberation. Some of the central questions that we’ll address are: • How did the oppression of women, and the division of societies into people who work and others who exploit them, originate and develop historically? • What are the driving dynamics of capitalism that make it make it so productive, innovative, brutal and ecologically destructive? • What intellectual tools can help us understand industry’s complex impacts on our bodies, our psyches and the nature around us—impacts that capitalists, and people who think like them, don’t want to see or cannot see? • What did Marx understand—and not understand—about white supremacy and Eurocentrism, and how has that analysis been deepened and modified by later Marxists? In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering an intro class this October through December for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. | We’ll explore some key concepts about human beings, society and history, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Readings will be short and accessible excerpts from writings by Marx and Engels or later Marxists. In a continuing attempt to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering this intro class for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. | 8/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introduction-to-marxism-for-women-only/2018-12-04/ | Basic ideas of Marx|Communism|Dialectics|Exploitation|Marxist Theory|Materialism|science|Social Change|social science|Socialism|working class | 12/4/2018 18:30 | 12/4/2018 20:30 | ||
| Class, Race & Gender | Contemporary Capitalism and the Limits of Identity Politics Six-week session with Dan Karan The ongoing debate between those arguing for either a class- or identity-based politics has led to a tragic split between forces that ultimately need to come together if each is to realize its goals. But should this even be an “either or” question when considered from the vantage point of trying to build an effective anti-capitalist movement struggling for the liberation of those exploited and oppressed by capital? What may be surprising to some is that this split is not new and in the U.S. has roots that go back to the nation’s founding if not before. And, in the 19th century, while the Civil War is often referred to as the “second American Revolution” it was really during Reconstruction, the period just after the Civil War, in which a “self-emancipatory” moment opened as former slaves, working class whites and women struggled to realize the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” held out in Declaration of Independence. Yet divisions along class, race and gender lines sealed Reconstruction’s defeat. Why and how was this potentially revolutionary moment defeated and what should this history teach us about the strategies and tactics that the left needs to employ today? To explore these issues of the intersection of class, race and gender in the US and the consequences of not being able to overcome the divisions that capitalism reinforces and exploits for its own purposes this class will read David Roediger’s recent book on Reconstruction: Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All. This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. | This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. | 8/20/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/class-race-gender/2018-11-06/ | Anti-bourgeois|Anti-capitalism|Class|Emancipation|gender|Identity|race|reconstruction | 10/2/2018 18:00 | 10/2/2018 20:00 | ||
| Class, Race & Gender | Contemporary Capitalism and the Limits of Identity Politics Six-week session with Dan Karan The ongoing debate between those arguing for either a class- or identity-based politics has led to a tragic split between forces that ultimately need to come together if each is to realize its goals. But should this even be an “either or” question when considered from the vantage point of trying to build an effective anti-capitalist movement struggling for the liberation of those exploited and oppressed by capital? What may be surprising to some is that this split is not new and in the U.S. has roots that go back to the nation’s founding if not before. And, in the 19th century, while the Civil War is often referred to as the “second American Revolution” it was really during Reconstruction, the period just after the Civil War, in which a “self-emancipatory” moment opened as former slaves, working class whites and women struggled to realize the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” held out in Declaration of Independence. Yet divisions along class, race and gender lines sealed Reconstruction’s defeat. Why and how was this potentially revolutionary moment defeated and what should this history teach us about the strategies and tactics that the left needs to employ today? To explore these issues of the intersection of class, race and gender in the US and the consequences of not being able to overcome the divisions that capitalism reinforces and exploits for its own purposes this class will read David Roediger’s recent book on Reconstruction: Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All. This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. | This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. | 8/20/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/class-race-gender/2018-10-09/ | Anti-bourgeois|Anti-capitalism|Class|Emancipation|gender|Identity|race|reconstruction | 10/9/2018 18:00 | 10/9/2018 20:00 | ||
| Class, Race & Gender | Contemporary Capitalism and the Limits of Identity Politics Six-week session with Dan Karan The ongoing debate between those arguing for either a class- or identity-based politics has led to a tragic split between forces that ultimately need to come together if each is to realize its goals. But should this even be an “either or” question when considered from the vantage point of trying to build an effective anti-capitalist movement struggling for the liberation of those exploited and oppressed by capital? What may be surprising to some is that this split is not new and in the U.S. has roots that go back to the nation’s founding if not before. And, in the 19th century, while the Civil War is often referred to as the “second American Revolution” it was really during Reconstruction, the period just after the Civil War, in which a “self-emancipatory” moment opened as former slaves, working class whites and women struggled to realize the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” held out in Declaration of Independence. Yet divisions along class, race and gender lines sealed Reconstruction’s defeat. Why and how was this potentially revolutionary moment defeated and what should this history teach us about the strategies and tactics that the left needs to employ today? To explore these issues of the intersection of class, race and gender in the US and the consequences of not being able to overcome the divisions that capitalism reinforces and exploits for its own purposes this class will read David Roediger’s recent book on Reconstruction: Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All. This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. | This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. | 8/20/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/class-race-gender/2018-10-16/ | Anti-bourgeois|Anti-capitalism|Class|Emancipation|gender|Identity|race|reconstruction | 10/16/2018 18:00 | 10/16/2018 20:00 | ||
| Class, Race & Gender | Contemporary Capitalism and the Limits of Identity Politics Six-week session with Dan Karan The ongoing debate between those arguing for either a class- or identity-based politics has led to a tragic split between forces that ultimately need to come together if each is to realize its goals. But should this even be an “either or” question when considered from the vantage point of trying to build an effective anti-capitalist movement struggling for the liberation of those exploited and oppressed by capital? What may be surprising to some is that this split is not new and in the U.S. has roots that go back to the nation’s founding if not before. And, in the 19th century, while the Civil War is often referred to as the “second American Revolution” it was really during Reconstruction, the period just after the Civil War, in which a “self-emancipatory” moment opened as former slaves, working class whites and women struggled to realize the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” held out in Declaration of Independence. Yet divisions along class, race and gender lines sealed Reconstruction’s defeat. Why and how was this potentially revolutionary moment defeated and what should this history teach us about the strategies and tactics that the left needs to employ today? To explore these issues of the intersection of class, race and gender in the US and the consequences of not being able to overcome the divisions that capitalism reinforces and exploits for its own purposes this class will read David Roediger’s recent book on Reconstruction: Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All. This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. | This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. | 8/20/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/class-race-gender/2018-10-23/ | Anti-bourgeois|Anti-capitalism|Class|Emancipation|gender|Identity|race|reconstruction | 10/23/2018 18:00 | 10/23/2018 20:00 | ||
| Class, Race & Gender | Contemporary Capitalism and the Limits of Identity Politics Six-week session with Dan Karan The ongoing debate between those arguing for either a class- or identity-based politics has led to a tragic split between forces that ultimately need to come together if each is to realize its goals. But should this even be an “either or” question when considered from the vantage point of trying to build an effective anti-capitalist movement struggling for the liberation of those exploited and oppressed by capital? What may be surprising to some is that this split is not new and in the U.S. has roots that go back to the nation’s founding if not before. And, in the 19th century, while the Civil War is often referred to as the “second American Revolution” it was really during Reconstruction, the period just after the Civil War, in which a “self-emancipatory” moment opened as former slaves, working class whites and women struggled to realize the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” held out in Declaration of Independence. Yet divisions along class, race and gender lines sealed Reconstruction’s defeat. Why and how was this potentially revolutionary moment defeated and what should this history teach us about the strategies and tactics that the left needs to employ today? To explore these issues of the intersection of class, race and gender in the US and the consequences of not being able to overcome the divisions that capitalism reinforces and exploits for its own purposes this class will read David Roediger’s recent book on Reconstruction: Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All. This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. | This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. | 8/20/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/class-race-gender/2018-10-30/ | Anti-bourgeois|Anti-capitalism|Class|Emancipation|gender|Identity|race|reconstruction | 10/30/2018 18:00 | 10/30/2018 20:00 | ||
| Class, Race & Gender | Contemporary Capitalism and the Limits of Identity Politics Six-week session with Dan Karan The ongoing debate between those arguing for either a class- or identity-based politics has led to a tragic split between forces that ultimately need to come together if each is to realize its goals. But should this even be an “either or” question when considered from the vantage point of trying to build an effective anti-capitalist movement struggling for the liberation of those exploited and oppressed by capital? What may be surprising to some is that this split is not new and in the U.S. has roots that go back to the nation’s founding if not before. And, in the 19th century, while the Civil War is often referred to as the “second American Revolution” it was really during Reconstruction, the period just after the Civil War, in which a “self-emancipatory” moment opened as former slaves, working class whites and women struggled to realize the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” held out in Declaration of Independence. Yet divisions along class, race and gender lines sealed Reconstruction’s defeat. Why and how was this potentially revolutionary moment defeated and what should this history teach us about the strategies and tactics that the left needs to employ today? To explore these issues of the intersection of class, race and gender in the US and the consequences of not being able to overcome the divisions that capitalism reinforces and exploits for its own purposes this class will read David Roediger’s recent book on Reconstruction: Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All. This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. Dan Karan is a “red diaper baby” born into a communist household (his father worked as an organizer for the Communist Party and both his parents were members for roughly 25 years until leaving in 1956 along with many other comrades in response to Khrushchev’s “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” speech about Stalin). Dan’s political activism began at the age of 2 when his parents took him to the 1963 March on Washington. For the last 30 years he has worked for NYC nonprofit housing and community development organizations. He is a proud graduate school dropout who has been studying Marxist theory for more than 4 decades. | This class will be the first in an ongoing series that explore questions of the relationship between class, race, gender and sexuality and how we overcome the divide between those exploited by capitalism and create a genuine anti-capitalist movement of liberation for all. | 8/20/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/class-race-gender/2018-11-06/ | Anti-bourgeois|Anti-capitalism|Class|Emancipation|gender|Identity|race|reconstruction | 11/6/2018 18:00 | 11/6/2018 20:00 | ||
| Music, Rebellion, Repression | Two authors and a DJ Folksingers and the FBI by Aaron Leonard Some of the most prominent folk singers of the 20th Century, Woody Guthrie, ‘Sis Cunningham, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, etc., were also political activists with various associations with the American Communist Party. As a consequence the FBI, kept meticulous files running many thousands of pages on them. Using music, video selections, news clippings, and records from extensive Freedom of Information Act filings — including never before released material — this presentation will bring to life these artists and the systematic way The Explosion of Deferred Dreams by Mat Callahan The book’s impassioned arguments both expose and reframe the political and social context for the San Francisco Sound and the vibrant subcultural uprisings with which it is associated. Using dozens of original interviews, primary sources, and personal experiences, Callahan shows how the intense interplay of artistic and political movements put San Francisco, briefly, in the forefront of a worldwide revolutionary upsurge. A must-read for anyone who “was there” (or longed to have been). with DJ Dennis O’Neil MAT CALLAHAN is a musician and author. Most recently he re-published Songs of Freedom by James Connolly and launched the Songs of Slavery and Emancipation project. He is the author of five books including in 2017 The Explosion of Deferred Dreams and A Critical Guide to Intellectual Property. Callahan resides in Bern Switzerland. AARON LEONARD is author of Heavy Radicals: The FBI’s Secret War on America’s Maoists, and A Threat of the First Magnitude—FBI Counterintelligence & Infiltration: From the Communist Party to the Revolutionary Union. A regular contributor to Truthout and HNN.us, he lives in Los Angeles. | Folksingers and The FBI: Leonard uses music, video selections, news clippings, and records from extensive Freedom of Information Act filings showing the depth to which the FBI was out to stop the folk music explosion. In Explosion of Deferred Dreams, Callahan shows how the intense interplay of artistic and political movements put San Francisco, briefly, in the forefront of a worldwide revolutionary upsurge. | 8/23/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/music-rebellion-repression/ | alliterative music|artistic horizions|counterculture|folk music|Music|protest movements|psychedelic|rock music|Summer of Love | 10/17/2018 19:00 | 10/17/2018 21:00 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-12-17/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 10/1/2018 19:30 | 10/1/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-10-08/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 10/8/2018 19:30 | 10/8/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-10-15/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 10/15/2018 19:30 | 10/15/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-10-22/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 10/22/2018 19:30 | 10/22/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-10-29/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 10/29/2018 19:30 | 10/29/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-11-05/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 11/5/2018 19:30 | 11/5/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-11-12/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 11/12/2018 19:30 | 11/12/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-11-19/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 11/19/2018 19:30 | 11/19/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-11-26/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 11/26/2018 19:30 | 11/26/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-12-03/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 12/3/2018 19:30 | 12/3/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-12-10/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 12/10/2018 19:30 | 12/10/2018 21:30 | ||
| 1968 and After | The Revolutionary Aspirations of the New Left Revolutions Study Group Fifty years ago, the political-military blocs of the Cold War had ossified, social democracy and labor unions in the West were tamed, and struggles for change in Eastern Europe and Latin America seemed to have been controlled by combinations of sticks and carrots. Then, in the year 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, etc. there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. We will read Chris Harman’s The Fire Last Time (2nd revised ed. 1998), linking the events of 1968 and what carried these events forward. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. | During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital’s response to these uprisings? | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/1968-and-after/2018-12-17/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-war|Black Power|China|Civil Rights|Czechoslovakia|France|global uprising|Italy|May 68|revolutionary upsurge|Vietnam|women’s movement | 12/17/2018 19:30 | 12/17/2018 21:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-12-15/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 9/22/2018 11:00 | 9/22/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-09-29/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 9/29/2018 11:00 | 9/29/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-10-06/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 10/6/2018 11:00 | 10/6/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-10-13/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 10/13/2018 11:00 | 10/13/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-10-20/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 10/20/2018 11:00 | 10/20/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-10-27/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 10/27/2018 11:00 | 10/27/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-11-03/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 11/3/2018 11:00 | 11/3/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-11-10/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 11/10/2018 11:00 | 11/10/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-11-17/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 11/17/2018 11:00 | 11/17/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-12-01/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 12/1/2018 11:00 | 12/1/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-12-08/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 12/8/2018 11:00 | 12/8/2018 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume One | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 9/2/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-one/2018-12-15/ | Alienation|bourgeoisie|capitalism|Class formation|commodity fetishism|crisis|dual nature of labor|economic crisis|Exchange Value|Large scale industry|marxism|Marxist Analysis|Marxist Method|Political economy|prices|Profits|proletarian|science|Scientific socialism|surplus value|unemployment|use value|wages|working class | 12/15/2018 11:00 | 12/15/2018 14:00 | ||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group  Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-12-20/ | 9/27/2018 19:00 | 9/27/2018 21:00 | |||
| 4 Month Pass: September 15, 2018 through January 20, 2019 | Recent feature! For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often and you would like to the classes and events from now through January 12, 2019. With payment a pdf voucher will be sent that you can present to an of the venues where activities will take place. There are a number of new classes and events in the works including walking tours, film showings and classes at The Brooklyn Commons and 2 new classes at The People’s Forum at 320 West 37th Street, including Juliet Ucelli’s Introduction to Marxism for Women Only. Aaron Leonard and Mat Callahan will appear with DJ Denis O’Neill at The People’s Forum on October 17 for sounds, talks, and discussion of Music, Rebellion and Repression. Capital Volume 1 continues on Saturdays along with the EcoSocialist studies taking on Capital, Energy and Power. Richard Greeman returns to complete his Serge cycle of novels, taking us on an intimate tour of Serge’s final novel Unforgiving Years beginning September 27. There is much more as you can see if you are on the site. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good from September 2018 through January 20, 2019. | For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often and you would like to the classes and events from now through January 12, 2019. | 9/13/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-month-pass-september-15-2018-through-january-20-2019/2018-12-15/ | 9/15/2018 8:00 | 9/15/2018 17:00 | |||
| 4 Month Pass: September 15, 2018 through January 20, 2019 | Recent feature! For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often and you would like to the classes and events from now through January 12, 2019. With payment a pdf voucher will be sent that you can present to an of the venues where activities will take place. There are a number of new classes and events in the works including walking tours, film showings and classes at The Brooklyn Commons and 2 new classes at The People’s Forum at 320 West 37th Street, including Juliet Ucelli’s Introduction to Marxism for Women Only. Aaron Leonard and Mat Callahan will appear with DJ Denis O’Neill at The People’s Forum on October 17 for sounds, talks, and discussion of Music, Rebellion and Repression. Capital Volume 1 continues on Saturdays along with the EcoSocialist studies taking on Capital, Energy and Power. Richard Greeman returns to complete his Serge cycle of novels, taking us on an intimate tour of Serge’s final novel Unforgiving Years beginning September 27. There is much more as you can see if you are on the site. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good from September 2018 through January 20, 2019. | For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often and you would like to the classes and events from now through January 12, 2019. | 9/13/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-month-pass-september-15-2018-through-january-20-2019/2018-10-15/ | 10/15/2018 8:00 | 10/15/2018 17:00 | |||
| 4 Month Pass: September 15, 2018 through January 20, 2019 | Recent feature! For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often and you would like to the classes and events from now through January 12, 2019. With payment a pdf voucher will be sent that you can present to an of the venues where activities will take place. There are a number of new classes and events in the works including walking tours, film showings and classes at The Brooklyn Commons and 2 new classes at The People’s Forum at 320 West 37th Street, including Juliet Ucelli’s Introduction to Marxism for Women Only. Aaron Leonard and Mat Callahan will appear with DJ Denis O’Neill at The People’s Forum on October 17 for sounds, talks, and discussion of Music, Rebellion and Repression. Capital Volume 1 continues on Saturdays along with the EcoSocialist studies taking on Capital, Energy and Power. Richard Greeman returns to complete his Serge cycle of novels, taking us on an intimate tour of Serge’s final novel Unforgiving Years beginning September 27. There is much more as you can see if you are on the site. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good from September 2018 through January 20, 2019. | For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often and you would like to the classes and events from now through January 12, 2019. | 9/13/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-month-pass-september-15-2018-through-january-20-2019/2018-11-15/ | 11/15/2018 8:00 | 11/15/2018 17:00 | |||
| 4 Month Pass: September 15, 2018 through January 20, 2019 | Recent feature! For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often and you would like to the classes and events from now through January 12, 2019. With payment a pdf voucher will be sent that you can present to an of the venues where activities will take place. There are a number of new classes and events in the works including walking tours, film showings and classes at The Brooklyn Commons and 2 new classes at The People’s Forum at 320 West 37th Street, including Juliet Ucelli’s Introduction to Marxism for Women Only. Aaron Leonard and Mat Callahan will appear with DJ Denis O’Neill at The People’s Forum on October 17 for sounds, talks, and discussion of Music, Rebellion and Repression. Capital Volume 1 continues on Saturdays along with the EcoSocialist studies taking on Capital, Energy and Power. Richard Greeman returns to complete his Serge cycle of novels, taking us on an intimate tour of Serge’s final novel Unforgiving Years beginning September 27. There is much more as you can see if you are on the site. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good from September 2018 through January 20, 2019. | For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often and you would like to the classes and events from now through January 12, 2019. | 9/13/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-month-pass-september-15-2018-through-january-20-2019/2018-12-15/ | 12/15/2018 8:00 | 12/15/2018 17:00 | |||
| Birth of the Binge | Serial TV, Digital Accumulation and Distracted Audiences Dennis Broe Dennis Broe’new book Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and The End of Leisure is an attempt to alter the way serial television is viewed by, instead of starting with the shows themselves or with serial fandom, first integrating the form, which began at the opening of the neoliberal era in the early 1980s, into ongoing processes of the digital economy. The book views serial television as a part of what Bernard Stiegler terms hyperindustrialism, seeing the form and the delivery system which is part of its development as adapting itself to more harried workers on the go and utilizing both technological and narrative devices which foster addictive viewing and participate in the validation of a new corporate autistic personality. Streaming television is seen not as a revolutionary break, as many media critics describe it, but as a continuation, often by the same multinationals, of the old network processes in different and sometimes more predatory forms. The form has also spawned series that critique both this process and the offline forms of extraction that are growing more and more deadly. Broe’s talk on the book will also encompass new developments in resistant cinema, particularly in the case of Italian cinema which, like serial television series, operates in a constrained and dangerous atmosphere in truthtelling and which must then find ever more ingenious ways of deniability of the truth it is unfolding. This will be discussed in the context of the Yellow-Green of the far-right League and the Populist Five Star Parties. Dennis Broe, who has taught in the Television Studies Master’s Program at the Sorbonne, is also the author of Maverick: Or How the West Was Lost; Class Crime and International Film Noir: Globalizing America’s Dark Art; Film Noir, American Workers and Postwar Hollywood and Cold War Expressionism: Perverting the Politics of Perception. His television series: TV on TV is on Art District TV in Paris and he is a critic for Arts Express on the Pacifica Radio Network. | Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and The End of Leisure is an attempt to alter the way serial television is viewed by, instead of starting with the shows themselves or with serial fandom, first integrating the form, which began at the opening of the neoliberal era in the early 1980s, into ongoing processes of the digital economy. | 9/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/birth-of-the-binge/ | 2nd life|binge-watching|constant entertainment|continual themes|digital consciousness|distraction|film studies|hyper industrialization|infotainment|media studies|predatory media|preventive ideology|serial tv|television addiction|television in 21st century|unlimited content | 10/12/2018 18:00 | 10/12/2018 20:00 | ||
| Pictures of a Gone City | Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area Richard A. Walker presented with PM Press The San Francisco Bay Area is currently the jewel in the crown of capitalism—the tech capital of the world and a gusher of wealth from the Silicon Gold Rush. It has been generating jobs, spawning new innovation, and spreading ideas that are changing lives everywhere. It boasts of being the Left Coast, the Greenest City, and the best place for workers in the USA. So what could be wrong? It may seem that the Bay Area has the best of it in Trump’s America, but there is a dark side of success: overheated bubbles and spectacular crashes; exploding inequality and millions of underpaid workers; a boiling housing crisis, mass displacement, and severe environmental damage; a delusional tech elite and complicity with the worst in American politics. This sweeping account of the Bay Area in the age of the tech boom covers many bases. It begins with the phenomenal concentration of IT in Greater Silicon Valley, the fabulous economic growth of the bay region and the unbelievable wealth piling up for the 1% and high incomes of Upper Classes—in contrast to the fate of the working class and people of color earning poverty wages and struggling to keep their heads above water. The middle chapters survey the urban scene, including the greatest housing bubble in the United States, a metropolis exploding in every direction, and a geography turned inside out. Lastly, it hits the environmental impact of the boom, the fantastical ideology of TechWorld, and the political implications of the tech-led transformation of the bay region. “With Pictures of a Gone City, California’s greatest geographer tells us how the Bay Area has become the global center of hi-tech capitalism. Drawing on a lifetime of research, Richard Walker dismantles the mythology of the New Economy, placing its creativity in a long history of power, work, and struggles for justice.” —Jason W. Moore, author of Capitalism in the Web of Life Richard A. Walker is professor emeritus of geography at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught from 1975 to 2012. Walker has written on a diverse range of topics in economic, urban, and environmental geography, with scores of published articles to his credit. He is coauthor of The Capitalist Imperative (1989) and The New Social Economy (1992) and has written extensively on California, including The Conquest of Bread (2004), The Country in the City (2007) and The Atlas of California (2013). He is currently director of the Living New Deal Project, whose purpose is to inventory all New Deal public works sites in the United States and recover the lost memory of government investment for the good of all. Publisher: PM Press/ Spectre ISBN: 978-1-62963-510-1 | This sweeping account of the Bay Area in the age of the tech boom covers many bases. It begins with the phenomenal concentration of IT in Greater Silicon Valley, the fabulous economic growth of the bay region and the unbelievable wealth piling up for the 1% and high incomes of Upper Classes—in contrast to the fate of the working class and people of color earning poverty wages and struggling to keep their heads above water. | 9/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pictures-of-a-gone-city/ | breaking the working class|capitalist technology|class divide|class struggle|cultural hegemony|gentrificaiton|housing as a privilege|housing as a right|housing bubble|hyper-gentrification|silicon valley|tech indifference|working class resistance | 10/19/2018 19:00 | 10/19/2018 21:00 | ||
| Scientific Materialism I | Antiquity to the 18th Century Alex Steinberg Six Sessions (No session November 24) This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. Weeks one and two: Science begins. Ancient speculation on the nature of reality in Greek. Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus. We will also discuss some non-Western traditions in early speculation about the nature of reality Weeks three and four: The first scientists and ancient astronomy. Egyptian and Babylonian contributions. The first Greek scientists: Anaximander, Aristotle, Aristarchus, Euclid, Ptolemy. Weeks five and six: Scientific Revolution – Copernicus to Newton, Descartes, Diderot and the materialism of the Enlightenment. Alex Steinberg has previously taught Engels and the Dialectics of Nature at the Brecht Forum. At the Marxist Education Project he has taught Spectres of the Dialectic, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Fascism and the Left Nietzscheans and Dialectics 101, along with organizing a discussion of recent events in Greece and special events on The Radicalism of James Joyce. | This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. | 9/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/scientific-materialism-i/2018-12-01/ | An introduction to materialism|Astronomy|astrophysics|Beginnings of Science|Materialist foundation|nature of reality|scientific principles | 10/27/2018 15:00 | 10/27/2018 17:00 | ||
| Scientific Materialism I | Antiquity to the 18th Century Alex Steinberg Six Sessions (No session November 24) This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. Weeks one and two: Science begins. Ancient speculation on the nature of reality in Greek. Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus. We will also discuss some non-Western traditions in early speculation about the nature of reality Weeks three and four: The first scientists and ancient astronomy. Egyptian and Babylonian contributions. The first Greek scientists: Anaximander, Aristotle, Aristarchus, Euclid, Ptolemy. Weeks five and six: Scientific Revolution – Copernicus to Newton, Descartes, Diderot and the materialism of the Enlightenment. Alex Steinberg has previously taught Engels and the Dialectics of Nature at the Brecht Forum. At the Marxist Education Project he has taught Spectres of the Dialectic, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Fascism and the Left Nietzscheans and Dialectics 101, along with organizing a discussion of recent events in Greece and special events on The Radicalism of James Joyce. | This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. | 9/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/scientific-materialism-i/2018-11-03/ | An introduction to materialism|Astronomy|astrophysics|Beginnings of Science|Materialist foundation|nature of reality|scientific principles | 11/3/2018 15:00 | 11/3/2018 17:00 | ||
| Scientific Materialism I | Antiquity to the 18th Century Alex Steinberg Six Sessions (No session November 24) This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. Weeks one and two: Science begins. Ancient speculation on the nature of reality in Greek. Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus. We will also discuss some non-Western traditions in early speculation about the nature of reality Weeks three and four: The first scientists and ancient astronomy. Egyptian and Babylonian contributions. The first Greek scientists: Anaximander, Aristotle, Aristarchus, Euclid, Ptolemy. Weeks five and six: Scientific Revolution – Copernicus to Newton, Descartes, Diderot and the materialism of the Enlightenment. Alex Steinberg has previously taught Engels and the Dialectics of Nature at the Brecht Forum. At the Marxist Education Project he has taught Spectres of the Dialectic, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Fascism and the Left Nietzscheans and Dialectics 101, along with organizing a discussion of recent events in Greece and special events on The Radicalism of James Joyce. | This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. | 9/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/scientific-materialism-i/2018-11-10/ | An introduction to materialism|Astronomy|astrophysics|Beginnings of Science|Materialist foundation|nature of reality|scientific principles | 11/10/2018 15:00 | 11/10/2018 17:00 | ||
| Scientific Materialism I | Antiquity to the 18th Century Alex Steinberg Six Sessions (No session November 24) This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. Weeks one and two: Science begins. Ancient speculation on the nature of reality in Greek. Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus. We will also discuss some non-Western traditions in early speculation about the nature of reality Weeks three and four: The first scientists and ancient astronomy. Egyptian and Babylonian contributions. The first Greek scientists: Anaximander, Aristotle, Aristarchus, Euclid, Ptolemy. Weeks five and six: Scientific Revolution – Copernicus to Newton, Descartes, Diderot and the materialism of the Enlightenment. Alex Steinberg has previously taught Engels and the Dialectics of Nature at the Brecht Forum. At the Marxist Education Project he has taught Spectres of the Dialectic, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Fascism and the Left Nietzscheans and Dialectics 101, along with organizing a discussion of recent events in Greece and special events on The Radicalism of James Joyce. | This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. | 9/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/scientific-materialism-i/2018-11-17/ | An introduction to materialism|Astronomy|astrophysics|Beginnings of Science|Materialist foundation|nature of reality|scientific principles | 11/17/2018 15:00 | 11/17/2018 17:00 | ||
| Scientific Materialism I | Antiquity to the 18th Century Alex Steinberg Six Sessions (No session November 24) This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. Weeks one and two: Science begins. Ancient speculation on the nature of reality in Greek. Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus. We will also discuss some non-Western traditions in early speculation about the nature of reality Weeks three and four: The first scientists and ancient astronomy. Egyptian and Babylonian contributions. The first Greek scientists: Anaximander, Aristotle, Aristarchus, Euclid, Ptolemy. Weeks five and six: Scientific Revolution – Copernicus to Newton, Descartes, Diderot and the materialism of the Enlightenment. Alex Steinberg has previously taught Engels and the Dialectics of Nature at the Brecht Forum. At the Marxist Education Project he has taught Spectres of the Dialectic, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Fascism and the Left Nietzscheans and Dialectics 101, along with organizing a discussion of recent events in Greece and special events on The Radicalism of James Joyce. | This series will introduce seminal moments in the search by humans for understanding the natural world. If there is interest, we will continue in the winter and spring of 2019 considering developments from the Enlightenment to the present day. | 9/26/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/scientific-materialism-i/2018-12-01/ | An introduction to materialism|Astronomy|astrophysics|Beginnings of Science|Materialist foundation|nature of reality|scientific principles | 12/1/2018 15:00 | 12/1/2018 17:00 | ||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-10-04/ | 10/4/2018 19:00 | 10/4/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-10-11/ | 10/11/2018 19:00 | 10/11/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-10-18/ | 10/18/2018 19:00 | 10/18/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-10-25/ | 10/25/2018 19:00 | 10/25/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-11-01/ | 11/1/2018 19:00 | 11/1/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-11-08/ | 11/8/2018 19:00 | 11/8/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-11-15/ | 11/15/2018 19:00 | 11/15/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-11-29/ | 11/29/2018 19:00 | 11/29/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-12-06/ | 12/6/2018 19:00 | 12/6/2018 21:00 | |||
| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | “Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething | hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s | ||||||
| a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | |||||||||
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| “A Screaming Comes Across The Sky…” | 2 Novels of World War II: Unforgiving Years and Gravity’s Rainbow The sessions title can apply to sections of both works First 5 Thursdays September 27 – October 25 Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years These five sessions will be conducted with the guidance of Richard Greeman “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth. There have of course been many scrupulously honest writers. But for Serge the value of the truth extended far beyond the simple (or complex) telling of it.” –John Berger From Richard Greeman’s Introduction to Unforgiving Years: Unforgiving Years is divided into four sections, four symphonic “movements,” each of which evokes its distinctive time and place through its tone and atmosphere. The first movement, entitled “The Secret Agent,” expresses the sinister unreality of a Paris indifferent to the approach of war in a chill minor key. The second, “The Flame Beneath the Snow,” is discordant, heroic, and secret like one of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies. It portrays a frozen, starving Leningrad during the “thousand days” of the Nazi siege. The third movement, “Brigitte, Lightning, Lilacs,” imagines the final days of Berlin under Allied bombardment in a mode of Wagnerian Gotterdammerung, while the final movement, “Journey’s End,” is a tragic requiem set in the stark, volcanic Mexican selva where death and life repeat their endless cycle. Copyright © 1971 by The Victor Serge Foundation The remaining 7 Thursdays Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Thursday, November 1 through Thursday, December 20 (no session on Thursday, November 22) with The MEP Lit Group Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force. “No, it is not unreadable. For most of its 700-plus pages it’s so crazily, scarily, sumptuously readable that you hate to put it aside even as the last paragraph thunders down on your head. The unsummarizable plot centers, to the extent that it centers at all, on Tyrone Slothrop, an American who comes to the attention of British intelligence during World War II when a map indicating the locales of his sexual encounters with London women shows that they correspond with the places struck by German V-2 missiles. Can his erections predict the random distribution of agents of death? From there we proceed into a massive continent-wide effort to construct a V-2, which is itself an occasion for a fantastic multitude of meditations upon the human need to build systems of intellectual order even as we use the same powers of intellect to hasten our destruction. (Did we mention that this is also a comedy, more or less?) Among American writers of the second half of the 20th century, Pynchon is the undisputed candidate for lasting literary greatness. This book is why.” —Richard Pourier Two works that demand our attention. Registration is open now.. RICHARD GREEMAN has led discussions of Balzac, Stendahl, Peter Weiss and especially Victor Serge with The MEP and Brecht Forum since 2012. He currently convenes the group Another World Is Possible with Fred Murphy and others. He is a scholar of the life of Victor Serge and is the translator of much of Serge’s works. The MEP LIT GROUP has been meeting discussing literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group has recently completeda second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels relatedto World War I, the global depression of the 1930s and more. | Two works that demand our attention. “ Unforgiving Years…has now at last been translated into electric English by the indefatigable Richard Greeman…It’s a seething, hallucinatory novel…” —Harper’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce’s Ulysses was to the first. | 9/4/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-screaming-comes-across-the-sky/2018-12-20/ | 12/20/2018 19:00 | 12/20/2018 21:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4568 | 1/12/2019 11:00 | 1/12/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4571 | 1/19/2019 11:00 | 1/19/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4572 | 1/26/2019 11:00 | 1/26/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4573 | 2/2/2019 11:00 | 2/2/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4574 | 2/9/2019 11:00 | 2/9/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4575 | 2/16/2019 11:00 | 2/16/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4576 | 2/23/2019 11:00 | 2/23/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4577 | 3/2/2019 11:00 | 3/2/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4578 | 3/9/2019 11:00 | 3/9/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4579 | 3/16/2019 11:00 | 3/16/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4580 | 3/23/2019 11:00 | 3/23/2019 14:00 | |||
| Capital, Volume One, Winter Session | with Capital Studies Group Class & Discussion (12 week session) Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, Capital provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4581 | 3/30/2019 11:00 | 3/30/2019 14:00 | |||
| Power of the Healthcare Wedge December 9 at The Peoples Forum (Old Version) |
| 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4594 | 12/9/2018 13:30 | 12/9/2018 16:30 | ||||
| Power of the Healthcare Wedge |
| Bringing together lab workers, doctors, physicians assistants, maintenance staff at hospitals, those who construct our places of treatment and recovery, mental, dental and visual health workers with the class at large, and left movement organizations — all of whom have real interests in taking on this fight — could break the ideological and legislative lock-hold American capital maintains that persistently denies working class health, imposing misery and premature mortality. | 11/28/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/power-of-the-healthcare-wedge-december-9-at-the-peoples-forum/ | community organizing|Health care rights|Healthcare|Medicare for All|mental health|Organizing|Single Payer|Working Class Consciousness|working class organizing | 12/9/2018 13:30 | 12/9/2018 16:30 | ||
| Power of the Healthcare Wedge |
| 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4639 | 12/9/2018 13:30 | 12/9/2018 16:30 | ||||
| Power of the Healthcare Wedge | Medicare for All and Working Class ConsciousnessWith Jenny Brown, Mark Dudzic and Christie Offenbacherat The People’s Forum, 320 West 37th Street Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues), NYC The working class of the United States — all those still working and all those of the class discarded, disenfranchised and deemed redundant by the capitalists — is suffering a multitude of nightmares and insecurity because the basic human right to complete healthcare is denied. Our bodies and minds have long been deemed territory to mine for profit seeking by capitalists including the health and hospital corporations, pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, financiers, and numerous other sectors. As necessary services required by women continue to be taken away, and deaths by opioids and suicide, including children, grow larger every year, the bourgeoisie’s life expectancy extends while that of millions of working Americans declines. And now we are at a point in the US where some capitalists have laid claim to owning the DNA sequences of individuals. Bringing together lab workers, doctors, physicians assistants, maintenance staff at hospitals, those who construct our places of treatment and recovery, mental, dental and visual health workers with the class at large, and left movement organizations — all of whom have real interests in taking on this fight — could break the lock-hold American capital has ideologically, legislatively, and juridically, and begin to open the way for further empowerment against the barbarous interests of these ruling neo-liberal capitalists. To accomplish this requires a national movement that can step up and unify us into a grand struggle. We of the MEP are just a small organization; it is the issue that is grand. We are committed to do our part through our programs to encourage dialogue, discussion and debate, and learning from each other and history, towards advancing the struggle for universal health care and movement building in the US. Following presentations by Christie, Jenny and Mark, we can address some of the many questions facing our movement including:
About the Speakers: JENNY BROWN is a women’s liberation organizer and former editor of Labor Notes. She is co-author of the Redstockings book Women’s Liberation and National Health Care: Confronting the Myth of America. She is author of Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight over Women’s Work, forthcoming from PM Press in March. She writes, teaches, and organizes with the dues-funded feminist group National Women’s Liberation (womensliberation.org). MARK DUDZIC has a long history in the labor movement. He has had jobs such as sanitation worker near Buffalo, NY, cannery worker in Alaska and warehouse worker and taxi driver in NYC, eventually graduation from CUNY in 1982. He became the National Organizer of the Labor Party after the death of Tony Mazzocchi in 2002. He is currently the National Coordinator for the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare. CHRISTIE OFFENBACHER is a clinical social worker and therapist in Brooklyn. She serves on the political education committee in her branch of the NYC Democratic Socialists of America, and as a Regional Coordinator with DSA’s national Medicare for All campaign. Suggested donation: $6 / $10 / $15 / sliding scale * No one turned away for inability to pay | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4644 | 12/9/2018 13:30 | 12/9/2018 16:30 | ||||
| Power of the Healthcare Wedge | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4647 | 12/9/2018 13:30 | 12/9/2018 16:30 | |||||
| Test Power of the Healthcare Wedge |
| 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4652 | 12/9/2018 13:30 | 12/9/2018 16:30 | ||||
| Dread Poetry and Freedom | Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution David Austin with an introduction by Lewis Gordon What is the relationship between poetry and social change? Standing at the forefront of political poetry since the 1970s, Linton Kwesi Johnson has been fighting neo-fascism, police violence and promoting socialism while putting pen to paper to refute W.H. Auden’s claim that ‘poetry makes nothing happen’. For Johnson, only the second living poet to have been published in the Penguin Modern Classics series, writing has always been ‘a political act’ and poetry ‘a cultural weapon’. In Dread Poetry and Freedom — the first book dedicated to the work of this ‘political poet par excellence’ – David Austin explores the themes of poetry, political consciousness and social transformation through the prism of Johnson’s work. Drawing from the Bible, reggae and Rastafari, and surrealism, socialism and feminism, and in dialogue with Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon, C.L.R. James and Walter Rodney, and W.E.B. Du Bois and the poetry of d’bi young anitafrika, Johnson’s work becomes a crucial point of reflection on the meaning of freedom in this masterful and rich study. In the process, Austin demonstrates why art, and particularly poetry, is a vital part of our efforts to achieve genuine social change in times of dread. David Austin is the author of the Casa de las Americas Prize-winning Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal, Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness, and Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution. He is also the editor of You Don’t Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James. Lewis Gordon teaches in the United States and in South Africa, where he is the Nelson Mandela Visiting Professor of Politics and International Studies, and in Toulouse, France, where he holds the European Union Visiting Chair in philosophy. His recent book What Fanon Said has become a primary source on understanding the work of Fanon. He is known not only for his writings on Frantz Fanon, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, Steve Bantu Biko, and many others, but also his work in philosophy, politics, and varieties of thought in the global south. Tickets are sliding scale / No one turned away for inability to pay | What is the relationship between poetry and social change? Standing at the forefront of political poetry since the 1970s, Linton Kwesi Johnson has been fighting neo-fascism, police violence and promoting socialism while putting pen to paper to refute W.H. Auden’s claim that ‘poetry makes nothing happen’. | 12/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/dread-poetry-and-freedom/ | Aime Cesaire|Art and Politics|Brixton|Caribbean literature|Caribbean Philosophy|Caribbean politics|CLR James|David Austin|Dread Poetry|Frantz Fanon|Jamaica|Lewis Gordon|London|Poetry|Politics and poetry|Rastafarian|Reggae|Upheaval|Urban Uprising|Walter Rodney | 1/25/2019 19:00 | 1/25/2019 21:30 | ||
| Moving Against the System | Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness With editor and author David Austin In 1968, as protests shook France and war raged in Vietnam, the giants of Black radical politics descended on Montreal to discuss the unique challenges and struggles facing their Black brothers and sisters. For the first time since 1968, David Austin brings alive the speeches and debates of the most important international gathering of Black radicals of the era. Against a backdrop of widespread racism in the West, and colonialism and imperialism in the ‘Third World’, this group of activists, writers and political figures gathered to discuss the history and struggles of people of African descent and the meaning of Black Power. With never-before-seen texts from Stokely Carmichael, Walter Rodney and C.L.R. James, these documents will prove invaluable to anyone interested in Black radical thought, as well as capturing a crucial moment of the political activity around 1968. David Austin is the author of the Casa de las Americas Prize-winning Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal, Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness, and Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution. He is also the editor of You Don’t Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James. Tickets are sliding scale / No one is turned away for inability to pay | Against a backdrop of widespread racism in the West, and colonialism and imperialism in the ‘Third World’, this group of activists, writers and political figures gathered to discuss the history and struggles of people of African descent and the meaning of Black Power. | 12/14/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/moving-against-the-system/ | 1968|Anti-colonial|Anti-racism|black nationalism|Black Panthers|Black Power|Black Writers|C.L.R. James|Class Consciousness|Colonialism|David Austin|Globalism|Imperialism|race and class|Race and Gender|race consciousness|Revolt|revolutionary consciousness|StokelyCarmichael|Third World|Walter Rodney | 1/27/2019 13:00 | 1/27/2019 15:30 | ||
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-04-04/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 1/24/2019 19:30 | 1/24/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-01-31/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 1/31/2019 19:30 | 1/31/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-02-07/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 2/7/2019 19:30 | 2/7/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-02-14/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 2/14/2019 19:30 | 2/14/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-02-21/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 2/21/2019 19:30 | 2/21/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-02-28/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 2/28/2019 19:30 | 2/28/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-03-07/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 3/7/2019 19:30 | 3/7/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-03-14/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 3/14/2019 19:30 | 3/14/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-03-21/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 3/21/2019 19:30 | 3/21/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-03-28/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 3/28/2019 19:30 | 3/28/2019 21:30 | |
| Globalization and Writing | Exploration: Exploitation/Domination • Discovery/Liberation 4 Works • 11 Weeks The MEP Literature Group In this eleven-week session we will read one memoir and three novels that study the scope of empire. Written between 1899 and 2000, the authors, two sailors (Polish and American), a Jamaican social theorist, and a British Jamaican immigrant are denied privilege because of their citizenship (or lack of it), class, or color. Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the home countries. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad The story, written at the height of the British Empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The experience left him disillusioned, questioning what it meant to be civilized in the age of colonialism This novella is astonishingly powerful and equally enigmatic. Its condemnation of Western imperialism—of the greed, violence, and exploitation that so often accompanies ventures to bring “light” and civilization to the “dark” and needy areas of the world—and its poignant look at the destructive influence of colonization on the colonized and colonizer alike, have been widely praised. However, some postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe, deemed the book racist for its portrayal of native African cultures. Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands Stuart Hall Familiar Stranger takes us only as far as the mid-1960s, after a decade during which, for Hall, “normal” life was suspended in favour of non-stop political agitation. The book touches on his role in the New Left; his critical involvement with CND; his early exposition of the “formal” and “unwitting” variants of British racism; and the importance of Catherine, with whom he relocated to Birmingham at the start of his lifelong embrace of cultural studies. These recollections of a busy life in Britain nonetheless remain haunted by the ghostly presence of his earlier years in Jamaica. With its resonant subtitle, A Life Between Two Islands, it encourages the reader to draw such parallels as that between Jamaica’s 1938 rebellion and the Brixton riots of 1981. It was Hall’s belief that the British had never fully come to terms with colonialism and decolonization. Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Dog Soldiers deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s. California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced as they did marijuana and LSD. White Teeth Zadie Smith This may be the first novel ever written that truly feels at home in our borderless, globalized, intermarried, post-colonial age, populated by “children with first and last names on a direct collision course.” Published when Smith was just 24, White Teeth follows the friendship of two Londoners, a pub-going working-class bloke named Archie and a Muslim from Bangladesh named Samad. Archie marries a Jamaican; Samad has twin sons, one of whom becomes a religious militant, the other a rabid Anglophile. The overlapping fates of Smith’s characters seem to trace the new structures of 21st-century life and test their sturdiness as framework for peace and happiness. Both deeply Dickensian and playfully post-modern, White Teeth doesn’t quail before the rampantly ramifying novelistic complexities of a multicultural world. It revels in them. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has recently completed readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years following by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Our second summer of noir, considered works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, and novels on border politics, migrations and labor organizing. | Unwilling, or unable to conform and accept lesser positions in their societies, they remain within their marginality and write their unease in novels which give readers an alternative report of the results of colonization both abroad where the EuroAmerican capitalists have colonized and what consequences that colonization has made for life in the their countries of origin. | 12/16/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/globalization-and-writing/2019-04-04/ | B. Traven|Colonialism|domination|Exploitation|Jamaica|Joseph Conrad|liberation|nationalism|race and colonialism|race and imperialism|race and liberation|Robert Stone|Sailors|Stuart Hall|World literature|Zadie Smith | Classes/Events | 4/4/2019 19:30 | 4/4/2019 21:30 | |
| Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and Beyond | Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and BeyondThe Ecosocialism Group convened with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight 8 Sessions The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group — now completing its third year — devotes the winter 2019 term to Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Join us for a close reading of this new work, which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. Such “boundary struggles” can help us better grasp capitalism’s contradictions and elaborate strategies for moving beyond it. Supplementary readings will be drawn from related work by David Harvey, Silvia Federici, and others. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-causes-conditions-consequences-and-beyond/2019-03-14/ | boundary struggles|capitalism|Class Struggles|Climate|contradictions|crisis theory|Ecological Imperatives|ecology|ecosocialism|Nancy Fraser|production|Rahel Jaeggi|social reproduction | 1/24/2019 18:00 | 1/24/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and Beyond | Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and BeyondThe Ecosocialism Group convened with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight 8 Sessions The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group — now completing its third year — devotes the winter 2019 term to Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Join us for a close reading of this new work, which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. Such “boundary struggles” can help us better grasp capitalism’s contradictions and elaborate strategies for moving beyond it. Supplementary readings will be drawn from related work by David Harvey, Silvia Federici, and others. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-causes-conditions-consequences-and-beyond/2019-01-31/ | boundary struggles|capitalism|Class Struggles|Climate|contradictions|crisis theory|Ecological Imperatives|ecology|ecosocialism|Nancy Fraser|production|Rahel Jaeggi|social reproduction | 1/31/2019 18:00 | 1/31/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and Beyond | Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and BeyondThe Ecosocialism Group convened with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight 8 Sessions The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group — now completing its third year — devotes the winter 2019 term to Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Join us for a close reading of this new work, which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. Such “boundary struggles” can help us better grasp capitalism’s contradictions and elaborate strategies for moving beyond it. Supplementary readings will be drawn from related work by David Harvey, Silvia Federici, and others. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-causes-conditions-consequences-and-beyond/2019-02-07/ | boundary struggles|capitalism|Class Struggles|Climate|contradictions|crisis theory|Ecological Imperatives|ecology|ecosocialism|Nancy Fraser|production|Rahel Jaeggi|social reproduction | 2/7/2019 18:00 | 2/7/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and Beyond | Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and BeyondThe Ecosocialism Group convened with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight 8 Sessions The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group — now completing its third year — devotes the winter 2019 term to Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Join us for a close reading of this new work, which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. Such “boundary struggles” can help us better grasp capitalism’s contradictions and elaborate strategies for moving beyond it. Supplementary readings will be drawn from related work by David Harvey, Silvia Federici, and others. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-causes-conditions-consequences-and-beyond/2019-02-14/ | boundary struggles|capitalism|Class Struggles|Climate|contradictions|crisis theory|Ecological Imperatives|ecology|ecosocialism|Nancy Fraser|production|Rahel Jaeggi|social reproduction | 2/14/2019 18:00 | 2/14/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and Beyond | Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and BeyondThe Ecosocialism Group convened with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight 8 Sessions The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group — now completing its third year — devotes the winter 2019 term to Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Join us for a close reading of this new work, which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. Such “boundary struggles” can help us better grasp capitalism’s contradictions and elaborate strategies for moving beyond it. Supplementary readings will be drawn from related work by David Harvey, Silvia Federici, and others. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-causes-conditions-consequences-and-beyond/2019-02-21/ | boundary struggles|capitalism|Class Struggles|Climate|contradictions|crisis theory|Ecological Imperatives|ecology|ecosocialism|Nancy Fraser|production|Rahel Jaeggi|social reproduction | 2/21/2019 18:00 | 2/21/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and Beyond | Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and BeyondThe Ecosocialism Group convened with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight 8 Sessions The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group — now completing its third year — devotes the winter 2019 term to Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Join us for a close reading of this new work, which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. Such “boundary struggles” can help us better grasp capitalism’s contradictions and elaborate strategies for moving beyond it. Supplementary readings will be drawn from related work by David Harvey, Silvia Federici, and others. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-causes-conditions-consequences-and-beyond/2019-02-28/ | boundary struggles|capitalism|Class Struggles|Climate|contradictions|crisis theory|Ecological Imperatives|ecology|ecosocialism|Nancy Fraser|production|Rahel Jaeggi|social reproduction | 2/28/2019 18:00 | 2/28/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and Beyond | Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and BeyondThe Ecosocialism Group convened with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight 8 Sessions The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group — now completing its third year — devotes the winter 2019 term to Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Join us for a close reading of this new work, which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. Such “boundary struggles” can help us better grasp capitalism’s contradictions and elaborate strategies for moving beyond it. Supplementary readings will be drawn from related work by David Harvey, Silvia Federici, and others. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-causes-conditions-consequences-and-beyond/2019-03-07/ | boundary struggles|capitalism|Class Struggles|Climate|contradictions|crisis theory|Ecological Imperatives|ecology|ecosocialism|Nancy Fraser|production|Rahel Jaeggi|social reproduction | 3/7/2019 18:00 | 3/7/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and Beyond | Capitalism: Causes, Conditions, Consequences … and BeyondThe Ecosocialism Group convened with Fred Murphy and Steve Knight 8 Sessions The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group — now completing its third year — devotes the winter 2019 term to Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Join us for a close reading of this new work, which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. Such “boundary struggles” can help us better grasp capitalism’s contradictions and elaborate strategies for moving beyond it. Supplementary readings will be drawn from related work by David Harvey, Silvia Federici, and others. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory which shows how different historical regimes of capitalism have relied on institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Interaction between these domains is periodically readjusted in response to crises and upheavals. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-causes-conditions-consequences-and-beyond/2019-03-14/ | boundary struggles|capitalism|Class Struggles|Climate|contradictions|crisis theory|Ecological Imperatives|ecology|ecosocialism|Nancy Fraser|production|Rahel Jaeggi|social reproduction | 3/14/2019 18:00 | 3/14/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, inter-session | Capital, Volume 13 week inter-session: Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. Prior to our 12 weeks session covering Volume 1 beginning February 2, this three-week session will focus on the General Laws of Capitalist Accumulation as we return from the winter holiday. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Marx’s Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current and past developments. This group will meet January 5, 12 and 26. The 19th is the Women’s March and there will not be class. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, workers, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | This three-week session will focus on the General Laws of Capitalist Accumulation as we return from the winter holiday. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 12/18/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-inter-session/2019-01-26/ | Capitalist appropriation|class struggle|commodity fetishism|Enclosures|Necessary labor time|Primitive Accumulation|rate of profit|surplus value|Urban and rural proletariat | 1/26/2019 12:00 | 1/26/2019 15:00 | ||
| The Last Dance Meets The Last Repast | The Politics of the Unconscious: HYSTERIA, SURREALISM, & AVANT-GARDE DANCEOur Guide: Marija Krtolica | The talk will examinethe historico-political relationships between: the psychiatric transformation of madness into mental illness, the psychoanalytic discovery of the unconscious, the surrealist anti-psychiatric art, and dance-theater’s embodied expression stripped of narrative development. A surreal meal will be the last part of this event. | 12/22/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-last-dance-meets-the-last-repast/ | Dali|dance|Dance-Theater|Debord|Food and esthetics|Freud|Hysteria|Lacan|Madness|Movement|Psychiatry and Dance|Spectacle|Surreal|Women | 2/2/2019 15:30 | 2/2/2019 17:30 | ||
| Weekend Special Pass: Austin, Gordon, Marx | For a special price of $10 you can attend all three weekend activities of January 25, 26 and 27. a. Friday, January 25, 7 to 9:30 pm at The Peoples Forum: Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution author David Austin with an introduction by Lewis Gordon In Dread Poetry and Freedom — the first book dedicated to the work of this ‘political poet par excellence’ – David Austin explores the themes of poetry, political consciousness and social transformation through the prism of Johnson’s work. Drawing from the Bible, reggae and Rastafari, and surrealism, socialism and feminism, and in dialogue with Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon, C.L.R. James and Walter Rodney, and W.E.B. Du Bois and the poetry of d’bi young anitafrika, Johnson’s work becomes a crucial point of reflection on the meaning of freedom in this masterful and rich study. b. Saturday, January 26, 12 noon to 3 pm at Unnameable Books, 600 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn, Capital, Volume 1 with the Capital Studies Group Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. c. Sunday, January 27, 1 to 3:30 pm at The Peoples Forum: Moving Against the System:The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness With author and editor David Austin This is a special one ticket price of $10 which is admission to two events and one class. Both Friday and Sunday at The Peoples Forum, Saturday class at Unnameable Books. | 2 events and a visit to our ongoing Capital Saturday study session in between. | 12/25/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/weekend-special-pass-austin-gordon-marx/ | Black Power|Capital|capital accumulation|Caribbean|colonization|David Austin|Globalism|Jamaica|karl marx|Lewis Gordon|liberation struggles|linton kwesi johnson|music and liberation|poetry and liberation|Politics or Race|Primitive Accumulation|racism|Reggae | 1/25/2019 19:00 | 1/27/2019 15:30 | ||
| Punk Crisis | The Global Punk Rock Revolution | Ray Patton argues that punk eroded the boundaries and political categories that defined the Cold War Era, replacing them with a new framework based on identity as conservative or progressive. Through this paradigm shift, punk unwittingly ushered in a new era of global neoliberalism. | 1/8/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/punk-crisis/ | alternative culture|cold war|cultural studies|Globalization|in|indie music|militarization of culture|Neo-liberalism|popular culture|popular music|postmodernism|punk|punk rock|ramones|reagan|rock against racism|sex pistols|subcultures|thatcher|the raincoats | 2/20/2019 19:30 | 2/20/2019 21:30 | ||
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus.  THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-05-20/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 2/4/2019 19:00 | 2/4/2019 21:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-04-13/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 2/2/2019 11:00 | 2/2/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-02-09/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 2/9/2019 11:00 | 2/9/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-02-16/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 2/16/2019 11:00 | 2/16/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-02-23/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 2/23/2019 11:00 | 2/23/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-03-02/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 3/2/2019 11:00 | 3/2/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-03-09/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 3/9/2019 11:00 | 3/9/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-03-16/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 3/16/2019 11:00 | 3/16/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-03-23/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 3/23/2019 11:00 | 3/23/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-03-30/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 3/30/2019 11:00 | 3/30/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-04-06/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 4/6/2019 11:00 | 4/6/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | CLASS & DISCUSSION with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUPKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. We will conclude Volume One this term and begin our first 12-week session on Volume Two on Saturday, April 27. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for two years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. No one turned away for inability to pay | Karl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity, intertwined with growing inequality and misery, alienation, stunting of human potential, and ecological destruction all over the globe. | 1/11/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-2/2019-04-13/ | accumulation|Alienation|capitalism|commodities|Expropriation|surplus value | Classes/Events | 4/13/2019 11:00 | 4/13/2019 14:00 | |
| Can the Working Class Change the World? | 5 Sessions Can the Working Class Change the World? By Michael D. Yates A new book from Monthly Review Press Session 1 | Marx argued, because capitalism is the apotheosis of class society, it must be the last class society: it must, therefore, be destroyed. And only the working class, said Marx, is capable of doing that. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/can-the-working-class-change-the-world/2019-03-04/ | Anti-capitalism|class politics|Michael Yates|Monthly Review|Political economy|Socialism|surplus value|transform society|working class | 2/7/2019 17:30 | 2/7/2019 19:15 | ||
| Can the Working Class Change the World? | 5 Sessions Can the Working Class Change the World? By Michael D. Yates A new book from Monthly Review Press Session 1 | Marx argued, because capitalism is the apotheosis of class society, it must be the last class society: it must, therefore, be destroyed. And only the working class, said Marx, is capable of doing that. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/can-the-working-class-change-the-world/2019-02-11/ | Anti-capitalism|class politics|Michael Yates|Monthly Review|Political economy|Socialism|surplus value|transform society|working class | 2/11/2019 19:00 | 2/11/2019 21:00 | ||
| Can the Working Class Change the World? | 5 Sessions Can the Working Class Change the World? By Michael D. Yates A new book from Monthly Review Press Session 1 | Marx argued, because capitalism is the apotheosis of class society, it must be the last class society: it must, therefore, be destroyed. And only the working class, said Marx, is capable of doing that. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/can-the-working-class-change-the-world/2019-02-18/ | Anti-capitalism|class politics|Michael Yates|Monthly Review|Political economy|Socialism|surplus value|transform society|working class | 2/18/2019 19:00 | 2/18/2019 21:00 | ||
| Can the Working Class Change the World? | 5 Sessions Can the Working Class Change the World? By Michael D. Yates A new book from Monthly Review Press Session 1 | Marx argued, because capitalism is the apotheosis of class society, it must be the last class society: it must, therefore, be destroyed. And only the working class, said Marx, is capable of doing that. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/can-the-working-class-change-the-world/2019-02-25/ | Anti-capitalism|class politics|Michael Yates|Monthly Review|Political economy|Socialism|surplus value|transform society|working class | 2/25/2019 19:00 | 2/25/2019 21:00 | ||
| Can the Working Class Change the World? | 5 Sessions Can the Working Class Change the World? By Michael D. Yates A new book from Monthly Review Press Session 1 | Marx argued, because capitalism is the apotheosis of class society, it must be the last class society: it must, therefore, be destroyed. And only the working class, said Marx, is capable of doing that. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/can-the-working-class-change-the-world/2019-03-04/ | Anti-capitalism|class politics|Michael Yates|Monthly Review|Political economy|Socialism|surplus value|transform society|working class | 3/4/2019 19:00 | 3/4/2019 21:00 | ||
| Early American Resistance to Hamilton’s Capitalist Policies | From the Beginning: | The concentration of economic power was built into the Constitution and enhanced by Hamilton who imposed different forms of British capitalism upon the former colonies that had just rebelled against those policies. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/early-american-resistance-to-hamiltons-capitalist-policies/2019-04-08/ | anti-banking|banking|Burr|capital formation|Early capitalism in American|finance|Hamilton | Classes/Events | 3/11/2019 19:30 | 3/11/2019 21:30 | |
| Early American Resistance to Hamilton’s Capitalist Policies | From the Beginning: | The concentration of economic power was built into the Constitution and enhanced by Hamilton who imposed different forms of British capitalism upon the former colonies that had just rebelled against those policies. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/early-american-resistance-to-hamiltons-capitalist-policies/2019-03-18/ | anti-banking|banking|Burr|capital formation|Early capitalism in American|finance|Hamilton | Classes/Events | 3/18/2019 19:30 | 3/18/2019 21:30 | |
| Early American Resistance to Hamilton’s Capitalist Policies | From the Beginning: | The concentration of economic power was built into the Constitution and enhanced by Hamilton who imposed different forms of British capitalism upon the former colonies that had just rebelled against those policies. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/early-american-resistance-to-hamiltons-capitalist-policies/2019-03-25/ | anti-banking|banking|Burr|capital formation|Early capitalism in American|finance|Hamilton | Classes/Events | 3/25/2019 19:30 | 3/25/2019 21:30 | |
| Early American Resistance to Hamilton’s Capitalist Policies | From the Beginning: | The concentration of economic power was built into the Constitution and enhanced by Hamilton who imposed different forms of British capitalism upon the former colonies that had just rebelled against those policies. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/early-american-resistance-to-hamiltons-capitalist-policies/2019-04-01/ | anti-banking|banking|Burr|capital formation|Early capitalism in American|finance|Hamilton | Classes/Events | 4/1/2019 19:30 | 4/1/2019 21:30 | |
| Early American Resistance to Hamilton’s Capitalist Policies | From the Beginning: | The concentration of economic power was built into the Constitution and enhanced by Hamilton who imposed different forms of British capitalism upon the former colonies that had just rebelled against those policies. | 1/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/early-american-resistance-to-hamiltons-capitalist-policies/2019-04-08/ | anti-banking|banking|Burr|capital formation|Early capitalism in American|finance|Hamilton | Classes/Events | 4/8/2019 19:30 | 4/8/2019 21:30 | |
| Pontecorvo Double Feature! | Anti-Bourgeois Film Festival 9th Anniversary Double Feature Pontecorvo Night @ The People’s Forum Presented by The Left Academy & The Marxist Education Project 5:30 pm | Nine years ago the anti-bourgeois film festival began at the Brecht Forum to get to nights like this, where films as profound as The Battle of Algiers and Burn! could be viewed and then discussed, not merely consumed. | 2/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pontecorvo-double-feature/ | algiers|Anti-colonialism|brando|Haiti|insurgency|jacobin|liberation films|National Liberation|peasant uprising|pontecorvo|Revolution | 2/22/2019 17:30 | 2/22/2019 22:00 | ||
| Capitalism: A Conversation with Nancy Fraser | Join us for a conversation with Nancy Fraser, co-author with Rahel Jaeggi of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Fraser and Jaeggi show how capitalism relies on critical “background conditions” – institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Capitalist crises periodically readjust the dividing lines among these domains. Such “boundary struggles” offer a key to understanding capitalism’s contradictions and the multiple forms of conflict to which it gives rise. This multidimensional critique of capitalism puts our present conjuncture into broader perspective, enabling diagnoses of the recent resurgence of right-wing populism and suggesting what is required of a viable Left alternative. Nancy Fraser is Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research. Her many books include Fortunes of Feminism, Redistribution or Recognition?, and Justice Interruptus. Tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | …(a) multidimensional critique of capitalism puts our present conjuncture into broader perspective, enabling diagnoses of the recent resurgence of right-wing populism and suggesting what is required of a viable Left alternative. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4923 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||
| Capitalism Discussion with Nancy Fraser | Join us for a conversation with Nancy Fraser, co-author with Rahel Jaeggi of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Fraser and Jaeggi show how capitalism relies on critical “background conditions” – institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature. Capitalist crises periodically readjust the dividing lines among these domains. Such “boundary struggles” offer a key to understanding capitalism’s contradictions and the multiple forms of conflict to which it gives rise. This multidimensional critique of capitalism puts our present conjuncture into broader perspective, enabling diagnoses of the recent resurgence of right-wing populism and suggesting what is required of a viable Left alternative.s Nancy Fraser is Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research. Her many books include Fortunes of Feminism, Redistribution or Recognition?, and Justice Interruptus. Tickets are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. | …[a] multidimensional critique of capitalism puts our present conjuncture into broader perspective, enabling diagnoses of the recent resurgence of right-wing populism and suggesting what is required of a viable Left alternative. | 2/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-discussion-with-nancy-fraser/ | Anti-capitalism|boundary struggles|human and non-human nature|right-wing resurgence|understanding populism | 3/13/2019 19:30 | 3/13/2019 21:30 | ||
| Premonitions | Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt | Premonitions are similar to Walter Benjamin’s Illuminations and Reflections in that, as forms of extrapolative reasoning, they reveal how a thing or event can be made to alert us to the broader social process from which it derives. The major difference is that, whereas Benjamin’s concepts placed emphasis on the resolution of accumulated tensions, “premonitions” direct our attention toward the future that will obtain should present dynamics be left undisturbed. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4938 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||
| Premonitions | Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt | Thompson combines scholarship and grassroots grit to disabuse us of cherished certainties. Whether uncovering the unrealized promise buried in mainstream cultural offerings or tracing our course toward the moment of reckoning ahead, the essays in Premonitions are both practical investigations and provocations. | 2/4/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/premonitions/ | bourgeois crumbling|class hatred|Culture of revolt|Illuminations|premonitions|Reflections|unrealized promise|Walter Benjamin | 3/9/2019 15:30 | 3/9/2019 17:30 | ||
| Celebrate the Limerick Soviet of 1919 | When Green and Red Commingled: The Limerick Soviet of 1919 | The seismic tremors that the October Revolution sent through Germany, Hungary and Italy are well known to students of the post-World War One Europe. Less familiar is the fact that the revolution’s ripple effects were felt as far to the west as Ireland. This April will mark the centennial of an episode in Irish revolutionary history known at the time—and since—as the Limerick Soviet. | 2/4/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/celebrate-the-limerick-soviet-of-1919/ | Anti-colonialism|Documentary of Irish revolt|General Strike of Limerick|Irish Independence|Irish War of Independence|Limerick Soviet|Limerick Trades Council | 3/16/2019 15:00 | 3/16/2019 17:30 | ||
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-02-11/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 2/11/2019 19:00 | 2/11/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-02-18/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 2/18/2019 19:00 | 2/18/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-02-25/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 2/25/2019 19:00 | 2/25/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-03-04/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 3/4/2019 19:00 | 3/4/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-03-11/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 3/11/2019 19:00 | 3/11/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-03-18/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 3/18/2019 19:00 | 3/18/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-03-25/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 3/25/2019 19:00 | 3/25/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-04-01/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 4/1/2019 19:00 | 4/1/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-04-08/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 4/8/2019 19:00 | 4/8/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-04-15/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 4/15/2019 19:00 | 4/15/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-04-22/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 4/22/2019 19:00 | 4/22/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-04-29/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 4/29/2019 19:00 | 4/29/2019 21:00 | |
| Noam Chomsky’s Yugoslavia: Peace, War, and Dissolution | An afternoon with Davor Džalto on Noam Chomsky’s Yugoslavia: Peace, War, and DissolutionThe Balkans, in particular the turbulent ex-Yugoslav territory, have been among the most important world regions in Noam Chomsky’s political reflections and activism for decades. His articles, public talks, and correspondence have provided a critical voice on political and social issues crucial not only to the region but the entire international community, including “humanitarian intervention,” the relevance of international law in today’s politics, media manipulations, and economic crisis as a means of political control. This volume provides a comprehensive survey of virtually all of Chomsky’s texts and public talks that focus on the region of the former Yugoslavia, from the 1970s to the present. With numerous articles and interviews, this collection presents a wealth of materials appearing in book form for the first time along with reflections on events twenty-five years after the official end of communist Yugoslavia and the beginning of the war in Bosnia. The book opens with a personal and wide-ranging preface by Andrej Grubačić that affirms the ongoing importance of Yugoslav history and identity, providing a context for understanding Yugoslavia as an experiment in self-management, antifascism, and mutlethnic coexistence. Davor Džalto will address some of the most crucial political and social issues affecting both the Balkans and the international community. He is associate professor and program director at the American University of Rome and president of the Institute for the Study of Culture and Christianity. His research interests include the fields of history and politics of the Balkans, political theology, and religious philosophy. He is editor of Yugoslavia: Peace, War, and Dissolution by Noam Chomsky (PM Press, 2018). NOAM CHOMSKY is a laureate professor at the University of Arizona and professor emeritus in the MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. His work is widely credited with having revolutionized the field of modern linguistics and Chomsky is one of the foremost critics of U.S. foreign policy. He has published numerous groundbreaking books, articles, and essays on global politics, history, and linguistics. His recent books include Who Rules the World? and Hopes and Prospects. DAVOR DZALTO is associate professor and program director at the American University of Rome and president of the Institute for the Study of Culture and Christianity. His research interests include the fields of history and politics of the Balkans, political theology, and religious philosophy. | Noam Chomsky’s articles, public talks, and correspondence have provided a critical voice on political and social issues crucial not only to the region but the entire international community, including “humanitarian intervention,” the relevance of international law in today’s politics, media manipulations, and economic crisis as a means of political control. | 2/28/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/noam-chomskys-yugoslavia-peace-war-and-dissolution/ | Albania|Balkans|Bosnia and Herzegovina|Chomsky|Croatia|Džalto|Macedonia|Montenegro|peace studies|Serbia|Slovenia|war studies|Yugoslavia | Classes/Events | 3/23/2019 15:30 | 3/23/2019 17:30 | |
| Victor Serge’s Notebooks: 1936-1947 | A book release presentation with translator Mitch Abidor and Jacob PittmanIn 1936, Victor Serge—poet, novelist, and revolutionary—left the Soviet Union for Paris, the rare opponent of Stalin to escape the Terror. In 1940, after the Nazis marched into Paris, Serge fled France for Mexico, where he would spend he rest of his life. His years in Mexico were marked by isolation, poverty, peril, and grief; his Notebooks, however, brim with resilience, curiosity, outrage, a passionate love of life, and superb writing. Serge paints haunting portraits of Osip Mandelstam, Stefan Zweig “the Old Man” Trotsky; argues with André Breton; and, awaiting his wife’s delayed arrival from Europe, writes her passionate love letters. He describes the sweep of the Mexican landscape, visits an erupting volcano, and immerses himself in the country’s history and culture. He looks back on his life and the fate of the revolution. He broods on the course of the war and the world to come after. In the darkest of circumstances, he responds imaginatively, thinks critically, feels deeply, and finds reason to hope. MITCH ABIDOR has published over a dozen volumes of translation, including a collection of Victor Serge’s anarchist writings, Anarchists Never Surrender. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, and Cineaste. Mitch has been translated into German and Turkish. He is currently writing a history of the Bisbee Depredation of 1917. JACOB PITTMAN is the publisher of Jewish Currents, the magazine of the Jewish left. This is a free event. | Serge’s Notebooks were discovered in 2010 and appear here for the first time in their entirety in English. They are a a message in a bottle from one of the great spirits, and great writers, of our shipwrecked time. | 2/28/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/victor-serges-notebooks-1936-1947/ | André Breton|Anti-capitalism|escape from Nazis|Ma|Notebooks|Osip Mandelstam|revolutionary politics|Serge|Stefan Zweig | Classes/Events | 4/13/2019 16:00 | 4/13/2019 18:00 | |
| Planet of Exile with Rob Wallace | Introducing the first statistical model of a capitalist metabolic riftAn evening with Rob WallaceCapitalism separates our economy from the cooperative commons and regenerative biosystems upon which we all depend. In effect, capital aims at projecting both nature and people off Earth proper into a distinct space where alienated nature and alienated people interact on commoditization’s terms alone. Livestock and crops, and the farmers who tend them, have been beamed up into this new social metabolism. What are the effects of such an agroeconomics on the evolution and spread of pathogens that emerge there? Can we statistically test for such an alienated epidemiology over space and time? The implications appear definitional. How, for instance, can disease control be exercised in such a gated-off space, where the commons aren’t allowed in but pathogens are let out? ROB WALLACE, author of Big Farms Make Big Flu (Monthly Review Press, 2016) and other works, is also one of the founders of ARERC (Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps), formed as an independent group of scientists, educators, and agricultural practitioners who do research and education addressing the the agri-food system in the Upper Midwest in solidarity with farmers and other constituencies that have been left out, forgotten, or damaged by the current productivist paradigm. Tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | …capital aims at projecting both nature and people off Earth proper into a distinct space where alienated nature and alienated people interact on commoditization’s terms alone. Livestock and crops, and the farmers who tend them, have been beamed up into this new social metabolism. | 2/28/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/planet-of-exile/ | agroeconomics|alienate nature|alienated epidemiology|corporatist agriculture | Classes/Events | 4/17/2019 19:30 | 4/17/2019 21:30 | |
| Ecology, Capital and History | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight The MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group will devote the spring 2019 term to a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital and selected essays applying Moore’s world-ecology framework. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life. Using Moore’s world-ecology framework, we will rethink the history of capitalism as a dialectic in which wealth, power, and nature interact to produce recurring crises – including today’s troubling nexus of global warming, mass extinction, and the exceeding of planetary boundaries. | 3/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-capital-and-history/2019-05-23/ | capitalism|crisis|ecology|Ecosocialis|environment|Jason Moore | Classes/Events | 4/4/2019 18:00 | 4/4/2019 19:30 | |
| Ecology, Capital and History | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight The MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group will devote the spring 2019 term to a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital and selected essays applying Moore’s world-ecology framework. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life. Using Moore’s world-ecology framework, we will rethink the history of capitalism as a dialectic in which wealth, power, and nature interact to produce recurring crises – including today’s troubling nexus of global warming, mass extinction, and the exceeding of planetary boundaries. | 3/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-capital-and-history/2019-04-11/ | capitalism|crisis|ecology|Ecosocialis|environment|Jason Moore | Classes/Events | 4/11/2019 18:00 | 4/11/2019 19:30 | |
| Ecology, Capital and History | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight The MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group will devote the spring 2019 term to a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital and selected essays applying Moore’s world-ecology framework. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life. Using Moore’s world-ecology framework, we will rethink the history of capitalism as a dialectic in which wealth, power, and nature interact to produce recurring crises – including today’s troubling nexus of global warming, mass extinction, and the exceeding of planetary boundaries. | 3/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-capital-and-history/2019-04-18/ | capitalism|crisis|ecology|Ecosocialis|environment|Jason Moore | Classes/Events | 4/18/2019 18:00 | 4/18/2019 19:30 | |
| Ecology, Capital and History | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight The MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group will devote the spring 2019 term to a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital and selected essays applying Moore’s world-ecology framework. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life. Using Moore’s world-ecology framework, we will rethink the history of capitalism as a dialectic in which wealth, power, and nature interact to produce recurring crises – including today’s troubling nexus of global warming, mass extinction, and the exceeding of planetary boundaries. | 3/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-capital-and-history/2019-04-25/ | capitalism|crisis|ecology|Ecosocialis|environment|Jason Moore | Classes/Events | 4/25/2019 18:00 | 4/25/2019 19:30 | |
| Ecology, Capital and History | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight The MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group will devote the spring 2019 term to a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital and selected essays applying Moore’s world-ecology framework. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life. Using Moore’s world-ecology framework, we will rethink the history of capitalism as a dialectic in which wealth, power, and nature interact to produce recurring crises – including today’s troubling nexus of global warming, mass extinction, and the exceeding of planetary boundaries. | 3/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-capital-and-history/2019-05-02/ | capitalism|crisis|ecology|Ecosocialis|environment|Jason Moore | Classes/Events | 5/2/2019 18:00 | 5/2/2019 19:30 | |
| Ecology, Capital and History | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight The MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group will devote the spring 2019 term to a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital and selected essays applying Moore’s world-ecology framework. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life. Using Moore’s world-ecology framework, we will rethink the history of capitalism as a dialectic in which wealth, power, and nature interact to produce recurring crises – including today’s troubling nexus of global warming, mass extinction, and the exceeding of planetary boundaries. | 3/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-capital-and-history/2019-05-09/ | capitalism|crisis|ecology|Ecosocialis|environment|Jason Moore | Classes/Events | 5/9/2019 18:00 | 5/9/2019 19:30 | |
| Ecology, Capital and History | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight The MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group will devote the spring 2019 term to a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital and selected essays applying Moore’s world-ecology framework. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life. Using Moore’s world-ecology framework, we will rethink the history of capitalism as a dialectic in which wealth, power, and nature interact to produce recurring crises – including today’s troubling nexus of global warming, mass extinction, and the exceeding of planetary boundaries. | 3/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-capital-and-history/2019-05-16/ | capitalism|crisis|ecology|Ecosocialis|environment|Jason Moore | Classes/Events | 5/16/2019 18:00 | 5/16/2019 19:30 | |
| Ecology, Capital and History | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight The MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group will devote the spring 2019 term to a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital and selected essays applying Moore’s world-ecology framework. Moore argues that the sources of today’s global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental groups. | Join us for a close reading of Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life. Using Moore’s world-ecology framework, we will rethink the history of capitalism as a dialectic in which wealth, power, and nature interact to produce recurring crises – including today’s troubling nexus of global warming, mass extinction, and the exceeding of planetary boundaries. | 3/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecology-capital-and-history/2019-05-23/ | capitalism|crisis|ecology|Ecosocialis|environment|Jason Moore | Classes/Events | 5/23/2019 18:00 | 5/23/2019 19:30 | |
| Test | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=5154 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||||
| 2008 Capitalist Crisis: McNally’s Global Slump | A 3 Session Mini-classIn the first paragraph of the Introduction to his book, The Global Slump, David McNally wrote as follows: “We find it difficult to view our current moment as profoundly historical. Yet, the present is invariably saturated with elements of the future, with possibilities that have not yet come to fruition, and may not do so—as the road to the future is always contested. That is why, if we wish to make history, we ‘must be able to comprehend the present as a becoming.’ [Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness]. One would think that it should be easier to see things this way during moments of profound crisis in our social and economic system, like that which broke out in 2008. As the tectonic plates of the global economy shifted, financial shocks rocked the world’s banks, leveling many of them. Panic gripped money markets, stocks plunged, factories shut down. Tens of millions of people were thrown out of work; millions lost their homes. An extraordinary uncertainty shook the world’s ruling class. The mood of the moment was captured in the confession by senior writers with the Financial Times that, “The world of the past three decades is gone. Within a year or so, however, candid statements like this disappeared from the mainstream press. The ruling class regrouped and regained its arrogance…. A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. All of this to say that to become more effective it is reasonable to turn to a social theory that see crises as an inherent aspect of the capitalist mode of production, that is Marxist theory. McNally’s Global Slump is an impressive attempt to provide such a Marxist understanding for the crisis and a good example to see the explanatory power of Marx’s social theory as laid out in the three volumes of Capital. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. We begin a close reading Volume 2 on May 11. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Listed fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis, and how the international community of capitalist interests regrouped so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. McNally’s Global Slump is an impressive attempt to provide such a Marxist understanding for the crisis and a good example to see the explanatory power of Marx’s social theory as laid out in the three volumes of Capital. | 3/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/2008-capitalist-crisis-mcnallys-global-slump/2019-05-04/ | 2008 Crisis|Austerity|capitalist crisis|global economy|Marxist Economics|Slump | Classes/Events | 4/20/2019 11:00 | 4/20/2019 13:30 | |
| 2008 Capitalist Crisis: McNally’s Global Slump | A 3 Session Mini-classIn the first paragraph of the Introduction to his book, The Global Slump, David McNally wrote as follows: “We find it difficult to view our current moment as profoundly historical. Yet, the present is invariably saturated with elements of the future, with possibilities that have not yet come to fruition, and may not do so—as the road to the future is always contested. That is why, if we wish to make history, we ‘must be able to comprehend the present as a becoming.’ [Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness]. One would think that it should be easier to see things this way during moments of profound crisis in our social and economic system, like that which broke out in 2008. As the tectonic plates of the global economy shifted, financial shocks rocked the world’s banks, leveling many of them. Panic gripped money markets, stocks plunged, factories shut down. Tens of millions of people were thrown out of work; millions lost their homes. An extraordinary uncertainty shook the world’s ruling class. The mood of the moment was captured in the confession by senior writers with the Financial Times that, “The world of the past three decades is gone. Within a year or so, however, candid statements like this disappeared from the mainstream press. The ruling class regrouped and regained its arrogance…. A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. All of this to say that to become more effective it is reasonable to turn to a social theory that see crises as an inherent aspect of the capitalist mode of production, that is Marxist theory. McNally’s Global Slump is an impressive attempt to provide such a Marxist understanding for the crisis and a good example to see the explanatory power of Marx’s social theory as laid out in the three volumes of Capital. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. We begin a close reading Volume 2 on May 11. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Listed fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis, and how the international community of capitalist interests regrouped so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. McNally’s Global Slump is an impressive attempt to provide such a Marxist understanding for the crisis and a good example to see the explanatory power of Marx’s social theory as laid out in the three volumes of Capital. | 3/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/2008-capitalist-crisis-mcnallys-global-slump/2019-04-27/ | 2008 Crisis|Austerity|capitalist crisis|global economy|Marxist Economics|Slump | Classes/Events | 4/27/2019 11:00 | 4/27/2019 13:30 | |
| 2008 Capitalist Crisis: McNally’s Global Slump | A 3 Session Mini-classIn the first paragraph of the Introduction to his book, The Global Slump, David McNally wrote as follows: “We find it difficult to view our current moment as profoundly historical. Yet, the present is invariably saturated with elements of the future, with possibilities that have not yet come to fruition, and may not do so—as the road to the future is always contested. That is why, if we wish to make history, we ‘must be able to comprehend the present as a becoming.’ [Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness]. One would think that it should be easier to see things this way during moments of profound crisis in our social and economic system, like that which broke out in 2008. As the tectonic plates of the global economy shifted, financial shocks rocked the world’s banks, leveling many of them. Panic gripped money markets, stocks plunged, factories shut down. Tens of millions of people were thrown out of work; millions lost their homes. An extraordinary uncertainty shook the world’s ruling class. The mood of the moment was captured in the confession by senior writers with the Financial Times that, “The world of the past three decades is gone. Within a year or so, however, candid statements like this disappeared from the mainstream press. The ruling class regrouped and regained its arrogance…. A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. All of this to say that to become more effective it is reasonable to turn to a social theory that see crises as an inherent aspect of the capitalist mode of production, that is Marxist theory. McNally’s Global Slump is an impressive attempt to provide such a Marxist understanding for the crisis and a good example to see the explanatory power of Marx’s social theory as laid out in the three volumes of Capital. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. We begin a close reading Volume 2 on May 11. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Listed fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis, and how the international community of capitalist interests regrouped so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. McNally’s Global Slump is an impressive attempt to provide such a Marxist understanding for the crisis and a good example to see the explanatory power of Marx’s social theory as laid out in the three volumes of Capital. | 3/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/2008-capitalist-crisis-mcnallys-global-slump/2019-05-04/ | 2008 Crisis|Austerity|capitalist crisis|global economy|Marxist Economics|Slump | Classes/Events | 5/4/2019 11:00 | 5/4/2019 13:30 | |
| The Working Class Goes to Heaven | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=5176 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||||
| The Working Class Goes to Heaven | Final Friday Film Series | This March the New York City left has the opportunity to come together and meet to watch and then discuss this film written, then filmed, edited and released as a film during the period of widespread working class militant activity throughout Italy—1971 still very warm following the Hot Autumn period of 1979. Petri and Volante step up and raise the stakes beyond their earlier collaboration, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. | 3/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-working-class-goes-to-heaven/ | Anti-bourgeois|anti-capitalist|Elio Petri|film|labor film | Classes/Events | 3/29/2019 18:00 | 3/29/2019 21:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-07-27/ | Classes/Events | 5/18/2019 11:00 | 5/18/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-05-25/ | Classes/Events | 5/25/2019 11:00 | 5/25/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-06-01/ | Classes/Events | 6/1/2019 11:00 | 6/1/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-06-08/ | Classes/Events | 6/8/2019 11:00 | 6/8/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-06-15/ | Classes/Events | 6/15/2019 11:00 | 6/15/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-06-22/ | Classes/Events | 6/22/2019 11:00 | 6/22/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-06-29/ | Classes/Events | 6/29/2019 11:00 | 6/29/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-07-06/ | Classes/Events | 7/6/2019 11:00 | 7/6/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-07-13/ | Classes/Events | 7/13/2019 11:00 | 7/13/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-07-20/ | Classes/Events | 7/20/2019 11:00 | 7/20/2019 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 2 | The Process of Circulation of Capital | How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 3/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2/2019-07-27/ | Classes/Events | 7/27/2019 11:00 | 7/27/2019 13:30 | ||
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-06-27/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 4/25/2019 19:30 | 4/25/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-05-02/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 5/2/2019 19:30 | 5/2/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-05-09/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 5/9/2019 19:30 | 5/9/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-05-16/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 5/16/2019 19:30 | 5/16/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-05-23/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 5/23/2019 19:30 | 5/23/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-05-30/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 5/30/2019 19:30 | 5/30/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-06-06/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 6/6/2019 19:30 | 6/6/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-06-13/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 6/13/2019 19:30 | 6/13/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-06-20/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 6/20/2019 19:30 | 6/20/2019 21:30 | |
| A Spring Fever of World Literature | A Spring Fever of World Literature“The progression from a critical reading of literature to an expansive conception of politics proved not only increasingly persuasive intellectually, but also compelling.” – Stuart Hall, Familiar StrangerLooking at the last century through the lens of literature (and what it tell us about the present moment and those moments that are soon to come). G. by John Berger (UK) The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (UK) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) GraceLand by Chris Abani (Nigeria) “Only in fiction can we share another person’s specific experiences. Outside fiction we have to generalize.” — John Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso “…when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. […] I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?” — China Miéville “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.”— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things G. Berger sets the story of G. against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making G. a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history’s private moments. Giovanni – G – the product of an Italian merchant’s adulterous fling is sent to cousins on a farm in England, where a piano-playing governess awakens the lust that proves the keynote in a series of fragmented episodes set during the years before the first world war – a prospect G relishes on account of all the women it will widow. The Last Days of New Paris China Miéville 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. “So there I am, wondering what to do, and I see you, and I see what you’re carrying. And that is why I came running after you. Because I do not believe in coincidence.” 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. The God of Small Things Arundathi Roy “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” In addition to commentary on Indian history and politics, Roy evaluates the Indian post-colonial complex, or the cultural attitudes of many Indians toward their former British rulers. After Ammu calls her father a “[shit]-wiper” in Hindi for his blind devotion to the British, Chacko explains to the twins Rahel and Estha, that they come from a family of Anglophiles, or lovers of British culture, “trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps.” He goes on to say that they despise themselves because of this. Nearly all of the relationships in the novel are somehow colored by cultural and class tension. GraceLand Chris Abani GraceLand is a 2004 novel by Chris Abani, which tells the story of a teenager named Elvis, who is trying to get out of the ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. Chris Abani depicts the poverty and violence in Lagos and how it affects the everyday lives of Elvis and his family. Having emigrated from Nigeria himself as a result of the Biafran War, Abani’s novel touches on many issues relevant to corruption, poverty, and violence within the country. Elvis’s story also touches on issues related to globalization, and how Nigeria’s impoverished communities are affected by this phenomenon. The main focus of this story is on Elvis and how he survives in the often harsh environment that is Nigeria’s largest city; Elvis himself is a complex and sympathetic character who clearly cares for his family despite a turbulent upbringing. However, this is complicated by the numerous illegal and morally questionable jobs he takes part in with his friend Redemption. “The rain had cleared the oppressive heat that had already dropped like a blanket over Lagos; but the smell of garbage from refuse dumps, unflushed toilets and stale bodies was still overwhelming. Elvis turned from the window, dropping the threadbare curtain. Today was his sixteenth birthday, and as with all the others, it would pass uncelebrated. It had been that way since his mother died eight years before. He used to think that celebrating his birthday was too painful for his father, a constant reminder of his loss. But Elvis had since come to the conclusion that his father was simply self-centered. The least I should do is get some more sleep, he thought, sitting on the bed. But the sun stabbed through the thin fabric, bathing the room in sterile light. The radio played Bob Marley….” | Four writers (John Berger, China Miéville, Arundathi Roy and Chris Abani) who have provided us with an array of work to counter the despair of late capital during this period when the scales are weighted far more towards barbarity and continual degradation of our biosphere, than towards what should be an equally shared planet by all who inhabit it. Please join us for close readings and discussions of works spanning the last century and much of the globe. | 3/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-spring-fever-of-world-literature/2019-06-27/ | Arundathi Roy|China Miévillle|Chris Abani|Class struggle in literature|G.|India|John Berger|Kashmir|Lagos|Paris|The Last Days of New Paris|Thibaut|World literature | Classes/Events | 6/27/2019 19:30 | 6/27/2019 21:30 | |
| Tout Va Bien: Screening with Discussion | Final Friday Films: an anti-bourgeois film series“The problem is not to make political films but to make films politically.” —Jean-Luc Godard / Jean-Pierre GorinTOUT VA BIEN France, 1972, 125 Min DIRECTED BY Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin CAST Yves Montand, Jane Fonda, Vittorio Caprioli, Elizabeth Chauvin, Castel Casti, Éric Chartier, Anne Wiazemsky, et al Godard and Gorin’s film, unpopular and hardly viewed when released, emerges nearly 50 years later as a film with increasing relevance to the days as lived during this late capitalist period. One can see many of the participants in this film wearing gilets jaunes if the film were being shot today. From the Criterion re-release: “As cinema, Tout Va Bien is radically simplified and blatantly diagrammatic. After the opening sequence, the Fonda character arrives at a sausage factory to do a story on modern management techniques. Montand tags along, and, as the workers have just staged a wildcat strike, the visiting celebs soon find themselves “sequestered” with the factory’s clownish boss. The approach is self-consciously Brechtian: The characters frequently address the camera. These characters are characters and the set on which they appear is an obvious set. This two-story, open construction—evoking the cutaway girls’ school in Jerry Lewis’s The Ladies Man (1961)—is, if not Vertov’s “factory of facts,” then at least a factory for making meaning. The comic-book frame allows the filmmakers to analyze the strike as a sort of Rube Goldberg contraption and put a didactic emphasis on working conditions. Tout Va Bien insists on class struggle throughout but is mainly about radicalizing its stars. Their role in the factory is to look and learn. Indeed, Godard and Gorin upped the class-resentment ante by having the striking workers played not by real workers but by unemployed actors.” —J. Hoberman, for Criterion, Tout Va Bien Revisited During the coming period, films will be presented by The Revolutions Study Group of The Marxist Education Project as a continuation of the Anti-Bourgeois Film Series that was started at the Brecht Forum. These films with discussion will take place on the last Friday of each month at 6:00 pm. Tickets are Sliding Scale | “Tout Va Bien insists on class struggle throughout but is mainly about radicalizing its stars. Their role in the factory is to look and learn. Indeed, Godard and Gorin upped the class-resentment ante by having the striking workers played not by real workers but by unemployed actors.” —J. Hoberman, for Criterion, Tout Va Bien Revisited | 3/25/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/tout-va-bien-screening-with-discussion/ | Brechtian|Didactic|Dziga Vertov|Fonda|General Strike|Godard|Gorin|Montand|occupations|Strikes | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 4/26/2019 18:00 | 4/26/2019 21:00 | |
| Use: A Users’ Manual | Following cultural critic Sara Ahmed’s insight that “use is a small word with a big history,” we approach the various ways that “use” enters into and exercises power within our lexicon and politics. From our interaction with digital platforms as “users,” to the Marxian notion of use-value, to the labeling of both addicts and emotional abusers as “users” of a different kind, the language of use pops up in far-flung and unexpected spheres. How do we delineate the useful and the useless, the usual and the unusual? How do the boundaries of the useful and useless map onto classifications of race, gender, sexuality, and population? In discussing the “proper” use of things and people, we ask what it means to misuse, abuse, overuse, and underuse, and offer a user manual to use and abuse. The Working Group on Globalization and Culture http://wggc.yale.edu/ is an interdisciplinary cultural studies laboratory that has been practicing collective research at Yale University since 2003. Over the years, we have presented work at academic conferences as well as at the Left Forum, Occupy Boston, and the World Social Forum. Recent projects have been published as “Going into Debt,” online in Social Text’s Periscope, and as “Spaces and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology; a collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” appeared in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. The current members—Salonee Bhaman, Michael Denning, Lucia Hulsether, Peter Raccuglia, Iliana Yamileth Rodriguez, Simon Torracinta, Damian Vergara Bracamontes, Clara Wilson-Hawken, and Yuhe Faye Wang—work in history, American studies, religious studies, literary criticism, Latinx studies, science and technology studies, popular music studies, and African-American studies. All tickets are sliding scale. No one turned away for inability to pay Our first MEP event at Union Docs  | …we approach the various ways that “use” enters into and exercises power within our lexicon, performances, and politics. From commonplace phrases like “what’s the use?” and “make yourself useful!” to the Marx’s explication of a commodity’s use value, the language of use pops up in far flung and sometimes unexpected spheres. How do we delineate the useful and the useless, the usual and the unusual? | 3/27/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/use-a-users-manual/ | Class|conventions|departures|design|disuse|gender|globalization and culture|information design|interaction|interfaces|lexicon of use|misuse|phenomenology of race|public infrastructure|social norms|use value|usefulness|utilities|value|working group on globalization and culture | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method | 5/10/2019 18:30 | 5/10/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-05-06/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 5/6/2019 19:00 | 5/6/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-05-13/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 5/13/2019 19:00 | 5/13/2019 21:00 | |
| Black Reconstruction | Black Reconstruction: An American Revolutionary Period with the Revolutions Study Group 13-week session Some have called the U.S. Civil War the “second American revolution” or the completion of the first American revolution. Others claim that the war of independence and Civil War were not revolutions, but had tremendous revolutionary potential. By whichever historical claim, the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. DuBois is concerned to refute the multiple slanders imputed to “Reconstruction” during the counter-revolutionary “Jim Crow” period that followed and to record the real advancements of democracy and social reform made under Reconstruction and partly lost when it was defeated. We will read DuBois’ Black Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2007) in whole, and for more recent research, the middle part of Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books are readily available new and used, as e-books, and in libraries. Email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a reading syllabus. THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting for 10 years. Individual participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, the German revolutionary period of 1918-1924, and the Chinese revolutionary process of the 20th Century. The listed fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 11 ONLY: The class will meet at The Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue. A or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop is a short walk from this venue. | THIS SERIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 20! …the great social revolution of that momentous period following the Civil War was surely the “reconstruction” of social relations in the former slave states. In his groundbreaking study (1935), W.E.B. DuBois reveals that this social revolution was both initiated by slaves in the midst of the war and carried through by the emancipated Black population during and after the period when federal troops occupied the former Confederate states. | 1/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction/2019-05-20/ | abolitionism|agrarian society|american capitalism|Anti-racism|civil war|Civil War aftermath|ex-slaves|industrialism|Jim Crow|Political economy|reconstruction|reform or revolution|slavery|Southern politics|W.E.B. DuBois|white supremacy | Classes/Events | 5/20/2019 19:00 | 5/20/2019 21:00 | |
| Racial Boundaries: The Origin and Consequences of the Color Line in the USA | 4-week reading and discussion group | “We are now taking on two readings which are keys to unlocking the power of the color line in shaping the political economy our world and in shaping the lives of African Americans. Theodore Allen’s pamphlet “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race | ” and W.E.B. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folk”.” | tribe_events | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/racial-boundaries-the-origin-and-consequences-of-the-color-line-in-the-usa/2019-06-24/ | anti-|Boundaries|caste|Jim Crow|race | Classes/Events | 6/3/2019 19:00 | |
| Racial Boundaries: The Origin and Consequences of the Color Line in the USA | 4-week reading and discussion group | We are now taking on two readings which are keys to unlocking the power of the color line in shaping the political economy our world and in shaping the lives of African Americans. Theodore Allen’s pamphlet “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race,” and W.E.B. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folk”. | 4/23/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/racial-boundaries-the-origin-and-consequences-of-the-color-line-in-the-usa/2019-06-10/ | anti-|Boundaries|caste|Jim Crow|race | Classes/Events | 6/10/2019 19:00 | 6/10/2019 21:00 | |
| Racial Boundaries: The Origin and Consequences of the Color Line in the USA | 4-week reading and discussion group | We are now taking on two readings which are keys to unlocking the power of the color line in shaping the political economy our world and in shaping the lives of African Americans. Theodore Allen’s pamphlet “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race,” and W.E.B. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folk”. | 4/23/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/racial-boundaries-the-origin-and-consequences-of-the-color-line-in-the-usa/2019-06-17/ | anti-|Boundaries|caste|Jim Crow|race | Classes/Events | 6/17/2019 19:00 | 6/17/2019 21:00 | |
| Racial Boundaries: The Origin and Consequences of the Color Line in the USA | 4-week reading and discussion group | We are now taking on two readings which are keys to unlocking the power of the color line in shaping the political economy our world and in shaping the lives of African Americans. Theodore Allen’s pamphlet “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race,” and W.E.B. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folk”. | 4/23/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/racial-boundaries-the-origin-and-consequences-of-the-color-line-in-the-usa/2019-06-24/ | anti-|Boundaries|caste|Jim Crow|race | Classes/Events | 6/24/2019 19:00 | 6/24/2019 21:00 | |
| Final Friday Film: American Dream by Barbara Kopple | Directed by Barbara Kopple USA, 1990, 100 min In 1984 the Hormel meat-packing company offered the union workers in Austin, Minnesota a new contract, cutting their wages from $10.69 per hour to $8.25 per hour—benefits would be cut by 30 percent. The workers were not filled with joy. The company had just declared an annual profit of $29 million, the cuts were inspired by owners wanting to maximize profits beyond that on the backs and cuts in health and life spans of the workers and their families. American Dream chronicles the six-month strike that followed during 1985 and 1986 at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota. The local union, P-9 of the Food and Commercial Workers, overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer with a $2/hour wage cut. Following this the meat workers strike and hire a New York consultant to manage a national media campaign against Hormel. Despite support from P-9’s rank and file, FCWU’s international disagrees with the strategy. In addition to union-company tension, there’s union-union in-fighting. Hormel holds firm; scabs, replacement workers, brothers on opposite sides, a union coup d’état, and a new contract materialize. The film asks, was it worth it, or was the strike a long-term disaster for organized labor? In many ways, the Hormel plant in bucolic Minnesota seemed like the least likely site for a labor-management inferno. The company’s founders had been of a paternalistic bent, and Austin’s hourly wage of $10.69 was the industry standard. But in 1984, despite profits of $29 million, Hormel announced plans to cut that wage by 23%. “What are we going to have to give up,” one worker worried, “when they show a loss for the quarter?”—Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, March 1992 Barbara Kopple, who had previously covered an extended miner’s strike in the acclaimed 1976 documentary Harlan County, USA, focuses on the personalities and emotions behind the strike, creating a highly charged portrait of labor that is sympathetic to the workers’ distress without ignoring the strike’s greater ambiguities. Ticket prices are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | American Dream chronicles the six-month strike that followed during 1985 and 1986 at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota. In addition to union-company tension, there’s union-union in-fighting. Hormel holds firm; scabs, replacement workers, brothers on opposite sides, a union coup d’état, and a new contract materialize. Full neoliberal agenda focussed on small town America. | 4/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/final-friday-film-american-dream-by-barbara-kopple/ | Austerity|class struggle|neoliberalism|Organizing|scabs|union busting|wage reduction | Classes/Events | 5/31/2019 18:30 | 5/31/2019 21:00 | |
| WordPress for Radicals |
| 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=5488 | 5/4/2019 8:00 | 5/4/2019 17:00 | ||||
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-09-19/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 7/11/2019 19:30 | 7/11/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-07-18/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 7/18/2019 19:30 | 7/18/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-07-25/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 7/25/2019 19:30 | 7/25/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-08-01/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 8/1/2019 19:30 | 8/1/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-08-08/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 8/8/2019 19:30 | 8/8/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-08-15/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 8/15/2019 19:30 | 8/15/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-08-22/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 8/22/2019 19:30 | 8/22/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-08-29/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 8/29/2019 19:30 | 8/29/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-09-05/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 9/5/2019 19:30 | 9/5/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-09-12/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 9/12/2019 19:30 | 9/12/2019 21:30 | |
| A Summer of Further Discontent: Noir Fiction and the City | The powers of corruption rife in every pore surrounding the practice of capital accumulation will sell us the spikes we pump heroin into our veins with, made from steel similar to the bullets thugs and cops will use to enforce what capital takes from within and without of shifting what is legality, threatening each and all in cities large and small all over the world who would stand up to the corruption or seek to upend any contour of business as usual. An July 11 and 18 Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil’s luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent’s familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul. July 25 and August 1 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes. August 8 and 15 The Instant Enemy Ross Macdonald Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first glance, it’s an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree? August 22 and 29 The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina When wealthy Sarah Erroll is murdered at her home in a posh part of Glasgow the local community is stunned. Heavily pregnant with desperately-wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called into a scene so violent that experienced officers can hardly bear to look. On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is told by the headmaster at his boarding school that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has hanged himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief. As Alex Morrow makes the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences. September 12 and 19 Nada Jean-Patrick Manchette translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, with an introduction by Luc Sante Nada is the most overtly political of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s dark thrillers, a critique of the terrorism that tempted a sliver of the ultra-left in France (and elsewhere) in the wake of the disillusions of 1968. The novel chronicles the kidnapping and eventual killing of an American ambassador by an anarcho-terrorist group who have espoused armed struggle. A rough equivalent to this story might be the saga of the ill-fated Symbionese Liberation Army in California, whose fiery elimination is reminiscent of the police massacre of Manchette’s fictional direct-action group in Nada. The novel is in no sense a political pamphlet, however, and readers who have come to appreciate the very special qualities of Manchette’s writing, and the cool noir style that he inherits in part from Dashiell Hammett and calls “behaviorist,” will not be disappointed in the tour de force that is Nada. The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project. The group last year completed a second summer of readings of noir, considering works by Hammett, Chandler, Manchette, and others. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the global depression of the 1930s, borders and migration, and the literature of mutually assured destruction and more. | This summer our noir group will visit our old stomping grounds of Los Angeles but will begin our summer of more discontent with Narcopolis, set in Mumbai, then after two stops in L.A. go off to Glasgow before dipping south to finish our summer in Paris with the soon-to-be-published Nada. | 5/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-summer-of-further-discontent-noir-fiction-and-the-city/2019-09-19/ | glasgow|International Noir|Los Angeles|mumbai|Noir fiction | Classes/Events | 9/19/2019 19:30 | 9/19/2019 21:30 | |
| Final Friday Film: Camp de Thiaroye | Directed by Ousmane Sembène From a screenplay by Ousmane Sembène and Thierno Faty Sow (1987 Senegal 153 mins)  “In this powerful and moving film Sembène, in collaboration with Thierno Faty Sow, who co-scripted and co-directed, reclaims and tells to the world another of those fragments of history concealed by colonialism which he sees it as his task to disinter. Such stories are part of the history not only of Africa, but of the colonial powers, in this case France, as well. “You don’t know natives or the colonies”, Capt. Raymond is informed when, at a meeting at the General’s H.Q., he insists that the Army should honour its obligations to the tirailleurs. France, he argues, cannot successfully reconstruct by “robbing natives”, particularly those who have, as he outspokenly reminds the assembled officers, been fighting the war “in your place, gentlemen”, a reminder that the authorities in Senegal initially collaborated with Vichy. Ironically, it is not his ignorance of “natives or the colonies” that limits Raymond, but his naivety about his fellow Frenchmen: “An officer who does not keep his word is not worthy to wear the French uniform.” When he hears of the massacre in Diatta’s village he is quick to point out that it occurred in 1942, under Vichy. (In Sembène’s 1971 film Emitai massacres in the Diola region from which Diatta comes are shown as continuing after the liberation of France, and De Gaulle’s assumption of power.) Diatta argues that the mentality of colonial armies, be they French or Nazi, is the same, going on to point out that collaborators are surrounding the leader of the Free French and being put in charge of the colonies. Despite his greater historical awareness (Raymond is, in fact, often prepared to defer to his erudition) Diatta too is taken in when the General apparently gives in to the tirailleurs‘ demands, and offers his word “as a general officer”. “Secondly, debate is very important in African cinema. It draws on the political rituals of traditional society, which, though feudal, had its system of checks and balances, which resulted in some degree of democratic exchange of opinion. In Camp de Thiaroye the tirailleurs use the traditional, highly rhetorical, almost theatrical, mode of debate of their various societies, but adapt this ritual form to the only language they have in common: the pidgin which the French insultingly call “petit nègre”, a language which is both a result and a tool of colonial exploitation. Here it is revealed as having a potential for eloquence, allowing it to become a moving medium for the articulation of feelings, needs, grievances and resistance, and thus ultimately for the development of the tirailleurs‘ collective political awareness and consciousness of themselves as Africans. One consequence of the latter is the decision to choose their own leaders, selecting a representative from each barracks, rather than relying on their nonetheless much loved and respected Sergeant-Major, who has been promoted by the whites. The structures they evolve grow out of their historical situation, and compare strikingly with the rigid hierarchies of colonialism and the military: “The army is discipline. Obedience to your superiors”, the General tells them. The formal pageantry of the parade-ground serves to stifle debate, mask conflict, hide betrayal and destruction, whereas the theatrical exchanges of the traditional discourse offer a forum for debate, evolution and reconciliation.” —James Leahy, Sense of Cinema, October, 2003 Ousmane Sembène was the son of a fisherman, born in Ziguinchor in Casamance to a Lebou family. From childhood Sembène was exposed to Serer religion especially the Tuur festival, in which he was made cult servant. Although the Tuur demands offerings of curdled milk to the ancestral spirits (Pangool), Sembène did not take his responsibility as cult servant seriously and was known for drinking the offerings made to the ancestors. Some of his adult work draws on Serer themes. His maternal grandmother reared him and greatly influenced him. Women play a major role in his works. In 1944, Sembène was drafted into the Senegalese Tirailleurs (a corps of the French Army). His later World War II service was with the Free French Forces. After the war, he returned to his home country and in 1947 participated in a long railroad strike on which he later based his seminal novel God’s Bits of Wood. | In Camp de Thiaroye the tirailleurs use the traditional, highly rhetorical, almost theatrical, mode of debate of their various societies, but adapt this ritual form to the only language they have in common: the pidgin which the French insultingly call “petit nègre”, a language which is both a result and a tool of colonial exploitation. Here it is revealed as having a potential for eloquence, allowing it to become a moving medium for the articulation of feelings, needs, grievances and resistance, and thus ultimately for the development of the tirailleurs‘ collective political awareness and consciousness of themselves as Africans. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/final-friday-films-camp-de-thiaroye/ | African film|Anti-colonialism|Class Consciousness|Colonialism|national consciousness|Organizing|race consciousness | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 6/28/2019 18:30 | 6/28/2019 21:30 | |
| Capital Crisis: 2008 Global Slump | A 7 Session Class | A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/5578/2019-06-13/ | Classes/Events | 6/13/2019 18:00 | 6/13/2019 19:30 | ||
| Final Friday Film: Happy-Go-Lucky |  Written and Directed by Mike Leigh (2008 UK 118 mins) Thirty years old and single, Pauline “Poppy” Cross shares a London flat with her best friend Zoe, a fellow teacher. Poppy is free-minded, high-spirited and kind-hearted. The film opens with Poppy trying to engage a shop employee in conversation. He ignores her, yet his icy demeanour does not bother her. She maintains her good mood even when she discovers her bicycle has been stolen. Her main concern is not getting a new one or finding the bicycle, but that she did not get a chance to say goodbye to it. This prompts her to decide to learn how to drive. When Poppy takes driving lessons for the first time, her positive attitude contrasts starkly with her gloomy, intolerant and cynical driving instructor, Scott. He is emotionally repressed, has anger problems and becomes extremely agitated by Poppy’s casual attitude towards driving. As Poppy gets to know him, it becomes evident that Scott believes in conspiracy theories. His beliefs are partly attributable to his racist and misogynistic views, which make it hard for him to get along with others. Scott seems to be angered by Poppy’s sunny personality and what he perceives as a lack of responsibility and concern for driving safety. Scott is exceptionally irritated by Poppy’s choice of footwear (a pair of high-heeled boots), which he feels compromises her ability to drive. From the outset, he feels Poppy does not take her lessons seriously and is careless. From The Guardian (UK): “Happy Go Lucky has been extravagantly admired since it premiered at the Berlin film festival earlier this year, and I find myself liking it more and more. Mike Leigh’s trademarked cartoony dialogue, as ever lending a neo-Dickensian compression and intensity to the proceedings, is an acquired taste and I have gladly acquired it, though some haven’t. I am not quite sure what I think about the big, final confrontation between Poppy and Scott. It is well-acted and composed, and Marsan is ferociously convincing, yet the episode is closed off a little too neatly, and Poppy seems eerily unaffected by this or anything else. The effect is a kind of odd and steely invulnerability: not unattractive exactly, but disconcerting. “Sally Hawkins plays it superbly though: exactly right for the part and utterly at ease with a role that is uniquely demanding. In the factory-farmed blandness of the movies, Happy-Go-Lucky has a strong, real taste.” Like other wholly original artists, Mike Leigh has staked out his own territory. His London is as distinctive as Fellini’s Rome or Ozu’s Tokyo. In the 1970s and ’80s his career moved between theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterized by a gritty kitchen sink realism style. His well-known films include the comedy-dramas Life is Sweet (1990) and Career Girls (1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biographical film Topsy-Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are the black comedy-drama Naked (1993), for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes. | When Poppy takes driving lessons for the first time, her positive attitude contrasts starkly with her gloomy, intolerant and cynical driving instructor, Scott. He is emotionally repressed, has anger problems and becomes extremely agitated by Poppy’s casual attitude towards driving. As Poppy gets to know him, it becomes evident that Scott believes in conspiracy theories. His beliefs are partly attributable to his racist and misogynistic views, which make it hard for him to get along with others. Scott seems to be angered by Poppy’s sunny personality and what he perceives as a lack of responsibility and concern for driving safety. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/final-friday-film-happy-go-lucky/ | Surviving the neoliberal period | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 7/26/2019 18:30 | 7/26/2019 21:00 | |
| Les Temps Modernes: The Early Decades | 2 sessions with Mitch Abidor Les Temps Modernes, founded by Sartre and Beauvoir in 1945, ceased publication in December 2018. It had been one of the most prestigious intellectual, political, and cultural journals in the world, in its heyday between 1945-1975 setting the terms of intellectual debate all over the world. This class will examine the first decades of its existence, when such important works as Sartre’s What is Literature appeared in it, as well as the first installments of Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. It will focus on its political positions, as Sartre first attempted to set up a third-way party, became a fellow-traveler of the PCF (publishing The Communists and Peace), then rejected working with the Communists (publishing The Ghost of Stalin). It will trace the journal and its editors’ commitment to anti-colonialism, particularity its courageous work in support of the Algerian FLN. Its role during May 68 and its aftermath will be examined, as Les Temps Modernes espoused the cause of the Maoists and the far left all over the world. Finally, it will look at its position on the conflict in the Middle East, about which Les Temps Modernes published a 1000 page issue. Mitch Abidor has published over a dozen volumes of translation, including a collection of Victor Serge’s anarchist writings, Anarchists Never Surrender. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, and Cineaste. Mitch has been translated into German and Turkish. He is currently writing a history of the Bisbee Deportation of 1917. This is a two week course. Fees below are suggested and are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | This class will examine the first decades of its existence, when such important works as Sartre’s What is Literature appeared in it, as well as the first installments of Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. It will focus on its political positions, as Sartre first attempted to set up a third-way party… | 6/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/les-temps-modernes-the-early-decades/2019-09-19/ | Existentialism|internationalism|Jean Paul Sartre|left philosophy|Paris|philosophy|post-war left|Simone de Beauvoir | Classes/Events | 9/12/2019 18:00 | 9/12/2019 19:30 | |
| Les Temps Modernes: The Early Decades | 2 sessions with Mitch AbidorLes Temps Modernes, founded by Sartre and Beauvoir in 1945, ceased publication in December 2018. It had been one of the most prestigious intellectual, political, and cultural journals in the world, in its heyday between 1945-1975 setting the terms of intellectual debate all over the world. This class will examine the first decades of its existence, when such important works as Sartre’s What is Literature appeared in it, as well as the first installments of Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. It will focus on its political positions, as Sartre first attempted to set up a third-way party, became a fellow-traveler of the PCF (publishing The Communists and Peace), then rejected working with the Communists (publishing The Ghost of Stalin). It will trace the journal and its editors’ commitment to anti-colonialism, particularity its courageous work in support of the Algerian FLN. Its role during May 68 and its aftermath will be examined, as Les Temps Modernes espoused the cause of the Maoists and the far left all over the world. Finally, it will look at its position on the conflict in the Middle East, about which Les Temps Modernes published a 1000 page issue. Mitch Abidor has published over a dozen volumes of translation, including a collection of Victor Serge’s anarchist writings, Anarchists Never Surrender. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, and Cineaste. Mitch has been translated into German and Turkish. He is currently writing a history of the Bisbee Deportation of 1917. This is a two week course. Fees below are suggested and are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | This class will examine the first decades of its existence, when such important works as Sartre’s What is Literature appeared in it, as well as the first installments of Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. It will focus on its political positions, as Sartre first attempted to set up a third-way party… | 6/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/les-temps-modernes-the-early-decades/2019-09-19/ | Existentialism|internationalism|Jean Paul Sartre|left philosophy|Paris|philosophy|post-war left|Simone de Beauvoir | Classes/Events | 9/19/2019 18:00 | 9/19/2019 19:30 | |
| How America Became Capitalist | Imperial Expansion and the Conquest of the West An epic history of the formation of American capitalism, focusing on gender, race and empire. A presentation and discussion with author James Parisot“Parisot’s rich and lively analysis of the domestic history of US empire helps readers understand what it was about the development of US economic, social and political institutions that made the American state so central in the making of global capitalism.” —Leo Panitch “The historical transformation from a society with capitalism to a capitalist society, then, meant, in the American case, the two hundred and fifty or so year process through which bits and pieces of capitalist relations slowly came to predominate and incorporate non‐capitalist forms of social life. And this history of the rise of capitalist dominance was simultaneously a history of empire building. By empire I refer to the total structure of power over space and territory that emerged from the earliest days of white‐settler colonization through the extension of continental expansion and the globalization of US power.” —James Parisot, 2017  Has America always been capitalist?Today, the US sees itself as the heartland of the international capitalist system, its society and politics intertwined deeply with its economic system. Parisot’s book looks at the history of North America from the founding of the colonies to debunk the myth that America is ‘naturally’ capitalist. From the first white-settler colonies, capitalist economic elements were apparent, but far from dominant, and did not drive the early colonial advance into the West. Society, too, was far from homogeneous – as the role of the state fluctuated. Racial identities took time to imprint, and slavery, whilst at the heart of American imperialism, took both capitalist and less-capitalist forms. Additionally, gender categories and relations were highly complex, as standards of ‘manhood’ and ‘womanhood’ shifted over time to accommodate capitalism, and as there were always some people challenging this binary. By looking at this fascinating and complex picture, James Parisot weaves a groundbreaking historical materialist perspective on the history of American expansion. James Parisot received his PhD in Sociology from Binghamton University. He has published articles in a variety of scholarly journals, is co-editor of the book American Hegemony and the Rise of Emerging Powers: Cooperation or Conflict? (Routledge, 2017). Prices are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. | Has America always been capitalist? Today, the US sees itself as the heartland of the international capitalist system, its society and politics intertwined deeply with its economic system. Parisot’s book looks at the history of North America from the founding of the colonies to debunk the myth that America is ‘naturally’ capitalist. | 6/9/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/how-america-became-capitalist/ | Colonial settler society|imperial expansion|origins of capitalism in the USA|Westward expansion | Classes/Events | 7/17/2019 19:00 | 7/17/2019 21:00 | |
| Capital Crisis: 2008 Global Slump | A 7 Session Class | A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/5578/2019-06-27/ | Classes/Events | 6/27/2019 18:00 | 6/27/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capital Crisis: 2008 Global Slump | A 7 Session Class | A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/5578/2019-07-04/ | Classes/Events | 7/4/2019 18:00 | 7/4/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capital Crisis: 2008 Global Slump | A 7 Session Class | A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/5578/2019-07-11/ | Classes/Events | 7/11/2019 18:00 | 7/11/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capital Crisis: 2008 Global Slump | A 7 Session Class | A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/5578/2019-07-18/ | Classes/Events | 7/18/2019 18:00 | 7/18/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capital Crisis: 2008 Global Slump | A 7 Session Class | A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/5578/2019-07-25/ | Classes/Events | 7/25/2019 18:00 | 7/25/2019 19:30 | ||
| Capital Crisis: 2008 Global Slump | A 7 Session Class | A decade has passed but the crisis is not over. Indeed we might even say that we are only beginning to see the effects of this greatest crisis of capitalism: the rise of anti neo-liberal populism of the right and left in Trump and Sanders, Brexit, extreme austerity, all the labor and social movements such as the teachers movement in the US and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The ruling class has regrouped and regained its arrogance, continuing their political and economic assault imposing ever deeper social wage cuts while ideologically taking aim at hard won democratic and civil rights. It remains important for us to understand the underlying causes within this late stage of capitalist development that led to the 2008 crisis so that we of the working classes develop our capacity to effectively take on the political, ideological and economic challenges we are facing now and in the struggles ahead for a better life for all. | 5/20/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/5578/2019-08-01/ | Classes/Events | 8/1/2019 18:00 | 8/1/2019 19:30 | ||
| Zones of Liberation | Global Capital and the Fight to End ItPanel Discussion with Salonee Bhaman, George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici, Gabriel Rockhill and others. with workshops on developing and defending areas of opposition to and transition from capital. At this late and moribund stage of capitalist development nothing is sacred to profit making as the capitalists deforest the Amazon and exploit the deepest marine life of the Marianas Trench. Meanwhile, the working classes the world over are engaged of necessity in an array of movements in opposition to these life-destroying practices. Nonetheless, workers deliver through their labors—which they must sell in order to survive, losing control over the use of their labor power in this act of selling—the means by which capital is digitally speeding us towards a metabolic endgame. Each decade going forward will lead to the demise of ever more species from the microbial to fully sentient beings like ourselves, all the result of the insatiable proliferation of the capitalists pursuit for ever greater profit and continuous expanding accumulation of their money capital even if to do so requires the end of life on this planet as we know it. In response to this, The Marxist Education Project is closing this summer and revving up to meet the challenges of 2020 with an inaugural event on Global Capital and the Fight to End It. We will begin on August 24 with an afternoon panel with Salonee Bhaman, George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici, Gabriel Rockhill and others, followed by evening workshop discussions. The focus of the workshop discussions is to identify what needs to be done to support, build, develop and defend the developing arenas of working class and dispossessed peoples resistance, towards nurturing a unified counter-capitalist force that can be sustained locally, nationally, and in solidarity with the struggles of our brothers and sisters throughout the world. The various workshops will be meeting grounds to identify areas where working classes the world over are organizing resistance and the new left re/formations as collectives, parties, and political spaces are forming. To do this, in the workshops we will explore the array of struggles around such concerns as education, housing, healthcare, jobs, libraries, preservation of natural resources and species, climate, poverty and hunger, return of epidemics like measles, the needs of the aging and physically or emotionally disabled, and the continued divisions and discriminations within our class be it sexism, race, ethic/national/religious origins, gender identity, that only serve to enable increasing exploitation of the class as a whole. We will also identify the existing and developing meeting spaces for collectives, parties, and political discussion and organizing like the many that are growing in New York City such as Verso Space, Flux Factory, The People’s Forum, MayDay Space, Woodbine, Starr Bar, Bluestockings, The Base, Interference Archive, The Marxist Education Project, Rosa Luxemburg Institute, Brooklyn Institute, Jacobin and Nation reading groups, The Institute for the Radical Imagination, Red Bloom, Democracy at Work, DSA, the self-identified cadre political parties and other locales and organizations. To counter this stage of a rapacious dying capitalism that requires ever-deeper exploitation of workers and nature, we propose to explore where our class has been staking out, claiming and defending zones of liberation. We look to movements such as our own Occupy movement to the current Yellow Vest movement in France, the long-standing Zapatista opposition in Mexico that has secured liberated zones, the ZAD in France, and our own zones that we are staking out in our daily lives here, and other instances that panelists and attendess/participants will bring attention to. Salonee Bhaman is a PhD candidate in History at Yale University. Her research focuses on punitive welfare, housing, and austerity politics with particular attention towards questions of race, gender, migration, and care. Her dissertation in progress explores the first years of the AIDS epidemic with regards to the American welfare state—thinking through issues of care work, immigration policy, and intimate space. She has also done significant work on the struggles of women who are brought to the US for marriage, very often to extra-exploitative and isolated situations with little or no community to turn to for support. George Caffentzis is a political philosopher and autonomist Marxist. He was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Maine and a founding member of the Midnight Notes Collective. He is the author of Clipped Coins, Abused Words, and Civil Government: John Locke’s Philosophy of Money, In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines, and the Crisis of Capitalism and the coeditor of A Thousand Flowers: Social Struggles Against Structural Adjustment in African Universities. George’s most recent book is No Blood For Oil! Essays on Energy, Class Struggle and War 1998–2016, published by Autonomedia. Silvia Federici is a long-time feminist, writer, and teacher living in Brooklyn, NY. Her most recent book is Re-enchanting the World. Feminism and the Politics of the Commons (PM Press 2019). Other works include Caliban and the Witch Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (Autonomedia 2004), Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (Common Notions/PM Press, 2012), The New York Wages For Housework Committee : History, Theory, Documents. 1972-1977. (Autonomedia, 2017), and Witch-hunting Witches and Women, (PM Press, 2018). Born in Italy, Federici has lectured and taught widely in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the U.S. She has participated in numerous international movements and social struggles, including feminist, education, anti-death penalty, as well as anti-nuclear and anti-globalization movements. Gabriel Rockhill is a philosopher, cultural critic and political theorist. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University and Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop. His recent books include La guerre intellectuelle de la CIA (forthcoming), Counter-History of the Present: Untimely Interrogations into Globalization, Technology, Democracy (2017), Interventions in Contemporary Thought: History, Politics, Aesthetics (2016) and Radical History & the Politics of Art (2014). In addition to his scholarly work, he has been actively engaged in extra-academic activities in the art and activist worlds, as well as a regular contributor to public intellectual debate. For more information: https://gabrielrockhill.com. For some time Gabriel has been active with the Yellow Vests movement. You can listen to his take on the Yellow Vest movement on KPFA in an interview and read his coverage on the Counterpunch website. All fees are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. | Each decade going forward will lead to the demise of ever more species from the microbial to fully sentient beings like ourselves, all the result of the insatiable proliferation of the capitalists pursuit for ever greater profit and continuous expanding accumulation of their money capital even if to do so requires the end of life on this planet as we know it. In response to this, The Marxist Education Project is closing this summer and revving up to meet the challenges of 2020 with an inaugural event on Global Capital and the Struggle for Socialism. We will begin on August 24 with an afternoon panel with Salonee Bhaman, George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici, Gabriel Rockhill and others, followed by evening workshop discussions. | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/zones-of-liberation/ | Capital|counter-capitalism|Eco-socialism|liberation|Post-capitalism|Social movements|yellow vests | Classes/Events | 8/24/2019 15:30 | 8/24/2019 20:00 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-11-20/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 9/25/2019 18:30 | 9/25/2019 20:30 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-10-02/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 10/2/2019 18:30 | 10/2/2019 20:30 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-10-09/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 10/9/2019 18:30 | 10/9/2019 20:30 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-10-16/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 10/16/2019 18:30 | 10/16/2019 20:30 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-10-23/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 10/23/2019 18:30 | 10/23/2019 20:30 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-10-30/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 10/30/2019 18:30 | 10/30/2019 20:30 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-11-06/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 11/6/2019 18:30 | 11/6/2019 20:30 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-11-13/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 11/13/2019 18:30 | 11/13/2019 20:30 | |
| Psychology for Activists | Psychological Ideas and Practices for ActivistsAn 8 session class with Juliet Ucelli It’s hard to survive in this society, both physically (with growing precarity), and as an integrated and authentic human being. It’s even more complicated when you are someone engaged in trying to change the world. We all need as many tools and as much knowledge that is available for our well-being as individuals! How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? Some of us have lost support from our families of origin, which whether or not is better for us in the long term, such a rupture resonates in individuals for years, even decades. As millions of people across the globe face displacement, war, imprisonment, the necessity of immigration—what have we learned about healing practices that can foster recovery from such large-scale historic traumas? These are some of the questions we will explore in an overview of psychological concepts and practices that are most relevant for progressive activists. Authors and theoretical trends that we will draw from include: Frantz Fanon (internalized oppression and auto-destructive behavior); trauma theory (much of it pioneered by progressive clinicians working with former political prisoners and former military combatants); and feminist relational theory, which explores our bodies, our psyches and our identities in relation to complex social justice issues. We’ll even pull out some nuggets from classical theorists like V. I. Lenin, who was actually being quite psychologically precise when he talked about left-wing communism as “an infantile disorder,” and Marx himself, who described capitalism as “relations of personal independence based on material dependence.” Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory, and Marxist understandings of human development. She also teaches Marx’s Capital, Volume One with The Marxist Education Project. Fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | How do we integrate our understandings of how society changes and how individuals and small groups change? How do we recognize when the things getting in the way of our political effectiveness are not just the obvious obstacles but unprocessed past hurt from our own lives? How do racism, anti-Blackness, cis-hetero-patriarchy seep into our individual psychodynamics and group dynamics even as we are trying to overthrow these forms of oppression? | 6/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/emotional-well-being/2019-11-20/ | emotional health|gestalt|psychological concepts|self-actualization|stress reduction|trauma | Classes/Events | 11/20/2019 18:30 | 11/20/2019 20:30 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-12-16/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 9/16/2019 19:00 | 9/16/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-09-23/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 9/23/2019 19:00 | 9/23/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-09-30/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 9/30/2019 19:00 | 9/30/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-10-07/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 10/7/2019 19:00 | 10/7/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-10-14/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 10/14/2019 19:00 | 10/14/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-10-21/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 10/21/2019 19:00 | 10/21/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-10-28/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 10/28/2019 19:00 | 10/28/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-11-04/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 11/4/2019 19:00 | 11/4/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-11-11/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 11/11/2019 19:00 | 11/11/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-11-18/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 11/18/2019 19:00 | 11/18/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-11-25/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 11/25/2019 19:00 | 11/25/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-12-02/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 12/2/2019 19:00 | 12/2/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-12-09/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 12/9/2019 19:00 | 12/9/2019 21:00 | |
| Foundations of American Bourgeois White Male Supremacy | A 14 week study with the Revolutions Study Group The white race remains the most peculiar and contentious identity in American life since its origin in the class struggle of colonial Virginia and Maryland. In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-Americans but also disastrous for the white worker. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. Admission is sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | In The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen offers a historical materialist analysis of racial slavery; a system put in place in the decades following the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 when an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burnt Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. In a conscious response to labor solidarity the plantation bourgeoisie enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th century which first put in place the system of white racial privileges which enabled the imposition of racial slavery and “white” male supremacy. | 7/2/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/foundations-of-american-bourgeois-white-male-supremacy/2019-12-16/ | Class formation|Class privilege|indentured servitude|labor divide|male domination|origins of North American racism|Settler Colonialism|slave trade|slavery | Classes/Events | 12/16/2019 19:00 | 12/16/2019 21:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-10-26/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 8/10/2019 11:00 | 8/10/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-08-17/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 8/17/2019 11:00 | 8/17/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-08-24/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 8/24/2019 11:00 | 8/24/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-08-31/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 8/31/2019 11:00 | 8/31/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-09-07/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 9/7/2019 11:00 | 9/7/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-09-14/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 9/14/2019 11:00 | 9/14/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-09-21/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 9/21/2019 11:00 | 9/21/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-09-28/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 9/28/2019 11:00 | 9/28/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-10-05/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 10/5/2019 11:00 | 10/5/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-10-12/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 10/12/2019 11:00 | 10/12/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-10-19/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 10/19/2019 11:00 | 10/19/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Second Sessions | Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. From Sam, one of the conveners of the group. Very relevant for all those who will participate, whether starting in now or have been part of the group from whatever point in this study: “The past few chapters have been about the two concepts of Fixed and Circulating Capital: Fixed Capital: Refers to machines, buildings and other ‘fixed’ parts of constant capital that transfer their value to the product over a long period of time and only bit by bit. For example a machine that is worth 10,000$ and is supposed to last for 10 years, transfers 1000$ every year to the total sum of products produced in that year. Assuming that a 1000 pieces of cloth were produced, it transfers $1.00 each. Circulating Capital: Refers to labor-power (variable capital) and raw materials (part of constant capital). They transfer all their value to product. If 1000$ in wages are paid over a month and some 100 pieces of cloth are produced in that month, each piece will represent $10 etc. Three points to be made: 1) Fixed and Circulating Capital refer to the division of capital in the production sphere and not the circulation sphere. Marx spends a lot of time castigating Adam Smith for his confusion of Commodity Capital with Circulating Capital. 2) Although they are concepts of the production sphere, they are derived at from the standpoint of circulation of value. This is in opposition to the categories of Constant and Variable Capital (Volume 1) which are from the standpoint of the production of value (look carefully at the titles of volume one and two). 3) This is the standpoint of the critique of political economy: Machines are not fixed capital by themselves nor are wages and raw materials circulating capital, it is only under the capitalist relations of production i.e. value relations that machines become the embodiment of fixed capital and, wages and raw materials the embodiment of circulating capital. By itself a machine is just a machine, being fixed capital is its social character. Remember Marx from Volume 1: “Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social” (p. 138-9).” Next Marx goes into turn over time and the tendencies it creates the result of which is what we call globalization’ | After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital —including the commodification of the capacities of the human subject and materials and powers of nature, the two sources of wealth, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that insures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? By looking at capitalist social reproduction from this viewpoint, in Volume II we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. | 7/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-second-sessions/2019-10-26/ | Circulation of Commodities|money circuit|production circuit|turnover time | Classes/Events | 10/26/2019 11:00 | 10/26/2019 14:00 | |
| Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightAs the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group | This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. | 7/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/earth-in-crisis-staying-with-the-trouble/2019-11-14/ | crisis|food shortages|global warming|mass extinctions|mass migration|ocean acidification|planet damage | Classes/Events | 9/26/2019 18:00 | 9/26/2019 19:30 | |
| Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightAs the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group | This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. | 7/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/earth-in-crisis-staying-with-the-trouble/2019-10-03/ | crisis|food shortages|global warming|mass extinctions|mass migration|ocean acidification|planet damage | Classes/Events | 10/3/2019 18:00 | 10/3/2019 19:30 | |
| Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightAs the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group | This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. | 7/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/earth-in-crisis-staying-with-the-trouble/2019-10-10/ | crisis|food shortages|global warming|mass extinctions|mass migration|ocean acidification|planet damage | Classes/Events | 10/10/2019 18:00 | 10/10/2019 19:30 | |
| Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightAs the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group | This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. | 7/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/earth-in-crisis-staying-with-the-trouble/2019-10-17/ | crisis|food shortages|global warming|mass extinctions|mass migration|ocean acidification|planet damage | Classes/Events | 10/17/2019 18:00 | 10/17/2019 19:30 | |
| Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightAs the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group | This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. | 7/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/earth-in-crisis-staying-with-the-trouble/2019-10-24/ | crisis|food shortages|global warming|mass extinctions|mass migration|ocean acidification|planet damage | Classes/Events | 10/24/2019 18:00 | 10/24/2019 19:30 | |
| Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightAs the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group | This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. | 7/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/earth-in-crisis-staying-with-the-trouble/2019-10-31/ | crisis|food shortages|global warming|mass extinctions|mass migration|ocean acidification|planet damage | Classes/Events | 10/31/2019 18:00 | 10/31/2019 19:30 | |
| Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightAs the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group | This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. | 7/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/earth-in-crisis-staying-with-the-trouble/2019-11-07/ | crisis|food shortages|global warming|mass extinctions|mass migration|ocean acidification|planet damage | Classes/Events | 11/7/2019 18:00 | 11/7/2019 19:30 | |
| Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble | Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightAs the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group | This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. | 7/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/earth-in-crisis-staying-with-the-trouble/2019-11-14/ | crisis|food shortages|global warming|mass extinctions|mass migration|ocean acidification|planet damage | Classes/Events | 11/14/2019 18:00 | 11/14/2019 19:30 | |
| Jean-Patrick Manchette’s Nada | Come celebrate the just published new translation of Nada, with Donald Nicholson-Smith, New York Review of Books and The MEPThis is a New York City reception for the latest translation of Nada, a newly-translated work of Jean-Patrick Manchette, to be published on August 27 by New York Review of Books. Donald Nicholson-Smith has been translating the work of Manchette for English-reading audiences for more than a decade. At this event at Unnamable Books we will celebrate the release of Nada, but our subject will also include all the works of Manchette, including other novels published by NYRB, such as The Mad and The Bad, Fatale, and Ivory Pearl. Donald will consider the influences on Manchette and share his long-term relationship with many of Manchette’s works | We are getting together to celebrate and discuss the release of Nada, but our subject will also include all the works of Manchette | 8/14/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/jean-patrick-manchettes-nada/ | French literature|Jean-Patrick Manchette|New translation|noir|NY Review of Books | Classes/Events | 9/5/2019 18:00 | 9/5/2019 20:30 | |
| Melancholia Africana | The Caribbean Philosophy Association and The Marxist Education Project presentMelancholia Africana: The Indispensable Overcoming of the Black ConditionWith author Nathalie Etoke and conversation with fellow panelists Lewis R. Gordon and Souleymane Bachir DiagneThis year marks the publication of the English translation of Nathalie Etoke’s Melancholia Africana: The Indispensable Overcoming of the Black Condition. In richly poetic prose Etoke considers pain singing the happiness to come, memories of forgetting, and on va faire comment? She argues that Africana melancholy is distinct. Rooted in collective and historical experiences of enslavement, colonization, and neocolonialism marked by loss of land, freedom, language, culture, and self. Put differently, expropriation of labor and of land also annihilated age-old cycles of life. Considering what to do in the wake of such annihilation, Etoke explores how diasporic Africans reconcile that which has been destroyed with what is newly introduced, framing this inherent tension as the character of Africana historical becoming. On October 30th, Etoke will read from and speak about her newly translated work while Lewis R. Gordon, who authored its new foreword, and Souleymane Bachir Diagne will address the continued relevance of its searching diagnoses. Nathalie Etoke is Associate Professor of Francophone and Africana Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her articles have appeared in Research in African Literatures, French Politics and Culture, Nouvelles Études Francophones, Présence Francophone, International Journal of Francophone Studies, and Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy. She is the author of L’Écriture du corps féminin dans la littérature de l’Afrique francophone au sud du Sahara and of Melancholia Africana l’indispensable dépassement de la condition noire, which won the 2012 Frantz Fanon Prize from the Caribbean Philosophical Association. In 2011, she directed Afro Diasporic French Identities, a documentary on race, identity and citizenship in contemporary France. Lewis R. Gordon co-edits Rowman & Littlefield International’s Global Critical Caribbean Thought series. He is Professor of Philosophy at UCONN-Storrs; Honorary President of the Global Center for Advanced Studies; the 2018–2019 Boaventura de Sousa Santos Chair in Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, Portugal; and Chair of Global Collaborations for the Caribbean Philosophical Association. His public Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/LewisGordonPhilosopher/ and he is on Twitter @lewgord. Souleymane Bachir Diagne is Professor and Chair of French and Romance Philology at Columbia University and recipient of the Edouard Glissant Prize. He is the author of Boole, l’oiseau de nuit en plein jour (a book on Boolean algebra); Islam and the Open Society: Fidelity and Movement in the Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal; African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude; The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa; and Open to Reason: Muslim Philosophers in Conversation with Western Tradition. An English version of his book, Bergson postcolonial: L’élan vital dans la pensée de Senghor et de Mohamed Iqbal, which was awarded the Dagnan-Bouveret prize by the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences for 2011, is forthcoming with Fordham University Press. All tickets are sliding scale | …Etoke explores how diasporic Africans reconcile that which has been destroyed with what is newly introduced, framing this inherent tension as the character of Africana historical becoming. On October 30th, Etoke will read from and speak about her newly translated work while Lewis R. Gordon, who authored its new foreword, and Souleymane Bachir Diagne will address the continued relevance of its searching diagnoses. | 8/18/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/melancholia-africana/ | African Diaspora|African studies|Blackness|collective experience|colonization|Diaspora|neocolonialism|slavery | Caribbean Studies|Classes/Events | 10/30/2019 19:00 | 10/30/2019 21:00 | |
| Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment | Final Friday Films—an anti-bourgeois film series“The problem is not to make political films but to make films politically.” —Godard / Gorin MORGAN: A Suitable Case for Treatment UK, 1966, 97 Min Directed by Karel Reisz  Red diaper baby Morgan Delt (David Warner) is failing as an artist. Leonie (Vanessa Redgrave), his bourgeois wife, is divorcing him in order to marry fellow bourgeois Charles Napier (Robert Stephens), an art gallery owner. Locked into a personal world of fantasy, Morgan begins an all-out campaign to win back Leonie, performing all kinds of stunts, including putting a skeleton in her bed and much else to demonstrate what will ultimately be a meaningless life with her return to a bourgeois existence. When the stunts fail, Morgan plots to kidnap Leonie, who still nurtures residual feelings of love tinged with pity for Morgan. The plan fails, and Morgan is arrested and imprisoned but does not give up—he remains committed to revolutionary ideals. The final scene of the film was a calling to revolutionary youth the world over in 1966, particularly in England. “Released in April 1966 – the month Time magazine’s Swinging London issue was published – His madness, therefore, is like the state celebrated by RD Laing: insanity not as a state worthy of condign treatment but as a rebellion, the only possible act of sanity in a mad, mad world.” —Jon Savage, The Guardian, February, 2011 | Morgan is both of its time and points forward to the darker popular culture that would ensue later that year and into 1968, the year of international youth revolution. Indeed, its popularity among the young may well have facilitated this radicalization, certainly within Britain. The film’s depiction of madness is deliberately ambivalent. The inner logic of Morgan’s statements and his sure self-knowledge, as well as his rejection of the consumer society’s superficial trappings, mark him as the only sane character. —Jon Savage, The Guardian | 8/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/morgan-a-suitable-case-for-treatment/ | 60s Film|anti-bourg|British Film|David Warner|Karel Reisz|London Film|revolutionary ideals|Vanessa Redgrave | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 9/27/2019 18:30 | 9/27/2019 21:00 | |
| Antiquity Now: 3 Robert Graves Novels | To bring the dead to life | To bring the dead to life Is no great magic. Few are wholly dead: Blow on a dead man’s embers And a live flame will start. Let his forgotten griefs be now, And now his withered hopes; Subdue your pen to his handwriting Until it prove as natural To sign his name as yours… —To Bring the Dead to Life, Robert Graves | 9/4/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/antiquity-now-3-robert-graves-novels/2020-01-16/ | Claudius|Golden Fleece|Homeric epic|I|Imperial Rome|matriarchy|novels on ancient Greece|patriarchy|possessive individualism|Robert Graves|tyranny | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 10/10/2019 19:30 | 10/10/2019 21:30 | |
| Antiquity Now: 3 Robert Graves Novels | To bring the dead to life | To bring the dead to life Is no great magic. Few are wholly dead: Blow on a dead man’s embers And a live flame will start. Let his forgotten griefs be now, And now his withered hopes; Subdue your pen to his handwriting Until it prove as natural To sign his name as yours… —To Bring the Dead to Life, Robert Graves | 9/4/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/antiquity-now-3-robert-graves-novels/2020-01-16/ | Claudius|Golden Fleece|Homeric epic|I|Imperial Rome|matriarchy|novels on ancient Greece|patriarchy|possessive individualism|Robert Graves|tyranny | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 1/16/2020 19:30 | 1/16/2020 21:30 | |
| Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well | Final Friday Film Seriesdirected by Akira Kurosawa Japan, 1960, 150 minutes One of three noirs made by Kurosawa A young executive hunts down his father’s killer in the scathing The Bad Sleep Well. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa combines elements of Hamlet and American film noir to chilling effect in exposing the corrupt boardrooms of postwar corporate Japan. There is one point where a wedding cake arrives,. It is in the shape of corporate headquarters. A rose protrudes from the office where Furuya, a former Corporation employee, committed suicide. Many people believe Furuya, implicated in a scandal, killed himself to keep from testifying against his superiors. Police interrupt the wedding to arrest corporate assistant officer Wada (Kamatari Fujiwara) on charges of bribery, and they question him about a kickback scheme. After Wada is released, Nishi must prevent him from committing suicide. His motives are not kind. Nishi wants to use Wada and also contract officer Shirai (Ko Nishimura) to exact revenge on the Corporation. He reveals to Wada and Shirai that Furuya was his father. According to Nishi, he only married Yoshiko to get close to the family. | A young executive hunts down his father’s killer in the scathing The Bad Sleep Well. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa combines elements of Hamlet and American film noir to chilling effect in exposing the corrupt boardrooms of postwar corporate Japan. | 9/5/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/kurosawas-the-bad-sleep-well/ | corruption|Deception|Despair|Duplicity|Hamlet|Japanese Cinema|Kurosawa|Noir Cinema | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 10/25/2019 18:30 | 10/25/2019 21:30 | |
| A Brief History of Class Warfare | Talk at exhibit with Jim Costanzo / Aaron Burr Society | A Brief History of Class Warfare will take place at an ongoing Aaron Burr Society exhibit at Empy Circle Space. Jim Costanzo will speak to his recent work as well as provide video and hand out FREE MONEY in the company of a whiskey still with a bottle | 9/23/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-brief-history-of-class-warfare/ | jim costanzo|Occupy Wall Street|Photo exhibit|views of contention | Classes/Events | 10/19/2019 15:30 | 10/19/2019 17:30 | |
| Commie.con | The MEP presents just up the street from the Comic Con this coming weekend a Commie.comCo-sponsors: Bronx Heroes Onomatopoeia Art CaFa Art Fair Vendors and Comics available Panels | Respite from the huge comic.con at the Javits Center is this Commie.con. Panels you can hear and easily ask questions during. Interesting vending. Supports a vital theater and The MEP. | 9/30/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/commie-con/ | alternative|Comics|indy|panel discussions on comics changing the world|vending | Classes/Events | 10/5/2019 12:00 | 10/5/2019 19:00 | |
| The Stuart Hall Project | A Film by John AkomfrahUK 99 minutes  From the award winning documentarian John Akomfrah comes The Stuart Hall Project, a ground-breaking film that pioneers a new archival and sonic approach to forgotten histories, forgotten ideas and the untold stories of the politics of change. Visionary director John Akomfrah weaves between the musical archaeology of Miles Davis, the political narratives of the new post-war Left and the life and works of key architect, the cultural theorist Stuart Hall—one of the New Left’s most prominent and influential intellectuals. Akomfrah carefully constructs archival sequences of rare forgotten and long since seen historical material together with Hall’s extensive broadcasts and personal archives, taking the audience on a kaleidoscopic journey through the ideas and personal story of Stuart Hall. Imagined through a Miles Davis and an original sonic sound track, Akomfrah creates a vivid cartography of the twentieth century’s defining political moments making a powerful portrait of Hall. “John Akomfrah’s film is a tribute to the critic and New Left Review founder Stuart Hall – a montage of existing documentary footage and Hall’s own words and thoughts on film. It has an idealism and high seriousness that people might not immediately associate with the subject Hall pioneered: cultural studies. This is not about, say, postmodern readings of Lady Gaga, but a deeply considered project that reconsiders culture and identity for those excluded from the circles of power through race, gender and class. His is the progressive tradition of Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams, unfashionable since Margaret Thatcher dismantled the welfarist consensus. Akomfrah finds a new and quietly moving significance in Hall’s own life story: a man who came from Jamaica – which Hall elegantly calls the “home of hybridity” – and found himself not really at home there, nor in the postwar UK in which he began a brilliant academic career at Oxford. Akomfrah sees Hall as a calm figure who insists on the fundamental topic of equality – yet without getting angry at the surface flashpoints of history. I wondered sometimes at Hall’s view on racial identity: it could well be, as he says, that race is an ideological construct – but does that help victims of racism? Anyway, an absorbing account.” Peter Brahe Guardian, September 5, 2013 | Akomfrah carefully constructs archival sequences of rare forgotten and long since seen historical material together with Hall’s extensive broadcasts and personal archives, taking the audience on a kaleidoscopic journey through the ideas and personal story of Stuart Hall. | 10/3/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-stuart-hall-project/ | Colonialsm|Cultural Theory|Jamaica|New Left Review|Thatcherism|World literature | Classes/Events | 11/29/2019 18:30 | 11/29/2019 21:00 | |
| The State and Strategies for Socialism | Zones of Liberation: 2nd SessionOn developing and defending areas of opposition and building a broad and lasting anti-capitalist socialist movementA panel with Paul Christopher Gray, Rafael Khachaturian and Stephen MaherModerated by Caroline SykoraAt this late and moribund stage of capitalist development nothing is sacred to profit-making as the capitalists deforest the Amazon and exploit the deepest marine life of the Marianas Trench. Meanwhile, the working classes the world over are engaged of necessity in an array of movements in opposition to these life-destroying practices. Nonetheless, workers deliver through their labors—which they must sell in order to survive, losing control over the use of their labor power in this act of selling—the means by which capital is digitally speeding us towards a metabolic endgame. Each decade going forward will lead to the demise of ever more species from the microbial to fully sentient beings like ourselves, all the result of the insatiable proliferation of the capitalists pursuit for ever-greater profit and continuous expanding accumulation of their money capital even if to do so requires the end of life on this planet as we know it. In response to this, The Marxist Education Project is continuing the Zones of Liberation series this November 9th. The Socialist Project of Canada has been publishing a series on Socialist Strategy and the State over the past year. All of the published pieces are essential for those active in the anti-capitalist movement to be reading and discussing. Stephen Maher and Rafael Khachaturian’s essay Socialist Strategy and the Democratic Capitalist State examines the the state in its liberal-democratic form, arguing that we should move beyond both vanguardist and social democratic models toward a view of the state as a contradictory site of class and social struggles. Paul Christoher Gray’s article on Socialist Project is taken from his recently published From the Streets to the State: Changing the World by Taking Power, where he takes on the limitations of dual power and extra-parliamentarism and the flaws inherent in the electoralist approaches and where there can be some reconciliation of the best aspects of these tendencies. Paul Christopher Gray is a professor in Brock University’s Department of Labor Studies in St. Catharines, Ontario. The link to Paul’s work is here: https://socialistproject.ca/2019/06/transforming-capitalist-power-from-streets-to-state/ Rafael Khachaturian is a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Stephen Maher is a social critic, PhD candidate at York University in Toronto and Socialist Register Assistant Editor. The link to Rafael and Stephen’s work is here: https://socialistproject.ca/2019/05/socialist-strategy-and-capitalist-democratic-state/ | Stephen Maher and Rafael Khachaturian’s essay Socialist Strategy and the Democratic Capitalist State examines the the state in its liberal-democratic form, arguing that we should move beyond both vanguardist and social democratic models toward a view of the state as a contradictory site of class and social struggles. Paul Christoher Gray’s article on Socialist Project is taken from his recently published From the Streets to the State: Changing the World by Taking Power, where he takes on the limitations of dual power and extra-parliamentarism and the flaws inherent in the electoralist approaches and where there can be some reconciliation of the best aspects of these tendencies. | 10/24/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-state-and-strategies-for-socialism/ | cadre organizations|Democratic Socialism|DSA|electoral politics|Gramsci|Lenin|Mass Movements|occupy|Organizing|Parliamentarism|Political Parties|Poulantzis|reform or revolution|Socialism|Street level organizing|Strikes|vanguardism | Classes/Events | 11/9/2019 15:30 | 11/9/2019 18:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Third Sessions | 7 week session Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. | Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. In Volume 2 we further our ability to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! | 10/26/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-third-sessions/2019-12-14/ | Commodity Circuit|money circuit|production circuit | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method | 11/16/2019 11:00 | 11/16/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Third Sessions | 7 week session Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. | Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. In Volume 2 we further our ability to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! | 10/26/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-third-sessions/2019-11-23/ | Commodity Circuit|money circuit|production circuit | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method | 11/23/2019 11:00 | 11/23/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Third Sessions | 7 week session Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. | Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. In Volume 2 we further our ability to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! | 10/26/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-third-sessions/2019-12-07/ | Commodity Circuit|money circuit|production circuit | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method | 12/7/2019 11:00 | 12/7/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 2, Third Sessions | 7 week session Volume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Here, the circle is completed and we are able to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than two years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. Admissions are sliding scale. No one is ever excluded for inability to pay. | Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. In Volume 2 we further our ability to de-fetishize the machinations that appear on the surface of society and their real relationship to the production of wealth and the circulation of that wealth throughout all the competing capitalist interests and the various branches of capital, and the different strata of the proletariat —prices, wages, interests, rents, dividends, rates of profit, fictitious capital—while revealing the necessity of tendential contradictions that result in episodic crisis of the system leading to periodic booms and busts! | 10/26/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-2-third-sessions/2019-12-14/ | Commodity Circuit|money circuit|production circuit | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method | 12/14/2019 11:00 | 12/14/2019 14:00 | |
| Spectatorship and Embodied Expression | A Talk / A Performance / A Surreal Meal | “[C]ritical art is a type of art that sets out to build awareness of the mechanisms of domination to turn the spectator into a conscious agent of world transformation,” writes philosopher Jacques Rancière in Aesthetics and its Discontents (2004). When as dance artists we decide to work critically with and through the body, and at the same time enter the contested field of the history of psychiatric diagnosis, our aim is to initiate spectator’s transformation. The intention is to make him/her into an active observer of the world outside a given theatrical event. For this to occur, the spectator is asked to remain attentive during a relatively short time of a theatrical event. | 10/29/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/spectatorship-and-embodied-expression/ | Body manifestation|dance|Embodiment|Hysteria|Spectatorship|surrealism and food|surrealism and spectacle|Theatre philosophy | Classes/Events|Dance | 12/14/2019 15:30 | 12/14/2019 18:30 | |
| The People’s Uprising in Chile | Fighting Austerity, Demanding Democracy | Taking to the streets by the millions and withstanding brutal police assaults, the working people of Chile have beaten back austerity measures and forced the right-wing Piñera regime to accede to a new constitution to replace the restrictive one imposed by the Pinochet dictatorship. | 11/15/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-peoples-uprising-in-chile/ | anti-austerity|Chile|Uprising | Classes/Events | 12/6/2019 19:00 | 12/6/2019 21:00 | |
| Crises and Uprisings in Latin America Today | Four Thursdays with Gerardo Rénique and Fred Murphy Join us for a closer look at the political and economic background to dramatic recent events in Latin America, where a tremendous struggle is taking place between popular movements opposed to neoliberalism and authoritarianism, and capitalist elites determined to defend their profits and privileges. Recent months have seen enormous uprisings by popular movements in Ecuador and Chile, a violent right-wing coup in Bolivia, the rise of a massive feminist movement in Argentina, and in Haiti prolonged protests against President Jovenel Moïse. These developments come in the wake of crises and setbacks experienced by so-called “pink tide” governments that had sought to redistribute wealth and challenge decades of domination by US imperialism, the IMF, and local elites. Gerardo Rénique teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay | Join us for a closer look at the political and economic background to dramatic recent events in Latin America, where a tremendous struggle is taking place between popular movements opposed to neoliberalism and authoritarianism, and capitalist elites determined to defend their profits and privileges. | 11/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/crises-and-uprisings-in-latin-america-today/2020-01-16/ | Amazon fires|anti-austerity|Argentina|Austerity|Bolivia|Bolsonaro|Brazil|Chile|coup|Ecuador|Haiti|Latin America|Morales|Neo-liberalism|uprisings|Venezuela | Classes/Events | 12/12/2019 18:00 | 12/12/2019 19:30 | |
| Crises and Uprisings in Latin America Today | Four Thursdays with Gerardo Rénique and Fred Murphy Join us for a closer look at the political and economic background to dramatic recent events in Latin America, where a tremendous struggle is taking place between popular movements opposed to neoliberalism and authoritarianism, and capitalist elites determined to defend their profits and privileges. Recent months have seen enormous uprisings by popular movements in Ecuador and Chile, a violent right-wing coup in Bolivia, the rise of a massive feminist movement in Argentina, and in Haiti prolonged protests against President Jovenel Moïse. These developments come in the wake of crises and setbacks experienced by so-called “pink tide” governments that had sought to redistribute wealth and challenge decades of domination by US imperialism, the IMF, and local elites. Gerardo Rénique teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay | Join us for a closer look at the political and economic background to dramatic recent events in Latin America, where a tremendous struggle is taking place between popular movements opposed to neoliberalism and authoritarianism, and capitalist elites determined to defend their profits and privileges. | 11/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/crises-and-uprisings-in-latin-america-today/2020-01-09/ | Amazon fires|anti-austerity|Argentina|Austerity|Bolivia|Bolsonaro|Brazil|Chile|coup|Ecuador|Haiti|Latin America|Morales|Neo-liberalism|uprisings|Venezuela | Classes/Events | 1/9/2020 18:00 | 1/9/2020 19:30 | |
| Crises and Uprisings in Latin America Today | Four Thursdays with Gerardo Rénique and Fred Murphy Join us for a closer look at the political and economic background to dramatic recent events in Latin America, where a tremendous struggle is taking place between popular movements opposed to neoliberalism and authoritarianism, and capitalist elites determined to defend their profits and privileges. Recent months have seen enormous uprisings by popular movements in Ecuador and Chile, a violent right-wing coup in Bolivia, the rise of a massive feminist movement in Argentina, and in Haiti prolonged protests against President Jovenel Moïse. These developments come in the wake of crises and setbacks experienced by so-called “pink tide” governments that had sought to redistribute wealth and challenge decades of domination by US imperialism, the IMF, and local elites. Gerardo Rénique teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay | Join us for a closer look at the political and economic background to dramatic recent events in Latin America, where a tremendous struggle is taking place between popular movements opposed to neoliberalism and authoritarianism, and capitalist elites determined to defend their profits and privileges. | 11/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/crises-and-uprisings-in-latin-america-today/2020-01-16/ | Amazon fires|anti-austerity|Argentina|Austerity|Bolivia|Bolsonaro|Brazil|Chile|coup|Ecuador|Haiti|Latin America|Morales|Neo-liberalism|uprisings|Venezuela | Classes/Events | 1/16/2020 18:00 | 1/16/2020 19:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-04-04/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 1/18/2020 11:00 | 1/18/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-01-25/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 1/25/2020 11:00 | 1/25/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-02-01/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 2/1/2020 11:00 | 2/1/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-02-08/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 2/8/2020 11:00 | 2/8/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-02-15/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 2/15/2020 11:00 | 2/15/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-02-22/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 2/22/2020 11:00 | 2/22/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-02-29/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 2/29/2020 11:00 | 2/29/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-03-07/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 3/7/2020 11:00 | 3/7/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-03-14/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 3/14/2020 11:00 | 3/14/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-03-21/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 3/21/2020 11:00 | 3/21/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-03-28/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 3/28/2020 11:00 | 3/28/2020 14:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3 | First 12 sessions Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. | 11/19/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3/2020-04-04/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 4/4/2020 11:00 | 4/4/2020 14:00 | ||
| Bertolucci’s 1900 | with Robert DeNiro, Gerard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Stefania Sandrelli, Laura Betti, Donald Sutherland, Burt Lancaster, and Sterling Hayden. Both born on the day of Verdi’s death at the beginning of the 20th Century, the characters that as adults are played by DeNiro (Alfredo) and Depardieu (Olmo), grow up side by side as friends, and during fascism as class enemies, in this epic depiction of the class struggles in Italy leading up to the Eurocommunist moment in 1975, focused primarily on the rise of fascism and the fight that led to end the dictates of the Italian right with Alfredo accommodating the fascists at his estate, while Olmo organizes and takes part in the broad struggles including the armed resistance. There are few films like 1900. “…told with an unyielding Marxist fervor, 1900 overflows with an abundant love of life in all its beauty and pain, sensuality and despair.” —The Los Angeles Times “1900 explores a vibrant familial identity existing between a group of socialist farmers, the landowners they work for, and fascist factions penetrating rural Parma, Italy. Its half-century scope provides a raw macro/micro slant on psychological, generational, political, and cultural changes in the region of Bertolucci’s birth. Compared with the contained, at times claustrophobic, expressionist style of Last Tango, 1900 is a 180-degree turn into a wide open direction. For his thirteenth film Bertolucci wanted to express what he saw as Italy’s “multi-culture” society becoming a “mono-culture,” due to the influence of the industrial revolution, and capitalism more precisely. The thick-layered chronicle doesn’t sweep across time so much as it escorts the audience through indelible composite events that bristle with personal, social, and political characteristics….Since [when it was made] 1900 has come to stand as an organic cinematic journey through chapters of a rich apocryphal history that evinces an ongoing struggle between the world’s rich elite and everyone else.”—Cole Smithey | The thick-layered chronicle doesn’t sweep across time so much as it escorts the audience through indelible composite events that bristle with personal, social, and political characteristics….Since [when it was made] 1900 has come to stand as an organic cinematic journey through chapters of a rich apocryphal history that evinces an ongoing struggle between the world’s rich elite and everyone else.”—Cole Smithey | 11/23/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/bertoluccis-1900/ | bertolucci|epic cinema|italian history|italian politics|Organizing|Organizing resistance|peasant life | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 12/20/2019 13:00 | 12/20/2019 19:30 | |
| Capital: A Review of Volumes 1 and 2 | THIS IS A 4 SESSION COURSE MEETING DECEMBER 7, 14, JANUARY 4, 11 In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. These sessions are suggested as a good review for those who would like to join in for the coming sessions of our close reading of Volume 3 which will begin on January 18. Of course, anyone interested in a review of Capital and/or would simply like to read and discuss the Fine and Saad-Filho book are encouraged to attend as well. “Marx’s Capital is an admirably clear explanation of complex ideas, which has the rare virtue of saying something important to economists while being accessible to non-specialist readers. It also does a very good job of showing the urgent relevance of Marx’s Capital today.” —Ellen Meiksins Wood, author of The Empire of Capital (2003) and The Origin of Capitalism (2002) Fees are sliding scale • No one turned away for inability to pay | In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. These sessions are suggested as a good review for those who would like to join in for the coming sessions of our close reading of Volume 3 which will begin on January 18. Of course, anyone interested in a review of Capital and/or would simply like to read and discuss the Fine and Saad-Filho book are encouraged to attend as well. | 11/24/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-a-review-of-volumes-1-and-2/2020-01-11/ | Capital|Capital Studies|Das Kapital|Rate of C|surplus value | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 12/7/2019 11:00 | 12/7/2019 14:00 | |
| Capital: A Review of Volumes 1 and 2 | THIS IS A 4 SESSION COURSE MEETING DECEMBER 7, 14, JANUARY 4, 11 In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. These sessions are suggested as a good review for those who would like to join in for the coming sessions of our close reading of Volume 3 which will begin on January 18. Of course, anyone interested in a review of Capital and/or would simply like to read and discuss the Fine and Saad-Filho book are encouraged to attend as well. “Marx’s Capital is an admirably clear explanation of complex ideas, which has the rare virtue of saying something important to economists while being accessible to non-specialist readers. It also does a very good job of showing the urgent relevance of Marx’s Capital today.” —Ellen Meiksins Wood, author of The Empire of Capital (2003) and The Origin of Capitalism (2002) Fees are sliding scale • No one turned away for inability to pay | In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. These sessions are suggested as a good review for those who would like to join in for the coming sessions of our close reading of Volume 3 which will begin on January 18. Of course, anyone interested in a review of Capital and/or would simply like to read and discuss the Fine and Saad-Filho book are encouraged to attend as well. | 11/24/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-a-review-of-volumes-1-and-2/2020-01-04/ | Capital|Capital Studies|Das Kapital|Rate of C|surplus value | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 1/4/2020 11:00 | 1/4/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital: A Review of Volumes 1 and 2 | THIS IS A 4 SESSION COURSE MEETING DECEMBER 7, 14, JANUARY 4, 11 In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. These sessions are suggested as a good review for those who would like to join in for the coming sessions of our close reading of Volume 3 which will begin on January 18. Of course, anyone interested in a review of Capital and/or would simply like to read and discuss the Fine and Saad-Filho book are encouraged to attend as well. “Marx’s Capital is an admirably clear explanation of complex ideas, which has the rare virtue of saying something important to economists while being accessible to non-specialist readers. It also does a very good job of showing the urgent relevance of Marx’s Capital today.” —Ellen Meiksins Wood, author of The Empire of Capital (2003) and The Origin of Capitalism (2002) Fees are sliding scale • No one turned away for inability to pay | In review of Volumes One and Two of Capital and in preparation for our study of Volume 3 we will have a 4 week intersession reading from Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s Karl Marx’s Capital. These sessions are suggested as a good review for those who would like to join in for the coming sessions of our close reading of Volume 3 which will begin on January 18. Of course, anyone interested in a review of Capital and/or would simply like to read and discuss the Fine and Saad-Filho book are encouraged to attend as well. | 11/24/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-a-review-of-volumes-1-and-2/2020-01-11/ | Capital|Capital Studies|Das Kapital|Rate of C|surplus value | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 1/11/2020 11:00 | 1/11/2020 14:00 | |
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | with Juliet UcelliTHIS CLASS IS FOR WOMEN ONLYCapital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. The MEP introduced the highlights format because, over the past 40 years, the lengthening of people’s work week along with increased job instability (issues that Marx analyzes) have made it harder for people to commit to longer studies. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class beginning this January for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. We’ll delve into:
Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory and Marxist understandings of human development. | While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1-2/2020-03-18/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 1/29/2020 18:30 | 1/29/2020 20:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | with Juliet UcelliTHIS CLASS IS FOR WOMEN ONLYCapital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. The MEP introduced the highlights format because, over the past 40 years, the lengthening of people’s work week along with increased job instability (issues that Marx analyzes) have made it harder for people to commit to longer studies. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class beginning this January for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. We’ll delve into:
Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory and Marxist understandings of human development. | While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1-2/2020-02-05/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 2/5/2020 18:30 | 2/5/2020 20:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | with Juliet UcelliTHIS CLASS IS FOR WOMEN ONLYCapital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. The MEP introduced the highlights format because, over the past 40 years, the lengthening of people’s work week along with increased job instability (issues that Marx analyzes) have made it harder for people to commit to longer studies. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class beginning this January for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. We’ll delve into:
Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory and Marxist understandings of human development. | While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1-2/2020-02-12/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 2/12/2020 18:30 | 2/12/2020 20:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | with Juliet UcelliTHIS CLASS IS FOR WOMEN ONLYCapital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. The MEP introduced the highlights format because, over the past 40 years, the lengthening of people’s work week along with increased job instability (issues that Marx analyzes) have made it harder for people to commit to longer studies. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class beginning this January for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. We’ll delve into:
Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory and Marxist understandings of human development. | While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1-2/2020-02-19/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 2/19/2020 18:30 | 2/19/2020 20:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | with Juliet UcelliTHIS CLASS IS FOR WOMEN ONLYCapital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. The MEP introduced the highlights format because, over the past 40 years, the lengthening of people’s work week along with increased job instability (issues that Marx analyzes) have made it harder for people to commit to longer studies. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class beginning this January for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. We’ll delve into:
Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory and Marxist understandings of human development. | While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1-2/2020-02-26/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 2/26/2020 18:30 | 2/26/2020 20:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | with Juliet UcelliTHIS CLASS IS FOR WOMEN ONLYCapital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. The MEP introduced the highlights format because, over the past 40 years, the lengthening of people’s work week along with increased job instability (issues that Marx analyzes) have made it harder for people to commit to longer studies. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class beginning this January for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. We’ll delve into:
Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory and Marxist understandings of human development. | While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1-2/2020-03-04/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 3/4/2020 18:30 | 3/4/2020 20:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | with Juliet UcelliTHIS CLASS IS FOR WOMEN ONLYCapital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. The MEP introduced the highlights format because, over the past 40 years, the lengthening of people’s work week along with increased job instability (issues that Marx analyzes) have made it harder for people to commit to longer studies. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class beginning this January for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. We’ll delve into:
Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory and Marxist understandings of human development. | While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1-2/2020-03-11/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 3/11/2020 18:30 | 3/11/2020 20:30 | ||
| Highlights of Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 | with Juliet UcelliTHIS CLASS IS FOR WOMEN ONLYCapital is the indispensable sourcebook on Marx’s method for analyzing the economy, politics and struggles. The MEP introduced the highlights format because, over the past 40 years, the lengthening of people’s work week along with increased job instability (issues that Marx analyzes) have made it harder for people to commit to longer studies. In a continuing quest to increase access for those who have been historically excluded, turned off or silenced by the way this theory is often taught and discussed, we are offering the highlights class beginning this January for women only. Everyone who identifies as a woman is welcome. While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. We’ll delve into:
Juliet Ucelli has taught labor economics and class/race/gender for unions and activists, and writes on Eurocentrism in Marxist theory and Marxist understandings of human development. | While Capital consists of three volumes, a basic familiarity with the key concepts and sections of Volume I offers many tools for understanding the mode of production we live under. | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/highlights-of-marxs-capital-volume-1-2/2020-03-18/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 3/18/2020 18:30 | 3/18/2020 20:30 | ||
| Technology, Science and Capitalism | An 8-week studyConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightThis eight-week study group will consider the place and role of science and technology in the history and development of capitalism, addressing such questions as What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? We will also examine current debates on labor and automation, digital information technology and “communicative capitalism,” and the role of science and technology in confronting climate change and other crises of the Earth system. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in a faith-centered environmental justice group. | What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/technology-science-and-capitalism/2020-03-12/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 1/23/2020 18:00 | 1/23/2020 19:30 | ||
| Technology, Science and Capitalism | An 8-week studyConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightThis eight-week study group will consider the place and role of science and technology in the history and development of capitalism, addressing such questions as What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? We will also examine current debates on labor and automation, digital information technology and “communicative capitalism,” and the role of science and technology in confronting climate change and other crises of the Earth system. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in a faith-centered environmental justice group. | What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/technology-science-and-capitalism/2020-01-30/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 1/30/2020 18:00 | 1/30/2020 19:30 | ||
| Technology, Science and Capitalism | An 8-week studyConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightThis eight-week study group will consider the place and role of science and technology in the history and development of capitalism, addressing such questions as What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? We will also examine current debates on labor and automation, digital information technology and “communicative capitalism,” and the role of science and technology in confronting climate change and other crises of the Earth system. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in a faith-centered environmental justice group. | What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/technology-science-and-capitalism/2020-02-06/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/6/2020 18:00 | 2/6/2020 19:30 | ||
| Technology, Science and Capitalism | An 8-week studyConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightThis eight-week study group will consider the place and role of science and technology in the history and development of capitalism, addressing such questions as What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? We will also examine current debates on labor and automation, digital information technology and “communicative capitalism,” and the role of science and technology in confronting climate change and other crises of the Earth system. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in a faith-centered environmental justice group. | What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/technology-science-and-capitalism/2020-02-13/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/13/2020 18:00 | 2/13/2020 19:30 | ||
| Technology, Science and Capitalism | An 8-week studyConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightThis eight-week study group will consider the place and role of science and technology in the history and development of capitalism, addressing such questions as What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? We will also examine current debates on labor and automation, digital information technology and “communicative capitalism,” and the role of science and technology in confronting climate change and other crises of the Earth system. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in a faith-centered environmental justice group. | What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/technology-science-and-capitalism/2020-02-20/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/20/2020 18:00 | 2/20/2020 19:30 | ||
| Technology, Science and Capitalism | An 8-week studyConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightThis eight-week study group will consider the place and role of science and technology in the history and development of capitalism, addressing such questions as What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? We will also examine current debates on labor and automation, digital information technology and “communicative capitalism,” and the role of science and technology in confronting climate change and other crises of the Earth system. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in a faith-centered environmental justice group. | What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/technology-science-and-capitalism/2020-02-27/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/27/2020 18:00 | 2/27/2020 19:30 | ||
| Technology, Science and Capitalism | An 8-week studyConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightThis eight-week study group will consider the place and role of science and technology in the history and development of capitalism, addressing such questions as What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? We will also examine current debates on labor and automation, digital information technology and “communicative capitalism,” and the role of science and technology in confronting climate change and other crises of the Earth system. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in a faith-centered environmental justice group. | What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/technology-science-and-capitalism/2020-03-05/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 3/5/2020 18:00 | 3/5/2020 19:30 | ||
| Technology, Science and Capitalism | An 8-week studyConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve KnightThis eight-week study group will consider the place and role of science and technology in the history and development of capitalism, addressing such questions as What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? We will also examine current debates on labor and automation, digital information technology and “communicative capitalism,” and the role of science and technology in confronting climate change and other crises of the Earth system. Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in a faith-centered environmental justice group. | What is technology? Does technological change drive social change? Is technology independent of social relations? What are the consequences of “technological progress” under capitalism? What constraints does capitalism place on such progress? | 12/10/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/technology-science-and-capitalism/2020-03-12/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 3/12/2020 18:00 | 3/12/2020 19:30 | ||
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-04-07/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 1/21/2020 18:30 | 1/21/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-01-28/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 1/28/2020 18:30 | 1/28/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-02-04/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/4/2020 18:30 | 2/4/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-02-11/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/11/2020 18:30 | 2/11/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-02-18/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/18/2020 18:30 | 2/18/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-02-25/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/25/2020 18:30 | 2/25/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | “The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II | Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery | an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie | in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity | enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy.” | 12/12/2019 | tribe_events | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-03-10/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 3/10/2020 18:30 | 3/10/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-03-17/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 3/17/2020 18:30 | 3/17/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-03-24/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 3/24/2020 18:30 | 3/24/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-03-31/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 3/31/2020 18:30 | 3/31/2020 20:00 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened The Revolutions Study Group with Sean Ahern Since its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Allen defines racial slavery as a particular form of racial oppression homologous with gender and class oppression. The system of racial privileges defined and established the “white” race as a “bourgeois social control formation with consequences ruinous to the interests of the Afro-American workers but also disastrous for the white worker.” Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. fees are sliding scale. no one is turned away for inability to pay. | The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay.The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. | 12/12/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race/2020-04-07/ | class and gender|class and race|Exploitation|origins of racism|Race and Gender|slavery | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 4/7/2020 18:30 | 4/7/2020 20:00 | |
| Hispaniola in Revolt | Critical Perspectives on Haiti and Santo Domingowith Mitch Abidor, Virgilio Oscar Aràn, France Francois, Lionel Legros and Amaury RodriguezCome to participate with presentations and discussion on the revolutionary legacies of Hispaniola, the island shared by both Haiti and Santo Domingo. Panelists: MITCH ABIDOR has translated many of the key documents and accounts of the Haitian Revolution. His latest book is Down With the Law, an anthology of French individualist anarchist writings. He will discuss the contradictions of the Haitian revolution. VIRGILIO OSCAR ARÁN is the National Field Home Care Organizer with the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Arán has participated in different forums to talk about the inhumane conditions Haitian immigrants suffer under in his native country, the Dominican Republic. He will discuss race and class in the Dominican Republic. FRANCE FRANCOIS is the Founder and CEO of In Cultured Company, an organization that works on conflict resolution and reconciliation between Haitians and Dominicans. She is a multi-passionate writer, activist, and change agent transforming communities of color around the globe by redefining the way their stories are told and how we impact their lives. France will also reconsider the Haitian revolts of 1946 and 1986. LIONEL LEGROS is a longtime NYC-based activist and educator originally from Haiti. He fought the Duvalier dictatorship and founded L’Heure Haitienne Radio in New York City in the 1960s. He will discuss the current Haitian revolt. Moderator: AMAURY RODRIGUEZ is a Dominican-born translator and independent researcher. He is a frequent contributor to the Marxists Internet Archives (MIA) and co-author, with Raj Chetty, of Dominican Black Studies, a special issue of The Black Scholar journal. All tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. | he panel will look at the current Haitian political crisis and popular revolt; the Haitian revolution, its emancipatory legacy of liberation and contradictions; the lessons of the 1946 and 1986 revolts in Haiti; race and class in Santo Domingo; the 1965 Dominican revolution as well as prospects for cross-border and international solidarity and revolution on the island and beyond. | 12/16/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hispaniola-in-revolt/ | anti-imperialism|Caribbean|Dominican Republic|Haiti|Hispaniola|International Solidarity|rebellion|Revolt|Uprising | Caribbean Studies|Classes/Events | 1/25/2020 15:30 | 1/25/2020 18:00 | |
| Film and Discussion: State of Siege | Final Friday Films | State of Siege details the overt and covert practices of the Agency for International Development throughout the world, with a particular emphasis on events that took place in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1970. | 12/30/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/film-and-discussion-state-of-siege/ | Chile|Imperialism|Latin America|Militarism|Uruguay | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 1/31/2020 18:30 | 1/31/2020 21:00 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-04-09/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 1/23/2020 19:30 | 1/23/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-01-30/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 1/30/2020 19:30 | 1/30/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-02-06/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 2/6/2020 19:30 | 2/6/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-02-13/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 2/13/2020 19:30 | 2/13/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-02-20/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 2/20/2020 19:30 | 2/20/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-02-27/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 2/27/2020 19:30 | 2/27/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-03-05/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 3/5/2020 19:30 | 3/5/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-03-12/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 3/12/2020 19:30 | 3/12/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-03-19/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 3/19/2020 19:30 | 3/19/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-03-26/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 3/26/2020 19:30 | 3/26/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-04-02/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 4/2/2020 19:30 | 4/2/2020 21:30 | |
| American Writing: Changing Locations | American Writing: 4 SeasonsSeason 1: Changing Places in AmericaHerman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. Our first thematic 12 week term concerns Change of Place. This first session will begin with Melville. Though centered around the title character, Melville’s The Confidence-Man portrays passengers on a steamboat with stories that are told as they travel to New Orleans down the Mississippi River. The narrative structure is reminiscent the Canterbury Tales.The novel is written as cultural satire, and metaphysical treatise, and deals with a number of themes including sincerity, economic dislocation and materialism, identity, cynicism, and more.Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Moby Dick and “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as precursors to 20th-century literary preoccupations around nihilism, the absurd and existentialism. Dale Jones citing R. W. B. Lewis, who feels the necessity of defining a new genre for [The Confidence- Man] and its literary descendants: “it is the recognizable and awe-inspiring ancestor of several subse- quent works of fiction in America: Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor, Thomas Pynchon’s V. Melville bequeathed to those works . . . the vision of an apocalypse that is no less terrible for being enormously comic, the self-extinction of a world characterized by deceit and thronging with imposters and masqueraders…” A worthy contender for the title of Great American Novel, Barth’s masterpiece is a work of astonishing virtuosity and range to some. Others look at this, as did the author himself, as the end of the novel as known before it’s publication. Barth had changed midstream in the writing of The Sot-Weed Factor. Among American novels, in terms of sheer linguistic brilliance, it is surpassed only by Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and Melville’s matchless Moby Dick. Here is Barth’s opening sentence: “In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taught with similes stretched to the snapping point.” This Cooke does as an early settler, bounding from London cafes to the “wilds” of Maryland, in this novel depicting the consciousness, in mid-20th century post-modernism, the colonizing beings early on inhabiting the North American contenent. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heart-wrenching choice after another. Upcoming terms will include the following: William Gass, Middle C, Maxine Hong Kingston,Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, Gina Apostol, Insurrecto and more. | Season 1: Changing Places in America Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857). John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (2017) In his 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction,” William Gass brought the term “metafiction” forward to the reading public as a way to characterize the work writers such as Borges, Barth, Flann O’Brien, as well as the type of novels Gass himself would write. He described metafiction as writing “in which the forms of fiction serve as the material upon which further forms can be imposed”. Does metafiction provide escape for the committed writer from the bourgeois strictures that the novel form imposes? As critical readers we need to check out all the angles. The metafiction form will over time become incorporated as yet another aspect of modern fiction as ultimately there is no way to over-ride what happens when ink is committed to paper, impulses to the interactive screen. American fiction writers have lots to write about. We are introducing a four term look at writing by American authors who have novels appropriate to four themes important to critical thinkers of the broad American questions on nation, class, race and gender. Much of this fiction becomes part of what our unfolding reality is as a nation, group of nations, as aspiring internationalists. Many of the fictional works we will read are not as formally postmodern or would formally fall in the metafiction category as delineated by Barth. | 12/31/2019 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/american-writing-changing-locations/2020-04-09/ | American literature|Herman Melville|John Barth|Lisa Ko|Metafiction|post modernism | American Literature|Classes/Events | 4/9/2020 19:30 | 4/9/2020 21:30 | |
| Mandabi (The Money Order) | Final Friday Film Series | An unemployed Senegalese man, Ibrahima Dieng, lives with his two wives and kids in Dakar. His nephew, Abdou, sends him a money order from Paris worth 25,000 francs, which he has saved from working as a street sweeper. Ibrahima is to keep some of the money for himself, save a portion for his nephew, and give a portion to his sister. However, Ibrahima faces numerous difficulties trying to obtain the money order. Not having an ID, Ibrahima must go through several levels of Senegalese bureaucracy trying to get one, then failing after spending money he doesn’t have. | 1/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mandabi-the-money-order/ | Indigenous language film|Migration|Ousmane Sembène|Senegal|West Africa | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 2/28/2020 18:30 | 2/28/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-04-13/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 1/27/2020 18:30 | 1/27/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-02-24/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 2/24/2020 18:30 | 2/24/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-03-02/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 3/2/2020 18:30 | 3/2/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-03-09/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 3/9/2020 18:30 | 3/9/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-03-16/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 3/16/2020 18:30 | 3/16/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-03-23/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 3/23/2020 18:30 | 3/23/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-03-30/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 3/30/2020 18:30 | 3/30/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-04-06/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 4/6/2020 18:30 | 4/6/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-04-13/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 4/13/2020 18:30 | 4/13/2020 20:30 | |
| Any 2 Classes (Winter 2020 Discount) | Another way to save your hard-earned dollars in NYCBeginning this January through April of 2020 any two classes may be attended for a reduced price. For example, one may attend “Unearthing the Grundrisse” on Monday and “Capital Volume 3” on Saturday for a combined reduced price according to the level of sliding scale you wish to contribute. This offer is to assist those who want to take two classes but are hesitant to pay the four month sliding scale rates. All classes being offered between January and April are eligible for this reduced 2-class rate. | Beginning this January through April of 2020 any two classes may be attended for a reduced price. For example, one may attend “Unearthing the Grundrisse” on Monday and “Capital Volume 3” on Saturday for a combined reduced price according to the level of sliding scale you wish to contribute. | 1/12/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/any-2-classes-winter-2020-discount/ | 2 class discount | Classes/Events | 1/17/2020 8:00 | 1/17/2020 17:00 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-02-03/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 2/3/2020 18:30 | 2/3/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-02-10/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 2/10/2020 18:30 | 2/10/2020 20:30 | |
| Unearthing The Grundrisse (continuation) | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. As Nicolaus asserts, Marx considered this effort to be ‘the first scientific elaboration of the theoretical foundations of communism’. Moreover, represented by both brief and often lengthy segments of planned works, it contains what Nicolaus argues is the only outline of the entire political economic project Marx hoped—but was mostly unable—to complete. As Nicolaus suggests, the Grundrisse provides fresh insights into the ‘inner logic’ of Capital and perhaps the most important source for understanding Marx’s method; particularly as it develops and ‘turns Hegel’s philosophy on its feet’. Moreover, it perhaps most clearly unites what some have, instead, argued is a separation between Marx’s early ‘humanism’ and his later economic work. Indeed, in the Foreword to the Grundrisse, Nicolaus argues that it “challenges and puts to the test every serious interpretation of Marx yet received”. The second half of the MEP class focuses on the heart of the Grundrisse, the second and final ‘Chapter on Capital’ that dissects the exploitation of labor and the contradiction between labor and capital. GIL GARDNER has interests in radical prisoner education and political economic analysis. He has taught in, developed and administered college programs and in prisons for 40 years, including initiating Marxist education in Colorado’s state prisons. Gil’s writing and research includes works on the history of prison industry in the U.S. and he is presently completing an introduction to the works of Marx. | After the defeat of the 1848-50 revolutions in Europe, Marx acknowledged that he failed to provide an adequate analysis of the economic foundation of society and turned from a focus on organizing to an intense, life-long study of political economy. Catalyzed by the first global economic crisis in 1857 and after 10 years of concentrated study, he started the first of seven notebooks to self-clarify his work up to that point. Not published or available outside the USSR until 1953, Martin Nicolaus provided the first—and only —English translation of all seven notebooks in 1973 as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. | 1/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/unearthing-the-grundrisse-2/2020-02-17/ | Capital|Chapter on Capital|Close reading of Marx|Grundrisse|Marx’s Notebooks | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method | 2/17/2020 18:30 | 2/17/2020 20:30 | |
| The Orient: Foucault’s Achilles’ Heel | A talk and discussion with Marnia LazregNon-Western Subjugated Knowledges and Michel Foucault’s Limit ExperienceFoucault was a critic of Western culture and rationality. However, in his travels in the Orient (Tunisia, Iran and Japan), he claimed these cultures were incomprehensible because they belong to a different rationality. This talk will explore the intellectual sources of Foucault’s anti-humanist approach to non-western cultures as it documents his personal disorientation and struggles in Tunisia, Iran and Japan. Marnia Lazreg is professor of sociology at the Graduate Center and Hunter College, City University of New York. Her research focuses on social theory, international development, cultural movements, colonial history, and gender in the Middle East. Her recent publications include, Foucault’s Orient: The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, From Tunisia to Japan (Berghahn, 2017); The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2018); Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algeria to Baghdad (Princeton, 2017 paperback). | This talk will explore the intellectual sources of Foucault’s anti-humanist approach to non-western cultures as it documents his personal disorientation and struggles in Tunisia, Iran and Japan. | 2/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-orient-foucaults-achilles-heel/ | Foucault|Imperialism|Orientalism|philosophy | Classes/Events | 3/10/2020 18:30 | 3/10/2020 20:30 | |
| Socialism or Barbarism? (and Existential Despair) | A MARXIST EDUCATION PROJECT Roundtable withMitch Abidor, Arielle Angel, Michael Pelias and Chris WrightEarly on in The Junius Pamphlet Rosa Luxemburg cites Engels: “Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.” Recently, the Socialist Project from Toronto posted Chris Wright’s essay “Capitalism, Socialism and Existential Despair.” Chris sites the founding document of SDS, the Port Huron Statement, which lamented the corruption and degradation of such values as creativity and community: “Loneliness, estrangement, isolation describe the vast distance between man and man today. These dominant tendencies cannot be overcome by better personnel management, nor by improved gadgets, but only when a love of man overcomes the idolatrous worship of things by man.” Here we are 60 yearslater with capital threatening survival at numerous tippingpoints, some not imagined when SDS was formed. MITCH ABIDOR is a translator and historian. His latest book is Down With the Law, an anthology of French individualist anarchist writings and is currently preparing a history of the Bisbee Deportation of 1917. ARIELLE ANGEL is the editor of Jewish Currents. MICHAEL PELIAS teaches Philosophy and film studies at Long Island University-Brooklyn. He is a founder of the Institute for the Radical Imagination and is the co-managing editor of Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination. Michael has presented critical studies on The Age of Anxiety and Heidegger’s Being and Time. CHRIS WRIGHT has a Ph.D. in US history from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is the author of Worker Cooperatives and Revolution. His site is wrightswriting.com..com. | The four panelists will address the existential moment we are all navigating in the face of the multiple crises facing us in the light of the multiple tipping points presented during these late stages of capitalist development. Following presentations from the four panelists, the audience is invited to enlarge the discussion with their own questions and comments. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=6625 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | 7/1/2020 18:47 | |||
| Socialism or Barbarism? (and Existential Despair) | THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED UNTIL A LATER DATE IN MAY OR JUNE. The June 17 Date Is A Temporary Date SUBJECT TO CHANGEA MARXIST EDUCATION PROJECT Roundtable withMitch Abidor, Arielle Angel, Michael Pelias and Chris WrightEarly on in The Junius Pamphlet Rosa Luxemburg cites Engels: “Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.” Recently, the Socialist Project from Toronto posted Chris Wright’s essay “Capitalism, Socialism and Existential Despair.” Chris sites the founding document of SDS, the Port Huron Statement, which lamented the corruption and degradation of such values as creativity and community: “Loneliness, estrangement, isolation describe the vast distance between man and man today. These dominant tendencies cannot be overcome by better personnel management, nor by improved gadgets, but only when a love of man overcomes the idolatrous worship of things by man.” Here we are 60 years later with capital threatening survival at numerous tipping points, some not imagined when SDS was formed. The four panelists will address the existential moment we are all navigating in the face of the multiple crises facing us in the light of Chris’ essay. Following presentations from the four panelists, the audience is invited to enlarge the discussion with their own questions and comments. MITCH ABIDOR is a translator and historian. His latest book is Down With the Law, an anthology of French individualist anarchist writings and is currently preparing a history of the Bisbee Deportation of 1917. ARIELLE ANGEL is the editor of Jewish Currents. MICHAEL PELIAS teaches Philosophy and film studies at Long Island University-Brooklyn. He is a founder of the Institute for the Radical Imagination and is the co-managing editor of Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination. Michael has presented critical studies on The Age of Anxiety and Heidegger’s Being and Time. CHRIS WRIGHT has a Ph.D. in US history from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is the author of Worker Cooperatives and Revolution. His site is wrightswriting.com.. | The four panelists will address the existential moment we are all navigating in the face of the multiple crises facing us in the light of the multiple tipping points that threaten existence yet are necessary to further accumulate capital. Following presentations from the four panelists, the audience is invited to enlarge the discussion with their own questions and comments. | 2/25/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialism-or-barbarism-and-existential-despair/ | Ecological Imperatives|Existentialism|liberatory struggles | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/17/2020 18:30 | 6/17/2020 20:30 | |
| Final Friday Films: Modern Times | Modern Times | Bringing back The Tramp to the era of sound in 1936, Chaplin plays an assembly line worker where he is subjected to being force-fed by a malfunctioning “feeding machine” (cutting the vital minutes of lunch) and an accelerating assembly line where he screws nuts at an ever-increasing rate onto pieces of machinery. | 2/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/final-friday-films-modern-times/ | Film on Capitalism | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 6/26/2020 18:30 | 6/26/2020 21:00 | |
| Capitalism and Robbery: The Planetary Mine | Convened by Fred Murphy and Gerardo RéniqueThis eight-week study group will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance – as we will read in Martín Arboleda’s innovative new contribution to international political economy, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. I see the mountains fall, the terrain open up in angry dark cavities, the desert, the temporary shacks. The mineral is fired and beaten and handled to become military ingots, battalions of merchandise. The ships depart. Wherever the copper arrives, as utensil or wire, no one who touches it sees the rugged solitudes of Chile, or the small houses at the edge of the desert … —Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged. FRED MURPHY has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. GERARDO RÉNIQUE teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Contributions: Classroom attendance, sliding scale: $65 / $80 / $95 Remote participation via Zoom, sliding scale: $40 / $50 / $60 No one is denied participation for lack of ability to pay | We will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance. | 3/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-robbery-the-planetary-mine/2020-05-14/ | Eco resistance|Eco-crisis|Extractivism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 3/26/2020 18:00 | 3/26/2020 19:30 | |
| Capitalism and Robbery: The Planetary Mine | Convened by Fred Murphy and Gerardo RéniqueThis eight-week study group will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance – as we will read in Martín Arboleda’s innovative new contribution to international political economy, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. I see the mountains fall, the terrain open up in angry dark cavities, the desert, the temporary shacks. The mineral is fired and beaten and handled to become military ingots, battalions of merchandise. The ships depart. Wherever the copper arrives, as utensil or wire, no one who touches it sees the rugged solitudes of Chile, or the small houses at the edge of the desert … —Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged. FRED MURPHY has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. GERARDO RÉNIQUE teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Contributions: Classroom attendance, sliding scale: $65 / $80 / $95 Remote participation via Zoom, sliding scale: $40 / $50 / $60 No one is denied participation for lack of ability to pay | We will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance. | 3/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-robbery-the-planetary-mine/2020-04-02/ | Eco resistance|Eco-crisis|Extractivism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/2/2020 18:00 | 4/2/2020 19:30 | |
| Capitalism and Robbery: The Planetary Mine | Convened by Fred Murphy and Gerardo RéniqueThis eight-week study group will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance – as we will read in Martín Arboleda’s innovative new contribution to international political economy, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. I see the mountains fall, the terrain open up in angry dark cavities, the desert, the temporary shacks. The mineral is fired and beaten and handled to become military ingots, battalions of merchandise. The ships depart. Wherever the copper arrives, as utensil or wire, no one who touches it sees the rugged solitudes of Chile, or the small houses at the edge of the desert … —Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged. FRED MURPHY has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. GERARDO RÉNIQUE teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Contributions: Classroom attendance, sliding scale: $65 / $80 / $95 Remote participation via Zoom, sliding scale: $40 / $50 / $60 No one is denied participation for lack of ability to pay | We will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance. | 3/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-robbery-the-planetary-mine/2020-04-09/ | Eco resistance|Eco-crisis|Extractivism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/9/2020 18:00 | 4/9/2020 19:30 | |
| Capitalism and Robbery: The Planetary Mine | Convened by Fred Murphy and Gerardo RéniqueThis eight-week study group will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance – as we will read in Martín Arboleda’s innovative new contribution to international political economy, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. I see the mountains fall, the terrain open up in angry dark cavities, the desert, the temporary shacks. The mineral is fired and beaten and handled to become military ingots, battalions of merchandise. The ships depart. Wherever the copper arrives, as utensil or wire, no one who touches it sees the rugged solitudes of Chile, or the small houses at the edge of the desert … —Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged. FRED MURPHY has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. GERARDO RÉNIQUE teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Contributions: Classroom attendance, sliding scale: $65 / $80 / $95 Remote participation via Zoom, sliding scale: $40 / $50 / $60 No one is denied participation for lack of ability to pay | We will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance. | 3/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-robbery-the-planetary-mine/2020-04-16/ | Eco resistance|Eco-crisis|Extractivism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/16/2020 18:00 | 4/16/2020 19:30 | |
| Capitalism and Robbery: The Planetary Mine | Convened by Fred Murphy and Gerardo RéniqueThis eight-week study group will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance – as we will read in Martín Arboleda’s innovative new contribution to international political economy, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. I see the mountains fall, the terrain open up in angry dark cavities, the desert, the temporary shacks. The mineral is fired and beaten and handled to become military ingots, battalions of merchandise. The ships depart. Wherever the copper arrives, as utensil or wire, no one who touches it sees the rugged solitudes of Chile, or the small houses at the edge of the desert … —Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged. FRED MURPHY has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. GERARDO RÉNIQUE teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Contributions: Classroom attendance, sliding scale: $65 / $80 / $95 Remote participation via Zoom, sliding scale: $40 / $50 / $60 No one is denied participation for lack of ability to pay | We will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance. | 3/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-robbery-the-planetary-mine/2020-04-23/ | Eco resistance|Eco-crisis|Extractivism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/23/2020 18:00 | 4/23/2020 19:30 | |
| Capitalism and Robbery: The Planetary Mine | Convened by Fred Murphy and Gerardo RéniqueThis eight-week study group will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance – as we will read in Martín Arboleda’s innovative new contribution to international political economy, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. I see the mountains fall, the terrain open up in angry dark cavities, the desert, the temporary shacks. The mineral is fired and beaten and handled to become military ingots, battalions of merchandise. The ships depart. Wherever the copper arrives, as utensil or wire, no one who touches it sees the rugged solitudes of Chile, or the small houses at the edge of the desert … —Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged. FRED MURPHY has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. GERARDO RÉNIQUE teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Contributions: Classroom attendance, sliding scale: $65 / $80 / $95 Remote participation via Zoom, sliding scale: $40 / $50 / $60 No one is denied participation for lack of ability to pay | We will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance. | 3/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-robbery-the-planetary-mine/2020-04-30/ | Eco resistance|Eco-crisis|Extractivism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/30/2020 18:00 | 4/30/2020 19:30 | |
| Capitalism and Robbery: The Planetary Mine | Convened by Fred Murphy and Gerardo RéniqueThis eight-week study group will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance – as we will read in Martín Arboleda’s innovative new contribution to international political economy, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. I see the mountains fall, the terrain open up in angry dark cavities, the desert, the temporary shacks. The mineral is fired and beaten and handled to become military ingots, battalions of merchandise. The ships depart. Wherever the copper arrives, as utensil or wire, no one who touches it sees the rugged solitudes of Chile, or the small houses at the edge of the desert … —Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged. FRED MURPHY has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. GERARDO RÉNIQUE teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Contributions: Classroom attendance, sliding scale: $65 / $80 / $95 Remote participation via Zoom, sliding scale: $40 / $50 / $60 No one is denied participation for lack of ability to pay | We will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance. | 3/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-robbery-the-planetary-mine/2020-05-07/ | Eco resistance|Eco-crisis|Extractivism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/7/2020 18:00 | 5/7/2020 19:30 | |
| Capitalism and Robbery: The Planetary Mine | Convened by Fred Murphy and Gerardo RéniqueThis eight-week study group will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance – as we will read in Martín Arboleda’s innovative new contribution to international political economy, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. I see the mountains fall, the terrain open up in angry dark cavities, the desert, the temporary shacks. The mineral is fired and beaten and handled to become military ingots, battalions of merchandise. The ships depart. Wherever the copper arrives, as utensil or wire, no one who touches it sees the rugged solitudes of Chile, or the small houses at the edge of the desert … —Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged. FRED MURPHY has led numerous study groups at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. GERARDO RÉNIQUE teaches history at the City College of the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Contributions: Classroom attendance, sliding scale: $65 / $80 / $95 Remote participation via Zoom, sliding scale: $40 / $50 / $60 No one is denied participation for lack of ability to pay | We will consider how capitalism is rooted in robbery—of the earth, of the water, air, and soil of communities, of the livelihoods of working people. Such theft is becoming more massive in scale and more technologically sophisticated, but is also evoking new forms of popular resistance. | 3/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-robbery-the-planetary-mine/2020-05-14/ | Eco resistance|Eco-crisis|Extractivism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/14/2020 18:00 | 5/14/2020 19:30 | |
| Multi-Month Pass: Now through Dec 31, 2020 | Support the MEP and save $ for yourself. For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 or $75 more bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes and events between February 1 and May 31, 2021. The curriculum has not been decided as of yet but this special price will apply for all that takes place from during the stated four-month period. Anyone can purchase this option and can attend all events until May 31, even if purchased during December, 2020 or January, 2021. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good for all events and classes that take place between now and May 31, 2021. You may also use this course as a contribution button to help The MEP get through this challenging Covid-19 period where much of our constituency have lost income and will during the next months lose unemployment compensation without a lengthy extension/. | For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes, films and events between now and May 31, 2021. | 12/23/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-month-pass-january-21-through-may-20-2019-2020-08-29/2020-10-31/ | 4 month pass|cost-effective|Good left deals|Pay by the season | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 7/31/2020 0:01 | 7/31/2020 23:59 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-07-11/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 4/11/2020 11:00 | 4/11/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-04-18/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 4/18/2020 11:00 | 4/18/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-04-25/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 4/25/2020 11:00 | 4/25/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-05-02/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 5/2/2020 11:00 | 5/2/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-05-09/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 5/9/2020 11:00 | 5/9/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-05-16/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 5/16/2020 11:00 | 5/16/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-05-23/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 5/23/2020 11:00 | 5/23/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-05-30/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 5/30/2020 11:00 | 5/30/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-06-06/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 6/6/2020 11:00 | 6/6/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-06-13/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 6/13/2020 11:00 | 6/13/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-06-20/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 6/20/2020 11:00 | 6/20/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-06-27/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 6/27/2020 11:00 | 6/27/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-07-04/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 7/4/2020 11:00 | 7/4/2020 14:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, 2nd Sessions | Second 12 session series Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves— profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as a whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. We will be starting or close to starting Part 3 of the volume on The Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit. Until the Coronavirus and safe distancing and with staying at home being the healthy and responsible choice, these sessions will be conducted via Zoom. If you register to participate, you will be contacted with all information needed and a zoom link will be provided each week until we can meet in person, if such conditions exist between now and mid-July. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. All classes and events of The MEP are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Zoom classes rates are slightly less than in person meetings. However, there are costs involved in keeping our site running, having zoom sessions and paying for our office. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 3/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-2nd-sessions/2020-07-11/ | rate of profit | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy | 7/11/2020 11:00 | 7/11/2020 14:00 | |
| Covid-19 Capitalism: Big Farms Make Big Flu | 8 Week Reading Group: The year 2020 has brought together a devastating viral pandemic and what is shaping up as the deepest cyclical crisis of capitalism in history. Covid-19 is not the first such episode rooted in the risky practices of capitalist agribusiness, as detailed in Rob Wallace’s Big Farms Big Flu. We need to set ourselves to the task of how to respond that will have an impact on the causes of the circumstances we are facing as a species. To do this requires organizing and knowledge of the science that is behind the origins and spreading of Covid-19 so that our anti-capitalist activities and campaigns can be effective both in the short and long term. Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. From the Introduction to Big Farms Make Big Flu: “…humans have built physical and social environments on land and sea that have radically altered the pathways along which pathogens evolve and dispense. “Pathogens, however, are no mere protagonists, buffered to and fro by the tides of human history. They also act of their own volition, if you will excuse the anthropomorphism. They display agency. And they have by their evolutionary changes forced agribusiness to the bargaining table, a place where that ilk, given their prior successes, think they excel.” The book is offered by Monthly Review in paper at $10 or as an ebook at $5 until April 17: https://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/ Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. | 3/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/covid-19-capitalism-big-farms-make-big-flu/2020-05-27/ | capitalist crisis|coronavirus|cover-19|late capitalism|metabolic rift | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/8/2020 18:30 | 4/8/2020 20:15 | |
| Covid-19 Capitalism: Big Farms Make Big Flu | 8 Week Reading Group: The year 2020 has brought together a devastating viral pandemic and what is shaping up as the deepest cyclical crisis of capitalism in history. Covid-19 is not the first such episode rooted in the risky practices of capitalist agribusiness, as detailed in Rob Wallace’s Big Farms Big Flu. We need to set ourselves to the task of how to respond that will have an impact on the causes of the circumstances we are facing as a species. To do this requires organizing and knowledge of the science that is behind the origins and spreading of Covid-19 so that our anti-capitalist activities and campaigns can be effective both in the short and long term. Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. From the Introduction to Big Farms Make Big Flu: “…humans have built physical and social environments on land and sea that have radically altered the pathways along which pathogens evolve and dispense. “Pathogens, however, are no mere protagonists, buffered to and fro by the tides of human history. They also act of their own volition, if you will excuse the anthropomorphism. They display agency. And they have by their evolutionary changes forced agribusiness to the bargaining table, a place where that ilk, given their prior successes, think they excel.” The book is offered by Monthly Review in paper at $10 or as an ebook at $5 until April 17: https://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/ Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. | 3/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/covid-19-capitalism-big-farms-make-big-flu/2020-04-15/ | capitalist crisis|coronavirus|cover-19|late capitalism|metabolic rift | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/15/2020 18:30 | 4/15/2020 20:15 | |
| Covid-19 Capitalism: Big Farms Make Big Flu | 8 Week Reading Group: The year 2020 has brought together a devastating viral pandemic and what is shaping up as the deepest cyclical crisis of capitalism in history. Covid-19 is not the first such episode rooted in the risky practices of capitalist agribusiness, as detailed in Rob Wallace’s Big Farms Big Flu. We need to set ourselves to the task of how to respond that will have an impact on the causes of the circumstances we are facing as a species. To do this requires organizing and knowledge of the science that is behind the origins and spreading of Covid-19 so that our anti-capitalist activities and campaigns can be effective both in the short and long term. Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. From the Introduction to Big Farms Make Big Flu: “…humans have built physical and social environments on land and sea that have radically altered the pathways along which pathogens evolve and dispense. “Pathogens, however, are no mere protagonists, buffered to and fro by the tides of human history. They also act of their own volition, if you will excuse the anthropomorphism. They display agency. And they have by their evolutionary changes forced agribusiness to the bargaining table, a place where that ilk, given their prior successes, think they excel.” The book is offered by Monthly Review in paper at $10 or as an ebook at $5 until April 17: https://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/ Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. | 3/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/covid-19-capitalism-big-farms-make-big-flu/2020-04-22/ | capitalist crisis|coronavirus|cover-19|late capitalism|metabolic rift | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/22/2020 18:30 | 4/22/2020 20:15 | |
| Covid-19 Capitalism: Big Farms Make Big Flu | 8 Week Reading Group: The year 2020 has brought together a devastating viral pandemic and what is shaping up as the deepest cyclical crisis of capitalism in history. Covid-19 is not the first such episode rooted in the risky practices of capitalist agribusiness, as detailed in Rob Wallace’s Big Farms Big Flu. We need to set ourselves to the task of how to respond that will have an impact on the causes of the circumstances we are facing as a species. To do this requires organizing and knowledge of the science that is behind the origins and spreading of Covid-19 so that our anti-capitalist activities and campaigns can be effective both in the short and long term. Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. From the Introduction to Big Farms Make Big Flu: “…humans have built physical and social environments on land and sea that have radically altered the pathways along which pathogens evolve and dispense. “Pathogens, however, are no mere protagonists, buffered to and fro by the tides of human history. They also act of their own volition, if you will excuse the anthropomorphism. They display agency. And they have by their evolutionary changes forced agribusiness to the bargaining table, a place where that ilk, given their prior successes, think they excel.” The book is offered by Monthly Review in paper at $10 or as an ebook at $5 until April 17: https://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/ Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. | 3/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/covid-19-capitalism-big-farms-make-big-flu/2020-04-29/ | capitalist crisis|coronavirus|cover-19|late capitalism|metabolic rift | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/29/2020 18:30 | 4/29/2020 20:15 | |
| Covid-19 Capitalism: Big Farms Make Big Flu | 8 Week Reading Group: The year 2020 has brought together a devastating viral pandemic and what is shaping up as the deepest cyclical crisis of capitalism in history. Covid-19 is not the first such episode rooted in the risky practices of capitalist agribusiness, as detailed in Rob Wallace’s Big Farms Big Flu. We need to set ourselves to the task of how to respond that will have an impact on the causes of the circumstances we are facing as a species. To do this requires organizing and knowledge of the science that is behind the origins and spreading of Covid-19 so that our anti-capitalist activities and campaigns can be effective both in the short and long term. Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. From the Introduction to Big Farms Make Big Flu: “…humans have built physical and social environments on land and sea that have radically altered the pathways along which pathogens evolve and dispense. “Pathogens, however, are no mere protagonists, buffered to and fro by the tides of human history. They also act of their own volition, if you will excuse the anthropomorphism. They display agency. And they have by their evolutionary changes forced agribusiness to the bargaining table, a place where that ilk, given their prior successes, think they excel.” The book is offered by Monthly Review in paper at $10 or as an ebook at $5 until April 17: https://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/ Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. | 3/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/covid-19-capitalism-big-farms-make-big-flu/2020-05-06/ | capitalist crisis|coronavirus|cover-19|late capitalism|metabolic rift | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/6/2020 18:30 | 5/6/2020 20:15 | |
| Covid-19 Capitalism: Big Farms Make Big Flu | 8 Week Reading Group: The year 2020 has brought together a devastating viral pandemic and what is shaping up as the deepest cyclical crisis of capitalism in history. Covid-19 is not the first such episode rooted in the risky practices of capitalist agribusiness, as detailed in Rob Wallace’s Big Farms Big Flu. We need to set ourselves to the task of how to respond that will have an impact on the causes of the circumstances we are facing as a species. To do this requires organizing and knowledge of the science that is behind the origins and spreading of Covid-19 so that our anti-capitalist activities and campaigns can be effective both in the short and long term. Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. From the Introduction to Big Farms Make Big Flu: “…humans have built physical and social environments on land and sea that have radically altered the pathways along which pathogens evolve and dispense. “Pathogens, however, are no mere protagonists, buffered to and fro by the tides of human history. They also act of their own volition, if you will excuse the anthropomorphism. They display agency. And they have by their evolutionary changes forced agribusiness to the bargaining table, a place where that ilk, given their prior successes, think they excel.” The book is offered by Monthly Review in paper at $10 or as an ebook at $5 until April 17: https://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/ Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. | 3/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/covid-19-capitalism-big-farms-make-big-flu/2020-05-13/ | capitalist crisis|coronavirus|cover-19|late capitalism|metabolic rift | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/13/2020 18:30 | 5/13/2020 20:15 | |
| Covid-19 Capitalism: Big Farms Make Big Flu | 8 Week Reading Group: The year 2020 has brought together a devastating viral pandemic and what is shaping up as the deepest cyclical crisis of capitalism in history. Covid-19 is not the first such episode rooted in the risky practices of capitalist agribusiness, as detailed in Rob Wallace’s Big Farms Big Flu. We need to set ourselves to the task of how to respond that will have an impact on the causes of the circumstances we are facing as a species. To do this requires organizing and knowledge of the science that is behind the origins and spreading of Covid-19 so that our anti-capitalist activities and campaigns can be effective both in the short and long term. Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. From the Introduction to Big Farms Make Big Flu: “…humans have built physical and social environments on land and sea that have radically altered the pathways along which pathogens evolve and dispense. “Pathogens, however, are no mere protagonists, buffered to and fro by the tides of human history. They also act of their own volition, if you will excuse the anthropomorphism. They display agency. And they have by their evolutionary changes forced agribusiness to the bargaining table, a place where that ilk, given their prior successes, think they excel.” The book is offered by Monthly Review in paper at $10 or as an ebook at $5 until April 17: https://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/ Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. | 3/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/covid-19-capitalism-big-farms-make-big-flu/2020-05-20/ | capitalist crisis|coronavirus|cover-19|late capitalism|metabolic rift | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/20/2020 18:30 | 5/20/2020 20:15 | |
| Covid-19 Capitalism: Big Farms Make Big Flu | 8 Week Reading Group: The year 2020 has brought together a devastating viral pandemic and what is shaping up as the deepest cyclical crisis of capitalism in history. Covid-19 is not the first such episode rooted in the risky practices of capitalist agribusiness, as detailed in Rob Wallace’s Big Farms Big Flu. We need to set ourselves to the task of how to respond that will have an impact on the causes of the circumstances we are facing as a species. To do this requires organizing and knowledge of the science that is behind the origins and spreading of Covid-19 so that our anti-capitalist activities and campaigns can be effective both in the short and long term. Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. From the Introduction to Big Farms Make Big Flu: “…humans have built physical and social environments on land and sea that have radically altered the pathways along which pathogens evolve and dispense. “Pathogens, however, are no mere protagonists, buffered to and fro by the tides of human history. They also act of their own volition, if you will excuse the anthropomorphism. They display agency. And they have by their evolutionary changes forced agribusiness to the bargaining table, a place where that ilk, given their prior successes, think they excel.” The book is offered by Monthly Review in paper at $10 or as an ebook at $5 until April 17: https://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/ Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Rob Wallace’s book is an indispensable handbook to the inevitable pandemics stemming from agribusiness. Monthly Review is making it available at a big discount until April 17. We at the MEP are hosting an online reading and discussion group to share the comprehensive research and writing that is contained in Wallace’s book. We will cover all seven sections, plus the two-part update being published in Monthly Review’s next two issues. | 3/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/covid-19-capitalism-big-farms-make-big-flu/2020-05-27/ | capitalist crisis|coronavirus|cover-19|late capitalism|metabolic rift | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/27/2020 18:30 | 5/27/2020 20:15 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-06-22/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/27/2020 18:30 | 4/27/2020 20:15 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-06-01/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 6/1/2020 18:30 | 6/1/2020 20:15 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-06-08/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 6/8/2020 18:30 | 6/8/2020 20:15 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-06-15/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 6/15/2020 18:30 | 6/15/2020 20:15 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-06-22/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 6/22/2020 18:30 | 6/22/2020 20:15 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous.  The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-07-09/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 4/23/2020 19:30 | 4/23/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-04-30/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 4/30/2020 19:30 | 4/30/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-05-07/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 5/7/2020 19:30 | 5/7/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-05-14/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 5/14/2020 19:30 | 5/14/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-05-21/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 5/21/2020 19:30 | 5/21/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-05-28/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 5/28/2020 19:30 | 5/28/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-06-04/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 6/4/2020 19:30 | 6/4/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-06-11/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 6/11/2020 19:30 | 6/11/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-06-18/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 6/18/2020 19:30 | 6/18/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-06-25/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 6/25/2020 19:30 | 6/25/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-07-02/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 7/2/2020 19:30 | 7/2/2020 21:30 | |
| 6 Plays of Bertolt Brecht | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. We will spend three weeks with The Threepenny Opera, one week with The Exception and The Rule, and two weeks each for the other four plays. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. The Threepenny Opera 1928 The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a “play with music” by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: “With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners, Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed…. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background”, but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” The Mother 1931 Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name, is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or learning plays, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s 14 scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily activism. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own Red Flag on the eve of the czar’s overthrow proves momentous. The Exception and the Rule 1933 The play itself is short, and lasts no longer than 60 minutes if performed in its entirety. It tells the story of a rich merchant, who must cross the fictional Yahi Desert to close an oil deal. During the trip the class differences between him and his working-class porter (or “coolie” as he is called in most English language editions) are shown. As he becomes increasingly afraid of the desert, the merchant’s brutality increases, and he feels terribly alone without police nearby to protect him. Mother Courage & Her Children 1941 Following Brecht’s own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern timesbut during the 30 Years’ War of 1618–1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Schweizerkas, Eilif, and Kattrin, to the very war from which she tried to profit. Mother Courage is an example of Brecht’s concepts of epic theatre and Verfremdungseffekt, or “V” effect; preferably “alienation” or “estrangement effect” Verfremdungseffekt is achieved through the use of placards which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery. The Good Person of Szechwan 1943 Brecht’s interest in historical materialism is evident in the play’s definition of contemporary morality and altruism in social and economic terms. Shen Teh’s altruism conflicts with Shui Ta’s capitalist ethos of exploitation. The play implies that economic systems determine a society’s morality. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1958 It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition. The play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II. The play has frequent references to Shakespeare. To highlight Ui’s evil and villainous rise to power, he is explicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Richard III. Like Macbeth, Ui experiences a visitation from the ghost of one of his victims. Finally, Hitler’s practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. | Beginning April 23 we will read aloud six of the many plays Bertolt Brecht wrote between the 1920s and his death in 1956. The six plays are The Threepenny Opera, The Mother, The Exception and The Rule, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. There will be time to read aloud—taking on various characters among ourselves. There will also be substantive discussion of these works which span all the decades of his writing. The Epic theater, musical theater along with the learning plays are represented in this selection of plays. Each session will be conducted via Zoom until we have an all-clear to return to the classroom. With your registration, the zoom password will be sent to you. | 4/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/6-plays-of-bertolt-brecht/2020-07-09/ | alienation effect|brecht|drama|dramatic readings|epic theatre|expressionism|materialist theater|Weill|Weimar | Classes/Events>Literary Studies | 7/9/2020 19:30 | 7/9/2020 21:30 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-05-04/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/4/2020 18:30 | 5/4/2020 20:15 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-05-11/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/11/2020 18:30 | 5/11/2020 20:15 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-05-18/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/18/2020 18:30 | 5/18/2020 20:15 | |
| Descent Into the Inferno: The Politics of Marx’s Capital | with CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP An 8-Week Reading Group: Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who are have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Fees for the MEP zoom sessions are sliding scale; no one is turned away for inability to pay. | Marx’s Inferno, by William Clare Roberts, reconstructs the major arguments of volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading. His argument is that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement of the mid-19th century. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. For Roberts, Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, with Marx in the role of the proletariat’s Virgil guiding us down to the secret depths of capitalism’s “social Hell.” | 4/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/descent-into-the-inferno-the-politics-of-marxs-capital/2020-05-25/ | Capital|Volume 1 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/25/2020 18:30 | 5/25/2020 20:15 | |
| Socialist Register 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia | Beyond Market Dystopia: New Ways of Living | From the editors Greg Albo and Leo Panitch: By challenging our contributors to address what are the actual and possible ways of living in this century, we saw this as way of probing how to get beyond the deep contradictions of neoliberal capitalism. We did not want contributors to conceive their remit as future-oriented per se, but rather to see their mandate as locating utopic visions and struggles for alternate ways of living in the dystopic present. | 6/18/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-register-2020-beyond-market-dystopia/2020-09-14/ | Annual Socialist writing|Digital Capitalism|Dystopia|Gig Economy|Living Alternatives | Immigration|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/24/2020 18:30 | 8/24/2020 20:15 | |
| Socialist Register 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia | Beyond Market Dystopia: New Ways of Living | From the editors Greg Albo and Leo Panitch: By challenging our contributors to address what are the actual and possible ways of living in this century, we saw this as way of probing how to get beyond the deep contradictions of neoliberal capitalism. We did not want contributors to conceive their remit as future-oriented per se, but rather to see their mandate as locating utopic visions and struggles for alternate ways of living in the dystopic present. | 6/18/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-register-2020-beyond-market-dystopia/2020-09-14/ | Annual Socialist writing|Digital Capitalism|Dystopia|Gig Economy|Living Alternatives | Immigration|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 9/14/2020 18:30 | 9/14/2020 20:15 | |
| The 2020 Socialist Register: Market Dystopia BOOK for series | TWO BOOKS REMAIN AT THIS SPECIAL PRICE (which includes shipping)Special for class participants who will read and discuss this book beginning Monday, July 6 which registration information is here First article is available as PDF on-line here How can we build a future with better health and homes, respecting people and the environment? The 2020 edition of the Socialist Register, Beyond Market Dystopia, contains a wealth of incisive essays that entice readers to do just that: to wake up to the cynical, implicitly market-driven concept of human society we have come to accept as everyday reality. Intellectuals and activists such as Michelle Chen, Nancy Fraser, and Roger Keil connect with and go beyond classical socialist themes, to combine an analysis of how we are living now with visions and plans for new strategic, programmatic, manifesto-oriented alternative ways of living. Crafted with purposeful hope in an age of despair, each essay in this volume aims to create a world of agency and justice. Contents
The price below of $23,00 includes shipping via Media Mail SHIPPING IS INCLUDED in the $23 price Please send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com with your address and any special shipping instructions regarding your book | This is where you are easily able to purchase the Socialist Register 2020. Our product button on the WordPress site needs modification so this book purchase is listed under events. Price includes shipping. As a back-up to your order, please email your address to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | 7/1/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/market-dystopia-book-socialist-register-2020/2020-09-15/ | Classes/Events | 9/15/2020 18:35 | 9/15/2020 20:45 | ||
| Capital, Volume 3, Part 7, the last chapters of volume 3 | Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves—profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 7/14/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-3rd-session/2020-10-03/ | capital as a whole | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Socialism | 9/26/2020 11:00 | 9/26/2020 14:00 | |
| Lit and Film: Noir for the Summer of Covid-19 | 8 sessions via teleconference on Zoom • participation code with registration Sliding scale admission for teleconference Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. BOOK 1 Odd Man Out /F. L. Green F.L. (Laurie) Green’s novel was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an IRA member, 19-year old Tom Williams. In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. Odd Man Out is Green’s most significant novel. MOVIE 1 Odd Man Out /Carol Reed • AUGUST 20 Takes place largely over the course of one tense night, Reed’s psychological noir, set in Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con who leads a botched robbery. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself. BOOK 2 Clean Break /Lionel White • AUGUST 27 “… none of them are professional crooks. They all have jobs, they all live seemingly decent, normal lives. But they all have money problems and they all have larceny in them.” In the opening chapter, Lionel White sets the stage for the main protagonists of the story: Marvin Unger, court reporter; George Peatty, a racetrack cashier and his bored wife, Sherry; Randy Kennan, a cop distracted by huge gambling debts; Mike O’Reilly, a track barman, regularly bets and loses half his earnings; and Johnny Clay, just out of jail, and who has come up with the plan to steal the earnings fromthe Canarsie Stakes. Creating diversions becomes necessary, including knocking off the favourite in the race (animals lovers beware…). MOVIE 2 The Killing /Stanley Kubrick • SEPTEMBER 3 Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core. BOOK 3 Down There /David Goodis • SEPTEMBER 10 Once upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall—now he does honky-tonk in a Philly drunk-dive. But then two people walk into Eddie’s life—the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past. Down There (bookretitled after film to Shoot the Piano Player) is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty. MOVIE 3 Shoot The Piano Player /François Truffaut • SEPTEMBER 17 François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague. BOOK 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /George V. Higgins • SEPTEMBER 24 Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the best crime novel ever written, though Higgins hated being classified as a crime writer. According to Leonard, “He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer. He just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives.” MOVIE 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /Peter Yates • OCTOBER 1 In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in an adaptation by Peter Yates of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight. We will attempt to watch together. Those who watch the film on their own are of course welcome to join in the discussions following the films as they are presented. | Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. | 7/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lit-and-film-noir-for-the-summer-of-covid-19/2020-10-01/ | Belfast|David Goodis|Film noir|noir|Thriller | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/20/2020 19:00 | 8/20/2020 21:00 | |
| Lit and Film: Noir for the Summer of Covid-19 | 8 sessions via teleconference on Zoom • participation code with registration Sliding scale admission for teleconference Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. BOOK 1 Odd Man Out /F. L. Green F.L. (Laurie) Green’s novel was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an IRA member, 19-year old Tom Williams. In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. Odd Man Out is Green’s most significant novel. MOVIE 1 Odd Man Out /Carol Reed • AUGUST 20 Takes place largely over the course of one tense night, Reed’s psychological noir, set in Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con who leads a botched robbery. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself. BOOK 2 Clean Break /Lionel White • AUGUST 27 “… none of them are professional crooks. They all have jobs, they all live seemingly decent, normal lives. But they all have money problems and they all have larceny in them.” In the opening chapter, Lionel White sets the stage for the main protagonists of the story: Marvin Unger, court reporter; George Peatty, a racetrack cashier and his bored wife, Sherry; Randy Kennan, a cop distracted by huge gambling debts; Mike O’Reilly, a track barman, regularly bets and loses half his earnings; and Johnny Clay, just out of jail, and who has come up with the plan to steal the earnings fromthe Canarsie Stakes. Creating diversions becomes necessary, including knocking off the favourite in the race (animals lovers beware…). MOVIE 2 The Killing /Stanley Kubrick • SEPTEMBER 3 Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core. BOOK 3 Down There /David Goodis • SEPTEMBER 10 Once upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall—now he does honky-tonk in a Philly drunk-dive. But then two people walk into Eddie’s life—the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past. Down There (bookretitled after film to Shoot the Piano Player) is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty. MOVIE 3 Shoot The Piano Player /François Truffaut • SEPTEMBER 17 François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague. BOOK 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /George V. Higgins • SEPTEMBER 24 Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the best crime novel ever written, though Higgins hated being classified as a crime writer. According to Leonard, “He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer. He just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives.” MOVIE 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /Peter Yates • OCTOBER 1 In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in an adaptation by Peter Yates of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight. We will attempt to watch together. Those who watch the film on their own are of course welcome to join in the discussions following the films as they are presented. | Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. | 7/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lit-and-film-noir-for-the-summer-of-covid-19/2020-08-27/ | Belfast|David Goodis|Film noir|noir|Thriller | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/27/2020 19:00 | 8/27/2020 21:00 | |
| Lit and Film: Noir for the Summer of Covid-19 | 8 sessions via teleconference on Zoom • participation code with registration Sliding scale admission for teleconference Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. BOOK 1 Odd Man Out /F. L. Green F.L. (Laurie) Green’s novel was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an IRA member, 19-year old Tom Williams. In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. Odd Man Out is Green’s most significant novel. MOVIE 1 Odd Man Out /Carol Reed • AUGUST 20 Takes place largely over the course of one tense night, Reed’s psychological noir, set in Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con who leads a botched robbery. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself. BOOK 2 Clean Break /Lionel White • AUGUST 27 “… none of them are professional crooks. They all have jobs, they all live seemingly decent, normal lives. But they all have money problems and they all have larceny in them.” In the opening chapter, Lionel White sets the stage for the main protagonists of the story: Marvin Unger, court reporter; George Peatty, a racetrack cashier and his bored wife, Sherry; Randy Kennan, a cop distracted by huge gambling debts; Mike O’Reilly, a track barman, regularly bets and loses half his earnings; and Johnny Clay, just out of jail, and who has come up with the plan to steal the earnings fromthe Canarsie Stakes. Creating diversions becomes necessary, including knocking off the favourite in the race (animals lovers beware…). MOVIE 2 The Killing /Stanley Kubrick • SEPTEMBER 3 Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core. BOOK 3 Down There /David Goodis • SEPTEMBER 10 Once upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall—now he does honky-tonk in a Philly drunk-dive. But then two people walk into Eddie’s life—the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past. Down There (bookretitled after film to Shoot the Piano Player) is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty. MOVIE 3 Shoot The Piano Player /François Truffaut • SEPTEMBER 17 François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague. BOOK 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /George V. Higgins • SEPTEMBER 24 Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the best crime novel ever written, though Higgins hated being classified as a crime writer. According to Leonard, “He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer. He just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives.” MOVIE 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /Peter Yates • OCTOBER 1 In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in an adaptation by Peter Yates of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight. We will attempt to watch together. Those who watch the film on their own are of course welcome to join in the discussions following the films as they are presented. | Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. | 7/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lit-and-film-noir-for-the-summer-of-covid-19/2020-09-03/ | Belfast|David Goodis|Film noir|noir|Thriller | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/3/2020 19:00 | 9/3/2020 21:00 | |
| Lit and Film: Noir for the Summer of Covid-19 | 8 sessions via teleconference on Zoom • participation code with registration Sliding scale admission for teleconference Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. BOOK 1 Odd Man Out /F. L. Green F.L. (Laurie) Green’s novel was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an IRA member, 19-year old Tom Williams. In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. Odd Man Out is Green’s most significant novel. MOVIE 1 Odd Man Out /Carol Reed • AUGUST 20 Takes place largely over the course of one tense night, Reed’s psychological noir, set in Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con who leads a botched robbery. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself. BOOK 2 Clean Break /Lionel White • AUGUST 27 “… none of them are professional crooks. They all have jobs, they all live seemingly decent, normal lives. But they all have money problems and they all have larceny in them.” In the opening chapter, Lionel White sets the stage for the main protagonists of the story: Marvin Unger, court reporter; George Peatty, a racetrack cashier and his bored wife, Sherry; Randy Kennan, a cop distracted by huge gambling debts; Mike O’Reilly, a track barman, regularly bets and loses half his earnings; and Johnny Clay, just out of jail, and who has come up with the plan to steal the earnings fromthe Canarsie Stakes. Creating diversions becomes necessary, including knocking off the favourite in the race (animals lovers beware…). MOVIE 2 The Killing /Stanley Kubrick • SEPTEMBER 3 Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core. BOOK 3 Down There /David Goodis • SEPTEMBER 10 Once upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall—now he does honky-tonk in a Philly drunk-dive. But then two people walk into Eddie’s life—the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past. Down There (bookretitled after film to Shoot the Piano Player) is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty. MOVIE 3 Shoot The Piano Player /François Truffaut • SEPTEMBER 17 François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague. BOOK 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /George V. Higgins • SEPTEMBER 24 Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the best crime novel ever written, though Higgins hated being classified as a crime writer. According to Leonard, “He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer. He just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives.” MOVIE 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /Peter Yates • OCTOBER 1 In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in an adaptation by Peter Yates of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight. We will attempt to watch together. Those who watch the film on their own are of course welcome to join in the discussions following the films as they are presented. | Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. | 7/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lit-and-film-noir-for-the-summer-of-covid-19/2020-09-10/ | Belfast|David Goodis|Film noir|noir|Thriller | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/10/2020 19:00 | 9/10/2020 21:00 | |
| Lit and Film: Noir for the Summer of Covid-19 | 8 sessions via teleconference on Zoom • participation code with registration Sliding scale admission for teleconference Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. BOOK 1 Odd Man Out /F. L. Green F.L. (Laurie) Green’s novel was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an IRA member, 19-year old Tom Williams. In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. Odd Man Out is Green’s most significant novel. MOVIE 1 Odd Man Out /Carol Reed • AUGUST 20 Takes place largely over the course of one tense night, Reed’s psychological noir, set in Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con who leads a botched robbery. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself. BOOK 2 Clean Break /Lionel White • AUGUST 27 “… none of them are professional crooks. They all have jobs, they all live seemingly decent, normal lives. But they all have money problems and they all have larceny in them.” In the opening chapter, Lionel White sets the stage for the main protagonists of the story: Marvin Unger, court reporter; George Peatty, a racetrack cashier and his bored wife, Sherry; Randy Kennan, a cop distracted by huge gambling debts; Mike O’Reilly, a track barman, regularly bets and loses half his earnings; and Johnny Clay, just out of jail, and who has come up with the plan to steal the earnings fromthe Canarsie Stakes. Creating diversions becomes necessary, including knocking off the favourite in the race (animals lovers beware…). MOVIE 2 The Killing /Stanley Kubrick • SEPTEMBER 3 Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core. BOOK 3 Down There /David Goodis • SEPTEMBER 10 Once upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall—now he does honky-tonk in a Philly drunk-dive. But then two people walk into Eddie’s life—the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past. Down There (bookretitled after film to Shoot the Piano Player) is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty. MOVIE 3 Shoot The Piano Player /François Truffaut • SEPTEMBER 17 François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague. BOOK 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /George V. Higgins • SEPTEMBER 24 Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the best crime novel ever written, though Higgins hated being classified as a crime writer. According to Leonard, “He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer. He just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives.” MOVIE 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /Peter Yates • OCTOBER 1 In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in an adaptation by Peter Yates of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight. We will attempt to watch together. Those who watch the film on their own are of course welcome to join in the discussions following the films as they are presented. | Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. | 7/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lit-and-film-noir-for-the-summer-of-covid-19/2020-09-17/ | Belfast|David Goodis|Film noir|noir|Thriller | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/17/2020 19:00 | 9/17/2020 21:00 | |
| Lit and Film: Noir for the Summer of Covid-19 | 8 sessions via teleconference on Zoom • participation code with registration Sliding scale admission for teleconference Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. BOOK 1 Odd Man Out /F. L. Green F.L. (Laurie) Green’s novel was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an IRA member, 19-year old Tom Williams. In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. Odd Man Out is Green’s most significant novel. MOVIE 1 Odd Man Out /Carol Reed • AUGUST 20 Takes place largely over the course of one tense night, Reed’s psychological noir, set in Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con who leads a botched robbery. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself. BOOK 2 Clean Break /Lionel White • AUGUST 27 “… none of them are professional crooks. They all have jobs, they all live seemingly decent, normal lives. But they all have money problems and they all have larceny in them.” In the opening chapter, Lionel White sets the stage for the main protagonists of the story: Marvin Unger, court reporter; George Peatty, a racetrack cashier and his bored wife, Sherry; Randy Kennan, a cop distracted by huge gambling debts; Mike O’Reilly, a track barman, regularly bets and loses half his earnings; and Johnny Clay, just out of jail, and who has come up with the plan to steal the earnings fromthe Canarsie Stakes. Creating diversions becomes necessary, including knocking off the favourite in the race (animals lovers beware…). MOVIE 2 The Killing /Stanley Kubrick • SEPTEMBER 3 Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core. BOOK 3 Down There /David Goodis • SEPTEMBER 10 Once upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall—now he does honky-tonk in a Philly drunk-dive. But then two people walk into Eddie’s life—the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past. Down There (bookretitled after film to Shoot the Piano Player) is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty. MOVIE 3 Shoot The Piano Player /François Truffaut • SEPTEMBER 17 François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague. BOOK 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /George V. Higgins • SEPTEMBER 24 Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the best crime novel ever written, though Higgins hated being classified as a crime writer. According to Leonard, “He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer. He just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives.” MOVIE 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /Peter Yates • OCTOBER 1 In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in an adaptation by Peter Yates of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight. We will attempt to watch together. Those who watch the film on their own are of course welcome to join in the discussions following the films as they are presented. | Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. | 7/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lit-and-film-noir-for-the-summer-of-covid-19/2020-09-24/ | Belfast|David Goodis|Film noir|noir|Thriller | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/24/2020 19:00 | 9/24/2020 21:00 | |
| Social Reproduction in the 21st Century | Via Zoomwith Ursula HuwsPlease note the meeting time, as the Socialist Reader discussion group will be convening at 3:30 pm in order to ensure that Ursula can join us from London. In the 2020 Socialist Register “a number of the essays interrogate central dimensions of how we live and how we might live in terms of educating our children, housing and urbanism, accommodation of refugees and the displaced, and (to lean on that all too common phrase) the competitive time pressures for ‘work-life balance’. These are all key questions, of course, of ‘social reproduction,’ a theme that has cut across many volumes of the Register. They are the counterpoint to ‘economic reproduction’ and ‘how we work’ at the heart of several essays here. Today, this involves exploring and exposing all the hype and contradictions of the so-called ‘gig economy,’ where automation’s potential for increased time apart from work is subordinated to surveillance, hazardous waste, speed-up, and much else that makes for contingent work and precarious living. Finding new ways of living cannot but confront both these obstacles.” As capital commodifies and marketizes social reproduction labor and the time squeeze on households is intensified, the contribution to this year’s Socialist Register by Ursula Huws is of highest importance. She is very effective in laying out the divisions of our labor into six areas as we approach the third decade of the 21st Century — 1) Unpaid labor in the home and community such as reproduction of the basic needs within famiies; 2) Paid private service work in homes or farms—servant labor; 3) Paid private service work within capitalist firms e.g., shops, hotels, cleaning companies, etc.; 4) Paid public service work providing and maintaining public services; 5) Paid labor for production of commodities for the market; and, 6) Unpaid labor in the home and community—consumption labor. Ursula states that “Consumption labor does not produce surplus value directly, but is implicated in the externalization of tasks formerly carried out by paid workers and could thus be regarded as contributing indirectly to the exploitation of the labor of productive workers.”  Ursula Huws is Professor of Labor and Globalization at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK and the author of Reinventing the Welfare State from Pluto Books this coming September along with Labor in Contemporary Capitalism: What Next? recently published by Palgrave Macmillan. The Marxist Education Project presented a class where we read her Monthly Review Book, Labor in the Global Digital Economy: The Cybertariat Comes of Age in the fall of 2015.  All tickets are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. | As capital commodifies and marketizes social reproduction labor and the time squeeze on households is intensified, the contribution to this year’s Socialist Register by Ursula Huws is of highest importance. “Consumption labor does not produce surplus value directly, but is implicated in the externalization of tasks formerly carried out by paid workers and could thus be regarded as contributing indirectly to the exploitation of the labor of productive workers.” | 7/29/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/social-reproduction-in-the-21st-century/ | social reproduction | Labor History|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/3/2020 15:30 | 8/3/2020 17:30 | |
| Perry Mason and the Case of the Careless Remake | A special presentation with Dennis BroePresented by The Marxist Education Project with Institute for the Radical Imagination Via Zoom It’s the third most popular book series of all time, a show that ran in some form for over 35 years and is now the flagship production for HBO’s summer lineup. Perry Mason, the indefatigable defender of hopeless cases that the police have seemingly wrapped up, has been reinvented as a no-account Jake Gittes from Chinatown, a two-bit blackmailer and lost generation PTSD war casualty navigating the streets of 1932 Los Angeles at the height of the depression. Hoovervilles, the Bonus March, and the rich in tuxedos with the poor at their feet form the background of the series and suggest our own era where Trumpvilles flourish and will soon expand when unemployment benefits are exhausted.  We’ll take a critical look at this refashioning of the criminal defense attorney, with a Della Street who wants equal pay in the law office and an African-American investigator, the refurbished Paul Drake, who abandons the very low ceiling of a black beat cop on the LAPD to work elsewhere. We’ll also take up questions of how HBO, now owned and under the tutelage of AT&T, the conservative telecom company from Dallas, may be changing as it becomes the centerpiece of the AT&T/Time Warner streaming service. As well as how the American “period fetish” and faithfulness to the letter but not the spirit of the law of the original plays out in this remake. For those who are able, the Perry Mason series is available every Sunday from 9 to 10 pm EST for new episodes, and is available on demand for streaming with many local cable / satellite providers of televised content. Dennis Broe taught Television Studies at the Sorbonne. He is the author of Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and The End of Leisure, Maverick or How The West Was Lostand the soon-to-be-published Diary of a Digital Plague Year: Coronavirus, Serial TV and The Rise of the Streaming Services. His TV criticism appears at Bro on the Global Television Beat. His television, film, art and literary criticism also appears in the British newspaper Morning Star and on People’s World and Crime Time. He is an associate editor of Culture Matters. His radio broadcasts on his show Breaking Glass appear on Art District Radio in Paris and on Arts Express in New York on WBAI and across the Pacifica Network. All tickets are sliding scale. No one is refused admission for inability to pay | Perry Mason, the indefatigable defender of hopeless cases that the police have seemingly wrapped up, has been reinvented as a no-account Jake Gittes from Chinatown, a two-bit blackmailer and lost generation PTSD war casualty navigating the streets of 1932 Los Angeles at the height of the depression. Hoovervilles, the Bonus March, and the rich in tuxedos with the poor at their feet form the background of the series and suggest our own era where Trumpvilles flourish and will soon expand when unemployment benefits are exhausted. | 7/29/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/perry-mason-and-the-case-of-the-careless-remake/ | 30s Noir|Los Angle|Police Corruption | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 9/4/2020 18:00 | 9/4/2020 20:00 | |
| China’s Engine of Environmental Collapse | Book discussion with author Richard SmithJust published this July, 2020 by Pluto PressThis event is taking place at 6:30 pm originating in New York City (Eastern Standard Tune)As the world hurtles towards environmental oblivion, China is leading the charge. The nation’s CO2 emissions are more than twice those of the US with a GDP just two-thirds as large. China leads the world in renewable energy yet it is building new coal-fired power plants faster than renewables. The country’s lakes, rivers, and farmlands are severely polluted yet China’s police state can’t suppress pollution, even from its own industries. This is the first book to explain these contradictions. Richard Smith explains how the country’s bureaucratic rulers are driven by nationalist-industrialist tendencies that are even more powerful than the drive for profit under ‘normal’ capitalism. In their race to overtake the US they must prioritise hyper-growth over the environment, even if this ends in climate collapse and eco-suicide. Richard contends that nothing short of drastic shutdowns and the scaling back of polluting industries, especially in China and the US, will suffice to slash greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent climate catastrophe. Below is an image of the Yangtze River.  Here is a link to Richard’s article in Foreign Policy, published July 27, 2020, entitled The Chinese Communist Party Is an Environmental Catastrophe: Political ambitions make China’s emissions growth inevitable even as the economy falters The book is available at the link below. People can get it for 20% off with this coupon code: CHINA30. Richard Smith has published articles on the Chinese revolution, China’s transition to capitalism, and China’s environment for Against the Current, New Left Review, Monthly Review and the Ecologist. He is the author of Green Capitalism: The God that Failed (College Publications. 2016), and is a founding member of the US-based group System Change Not Climate Change. Sliding scale admissions. No on turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@marxedproject.com for info on admission on low or no cost admissions. | As the world hurtles towards environmental oblivion, China is leading the charge. The nation’s CO2 emissions are more than twice those of the US with a GDP just two-thirds as large. China leads the world in renewable energy yet it is building new coal-fired power plants faster than renewables. Richard contends that nothing short of drastic shutdowns and the scaling back of polluting industries, especially in China and the US, will suffice to slash greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent climate catastrophe. | 7/31/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/chinas-engine-of-environmental-collapse/ | Capital Studies|China|Extractivism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 9/21/2020 18:30 | 9/21/2020 20:30 | ||
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-12-07/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 10/5/2020 18:30 | 10/5/2020 20:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-10-12/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 10/12/2020 18:30 | 10/12/2020 20:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-10-19/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 10/19/2020 18:30 | 10/19/2020 20:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-10-26/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 10/26/2020 18:30 | 10/26/2020 20:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-11-02/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 11/2/2020 18:30 | 11/2/2020 20:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-11-09/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 11/9/2020 18:30 | 11/9/2020 20:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-11-16/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 11/16/2020 18:30 | 11/16/2020 20:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | “Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. | |||||||
| January 25 | 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time” | 8/2/2020 | tribe_events | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 11/23/2020 18:30 | 11/23/2020 20:30 | 11/23/2020 22:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-11-30/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 11/30/2020 18:30 | 11/30/2020 20:30 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial CapitalismCapital Studies Group of The MEPAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for zoom info if you are unable to pay The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire and Jairus Banaji’s The History of Commercial Capitalism, both new works along with the now-classic text Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. Additional readings will include chapters from Marx’s Capital; essays by Robin D.G. Kelley and Barbara Fields; and selections from the July-August 2020 Monthly Review devoted to Racial Capitalism. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have nearly completed a chronological reading all three volumes of Marx’s Capital along with other important works such as these sessions will explore. Newcomers are always encouraged to join. | Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. THIS EVENT SOLD OUT ON SEPTEMBER 27 at 6 PM. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com The new offering of this course will begin on Monday, January 25, 1 pm to 3 pm New York City time | 8/2/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money/2020-12-07/ | Black Marxism|class and race|Racial Capital | Agribusiness|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method | 12/7/2020 18:30 | 12/7/2020 20:30 | |
| For a Sustainable Future: The Centrality of Public Goods | with Nancy Holmstromvia ZoomIn the 2020 Socialist Register “a number of the essays interrogate central dimensions of how we live and how we might live in terms of educating our children, housing and urbanism, accommodation of refugees and the displaced, and (to lean on that all too common phrase) the competitive time pressures for ‘work-life balance’. These are all key questions, of course, of ‘social reproduction,’ a theme that has cut across many volumes of the Register. They are the counterpoint to ‘economic reproduction’ and ‘how we work’ at the heart of several essays here. Today, this involves exploring and exposing all the hype and contradictions of the so-called ‘gig economy,’ where automation’s potential for increased time apart from work is subordinated to surveillance, hazardous waste, speed-up, and much else that makes for contingent work and precarious living. Finding new ways of living cannot but confront both these obstacles.” The UN’s report on climate change makes clear that ways of living in the 21st century must be premised on the existential threat to our existence posed by multiple ecological threats. The current pandemic underlines this fact. For a sustainable future we have to transform some basic ways of thinking about the world and our place in it, starting with broadened and more inclusive notions of security, property and rationality. Instead of private property being the default as it is in capitalism, public goods/‘the commons’, should be the priority. And rationality must be understood principally in social terms, since on the dominant individualistic model fully rational behavior can lead to the destruction of the species. Thus the central focus of socialist strategy in the 21st century should be protecting and radically expanding public goods/the commons. We should use every means we can to raise people’s understanding that they are 1) the only basis of real security; 2) should be accessible to all as a right, like universal health care, and hence no one should be excluded by the alleged rights of private property; and 3) are foundational to the most rational way to organize society. The paper considers some examples of strategies that fit this approach, such as the Green New Deal, and explores the crucial role of democratic planning both on a societal and a global level. Nancy Holmstrom is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. Tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email: info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the zoom code if you are unable to pay | We should use every means we can to raise people’s understanding that they are 1) the only basis of real security; 2) should be accessible to all as a right, like universal health care, and hence no one should be excluded by the alleged rights of private property; and 3) are foundational to the most rational way to organize society. Nancy’s presentation will consider some examples of strategies that fit this approach. | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/for-a-sustainable-future-the-centrality-of-public-goods/ | Centrality of Public Goods|social priorities|sustainability|The Commons | Climate Change|Extractivism|Marxist Method|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 8/17/2020 18:30 | 8/17/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-12-08/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 9/29/2020 18:30 | 9/29/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-10-06/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 10/6/2020 18:30 | 10/6/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-10-13/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 10/13/2020 18:30 | 10/13/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-10-20/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 10/20/2020 18:30 | 10/20/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-10-27/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 10/27/2020 18:30 | 10/27/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-11-03/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 11/3/2020 18:30 | 11/3/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-11-10/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 11/10/2020 18:30 | 11/10/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-11-17/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 11/17/2020 18:30 | 11/17/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-11-24/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 11/24/2020 18:30 | 11/24/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-12-01/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 12/1/2020 18:30 | 12/1/2020 20:30 | |
| Invention of the White Race | a reading and discussion group convened by The Revolutions Study Group with Sean AhernSince its origin in the class struggles of colonial Virginia and Maryland, the “white race,” the most peculiar aspect of the “Peculiar Institution,” has remained the most contentious and misunderstood identity in American life. The Invention of the White Race Volumes I & II, Theodore W. Allen’s historical materialist analysis of racial slavery, documents how the plantation elite put in place this system of social control following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the final stage of this uprising, an army of European and African chattel bond laborers burned Jamestown to the ground and temporarily drove Governor Berkeley into exile across the Chesapeake Bay. The terrified planter bourgeoisie, in a deliberate response to this display of labor solidarity, enacted a series of laws and practices in the late 17th and early 18th centuries which implanted a system of ‘white’ racial privileges that enabled the imposition of racial slavery and white male supremacy. Theodore W Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, particularly Volume 2, subtitled The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, has been widely recognized by activists and scholars alike as a seminal work and deeply radical history. Allen was drawn to study of the “white” race by his engagement in the movements of his time; in West Virginia coal mines, the Congress of Industrial Organization, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights/Black Liberation/anti-war and student led movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and his reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland (and how and why it has been maintained since then). Through a careful reading of this text supported by discussion, a new narrative of our history emerges that offers strategic guidance to the momentous struggles now unfolding. Allen concludes Volume II with the following message to a new generation of activists: “Perhaps in the impending renewal of the struggle of ‘the common people’ and the ‘Titans,’ the Great Safety Valve of white-skin privileges may finally come to be seen and rejected by laboring-class European-Americans as the incubus that for three centuries has paralyzed their will in defense of their class interests vis-a-vis those of the ruling class.” The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed a year-long study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Participants have come and gone, however the group has held together, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1848 European Revolutions, the May 68 movement in France and the Hot Autumn of Italy and much more. All fees are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Allen had concluded by the mid 1960’s that white supremacism was the central obstacle to progressive movements in American life, past and present, yet the “white” race itself remained the most peculiar, contentious and generally misunderstood “identity,” blocking all efforts to achieve a just society. Accordingly, Allen spent the next 40 years in writing and primary research to discern when, where, how and why the Plantation Bourgeoisie invented this “white” race in colonial Virginia and Maryland | 8/4/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-2/2020-12-08/ | class and gender|class and race|race|racism|white supremacy | Class and Gender|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 12/8/2020 18:30 | 12/8/2020 20:30 | |
| Lit and Film: Noir for the Summer of Covid-19 | 8 sessions via teleconference on Zoom • participation code with registration Sliding scale admission for teleconference Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. BOOK 1 Odd Man Out /F. L. Green F.L. (Laurie) Green’s novel was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an IRA member, 19-year old Tom Williams. In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. Odd Man Out is Green’s most significant novel. MOVIE 1 Odd Man Out /Carol Reed • AUGUST 20 Takes place largely over the course of one tense night, Reed’s psychological noir, set in Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con who leads a botched robbery. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself. BOOK 2 Clean Break /Lionel White • AUGUST 27 “… none of them are professional crooks. They all have jobs, they all live seemingly decent, normal lives. But they all have money problems and they all have larceny in them.” In the opening chapter, Lionel White sets the stage for the main protagonists of the story: Marvin Unger, court reporter; George Peatty, a racetrack cashier and his bored wife, Sherry; Randy Kennan, a cop distracted by huge gambling debts; Mike O’Reilly, a track barman, regularly bets and loses half his earnings; and Johnny Clay, just out of jail, and who has come up with the plan to steal the earnings fromthe Canarsie Stakes. Creating diversions becomes necessary, including knocking off the favourite in the race (animals lovers beware…). MOVIE 2 The Killing /Stanley Kubrick • SEPTEMBER 3 Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core. BOOK 3 Down There /David Goodis • SEPTEMBER 10 Once upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall—now he does honky-tonk in a Philly drunk-dive. But then two people walk into Eddie’s life—the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past. Down There (bookretitled after film to Shoot the Piano Player) is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty. MOVIE 3 Shoot The Piano Player /François Truffaut • SEPTEMBER 17 François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague. BOOK 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /George V. Higgins • SEPTEMBER 24 Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the best crime novel ever written, though Higgins hated being classified as a crime writer. According to Leonard, “He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer. He just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives.” MOVIE 4 Friends of Eddie Coyle /Peter Yates • OCTOBER 1 In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in an adaptation by Peter Yates of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight. We will attempt to watch together. Those who watch the film on their own are of course welcome to join in the discussions following the films as they are presented. | Continuing in the MEP LITERATURE GROUP summer tradition, we will once again delve into Noir genres– but with a twist! Starting August 6, we will read four books and watch the movies that are based on them. Please join us for four books with the four movies that resulted from them. | 7/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lit-and-film-noir-for-the-summer-of-covid-19/2020-10-01/ | Belfast|David Goodis|Film noir|noir|Thriller | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/1/2020 19:00 | 10/1/2020 21:00 | |
| What Should Socialism Mean in the 21st Century? | A talk and discussion with Nancy FraserIn the 2020 Socialist Register “a number of the essays interrogate central dimensions of how we live and how we might live in terms of educating our children, housing and urbanism, accommodation of refugees and the displaced, and (to lean on that all too common phrase) the competitive time pressures for ‘work-life balance’. These are all key questions, of course, of ‘social reproduction,’ a theme that has cut across many volumes of the Register. They are the counterpoint to ‘economic reproduction’ and ‘how we work’ at the heart of several essays here. Today, this involves exploring and exposing all the hype and contradictions of the so-called ‘gig economy,’ where automation’s potential for increased time apart from work is subordinated to surveillance, hazardous waste, speed-up, and much else that makes for contingent work and precarious living. Finding new ways of living cannot but confront both these obstacles.” Drawing on an expanded conception of capitalism, Nancy Fraser constructs an expanded conception of socialism that overcomes the narrow economism of received understandings. Disclosing the capitalist economy’s contradictory and destructive relation to its “non-economic” background conditions, Fraser contends that socialism must do more than transform the economy. Over and above that desideratum, it must also transform the economy’s relation to its background conditions, especially non-human nature, the unwaged work of social reproduction, and political power. In a nutshell, a socialism for the 21st century must be ecological, feminist, anti-racist, and democratic. Nancy Fraser is the co-author with Cinzia Arruzza and Titihi Bhattacharya of Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto (Verso, 2019) and with Rahel Jaeggi of Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory (Polity, 2018). Previous books include Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis (Verso, 2013), Redistribution or Recognition: A Critical-Philosophical Exchange with Axel Honneth (Verso, 2003), and Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory (University of Minnesota Press, 1989), among other books. All tickets are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the zoom code if you would like to attend. | Fraser contends that socialism must do more than transform the economy. Over and above that desideratum, it must also transform the economy’s relation to its background conditions, especially non-human nature, the unwaged work of social reproduction, and political power. In a nutshell, a socialism for the 21st century must be ecological, feminist, anti-racist, and democratic. | 8/10/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/what-should-socialism-mean-in-the-21st-century/ | eco|ecosocialism | Climate Change|Extractivism|Gender|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/24/2020 18:30 | 8/24/2020 20:30 | |
| The Affordable Housing Crisis | Its Capitalist Roots and the Socialist Alternative | The population in the metropolis is regrouped into ghettos (suburbs, foreigners, factories, students), and the new cities are to some extent reminiscent of colonial cities.’ Yet in these histories we find sedimentations of possibilities that I will take up in this essay. | 8/11/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-affordable-housing-crisis/ | crisis|housing|housing as a right|housing crisis | Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/31/2020 18:30 | 8/31/2020 20:30 | |
| Beyond Market Dystopia: 2 Events Special Price | MONDAY • August 24 via Zoom | The speakers each wrote an essay in the current Socialist Register of 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia. A number of the essays interrogate central dimensions of how we live and how we might live in terms of educating our children, housing and urbanism, accommodation of refugees and the displaced, and (to lean on that all too common phrase) the competitive time pressures for ‘work-life balance’. | 8/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/beyond-market-dystopia-3-events-special-price/2020-08-31/ | Culture and Ecology|Public Goods|The Commons | Climate Change|Immigration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 8/24/2020 18:30 | 8/24/2020 20:30 | |
| Beyond Market Dystopia: 2 Events Special Price | MONDAY • August 24 via Zoom | The speakers each wrote an essay in the current Socialist Register of 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia. A number of the essays interrogate central dimensions of how we live and how we might live in terms of educating our children, housing and urbanism, accommodation of refugees and the displaced, and (to lean on that all too common phrase) the competitive time pressures for ‘work-life balance’. | 8/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/beyond-market-dystopia-3-events-special-price/2020-08-31/ | Culture and Ecology|Public Goods|The Commons | Climate Change|Immigration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 8/31/2020 18:30 | 8/31/2020 20:30 | |
| Women Write Against Fascism | Literary resistance during and after fascism being in commandFive more weeks with | We will look at themes around resistance and collaboration. Beauvoir and Ginzburg write of the period occupation by the Nazis in Vichy France and the period of Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy, while Jelinek’s Wonderful Wonderful Times describes the lingering effects naziism had during the years of recovery from the fascist years in Austria in society and within a family. | 8/23/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-against-fascism/2020-12-10/ | anti-authoritarianism|anti0|collaboration|Existentialism|family portrait|fascism|Neo realism|Resistance | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/29/2020 19:00 | 10/29/2020 21:00 | |
| Women Write Against Fascism | Literary resistance during and after fascism being in commandFive more weeks with | We will look at themes around resistance and collaboration. Beauvoir and Ginzburg write of the period occupation by the Nazis in Vichy France and the period of Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy, while Jelinek’s Wonderful Wonderful Times describes the lingering effects naziism had during the years of recovery from the fascist years in Austria in society and within a family. | 8/23/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-against-fascism/2020-11-05/ | anti-authoritarianism|anti0|collaboration|Existentialism|family portrait|fascism|Neo realism|Resistance | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/5/2020 19:00 | 11/5/2020 21:00 | |
| Women Write Against Fascism | Literary resistance during and after fascism being in commandFive more weeks with | We will look at themes around resistance and collaboration. Beauvoir and Ginzburg write of the period occupation by the Nazis in Vichy France and the period of Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy, while Jelinek’s Wonderful Wonderful Times describes the lingering effects naziism had during the years of recovery from the fascist years in Austria in society and within a family. | 8/23/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-against-fascism/2020-11-12/ | anti-authoritarianism|anti0|collaboration|Existentialism|family portrait|fascism|Neo realism|Resistance | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/12/2020 19:00 | 11/12/2020 21:00 | |
| Women Write Against Fascism | Literary resistance during and after fascism being in commandFive more weeks with | We will look at themes around resistance and collaboration. Beauvoir and Ginzburg write of the period occupation by the Nazis in Vichy France and the period of Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy, while Jelinek’s Wonderful Wonderful Times describes the lingering effects naziism had during the years of recovery from the fascist years in Austria in society and within a family. | 8/23/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-against-fascism/2020-11-19/ | anti-authoritarianism|anti0|collaboration|Existentialism|family portrait|fascism|Neo realism|Resistance | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/19/2020 19:00 | 11/19/2020 21:00 | |
| Women Write Against Fascism | Literary resistance during and after fascism being in commandFive more weeks with | We will look at themes around resistance and collaboration. Beauvoir and Ginzburg write of the period occupation by the Nazis in Vichy France and the period of Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy, while Jelinek’s Wonderful Wonderful Times describes the lingering effects naziism had during the years of recovery from the fascist years in Austria in society and within a family. | 8/23/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-against-fascism/2020-12-03/ | anti-authoritarianism|anti0|collaboration|Existentialism|family portrait|fascism|Neo realism|Resistance | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/3/2020 19:00 | 12/3/2020 21:00 | |
| Women Write Against Fascism | Literary resistance during and after fascism being in commandFive more weeks with | We will look at themes around resistance and collaboration. Beauvoir and Ginzburg write of the period occupation by the Nazis in Vichy France and the period of Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy, while Jelinek’s Wonderful Wonderful Times describes the lingering effects naziism had during the years of recovery from the fascist years in Austria in society and within a family. | 8/23/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-against-fascism/2020-12-10/ | anti-authoritarianism|anti0|collaboration|Existentialism|family portrait|fascism|Neo realism|Resistance | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/10/2020 19:00 | 12/10/2020 21:00 | |
| Communism in the Suburbs?/Retroactive Utopia of Socialist City | from Socialist Register 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia: New Ways of LivingFinal sessionEach year a new volume of the Socialist Register appears, effectively laying out for socialists and communists what are burning issues of the day—we now have 56 years of coverage, and many of the burning issues are now in a full blaze. This year’s edition was published before the global pandemic, the currently 30 million additional unemployed in the US alone, and the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd, and with the US soon to record 200,000 coronavirus deaths, most of which could have been prevented. The whole world watched the video and responded with a movement that became more widespread than was Occupy Wall Street in 2011 or the first Black Lives Matter upsurge in 2014. Communism in the Suburbs?Roger KeilIn Roger’s words: “The core message here is the need to focus on the small and hidden histories, the buried stories of the everyday, the extinguished but smoldering fires at the grass roots of urban society. Both the early twentieth-century commune and the progressive reforms of mid-century in Los Angeles were not untypical for what was happening around the world at those times by way of experiments in widespread reform, or even revolution. None of these led sustainably to what the dreamers, reformers, and revolutionaries had hoped for: a different society, a new world. Ultimately, experiment and reform in housing and urban life were perverted by the bureaucracies perpetuating the survival of capitalism, as well as by the bureaucrats constructing ‘real existing socialism’ in Eastern Europe. Henri Lefebvre, addressing the state-built housing machines of the banlieue as the dreaded ‘habitat’ of the ‘society of bureaucratic consumption’, once powerfully exposed how France’s urban policy has had quite the opposite effect of what both experiment and reform had intended: ‘The population in the metropolis is regrouped into ghettos (suburbs, foreigners, factories, students), and the new cities are to some extent reminiscent of colonial cities.’ Yet in these histories we find sedimentations of possibilities that I will take up in this essay. The Retroactive Utopia of the Socialist CityOwen HatherleyIn Owen’s words: “In the center of Manchester, you can find two artefacts of the Soviet Union’s attempt to fuse art, architecture and everyday life. One is now fairly wellknown. Standing inTony Wilson Square, a developer-owned ‘Private Public Space’ standing in front of the arts center ‘Home’, facing various new luxury office and residential units, is a statue of Friedrich Engels. For another monument without a beard, you need walk 15 minutes up Deansgate and turn off into the People’s History Museum. This riverside building, hemmed in by speculative offices and an enormous plate glass and steel Civil Justice Centre, contains the archives of the Labour Party, the Communist Party of Great Britain, and numerous trade unions. The rooms on the post-war, pre-Thatcher decades contain a particularly unusual trade union banner from the famous Grunwick Strike of 1976-78, when the mainly Asian and female workforce of a photo-processing plant in west London walked out over their particularly poor pay and conditions. Anyone who knows a bit of twentieth-century art history will recognise the source for the banner – the ‘Suprematist’ strain in early Soviet avant-garde art. The (re)discovery of the Soviet avant-garde – which eventually meant that a striking worker in Dollis Hill in 1976 could know who El Lissitzky was, and create an image based around his – is a complex story of misunderstandings and appropriations. OWEN HATHERLEY is the author of several books on political aesthetics, and the culture editor of Tribune, which was relaunched as a print magazine and website with the support of Jacobin in 2018. ROGER KEIL is a Professor at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Toronto, Ontario | ROGER: The core message here is the need to focus on the small and hidden histories, the buried stories of the everyday, the extinguished but smoldering fires at the grass roots of urban society. OWEN In the center of Manchester, you can find two artefacts of the Soviet Union’s attempt to fuse art, architecture and everyday life. One is now fairly wellknown. Standing in Tony Wilson Square, a developer-owned ‘Private Public Space’ standing in front of the arts center ‘Home’, facing various new luxury office and residential units, is a statue of Friedrich Engels. | 8/27/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/communism-in-the-suburbs-retroactive-utopia-of-socialist-city/ | urban | Classes/Events|Political Economy|Socialism | 9/14/2020 18:30 | 9/14/2020 20:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 3, Part 7, the last chapters of volume 3 | Let’s make the Anthropocene stage of the earth’s evolution, the turning point of world history. After all, paraphrasing Marx, since we are the species that can know ourselves as a product of natural history, we are responsible to all of nature. We have the power within us to make the Anthropocene not the capitalist endgame but the naturalization of our species and the humanization of nature. Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, can help effectively situate ourselves to face the challenges before all of humanity and nature, and begin the process of reclaiming and putting into effect our human capacities for the betterment and advancement of each and all. The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, completes Marx’s task of moving from the imaginary concrete—the researcher and scientist analyzing the appearances we see in everyday life such as in the Grundrisse, to the abstract concrete. The results of the analytic study of the phenomenon that has revealed the social/natural content of that phenomenon (Volumes I and II), to the real concrete—how this content is expressed in everyday life through the mechanisms by which the actors determine their actions and appropriate wealth (Volume III). With the conceptual integration of production and circulation (Volumes I and II) from the standpoint of the process of capitalist production as a whole, Marx returns to the starting point of the research categories, the imaginary concrete, concepts seen as empirical givens as facts in themselves—profits, interests, rents, rate of profit, prices. These sensuously perceived givens (the way the world directly appears to us) are the starting point of the research analysis, not the science. But now, after the analysis, these interrelated aspects of what appear on the surface of society are no longer imaginary but real, understood as interrelated dynamics and mechanisms in everyday life by which the actors reproduce the social relations and physical conditions of capitalist society. Volume III integrates and completes the analysis of the process of capitalist production as whole, enabling us to understand and make sense of how each of the appearances and processes we see occurring on the surface of society are related to the whole. When we do so all the laws of motion previously revealed in the first two volumes take on new dimensions. Internal dynamics and contradictions burst out and situate humanity withina historical process that calls us to figure out how to go beyond capital and develop the conditions that insure that the development of each is the precondition for the development of all. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than nearly three years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Newcomers are encouraged to join when your schedule permits. | The study of Volume III is essential to understanding the complex dynamics at work in the present realities we are facing and how these realities are the necessary results of the inner logic of capital. In this moribund stage of late capitalist/imperialist development we see the rise of rentier and finance capital—the introduction of financial instruments being used to make money make more money, jumping over and above the actual real wealth produced by trading on future wealth (derivatives and other forms of fictitious capital); overriding supply and demand as a price mechanism in such necessities as foodstuffs so that their prices continuously rise resulting in more poverty and starvation on a world scale and here in the US; turning new technologies into means of collecting rents—the internet, mobile devices; expropriation of taxes paid by the working class to developers who are often tax exempt while our city and state governments give them tracts of our physical space; commodification of debt; privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; foreclosures; and the list goes on. | 7/14/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-3-3rd-session/2020-10-03/ | capital as a whole | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Socialism | 10/3/2020 11:00 | 10/3/2020 14:00 | |
| Realistic Metaphysics and the Materialist Conception of History | A reading and discussion series with Shane Mage (4 more weeks)please note that the class is meeting from 6 pm to 8 pm “This cosmos, the same for all, was not made by any of gods or men. It always has been, is, and will be, an ever-living fire kindling in measures and going out in measures” (Herakleitos of Ephesus, fr. 29 [ed. Wheelwright]) This group will meet as follows: October 21, 28, November 4, 11 and 25.There will not be a session on November 18 as there is a MEP event that evening. It can scarcely be doubted that the human civilization, pervasively capitalist, has entered a period of absolute crisis in the most literal sense: a condition that, if not resolved by a radical return to survivability, will quickly result in its death. Of course, Marxists and many other radicals had long seen the capitalist system (the present form of class society) as crisis-prone, marked in its processes over centuries by an increasingly severe succession of wars and economic collapses. But the system had recovered from each crisis and resumed, ever more powerfully, its seeming industrial growth. The present crisis is different. Its dominant feature, global heating (among symptoms of which are the COVID19 pandemic and the growing threat of atomic holocaust) is evidently integral to capitalist industrial growth . However, in the Marxian view, industrial growth is itself the manifestation of something much deeper: the contradictory form of productive labor and technological development in class society. “The growth of productive forces,” is seen as the driving force in the evolution of humanity itself. As such, it far transcends the few centuries of worldwide capitalism and comprises the whole history of the human species. We are, declared Marx in an early text, “species beings.” This should be taken to signify that while we, like all animals, carry our species history in our bodies and subconscious minds, we also, in our evolutionarily acquired capacity for structured symbolic communication, preserve (and even can recover by proper research) important parts of that history in our explicit memories. Therefore the historical crisis of human society is necessarily and simultaneously the crisis of human consciousness. Marxists have always recognized the centrality of consciousness to the communist project. But marxism’s central preoccupation has been that of *class* consciousness. Marx spoke of the working class’s need to transform itself from a class *in itself* (en sich) into a class *for itself* (für sich). After two decades of revolutionary defeats and counter-revolutionary triumphs Trotsky described the situation as “the crisis of proletarian leadership.” But these were prescriptions, now plainly further from realization than ever. In describing the proletariat as the “universal class,” Marx projected that by establishing its dictatorship (ie., radical democracy) in the proximate interest of all its members, the proletariat begins the human historical project of complete transcendence of class society. The present crisis, however, demands that this concept of “universal” be deepened and enriched. The politics based on consciousness of proximate material interest must give way to the politics of a *planetary* consciousness. The final line of our anthem, “l’Internationale sera le genre humain,” should now be taken literally. If you and I are to be effective agents in the development of that consciousness we should be able to offer radical answers, even though necessarily tentative and incomplete ones, to two fundamental questions: How Did We Get Here? And (what Immanuel Kant considered perhaps the most important of questions): What Can We Hope For? These are basic philosophical questions, and to deal with them demands an adequate metaphysical basis, an account developing from fundamental assumptions underlying cognition of our world, its history, its reality, its prospects. Marxisms have approached this in terms of two words: “dialectics” and “materialism,” but these terms are almost always used vaguely or–worse—polemically. Their application, the materialist conception of history, should be understood in terms of the long philosophical tradition starting in ancient Greece, with the seemingly contradictory but actually complementary dialectics of Herakleitos (change) and Plato (structure)—the tradition whose varying protagonists include Plotinus, Spinoza, Diderot, Hegel, Marx, and Whitehead (“all philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato”) plus, in parallel to it, the Madhyamika dialectic of Nagarjuna and the Sufi teachings of G.I.Gurdjieff.  The series of discussions we offer will center on that tradition leading, hopefully, to a new coherent cosmology symbolized by the enneagram. A bibliography of readings from Herakleitos, Plato, Diderot, Hegel Lenin, et al will be posted soon. Shane Mages’s dissertation was on Marx’s theory of the tendential fall in the rate of profit (Columbia U. 1963). Shane taught economics and philosophy at Brooklyn Polytechnic U and Grand Valley State U. He was senior editor for social sciences at Collier’s Encyclopedia through 1994. Among Shane’s publications are a pamphlet “Velikovsky and his Critics;” articles on “Plato and the Catastrophist Tradition” and “Jeroboam and the Israelite Revolution” in KRONOS magazine; articles “Communism” and “Economic History of the USSR” in Collier’s Encyclopedia; and (unpublished still) “The Pilate Papers,” an essay presenting a “Roman” view of the gospel story. At present he is working on a novel (“The Seducation of a Femtaur—a Bead Game”) set in the present and near future with a philosophical theme and elements of science fiction and magical realism. | Marxism’s central preoccupation has been that of *class* consciousness. Marx spoke of the working class’s need to transform itself from a class *in itself* (en sich) into a class *for itself* (für sich). After two decades of revolutionary defeats and counter-revolutionary triumphs Trotsky described the situation as “the crisis of proletarian leadership.” But these were prescriptions, now plainly further from realization than ever. In describing the proletariat as the “universal class,” Marx projected that by establishing its dictatorship (ie., radical democracy) in the proximate interest of all its members, the proletariat begins the human historical project of complete transcendence of class society. The present crisis, however, demands that this concept of “universal” be deepened and enriched. The politics based on consciousness of proximate material interest must give way to the politics of a *planetary* consciousness. The final line of our anthem, “l’Internationale sera le genre humain,” should now be taken literally. | 9/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/realistic-metaphysics-and-the-materialist-conception-of-history/2020-12-02/ | consciousness|existence|historical consciousness|metaphysics|philosophy | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/28/2020 18:00 | 10/28/2020 20:00 | |
| 21st Century Communists of the Commons and Contemporary Proudhonism | A presentation and discussion with Radhika Desai (co-sponsored with the Geopolitical Economy Research Group: https://geopoliticaleconomy.org) If Proudhonism in the nineteenth century was, as Marx argued, a petty bourgeois ideology, Radhika argues that the new communism of the commons propounded by Badiou, Hardt and Negri, and Zizek (among others) is a twenty-first-century avatar of the Proudhonism that was a perennial obstacle to developing a broad opposition to capital during the 19th and 20th centuries. The 21st Century Proudhonist speaks not for what Poulantzas called the‘traditional petty bourgeoisie’, as Proudhon did, but for the ‘new petty bourgeoisie’ of ‘non-productive wage earners’, which has also lately styled itself the ‘creative class’. A failure to comprehend the dynamics of capitalist accumulation and a general antipathy to any general organization of labor in society, and thus to any serious politics, are common to both. In addition, the protection of the cultural commons, the core of the project, is but a program aiming for the continued reproduction of the creative class within the dictates of capital. The sum of what the 21st Century Proudhonists put forth as innovation, is instead prey to a series of misunderstandings – of the concept of the commons itself, of contemporary capitalism whose dynamics forms the backdrop of their project and key economic and political ideas of Marx whose authority they seek to attach to their project. Radhika Desai is Professor at the Department of Political Studies, and Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. She is the author of Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire (2013), Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics (2nd rev ed, 2004) and Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party (1994), a New Statesman and Society Book of the Month, and editor or co-editor of Russia, Ukraine and Contemporary Imperialism, a special issue of International Critical Thought (2016), Theoretical Engagements in Geopolitical Economy (2015), Analytical Gains from Geopolitical Economy (2015), Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today’s Capitalism (2010) and Developmental and Cultural Nationalisms (2009). Currently she is working on three books: Capitalism’s Geopolitical Economy: From Imperialism to Multipolarity, Marx as a Monetary Theorist and The Making of the Indian Capitalist Class. all tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for access if you find yourself unable to purchase tickets. | The sum of what the 21st Century Proudhonists put forth as innovation, is instead prey to a series of misunderstandings – of the concept of the commons itself, of contemporary capitalism whose dynamics forms the backdrop of their project and key economic and political ideas of Marx whose authority they seek to attach to their project. | 9/5/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/21st-century-communists-of-the-commons-and-contemporary-proudhonism/ | class opposition|Grundrisse|labor power|Money and capital|Proudhon|The Commons|utopian socialism | Class|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 9/30/2020 18:30 | 9/30/2020 20:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | with Mary BogerCapital: A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Marx’s scientific presentation of the laws of motion of capitalist development begins by analyzing the fundamental or elemental form which wealth takes in our society, the commodity. Understanding this form leads us to the most basic law that grounds social reproduction in societies under the domination of capital, the law of value. Therefore, our first task will be to break through the appearance and reveal the social content of the commodity form. This begins the unraveling of the why and how of what we necessarily, under the domination and exploitation of capital, experience every day in our lives. | 9/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-3/2020-12-05/ | Accumulation of Capital|commodity|Exploitation|Primitive Accumulation|Production process|surplus value|use value|value|Working Day | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Socialism | 11/14/2020 15:30 | 11/14/2020 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | with Mary BogerCapital: A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Marx’s scientific presentation of the laws of motion of capitalist development begins by analyzing the fundamental or elemental form which wealth takes in our society, the commodity. Understanding this form leads us to the most basic law that grounds social reproduction in societies under the domination of capital, the law of value. Therefore, our first task will be to break through the appearance and reveal the social content of the commodity form. This begins the unraveling of the why and how of what we necessarily, under the domination and exploitation of capital, experience every day in our lives. | 9/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-3/2020-12-05/ | Accumulation of Capital|commodity|Exploitation|Primitive Accumulation|Production process|surplus value|use value|value|Working Day | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Socialism | 12/5/2020 15:30 | 12/5/2020 17:30 | |
| Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois | with Sean Ahern2 more sessions through June 22On February 23, 1968, Martin Luther King, speaking in honor of W. E. B. Du Bois, had this to say about Black Reconstruction: “…Black Reconstruction was six years in writing but was 33 years in preparation…To understand why his study of the Reconstruction was a monumental achievement it is necessary to see it in context. White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high…. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Black Reconstruction provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” (p.353) These sessions will continue through to June 22. The suggested sliding scale fees are being reduced by 20-25%. SEAN AHERN is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the USPS, the transit industry and jn education. No one turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the links to join this group. | Black Reconstruction provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 9/19/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-in-america-by-w-e-b-du-bois/2021-06-22/ | African American History|American Literature|Classes/Events|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class | 6/14/2021 18:30 | 6/14/2021 20:00 | ||
| 4 Month Pass: | Support the MEP and save $ for yourself. Four month pass now $50 less than new six month pass!For a one-time sliding scale fee of $100, $150, or $200 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 or $75 more bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes and events between now and May 31, 2021. We are hosting many new series including a new literature class, MAD Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War beginning on January 14, a continuation of Capital, Volume 1 class, a repeat of the popular Blood and Money, Considerations on Bolshevism before Stalinism, a reading and discussion group of Hadas Thier’s A People’s Guide to Capitalism, a multi-session series covering the Socialist Register 2021 annual, Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living, and the 4 new events related to the Pluto Press Fireworks Series which begins on January 23 with Marina Sitrin and Colectiva Sembrar on Pandemic Solidarity, the first book to be presented. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good from now through May 21. You may also use this course as a contribution button to help The MEP get through this challenging Covid-19 period where much of our constituency have lost income and will during the next months lose unemployment compensation without a lengthy extension. You can also attend the new series sponsored by Palsgrave on Marx, Engels, and Marxisms along with Rowan and Littlefield’s new Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg series of events. | For a one-time sliding scale fee of $100, $150, or $200 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($100, $150 or $200) bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes, and events between now and May 31, 2021. | 9/24/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/until-mid-winter-pass-now-through-january-31-2021/ | African American History|American Literature|automation|Bolshevism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Extractivism|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital | 1/4/2021 0:30 | 1/4/2021 23:30 | ||
| Commodity Fetishism vs Capital Fetishism | Marx’s Reflections and Marxist InterpretationsSpecial Session with John MiliosIn Marx’s analysis of the Capitalist Mode of Production and more precisely in his theory of value, the key to decipher the capitalist political and ideological practices and structures is to be found. In this context, many Marxists believed that the analysis of “commodity fetishism” in Section 1 of Volume 1 of Capital renders the basis for understanding ideological domination and political coercion under the capitalist rule. This presentation will argue that “commodity fetishism” is only a preliminary notion, which allows Marx to arrive, in subsequent sections of Capital, at the concept of the “fetishism of capital”. In this way we will attempt to investigate if and to what extent the notion of fetishism has itself attained a fetishist function within Marxism, creating inversions, transpositions and misinterpretations, and what is actually its significance in the framework of the Marxist approach to ideology. Marxists who have based their analyses on fetishism have elaborated idealistic anthropologies (Lukacs), while materialists (Lenin) have ignored it. We will look at the two reasons for this. John Milios is Professor of Political Economy and the History of Economic Thought at the National Technical University of Athens. An author of a wide selection of books including A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and its Crisis: Demystifying Finance, The Origins of Capitalism as a Social System, and Rethinking Imperialism: A Study of Capitalist Rule, among others. John also directs the quarterly journal of economic theory Theseis. John was the leading economic adviser with SYRIZA until March 2015. No one turned away for inability to pay. write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information if you need to pay less or cannot pay at all | The focus will be on the analysis of commodity fetishism, in an effort to contribute to the comprehension of the different dimensions of this concept, especially in Marx’s Capital. For this purpose, we will pursue the following course: There will be an overview of various Marxist approaches to the subject. Subsequently, we are going to consider these approaches in the light of Marx’s analysis. | 9/24/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/commodity-fetishism-vs-capital-fetishism/ | Capital Fetishism|commodity fetishism|Fetishism|Milios|Mode of Production | automation|Capital Studies|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 11/1/2020 13:00 | 11/1/2020 15:00 | |
| Social Reproduction and the City | Welfare Reform, Child Care, and Resistance in Neoliberal New Yorkwith author Simon BlackThe transformation of child care after welfare reform in New York City and the struggle against that transformation is a largely untold story. In the decade following welfare reform, despite increases in child care funding, there was little growth in New York’s unionized, center-based child care system and no attempt to make this system more responsive to the needs of working mothers. As the city delivered child care services “on the cheap,” relying on non-union home child care providers, welfare rights organizations, community legal clinics, child care advocates, low-income community groups, activist mothers, and labor unions organized to demand fair solutions to the child care crisis that addressed poor single mothers’ need for quality, affordable child care as well as child care providers’ need for decent work and pay. Social Reproduction and the City tells this story, linking welfare reform to feminist research and activism around the “crisis of care,” social reproduction, and the neoliberal city. At a theoretical level, Simon Black’s history of this era presents a feminist political economy of the urban welfare regime, applying a social reproduction lens to processes of urban neoliberalization and an urban lens to feminist analyses of welfare state restructuring and resistance. Feminist political economy and feminist welfare state scholarship have not focused on the urban as a scale of analysis, and critical approaches to urban neoliberalism often fail to address questions of social reproduction. To address these unexplored areas, Black unpacks the urban as a contested site of welfare state restructuring and examines the escalating crisis in social reproduction. He lays bare the aftermath of the welfare-to-work agenda of the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations in New York City on child care and the resistance to policies that deepened race, class, and gender inequities. Simon Black is a professor of labour studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. His research employs a Marxist-feminist approach to the study of work and labour in urban, national, and transnational contexts and explores how race, class, gender, citizenship/migration shape social reproduction and the organization of paid and unpaid work. Black is the author of Social Reproduction and the City: Welfare Reform, Child Care, and Resistance in Neoliberal New York, published in 2020 by the University of Georgia Press, and co-produced It Takes A Riot: Race, Rebellion, Reform, a documentary short film on police violence, anti-Black racism, and resistance. Twitter: @_SimonBlack This event originates in NYC so please be aware of your time difference from the Eastern Standard time of 6:30 pm All events and classes are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com if you cannot afford to pay so that you can receive the entrance code to the zoom room | Feminist political economy and feminist welfare state scholarship have not focused on the urban as a scale of analysis, and critical approaches to urban neoliberalism often fail to address questions of social reproduction. To address these unexplored areas, Black unpacks the urban as a contested site of welfare state restructuring and examines the escalating crisis in social reproduction. He lays bare the aftermath of the welfare-to-work agenda of the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations. | 10/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/social-reproduction-and-the-city/ | Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/18/2020 18:30 | 11/18/2020 20:30 | ||
| Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations | UNDERSTANDING THE PURPOSE OF MARX’S DISCUSSIONS OF PRE-CAPITALIST ECONOMIC FORMATIONS | Radhika will propose that Marx’s purpose in these investigations and commentaries had nothing to do with either a stagist or a determinist view of history. Against these accusations, often levelled at Marx and often put forth by the exertions of many a “Marxist”, there are reasons to believe that Marx was going beyond the stagism and determinism of received accounts to something far more sophisticated and radical. | 10/12/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pre-capitalist-economic-formations/ | Capital Studies|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/31/2020 12:00 | 10/31/2020 14:00 | ||
| Marx Dead and Alive: Reading Capital in Precarious Times | with author Andy Merrifield | Dead and Alive—a book that begins and ends beside Marx’s recently violated London graveside—Merrifield makes a spirited case for a critical thinker who can still offer people a route toward personal and social authenticity.” | tribe_events | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-dead-and-alive-reading-capital-in-precarious-times/ | Karl Marx research | Capital Studies|Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/27/2020 13:00 | ||
| Realistic Metaphysics and the Materialist Conception of History | A reading and discussion series with Shane Mage (4 more weeks)please note that the class is meeting from 6 pm to 8 pm “This cosmos, the same for all, was not made by any of gods or men. It always has been, is, and will be, an ever-living fire kindling in measures and going out in measures” (Herakleitos of Ephesus, fr. 29 [ed. Wheelwright]) This group will meet as follows: October 21, 28, November 4, 11 and 25.There will not be a session on November 18 as there is a MEP event that evening. It can scarcely be doubted that the human civilization, pervasively capitalist, has entered a period of absolute crisis in the most literal sense: a condition that, if not resolved by a radical return to survivability, will quickly result in its death. Of course, Marxists and many other radicals had long seen the capitalist system (the present form of class society) as crisis-prone, marked in its processes over centuries by an increasingly severe succession of wars and economic collapses. But the system had recovered from each crisis and resumed, ever more powerfully, its seeming industrial growth. The present crisis is different. Its dominant feature, global heating (among symptoms of which are the COVID19 pandemic and the growing threat of atomic holocaust) is evidently integral to capitalist industrial growth . However, in the Marxian view, industrial growth is itself the manifestation of something much deeper: the contradictory form of productive labor and technological development in class society. “The growth of productive forces,” is seen as the driving force in the evolution of humanity itself. As such, it far transcends the few centuries of worldwide capitalism and comprises the whole history of the human species. We are, declared Marx in an early text, “species beings.” This should be taken to signify that while we, like all animals, carry our species history in our bodies and subconscious minds, we also, in our evolutionarily acquired capacity for structured symbolic communication, preserve (and even can recover by proper research) important parts of that history in our explicit memories. Therefore the historical crisis of human society is necessarily and simultaneously the crisis of human consciousness. Marxists have always recognized the centrality of consciousness to the communist project. But marxism’s central preoccupation has been that of *class* consciousness. Marx spoke of the working class’s need to transform itself from a class *in itself* (en sich) into a class *for itself* (für sich). After two decades of revolutionary defeats and counter-revolutionary triumphs Trotsky described the situation as “the crisis of proletarian leadership.” But these were prescriptions, now plainly further from realization than ever. In describing the proletariat as the “universal class,” Marx projected that by establishing its dictatorship (ie., radical democracy) in the proximate interest of all its members, the proletariat begins the human historical project of complete transcendence of class society. The present crisis, however, demands that this concept of “universal” be deepened and enriched. The politics based on consciousness of proximate material interest must give way to the politics of a *planetary* consciousness. The final line of our anthem, “l’Internationale sera le genre humain,” should now be taken literally. If you and I are to be effective agents in the development of that consciousness we should be able to offer radical answers, even though necessarily tentative and incomplete ones, to two fundamental questions: How Did We Get Here? And (what Immanuel Kant considered perhaps the most important of questions): What Can We Hope For? These are basic philosophical questions, and to deal with them demands an adequate metaphysical basis, an account developing from fundamental assumptions underlying cognition of our world, its history, its reality, its prospects. Marxisms have approached this in terms of two words: “dialectics” and “materialism,” but these terms are almost always used vaguely or–worse—polemically. Their application, the materialist conception of history, should be understood in terms of the long philosophical tradition starting in ancient Greece, with the seemingly contradictory but actually complementary dialectics of Herakleitos (change) and Plato (structure)—the tradition whose varying protagonists include Plotinus, Spinoza, Diderot, Hegel, Marx, and Whitehead (“all philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato”) plus, in parallel to it, the Madhyamika dialectic of Nagarjuna and the Sufi teachings of G.I.Gurdjieff. The series of discussions we offer will center on that tradition leading, hopefully, to a new coherent cosmology symbolized by the enneagram. A bibliography of readings from Herakleitos, Plato, Diderot, Hegel Lenin, et al will be posted soon. Shane Mages’s dissertation was on Marx’s theory of the tendential fall in the rate of profit (Columbia U. 1963). Shane taught economics and philosophy at Brooklyn Polytechnic U and Grand Valley State U. He was senior editor for social sciences at Collier’s Encyclopedia through 1994. Among Shane’s publications are a pamphlet “Velikovsky and his Critics;” articles on “Plato and the Catastrophist Tradition” and “Jeroboam and the Israelite Revolution” in KRONOS magazine; articles “Communism” and “Economic History of the USSR” in Collier’s Encyclopedia; and (unpublished still) “The Pilate Papers,” an essay presenting a “Roman” view of the gospel story. At present he is working on a novel (“The Seducation of a Femtaur—a Bead Game”) set in the present and near future with a philosophical theme and elements of science fiction and magical realism. | Marxism’s central preoccupation has been that of *class* consciousness. Marx spoke of the working class’s need to transform itself from a class *in itself* (en sich) into a class *for itself* (für sich). After two decades of revolutionary defeats and counter-revolutionary triumphs Trotsky described the situation as “the crisis of proletarian leadership.” But these were prescriptions, now plainly further from realization than ever. In describing the proletariat as the “universal class,” Marx projected that by establishing its dictatorship (ie., radical democracy) in the proximate interest of all its members, the proletariat begins the human historical project of complete transcendence of class society. The present crisis, however, demands that this concept of “universal” be deepened and enriched. The politics based on consciousness of proximate material interest must give way to the politics of a *planetary* consciousness. The final line of our anthem, “l’Internationale sera le genre humain,” should now be taken literally. | 9/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/realistic-metaphysics-and-the-materialist-conception-of-history/2020-11-25/ | consciousness|existence|historical consciousness|metaphysics|philosophy | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/25/2020 18:00 | 11/25/2020 20:00 | |
| 3 Event Pass: 5th Edition | Admission to all three of these events: 1. Trotsky in Tijuana with Dan La Botz, Tuesday, December 8 2. A People’s Guide to Capitalism with Hadas Thier, Sunday, December 13 3. The Last Years of Karl Marx with Marcello Musto, Andy Merrifield and Robert Ware, Sunday, December 20 Sliding scale admissions to attending all four events at a discount! Regular pricing sliding scale pricing would be $21, $27, $33. Information for these events is available on this same site where you are seeing this offer. No one turned away for inability to pay. Information on getting the links for these events is available at mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An exceptional offer for four events at prices where you can consider bringing along a friend—all brought together by the Capital Studies Group. | 10/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-event-pass/2020-12-08/ | Hadas Thier|People’s Guide to Capitalism | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/8/2020 19:00 | 12/8/2020 21:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | with Mary BogerCapital: A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Marx’s scientific presentation of the laws of motion of capitalist development begins by analyzing the fundamental or elemental form which wealth takes in our society, the commodity. Understanding this form leads us to the most basic law that grounds social reproduction in societies under the domination of capital, the law of value. Therefore, our first task will be to break through the appearance and reveal the social content of the commodity form. This begins the unraveling of the why and how of what we necessarily, under the domination and exploitation of capital, experience every day in our lives. | 9/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-3/2020-11-21/ | Accumulation of Capital|commodity|Exploitation|Primitive Accumulation|Production process|surplus value|use value|value|Working Day | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Socialism | 11/21/2020 15:30 | 11/21/2020 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1 | with Mary BogerCapital: A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Marx’s scientific presentation of the laws of motion of capitalist development begins by analyzing the fundamental or elemental form which wealth takes in our society, the commodity. Understanding this form leads us to the most basic law that grounds social reproduction in societies under the domination of capital, the law of value. Therefore, our first task will be to break through the appearance and reveal the social content of the commodity form. This begins the unraveling of the why and how of what we necessarily, under the domination and exploitation of capital, experience every day in our lives. | 9/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-3/2020-11-28/ | Accumulation of Capital|commodity|Exploitation|Primitive Accumulation|Production process|surplus value|use value|value|Working Day | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Socialism | 11/28/2020 15:30 | 11/28/2020 17:30 | |
| Trotsky in Tijuana: A new novel by Dan La Botz | Dan La Botz in conversation with Alan Wald and Suzi WeissmanWho was the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky? What did he believe and do? What was his legacy? Dan La Botz’s new novel. Trotsky in Tijuana, examines these questions in fiction. The novel’s premise is that Trotsky was not assassinated in August 1940 but survived and was relocated to Tijuana where he lived on until 1953 dying on the same day as his rival and political opponent Joseph Stalin. We learn of Trotsky’s past and watch him live on into a future he never knew, dealing with new political situations, with a new lover, with his wife, and with his old friend Victor Serge, being called to testify before Senator Joseph McCarthy. You can learn more about the book by clicking this link trotskyintijuana.com and browsing the site. DAN LA BOTZ formerly taught at the School of Labor and Urban Studies of the City University of New York. In the 1970s, he was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). From 1994 to 2014, he was the editor and principal writer of Mexican Labor News and Analysis, a publication supported by the United Electrical Workers Union (UE), a U.S. union, and the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT), a Mexican labor union. He is a member of both Solidarity and the Democratic Socialists of America and a co-editor of New Politics (newpol.org). In 2010, he was the Socialist Party candidate in Ohio for the U.S. Senate. He is the author of a dozen books on labor, social movements, and politics in the United States, Mexico, and Nicaragua, most recently the non-fiction books are What Went Wrong? The Nicaraguan Revolution: A Marxist Analysis and Le nouveau populisme Américain Résistances et alternatives à Trump. ALAN WALD, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, is a cultural historian of the United States Left from the 1930s to the1950s. He most recently authored a trilogy about Communism and writers from the University of North Carolina Press: Exiles from a Future Time, Trinity of Passion, and American Night. His book The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s has become a classic of literary and cultural studies. He is a member of the socialist organization Solidarity and an editor of the journals Against the Current and Science & Society. SUZI WEISSMAN is Professor of Politics at Saint Mary’s College of California and an editor of Critique and Against the Current. Her books include Victor Serge: A Political Biography, and she is currently Co-Producer of the Lindy Laub and David Weiss film about Trotsky, The Most Dangerous Man in the World. She broadcasts the weekly public affairs program Beneath the Surface with Suzi Weissman on KPFK, and the Jacobin Radio podcast. | Who was the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky? What did he believe and do? What was his legacy? Dan La Botz’s new novel. Trotsky in Tijuana, examines these questions in fiction.The novel’s premise is that Trotsky was not assassinated in August 1940 but survived and was relocated to Tijuana where he lived on until 1953 dying on the same day as his rival and political opponent Joseph Stalin. | 10/18/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/trotsky-in-tijuana-a-new-novel-by-dan-la-botz/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction | 12/8/2020 19:00 | 12/8/2020 21:00 | ||
| Considerations on Bolshevism Before Stalinism | Worker’s Control and Trade Union Independence, Freedom of The Press, Repression and Socialist Legality | Questions such as these are being discussed: Were the Bolsheviks inherently authoritarian? What was ‘democratic centralism’? Is the Bolshevik type organization necessary for revolutionary change? What exactly was the role of the Bolsheviks in the revolution? What were the Soviets? How did the soviets come into being? Did soviets represent a higher form of democracy? | 10/22/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/considerations-on-bolshevism-before-stalinism/ | Bolshevism|Class|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|Social Democracy|Socialism | 12/5/2020 11:00 | 12/5/2020 13:00 | ||
| The Origins of Geopolitical Economy in Marx’s Remarks on Carey and Bastiat | A presentation by Radhika DesaiCo-sponsored with GERG ( The Geopolitical Economy Research Group)In recent years, geopolitical economy has become a term for the properly historical-materialist analysis of international affairs that can successfully comprehend the evolution of the capitalist world order down to the contemporary age of multi-polarity by placing the nation-state as centrally in the analysis of capitalism as class. This interpretation is embedded in Karl Marx’s thinking, though not fully developed there. Perhaps its clearest expression can be found in his fragmentary comments on the “Yankee” mercantilist economist, Henry Carey, in the final pages of the Grundrisse. In this lecture, I reflect on how geopolitical economy emerges from Marx’s ideas, specifically his comments in the section on Bastiat and Carey, though related points and comments pervade Marx’s writings. RADHIKA DESAI is professor at the Department of Political Studies, and Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. She is the author of Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire (2013), Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics (2nd rev ed, 2004) and Intellectuals and Socialism: “Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party (1994), a New Statesman and Society Book of the Month, and editor or co-editor of Karl Polanyi for the Twenty-First Century, Revolutions (2020), Russia, Ukraine and Contemporary Imperialism, an issue of International ‘Critical Thought (2016), Theoretical Engagements in Geopolitical Economy (2015), Analytical Gains from Geopolitical Economy (2015), Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today’s Capitalism (2010) and Developmental and Cultural Nationalisms (2009). Currently she is working on several books: The Coming Crash of the Dollar Creditorcracy (with Michael Hudson), Marx as a Monetary Theorist and The Making of the Indian Capitalist Class. All lectures are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com if you cannot afford to pay so that you can have the link for entry to the lecture and discussion. | In recent years, geopolitical economy has become a term for the properly historical-materialist analysis of international affairs that can successfully comprehend the evolution of the capitalist world order down to the contemporary age of multi-polarity by placing the nation-state as centrally in the analysis of capitalism as class. This interpretation is embedded in Karl Marx’s thinking, though not fully developed there. Perhaps its clearest expression can be found in his fragmentary comments on the “Yankee” mercantilist economist, Henry Carey, in the final pages of the “Grundrisse”. | 10/23/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-origins-of-geopolitical-economy-in-marxs-remarks-on-carey-and-bastiat/ | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/5/2020 12:00 | 12/5/2020 14:00 | ||
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-03-29/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 1/25/2021 13:00 | 1/25/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-02-01/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 2/1/2021 13:00 | 2/1/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-02-08/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 2/8/2021 13:00 | 2/8/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-02-15/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 2/15/2021 13:00 | 2/15/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-02-22/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 2/22/2021 13:00 | 2/22/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-03-01/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 3/1/2021 13:00 | 3/1/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-03-08/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 3/8/2021 13:00 | 3/8/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-03-15/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 3/15/2021 13:00 | 3/15/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-03-22/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 3/22/2021 13:00 | 3/22/2021 15:00 | |
| Blood and Money | From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism | The birth and development of capitalism since its origins in the fifteenth century is entirely bound up with the subordination of racialized peoples. Even before capitalism arose – in a process Marx termed the “so-called primitive accumulation” – money and markets were implicated in the rise and fall of states and empires that conquered and enslaved vast numbers of human bodies. This group will address these histories and their persisting consequences. We will read and discuss David McNally’s | 11/9/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-03-29/ | Banaji|McNally | African American History|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 3/29/2021 13:00 | 3/29/2021 15:00 | |
| Opening presentation: A People’s Guide to Capitalism | with Hadas Thier A lively, accessible, and timely guide to capitalism for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote capitalism as the greatest and most efficient economic and political system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.” Despite the efforts of these mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, growing numbers of us are questioning why this system of reproducing ourselves has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for the environmental destruction inherent that capital accumulation requires. Hadas Thier’s book offers answers to the many questions in the form of a radical economic theory, as in the subtitle of the book, “An Introduction to Marxist Economics”. | Hadas Their will present on her new book which has been desribed as “a lively, accessible, and timely guide to capitalism for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%”. | 11/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/opening-presentation-a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/ | Anti-capital|Introduction | Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Extractivism|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 12/13/2020 13:00 | 12/13/2020 15:00 | |
| Realistic Metaphysics and the Materialist Conception of History | A reading and discussion series with Shane Mage (4 more weeks)please note that the class is meeting from 6 pm to 8 pm “This cosmos, the same for all, was not made by any of gods or men. It always has been, is, and will be, an ever-living fire kindling in measures and going out in measures” (Herakleitos of Ephesus, fr. 29 [ed. Wheelwright]) This group will meet as follows: October 21, 28, November 4, 11 and 25.There will not be a session on November 18 as there is a MEP event that evening. It can scarcely be doubted that the human civilization, pervasively capitalist, has entered a period of absolute crisis in the most literal sense: a condition that, if not resolved by a radical return to survivability, will quickly result in its death. Of course, Marxists and many other radicals had long seen the capitalist system (the present form of class society) as crisis-prone, marked in its processes over centuries by an increasingly severe succession of wars and economic collapses. But the system had recovered from each crisis and resumed, ever more powerfully, its seeming industrial growth. The present crisis is different. Its dominant feature, global heating (among symptoms of which are the COVID19 pandemic and the growing threat of atomic holocaust) is evidently integral to capitalist industrial growth . However, in the Marxian view, industrial growth is itself the manifestation of something much deeper: the contradictory form of productive labor and technological development in class society. “The growth of productive forces,” is seen as the driving force in the evolution of humanity itself. As such, it far transcends the few centuries of worldwide capitalism and comprises the whole history of the human species. We are, declared Marx in an early text, “species beings.” This should be taken to signify that while we, like all animals, carry our species history in our bodies and subconscious minds, we also, in our evolutionarily acquired capacity for structured symbolic communication, preserve (and even can recover by proper research) important parts of that history in our explicit memories. Therefore the historical crisis of human society is necessarily and simultaneously the crisis of human consciousness. Marxists have always recognized the centrality of consciousness to the communist project. But marxism’s central preoccupation has been that of *class* consciousness. Marx spoke of the working class’s need to transform itself from a class *in itself* (en sich) into a class *for itself* (für sich). After two decades of revolutionary defeats and counter-revolutionary triumphs Trotsky described the situation as “the crisis of proletarian leadership.” But these were prescriptions, now plainly further from realization than ever. In describing the proletariat as the “universal class,” Marx projected that by establishing its dictatorship (ie., radical democracy) in the proximate interest of all its members, the proletariat begins the human historical project of complete transcendence of class society. The present crisis, however, demands that this concept of “universal” be deepened and enriched. The politics based on consciousness of proximate material interest must give way to the politics of a *planetary* consciousness. The final line of our anthem, “l’Internationale sera le genre humain,” should now be taken literally. If you and I are to be effective agents in the development of that consciousness we should be able to offer radical answers, even though necessarily tentative and incomplete ones, to two fundamental questions: How Did We Get Here? And (what Immanuel Kant considered perhaps the most important of questions): What Can We Hope For? These are basic philosophical questions, and to deal with them demands an adequate metaphysical basis, an account developing from fundamental assumptions underlying cognition of our world, its history, its reality, its prospects. Marxisms have approached this in terms of two words: “dialectics” and “materialism,” but these terms are almost always used vaguely or–worse—polemically. Their application, the materialist conception of history, should be understood in terms of the long philosophical tradition starting in ancient Greece, with the seemingly contradictory but actually complementary dialectics of Herakleitos (change) and Plato (structure)—the tradition whose varying protagonists include Plotinus, Spinoza, Diderot, Hegel, Marx, and Whitehead (“all philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato”) plus, in parallel to it, the Madhyamika dialectic of Nagarjuna and the Sufi teachings of G.I.Gurdjieff. The series of discussions we offer will center on that tradition leading, hopefully, to a new coherent cosmology symbolized by the enneagram. A bibliography of readings from Herakleitos, Plato, Diderot, Hegel Lenin, et al will be posted soon. Shane Mages’s dissertation was on Marx’s theory of the tendential fall in the rate of profit (Columbia U. 1963). Shane taught economics and philosophy at Brooklyn Polytechnic U and Grand Valley State U. He was senior editor for social sciences at Collier’s Encyclopedia through 1994. Among Shane’s publications are a pamphlet “Velikovsky and his Critics;” articles on “Plato and the Catastrophist Tradition” and “Jeroboam and the Israelite Revolution” in KRONOS magazine; articles “Communism” and “Economic History of the USSR” in Collier’s Encyclopedia; and (unpublished still) “The Pilate Papers,” an essay presenting a “Roman” view of the gospel story. At present he is working on a novel (“The Seducation of a Femtaur—a Bead Game”) set in the present and near future with a philosophical theme and elements of science fiction and magical realism. | Marxism’s central preoccupation has been that of *class* consciousness. Marx spoke of the working class’s need to transform itself from a class *in itself* (en sich) into a class *for itself* (für sich). After two decades of revolutionary defeats and counter-revolutionary triumphs Trotsky described the situation as “the crisis of proletarian leadership.” But these were prescriptions, now plainly further from realization than ever. In describing the proletariat as the “universal class,” Marx projected that by establishing its dictatorship (ie., radical democracy) in the proximate interest of all its members, the proletariat begins the human historical project of complete transcendence of class society. The present crisis, however, demands that this concept of “universal” be deepened and enriched. The politics based on consciousness of proximate material interest must give way to the politics of a *planetary* consciousness. The final line of our anthem, “l’Internationale sera le genre humain,” should now be taken literally. | 9/3/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/realistic-metaphysics-and-the-materialist-conception-of-history/2020-12-02/ | consciousness|existence|historical consciousness|metaphysics|philosophy | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/2/2020 18:00 | 12/2/2020 20:00 | |
| A People’s Guide to Capitalism | A multi-week class conducted with Sam SalourA lively, accessible, and timely guide to capitalism for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote capitalism as the greatest and most efficient economic and political system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.” Despite the efforts of the mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The multi-week class will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. If you would prefer to order the class and Hadas Thier’s book at the same time you are receiving the book at less than half price. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for reduced rates or the links for attending if you are unable to pay. SAM SALOUR is a doctoral candidate in sociology at UC Santa Barbara. He works on Marxist theory, revolution, and social change. Over the past few years he has conducted study groups on Marx’s Grundrisse, the three volumes of Capital and more at The Marxist Education Project. | Despite the efforts of mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many are asking questions about why the capitalist system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The 14-week class which begins in early January will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. | 11/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/2021-02-28/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 1/31/2021 11:00 | 1/31/2021 13:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-03-27/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 1/30/2021 15:30 | 1/30/2021 17:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-02-06/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/6/2021 15:30 | 2/6/2021 17:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-02-13/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/13/2021 15:30 | 2/13/2021 17:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-02-20/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/20/2021 15:30 | 2/20/2021 17:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-02-27/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/27/2021 15:30 | 2/27/2021 17:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-03-06/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 3/6/2021 15:30 | 3/6/2021 17:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-03-13/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 3/13/2021 15:30 | 3/13/2021 17:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-03-20/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 3/20/2021 15:30 | 3/20/2021 17:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 2 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Session 2 will complete the analysis of Part I: Commodities and Money, starting with Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange followed by the historical development of the money form in the circulation of commodities. This in turn leads to the Transformation of Money into Capital, positioning the reader to analyze the specific social relations of capitalist production (wage labor and owners of capital) in relation to the forces of production, the means of production. | 11/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-03-27/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 3/27/2021 15:30 | 3/27/2021 17:30 | ||
| Book Special Redux! Marx Dead and Alive: Reading Capital in Precarious Times | We are pleased to offer Andy Merrifield’s 2020 book, Marx Dead and Alive: Reading Capital in Precarious Times with a total price of $12.50 including shipping.“This enchanting portrait of Marx at work, with his legendary overcoat and shuffling ways, is brilliant, informative, and beautifully written. Merrifield then puts the insights he derives from reconnecting with Marx’s writing to work to illuminate everything from the writings of Gogol and Dickens to the architectural disaster of New York’s Hudson Yards.” — David Harvey, author, A Companion to Marx’s Capital and Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason | This is for ordering the book only. Andy has an upcoming talk on Sunday, January 23. We are offering this important book for $12.00 inclusive of postage (US and Puerto Rico only), until one week after Andy’s presentation on Henri Lefebvre and Louis Althusser. | 11/18/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/book-special-marx-dead-and-alive-reading-capital-in-precarious-times-with-shipping/ | Merrifield|Monthly Review | Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism | 12/27/2021 | 12/27/2021 23:59 | |
| Marx Dead and Alive: two more sessions |  In Marx, Dead and Alive—a book that begins and ends beside Marx’s recently violated London graveside—Merrifield makes a spirited case for a critical thinker who can still offer people a route toward personal and social authenticity. Bolstering his argument with fascinating examples of literature and history, from Shakespeare and Beckett, to the Luddites and the Black Panthers, Merrifield demonstrates how Marx can reveal our individual lives to us within a collective perspective—and within a historical continuum. Who we are now hinges on who we once were—and who we might become. Six Session Reading and Discussion with the Capital Studies Group through February 1, 2021. All pricing is sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for access to the 5-week discussion group. The book can be purchased at the same time saving some dollars for those who purchase both Andy’s book and come to the seven sessions of reading through Marx Dead and Alive. | This photo is from one of the many days Marx signed in to the reading room at the British Library. Andy Merrifield visited for a moving presentation on Friday, November 27. Now, we of The MEP Capital Studies Group are presenting a six week reading and discussion series with a thorough reading of the book. This is the first of three series we are presenting with Authors, Reading Groups and books. The prices are now reduced—the group will complete on February 1. Feel free to join to the wide-ranging discussion. | 11/18/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/presentation-by-andy-merrifield-4-week-class-special-combined-pricing/2021-01-18/ | Andy Merrifield|Marx biography|marxism | Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/18/2021 18:00 | 1/18/2021 20:00 | |
| A People’s Guide to Capitalism | A multi-week class conducted with Sam SalourA lively, accessible, and timely guide to capitalism for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote capitalism as the greatest and most efficient economic and political system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.” Despite the efforts of the mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The multi-week class will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. If you would prefer to order the class and Hadas Thier’s book at the same time you are receiving the book at less than half price. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for reduced rates or the links for attending if you are unable to pay. SAM SALOUR is a doctoral candidate in sociology at UC Santa Barbara. He works on Marxist theory, revolution, and social change. Over the past few years he has conducted study groups on Marx’s Grundrisse, the three volumes of Capital and more at The Marxist Education Project. | Despite the efforts of mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many are asking questions about why the capitalist system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The 14-week class which begins in early January will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. | 11/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/2021-02-07/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 2/7/2021 11:00 | 2/7/2021 13:00 | ||
| A People’s Guide to Capitalism | A multi-week class conducted with Sam SalourA lively, accessible, and timely guide to capitalism for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote capitalism as the greatest and most efficient economic and political system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.” Despite the efforts of the mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The multi-week class will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. If you would prefer to order the class and Hadas Thier’s book at the same time you are receiving the book at less than half price. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for reduced rates or the links for attending if you are unable to pay. SAM SALOUR is a doctoral candidate in sociology at UC Santa Barbara. He works on Marxist theory, revolution, and social change. Over the past few years he has conducted study groups on Marx’s Grundrisse, the three volumes of Capital and more at The Marxist Education Project. | Despite the efforts of mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many are asking questions about why the capitalist system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The 14-week class which begins in early January will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. | 11/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/2021-02-14/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 2/14/2021 11:00 | 2/14/2021 13:00 | ||
| A People’s Guide to Capitalism | A multi-week class conducted with Sam SalourA lively, accessible, and timely guide to capitalism for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote capitalism as the greatest and most efficient economic and political system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.” Despite the efforts of the mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The multi-week class will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. If you would prefer to order the class and Hadas Thier’s book at the same time you are receiving the book at less than half price. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for reduced rates or the links for attending if you are unable to pay. SAM SALOUR is a doctoral candidate in sociology at UC Santa Barbara. He works on Marxist theory, revolution, and social change. Over the past few years he has conducted study groups on Marx’s Grundrisse, the three volumes of Capital and more at The Marxist Education Project. | Despite the efforts of mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many are asking questions about why the capitalist system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The 14-week class which begins in early January will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. | 11/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/2021-02-21/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 2/21/2021 11:00 | 2/21/2021 13:00 | ||
| A People’s Guide to Capitalism | A multi-week class conducted with Sam SalourA lively, accessible, and timely guide to capitalism for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote capitalism as the greatest and most efficient economic and political system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.” Despite the efforts of the mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The multi-week class will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. If you would prefer to order the class and Hadas Thier’s book at the same time you are receiving the book at less than half price. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for reduced rates or the links for attending if you are unable to pay. SAM SALOUR is a doctoral candidate in sociology at UC Santa Barbara. He works on Marxist theory, revolution, and social change. Over the past few years he has conducted study groups on Marx’s Grundrisse, the three volumes of Capital and more at The Marxist Education Project. | Despite the efforts of mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many are asking questions about why the capitalist system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. The 14-week class which begins in early January will feature a close reading and discussion of the entire book with explication and references to additional materials related to this study. | 11/16/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/2021-02-28/ | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 2/28/2021 11:00 | 2/28/2021 13:00 | ||
| The Last Years of Karl Marx | with Author Marcello MustoJoined in discussion with Andy Merrifield and Robert WareAn innovative reassessment of the last writings and final years of Karl Marx.In the last years of his life, Karl Marx expanded his research in new directions—studying recent anthropological discoveries, analyzing communal forms of ownership in precapitalist societies, supporting the populist movement in Russia, and expressing critiques of colonial oppression in India, Ireland, Algeria, and Egypt. Between 1881 and 1883, he also traveled beyond Europe for the first and only time. Focusing on these last years of Marx’s life, this book dispels two key misrepresentations of his work: that Marx ceased to write late in life, and that he was a rEurocentric and economistic thinker fixated on class conflict alone. With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in noncapitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. As Marx currently experiences a significant rediscovery, this volume fills a gap in the popularly accepted biography and suggests an innovative reassessment of some of his key concepts. MARCELLO MUSTO is Professor of Sociology at York University, Toronto. His most recent books are Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018) and, as editor, The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Interpretations (2020) and Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation (2020). ANDY MERRIFIELD writes in Monthly Review, New Left Review, The Guardian, Jacobin, and more. He has authored many books, most recently Marx Dead and Alive: Reading Capital in Precarious Times. ROBERT WARE is Professor Emeritus in Philosophy at the University of Calgary and co-editor (with Kai Nielsen) of Analyzing Marxism (1989) and most recently the author of Marx on Emancipation and Socialist Goals (2019). All tickets are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to gain access to this panel presentation if you cannot pay. | With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in noncapitalist countries. | 11/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx/ | Andy Merrifield|Colonialism|karl marx|Marcello Musto|Robert Ware | Capital Studies|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/20/2020 13:00 | 12/20/2020 15:00 | |
| The MEP Bookstore, Fall 2021/Winter 2022 (inclusive of shipping—US and Puerto Rico only) | These books are being offered at a discount to all of The MEP community with prices including books and shipping. Each book listed here is part of or related to a presentation, reading group or series of presentations both ongoing and beginning during the 2021 terms of study. Descriptions of books are either in descriptions on the site or will be described on the site shortly. Left Populism in Europe: Lessons from Corbyn to Podemos by Marina Prentoulis A People’s Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier Class, Party and Revolution, A Socialist Register Reader The Last Years of Karl Marx by Marcello Musto Marx Dead and Alive by Andy Merrifield Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living Socialist Register 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia: New Ways of Living Pluto’s Wildcat Series: The High Cost of Free Shipping by Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Ellen Reese, Organizing Insurgency by Immanuel Ness, Amakomiti by Trevor Ngwane, Worker’s Inquiry and Global Class Struggle, edited by Robert Ovetz, Augmented Exploitation, Edited by Phoebe V. Moore and Jamie Woodcock, Wobblies of the World, edited by Peter Cole, David Struthers and Kenyon Zimmer. Pluto’s FireWorks Series: Pandemic Solidarity, edited by Marina Sitrin and Colectiva Sembrar, Exploring Degrowth by Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson, Reinventing the Welfare State by Ursula Huws, and Empire’s Endgame with contributions from Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani and more. The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks Voices of the Paris Commune translated by Mitch Abidor Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly, edited by Peter Cole BookMarx Bookmarks Unfortunately, we cannot calculate postage outside of the United States so the combined price is only good for mailing addresses in the United States. If you would like to calculate the cost of book and shipping to another country, write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com indicating your interest and what you estimate postage will be.  | Books that will be used during the Winter of 2021 sessions—good for a lifetime of learning. There are Socialist Registers for 2020 and 2021, Pluto’s Wildcat and FireWorks series. The any four, five or six books offers do include shipping. | 12/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-mep-bookstore-january-2021-term-books-with-shipping-included/2022-01-31/ | African American History|automation|Capital Studies|Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 1/31/2022 18:30 | 1/31/2022 23:30 | ||
| Two Events Special: A People’s Guide to Capitalism and The Last Years of Karl Marx | Hadas Thier’s A People’s Guide to Capitalism Sunday, December 13, 1-3 pm Marcello Musto’s The Last Years of Karl Marx with Andy Merrifield and Robert Ware Sunday, December 20, 1-3 pm Special sliding scale pricing below No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@marxedproject for codes to gain entry to these on-line presentations. | Special pricing for these two presentations, Sunday, December 13, 1-3 pm and December 20, 1-3 pm | 12/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/two-events-special/ | Marx’s life|People’s Guide to Capitalism | Capital Studies|Class|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/13/2020 13:00 | 12/13/2020 15:00 | |
| M.A.D. Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War | The year 1953 was like most of the years following the end of the slaughter of World War II. It was another year of the baby boom that filled maternity wards in the United States, a generation that ironically couldn’t wait to leave these suburbs. The Cold War was well under way, and anti-communism in the U.S. was at its peak. Politicians pontificated that it was “better to be dead than Red.” In the East and the West, the military apparatus stockpiled nuclear weapons capable of ending life on this planet thousands of times over — Mutually Assured Destruction. We began this reading group with Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” followed by a shared reading of Allen Ginsburg’s Howl, and have nowcompleted our discussion of Ring Lardner, Jr.’s The Ecstasy of Owen Muir. We have just started The Public Burning by Robert Coover, after which we will read and discuss Richard Wright’s The Outsider. Coover’s novel is a political economy of the US as the hegemon of Post World War II capital global restructuring and the shift of much production to energy, the military and finance and the attempted thorough destruction of any semblance of a left opposition. What can we learn from these literary renderings and how do they help us understand the perilous period in history that we now find ourselves living? The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has rcompleted readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years which was followed by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the depression of the 1930s, and novels on migration,border politics and labor organizing and our most recent session on Women Who Wrote Against Fascism, and this summer will the group will host a 5th consecutive Noir Summer. | A reading and discussion of three substantive novels that explain the context of anti-communism as it raged in the years immediately following World War II, has continued throughout the decades since then, and remains strong throughout American culture and popular consciousness today. | 12/14/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/m-a-d-lit-101-american-fiction-and-the-cold-war/2021-03-11/ | hollywood 10|Metafiction|Richard Wright|Robert Coover|Rosenbergs | American Literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/11/2021 19:00 | 2/11/2021 21:00 | |
| M.A.D. Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War | The year 1953 was like most of the years following the end of the slaughter of World War II. It was another year of the baby boom that filled maternity wards in the United States, a generation that ironically couldn’t wait to leave these suburbs. The Cold War was well under way, and anti-communism in the U.S. was at its peak. Politicians pontificated that it was “better to be dead than Red.” In the East and the West, the military apparatus stockpiled nuclear weapons capable of ending life on this planet thousands of times over — Mutually Assured Destruction. We began this reading group with Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” followed by a shared reading of Allen Ginsburg’s Howl, and have nowcompleted our discussion of Ring Lardner, Jr.’s The Ecstasy of Owen Muir. We have just started The Public Burning by Robert Coover, after which we will read and discuss Richard Wright’s The Outsider. Coover’s novel is a political economy of the US as the hegemon of Post World War II capital global restructuring and the shift of much production to energy, the military and finance and the attempted thorough destruction of any semblance of a left opposition. What can we learn from these literary renderings and how do they help us understand the perilous period in history that we now find ourselves living? The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has rcompleted readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years which was followed by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the depression of the 1930s, and novels on migration,border politics and labor organizing and our most recent session on Women Who Wrote Against Fascism, and this summer will the group will host a 5th consecutive Noir Summer. | A reading and discussion of three substantive novels that explain the context of anti-communism as it raged in the years immediately following World War II, has continued throughout the decades since then, and remains strong throughout American culture and popular consciousness today. | 12/14/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/m-a-d-lit-101-american-fiction-and-the-cold-war/2021-02-18/ | hollywood 10|Metafiction|Richard Wright|Robert Coover|Rosenbergs | American Literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/18/2021 19:00 | 2/18/2021 21:00 | |
| M.A.D. Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War | The year 1953 was like most of the years following the end of the slaughter of World War II. It was another year of the baby boom that filled maternity wards in the United States, a generation that ironically couldn’t wait to leave these suburbs. The Cold War was well under way, and anti-communism in the U.S. was at its peak. Politicians pontificated that it was “better to be dead than Red.” In the East and the West, the military apparatus stockpiled nuclear weapons capable of ending life on this planet thousands of times over — Mutually Assured Destruction. We began this reading group with Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” followed by a shared reading of Allen Ginsburg’s Howl, and have nowcompleted our discussion of Ring Lardner, Jr.’s The Ecstasy of Owen Muir. We have just started The Public Burning by Robert Coover, after which we will read and discuss Richard Wright’s The Outsider. Coover’s novel is a political economy of the US as the hegemon of Post World War II capital global restructuring and the shift of much production to energy, the military and finance and the attempted thorough destruction of any semblance of a left opposition. What can we learn from these literary renderings and how do they help us understand the perilous period in history that we now find ourselves living? The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has rcompleted readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years which was followed by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the depression of the 1930s, and novels on migration,border politics and labor organizing and our most recent session on Women Who Wrote Against Fascism, and this summer will the group will host a 5th consecutive Noir Summer. | A reading and discussion of three substantive novels that explain the context of anti-communism as it raged in the years immediately following World War II, has continued throughout the decades since then, and remains strong throughout American culture and popular consciousness today. | 12/14/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/m-a-d-lit-101-american-fiction-and-the-cold-war/2021-02-25/ | hollywood 10|Metafiction|Richard Wright|Robert Coover|Rosenbergs | American Literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/25/2021 19:00 | 2/25/2021 21:00 | |
| M.A.D. Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War | The year 1953 was like most of the years following the end of the slaughter of World War II. It was another year of the baby boom that filled maternity wards in the United States, a generation that ironically couldn’t wait to leave these suburbs. The Cold War was well under way, and anti-communism in the U.S. was at its peak. Politicians pontificated that it was “better to be dead than Red.” In the East and the West, the military apparatus stockpiled nuclear weapons capable of ending life on this planet thousands of times over — Mutually Assured Destruction. We began this reading group with Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” followed by a shared reading of Allen Ginsburg’s Howl, and have nowcompleted our discussion of Ring Lardner, Jr.’s The Ecstasy of Owen Muir. We have just started The Public Burning by Robert Coover, after which we will read and discuss Richard Wright’s The Outsider. Coover’s novel is a political economy of the US as the hegemon of Post World War II capital global restructuring and the shift of much production to energy, the military and finance and the attempted thorough destruction of any semblance of a left opposition. What can we learn from these literary renderings and how do they help us understand the perilous period in history that we now find ourselves living? The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has rcompleted readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years which was followed by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the depression of the 1930s, and novels on migration,border politics and labor organizing and our most recent session on Women Who Wrote Against Fascism, and this summer will the group will host a 5th consecutive Noir Summer. | A reading and discussion of three substantive novels that explain the context of anti-communism as it raged in the years immediately following World War II, has continued throughout the decades since then, and remains strong throughout American culture and popular consciousness today. | 12/14/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/m-a-d-lit-101-american-fiction-and-the-cold-war/2021-03-04/ | hollywood 10|Metafiction|Richard Wright|Robert Coover|Rosenbergs | American Literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/4/2021 19:00 | 3/4/2021 21:00 | |
| M.A.D. Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War | The year 1953 was like most of the years following the end of the slaughter of World War II. It was another year of the baby boom that filled maternity wards in the United States, a generation that ironically couldn’t wait to leave these suburbs. The Cold War was well under way, and anti-communism in the U.S. was at its peak. Politicians pontificated that it was “better to be dead than Red.” In the East and the West, the military apparatus stockpiled nuclear weapons capable of ending life on this planet thousands of times over — Mutually Assured Destruction. We began this reading group with Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” followed by a shared reading of Allen Ginsburg’s Howl, and have nowcompleted our discussion of Ring Lardner, Jr.’s The Ecstasy of Owen Muir. We have just started The Public Burning by Robert Coover, after which we will read and discuss Richard Wright’s The Outsider. Coover’s novel is a political economy of the US as the hegemon of Post World War II capital global restructuring and the shift of much production to energy, the military and finance and the attempted thorough destruction of any semblance of a left opposition. What can we learn from these literary renderings and how do they help us understand the perilous period in history that we now find ourselves living? The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting to discuss literature since the first days of The Marxist Education Project following a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and her recommendation that we take up literature with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of The Dead. The group has rcompleted readings of Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years which was followed by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Other studies have included novels related to World War I, the depression of the 1930s, and novels on migration,border politics and labor organizing and our most recent session on Women Who Wrote Against Fascism, and this summer will the group will host a 5th consecutive Noir Summer. | A reading and discussion of three substantive novels that explain the context of anti-communism as it raged in the years immediately following World War II, has continued throughout the decades since then, and remains strong throughout American culture and popular consciousness today. | 12/14/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/m-a-d-lit-101-american-fiction-and-the-cold-war/2021-03-11/ | hollywood 10|Metafiction|Richard Wright|Robert Coover|Rosenbergs | American Literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/11/2021 19:00 | 3/11/2021 21:00 | |
| ABCs of Communism | hosted by The MEPNow is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the Revolution. | time for all good people to come to the aid of the Revolution. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=8666 | Organizing | Class|Classes/Events|Labor History | 1/1/2021 12:00 | 1/1/2021 17:00 | |
| Six Month Pass through November 30, 2022 | MORE AFFORDABLE PASSES!We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. THIS IS REALLY A MORE THAN 6-MIONTH PASS, ESPECIALLY IF PURCHASED BEFORE THE END OF MAY! There are a number of significant series that are being offered between now and October 31, 2022 including the the new series on precariousness and a second Gramsci course which considers the 3-volume version of the Prison Notebooks that will begin in late January, a new Socialist Register series on Class, Party, Revolution and Capitalism, Technology, Labor. The next Grundrisse group begins April 23. The new combined 2 volumes of Invention of the White Race will be a new class which you can still join this February. On May 7 Marcello Musto will be joined with John Bellamy Foster for a discussion on The Marx Revival: Ecology and Communism. The next in the annual Socialist Register series occurs will feature Sam Gindin, Adolph Reed Jr., Toure Reed,James Schneider, Hilary Wainwrite on Polarization and Socialism. There are a wide range of other events and classes being finalized and will be seen soon on this site, social media and elsewhere.. All classes that are ongoing beyond the six months, if enrolled in during this period, are covered with this 6 month pass. | We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. | 12/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/multi-month-pass-to-june-30-2021/2022-07-11/ | Communism|Das Kapital|Engels|Gramsci|Lenin|Luxemburg|Marx|marxism|Marxisms|Revolution|Socialism | African American History|Agribusiness|American Literature|automation|Bolshevism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Climate Change|Dance|Ecosocialism|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/30/2022 14:30 | 5/30/2022 23:30 | |
| Multi-Month Pass: Now through Dec 31, 2020 | Support the MEP and save $ for yourself. For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 or $75 more bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes and events between February 1 and May 31, 2021. The curriculum has not been decided as of yet but this special price will apply for all that takes place from during the stated four-month period. Anyone can purchase this option and can attend all events until May 31, even if purchased during December, 2020 or January, 2021. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good for all events and classes that take place between now and May 31, 2021. You may also use this course as a contribution button to help The MEP get through this challenging Covid-19 period where much of our constituency have lost income and will during the next months lose unemployment compensation without a lengthy extension/. | For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes, films and events between now and May 31, 2021. | 12/23/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-month-pass-january-21-through-may-20-2019-2020-08-29/2020-08-31/ | 4 month pass|cost-effective|Good left deals|Pay by the season | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 8/31/2020 0:01 | 8/31/2020 23:59 | |
| Multi-Month Pass: Now through Dec 31, 2020 | Support the MEP and save $ for yourself. For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 or $75 more bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes and events between February 1 and May 31, 2021. The curriculum has not been decided as of yet but this special price will apply for all that takes place from during the stated four-month period. Anyone can purchase this option and can attend all events until May 31, even if purchased during December, 2020 or January, 2021. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good for all events and classes that take place between now and May 31, 2021. You may also use this course as a contribution button to help The MEP get through this challenging Covid-19 period where much of our constituency have lost income and will during the next months lose unemployment compensation without a lengthy extension/. | For a one-time sliding scale fee of $150, $200, or $250 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $50 more ($200, $250 or $300) bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes, films and events between now and May 31, 2021. | 12/23/2018 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/4-month-pass-january-21-through-may-20-2019-2020-08-29/2020-10-31/ | 4 month pass|cost-effective|Good left deals|Pay by the season | Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 10/31/2020 0:01 | 10/31/2020 23:59 | |
| MEP Open House: Eve of New Year’s Eve with The Red Microphone and more | Goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021 The MEP will host a 3 hour open house via zoom. There will be 2 sets of music by The Red Microphone At least 2 sets (one at 6:30 the other at 8:00) Essential Music provided by The Red Microphone The Red Microphone’s music is based in improvisation and incorporates melodies of Hanns Eisler, Charles Mingus and originals as well as revolutionary anthem “L’Internationale” infused with poetry repertoire including Pietaro’s original verse as well as that of masters Langston Hughes, Amiri and Amina Baraka, John Reed, Kenneth Fearing, Woody Guthrie, Walter Lowenfels as well as Brecht and others. The quartet also came together in an expanded form as the septet Whispers to record And I Became of the Dark, to be released on ESP-Disk in 2021. The quartet is: John Pietaro, writer, spoken word artist, percussionist and cultural organizer. Rocco John Iacovone, saxophonist, composer, and educator. Ras Moshe Burnett, saxophonist, flutist and musical adventurer, has been a perennial of NYC’s free jazz circle since the 1980s. He leads ensembles under the Music Now! banner. Laurie Towers, electric bassist, publicist, business owner and healthcare professional hosts andproduces feminist podcast She’s Raising the Bar. Towers is currently writing Xx-centric Behavior: Women Defying Stereotypical Gravity. LaurieTowers.net Re-Inventing Love: Brief Segments A work is inspired by the writing of philosopher Alain Badiou. Dance Selections Choreographed by Marija Krtolica in collaboration with the performers psychoanalyst Julie Fotheringham dancer, artist and chef Michael Mangieri “Re-Inventing Love” looks at the relationships during the time of a socio-economic crisis. The focus is on how the desire for connection appears within alienated urban landscapes. The work comments on the contemporary dating scene with reference to the philosophical concept of love, and depictions of love scenes in the arts. Makina will come to explain the significance of soupe jamou in the centuries of resistance in Haiti Miryam Yatoco will read from Quecha poems she has translated into English with much more and all of you… | 3 hours in which to visit once or more than once to listen and hear music and news of new programs in the coming year. | 12/18/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mep-open-house-eve-of-new-years-eve-with-the-red-microphone-and-more/ | Open House|Party | Classes/Events>Film Screenings | 12/30/2020 18:00 | 12/30/2020 21:00 | |
| Before Stalinism: The Rise and Fall of Soviet Democracy | A presentation and discussion with author Sam FarberBefore Stalinism is a historical study of democratic life and institutions and their decline in the early years of the Russian Revolution. Sam Farber has assembled and synthesized a wealth of historical material so as to assess the extent to which the disappearance of Soviet democracy was due to objective circumstances such as the Civil War and how much of the magnitude of this was the result of Bolshevik politics and ideology. There will be a presentation on the book as well as plenty of time for attendees to pose questions on this important work, published by Verso Books. SAM FARBER was born and raised in Marianao, Cuba, coming to the United States in February 1958. He was active in the Cuban high school student movement against Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s, and has been involved in socialist politics for nearly 60 years, authoring numerous studieson Cuba before and after the Revolution, along with Before Stalinism. All events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the code to the event if you are unable to contribute at this time. NOTA BENE: This event which originates in New York City, begins at 11:00 am US Eastern Standard Time (New York City) which is 4:00 pm GMT. | Sam Farber has assembled and synthesized a wealth of historical material so as to assess the extent to which the disappearance of Soviet democracy was due to objective circumstances such as the Civil War and how much of the magnitude of this was the result of Bolshevik politics and ideology. | 12/29/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/before-stalinism-the-rise-and-fall-of-soviet-democracy/ | Russian Revol | Bolshevism|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy|Socialism | 1/23/2021 11:00 | 1/23/2021 13:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-04-09/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/12/2021 17:00 | 2/12/2021 19:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-02-19/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/19/2021 17:00 | 2/19/2021 19:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-02-26/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/26/2021 17:00 | 2/26/2021 19:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-03-05/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/5/2021 17:00 | 3/5/2021 19:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-03-12/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/12/2021 17:00 | 3/12/2021 19:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-03-19/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/19/2021 17:00 | 3/19/2021 19:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-03-26/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/26/2021 17:00 | 3/26/2021 19:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-04-02/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/2/2021 17:00 | 4/2/2021 19:00 | |
| Engels and the Dialectics of Nature | Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black HolesA 9 session class and discussion with Alex SteinbergThis class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. (The syllabus is below). We will explore themes from that classic text that are relevant for contemporary scientific thinking. Among questions we propose to address: Does quantum theory force us to abandon determinism? Did time exist before the Big Bang? Are the laws of nature eternal? Is there one universe or are there multiple parallel universes? What does it mean to call oneself a “materialist” when scientists use terms like “dark matter”? The goal of the class is a deep appreciation of dialectical thinking and how it helps us understand the real worlds in which we live and struggle. ALEX STEINBERG is an independent scholar. He has has taught courses in the the philosophies of Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at alternative educational institutions such as New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, the Brecht Forum, Marxist Education Project, and more. He has published papers on questions of philosophy and the natural sciences, including on Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and has presented at Left Forum, Historical Materialism Conference, and the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. all classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a link code to be able to participate. Syllabus (week by week): Class 1: Dialectics – Fundamental features and its place in the history of philosophy, Class 2: Engels and the Dialectics of Nature, Class 3: The dialectical revolution in the Life Sciences. Class 4. The paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: The positivist solution of the Copenhagen interpretation. Class 5. The Many Worlds interpretation: From positivism to magical realism. Class 6. Resurgence of realism and dialectics in the work of the Marxist physicist David Bohm. Class 7. A brief survey of the conceptual revolution of relativity theory. Class 8. The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe. Class 9. The discovery of black holes and gravitational waves. Class 10. A Universe, a Multi-verse, Cyclical Universes and Cosmological Natural Selection | This class will journey into quantum physics and 21st-century cosmology as background for a study of dialectics in natural science and philosophy. Readings include Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and excerpts from other philosophers and scientists writing since Engels. | 12/30/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-04-09/ | Black Holes|Cosmology|Engels and Dialectics of Nature|Infinity|Quarks | Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/9/2021 17:00 | 4/9/2021 19:00 | |
| The Last Years of Karl Marx: A new reading group | An Intellectual Biography by Marcello Mustoan eight-week reading and discussion group with The Capital Studies Group of The MEP In the last years of his life, Karl Marx expanded his research in new directions—studying recent anthropological discoveries, analyzing communal forms of ownership in pre-capitalist societies, supporting the populist movement in Russia, and expressing critiques of colonial oppression in India, Ireland, Algeria, and Egypt. Between 1881 and 1883, he also traveled beyond Europe for the first and only time. Focusing on these last years of Marx’s life, this book dispels two key misrepresentations of his work: that Marx ceased to write late in life, and that he was a Eurocentric and economic thinker fixated on class conflict alone. With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. MARCELLO MUSTO is Associate Professor of Sociology at York University. His most recent books are Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018) and, as editor, The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Critical Interpretations (2020). All events and classes at The MEP are sliding scale. In addition, no one is every denied participation because of inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute to offset our costs at this time, please write to info@marxedproject to receive codes for entrance to this session or any other activity you would like to attend. The special book and class offers are for US and Puerto Rico only as the books are sent via Media Mail with the US Post Office. | With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. | 1/3/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx-a-five-week-reading-group/2021-03-15/ | colonization|intellectual biography|Populism|Pre-capitalist societies | Capital Studies|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 2/15/2021 18:00 | 2/15/2021 20:00 | |
| The Last Years of Karl Marx: A new reading group | An Intellectual Biography by Marcello Mustoan eight-week reading and discussion group with The Capital Studies Group of The MEP In the last years of his life, Karl Marx expanded his research in new directions—studying recent anthropological discoveries, analyzing communal forms of ownership in pre-capitalist societies, supporting the populist movement in Russia, and expressing critiques of colonial oppression in India, Ireland, Algeria, and Egypt. Between 1881 and 1883, he also traveled beyond Europe for the first and only time. Focusing on these last years of Marx’s life, this book dispels two key misrepresentations of his work: that Marx ceased to write late in life, and that he was a Eurocentric and economic thinker fixated on class conflict alone. With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. MARCELLO MUSTO is Associate Professor of Sociology at York University. His most recent books are Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018) and, as editor, The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Critical Interpretations (2020). All events and classes at The MEP are sliding scale. In addition, no one is every denied participation because of inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute to offset our costs at this time, please write to info@marxedproject to receive codes for entrance to this session or any other activity you would like to attend. The special book and class offers are for US and Puerto Rico only as the books are sent via Media Mail with the US Post Office. | With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. | 1/3/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx-a-five-week-reading-group/2021-02-22/ | colonization|intellectual biography|Populism|Pre-capitalist societies | Capital Studies|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 2/22/2021 18:00 | 2/22/2021 20:00 | |
| The Last Years of Karl Marx: A new reading group | An Intellectual Biography by Marcello Mustoan eight-week reading and discussion group with The Capital Studies Group of The MEP In the last years of his life, Karl Marx expanded his research in new directions—studying recent anthropological discoveries, analyzing communal forms of ownership in pre-capitalist societies, supporting the populist movement in Russia, and expressing critiques of colonial oppression in India, Ireland, Algeria, and Egypt. Between 1881 and 1883, he also traveled beyond Europe for the first and only time. Focusing on these last years of Marx’s life, this book dispels two key misrepresentations of his work: that Marx ceased to write late in life, and that he was a Eurocentric and economic thinker fixated on class conflict alone. With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. MARCELLO MUSTO is Associate Professor of Sociology at York University. His most recent books are Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018) and, as editor, The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Critical Interpretations (2020). All events and classes at The MEP are sliding scale. In addition, no one is every denied participation because of inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute to offset our costs at this time, please write to info@marxedproject to receive codes for entrance to this session or any other activity you would like to attend. The special book and class offers are for US and Puerto Rico only as the books are sent via Media Mail with the US Post Office. | With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. | 1/3/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx-a-five-week-reading-group/2021-03-01/ | colonization|intellectual biography|Populism|Pre-capitalist societies | Capital Studies|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 3/1/2021 18:00 | 3/1/2021 20:00 | |
| The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution | A presentation with discussion with author Dan HicksThe story of the Benin Bronzes — carried off by the British in 1897 — sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonization of museums. In The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism. Walk into the Met Museum on NYC’s “Museum Mile” and the curated plunder of American imperialism adorns the halls and galleries. Dan’s book calls for western museums to wash their hands of colonial bloodshed. More importantly it is a call to action for all of us — museum workers, artists, casual observers and anti-imperialist activists — to empty these palaces of plunder and simply send the looted items back. DAN HICKS is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum. His award-winning research focuses on the restitution of African cultural heritage from Euro-American collections, focusing on the place of ideas of cultural whiteness in ongoing histories of colonial violence. “A startling act of conscience. An important book which could overturn what people have felt about British history, empire, civilisation, Africa, and African art. It is with books like this that cultures are saved, by beginning truthfully to face the suppressed and brutal past. It has fired a powerful shot into the debate about cultural restitution. You will never see many European museums in the same way again. Books like this give one hope that a new future is possible.” — Ben Okri “Dan, your words brought tears to my eyes. I salute you” — MC Hammer All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Should you be unable to contribute at this time, please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to receive a code to participate in this important event. The time stated is for 2 to 4 pm USA EST, or 7 to 9 PM GMT. Please see special offer for event plus book. | The story of the Benin Bronzes — carried off by the British in 1897 — sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonization of museums. In “The Brutish Museums”, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism. | 1/8/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-brutish-museums-the-benin-bronzes-colonial-violence-and-cultural-restitution/ | anti-imperialism|Anti-racism|Colonial plunder|Colonial theft|Cultural restitution|Restitution | Anti-colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/16/2021 14:00 | 2/16/2021 16:00 | |
| Empire’s Endgame. A Pluto FireWorks Event + book special | Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British StateBy Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani, Kerem Nisancioglu, Kojo Koram, Dalia Gebrial, Nadine El-Enany and Luke de NoronhaAttend the Co-authors Gargi Bhattacharyya et al. highlight how the lens of racism and the politics of race offer the sharpest focus to explain why movements against colonial legacies and state violence coincide with rising authoritarian regimes,. Chaired by FireWorks Series editor, Wilf Sullivan (Race Equality Officer, Trades Union Congress, London). In this moment of profound overlapping crises, the landscape of politics and entitlement is rapidly remade. Several leading scholars powerfully intervene in debates on racial capitalism and political crisis in Britain. While the ‘hostile environment’ policy and Brexit referendum throw the centrality of race into sharp relief, discussions of racism have too often focus on individual behaviours. Bringing to the fore broad political and economic contexts, the authors trace ways in which empire’s legacies have been reshaped by global capitalism, the digital environment and instability in the nation-state. Engaging with Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall movements, Empire’s Endgame offers an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalisation, and a political vision that includes — rather than expels — in the face of crisis. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9723 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | ||||
| Empire’s Endgame: Pluto FireWorks series book + talk special | Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British StateBy Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani, Kerem Nisancioglu, Kojo Koram, Dalia Gebrial, Nadine El-Enany and Luke de NoronhaCo-authors Gargi Bhattacharyya et al. highlight how the lens of racism and the politics of race offer the sharpest focus to explain why movements against colonial legacies and state violence coincide with rising authoritarian regimes,. Chaired by FireWorks Series editor, Wilf Sullivan (Race Equality Officer, Trades Union Congress, London). In this moment of profound overlapping crises, the landscape of politics and entitlement is rapidly remade. Several leading scholars powerfully intervene in debates on racial capitalism and political crisis in Britain. While the ‘hostile environment’ policy and Brexit referendum throw the centrality of race into sharp relief, discussions of racism have too often focus on individual behaviours. Bringing to the fore broad political and economic contexts, the authors trace ways in which empire’s legacies have been reshaped by global capitalism, the digital environment and instability in the nation-state. Engaging with Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall movements, Empire’s Endgame offers an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalisation, and a political vision that includes — rather than expels — in the face of crisis. This is the fourth in the Pluto Press FireWorks series. Attend the talk and receive the book (shipping included—US and Puerto Rico only) This is sliding scale, We do not deny admission to those who do not have the ability to pay. Write to info@marxedproject to receive the url for attending by zoom if at this point you are unable to pay. | Bringing to the fore broad political and economic contexts, the authors trace ways in which empire’s legacies have been reshaped by global capitalism, the digital environment and instability in the nation-state. Engaging with Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall movements, Empire’s Endgame offers an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalisation, and a political vision that includes — rather than expels — in the face of crisis. | 1/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/empires-endgame-pluto-fireworks-series-book-talk-special/ | book and event special | British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Class|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/7/2021 14:05 | 3/7/2021 16:30 | |
| Reinventing the Welfare State: Book + talk special | Reinventing the Welfare State: Digital Platforms and Public PoliciesUrsula HuwsIn Reinventing the Welfare State: Digital Platforms and Public Policies Ursula Huws proposes a welfare state infused with social justice and equality, including a redistributive UBI (universal basic income), decommodification of platforms and universal workers’ rights. With positivity and rigor, she outlines a ‘digital welfare state’ for the 21st century, which would involve a repurposing of online platform technologies under public control to modernise and expand public services, and improve accessibility. Ursula Huws speaks with Todd Wolfson on creative ideas for reinventing the welfare state to address contemporary challenges in a session chaired by FireWorks Series editor, and Editorial Director at Pluto Press, David Castle. Sliding scale pricing includes Ursula’s presentation, the new book (inclusive of shipping — US and Puerto Rico only) We do not deny admission to those who do not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the url of the zoom link for attending this talk if you cannot pay. | With positivity and rigor, Ursula Huws will outline a ‘digital welfare state’ for the 21st century, which would involve a repurposing of online platform technologies under public control to modernise and expand public services, and improve accessibility. | 1/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reinventing-the-welfare-state-book-talk-special/ | Austerity|transition|Welfare rights|welfare state | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Immigration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/18/2021 14:05 | 4/18/2021 16:00 | |
| Anitra Nelson and Vincent Liegey: Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide | Exploring Degrowth: A Critical GuideVincent Liegey and Anitra NelsonSpokesperson for the degrowth movement Vincent Liegey (Budapest, Hungary) and degrowth advocate Anitra Nelson (University of Melbourne, Australia) talk on the politics, challenges, strategies and visions of the burgeoning degrowth movement, starting in France to spread worldwide. Chaired by Pluto’s FireWorks Series editor, Gargi Bhattacharyya. As a sense of urgency pervades global environmentalism and the Left, the degrowth movement burst into the mainstream. In short, as growth driven climate catastrophe looms, degrowth is a political response based on changing how we live. Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide counters obsessions with growth to demand a slowing of our economies, reorientation around provision of basic needs for all, supported by political autonomy and cultures of living within Earth’s limits. As the authors discuss the practices and strategies of the movement, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, they examine ‘frugal abundance’, horizontal democracy, ‘open relocalisation’, conviviality and reduced paid work to argue why degrowth is a compelling and realistic project. For an extra discount this ticket includes admission to the presentation, the book with shipping included (US and Puerto Rico only). Tickets are sliding scale. We do not deny admission to events or classes for an inability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject for the url of the zoom link to attend if you cannot afford to pay. | As a sense of urgency pervades global environmentalism and the Left, the degrowth movement has burst into the mainstream. As growth driven climate catastrophe looms, degrowth is a political response based on changing how we live, countering persistent growth with a demand to slow down with a reorientation around provision of basic needs for all. | 1/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/exploring-degrowth-book-talk-special/ | Co-housing|Degrowth|Shared housing | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/7/2021 14:00 | 2/7/2021 16:00 | |
| Marina Sitrin on Pandemic Solidarity with Colectiva Sembrar | Pandemic Solidarity: | Pandemic Solidarity collects first-hand experiences of people creating their own narratives of solidarity and mutual aid in the time of the global crisis of COVID-19. In times of crisis institutions of power are laid bare and people turn to one another. Underneath the media’s narrative of selfish individualism and runs on supermarkets, we find an opposing story of community and self-sacrifice. | 1/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pandemic-solidarity-book-talk-special/ | collectivity|counter-capitalism|Mutual aid|solidarity | Class and Gender|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Evolutionary biology|Gender|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Pandemics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/23/2021 13:00 | 1/23/2021 15:00 | |
| Socialist Register 2021: Ursula Huws on Reaping the Whirlwind | First session of Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of LivingAn introduction to this year’s book with Greg Albo & Stephen Maher (in memory of Leo Panitch)“In addressing how far digital technology has become integral to the capitalist market dystopia of the first decades the 21st century, we were deliberately seeking to counter so much facile futurist ‘cyber-utopian’ thinking that has proliferated through these decades. The proof of capitalism’s continued dynamism, even in the face of severe global economic crisis, lay in the most successful and most celebrated high-tech corporations of the new information sector which really were restructuring and refashioning not only our ways of communicating but of working and consuming, indeed ways of living. Yet precisely because this was taking place within the logics of capitalist accumulation and exploitation, and through the reproduction of capitalist social relations, this produced new contradictions and irrationalities. Perhaps none of these was greater than those revealed by the contrast between the investment, planning, and preparation that went into the interminable competitive race for ‘more speed’ by way of reducing latency in digital communications by so many milliseconds, on the one hand, and on the other the lack of investment, planning, and preparation that underlay the scandalous slowness of the responses to the spreading Covid-19 pandemic around the world.” —From the Preface by Leo Panitch and Greg Albo followed byReaping the Whirlwind: Digitalization, Restructuring, and Mobilization in the Covid CrisisUrsula HuwsUrsula Huws’ essay addresses the changes sweeping through global labor markets during the coronavirus pandemic, looking in particular at the concentration of capital and expansion of market share by global corporations, bringing with it the digital management of supply chains and an exponential growth in algorithmic control and surveillance of workers. Pandemic lockdown conditions have exposed very clearly the polarizations in the workforce between ‘fixed’ workers, physically isolated in their homes but closely monitored via their computers, working virtually, and the precariously employed mobile (‘footloose’) workers, disproportionately made up of black and migrant workers, equally closely monitored, who deliver the physical goods and services the home-bound need to survive and care for their bodily needs when they become sick, at great personal risk. GREG ALBO teaches in the Department of Politics at York University. He is co-editor of the Socialist Register. Greg is also on the editorial boards of Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, The Bullet and Historical Materialism. URSULA HUWS, Professor of Labor and Globalization at the University of Hertfordshire. She has been researching the social impacts of technological change, the restructuring of employment and the changing international division of labor since the 1970s. Ursula will visit The MEP again on February 21, to discuss her current book, Reinventing the Welfare State: Digital Platforms and Public Policies (Pluto FireWorks, 2020). STEVE MAHER is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Canada, and Assistant Editor of Socialist Register. | Greg Albo and Steve Maher will introduce Socialist Register 2021—Beyond Digital Capitalism followed by Ursula Huws presenting on her essay, “Reaping the Whirlwind: Digitization, Restructuring, and Moblization in the Covid Crisis” | 1/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-register-2021-an-introduction-and-reaping-the-whirlwind/ | Beyond Digital Capitalism|Covid-19 lockdown|Digital Capitalism|Leo Panitch|New Ways of Living|Socialist Register 2021 | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/31/2021 13:30 | 1/31/2021 16:00 | |
| The Sinking Middle Class with David Roediger | A presentation and discussion with author David RoedigerIn the 2020 elections, both major US political parties stressed their support for the “middle class.” David Roediger corrects this in his pointed and persuasive polemic The Sinking Middle Class. Roediger demonstrates that such an obsession is relatively new in US politics, starting with Bill Clinton’s attempt to win back the so-called Reagan Democrats, aided by legendary pollster Stanley Greenberg. Their efforts were marked by covert appeals to white racism and the avoidance of wealth redistribution — features that remain prominent to this day. Drawing on rich traditions of radical social thought, Roediger debunks the thinly sourced idea that the United States was, for much of its history, a “middle-class” nation and the still more indefensible position that it is one now. The increasing immiseration of large swaths of middle-income America, only accelerated by the current pandemic, reveals the fallacy that is a major obstacle to progressive change. DAVID R. ROEDIGER teaches American Studies at the University of Kansas. His books include Seizing Freedom, The Wages of Whiteness, How Race Survived U.S. History, and Towards the Abolition of Whiteness and Working toward Whiteness. His book The Production of Difference (with Elizabeth Esch) recently won the International Labor History Association Book Prize. “Brilliant and insightful… Explores the ways in which appeals to save the middle class in electoral politics harm the very constituencies they purport to help.” —George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place | Roediger demonstrates that an obsession with a “middle class” is relatively new in US politics, starting with Bill Clinton’s attempt to win back the so-called Reagan Democrats. The efforts by the corporatist wing of the Democratic Party remain marked by covert appeals to white racism and the avoidance of wealth redistribution. | 1/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-sinking-middle-class-a-new-book-from-david-roediger/ | Anti-racism|False consciousness|Working Class Consciousness | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Marxist Method|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/17/2021 19:00 | 2/17/2021 21:00 | |
| The MEP Bookstore, Winter/Spring 2021—Books with shipping included | These books are being offered at a discount to all of The MEP community with prices including books and shipping. Each book listed here is part of or related to a presentation, reading group or series of presentations both ongoing and beginning during the Winter term of 2021. Descriptions of books are either in descriptions on the site or will be described on the site shortly. A People’s Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier Class, Party and Revolution, A Socialist Register Reader The Last Years of Karl Marx by Marcello Musto Marx Dead and Alive by Andy Merrifield Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living Socialist Register 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia: New Ways of Living Pluto’s FireWorks Series: Pandemic Solidarity, edited by Marina Sitrin and Colectiva Sembrar, Exploring Degrowth by Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson, Reinventing the Welfare State by Ursula Huws, and Empire’s Endgame with contributions from Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani and more. The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks BookMarx Bookmarks Unfortunately, we cannot calculate postage outside of the United States so the combined price is only good for mailing addresses in the United States. If you would like to calculate the cost of book and shipping to another country, write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com indicating your interest and what you estimate postage will be. | Books that will be used during the Winter of 2021 sessions—good for a lifetime of learning. The Pluto FireWorks series and The Brutish Museums have just been added. | 12/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-mep-bookstore-january-2021-term-books-with-shipping-included/1970-01-01/ | |||||
| The Time of Our Lives with Bryan Palmer | Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism seriesThe Time of Our Lives: Reflections on Work and Capitalist Temporalitywith author Bryan D. Palmer For socialists time and its meaning and organization have always been a central concern, if only because capitalism has placed such a premium on controlling time and subordinating it to its imperatives. At the current conjuncture, time has become the challenge for socialists to address, not only because it defines what does and does not constitute the working day, but because it is increasingly obvious that time and its organization defines life itself. Will time continue to be compressed into capital’s needs, or will it be reimagined as liberation, struggled through and over in ways that enhance the project of human emancipation?What follows presents an argument about time that: 1) outlines how class struggles over time have been essential to the rise of the workers’ movement; 2) explores the complexity of Marx’s understandings of these conflicts and their tendency to be incorporated into capital’s project, resulting in the intensification of exploitation; 3) locates E.P. Thompson’s writing on time and work discipline within the particular concerns and context of the 1960s New Left, offering a suggestion of how this treatment of time extended orthodox Marxist understandings of primitive accumulation; and 4) closes by discussing how time and its meanings in twenty-first century capitalism demand a rethinking of positions, espoused by Andre Gorz and others in the 1980s, that associated the need for new policies around time with dismissals of the role of the working class in social transformation. Time, always a frontier of class struggle, has been pushed today to the forefront of contentious labor-capital relations. Bryan D. Palmer is Emeritus Professor of History at Trent University, Ontario, Canada. He is also the author of Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Truckers’ Strikes of 1934 and co-author of Toronto’s Poor: A Rebellious History. This presentation will begin at 11 PM and end at 1 AM GMT. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you would like to attend the event but are unable to contribute at this time, please write info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain the URL of the zoom link for this talk or other events or classes you would like to participate in. For those of you unable to buy a ticketGo to Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-time-of-our-lives-reflections-on-work-and-capitalist-temporality-tickets-138905308517 | At the current historical conjuncture, time has become the challenge for socialists to address, not only because it defines what does and does not constitute the working day, but because it is increasingly obvious that time and its organization defines life itself. Will time continue to be compressed into capital’s needs, or will it be reimagined as liberation, struggled through and over in ways that enhance the project of human emancipation? | 1/16/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/having-the-time-of-their-lives/ | anti-|Productivity of labor|Temporality|Work intensification | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/9/2021 18:00 | 2/9/2021 20:00 | |
| Working Class Cinema in the Age of Digital Capitalism | A presentation and discussion withMassimiliano (Mao) MollonaWhy does the story of cinema begin with the end of work? Is it because, as has been suggested, it is impossible to represent work from the perspective of labor but only from the point of view of capital, because the revolutionary horizon of the working class coincides with the end of work? After all, the early revolutionary art avant-garde had an ambiguous relationship with capitalism: it provided both a critique of commodification while also reproducing the commodity form. Even the cinema of Eisenstein, which so subverted the bourgeois sense of space, time, and personhood, at the same time standardized and commodified working-class reality with techniques of framing and editing that molded images on the commodity form. Such dialectics between art and the commodity form continue to be played out in today’s digital capitalism, as exemplified by so-called ‘debt-artists’, like the hackers collective Robin Hood, who appropriate the techniques and modes of sociality of financial capitalism to generate spaces of reciprocity and cooperation with the aim of disrupting their commodity logic, but who in fact end up reproducing it. The tension between critique and commodification is no less in play as the digital medium erases the specificity of cinema, the relation between its material bases and its poetics, opening up as it does to other relations – intertextual, lateral, and cross-media – that recall the synchronic aesthetics of the avant-garde. As well as disrupting the materiality of the film medium, digital film disrupts the temporality of classical cinema, suspended in-between movement and stillness and experienced in the expanded duration of the time-image. MASSIMILIANO (Mao) MOLLONA is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmiths University of London. One of Mao’s main research interests is to look at the role of art institutions and cultural organizations in relation to the bio-politics and political economy of late capitalism. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for an inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to be given the URL for the zoom code for admission to this or other events. This essay is available from The MEP in the Socialist Register 2021 book that is for sale in our bookstore. All book prices include shipping (US and Puerto Rico only). | Why does the story of cinema begin with the end of work? Is it because, as has been suggested, it is impossible to represent work from the perspective of labor but only from the point of view of capital, because the revolutionary horizon of the working class coincides with the end of work? After all, the early revolutionary art avant-garde had an ambiguous relationship with capitalism: it provided both a critique of commodification while also reproducing the commodity form. | 1/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/working-class-cinema-in-the-age-of-digital-capitalism/ | bourgeois|cinema|working class and art | Capital Studies|Class|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Political Economy|Radical Literature|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/21/2021 14:00 | 3/21/2021 16:00 | |
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control | Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control in US HistorySean Ahearn and the Revolutions Study Group4 more sessionsWhy is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies?There are two texts for these sessions: “Towards a Revolution in Labor History” (an unpublished manuscript by Theodore W. Allen now made available on line by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and The Southern Key: Class, Race and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s by Michael Goldfield.These two critical works challenge the way in which US labor history is currently understood and taught. Goldfield connects racial oppression, “white” blindness and “white” racial opportunism in the heyday of labor’s apparent greatest victories, to it’s post war defeats and subsequent rise of neo-liberalism. Allen views the exclusion of the 17th,18th,and 19th century ante-bellum African American chattel laborer from standard labor histories as an example of the “White Blindspot” which supports “white” labor opportunism. Connected to this is a misunderstanding of the ante-bellum southern plantation system as a non-capitalist mode of production. The racially oppressed and exploited chattel laborer, who produced the surplus value central to the growth of capitalism in North America, is thereby placed outside the purview of “labor history,” relegated to a pre- history, a Black history, a side show at best to the emergence of the factory system based on the waged European-American laborers in the 19th century. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed an in-depth study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Sean Ahearn is a long-time New York City activist, organizer, and instructor who has been thoroughly engaged with a study of the development of class in relationship to race from the time of the colonial settlers coming to the Americas to developments taking place during these days of late capital. These classes originate in New York City. If you are out of this timezone use this for reference: 6:30 – 8 PM (EST NYC) 11:30 PM – 1 AM (GMT) All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute but would like to attend this or other classes or events, please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain the URL for the codes to enter the on-line zoom sessions. | Why is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies? | 1/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history-white-supremacism-and-bourgeois-social-control/2021-05-27/ | racism|social control | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/6/2021 18:30 | 5/6/2021 20:00 | |
| Heterodox Socialism: Michael Brie, Jean-Numa Ducange, Kieran Durkin | presentations and discussion with MICHAEL BRIE, JEAN-NUMA DUCANGE and KIERAN DURKIN This presentation taking place in New York City at 1:30 to 3:30 PM is taking place at 6:30 to 9:30 PM (GMT) On the basis of new publications of her Polish works and more, in Rosa Luxemburg: A Revolutionary Marxist at the Limits of Marxism, Luxemburg’s strategic approaches are located in an Eastern European context. Michael Brie will present on how the authors discuss Luxemburg’s unique analyses of the first experiments in socialist participation in government, of the first Russian revolution and of the forms of accumulation of capital to outline the foundations of her novel understanding of both democratic-socialist revolution and of a society that would point beyond social democracy as well as Bolshevism – a vision that will gain new significance in the twenty first century. Jules Guesde represents the first book-length study of the French socialist leader translated into the English language. Jean-Numa Ducange’s scholarly biography of Guesde seeks to put his record on proper historical footing, closely analysing both archival sources and accounts by his contemporaries. The book begins with his early life and the mark left on him by the Paris Commune and exile. The book concludes with an examination of Guesde’s contested legacy. Raya Dunayevskaya’s Intersectional Marxism brings to life her writings on state capitalism (part of her socio-economic critique of Stalinism, fascism, and the welfare state), to her writings on Rosa Luxemburg, Black and women’s liberation, and labor, we are offered indispensable resources for navigating the perils of sexism, racism, capitalism, and authoritarianism. This collection of essays, from a diverse group of writers, brings to life Dunayevskaya’s important contributions. Dunayevskaya’s Marxist-Humanism is recovered for the twenty-first century and turned, as it was with Dunayevskaya herself, to face the multiple alienations and de-humanizations of social life. MICHAEL BRIE is Head of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung in Berlin, Germany. Recent books include Rediscovering Lenin: Dialectics of Revolution and Metaphysics of Domination (2019) and Karl Polanyi in Dialogue: A Socialist Thinker of Our Times (2017). JEAN-NUMA DUCANGE is Professor at Rouen University and member of Institut Universitaire de France. He is the co-director of the French journal Actuel Marx (PUF) and Austriaca (PURH), and one of the best scholars about the history of socialism (France, Germany, Austria). KIERAN DURKIN is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at University of York, UK and has been a Visiting Scholar at University of California Santa Barbara, where he studied the Humanist Marxist tradition. He is author of The Radical Humanism of Erich Fromm (2014) and Erich Fromm’s Critical Theory (co-edited with Joan Braune, 2020).  This is the Part One in a three part winter spring series on Marx, Engels, Marxisms, a large collection of important works by Marxists from all over the world. Marx, Engels, Marxisms: The Marx renaissance is underway on a global scale. Wherever the critique of capitalism re-emerges, there is an intellectual and political demand for new, critical engagements with Marxism. MARX, ENGELS, AND MARXISMS (edited by Marcello Musto & Terrell Carver, with Babak Amini, Francesca Antonini, Paula Rauhala & Kohei Saito as Assistant Editors) is a peer-reviewed series. It is broad — comprised of monographs, edited volumes, critical editions, reprints of old texts, as well as translations of books already published in other languages. These volumes come from a wide range of political perspectives, subject matters, academic disciplines and geographical areas, producing an eclectic and informative collection that appeals to a diverse and international audience. Main areas of focus include: the oeuvre of Marx and Engels, Marxist authors and traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries, labor and social movements, Marxist analyses of contemporary issues, and the reception of Marxism in the world. for information on the entire series: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14812 All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for an inability to pay. If you are unable to make a contribution at this time, simply write to info@marxedprojet.org to obtain the URL of the code to give you access to this or any other event or class. | Author Jean-Numa Ducange, and editors Michael Brie and Kieran Durkin present on editions they have put together on Jules Guesde, Rosa Luxemburg and Raya Dunayevskaya. | 1/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/heterodox-socialism-michael-brie-jean-numa-ducange-kieran-durkin/ | Heterodox Socialism|Jean-Numa Ducange|Jules Guesde|Kieran Durkin|Michael Brie|Raya Dunayevskaya|Red Rosa | Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy|Socialism | 2/13/2021 13:30 | 2/13/2021 15:30 | |
| 4 Month Pass Offering Through September 30, 2022 | Support the MEP and save $ for yourself. Four month pass now $50 less than new six month pass!For a one-time sliding scale fee of $100, $150, or $200 attend any and all classes and events of The Marxist Education Project. For $60 more bring a guest as often as you would like to the classes and events between now and September 30, 2022. The way the calendar works within our WordPress based site may make this confusing. It is a one-time payment good from now through September 30, 2022, giving an extra month if you purchase during this January. You may also use this course as a contribution button to help The MEP get through this challenging Covid-19 period where much of our constituency have lost income and will during the next months lose unemployment compensation without a lengthy extension. | The four month pass is now $50 less than when initiating these passes. All events, classes and more for stated sliding scale fees until end of day, September 30, 2022. | 1/23/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-4-month-pass-offering-through-may-31/2022-05-23/ | good deals | Capital Studies|China|Class|Class and Gender|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Immigration|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 5/23/2022 | 5/23/2022 23:30 | |
| Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism (the entire series) | Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of LivingContinues on April 27 with another final session on May 2There are tickets for each session for those who are unable to be present for this series. The series tickets provide entrance to the remaining 6 presentations with discussions. “In addressing how far digital technology has become integral to the capitalist market dystopia of the first decades the 21st century, we were deliberately seeking to counter so much facile futurist ‘cyber-utopian’ thinking that has proliferated through these decades. The proof of capitalism’s continued dynamism, even in the face of severe global economic crisis, lay in the most successful and most celebrated high-tech corporations of the new information sector which really were restructuring and refashioning not only our ways of communicating but of working and consuming, indeed ways of living. Yet precisely because this was taking place within the logics of capitalist accumulation and exploitation, and through the reproduction of capitalist social relations, this produced new contradictions and irrationalities. Perhaps none of these was greater than those revealed by the contrast between the investment, planning, and preparation that went into the interminable competitive race for ‘more speed’ by way of reducing latency in digital communications by so many milliseconds, on the one hand, and on the other the lack of investment, planning, and preparation that underlay the scandalous slowness of the responses to the spreading Covid-19 pandemic around the world.” —From the Preface by Leo Panitch and Greg Albo  LEO PANITCH • 1945-2020 All of us at The Marxist Education Project appreciate all that Leo did and is continuing to do following his untimely death this past December. Both this series and the Class, Party, Revolution Socialist Register series that will begin in March are presented in his memory; they represent a few of the many fruits that still spring from the myriad seeds that Leo has planted.This series is as significant as it is because so much of it was developed and edited with Leo Panitch.Community Restaurants: Decommodifying Food as Socialist Strategy Postcapitalism: Alternatives or Detours? Presentations by authors BENJAMIN SELWYN and GREG ALBO Sunday, May 2 2:00 to 4:00 PM (US East Coast DST) /6:00 to 8:00 PM (GMT) /7:00 to 9:00 PM (UK DST) All tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject for the URL for the Zoom link to participate in any event or class of The MEP. Please note that all times are for the New York City Eastern Standard Time, with GMT times posted next to the NYC times. We do offer all sliding scale tiekets with an option to buy this year’s Socialist Register. The combined ticket and book prices include shipping (to the US and Puerto Rico only, sorry). | 1/27/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-register-2021-beyond-digital-capitalism-the-entire-series/2021-05-02/ | Agribusiness|Anti-colonialism|automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Immigration|Labor History|Pandemics|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 5/2/2021 14:00 | 5/2/2021 16:30 | |||
| Interpretation Machines: Contradictions of “Artificial Intelligence” in 21st Century Capitalism | with Larry LohmannBYOND DIGITAL CAPITALISM: NEW WAYS OF LIVING (presentation 3)Since the nineteenth century, left movements have sought footholds among the ever-renewing contradictions of capitalist industrial mechanization and its relation to work and energy. These experiments, begun by Marx, remain fragmentary and contested. Yet the crises that twenty-first century digital mechanization presents and exacerbates may shed new light on this longer history of automation even as they confront the left with fresh puzzles. This talk proposes three responses to these challenges. 1) It may be more useful to movement organizing to stress continuities between industrial-era and digital-era value-creation than to focus only on differences. 2) The contradiction between living and dead labor that Marx identified not only persists in today’s digital economy, but also remains fundamental both to understanding crisis and to identifying possibilities for radical political change. 3) It may make more strategic sense for the left to approach the striking innovations in automation advanced over the past decade by the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba, Microsoft, and Apple as a new level of the mechanization of interpretive work than to promote mystifying labels such as artificial intelligence (AI). Larry Lohmann works with The Corner House, a UK-based solidarity and research organization. All tickets are sliding scale. We do not deny admission to those with the inability to pay. If you would like to attend this or any other event or class simple write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a URL with the link for participation. | What are capitalist concerns getting into in the embrace of so-called artificial intelligence? What is capital getting the world into? In approaching these questions, it may be useful to set aside the term “artificial intelligence” in favour of “interpretation machines.” | 2/1/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/interpretation-machines-contraditions-of-artificial-intelligence-in-21st-century-capitalism/ | AI|automation|interpretation machines|portability | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Labor History|Marxist Method|Pandemics|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/14/2021 14:00 | 2/14/2021 16:00 | |
| Socialists on Social Media Platforms and Imagine Platform Socialism | Tanner Mirrlees and Derek HrynyshnSocialists on Social Media Platforms: Communicating within and Against Digital Capitalism by Tanner MirrleesBertolt Brecht, in the 1932 essay ‘The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication’, made a ‘positive suggestion’ to transform radio into a dialogical medium for many-to-many communications. ‘Radio is one-sided when it should be two’ said Brecht. Brecht saw the state as the only entity capable of remaking radio in this way, but because radio’s ‘proper application’ might make it a ‘revolutionary’ medium, Brecht concluded the bourgeois state would have ‘no interest in sponsoring such exercises’. Brecht’s ‘positive suggestion’ for a many-to-many communications system seems to have come to fruition with the internet, and more recently, with the spread of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Socialists around the world are now using these platforms to produce, distribute, exhibit, and consume socialist media and cultural works, and they are openly building events, movements, and organizations within digital capitalism, to go beyond it. That said, the internet and social media platforms are surrounded by all kinds of deterministic, optimistic, and pessimistic rhetorics that cloud a clear view of what they give to and take from socialist communicators, especially as compared to the twentieth century’s mass media industries, whose state and corporate owners tended to filter out and vilify socialist ideas. While digital platforms are enabling socialists to communicate in ways that were not possible in the pre-digital world of mass media, they are supplements to – not substitutes for – building democratic and sustainable socialist organizations and militant working-class movements. Taking it as axiomatic that communications underpins any possibility for socialist organization and politics, this essay contextualizes the ‘brave new world’ of digital capitalism, historicizes socialist communications from the ‘old media’ world of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the ‘new digital media’ world of the early twenty-first, and then maps ‘another world’ of socialists on social media platforms, with an eye to the novelties, limitations, and challenges. Tanner Mirrlees is Associate Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies at Ontario Tech University Imagine Platform Socialism by Derek HrynyshynInvestigations have demonstrated the ways that the operations of the algorithmic processes that select and sort information for users of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter not only distribute such malicious content, but also amplify its effects. In order to hold the attention of users, platforms tend to recommend increasingly controversial and sensationalist suggestions, leading users quickly into rabbit holes of conspiracy theories and extremist views that undermine attempts at informed and reasoned debate. Other studies showed that Google’s search engine was capable of exhibiting serious racist bias, and that the platforms’ attempts to limit access to hate speech and misinformation were of limited effectiveness. At the same time, the monopolistic digital platforms are undeniably of great use to activists working for a more democratic world, including socialists. The events that triggered US President Trump’s demands for stricter platform regulation were part of a mobilization of dissent that came to be known by its Twitter hashtag, ‘Black Lives Matter’, and numerous other examples could be found of activists raising awareness in ways that would not be possible with mass media. Social media empowers individuals to participate in the distribution of their own ideas, although this empowerment is limited by the mediation of the flow of information by the owners of the platforms in ways that can have direct effects on how mobilizations are informed. This makes it all the more necessary to explore the contradictions between our expectations of social media and the reality of its use, and determine if there are ways to avoid the harms done to democracy while preserving the benefits. The purpose of this presentation is to inquire whether and how social media could be organized more democratically, so that they allow our expressive capacities to be developed freely and not under conditions determined by capital. Derek Hrynyshyn teaches in the Department of Communication Studies at York University in Toronto, Ontario. | While digital platforms are enabling socialists to communicate in ways that were not possible in the pre-digital world of mass media, they are supplements to – not substitutes for – building democratic and sustainable socialist organizations and militant working-class movements. | 2/4/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-on-social-media-platforms-and-imagine-platform-socialism/ | Beyond Digital Capital|Democratic communication|Digitization|Social Media critique | automation|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/23/2021 18:00 | 2/23/2021 20:00 | |
| 150th Anniversary of the Paris Commune | Reading and discussion with Mitch AbidorEditor and translator of Voices of the Paris Commune and CommunardsThis year marks the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, the first time in history that the working class seized power. Please join us on March 18 –the date the uprising began – as Mitch Abidor, editor and translator of two books on the fighters in the 1871 uprising, Communards and Voices of the Paris Commune, recounts what happened over the 71 days that followed, in all its complexity, both its heroism and its failings, as well as its role as inspiration with lessons for the movements that followed in its footsteps. Voices of The Paris Commune (PM Press): The Paris Commune had a vibrant press, and it is represented here by its most important newspaper, Le Cri du Peuple, edited by Jules Vallès, member of the First International. Like any legitimate government, the Paris Commune held parliamentary sessions and issued daily printed reports of the heated, contentious deliberations that belie any accusation of dictatorship. Included in this collection is the transcript of the debate in the Commune, just days before its final defeat, on the establishing of a Committee of Public Safety and on the fate of the hostages held by the Commune, hostages who would ultimately be killed. Finally, Voices of the Paris Commune contains a selection from the inquiry carried out twenty years after the event by the intellectual review La Revue Blanche, asking participants to judge the successes and failures of the Paris Commune. This section provides a fascinating range of opinions of this epochal event. Communards (marxists.org): In this unique collection of texts we hear the genuine voices of the Paris Commune of 1871. Every Communard drew something different from the experience of the Commune, and Communards allows all of them to have their say. Documents include the records of stormy meetings of the Commune deciding on the execution of hostages, minutes of meetings of the First International throughout the siege, as well as reminiscences of participants written down 25 years after the event. Communards is available at https://www.marxists.org/admin/books/index.htm “If socialism wasn’t born of the Commune, it is from the Commune that dates that portion of international revolution that no longer wants to give battle in a city in order to be surrounded and crushed, but which instead wants, at the head of the proletarians of each and every country, to attack national and international reaction and put an end to the capitalist regime.” —Edouard Vaillant, a member of the Paris Commune. Mitch Abidor has published over a dozen volumes of translation, as well as May Made Me, an oral history of May ’68. A contributing writer for Jewish Currents, his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Dissent, and many others. His I’ll Forget it When I Die: The Bisbee Deportation of 1917 will be published by AK in the spring. all events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission because of an inability to pay. Please write info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for admission to this or any other event or class. | Please join us on March 18 –the date the uprising began – as Mitch Abidor, editor and translator of two books on the fighters in the 1871 uprising, Communards and Voices of the Paris Commune, recounts what happened over the 71 days that followed, in all its complexity, both its heroism and its failings, as well as its role as inspiration with lessons for the movements that followed in its footsteps. | 2/5/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/150th-anniversary-of-the-paris-commune/ | Commune|Paris|Paris Commune|rebellion|Revolution|working class revolt | Class|Class and Gender|Intro to Marxism|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/18/2021 14:00 | 3/18/2021 16:00 | |
| Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality with Jeffrey B. Perry | Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927A discussion Volume 2 with author Jeffrey B. PerryInterviewed by Sean AhernDr. Jeffrey B. Perry will be interviewed by Sean Ahern on his new book Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927(Columbia University Press, December 2020). The book follows Dr. Perry’s earlier Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918. Together, these two volumes comprise what is believed to be the first, full-life, two volume biography of an Afro-Caribbean and only the fourth of an Afro-American after those of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes. In this second volume of his acclaimed biography, Jeffrey B. Perry traces the final decade of Harrison’s life, from 1918 to 1927. Perry details Harrison’s literary and political activities, foregrounding his efforts against white supremacy and for racial consciousness and unity in struggles for equality and radical social change. The book explores Harrison’s role in the militant New Negro Movement and the International Colored Unity League, as well as his prolific work as a writer, educator, and editor of the New Negro and the Negro World. Perry examines Harrison’s interactions with major figures such as Garvey, Randolph, J. A. Rogers, Arthur Schomburg, and other prominent individuals and organizations as he agitated, educated, and organized for democracy and equality from a race-conscious, radical internationalist perspective. This magisterial biography demonstrates how Harrison’s life and work continue to offer profound insights on race, class, religion, immigration, war, democracy, and social change in America. Jeffrey B. Perry is an independent scholar and archivist. He is the author of Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883–1918 (Columbia, 2008) and the editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader (2001), and he preserved and placed Harrison’s papers. He is also the literary executor for Theodore W. Allen, preserved and placed his papers, and edited and introduced the expanded 2012 edition of Allen’s two-volume The Invention of the White Race. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@marxedproject,org to receiv | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=10387 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | ||||
| Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality. A discussion of Volume 2 with Jeff B. Perry | Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927A discussion Volume 2 with author Jeffrey B. PerryRESCHEDULED FROM FEBRIARY 23Interviewed by Sean AhernDr. Jeffrey B. Perry will be interviewed by Sean Ahern on his new book Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927(Columbia University Press, December 2020). The book follows Dr. Perry’s earlier Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918. Together, these two volumes comprise what is believed to be the first, full-life, two volume biography of an Afro-Caribbean and only the fourth of an Afro-American after those of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes. In this second volume of his acclaimed biography, Jeffrey B. Perry traces the final decade of Harrison’s life, from 1918 to 1927. Perry details Harrison’s literary and political activities, foregrounding his efforts against white supremacy and for racial consciousness and unity in struggles for equality and radical social change. The book explores Harrison’s role in the militant New Negro Movement and the International Colored Unity League, as well as his prolific work as a writer, educator, and editor of the New Negro and the Negro World. Perry examines Harrison’s interactions with major figures such as Garvey, Randolph, J. A. Rogers, Arthur Schomburg, and other prominent individuals and organizations as he agitated, educated, and organized for democracy and equality from a race-conscious, radical internationalist perspective. This magisterial biography demonstrates how Harrison’s life and work continue to offer profound insights on race, class, religion, immigration, war, democracy, and social change in America. Jeffrey B. Perry is an independent scholar and archivist. He is the author of Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883–1918 (Columbia, 2008) and the editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader (2001), and he preserved and placed Harrison’s papers. He is also the literary executor for Theodore W. Allen, preserved and placed his papers, and edited and introduced the expanded 2012 edition of Allen’s two-volume The Invention of the White Race. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@marxedproject,org to receive the URL of the zoom link to participate in this class or any other event or class for access. | In this second volume of his acclaimed biography, Jeffrey B. Perry traces the final decade of Harrison’s life, from 1918 to 1927. Perry details Harrison’s literary and political activities, foregrounding his efforts against white supremacy and for racial consciousness and unity in struggles for equality and radical social change. The book explores Harrison’s role in the militant New Negro Movement and the International Colored Unity League. | 2/6/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hubert-harrison-the-struggle-for-equality-a-discussion-of-volume-2-with-jeff-b-perry/ | 1920s|Anti-racism|Civil Rights|Harlem Radicalism|Jeff B. Perry|Marcus Garvey|racism|Social Change|white supremacy | African American History|Class|Immigration|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/9/2021 18:30 | 3/9/2021 20:00 | |
| A New Digital Taylorism? with Matt Cole, Hugo Radice, Charles Umney | The Political Economy of Datafication and Work: A New Digital Taylorism?with Matthew Cole, Hugo Radice and Charles UmneyThis panel looks at the technologies that underpin our world of work, and how capital shapes them to meet its needs, oriented firmly towards the subsumption of wage labor. We cannot repurpose them towards our socialist goal build a world based upon equality and justice for all without directly contesting the existing social order. This requires both a broad vision of a sustainable, egalitarian and democratic society, and concrete proposals that connect to existing struggles and also prefigure radical change. Technological change has profound consequences for capitalism, rendering obsolete even the most profitable businesses, while creating opportunities for early adopters. New technologies create opportunities for those workers who can acquire necessary skills, but destitution for those rendered unnecessary. Beyond the immediate effects on individuals and communities, there are spatial, organizational, and cultural consequences that transform the fabric of society. In his analysis of the workplace, Marx concludes that “Large-scale industry possesses in the machine system an entirely objective organization of production, which confronts the worker as a pre-existing material condition of production:”, and defines this condition as the real subsumption of labor. A hundred years later, his analysis informed modern socialist studies of labor and the struggle for workplace. Since the birth of industrial capitalism socialists have both critically examined technology in its social context, but also looked forward to radically different futures of work. As Alfred Barratt Brown wrote in 1934, “We need to look at the whole world of industry with fresh eyes…to the end that the work and its results may alike satisfy human capacities and human needs”. MATT COLE is a postdoctoral researcher with Fairwork Foundation at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. HUGO RADICE is Head of the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. CHARLES UMNEY is Associate Professor in the Work and Employment Relations Division at the University of Leeds Business School. THE TICKET PRICE OF THE TALK plus 2021 SOCIALIST REGISTER Book from which this essay is taken includes postage. This offer is good for US and Puerto Rico only because US postage policies have increased the costs of mailing to other countries to very high prices. All tickets are sliding scale. No on is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to receive the URL of the Zoom link for this or other classes and lectures you may want to attend. | In his analysis of the workplace, Marx concludes that “Large-scale industry possesses in the machine system an entirely objective organization of production, which confronts the worker as a pre-existing material condition of production:”, and defines this condition as the real subsumption of labor. A hundred years later, his analysis informed modern socialist studies of labor and the struggle for workplace. | 2/6/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-new-digital-taylorism-with-matt-cole-hugh-radice-charles-umney/ | absolute and relative surplus value|Capital|capital versus labor|data|data mining|Fordism|human capacity|management|rationalization|Taylorism|worker’s control | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/28/2021 14:00 | 2/28/2021 16:00 | |
| The MEP Bookstore, Winter/Spring 2021—Books with shipping included (US and Puerto Rico only) | These books are being offered at a discount to all of The MEP community with prices including books and shipping. Each book listed here is part of or related to a presentation, reading group or series of presentations both ongoing and beginning during the Winter term of 2021. Descriptions of books are either in descriptions on the site or will be described on the site shortly. A People’s Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier Class, Party and Revolution, A Socialist Register Reader The Last Years of Karl Marx by Marcello Musto Marx Dead and Alive by Andy Merrifield Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living Socialist Register 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia: New Ways of Living Pluto’s FireWorks Series: Pandemic Solidarity, edited by Marina Sitrin and Colectiva Sembrar, Exploring Degrowth by Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson, Reinventing the Welfare State by Ursula Huws, and Empire’s Endgame with contributions from Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani and more. The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks BookMarx Bookmarks Unfortunately, we cannot calculate postage outside of the United States so the combined price is only good for mailing addresses in the United States. If you would like to calculate the cost of book and shipping to another country, write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com indicating your interest and what you estimate postage will be. | Books that will be used during the Winter of 2021 sessions—good for a lifetime of learning. The Pluto FireWorks series and The Brutish Museums have just been added. | 12/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-mep-bookstore-january-2021-term-books-with-shipping-included/1970-01-01/ | |||||
| The Last Years of Karl Marx: A new reading group | An Intellectual Biography by Marcello Mustoan eight-week reading and discussion group with The Capital Studies Group of The MEP In the last years of his life, Karl Marx expanded his research in new directions—studying recent anthropological discoveries, analyzing communal forms of ownership in pre-capitalist societies, supporting the populist movement in Russia, and expressing critiques of colonial oppression in India, Ireland, Algeria, and Egypt. Between 1881 and 1883, he also traveled beyond Europe for the first and only time. Focusing on these last years of Marx’s life, this book dispels two key misrepresentations of his work: that Marx ceased to write late in life, and that he was a Eurocentric and economic thinker fixated on class conflict alone. With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. MARCELLO MUSTO is Associate Professor of Sociology at York University. His most recent books are Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018) and, as editor, The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Critical Interpretations (2020). All events and classes at The MEP are sliding scale. In addition, no one is every denied participation because of inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute to offset our costs at this time, please write to info@marxedproject to receive codes for entrance to this session or any other activity you would like to attend. The special book and class offers are for US and Puerto Rico only as the books are sent via Media Mail with the US Post Office. | With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. | 1/3/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx-a-five-week-reading-group/2021-03-08/ | colonization|intellectual biography|Populism|Pre-capitalist societies | Capital Studies|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 3/8/2021 18:00 | 3/8/2021 20:00 | |
| The Last Years of Karl Marx: A new reading group | An Intellectual Biography by Marcello Mustoan eight-week reading and discussion group with The Capital Studies Group of The MEP In the last years of his life, Karl Marx expanded his research in new directions—studying recent anthropological discoveries, analyzing communal forms of ownership in pre-capitalist societies, supporting the populist movement in Russia, and expressing critiques of colonial oppression in India, Ireland, Algeria, and Egypt. Between 1881 and 1883, he also traveled beyond Europe for the first and only time. Focusing on these last years of Marx’s life, this book dispels two key misrepresentations of his work: that Marx ceased to write late in life, and that he was a Eurocentric and economic thinker fixated on class conflict alone. With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. MARCELLO MUSTO is Associate Professor of Sociology at York University. His most recent books are Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018) and, as editor, The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Critical Interpretations (2020). All events and classes at The MEP are sliding scale. In addition, no one is every denied participation because of inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute to offset our costs at this time, please write to info@marxedproject to receive codes for entrance to this session or any other activity you would like to attend. The special book and class offers are for US and Puerto Rico only as the books are sent via Media Mail with the US Post Office. | With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx’s critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in non-capitalist countries. From Marx’s late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. | 1/3/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx-a-five-week-reading-group/2021-03-15/ | colonization|intellectual biography|Populism|Pre-capitalist societies | Capital Studies|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method | 3/15/2021 18:00 | 3/15/2021 20:00 | |
| Marx and Emancipatory Political Theory | MARX, ENGELS, MARXISMS SERIESpresentations and discussion with authorsGeorge Comninel, August Nimtz and Igor ShoikhedbrodThe Marx renaissance is underway on a global scale. Wherever the critique of capitalism re-emerges, there is an intellectual and political demand for new, critical engagements with Marxism. MARX, ENGELS, AND MARXISMS (edited by Marcello Musto & Terrell Carver, with Babak Amini, Francesca Antonini, Paula Rauhala & Kohei Saito as Assistant Editors) is a peer-reviewed series. It is broad — comprised of monographs, edited volumes, critical editions, reprints of old texts, as well as translations of books already published in other languages. These volumes come from a wide range of political perspectives, subject matters, academic disciplines and geographical areas, producing an eclectic and informative collection that appeals to a diverse and international audience. Main areas of focus include: the oeuvre of Marx and Engels, Marxist authors and traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries, labor and social movements, Marxist analyses of contemporary issues, and the reception of Marxism in the world. for information on the entire series: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14812  George Comninel’s Alienation and Emancipation in the Work of Karl Marx considers Marx’s ideas in relation to the social and political context in which he lived and wrote. It emphasizes both the continuity of his commitment to the cause of full human emancipation, and the role of his critique of political economy in conceiving history to be the history of class struggles. In Marxism versus Liberalism, August Nimtz presents a comparative real-time political analysis, providing convincing evidence to sustain two similarly audacious claims: firstly, that Karl Marx and Frederick Engels collectively had better democratic credentials than Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill; and secondly, that Vladimir Lenin had better democratic credentials than Max Weber and Woodrow Wilson. In Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism, Igor Shoikhedbrod offers a theoretical reconstruction of Karl Marx’s new materialist understanding of justice, legality, and rights through the vantage point of his widely invoked but generally misunderstood critique of liberalism. The book begins by reconstructing Marx’s conception of justice and rights through close textual interpretation and extrapolation. A central thesis of the book is that Marx regards justice as an essential feature of any society, including the emancipated society of the future. GEORGE COMNINEL is Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Politics at York University, Canada. He is also the author of Rethinking the French Revolution: Marxism and the Revisionist Challenge (1987). AUGUST NIMTZ is Professor is Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota, USA. He is also the author of Marx, Tocqueville, and Race in America: The ‘Absolute Democracy’ or ‘Defiled Republic’ (2003). IGOR SHOIKHEDBROD received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto, Canada. He is currently adjunct professor in the Ethics, Society & Law Program at Trinity College in the University of Toronto. All events are sliding scale: No one turned away for inability to pay. (If you cannot pay full amount, please email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for obtaining codes to participate.) | This panel will conside George Comninel’s “Alienation and Emancipation in the Work of Karl Marx”, “Marxism versus Liberalism” by August Nimtz and “Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism” by Igor Shoikhedbrod | 2/11/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-and-emancipatory-political-theory/ | Alienation|anti-liberalism|bourgeois democracy|class and race|Emancipation|Revolution | Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy|Socialism | 3/20/2021 13:30 | 3/20/2021 15:30 | |
| Friedrich Engels with Terrell Carver and Kaan Kangal | MARX, ENGELS, MARXISMS SERIESFriedrich Engels at 200 Engels Before Marx | All three author/editors celebrate the recent 200th birthday of Engels looking at his youthful works, his early relationship with Karl Marx, address controversy surrounding his Dialectics of Nature and give a broad reassessment of the importance of Engels pithing Marxisms, working class movements, science, philosophy and more. | 2/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/friedrich-engels-with-terrell-carver-kaan-kangal-and-kohei-saito/ | Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/24/2021 17:05 | 4/24/2021 19:30 | ||
| The Big Tech Monopolies and the State with Grace Blakeley | SOCIALIST REGISTER SERIES: Beyond Digital Capitalism As the effects of the coronavirus pandemic swept through the global economy, the average observer could have been forgiven for missing a critical piece of news: by May 2020, the combined market capitalization of the four largest US tech companies reached one fifth of the entire S&P 500. Four companies – Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Facebook – now account for 20 per cent of the combined value of the 500 largest US corporations – an unparalleled level of market concentration. Forty years these corporate entitites were either just beyond being plucky start-ups, or did not even exist. Monopolistic tendencies are not limited to the tech sector. In 1975, the largest 100 US companies accounted for nearly half of the earnings of all publicly listed companies; by 2015, their share reached 84 per cent. Capitalist corporations appear monopolistic when they are able to access the investment needed to gain total market dominance – and as the 21st Century has progressed, this has proven easier than ever, especially in big tech. The tech companies emerged in a world of falling profits and associated rising volatility in financial markets – both of which facilitated their access to investment. Many of these companies were initially either unprofitable or loss making, as they had not yet developed to a sufficient size to exploit the network effects that would provide the foundation for their monopoly-like power. As a result, they required significant amounts of upfront investment to maintain their operations and to scale up to reach a position of market dominance that would allow them to turn a profit. The most propitious time for these firms to access such investment was in the wake of a crisis that had depressed returns and when investors were desperately seeking out the next big thing. For the tech companies, this meant either the tech crisis of the early 2000s, when Google launched its IPO, or the financial crisis of 2008, when companies such as Facebook and Twitter went public. The cheap capital – in part a result of unorthodox monetary policy – swashing around the global economy in the wake of a financial crisis that had depressed returns everywhere provided the perfect conditions for these plucky tech companies to become the behemoths that we know today. Grace Blakeley is a staff writer at Tribune and author of Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialization All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you are unable to pay and would like to attend the event, please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com and a link with the URL will be sent to you for the link by which to join in for this event. | As the effects of the coronavirus pandemic swept through the global economy, the average observer could have been forgiven for missing a critical piece of news: by May 2020, the combined market capitalization of the four largest US tech companies reached one fifth of the entire S&P 500. Four companies – Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Facebook – now account for 20 per cent of the combined value of the 500 largest US corporations – an unparalleled level of market concentration. Forty years these corporate entitites were either just beyond being plucky start-ups, or did not even exist. | 2/15/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-big-tech-monopolies-and-the-state-with-grace-blakeley/ | Alphabet|Amazon|Big Tech|Facebook|Financialization|Google|Grace Blakeley|Socialist Register | automation|Class|Financialization|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/14/2021 14:00 | 3/14/2021 16:00 | |
| Reinventing the Welfare State with Ursula Huws (Pluto FireWorks Series) | Ursula Huws speaks with Todd Wolfson on creative ideas for reinventing the welfare state to address contemporary challenges in a session chaired by FireWorks Series editor, and Editorial Director at Pluto Press, David Castle. When faced with standard issue programs to restore the post-war era “good jobs” and welfare state, long-time organizing activist, researcher and scholar Ursula Huws comments “…most woke young people who have grown up in the early twenty-first century would, if transported back to the 1950s, probably feel themselves to be in a restrictive, class-bound, sexist, racist, homophobic hell.” This is a jumping off point for Huws new manifesto-like book on Reinventing the Welfare State: Digital Platforms and Public Policies. Join Ursula for a detailed online conversation this coming Sunday afternoon February 21 on casual work versus “platform work” under the regime of neo-liberal social policy and global corporations, the accompanying persistence of racial and gender inequality, and proposals for what we can do about it. Huws has been a remarkable thinker and engaging speaker on these matters for decades, and her approach as ever spans national policy as well as the new wave of grassroots struggles. In Reinventing the Welfare State: Digital Platforms and Public PoliciesUrsula Huws proposes a welfare state infused with social justice and equality, including a redistributive UBI, decommodification of platforms and universal workers’ rights. With positivity and rigour, she outlines a ‘digital welfare state’ for the 21st century, which would involve a repurposing of online platform technologies under public control to modernise and expand public services, and improve accessibility. Ursula Huws is Professor of Labor and Globalization at the University of Hertfordshire. She has been carrying out pioneering research on the economic, social and gender impacts of technological change, employment restructuring and the changing international division of labor since the 1970s, combining scholarship with activism and popular writing. Todd Wolfson — Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) and Co-Director of Media, Inequality & Chance Center (MIC) — researches the intersection of new media and contemporary social movements. Author of Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left (2014), Wolfson also co-edited The Great Refusal: Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements (2017). All events are sliding scale. Have made the presentation and book combination offer a special low price. No one is turned away for inability to pay If you cannot afford to pay, please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to receive the URL for the zoom link to attend this or any other class or event. | In “Reinventing the Welfare State: Digital Platforms and Public Policies” Ursula Huws proposes a welfare state infused with social justice and equality, including a redistributive UBI (Universal Basic Income), decommodification of platforms and also universal workers’ rights. With positivity and rigour, she outlines a ‘digital welfare state’ for the 21st century, which would involve a repurposing of online platform technologies under public control to modernize and expand public services, and improve accessibility. | 2/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reinventing-the-welfare-state-with-ursula-huws-pluto-fireworks-series/ | anti-austerity|automation|gig work|grassroots struggles|precocity|prosumer | Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/18/2021 14:00 | 4/18/2021 16:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 1, Special 4 week | Starting this Saturday there will be a new four-week session on Saturday evenings from 6 to 8 pm covering Chapter One of Volume One of Karl Marx’s Capital. All are welcome to attend. Register here on The MEP site. | 2/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-chapter-1-special-4-week/2021-03-06/ | Appearance|Capital|commodity|commodity fetishism|consciousness|Exchange|Exchange Value|labor|labor power|Reality|use value|value | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/20/2021 18:00 | 2/20/2021 20:00 | ||
| Empire’s Endgame with Gargi Bhattacharyya and co-authors including Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani and others | Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State by Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani, Kerem Nisancioglu, Kojo Koram, Dalia Gebrial, Nadine El-Enany and Luke de Noronha Moderated by Wilf Sullivan (Race Equality Officer, Trades Union Congress, London) Engaging with Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall movements, Empire’s Endgame offers an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalization, and a political vision that includes — rather than expels — in the face of crisis.  In this moment of profound overlapping crises, the landscape of politics and entitlement is rapidly remade. Several leading scholars powerfully intervene in debates on racial capitalism and political crisis in Britain. While the ‘hostile environment’ policy and Brexit referendum throw the centrality of race into sharp relief, discussions of racism have too often focus on individual behaviours. Bringing to the fore broad political and economic contextss, the authors trace ways in which empire’s legacies have been reshaped by global capitalism, the digital environment and instability in the nation-state. Gargi Bhattacharyya is Professor of Sociology, University of East London and author of Rethinking Racial Capitalism(2018), Dangerous Brown Men (2008) and Traffick (2005). Adam Elliott-Cooper is Research Associate in Social Sciences at Greenwich University (UK) and author of Black Resistance to British Policing (2021). Sita Balani is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture at King’s College, London and author of Deadly and Slick: How Sex Makes Race in Postcolonial Britain (2021). Kerem Nisancioglu is Lecturer in International Relations at SOAS, University of London, co-author of How the West Came to Rule (2015) and co-editor of Decolonising the University(2018). Kojo Koram is Lecturer at School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London and editor of The War on Drugs and the Global Color Line (2019). Dalia Gebrial is editor of a Historical Materialism special issue on identity politics and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2017). Nadine El-Enany and Luke de Noronha are co-authors too. All events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to receive the URL for the zoom link for this or any other event or class you would like to be a part of. | Engaging with Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall movements, “Empire’s Endgame: Racism and The British State” offers an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalization, and a political vision that includes — rather than expels — in the face of crisis. | 2/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/empires-endgame-with-gargi-bhattacharyya-and-co-authors-including-adam-elliott-cooper-sita-balani-and-others/ | BLM|British Racism|Brixton|Empire|Policing|Rhodes Must Fall | African American History|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Caribbean Studies|Emancipation|Labor History|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/7/2021 14:00 | 3/7/2021 16:30 | |
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control | Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control in US HistorySean Ahearn and the Revolutions Study Group4 more sessionsWhy is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies?There are two texts for these sessions: “Towards a Revolution in Labor History” (an unpublished manuscript by Theodore W. Allen now made available on line by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and The Southern Key: Class, Race and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s by Michael Goldfield.These two critical works challenge the way in which US labor history is currently understood and taught. Goldfield connects racial oppression, “white” blindness and “white” racial opportunism in the heyday of labor’s apparent greatest victories, to it’s post war defeats and subsequent rise of neo-liberalism. Allen views the exclusion of the 17th,18th,and 19th century ante-bellum African American chattel laborer from standard labor histories as an example of the “White Blindspot” which supports “white” labor opportunism. Connected to this is a misunderstanding of the ante-bellum southern plantation system as a non-capitalist mode of production. The racially oppressed and exploited chattel laborer, who produced the surplus value central to the growth of capitalism in North America, is thereby placed outside the purview of “labor history,” relegated to a pre- history, a Black history, a side show at best to the emergence of the factory system based on the waged European-American laborers in the 19th century. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed an in-depth study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Sean Ahearn is a long-time New York City activist, organizer, and instructor who has been thoroughly engaged with a study of the development of class in relationship to race from the time of the colonial settlers coming to the Americas to developments taking place during these days of late capital. These classes originate in New York City. If you are out of this timezone use this for reference: 6:30 – 8 PM (EST NYC) 11:30 PM – 1 AM (GMT) All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute but would like to attend this or other classes or events, please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain the URL for the codes to enter the on-line zoom sessions. | Why is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies? | 1/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history-white-supremacism-and-bourgeois-social-control/2021-05-13/ | racism|social control | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/13/2021 18:30 | 5/13/2021 20:00 | |
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control | Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control in US HistorySean Ahearn and the Revolutions Study Group4 more sessionsWhy is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies?There are two texts for these sessions: “Towards a Revolution in Labor History” (an unpublished manuscript by Theodore W. Allen now made available on line by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and The Southern Key: Class, Race and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s by Michael Goldfield.These two critical works challenge the way in which US labor history is currently understood and taught. Goldfield connects racial oppression, “white” blindness and “white” racial opportunism in the heyday of labor’s apparent greatest victories, to it’s post war defeats and subsequent rise of neo-liberalism. Allen views the exclusion of the 17th,18th,and 19th century ante-bellum African American chattel laborer from standard labor histories as an example of the “White Blindspot” which supports “white” labor opportunism. Connected to this is a misunderstanding of the ante-bellum southern plantation system as a non-capitalist mode of production. The racially oppressed and exploited chattel laborer, who produced the surplus value central to the growth of capitalism in North America, is thereby placed outside the purview of “labor history,” relegated to a pre- history, a Black history, a side show at best to the emergence of the factory system based on the waged European-American laborers in the 19th century. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed an in-depth study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Sean Ahearn is a long-time New York City activist, organizer, and instructor who has been thoroughly engaged with a study of the development of class in relationship to race from the time of the colonial settlers coming to the Americas to developments taking place during these days of late capital. These classes originate in New York City. If you are out of this timezone use this for reference: 6:30 – 8 PM (EST NYC) 11:30 PM – 1 AM (GMT) All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute but would like to attend this or other classes or events, please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain the URL for the codes to enter the on-line zoom sessions. | Why is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies? | 1/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history-white-supremacism-and-bourgeois-social-control/2021-05-20/ | racism|social control | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/20/2021 18:30 | 5/20/2021 20:00 | |
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control | Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control in US HistorySean Ahearn and the Revolutions Study Group4 more sessionsWhy is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies?There are two texts for these sessions: “Towards a Revolution in Labor History” (an unpublished manuscript by Theodore W. Allen now made available on line by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and The Southern Key: Class, Race and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s by Michael Goldfield.These two critical works challenge the way in which US labor history is currently understood and taught. Goldfield connects racial oppression, “white” blindness and “white” racial opportunism in the heyday of labor’s apparent greatest victories, to it’s post war defeats and subsequent rise of neo-liberalism. Allen views the exclusion of the 17th,18th,and 19th century ante-bellum African American chattel laborer from standard labor histories as an example of the “White Blindspot” which supports “white” labor opportunism. Connected to this is a misunderstanding of the ante-bellum southern plantation system as a non-capitalist mode of production. The racially oppressed and exploited chattel laborer, who produced the surplus value central to the growth of capitalism in North America, is thereby placed outside the purview of “labor history,” relegated to a pre- history, a Black history, a side show at best to the emergence of the factory system based on the waged European-American laborers in the 19th century. The Revolutions Study Group (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009. The groups has recently completed an in-depth study of W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. Sean Ahearn is a long-time New York City activist, organizer, and instructor who has been thoroughly engaged with a study of the development of class in relationship to race from the time of the colonial settlers coming to the Americas to developments taking place during these days of late capital. These classes originate in New York City. If you are out of this timezone use this for reference: 6:30 – 8 PM (EST NYC) 11:30 PM – 1 AM (GMT) All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you are unable to contribute but would like to attend this or other classes or events, please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain the URL for the codes to enter the on-line zoom sessions. | Why is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies? | 1/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history-white-supremacism-and-bourgeois-social-control/2021-05-27/ | racism|social control | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/27/2021 18:30 | 5/27/2021 20:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 1, Special 4 week | Starting this Saturday there will be a new four-week session on Saturday evenings from 6 to 8 pm covering Chapter One of Volume One of Karl Marx’s Capital. All are welcome to attend. Register here on The MEP site. | 2/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-chapter-1-special-4-week/2021-02-27/ | Appearance|Capital|commodity|commodity fetishism|consciousness|Exchange|Exchange Value|labor|labor power|Reality|use value|value | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/27/2021 18:00 | 2/27/2021 20:00 | ||
| Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 1, Special 4 week | Starting this Saturday there will be a new four-week session on Saturday evenings from 6 to 8 pm covering Chapter One of Volume One of Karl Marx’s Capital. All are welcome to attend. Register here on The MEP site. | 2/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-chapter-1-special-4-week/2021-03-06/ | Appearance|Capital|commodity|commodity fetishism|consciousness|Exchange|Exchange Value|labor|labor power|Reality|use value|value | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/6/2021 18:00 | 3/6/2021 20:00 | ||
| Capitalism and the Sea | The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern WorldAn 8-Week Reading Group convened with Fred MurphyThe global ocean serves as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for the modern capitalist economy. While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. We will read Liam Campling and Alejandro Colas’s new book Capitalism and the Sea, in which they analyze these and other sea-related phenomena through a historical and geographical lens.  Longtime socialist FRED MURPHY has led MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, and the history of capitalism since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. Since this course will be conducted during NYC Daylight Savings Time, the GMT times for these sessions will be 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm GMT. All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to request the URL for the zoom link for these sessions or other classes and events. | While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. | 2/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-the-sea/2021-06-07/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Extractivism|Globalization|Immigration|Pandemics|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/19/2021 13:00 | 4/19/2021 14:30 | ||
| Capitalism and the Sea | The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern WorldAn 8-Week Reading Group convened with Fred MurphyThe global ocean serves as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for the modern capitalist economy. While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. We will read Liam Campling and Alejandro Colas’s new book Capitalism and the Sea, in which they analyze these and other sea-related phenomena through a historical and geographical lens. Longtime socialist FRED MURPHY has led MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, and the history of capitalism since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. Since this course will be conducted during NYC Daylight Savings Time, the GMT times for these sessions will be 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm GMT. All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to request the URL for the zoom link for these sessions or other classes and events. | While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. | 2/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-the-sea/2021-06-07/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Extractivism|Globalization|Immigration|Pandemics|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 6/7/2021 13:00 | 6/7/2021 14:30 | ||
| Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois | with Sean Ahern2 more sessions through June 22On February 23, 1968, Martin Luther King, speaking in honor of W. E. B. Du Bois, had this to say about Black Reconstruction: “…Black Reconstruction was six years in writing but was 33 years in preparation…To understand why his study of the Reconstruction was a monumental achievement it is necessary to see it in context. White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high…. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Black Reconstruction provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” (p.353) These sessions will continue through to June 22. The suggested sliding scale fees are being reduced by 20-25%. SEAN AHERN is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the USPS, the transit industry and jn education. No one turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the links to join this group. | Black Reconstruction provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 9/19/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-in-america-by-w-e-b-du-bois/2021-06-15/ | African American History|American Literature|Classes/Events|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class | 6/15/2021 18:30 | 6/15/2021 20:00 | ||
| Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois | with Sean Ahern2 more sessions through June 22On February 23, 1968, Martin Luther King, speaking in honor of W. E. B. Du Bois, had this to say about Black Reconstruction: “…Black Reconstruction was six years in writing but was 33 years in preparation…To understand why his study of the Reconstruction was a monumental achievement it is necessary to see it in context. White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high…. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Black Reconstruction provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” (p.353) These sessions will continue through to June 22. The suggested sliding scale fees are being reduced by 20-25%. SEAN AHERN is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the USPS, the transit industry and jn education. No one turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the links to join this group. | Black Reconstruction provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 9/19/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-in-america-by-w-e-b-du-bois/2021-06-22/ | African American History|American Literature|Classes/Events|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class | 6/22/2021 18:30 | 6/22/2021 20:00 | ||
| Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly with Editor Peter Cole |  In the early twentieth century, when many US unions disgracefully excluded black and Asian workers, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) warmly welcomed people of color, in keeping with their emphasis on class solidarity and their bold motto: “An Injury to One Is an Injury to All!” Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly tells the story of one of the greatest heroes of the American working class.A brilliant union organizer and a humorous orator, Benjamin Fletcher (1890–1949) was a tremendously important and well-loved African American member of the IWW during its heyday. Fletcher helped found and lead Local 8 of the IWW’s Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union, unquestionably the most powerful interracial union of its era, taking a principled stand against all forms of xenophobia and exclusion. For years, acclaimed historian Peter Cole has carefully researched the life of Ben Fletcher, painstakingly uncovering a stunning range of documents related to this extraordinary man. Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly is the most comprehensive look at Fletcher ever to be published. It includes a detailed biographical sketch of his life and history, reminiscences by fellow workers who knew him, a chronicle of the IWW’s impressive decade-long run on the Philadelphia waterfront in which Fletcher played a pivotal role, and nearly all of his known writings and speeches, thus giving Fletcher’s timeless voice another opportunity to inspire a new generation of workers, organizers, and agitators. This revised and expanded second edition includes new materials such as facsimile reprints of two extremely rare pamphlets on racism from the early twentieth century, more information on his prison years and personal life, additional recollections from friends, greater consideration of Fletcher from a global perspective, and much more. “This stirring collection gives us the drama, largely in his own exciting words, of the life and work of black radical labor leader Ben Fletcher. It is a story of suffering, fighting, and organizing but also of thinking deeply and writing clearly about the social power of labor, and particularly of maritime workers, and the possibility of a world beyond racial division and class exploitation.” —David Roediger, author of Class, Race, and Marxism Peter Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University (USA) and a research associate in the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). Cole is the author of the award-winning Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia. He coedited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW. While the first edition of Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly was published by Charles H. Kerr Press, in 2006, the revised and much expanded second edition has now been published by PM Press. He also is the founder and co-director of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19). All events and classes are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain the URL of the zoom link for this event or any other class or event. | 2/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ben-fletcher-the-life-and-times-of-a-black-wobbly-with-editor-peter-cole/ | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Immigration|Labor History|Political Economy|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/11/2021 14:00 | 4/11/2021 16:00 | |||
| From Neoliberal Fashion to New Ways of Clothing with Jerónimo Montero Bressán | The past four decades have seen a tremendous transformation in how we clothe ourselves. The way clothes are produced, traded and sold today around the world reflects many of the problems today’s capitalism poses to the working classes, with deleterious consequences for the environment as well. Global supply chains, in which non-finished goods flow back and forth around the world so that brands and retailers can increase their profits, dominate the landscape of this industry. Between 1995 and 2005, the liberalization of trade allowed garment companies to pit workers worldwide against each other, providing the former with enormous savings in labor costs. After the 2008 financial crisis, growing competition and problems in the sphere of realization forced companies to continuously expand their marketing, notably by incorporating expensive digital technologies, while on the manufacturing side, costs were squeezed to the limit. In core countries, deregulation of labor markets through neoliberalization allowed manufacturers not only to employ low-wage labor in far-away countries, but to subcontract production to “local sweatshops,” which often employ migrants in situations of debt-peonage, forced labor, etc. in proximity to end markets, so that fast fashion retailers and brands can replenish their stores quickly and cheaply. In arguing that the fashion industry is increasingly unsustainable, economically and ecologically, Jerónimo Montero Bressán invites us to imagine a different way to organise production, distribution and consumption of clothing, starting from a brief series of strategic directions. JERÓNIMO MONTERO BRESSÁN is a researcher with the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Argentina. | The way clothes are produced, traded and sold today around the world reflects many of the problems today’s capitalism poses to the working classes, with deleterious consequences for the environment as well. Global supply chains, in which non-finished goods flow back and forth around the world so that brands and retailers can increase their profits, dominate the landscape of this industry. | 3/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-neoliberal-fashion-to-new-ways-of-clothing-with-jeronimo-montero-bressan/ | anti-austerity|apparel|neoliberal disaster|social reproduction | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Gender|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 3/30/2021 15:00 | 3/30/2021 17:00 | |
| Matters of State: Literature & Espionage | The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novels Why Spy Novels? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. The verisimilitude of spy novels written in the twentieth century is an integral part of the genre’s popularity; the genre often reflects political, economic, and cultural anxieties as well as showcasing advances in surveillance technology. You will see reference to The Human Factor by Graham Greene below. The group has read and discussed this novel during April. THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) • GRAHAM GREENE Greene aimed with this book to write a novel of espionage free from the violence that is more typical of the genre. Another theme Greene explored was Western capital’s hypocritical relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though some Western capitalists would often publicly oppose apartheid, those same holders of capital “simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and (or) communism.” A MAP OF BETRAYAL (2014) • HA JIN The protagonists of this novel occupy the “treacherous territory” of margins. Jin’s master spy is no 007 or George Smiley. What distinguishes Gary is his ordinariness, “his simple, casual fashion of conducting espionage.” A spare, haunting tale of conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries—China and the United States—and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. THE SYMPATHIZER (2015) • VIET THANH NGUYEN The anonymous narrator has an “acrobatic ability” that guides the reader through the contradictions of the Vietnam War and American identity. Set as a flashback in the coerced confession of a double agent, the book’s half-Vietnamese, half-French narrator recounts the fall of the US-allied South Vietnamese Government in 1975 and subsequent events as its top officials flee to American exile in Los Angeles. AMERICAN SPY (2018) • LAUREN WILKINSON It’s 1986, the tail end of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell has been tasked by the FBI with undermining Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communism has made him an American intervention target. The CIA wants Marie to ascertain how much Sankara knows about America’s involvement in his opposition, and possibly seduce him — Marie has misgivings, doubting the CIA’s motives, but accepts the job anyway. She doesn’t expect, however, to be won over by the revolutionary politician: “The way he could make you feel. It was like he saw a version of you that was even more perfect than the version you saw of yourself.” | WHY SPY NOVELS? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. | 3/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-06-17/ | Espionage|Matters of State|Spying | American Literature|China|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Radical Literature | 5/6/2021 19:00 | 5/6/2021 21:00 | |
| Matters of State: Literature & Espionage | The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novelsWhy Spy Novels? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. The verisimilitude of spy novels written in the twentieth century is an integral part of the genre’s popularity; the genre often reflects political, economic, and cultural anxieties as well as showcasing advances in surveillance technology. You will see reference to The Human Factor by Graham Greene below. The group has read and discussed this novel during April. THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) • GRAHAM GREENE Greene aimed with this book to write a novel of espionage free from the violence that is more typical of the genre. Another theme Greene explored was Western capital’s hypocritical relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though some Western capitalists would often publicly oppose apartheid, those same holders of capital “simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and (or) communism.” A MAP OF BETRAYAL (2014) • HA JIN The protagonists of this novel occupy the “treacherous territory” of margins. Jin’s master spy is no 007 or George Smiley. What distinguishes Gary is his ordinariness, “his simple, casual fashion of conducting espionage.” A spare, haunting tale of conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries—China and the United States—and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. THE SYMPATHIZER (2015) • VIET THANH NGUYEN The anonymous narrator has an “acrobatic ability” that guides the reader through the contradictions of the Vietnam War and American identity. Set as a flashback in the coerced confession of a double agent, the book’s half-Vietnamese, half-French narrator recounts the fall of the US-allied South Vietnamese Government in 1975 and subsequent events as its top officials flee to American exile in Los Angeles. AMERICAN SPY (2018) • LAUREN WILKINSON It’s 1986, the tail end of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell has been tasked by the FBI with undermining Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communism has made him an American intervention target. The CIA wants Marie to ascertain how much Sankara knows about America’s involvement in his opposition, and possibly seduce him — Marie has misgivings, doubting the CIA’s motives, but accepts the job anyway. She doesn’t expect, however, to be won over by the revolutionary politician: “The way he could make you feel. It was like he saw a version of you that was even more perfect than the version you saw of yourself.” | WHY SPY NOVELS? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. | 3/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-05-13/ | Espionage|Matters of State|Spying | American Literature|China|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Radical Literature | 5/13/2021 19:00 | 5/13/2021 21:00 | |
| Matters of State: Literature & Espionage | The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novelsWhy Spy Novels? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. The verisimilitude of spy novels written in the twentieth century is an integral part of the genre’s popularity; the genre often reflects political, economic, and cultural anxieties as well as showcasing advances in surveillance technology. You will see reference to The Human Factor by Graham Greene below. The group has read and discussed this novel during April. THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) • GRAHAM GREENE Greene aimed with this book to write a novel of espionage free from the violence that is more typical of the genre. Another theme Greene explored was Western capital’s hypocritical relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though some Western capitalists would often publicly oppose apartheid, those same holders of capital “simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and (or) communism.” A MAP OF BETRAYAL (2014) • HA JIN The protagonists of this novel occupy the “treacherous territory” of margins. Jin’s master spy is no 007 or George Smiley. What distinguishes Gary is his ordinariness, “his simple, casual fashion of conducting espionage.” A spare, haunting tale of conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries—China and the United States—and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. THE SYMPATHIZER (2015) • VIET THANH NGUYEN The anonymous narrator has an “acrobatic ability” that guides the reader through the contradictions of the Vietnam War and American identity. Set as a flashback in the coerced confession of a double agent, the book’s half-Vietnamese, half-French narrator recounts the fall of the US-allied South Vietnamese Government in 1975 and subsequent events as its top officials flee to American exile in Los Angeles. AMERICAN SPY (2018) • LAUREN WILKINSON It’s 1986, the tail end of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell has been tasked by the FBI with undermining Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communism has made him an American intervention target. The CIA wants Marie to ascertain how much Sankara knows about America’s involvement in his opposition, and possibly seduce him — Marie has misgivings, doubting the CIA’s motives, but accepts the job anyway. She doesn’t expect, however, to be won over by the revolutionary politician: “The way he could make you feel. It was like he saw a version of you that was even more perfect than the version you saw of yourself.” | WHY SPY NOVELS? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. | 3/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-05-20/ | Espionage|Matters of State|Spying | American Literature|China|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Radical Literature | 5/20/2021 19:00 | 5/20/2021 21:00 | |
| Matters of State: Literature & Espionage | The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novelsWhy Spy Novels? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. The verisimilitude of spy novels written in the twentieth century is an integral part of the genre’s popularity; the genre often reflects political, economic, and cultural anxieties as well as showcasing advances in surveillance technology. You will see reference to The Human Factor by Graham Greene below. The group has read and discussed this novel during April. THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) • GRAHAM GREENE Greene aimed with this book to write a novel of espionage free from the violence that is more typical of the genre. Another theme Greene explored was Western capital’s hypocritical relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though some Western capitalists would often publicly oppose apartheid, those same holders of capital “simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and (or) communism.” A MAP OF BETRAYAL (2014) • HA JIN The protagonists of this novel occupy the “treacherous territory” of margins. Jin’s master spy is no 007 or George Smiley. What distinguishes Gary is his ordinariness, “his simple, casual fashion of conducting espionage.” A spare, haunting tale of conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries—China and the United States—and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. THE SYMPATHIZER (2015) • VIET THANH NGUYEN The anonymous narrator has an “acrobatic ability” that guides the reader through the contradictions of the Vietnam War and American identity. Set as a flashback in the coerced confession of a double agent, the book’s half-Vietnamese, half-French narrator recounts the fall of the US-allied South Vietnamese Government in 1975 and subsequent events as its top officials flee to American exile in Los Angeles. AMERICAN SPY (2018) • LAUREN WILKINSON It’s 1986, the tail end of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell has been tasked by the FBI with undermining Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communism has made him an American intervention target. The CIA wants Marie to ascertain how much Sankara knows about America’s involvement in his opposition, and possibly seduce him — Marie has misgivings, doubting the CIA’s motives, but accepts the job anyway. She doesn’t expect, however, to be won over by the revolutionary politician: “The way he could make you feel. It was like he saw a version of you that was even more perfect than the version you saw of yourself.” | WHY SPY NOVELS? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. | 3/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-05-27/ | Espionage|Matters of State|Spying | American Literature|China|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Radical Literature | 5/27/2021 19:00 | 5/27/2021 21:00 | |
| Matters of State: Literature & Espionage | The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novelsWhy Spy Novels? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. The verisimilitude of spy novels written in the twentieth century is an integral part of the genre’s popularity; the genre often reflects political, economic, and cultural anxieties as well as showcasing advances in surveillance technology. You will see reference to The Human Factor by Graham Greene below. The group has read and discussed this novel during April. THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) • GRAHAM GREENE Greene aimed with this book to write a novel of espionage free from the violence that is more typical of the genre. Another theme Greene explored was Western capital’s hypocritical relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though some Western capitalists would often publicly oppose apartheid, those same holders of capital “simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and (or) communism.” A MAP OF BETRAYAL (2014) • HA JIN The protagonists of this novel occupy the “treacherous territory” of margins. Jin’s master spy is no 007 or George Smiley. What distinguishes Gary is his ordinariness, “his simple, casual fashion of conducting espionage.” A spare, haunting tale of conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries—China and the United States—and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. THE SYMPATHIZER (2015) • VIET THANH NGUYEN The anonymous narrator has an “acrobatic ability” that guides the reader through the contradictions of the Vietnam War and American identity. Set as a flashback in the coerced confession of a double agent, the book’s half-Vietnamese, half-French narrator recounts the fall of the US-allied South Vietnamese Government in 1975 and subsequent events as its top officials flee to American exile in Los Angeles. AMERICAN SPY (2018) • LAUREN WILKINSON It’s 1986, the tail end of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell has been tasked by the FBI with undermining Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communism has made him an American intervention target. The CIA wants Marie to ascertain how much Sankara knows about America’s involvement in his opposition, and possibly seduce him — Marie has misgivings, doubting the CIA’s motives, but accepts the job anyway. She doesn’t expect, however, to be won over by the revolutionary politician: “The way he could make you feel. It was like he saw a version of you that was even more perfect than the version you saw of yourself.” | WHY SPY NOVELS? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. | 3/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-06-03/ | Espionage|Matters of State|Spying | American Literature|China|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Radical Literature | 6/3/2021 19:00 | 6/3/2021 21:00 | |
| Matters of State: Literature & Espionage | The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novelsWhy Spy Novels? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. The verisimilitude of spy novels written in the twentieth century is an integral part of the genre’s popularity; the genre often reflects political, economic, and cultural anxieties as well as showcasing advances in surveillance technology. You will see reference to The Human Factor by Graham Greene below. The group has read and discussed this novel during April. THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) • GRAHAM GREENE Greene aimed with this book to write a novel of espionage free from the violence that is more typical of the genre. Another theme Greene explored was Western capital’s hypocritical relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though some Western capitalists would often publicly oppose apartheid, those same holders of capital “simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and (or) communism.” A MAP OF BETRAYAL (2014) • HA JIN The protagonists of this novel occupy the “treacherous territory” of margins. Jin’s master spy is no 007 or George Smiley. What distinguishes Gary is his ordinariness, “his simple, casual fashion of conducting espionage.” A spare, haunting tale of conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries—China and the United States—and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. THE SYMPATHIZER (2015) • VIET THANH NGUYEN The anonymous narrator has an “acrobatic ability” that guides the reader through the contradictions of the Vietnam War and American identity. Set as a flashback in the coerced confession of a double agent, the book’s half-Vietnamese, half-French narrator recounts the fall of the US-allied South Vietnamese Government in 1975 and subsequent events as its top officials flee to American exile in Los Angeles. AMERICAN SPY (2018) • LAUREN WILKINSON It’s 1986, the tail end of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell has been tasked by the FBI with undermining Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communism has made him an American intervention target. The CIA wants Marie to ascertain how much Sankara knows about America’s involvement in his opposition, and possibly seduce him — Marie has misgivings, doubting the CIA’s motives, but accepts the job anyway. She doesn’t expect, however, to be won over by the revolutionary politician: “The way he could make you feel. It was like he saw a version of you that was even more perfect than the version you saw of yourself.” | WHY SPY NOVELS? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. | 3/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-06-10/ | Espionage|Matters of State|Spying | American Literature|China|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Radical Literature | 6/10/2021 19:00 | 6/10/2021 21:00 | |
| Matters of State: Literature & Espionage | The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novelsWhy Spy Novels? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. The verisimilitude of spy novels written in the twentieth century is an integral part of the genre’s popularity; the genre often reflects political, economic, and cultural anxieties as well as showcasing advances in surveillance technology. You will see reference to The Human Factor by Graham Greene below. The group has read and discussed this novel during April. THE HUMAN FACTOR (1978) • GRAHAM GREENE Greene aimed with this book to write a novel of espionage free from the violence that is more typical of the genre. Another theme Greene explored was Western capital’s hypocritical relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though some Western capitalists would often publicly oppose apartheid, those same holders of capital “simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and (or) communism.” A MAP OF BETRAYAL (2014) • HA JIN The protagonists of this novel occupy the “treacherous territory” of margins. Jin’s master spy is no 007 or George Smiley. What distinguishes Gary is his ordinariness, “his simple, casual fashion of conducting espionage.” A spare, haunting tale of conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries—China and the United States—and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. THE SYMPATHIZER (2015) • VIET THANH NGUYEN The anonymous narrator has an “acrobatic ability” that guides the reader through the contradictions of the Vietnam War and American identity. Set as a flashback in the coerced confession of a double agent, the book’s half-Vietnamese, half-French narrator recounts the fall of the US-allied South Vietnamese Government in 1975 and subsequent events as its top officials flee to American exile in Los Angeles. AMERICAN SPY (2018) • LAUREN WILKINSON It’s 1986, the tail end of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell has been tasked by the FBI with undermining Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communism has made him an American intervention target. The CIA wants Marie to ascertain how much Sankara knows about America’s involvement in his opposition, and possibly seduce him — Marie has misgivings, doubting the CIA’s motives, but accepts the job anyway. She doesn’t expect, however, to be won over by the revolutionary politician: “The way he could make you feel. It was like he saw a version of you that was even more perfect than the version you saw of yourself.” | WHY SPY NOVELS? Spy novels emerged as a distinct genre around the time of World War I, coinciding with the creation of formal intelligence agencies in many countries. This was a period characterized by heightened concern on the part of rulers about national security, imperial strength, and the impending conflict of the Great War. Spy novels from the early twentieth century reflect these concerns, and generally feature secret agents and seemingly realistic tales of international intrigue. With the rise of fascism, spy novels shifted their focus to examine the dynamics of political movements within individual states, assessing their threats to the stability of the international political order. In these stories, the anxiety over the powerlessness of the individual is assuaged by the resourcefulness and ultimate success of exceptional or lucky individuals in confronting such harrowing problems as war, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. | 3/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-06-17/ | Espionage|Matters of State|Spying | American Literature|China|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Radical Literature | 6/17/2021 19:00 | 6/17/2021 21:00 | |
| Shifting Gears with Sean Sweeney and John Treat | Labor Strategies for Low-Cost Public Transit MobilitySean Sweeney and John TreatWriting in the 2021 Socialist Register, Sean Sweeney and John Treat call for a major shift in transport policy: a break from the model of development centered on private personal vehicles to one that places mass public transport at the center of future passenger mobility. The current approach – reliance on incentives and assurances to private investors – has failed miserably. While public transport has grown in many places, this has not even slowed the rise in transport-related emissions. Similarly, reliance on small electric vehicles (EVs) as a “replacement technology” for standard cars and trucks has reduced emphasis on minimizing unnecessary or unwanted mobility and exaggerated claims about the potential emissions benefits. Sean and John will take a global look at road transport to envision urban transport systems that are organized on a “public goods” basis. They argue that the incursions of private corporations such as Uber and Lyft could be repelled, at least partially, by improved access to high quality public transport. At the same time, given the car-dependent development of peri-urban and rural areas, and the likely expansion of urban space in the coming decades (especially in the Global South), advocates of public transport will want to explore how “occupying the platforms” through public car-sharing schemes might meet these needs as part of municipal or communally owned fleets. Reclaiming and expanding public transport can and should be part of a broader project to re-imagine neighborhoods, cities, ecosystems, systems of production, and circulation. Sean Sweeney is Director of the International Program for Labor, Climate, and Environment at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. John Treat is a writer, researcher, and organizer with Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. all events are sliding scale. no one is denied participation for inability to pay. please write info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to attend this or another event. | Sean and John will take a global look at road transport to envision urban transport systems that are organized on a “public goods” basis. They argue that the incursions of private corporations such as Uber and Lyft could be repelled, at least partially, by improved access to high quality public transport. At the same time, given the car-dependent development of peri-urban and rural areas, and the likely expansion of urban space in the coming decades (especially in the Global South), advocates of public transport will want to explore how “occupying the platforms” through public car-sharing schemes might meet these needs as part of municipal or communally owned fleets. | 3/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/shifting-gears-with-sean-sweeney-and-john-treat/ | Mobility|Public Transit | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Extractivism|Financialization|Globalization|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/6/2021 18:00 | 4/6/2021 20:00 | |
| Jesus Christ: Prince of Peace or King of Swords with Shane Mage | The events surrounding the ~30CE trial and execution in Roman-dominated Palestine of the man Y’shua (or Yehoshua—both names transliterate to Joshua), generally referred to as Jesus Christ, are considered well known by perhaps half or more of the population of this planet. The only sources of this supposed knowledge are the four Gospels named Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. Unfortunately, all these accounts were compiled, written, and edited some two generations—at the earliest—after the events they portray (and after the Jewish uprising of 67-70 had been crushed by Vespasian and Titus) by people none of whom claim to have personally known that man, nor to have witnessed any of the events described, nor to have heard any of the words they quote as stated by “Jesus,” nor to cite any testimony of actual or supposed witnesses of these events. Moreover, though the languages of the indigenous people involved were Aramaic and Hebrew, the Gospels are written in koiné Greek before their translation into contemporary languages. For the historian, therefore, these are (at best*) fourth-hand sources (original accounts—later retold among various persons—later recounted to the Gospel Writers—and then put, with unknown correspondence to their original form, into Greek). The Gospels, thus have absolutely no presumptive value as history. But neither are they pure fiction despite the patent absurdity of the whole Christian theology built upon them and their obviously falsified passages (especially the blood-libel of Jewish Deicide) designed to justify the inherently antisemitic nature of that Christian theology. The existence of the man Jesus is explicitly stated by the authoritative ancient historian Josephus. Archaeological excavations in and around Jerusalem have unearthed direct physical evidence for details of the gospel accounts, including the ossuaries (bone-boxes) containing the remnants of “Jesus” and his intimate family. Moreover, it has been established by biblical scholars over centuries that the gospels themselves were compiled from at least three different sources and that there were many other noncanonical “gospels” (compilations of sayings said to have been said by “Jesus”) of which the best-known is the so-called Gospel of Thomas. Therefore we are entitled as historians to believe that the Gospels, despite their total unreliability as a whole, do contain some information that is accurate and must, since they are our only real source, be used as the indispensable element for any historical reconstruction. My basic approach is what is called “*tendenz kritik*.” Because the texts are the only available source for an account of real historical events, their *general* outline of those events is to be taken as a roughly factual account of those events. Because they are permeated by ideological bias, such bias must always be taken into account and ruthlessly corrected or ejected to remove that bias. In the present case this bias is, of course, clearly expressed over millennia in the Pauline Christian doctrines. Likewise, any words attributed to Jesus must undergo the same critique. The actual words are often presented within a broader Pauline Christian verbal context. Only what is sufficiently concise or strikingly memorable to have been passed down over decades to the eventual compilers should be granted presumptive validity. *Nothing* theological can ever be taken as historical. Only arguably accurate material facts can underly any historical reconstruction. The Pilate Papers is my attempt at a version of such a speculative reconstruction. In it I do what (as far as I know) has not yet been tried by anyone—to present these events from an Imperial Roman point of view. It consists of reports to the Prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, from his supposed Roman secret-police official signing himself as M. Secundus, as transmitted to the office of Tiberius’s not-yet-purged Praetorian Prefect Aelius Sejanus with comments from Pilate himself. Shane Mage’s dissertation was on Marx’s theory of the tendential fall in the rate of profit (Columbia U. 1963). Shane taught economics and philosophy at Brooklyn Polytechnic U and Grand Valley State U. He was senior editor for social sciences at Collier’s Encyclopedia through 1994. Among Shane’s publications are a pamphlet “Velikovsky and his Critics;” articles on “Plato and the Catastrophist Tradition” and “Jeroboam and the Israelite Revolution” in KRONOS magazine; articles “Communism” and “Economic History of the USSR” in Collier’s Encyclopedia; and (unpublished still) “The Pilate Papers,” an essay presenting a “Roman” view of the gospel story. At present he is working on a novel (“The Seducation of a Femtaur—a Bead Game”) set in the present and near future with a philosophical theme and elements of science fiction and magical realism. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for a PDF of The Pilate Papers | The Gospels…have absolutely no presumptive value as history. But neither are they pure fiction despite the patent absurdity of the whole Christian theology built upon them and their obviously falsified passages (especially the blood-libel of Jewish Deicide) designed to justify the inherently antisemitic nature of that Christian theology. | 3/15/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/jesus-christ-prince-of-peace-or-king-of-swords-with-shane-mage/ | Ahistorical fiction|antiquity|Christianity|Cosmology|Mythology|Religiousity|Speculative origins of religion|Theology | Antiquity|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/2/2021 14:00 | 4/2/2021 16:30 | |
| Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (a close reading group) | Join us as we do a close reading of an innovative work by eight activist scholars who collaborate to bring us a powerful intervention in debates surrounding racial capitalism and political crisis in contemporary Britain. Discussions of racism too often focus on individual behaviors and prejudices, but Empire’s Endgame maps the complex relations between empire, racist culture, political economy, and the practices of a security-oriented state seeking legitimacy in times of unbearable economic uncertainty. While the book’s story unfolds in Britain, its lessons and warnings may well apply to the United States and many other crisis-ridden imperialist polities. The activist scholars who have contributed to Empire’s Endgame are Gargi Bhattacharyya, Professor of Sociology, University of East London and author of Rethinking Racial Capitalism (2018), Dangerous Brown Men (2008) and Traffick (2005). Adam Elliott-Cooper is Research Associate in Social Sciences at Greenwich University (UK) and author of Black Resistance to British Policing (2021). Sita Balani is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture at King’s College, London and author of Deadly and Slick: How Sex Makes Race in Postcolonial Britain (2021). Kerem Nisancioglu is Lecturer in International Relations at SOAS, University of London, co-author of How the West Came to Rule (2015) and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2018). Kojo Koram is Lecturer at School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London and editor of The War on Drugs and the Global Color Line (2019). Dalia Gebrial is editor of a Historical Materialism special issue on identity politics and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2017), Nadine El-Enany is Reader in Law at Birkbeck School of Law and has written (B)ordering Brtain: Law, Race and Empire (2020), and Luke de Noronha, Lecturer at University College London and has written Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica (2020). The tickets with class and book include shipping costs via Media Mail. The class and book offers are only good for orders in the US and Puerto Rico.The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting for more than four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who completed a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital, and will begin a new close reading group on the Grundrisse this April. | Empire’s Endgame maps the complex relations between empire, racist culture, political economy, and the practices of a security-oriented state seeking legitimacy in times of unbearable economic uncertainty. While the book’s story unfolds in Britain, its lessons and warnings may well apply to the United States and many other crisis-ridden imperialist polities. | 3/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/empires-endgame-racism-and-the-british-state-a-close-reading-group/2021-05-10/ | decolonization|Empire and Race|Post-colonialism | African American History|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 4/19/2021 17:00 | 4/19/2021 19:00 | |
| Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (a close reading group) | Join us as we do a close reading of an innovative work by eight activist scholars who collaborate to bring us a powerful intervention in debates surrounding racial capitalism and political crisis in contemporary Britain. Discussions of racism too often focus on individual behaviors and prejudices, but Empire’s Endgame maps the complex relations between empire, racist culture, political economy, and the practices of a security-oriented state seeking legitimacy in times of unbearable economic uncertainty. While the book’s story unfolds in Britain, its lessons and warnings may well apply to the United States and many other crisis-ridden imperialist polities. The activist scholars who have contributed to Empire’s Endgame are Gargi Bhattacharyya, Professor of Sociology, University of East London and author of Rethinking Racial Capitalism (2018), Dangerous Brown Men (2008) and Traffick (2005). Adam Elliott-Cooper is Research Associate in Social Sciences at Greenwich University (UK) and author of Black Resistance to British Policing (2021). Sita Balani is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture at King’s College, London and author of Deadly and Slick: How Sex Makes Race in Postcolonial Britain (2021). Kerem Nisancioglu is Lecturer in International Relations at SOAS, University of London, co-author of How the West Came to Rule (2015) and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2018). Kojo Koram is Lecturer at School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London and editor of The War on Drugs and the Global Color Line (2019). Dalia Gebrial is editor of a Historical Materialism special issue on identity politics and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2017), Nadine El-Enany is Reader in Law at Birkbeck School of Law and has written (B)ordering Brtain: Law, Race and Empire (2020), and Luke de Noronha, Lecturer at University College London and has written Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica (2020). The tickets with class and book include shipping costs via Media Mail. The class and book offers are only good for orders in the US and Puerto Rico.The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting for more than four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who completed a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital, and will begin a new close reading group on the Grundrisse this April. | Empire’s Endgame maps the complex relations between empire, racist culture, political economy, and the practices of a security-oriented state seeking legitimacy in times of unbearable economic uncertainty. While the book’s story unfolds in Britain, its lessons and warnings may well apply to the United States and many other crisis-ridden imperialist polities. | 3/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/empires-endgame-racism-and-the-british-state-a-close-reading-group/2021-04-26/ | decolonization|Empire and Race|Post-colonialism | African American History|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 4/26/2021 17:00 | 4/26/2021 19:00 | |
| Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (a close reading group) | Join us as we do a close reading of an innovative work by eight activist scholars who collaborate to bring us a powerful intervention in debates surrounding racial capitalism and political crisis in contemporary Britain. Discussions of racism too often focus on individual behaviors and prejudices, but Empire’s Endgame maps the complex relations between empire, racist culture, political economy, and the practices of a security-oriented state seeking legitimacy in times of unbearable economic uncertainty. While the book’s story unfolds in Britain, its lessons and warnings may well apply to the United States and many other crisis-ridden imperialist polities. The activist scholars who have contributed to Empire’s Endgame are Gargi Bhattacharyya, Professor of Sociology, University of East London and author of Rethinking Racial Capitalism (2018), Dangerous Brown Men (2008) and Traffick (2005). Adam Elliott-Cooper is Research Associate in Social Sciences at Greenwich University (UK) and author of Black Resistance to British Policing (2021). Sita Balani is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture at King’s College, London and author of Deadly and Slick: How Sex Makes Race in Postcolonial Britain (2021). Kerem Nisancioglu is Lecturer in International Relations at SOAS, University of London, co-author of How the West Came to Rule (2015) and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2018). Kojo Koram is Lecturer at School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London and editor of The War on Drugs and the Global Color Line (2019). Dalia Gebrial is editor of a Historical Materialism special issue on identity politics and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2017), Nadine El-Enany is Reader in Law at Birkbeck School of Law and has written (B)ordering Brtain: Law, Race and Empire (2020), and Luke de Noronha, Lecturer at University College London and has written Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica (2020). The tickets with class and book include shipping costs via Media Mail. The class and book offers are only good for orders in the US and Puerto Rico.The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting for more than four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who completed a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital, and will begin a new close reading group on the Grundrisse this April. | Empire’s Endgame maps the complex relations between empire, racist culture, political economy, and the practices of a security-oriented state seeking legitimacy in times of unbearable economic uncertainty. While the book’s story unfolds in Britain, its lessons and warnings may well apply to the United States and many other crisis-ridden imperialist polities. | 3/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/empires-endgame-racism-and-the-british-state-a-close-reading-group/2021-05-03/ | decolonization|Empire and Race|Post-colonialism | African American History|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 5/3/2021 17:00 | 5/3/2021 19:00 | |
| Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (a close reading group) | Join us as we do a close reading of an innovative work by eight activist scholars who collaborate to bring us a powerful intervention in debates surrounding racial capitalism and political crisis in contemporary Britain. Discussions of racism too often focus on individual behaviors and prejudices, but Empire’s Endgame maps the complex relations between empire, racist culture, political economy, and the practices of a security-oriented state seeking legitimacy in times of unbearable economic uncertainty. While the book’s story unfolds in Britain, its lessons and warnings may well apply to the United States and many other crisis-ridden imperialist polities. The activist scholars who have contributed to Empire’s Endgame are Gargi Bhattacharyya, Professor of Sociology, University of East London and author of Rethinking Racial Capitalism (2018), Dangerous Brown Men (2008) and Traffick (2005). Adam Elliott-Cooper is Research Associate in Social Sciences at Greenwich University (UK) and author of Black Resistance to British Policing (2021). Sita Balani is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture at King’s College, London and author of Deadly and Slick: How Sex Makes Race in Postcolonial Britain (2021). Kerem Nisancioglu is Lecturer in International Relations at SOAS, University of London, co-author of How the West Came to Rule (2015) and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2018). Kojo Koram is Lecturer at School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London and editor of The War on Drugs and the Global Color Line (2019). Dalia Gebrial is editor of a Historical Materialism special issue on identity politics and co-editor of Decolonising the University (2017), Nadine El-Enany is Reader in Law at Birkbeck School of Law and has written (B)ordering Brtain: Law, Race and Empire (2020), and Luke de Noronha, Lecturer at University College London and has written Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica (2020). The tickets with class and book include shipping costs via Media Mail. The class and book offers are only good for orders in the US and Puerto Rico.The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting for more than four years. We are a group of workers, students, activists and teachers who completed a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital, and will begin a new close reading group on the Grundrisse this April. | Empire’s Endgame maps the complex relations between empire, racist culture, political economy, and the practices of a security-oriented state seeking legitimacy in times of unbearable economic uncertainty. While the book’s story unfolds in Britain, its lessons and warnings may well apply to the United States and many other crisis-ridden imperialist polities. | 3/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/empires-endgame-racism-and-the-british-state-a-close-reading-group/2021-05-10/ | decolonization|Empire and Race|Post-colonialism | African American History|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 5/10/2021 17:00 | 5/10/2021 19:00 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-06-26/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/24/2021 15:30 | 4/24/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-05-01/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/1/2021 15:30 | 5/1/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-05-08/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/8/2021 15:30 | 5/8/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-05-15/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/15/2021 15:30 | 5/15/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-05-22/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/22/2021 15:30 | 5/22/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-05-29/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/29/2021 15:30 | 5/29/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-06-05/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/5/2021 15:30 | 6/5/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-06-12/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/12/2021 15:30 | 6/12/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-06-19/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/19/2021 15:30 | 6/19/2021 17:30 | |
| Capital, Volume 1, Part 3 | Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx | Chapters 16 through 25, will trace this development and reveals new dynamics and contradictions inherent to the logic of capitalist accumulation, culminating in Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. These developmental processes continue to be played out to this day and are witnessed in the immensity of wealth for a few at one pole of humanity, poverty at another, ruthless misuse and degradation of nature, and reduction of the human subject, the producing masses of real individuals, to an alienated object for capitalist exploitation. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-1-part-3/2021-06-26/ | capital accumulation|Infrastructure | automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/26/2021 15:30 | 6/26/2021 17:30 | |
| Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg: Unfinished Conversations with Revolutionary Women | This series is based on the new Rowan and Littlefield volume edited by Drucilla Cornell and Jane Anna Gordon. All participating session leaders are contributors to the forthcoming, Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg, which will be available here: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786614421/Creolizing-Rosa-Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg is unquestionably the most important historical European woman Marxist theorist. Significantly, for the purpose of creolizing the canon, she considered her continent and the globe from an Eastern Europe that was in constant flux and turmoil. From this relatively peripheral location, she was far less parochial than many of her more centrally located interlocutors and peers. Indeed, Luxemburg’s work touched on all the burning issues of her time and ours, from analysis of concrete revolutionary struggles, such as those in Poland and Russia, to showing through her analysis of primitive accumulation that anti-capitalist and anti-colonial struggles had to be intertwined, to considerations of state sovereignty, democracy, feminism, and racism. She thereby offered reflections that can usefully be taken up and reworked by writers facing continuous and new challenges to undo relations of exploitation through radical economic and social transformation. Luxemburg touches on all aspects of what constitutes revolution in her work; the authors of this volume show us that, by creolizing Luxemburg, we can open up new paths of understanding the complexities of revolution. This six-part seminar series explores some of her signal contributions—her argument that imperialism and primitive accumulation are endemic to capitalism; her prescient attention to racist super-exploitation in southern Africa; her insistence that socialism had to be created in and through the widest form of participatory democracy, including the mass strike; her reflections, with attention to the other-than-human world and incarceration, on transformative subjectivities—through putting them in conversation with Global Southern thinkers past and present. Unfinished Conversations among Revolutionary WomenPaget Henry, Brown University; Sandra Rein | The remaining five sessions of this seminar series explore some of her signal contributions—her argument that imperialism and primitive accumulation are endemic to capitalism; her prescient attention to racist super-exploitation in southern Africa; her insistence that socialism had to be created in and through the widest form of participatory democracy, including the mass strike; her reflections, with attention to the other-than-human world and incarceration, on transformative subjectivities—through putting them in conversation with Global Southern thinkers past and present. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/creolizing-rosa-luxemburg-a-six-part-series/2021-05-15/ | Creolization|Creolizing|Global South | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Antiquity|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Extractivism|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/15/2021 12:00 | 5/15/2021 16:30 | |
| Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg: Unfinished Conversations with Revolutionary Women | This series is based on the new Rowan and Littlefield volume edited by Drucilla Cornell and Jane Anna Gordon. All participating session leaders are contributors to the forthcoming, Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg, which will be available here: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786614421/Creolizing-Rosa-Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg is unquestionably the most important historical European woman Marxist theorist. Significantly, for the purpose of creolizing the canon, she considered her continent and the globe from an Eastern Europe that was in constant flux and turmoil. From this relatively peripheral location, she was far less parochial than many of her more centrally located interlocutors and peers. Indeed, Luxemburg’s work touched on all the burning issues of her time and ours, from analysis of concrete revolutionary struggles, such as those in Poland and Russia, to showing through her analysis of primitive accumulation that anti-capitalist and anti-colonial struggles had to be intertwined, to considerations of state sovereignty, democracy, feminism, and racism. She thereby offered reflections that can usefully be taken up and reworked by writers facing continuous and new challenges to undo relations of exploitation through radical economic and social transformation. Luxemburg touches on all aspects of what constitutes revolution in her work; the authors of this volume show us that, by creolizing Luxemburg, we can open up new paths of understanding the complexities of revolution. This six-part seminar series explores some of her signal contributions—her argument that imperialism and primitive accumulation are endemic to capitalism; her prescient attention to racist super-exploitation in southern Africa; her insistence that socialism had to be created in and through the widest form of participatory democracy, including the mass strike; her reflections, with attention to the other-than-human world and incarceration, on transformative subjectivities—through putting them in conversation with Global Southern thinkers past and present. Unfinished Conversations among Revolutionary WomenPaget Henry, Brown University; Sandra Rein | The remaining five sessions of this seminar series explore some of her signal contributions—her argument that imperialism and primitive accumulation are endemic to capitalism; her prescient attention to racist super-exploitation in southern Africa; her insistence that socialism had to be created in and through the widest form of participatory democracy, including the mass strike; her reflections, with attention to the other-than-human world and incarceration, on transformative subjectivities—through putting them in conversation with Global Southern thinkers past and present. | 3/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/creolizing-rosa-luxemburg-a-six-part-series/2021-05-15/ | Creolization|Creolizing|Global South | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Antiquity|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Extractivism|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/15/2021 14:00 | 5/15/2021 16:00 | |
| Grundrisse | Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in his notes of 1857-58 written during the first global economic crisis. Undiscovered for nearly fifty years and with only a few copies reaching the West from a limited 1939-40 publication in the USSR, these notes were first published in English as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy in 1973. In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. Subsequent sessions on the chapter on capital will comprise two additional following terms. We will be using the current Penguin edition. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on and off for seven years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of the Grundrisse and then Volume One through Three of Capital. We are using the paperback Penguin edition featuring a foreword by Martin Nicolaus. These first sessions conclude July 24. There will be a two week break with no sessions July 31 or August 7. A continuing Grundrisse group will then meet from August 14 through November 6, with no session during the Labor Day Weekend. All event and classes are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more info. | In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital that dominated much of the rest of his life. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. | 3/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse/2021-07-24/ | Marx’s Notebooks|Money and capital | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 6/19/2021 11:30 | 6/19/2021 13:30 | |
| The Hour of the Furnaces: A film screening with discussion | The Hour of the Furnaces | The Hour of the Furnaces is a three-part film which analyzes the severe neocolonial situation of 1960s Argentina, radical wings of Peronism, and the role of violence in the national liberation process. Part 1, Notes and Testimonies on Neocolonialism focuses on the everyday violence of the Argentine, employing a Marxist analysis between quotes from Martí, Fanon, Césaire, Che, Mariátegui, and other revolutionary figures. | 3/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-hour-of-the-furnaces-a-film-screening-with-discussion/ | Argentina|Film_stream|nationalism|neocolonialism|peronism | Anti-colonialism|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group | 4/23/2021 19:30 | 4/23/2021 21:30 | |
| The MEP Bookstore, Winter/Spring 2021—Books with shipping included (US and Puerto Rico only) | These books are being offered at a discount to all of The MEP community with prices including books and shipping. Each book listed here is part of or related to a presentation, reading group or series of presentations both ongoing and beginning during the Winter term of 2021. Descriptions of books are either in descriptions on the site or will be described on the site shortly. A People’s Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier Class, Party and Revolution, A Socialist Register Reader The Last Years of Karl Marx by Marcello Musto Marx Dead and Alive by Andy Merrifield Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living Socialist Register 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia: New Ways of Living Pluto’s FireWorks Series: Pandemic Solidarity, edited by Marina Sitrin and Colectiva Sembrar, Exploring Degrowth by Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson, Reinventing the Welfare State by Ursula Huws, and Empire’s Endgame with contributions from Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani and more. The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks Voices of the Paris Commune translated by Mitch Abidor Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly, edited by Peter Cole BookMarx Bookmarks Unfortunately, we cannot calculate postage outside of the United States so the combined price is only good for mailing addresses in the United States. If you would like to calculate the cost of book and shipping to another country, write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com indicating your interest and what you estimate postage will be. | Books that will be used during the Winter of 2021 sessions—good for a lifetime of learning. The Pluto FireWorks series and The Brutish Museums have just been added. | 12/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-mep-bookstore-january-2021-term-books-with-shipping-included/1970-01-01/ | |||||
| New York City and the Experience of Modernity | with Thomas WensingMr. Perry flicked at the burdock leaves with his cane. The real-estate agent was pleading in a singsong voice: “I dont mind telling you, Mr. Perry, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. […] In six months I can virtually guarantee that these lots will have doubled in value.” — Dos Passos, John; Manhattan Transfer, Penguin Books, Inc New York, 1925, first penguin books edition 1946, p.11-12  This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities.Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result. The invention of new materials and new technologies stimulated new forms, structures, typologies, and — in the most optimistic accounts — new forms of living. In this formal reading the historian looks at the artefacts produced by these forces as cultural evidence: railway stations, factories, powerplants and switching stations, dams, canals and railway lines, skyscrapers, tenements, and department stores, are all comparatively assessed, but rarely is the subjective experience of these spaces and landscapes considered. The United States traditionally has had a fraught relationship with its cities in both a positive and a negative sense. Urban areas were, and are, pictured as alleged dens of vice, disease, and social corruption, while others project utopian aspirations onto the city which are hard to fulfil in the best of circumstances. Even social science, which intends to accurately describe the effects of economic change on the social fabric, lacks by nature the discursive framework to communicate the emotive impact of these processes on individual subjects. —Walter Siebel; Die Kultur der Stadt, Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin, 2015, 2nd print, 2016, p.39-40 Walter Siebel sees literary studies as a necessary complement to the social sciences, to offer necessary detail to the abstraction of numbers. In this semester the course participants will be presented with multiple views of the same topic; one drawn from the professional literature, and one from fiction or biography. Two datasets are compared: that of sociologists, urban planners, geographers, and architects, with that of the subjective vantage point of the biographical account or the fictional character. Writers and novelists have been able to direct the gaze at groups which have been excluded from the path of progress, – as it was defined and constricted by society – to express diverging meanings to life in the metropolis. Theirs were often minority views, but in expressing them, they were able to carve out space for the ‘other’, and they have expanded the conversation and imagination in indelible ways. A question which looms large in this seminar is the relationship between individual agency and collective action. The seminar encourages the expression of personal, familial, local, and ethnic explorations and to tie these to larger societal trends. —Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1982, Verso, London, Brooklyn, 2010, p.346-347. Each week will consist of a visual presentation, a related lecture with group discussion. A syllabus will be provided upon registration. Photos by Ilsa Bing. Thomas Wensing is a Dutch architect who teaches architecture and architectural history at Kean University in New Jersey. He writes regularly on the intersection of architecture and politics. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=11420 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | ||||
| New York City and the Experience of Modernity | with Thomas Wensing2 MORE SESSIONSMr. Perry flicked at the burdock leaves with his cane. The real-estate agent was pleading in a singsong voice: “I dont mind telling you, Mr. Perry, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. […] In six months I can virtually guarantee that these lots will have doubled in value.” — Dos Passos, John; Manhattan Transfer, Penguin Books, Inc New York, 1925, first penguin books edition 1946, p.11-12  This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result. The invention of new materials and new technologies stimulated new forms, structures, typologies, and — in the most optimistic accounts — new forms of living. In this formal reading the historian looks at the artefacts produced by these forces as cultural evidence: railway stations, factories, powerplants and switching stations, dams, canals and railway lines, skyscrapers, tenements, and department stores, are all comparatively assessed, but rarely is the subjective experience of these spaces and landscapes considered. The United States traditionally has had a fraught relationship with its cities in both a positive and a negative sense. Urban areas were, and are, pictured as alleged dens of vice, disease, and social corruption, while others project utopian aspirations onto the city which are hard to fulfil in the best of circumstances. Even social science, which intends to accurately describe the effects of economic change on the social fabric, lacks by nature the discursive framework to communicate the emotive impact of these processes on individual subjects. —Walter Siebel; Die Kultur der Stadt, Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin, 2015, 2nd print, 2016, p.39-40 Walter Siebel sees literary studies as a necessary complement to the social sciences, to offer necessary detail to the abstraction of numbers. In this semester the course participants will be presented with multiple views of the same topic; one drawn from the professional literature, and one from fiction or biography. Two datasets are compared: that of sociologists, urban planners, geographers, and architects, with that of the subjective vantage point of the biographical account or the fictional character. Writers and novelists have been able to direct the gaze at groups which have been excluded from the path of progress, – as it was defined and constricted by society – to express diverging meanings to life in the metropolis. Theirs were often minority views, but in expressing them, they were able to carve out space for the ‘other’, and they have expanded the conversation and imagination in indelible ways. A question which looms large in this seminar is the relationship between individual agency and collective action. The seminar encourages the expression of personal, familial, local, and ethnic explorations and to tie these to larger societal trends. —Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1982, Verso, London, Brooklyn, 2010, p.346-347. Each week will consist of a visual presentation, a related lecture with group discussion. Thomas Wensing is a Dutch architect who teaches architecture and architectural history at Kean University in NJ. He writes regularly on the intersection of architecture and politics. 5:30 to 7:30 pm US DST • 10:30 pm to 12:30 am (GMT) | This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result… | 4/1/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-york-city-and-the-experience-of-modernity-8-week-session/2021-06-11/ | housing|Metropolis|modernity|planning|Siebelt|Urban living | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Globalization|historical materialism|Housing|Immigration|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/7/2021 17:30 | 5/7/2021 19:30 | |
| New York City and the Experience of Modernity | with Thomas Wensing2 MORE SESSIONSMr. Perry flicked at the burdock leaves with his cane. The real-estate agent was pleading in a singsong voice: “I dont mind telling you, Mr. Perry, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. […] In six months I can virtually guarantee that these lots will have doubled in value.” — Dos Passos, John; Manhattan Transfer, Penguin Books, Inc New York, 1925, first penguin books edition 1946, p.11-12 This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result. The invention of new materials and new technologies stimulated new forms, structures, typologies, and — in the most optimistic accounts — new forms of living. In this formal reading the historian looks at the artefacts produced by these forces as cultural evidence: railway stations, factories, powerplants and switching stations, dams, canals and railway lines, skyscrapers, tenements, and department stores, are all comparatively assessed, but rarely is the subjective experience of these spaces and landscapes considered. The United States traditionally has had a fraught relationship with its cities in both a positive and a negative sense. Urban areas were, and are, pictured as alleged dens of vice, disease, and social corruption, while others project utopian aspirations onto the city which are hard to fulfil in the best of circumstances. Even social science, which intends to accurately describe the effects of economic change on the social fabric, lacks by nature the discursive framework to communicate the emotive impact of these processes on individual subjects. —Walter Siebel; Die Kultur der Stadt, Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin, 2015, 2nd print, 2016, p.39-40 Walter Siebel sees literary studies as a necessary complement to the social sciences, to offer necessary detail to the abstraction of numbers. In this semester the course participants will be presented with multiple views of the same topic; one drawn from the professional literature, and one from fiction or biography. Two datasets are compared: that of sociologists, urban planners, geographers, and architects, with that of the subjective vantage point of the biographical account or the fictional character. Writers and novelists have been able to direct the gaze at groups which have been excluded from the path of progress, – as it was defined and constricted by society – to express diverging meanings to life in the metropolis. Theirs were often minority views, but in expressing them, they were able to carve out space for the ‘other’, and they have expanded the conversation and imagination in indelible ways. A question which looms large in this seminar is the relationship between individual agency and collective action. The seminar encourages the expression of personal, familial, local, and ethnic explorations and to tie these to larger societal trends. —Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1982, Verso, London, Brooklyn, 2010, p.346-347. Each week will consist of a visual presentation, a related lecture with group discussion. Thomas Wensing is a Dutch architect who teaches architecture and architectural history at Kean University in NJ. He writes regularly on the intersection of architecture and politics. 5:30 to 7:30 pm US DST • 10:30 pm to 12:30 am (GMT) | This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result… | 4/1/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-york-city-and-the-experience-of-modernity-8-week-session/2021-05-14/ | housing|Metropolis|modernity|planning|Siebelt|Urban living | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Globalization|historical materialism|Housing|Immigration|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/14/2021 17:30 | 5/14/2021 19:30 | |
| New York City and the Experience of Modernity | with Thomas Wensing2 MORE SESSIONSMr. Perry flicked at the burdock leaves with his cane. The real-estate agent was pleading in a singsong voice: “I dont mind telling you, Mr. Perry, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. […] In six months I can virtually guarantee that these lots will have doubled in value.” — Dos Passos, John; Manhattan Transfer, Penguin Books, Inc New York, 1925, first penguin books edition 1946, p.11-12 This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result. The invention of new materials and new technologies stimulated new forms, structures, typologies, and — in the most optimistic accounts — new forms of living. In this formal reading the historian looks at the artefacts produced by these forces as cultural evidence: railway stations, factories, powerplants and switching stations, dams, canals and railway lines, skyscrapers, tenements, and department stores, are all comparatively assessed, but rarely is the subjective experience of these spaces and landscapes considered. The United States traditionally has had a fraught relationship with its cities in both a positive and a negative sense. Urban areas were, and are, pictured as alleged dens of vice, disease, and social corruption, while others project utopian aspirations onto the city which are hard to fulfil in the best of circumstances. Even social science, which intends to accurately describe the effects of economic change on the social fabric, lacks by nature the discursive framework to communicate the emotive impact of these processes on individual subjects. —Walter Siebel; Die Kultur der Stadt, Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin, 2015, 2nd print, 2016, p.39-40 Walter Siebel sees literary studies as a necessary complement to the social sciences, to offer necessary detail to the abstraction of numbers. In this semester the course participants will be presented with multiple views of the same topic; one drawn from the professional literature, and one from fiction or biography. Two datasets are compared: that of sociologists, urban planners, geographers, and architects, with that of the subjective vantage point of the biographical account or the fictional character. Writers and novelists have been able to direct the gaze at groups which have been excluded from the path of progress, – as it was defined and constricted by society – to express diverging meanings to life in the metropolis. Theirs were often minority views, but in expressing them, they were able to carve out space for the ‘other’, and they have expanded the conversation and imagination in indelible ways. A question which looms large in this seminar is the relationship between individual agency and collective action. The seminar encourages the expression of personal, familial, local, and ethnic explorations and to tie these to larger societal trends. —Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1982, Verso, London, Brooklyn, 2010, p.346-347. Each week will consist of a visual presentation, a related lecture with group discussion. Thomas Wensing is a Dutch architect who teaches architecture and architectural history at Kean University in NJ. He writes regularly on the intersection of architecture and politics. 5:30 to 7:30 pm US DST • 10:30 pm to 12:30 am (GMT) | This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result… | 4/1/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-york-city-and-the-experience-of-modernity-8-week-session/2021-05-21/ | housing|Metropolis|modernity|planning|Siebelt|Urban living | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Globalization|historical materialism|Housing|Immigration|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/21/2021 17:30 | 5/21/2021 19:30 | |
| New York City and the Experience of Modernity | with Thomas Wensing2 MORE SESSIONSMr. Perry flicked at the burdock leaves with his cane. The real-estate agent was pleading in a singsong voice: “I dont mind telling you, Mr. Perry, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. […] In six months I can virtually guarantee that these lots will have doubled in value.” — Dos Passos, John; Manhattan Transfer, Penguin Books, Inc New York, 1925, first penguin books edition 1946, p.11-12 This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result. The invention of new materials and new technologies stimulated new forms, structures, typologies, and — in the most optimistic accounts — new forms of living. In this formal reading the historian looks at the artefacts produced by these forces as cultural evidence: railway stations, factories, powerplants and switching stations, dams, canals and railway lines, skyscrapers, tenements, and department stores, are all comparatively assessed, but rarely is the subjective experience of these spaces and landscapes considered. The United States traditionally has had a fraught relationship with its cities in both a positive and a negative sense. Urban areas were, and are, pictured as alleged dens of vice, disease, and social corruption, while others project utopian aspirations onto the city which are hard to fulfil in the best of circumstances. Even social science, which intends to accurately describe the effects of economic change on the social fabric, lacks by nature the discursive framework to communicate the emotive impact of these processes on individual subjects. —Walter Siebel; Die Kultur der Stadt, Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin, 2015, 2nd print, 2016, p.39-40 Walter Siebel sees literary studies as a necessary complement to the social sciences, to offer necessary detail to the abstraction of numbers. In this semester the course participants will be presented with multiple views of the same topic; one drawn from the professional literature, and one from fiction or biography. Two datasets are compared: that of sociologists, urban planners, geographers, and architects, with that of the subjective vantage point of the biographical account or the fictional character. Writers and novelists have been able to direct the gaze at groups which have been excluded from the path of progress, – as it was defined and constricted by society – to express diverging meanings to life in the metropolis. Theirs were often minority views, but in expressing them, they were able to carve out space for the ‘other’, and they have expanded the conversation and imagination in indelible ways. A question which looms large in this seminar is the relationship between individual agency and collective action. The seminar encourages the expression of personal, familial, local, and ethnic explorations and to tie these to larger societal trends. —Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1982, Verso, London, Brooklyn, 2010, p.346-347. Each week will consist of a visual presentation, a related lecture with group discussion. Thomas Wensing is a Dutch architect who teaches architecture and architectural history at Kean University in NJ. He writes regularly on the intersection of architecture and politics. 5:30 to 7:30 pm US DST • 10:30 pm to 12:30 am (GMT) | This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result… | 4/1/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-york-city-and-the-experience-of-modernity-8-week-session/2021-05-28/ | housing|Metropolis|modernity|planning|Siebelt|Urban living | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Globalization|historical materialism|Housing|Immigration|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | “2021-05-28 17:30:00” | 5/28/2021 19:30 | |
| New York City and the Experience of Modernity | with Thomas Wensing2 MORE SESSIONSMr. Perry flicked at the burdock leaves with his cane. The real-estate agent was pleading in a singsong voice: “I dont mind telling you, Mr. Perry, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. […] In six months I can virtually guarantee that these lots will have doubled in value.” — Dos Passos, John; Manhattan Transfer, Penguin Books, Inc New York, 1925, first penguin books edition 1946, p.11-12 This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result. The invention of new materials and new technologies stimulated new forms, structures, typologies, and — in the most optimistic accounts — new forms of living. In this formal reading the historian looks at the artefacts produced by these forces as cultural evidence: railway stations, factories, powerplants and switching stations, dams, canals and railway lines, skyscrapers, tenements, and department stores, are all comparatively assessed, but rarely is the subjective experience of these spaces and landscapes considered. The United States traditionally has had a fraught relationship with its cities in both a positive and a negative sense. Urban areas were, and are, pictured as alleged dens of vice, disease, and social corruption, while others project utopian aspirations onto the city which are hard to fulfil in the best of circumstances. Even social science, which intends to accurately describe the effects of economic change on the social fabric, lacks by nature the discursive framework to communicate the emotive impact of these processes on individual subjects. —Walter Siebel; Die Kultur der Stadt, Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin, 2015, 2nd print, 2016, p.39-40 Walter Siebel sees literary studies as a necessary complement to the social sciences, to offer necessary detail to the abstraction of numbers. In this semester the course participants will be presented with multiple views of the same topic; one drawn from the professional literature, and one from fiction or biography. Two datasets are compared: that of sociologists, urban planners, geographers, and architects, with that of the subjective vantage point of the biographical account or the fictional character. Writers and novelists have been able to direct the gaze at groups which have been excluded from the path of progress, – as it was defined and constricted by society – to express diverging meanings to life in the metropolis. Theirs were often minority views, but in expressing them, they were able to carve out space for the ‘other’, and they have expanded the conversation and imagination in indelible ways. A question which looms large in this seminar is the relationship between individual agency and collective action. The seminar encourages the expression of personal, familial, local, and ethnic explorations and to tie these to larger societal trends. —Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1982, Verso, London, Brooklyn, 2010, p.346-347. Each week will consist of a visual presentation, a related lecture with group discussion. Thomas Wensing is a Dutch architect who teaches architecture and architectural history at Kean University in NJ. He writes regularly on the intersection of architecture and politics. 5:30 to 7:30 pm US DST • 10:30 pm to 12:30 am (GMT) | This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result… | 4/1/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-york-city-and-the-experience-of-modernity-8-week-session/2021-06-04/ | housing|Metropolis|modernity|planning|Siebelt|Urban living | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Globalization|historical materialism|Housing|Immigration|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/4/2021 17:30 | 6/4/2021 19:30 | |
| New York City and the Experience of Modernity | with Thomas Wensing2 MORE SESSIONSMr. Perry flicked at the burdock leaves with his cane. The real-estate agent was pleading in a singsong voice: “I dont mind telling you, Mr. Perry, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. […] In six months I can virtually guarantee that these lots will have doubled in value.” — Dos Passos, John; Manhattan Transfer, Penguin Books, Inc New York, 1925, first penguin books edition 1946, p.11-12 This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result. The invention of new materials and new technologies stimulated new forms, structures, typologies, and — in the most optimistic accounts — new forms of living. In this formal reading the historian looks at the artefacts produced by these forces as cultural evidence: railway stations, factories, powerplants and switching stations, dams, canals and railway lines, skyscrapers, tenements, and department stores, are all comparatively assessed, but rarely is the subjective experience of these spaces and landscapes considered. The United States traditionally has had a fraught relationship with its cities in both a positive and a negative sense. Urban areas were, and are, pictured as alleged dens of vice, disease, and social corruption, while others project utopian aspirations onto the city which are hard to fulfil in the best of circumstances. Even social science, which intends to accurately describe the effects of economic change on the social fabric, lacks by nature the discursive framework to communicate the emotive impact of these processes on individual subjects. —Walter Siebel; Die Kultur der Stadt, Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin, 2015, 2nd print, 2016, p.39-40 Walter Siebel sees literary studies as a necessary complement to the social sciences, to offer necessary detail to the abstraction of numbers. In this semester the course participants will be presented with multiple views of the same topic; one drawn from the professional literature, and one from fiction or biography. Two datasets are compared: that of sociologists, urban planners, geographers, and architects, with that of the subjective vantage point of the biographical account or the fictional character. Writers and novelists have been able to direct the gaze at groups which have been excluded from the path of progress, – as it was defined and constricted by society – to express diverging meanings to life in the metropolis. Theirs were often minority views, but in expressing them, they were able to carve out space for the ‘other’, and they have expanded the conversation and imagination in indelible ways. A question which looms large in this seminar is the relationship between individual agency and collective action. The seminar encourages the expression of personal, familial, local, and ethnic explorations and to tie these to larger societal trends. —Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1982, Verso, London, Brooklyn, 2010, p.346-347. Each week will consist of a visual presentation, a related lecture with group discussion. Thomas Wensing is a Dutch architect who teaches architecture and architectural history at Kean University in NJ. He writes regularly on the intersection of architecture and politics. 5:30 to 7:30 pm US DST • 10:30 pm to 12:30 am (GMT) | This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. Modernity is a historical force. It is messy. In architecture history modernity is usually narrated as an interplay between the combined forces of the Industrial Revolution and capital, with social upheaval, explosive population growth and immigration as its result… | 4/1/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-york-city-and-the-experience-of-modernity-8-week-session/2021-06-11/ | housing|Metropolis|modernity|planning|Siebelt|Urban living | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Globalization|historical materialism|Housing|Immigration|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/11/2021 17:30 | 6/11/2021 19:30 | |
| Introducing Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg with Drucilla Cornell and Jane Gordon | “I Have A Thousand More Things I Want To Say To You.”An introduction to Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg with | Rosa Luxemburg offered reflections that can usefully be taken up and reworked by writers facing continuous and new challenges to undo relations of exploitation through radical economic and social transformation Luxemburg touches on all aspects of what constitutes revolution in her work; the authors of this volume show us that, by creolizing Luxemburg, we can open up new understanding of the complexities of revolution. | 4/7/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/introducing-creolizing-rosa-luxemburg-with-drucilla-cornell-and-jane-gordon/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Antiquity|British Imperialism|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Globalization|historical materialism|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/10/2021 14:05 | 4/10/2021 16:00 | ||
| Start Early, Stay Late: Planning for Care in Old Age | Socialist Register 2021 authors Pat and Hugh ArmstrongCovid-19 has exposed too many weaknesses in the neoliberal capitalist system to count, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable. For 10 years our international, interdisciplinary research team has been documenting the profound weaknesses in nursing home care within Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the US. Many of the current deficits in resident care originate in various forms of privatization central to neoliberalism. Especially in Canada, the UK, and the US, nursing homes that are heavily funded by the public purse have been handed over to corporations, providing them with guaranteed pay and often guaranteed full houses. The lines between for-profit and not have become increasingly blurred by various neoliberal strategies. One of these involves non-profit and state-owned homes contracting out services to for-profit firms as – in denial of the literature on the determinants of health – services such as food, housekeeping, and laundry have been defined out of care and dismissed as ancillary. This contracting out has not only undermined teamwork, but has also resulted in poor food, inadequate cleaning, and limited laundry – all of which threaten health. At the same time, fewer and fewer spaces are available in these homes with government funding. The result is twofold. All those who manage to get into these homes have high care needs, and those who cannot are either forced into the for-profit sector or rely more on unpaid care, most of which is provided by women. For too many, neither of these is an option. Another strategy blurring the lines is the promotion of for-profit managerial strategies within the non-profit and public nursing homes that remain. This means the lowest possible staffing levels, the shifting of as much work as possible to those with the least formal training, limiting workers’ autonomy, pay, hours, and benefits, and relying on a labor force already made vulnerable by gender, racialization, and immigration status. Barely enough services pre-pandemic have proven to be not nearly enough during the pandemic – which has exposed the disastrous life-altering or lethal consequences of all these developments for those elderly requiring care. Pat Armstrong is Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology at York University. Hugh Armstrong is Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Carleton University. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for admission to this event or any other events or classes of The MEP. | Covid-19 has exposed too many weaknesses in the neoliberal capitalist system to count, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable. For 10 years our international, interdisciplinary research team has been documenting the profound weaknesses in nursing home care within Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the US. The lines between for-profit and not have become increasingly blurred by various neoliberal strategies. One of these involves non-profit and state-owned homes contracting out services to for-profit firms as – in denial of the literature on the determinants of health – services such as food, housekeeping, and laundry have been defined out of care and dismissed as ancillary. This contracting out has not only undermined teamwork, but has also resulted in poor food, inadequate cleaning, and limited laundry – all of which threaten health. | 4/10/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/start-early-stay-late-planning-for-care-in-old-age/ | anti-austerity|Austerity|eldercare|geriatrics|neoliberalism | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Globalization|Healthcare|Housing|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/20/2021 18:00 | 4/20/2021 20:00 | |
| Health Care, Technology, and Socialized Medicine with Pratyush and Pritha Chandra | from Socialist Register 2021—Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of LivingUnlike earlier experiences, with Covid-19 we see an emergence of the whole world as a stage where the drama unfolds. This is, of course, due to the technological shrinkage of time and space in our age – now, microbes take flight. But the spectacular similitude of crises and responses at this level demonstrates how social structures, ideologies, and social values have converged globally. The rhetoric of war and the institution of quarantine, where everyone is a warrior, a victim, and a suspect at the same time, have mobilized individuals and communities to act out rituals that affirm bellum omnium contra omnes (the war of all against all), the foundation of capitalism. While the immediate task of controlling the current pandemic determines the actions of states, medical institutions, and research laboratories, several critical microbiologists, virologists, and political economists have done well to ask the structural question about the metabolic and ecological rifts that have unleashed new dangers for humanity. But for the ecological crisis to become a ground to rethink structural transformation, it is not enough to locate it in the wreckage that capitalism accumulates. It must be understood as constitutive to capitalist social relations, having an intimate connection to the robbery of labor. It is in this sense that the particularization of these crises in the form of pathogens and impending diseases becomes crucial. This helps us to understand the ecological rift as central to everyday life and struggle in capitalism, and also to imagine a transformational class politics. To understand the reality behind and beyond today’s spectacular rituals of salutations for public hospital workers and those in so-called essential services as ‘warriors’, we need to pay heed to what Norman Bethune meant when he exhorted his medical colleagues to ‘organize ourselves so that we can no longer be exploited as we are being exploited by our politicians’. It was his recognition of the mutual embeddedness of economics and pathology that defined Bethune’s unconventional life and work as a surgeon, and transformed him into a revolutionary. The practice of socialized medicine, as he conceptualized it, was not simply a demand on the state and doctors, but was, rather, a dimension of transforming liberatory politics translated in the field of health care. Pratyush Chandra is a political activist and writer based in New Delhi. Pritha Chandra is Professor of Linguistics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. All events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay so if you would like to attend this or any other class or lecture at The MEP, simply write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain entrance to whatever you want to participate in. | For the ecological crisis to become a ground to rethink structural transformation, it is not enough to locate it in the wreckage that capitalism accumulates. It must be understood as constitutive to capitalist social relations, having an intimate connection to the robbery of labor. It is in this sense that the particularization of these crises in the form of pathogens and impending diseases becomes crucial. This helps us to understand the ecological rift as central to everyday life and struggle in capitalism, and also to imagine a transformational class politics. | 4/11/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/health-care-technology-and-socialized-medicine-with-pratyush-and-pritha-chandra/ | Health and Labor Power|Health Care|Medical Technology|Socialized Medicine | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Gender|Globalization|Healthcare|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Pandemics|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 4/25/2021 11:00 | 4/25/2021 13:00 | |
| Capitalism and the Sea | The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern WorldAn 8-Week Reading Group convened with Fred MurphyThe global ocean serves as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for the modern capitalist economy. While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. We will read Liam Campling and Alejandro Colas’s new book Capitalism and the Sea, in which they analyze these and other sea-related phenomena through a historical and geographical lens. Longtime socialist FRED MURPHY has led MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, and the history of capitalism since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. Since this course will be conducted during NYC Daylight Savings Time, the GMT times for these sessions will be 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm GMT. All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to request the URL for the zoom link for these sessions or other classes and events. | While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. | 2/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-the-sea/2021-04-26/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Extractivism|Globalization|Immigration|Pandemics|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 4/26/2021 13:00 | 4/26/2021 14:30 | ||
| Capitalism and the Sea | The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern WorldAn 8-Week Reading Group convened with Fred MurphyThe global ocean serves as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for the modern capitalist economy. While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. We will read Liam Campling and Alejandro Colas’s new book Capitalism and the Sea, in which they analyze these and other sea-related phenomena through a historical and geographical lens. Longtime socialist FRED MURPHY has led MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, and the history of capitalism since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. Since this course will be conducted during NYC Daylight Savings Time, the GMT times for these sessions will be 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm GMT. All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to request the URL for the zoom link for these sessions or other classes and events. | While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. | 2/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-the-sea/2021-05-03/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Extractivism|Globalization|Immigration|Pandemics|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/3/2021 13:00 | 5/3/2021 14:30 | ||
| Capitalism and the Sea | The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern WorldAn 8-Week Reading Group convened with Fred MurphyThe global ocean serves as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for the modern capitalist economy. While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. We will read Liam Campling and Alejandro Colas’s new book Capitalism and the Sea, in which they analyze these and other sea-related phenomena through a historical and geographical lens. Longtime socialist FRED MURPHY has led MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, and the history of capitalism since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. Since this course will be conducted during NYC Daylight Savings Time, the GMT times for these sessions will be 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm GMT. All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to request the URL for the zoom link for these sessions or other classes and events. | While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. | 2/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-the-sea/2021-05-10/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Extractivism|Globalization|Immigration|Pandemics|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/10/2021 13:00 | 5/10/2021 14:30 | ||
| Capitalism and the Sea | The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern WorldAn 8-Week Reading Group convened with Fred MurphyThe global ocean serves as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for the modern capitalist economy. While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. We will read Liam Campling and Alejandro Colas’s new book Capitalism and the Sea, in which they analyze these and other sea-related phenomena through a historical and geographical lens. Longtime socialist FRED MURPHY has led MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, and the history of capitalism since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. Since this course will be conducted during NYC Daylight Savings Time, the GMT times for these sessions will be 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm GMT. All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to request the URL for the zoom link for these sessions or other classes and events. | While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. | 2/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-the-sea/2021-05-17/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Extractivism|Globalization|Immigration|Pandemics|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/17/2021 13:00 | 5/17/2021 14:30 | ||
| Capitalism and the Sea | The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern WorldAn 8-Week Reading Group convened with Fred MurphyThe global ocean serves as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for the modern capitalist economy. While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. We will read Liam Campling and Alejandro Colas’s new book Capitalism and the Sea, in which they analyze these and other sea-related phenomena through a historical and geographical lens. Longtime socialist FRED MURPHY has led MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, and the history of capitalism since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. Since this course will be conducted during NYC Daylight Savings Time, the GMT times for these sessions will be 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm GMT. All classes and events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to request the URL for the zoom link for these sessions or other classes and events. | While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of carbon civilization – warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere. | 2/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitalism-and-the-sea/2021-05-24/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Evolutionary biology|Extractivism|Globalization|Immigration|Pandemics|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 5/24/2021 13:00 | 5/24/2021 14:30 | ||
| Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg: Session 2—Debating Revolutionary Nationalism | Alyssa Adamson, Drucilla Cornell, and Peter HudisThis second session of the Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg series will critically revisit debates over the potential revolutionary value of nationalism through exploring different stages of the Global Southern reception of Rosa’s thoroughgoing internationalism. The panel will consist of Alyssa Adamson of Malcolm X College, Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University and Peter Hudis, Oakton Community College. Their essays are “Against a Single History, for a Revaluation of Power: Luxemburg, James, and a Decolonial Critique of Political Economy” by Alyssa Adamson; “The Contemporary Transnational Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg’s Socialist Critique of National Self-Determination”, Drucilla Cornell; and, “A Troubled Legacy: Rosa Luxemburg and the Non-Western World”, Peter Hudis | Alyssa Adamson, Drucilla Cornell, and Pater Hudis will critically revisit debates over the potential revolutionary value of nationalism through exploring different stages of the Global Southern reception of Rosa’s thoroughgoing internationalism. | 4/16/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/creolizing-rosa-luxemburg-session-2-debating-revolutionary-nationalism/ | anti-apartheid|anti-capitalist|anti-imperialist|Cabral|Fanon|liberation struggles|Nkrumah|Non-Western World|Nyrere|Pitfalls of National Consciouaness|South Africa|Tanzania | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Extractivism|Globalization|historical materialism|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/17/2021 14:05 | 4/17/2021 16:00 | |
| Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg, Session 3—Revolutionary Subjects | with Robin D.G. Kelley, Jane Ana Gordon, Gunnef Kaan, Maria Theresa Starzmann This, the third session of Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg, explores what it means to act as a revolutionary subject through analysis of Walter Rodney’s ambivalence about Rosa’s criticisms of revolutionary Russia, critical consideration of Rosa’s writings on slave resistance, indispensability for contemporary progressive politics in South Africa, and turn to the other-than-human world to counteract the political violence of incarceration. Gunnett Kaaf, Marxist activist and a writer based in Bloemfontein, South Africa; Maria Theresa Starzmann, Vera Institute of Justice; Jane Anna Gordon, University of Connecticut; Robin D.G. Kelley, UCLA The essays from the new volume are “Walter Rodney’s Russian Revolution and the Curious Case of Rosa Luxemburg”, by Robin D. G. Kelley; “A Political Economy of the Damned: Reading Rosa Luxemburg on Slavery through a Creolizing Lens”, Jane Anna Gordon; “One Hundred Years of Rosa Luxemburg’s Marxism: Imperialism and Lessons in Democracy for the ContemporarySouth African Left”, Gunnett Kaaf; and, “Rosa Luxemburg, Nature, and Imprisonment”, Maria Theresia Starzmann ; | This panel explores what it means to act as a revolutionary subject through analysis of Walter Rodney’s ambivalence about Rosa’s criticisms of revolutionary Russia, critical consideration of Rosa’s writings on slave resistance, indispensability for contemporary progressive politics in South Africa, and turn to the other-than-human world to counteract the political violence of incarceration. | 4/16/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/creolizing-rosa-luxemburg-session-3-revolutionary-subjects/ | Identity|Revolutionary subject | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Bolshevism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Immigration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/24/2021 14:05 | 4/24/2021 16:00 | |
| Socialist Register 2021: Life After the Pandemic with Christoph Hermann | From Production for Profit to Provision for Need | While debt is essential in a profit-driven economy, it is pointless in a needs-based economy. When the goal is that everybody receives what she/he needs, there is no need to go into debt. In this presentation Christoph will present some ideas for a needs-based economy. | 4/23/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-register-2021-life-after-the-pandemic-with-christoph-hermann/ | post-pandemic | Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Globalization|Healthcare|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Pandemics|Political Economy|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/27/2021 18:00 | 4/27/2021 20:00 | |
| Dual Presentation: Community Restaurants with Benjamin Selwyn / Postcapitalism: Alternatives or Detour? | Community Restaurants: Decommodifying Food as Socialist Strategy with Benjamin Selwyn The outbreak of Covid-19 has exacerbated many of the system’s worst aspects. In the UK, the birthplace of free wage-labor based capitalist agriculture, the pandemic has exacerbated existing food inequities. The pandemic has stimulated discussions about how to remedy the world’s corporate-dominated food system. The most popular alternative visions propose shifting production and consumption away from meat increasingly to plant-based diets produced according to agro-ecological principles. While these approaches could be part of a broader solution, until now they have tended to eschew explaining the food system’s inequities in class-relational terms. This essay argues that the root problems of the contemporary food system are three-fold: (1) it is rooted in, and depends upon, the commodification of labour, food, and natural resources (including land); (2) that these commodities are subordinate to capitalism’s endless drive of exploitation-based accumulation; and (3) that the food system itself incorporates, and contributes to reproducing, these dynamics throughout the wider capitalist system. Facilitating healthy, increasingly plant-based diets should be part and parcel of a socialist agenda. What might an emergent alternative food system look like? How could it decommodify food inorder to reduce working class market dependence while enhancing working class health? How could it increase workers’ democratic control over its production, distribution and consumption? How could it reduce race and gender inequalities? How could the construction of such an alternative system facilitate political alliance building amongst oppressed and exploited groups? How could it enable workers’ organizations to encroach upon the power of capital? This essay suggests that community restaurants, serving free and cheap food, represent a socialist demand that can fulfil the above criteria Post-Capitalism: Alternatives or Detours? with Greg Albo The main political reference points in opposition to neoliberalism today – the constituent organizations of the Party of the European Left, the platforms associated with the left coalitional Iberian governments, the policy proposals that emerged from the British Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, and the Bernie Sanders candidacy in the Democratic Party presidential primaries – converge in a common rejection of social democracy's political cynicism and economic agenda seeking a return to one or another variant of competitive corporatism. The characteristic programme has been along the lines of the annual Euro-Memorandum: an anti-austerity, ‘Keynes-plus’ reversal of the economic policy regime of neoliberalism, recalling the alternative economic strategies of the 1970s, but now set within a far less ambitious transitional policy matrix. There is, however, deep-seated scepticism toward any of these agendas among many of the most militant opponents of neoliberalism, who have insisted on the importance of advancing a postcapitalist’ future. For them, the necessary break from neoliberalism is too sharp, and the disintegration of the historical institutions of the left too severe, for a rehabilitation – at whatever scale of intervention – of a more egalitarian growth model that would recall the productivism and bureaucracy of postwar Fordism. Yet a more determined anti-capitalist seizure of power, occupation of the institutions of the state, and a program of nationalization of the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy, is even less convincing for them. What is needed for renewing an emancipatory politic is thus quite different, and has been advanced in a variety of forms as projects for ‘post-capitalism’: in the construction of ‘real utopias’ offering new patterns of asset distribution and ownership ‘over work’; in the extension of practices of ‘commoning’ autonomous from the capitalist state and ‘apart from work’ as value production; and in the ‘acceleration’ of the pace of technological change toward ‘full automation’ to open up a ‘post-work’ social horizon. Such postcapitalist projects, it is argued, prefigure a more direct, participatory democratic order as well as a more direct, less state-dependent means of transcending value production. The question is, where exactly do these ‘real utopias’ of post-capitalism really take us? What openings do they suggest for the transformation of the economy and state necessary to sustain socialism as ‘the real movement which abolishes the present state of things’? That is, do they actually point beyond capitalism or rather offer a series of detours toward the renewal of a ‘mixed economy’ inside capitalism? | 4/26/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/dual-presentation-community-restaurants-with-benjamin-selwyn-postcapitalism-alternatives-or-detour/ | Decommodification|Food as a right | Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Food and politics|Globalization|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/2/2021 14:00 | 5/2/2021 16:30 | ||
| Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg—The Mass Strike, Past and Present | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=11856 | 4/27/2021 | 4/27/2021 | |||||
| Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg: The Mass Strike Past and Present | with Rafael Khachaturian, Josué Ricardo López, and Sami Zemni Often misread as a narrowly economic phenomenon, Rosa understood general or mass strikes as harbingers of the revolution to come. The speakers in this fourth session reposition her analysis in the contexts of the United States Civil War, the Arab Spring, and the twenty-first century migrations northward through the American hemisphere. Authors and essays discussed are: “The Living Pulsebeat of the Revolution”: Reading Luxemburg and Du Bois on the Strike”, by Rafael Khachaturian; “Luxemburg on Tahrir Square: Reading the Arab Revolutions with Rosa Luxemburg’s The Mass Strike”, by Sami Zemni, Brecht De Smet, and Koenraad Boegaert; and, “Migrant Caravans and Luxemburg’s Spontaneous Mass Strike∏, Josué Ricardo López Rafael Khachaturian, University of Pennsylvania; Sami Zemni, Ghent University; Josué Ricardo López, University of Pittsburgh All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the url that gives the link to participate in this or another event or class. The ebook of Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg is now available. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to receive a discount code so as to purchase on-line. | The speakers in this fourth session reposition Rosa Luxemburg’s analysis in the contexts of the United States Civil War, the Arab Spring, and the twenty-first century migrations northward through the American hemisphere. | 4/27/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/creolizing-rosa-luxemburg-the-mass-strike-past-and-present/ | Accumulation of Capital|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Rosa Luxemburg|Russian Revolution|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/1/2021 14:00 | 5/1/2021 16:00 | ||
| The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy | from the Pluto Books Wildcat Serieswith Editors Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Ellen ReeseAmazon is the most powerful corporation on the planet and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, has become the richest person in history, and one of the few people to profit from a global pandemic. Its dominance has reshaped the global economy itself: we live in the age of Amazon Capitalism. ‘One-click’ instant consumerism and its immense variety of products has made Amazon a worldwide household name, with over 60% of US households subscribing to Amazon Prime. In turn, these subscribers are surveilled by the corporation. Amazon is also one of the world’s largest logistics companies, resulting in weakened unions and lowered labor standards. The company has also become the largest provider of cloud-computing services and home surveillance systems, not to mention the ubiquitous Alexa. With cutting-edge analyses, this book looks at the many dark facets of the corporation, including automation, surveillance, tech work, workers’ struggles, algorithmic challenges, the disruption of local democracy and much more. The Cost of Free Shipping shows how Amazon represents a fundamental shift in global capitalism that we should name, interrogate and be primed to resist. JAKE ALIMAHOMED-WILSON is Professor of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. His research interests are in the areas of logistics, racism and labour, and workers’ struggles. He is the author of Solidarity Forever? Race, Gender, and Unionism in the Ports of Southern California (Lexington Books, 2016), co-author of Getting the Goods: Ports, Labor, and the Logistics Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2008) and the editor of Choke Points (Pluto, 2018). ELLEN REESE is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside, and author of They Say Cutback, We Say Fightback! and co-editor of Wages of Empire. All events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for links in order to participate in this or other events or classes of The MEP. | With cutting-edge analyses, this book looks at the many dark facets of the corporation, including automation, surveillance, tech work, workers’ struggles, algorithmic challenges, the disruption of local democracy and much more. “The Cost of Free Shipping” shows how Amazon represents a fundamental shift in global capitalism that we should name, interrogate and be primed to resist. | 4/27/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-cost-of-free-shipping-amazon-in-the-global-economy/ | African American History|automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/11/2021 17:30 | 5/11/2021 19:30 | ||
| Organizing Insurgency: Workers’ Movements in the Global South | A Pluto Wildcat with author Immanuel NessWorkers in the Global South are doomed through economic imperialism to carry the burden of the entire world. While these workers appear isolated from the Global North, they are in fact deeply integrated into global commodity chains and essential to the maintenance of global capitalism. Looking at contemporary case studies in India, the Philippines and South Africa, this book affirms the significance of political and economic representation to the struggles of workers against deepening levels of poverty and inequality that oppress the majority of people on the planet. Immanuel Ness shows that workers are eager to mobilize to improve their conditions, and can achieve lasting gains if they have sustenance and support from political organizations. From the Dickensian industrial zones of Delhi to the agrarian oligarchy on the island of Mindanao, a common element remains – when workers organize they move closer to the realization of socialism, solidarity and equality. Immanuel Ness is Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. He is the author and editor of many books, including Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class (Pluto, 2015) and Urban Revolt: State Power and the Rise of People’s Movements in the Global South (Haymarket, 2017). | Looking at contemporary case studies in India, the Philippines and South Africa, this book affirms the significance of political and economic representation to the struggles of workers against deepening levels of poverty and inequality that oppress the majority of people on the planet. Immanuel Ness shows that workers are eager to mobilize to improve their conditions, and can achieve lasting gains if they have sustenance and support from political organizations. | 4/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/organizing-insurgency-workers-movements-in-the-global-south/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Emancipation|Globalization|historical materialism|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Insurgency|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/22/2021 14:00 | 5/22/2021 16:00 | ||
| Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements | with author Trevor NgwaneCan people who live in shantytowns, shacks and favelas teach us anything about democracy? About how to govern society in a way that is inclusive, participatory and addresses popular needs? This book argues that they can. In a study conducted in dozens of South Africa’s shack settlements, where more than 9 million people live, Trevor Ngwane finds thriving shack dwellers’ committees that govern local life, are responsive to popular needs and provide a voice for the community. These committees, called ‘amakomiti’ in the Zulu language, organize the provision of basic services such as water, sanitation, public works and crime prevention especially during settlement establishment. Amakomiti argues that, contrary to common perception, slum dwellers are in fact an essential part of the urban population, whose political agency must be recognized and respected. In a world searching for democratic alternatives that serve the many and not the few, it is to the shantytowns, rather than the seats of political power, that we should turn. Trevor Ngwane is a scholar activist who spent twenty years as a full-time organizer in South African trade unions, community organizations and social movements before and after the defeat of apartheid. He later obtained his PhD in Sociology at the University of Johannesburg where he now teaches and conducts research. All events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the url to gain access to this event or any other event or class of The Marxist Education Project. | Can people who live in shantytowns, shacks and favelas teach us anything about democracy? About how to govern society in a way that is inclusive, participatory and addresses popular needs? This book argues that they can. In a study conducted in dozens of South Africa’s shack settlements, where more than 9 million people live, Trevor Ngwane finds thriving shack dwellers’ committees that govern local life, are responsive to popular needs and provide a voice for the community. | 4/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/amakomiti-grassroots-democracy-in-south-african-shack-settlements/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Extractivism|Financialization|Food and politics|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Socialism|South Africa | 6/12/2021 14:00 | 6/12/2021 16:00 | ||
| Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle: Strategies, Tactics, Objectives | with editor Robert Ovetz and researcher Gifford HartmanRumors of the death of the global labor movement have been greatly exaggerated. Rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the old trade union movement, workers’ struggle is being reborn from below by workers themselves.  By engaging in what Karl Marx called a workers’ inquiry, workers and militant co-researchers are studying their working conditions, the technical composition of capital, and how to recompose their own power in order to devise new tactics, strategies, organizational forms and objectives. These workers’ inquiries, from call center workers to platform, trucking, cleaning, logistics, mining, auto factories, teachers, and adjunct professors, are re-energizing unions, bypassing unions altogether or innovating new forms of workers’ organizations.In one of the first major studies to critically assess this new cycle of global working class struggle, Robert Ovetz collects together case studies from over a dozen contributors, looking at workers’ movements in China, Mexico, the US, South Africa, Turkey, Argentina, Italy, India and the UK. The book reveals how these new forms of struggle are no longer limited to single sectors of the economy or contained by state borders, but are circulating internationally and disrupting the global capitalist system as they do. ROBERT OVETZ is a Lecturer in Political Science at San Jose State University in California. He is the author of When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921 (Brill, 2018 and Haymarket, 2019) and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Labor and Society. GIFFORD HARTMAN is a member of the Global Supply Chain Study/Research Group (https://libcom.org/blog/empire-logistics) and is an adult educator, labor trainer and working class historian. He has helped organize wildcat strikes at his own workplace and training sessions to build working class solidarity worldwide. All events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for the url to gain access to this event or any other event or class of The Marxist Education Project. The price of the book includes shipping. This book offer is only good for the US unless you are willing to pay the difference between US Media Mail costs and the cost to mail to the country you want the book shipped to. | By engaging in what Karl Marx called a workers’ inquiry, workers and militant co-researchers are studying their working conditions, the technical composition of capital, and how to recompose their own power in order to devise new tactics, strategies, organizational forms and objectives. These workers’ inquiries, from call center workers to platform, trucking, cleaning, logistics, mining, auto factories, teachers, and adjunct professors, are re-energizing unions, bypassing unions altogether or innovating new forms of workers’ organizations. | 4/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/workers-inquiry-and-global-class-struggle-strategies-tactics-objectives/ | Accumulation of Capital|automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|Healthcare|Housing|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Insurgency|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Workers’ Inquiry | 6/19/2021 14:00 | 6/19/2021 16:00 | ||
| WOBBLIES OF THE WORLD: A Global History of the Industrial Workers of the World | Presented by Editor Peter ColeThe Industrial Workers of the World is a union unlike any other. Founded in 1905 in Chicago, it rapidly gained members across the world thanks to its revolutionary, internationalist outlook. By using powerful organizing methods including direct-action and direct-democracy, it put power in the hands of workers. This philosophy is labeled as ‘revolutionary industrial unionism’ and the members called, affectionately, Wobblies.  This book is the first to look at the history of the IWW from an international perspective. Bringing together a group of leading scholars, it includes lively accounts from a number diverse countries including Australia, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden and Ireland, which reveal a fascinating story of global anarchism, syndicalism and socialism.PETER COLE is Professor of History at Western Illinois University and Research Associate at the Society, Work and Development Institute, University of the Witwatersrand. He is the author of Wobblies on the Waterfront (University of Illinois Press, 2007). All events are sliding scale. No one is denied attendance because of inability to pay. Please write info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to receive the url for access to this or any other class or event. Wednesday, July 14 • 5:00 to 7:00 pm US DST, 9:00 to 11:00 pm GMT, 10:30 pm to 12:30 am UK | Drawing on many important figures of the movements such as Tom Barker, Har Dayal, Joe Hill, James Larkin and William D. “Big Bill” Haywood, and exploring particular industries including shipping, mining, and agriculture, this book describes how the IWW and its ideals travelled around the world. | 4/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/wobblies-of-the-world-a-global-history-of-the-industrial-workers-of-the-world/ | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Syndicalism | 7/14/2021 17:00 | 7/14/2021 19:00 | ||
| AUGMENTED EXPLOITATION: Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Work | with editors Phoebe V. Moore and Jamie Woodcockand three working guests who work at jobs being altered by the Interpretation Machines of Artificial IntelligenceAugmented Exploitation explores the reality of the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on workers’ lives. Going beyond platform work and the gig economy, the authors explore emerging forms of algorithmic governance and AI-augmented apps that have been developed to utilize innovative ways to collect data about workers and consumers, as well as to keep wages and worker representation under control. Going beyond platform work and the gig economy, the authors explore emerging forms of algorithmic governance and AI-augmented apps that have been developed to utilise innovative ways to collect data about workers and consumers, as well as to keep wages and worker representation under control. They also show that workers are not taking this lying down, providing case studies of new and exciting form of resistance that are springing up across the globe. PHOEBE V. MOORE is Assoc Professor of the Futures of Work based at the University of Leicester School of Business and a Research Fellow at the Social Science Center Berlin (WZB). Her most recent book is The Quantified Self in Precarity: Work, Technology and What Counts (Routledge, 2018). JAMIE WOODCOCK is a researcher based in London. He is the author of The Gig Economy (Polity Press, 2019), Marx at the Arcade (Haymarket, 2019), and Working The Phones (Pluto, 2016). His research focuses on labor, work, the gig economy, platforms, resistance, organizing, and videogames. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied attendance because of inability to pay. Please write info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to receive the url for access to this or any other class or event. | Going beyond platform work and the gig economy, the authors explore emerging forms of algorithmic governance and AI-augmented apps that have been developed to utilise innovative ways to collect data about workers and consumers, as well as to keep wages and worker representation under control. They also show that workers are not taking this lying down, providing case studies of new and exciting form of resistance that are springing up across the globe. | 4/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/augmented-exploitation-artificial-intelligence-automation-and-work/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Globalization|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/25/2021 16:00 | 6/25/2021 18:00 | ||
| Pluto Wildcat Series: Final 2 sessions—Augmented Exploitation and Wobblies of the World |  “A wildcat strike is a strike action undertaken by unionised workers without union leadership’s authorisation, support, or approval”. These books uncover the radical militancy which characterises international workers struggles, both contemporary and historical. Looking at diverse topics including proletarianisation and class formation, mass production, gender, affective and reproductive labour, syndicalism and independent unions, and labour and Leftist social and political movements, it is the most comprehensive exploration into workers’ organisation being developed today. Series editors: Immanuel Ness (City University of New York) // Peter Cole (Western Illinois University) // Raquel Varela (New University of Lisbon) // Tim Pringle (University of London). Descriptions of each book, along with the biographical information for the presenters are on the site at the individual event descriptions by sequential date. THE COST OF FREE SHIPPING: Amazon in the Global Economy THIS MEETING HAS PASSED. | These books uncover the radical militancy which characterises international workers struggles, both contemporary and historical. Looking at diverse topics including proletarianisation and class formation, mass production, gender, affective and reproductive labour, syndicalism and independent unions, and labour and Leftist social and political movements, it is the most comprehensive exploration into workers’ organisation being developed today. All books from the series are available at the MEP on-line book store. | 4/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pluto-wildcat-series-from-workers-at-amazon-to-wobblies-of-the-world-may-11-through-july-14/2021-06-25/ | Anti-colonialism|automation|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Food and politics|Globalization|historical materialism|Insurgency|Labor History|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Syndicalism|Workers’ Inquiry | 6/25/2021 16:05 | 6/25/2021 18:00 | ||
| Socialist Practice: Histories and Theories | with author Victor WallisThe fourth in the ongoing Palgrave Macmillan series Marx, Engels, Marxisms The level of popular discontent—in the United States as elsewhere—has shown a dramatic increase in recent years, but has yet to crystallize into a cohesive anti-capitalist political force. Socialist Practice aims to contribute to a popular movement for socialism. It does so by 1) revisiting, under present conditions, longstanding questions of Marxist theory and revolutionary history, and 2) illustrating the range of issues, activities, and forms of expression that can both inform and be informed by a Marxist approach. Essays spanning a range of national experiences address the crying need to generate a society-wide awakening, grounded in purposeful discussion among all those (the vast majority) whose interests are ill-served by continuation of the status quo. Victor Wallis is a professor in the Liberal Arts Department at the Berklee College of Music, USA, and was for twenty years the managing editor of Socialism and Democracy. He is the author of Red-Green Revolution: The Politics and Technology of Ecosocialism (2018) and Democracy Denied: Five Lectures on U.S. Politics (2019). Marx, Engels, MarxismsThe Marx renaissance is underway on a global scale. Wherever the critique of capitalism re-emerges, there is an intellectual and political demand for new, critical engagements with Marxism. MARX, ENGELS, AND MARXISMS (edited by Marcello Musto & Terrell Carver, with Babak Amini, Francesca Antonini, Paula Rauhala & Kohei Saito as Assistant Editors) is a peer-reviewed series. It is broad — comprised of monographs, edited volumes, critical editions, reprints of old texts, as well as translations of books already published in other languages. These volumes come from a wide range of political perspectives, subject matters, academic disciplines and geographical areas, producing an eclectic and informative collection that appeals to a diverse and international audience. Main areas of focus include: the oeuvre of Marx and Engels, Marxist authors and traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries, labor and social movements, Marxist analyses of contemporary issues, and the reception of Marxism in the world. for information on the entire series: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14812 All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for an inability to pay. If you are unable to make a contribution at this time, simply write to info@marxedprojet.org to obtain the URL of the code to give you access to this or any other event or class. | The level of popular discontent—in the United States as elsewhere—has shown a dramatic increase in recent years, but has yet to crystallize into a cohesive anti-capitalist political force. Socialist Practice aims to contribute to a popular movement for socialism. | 4/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-practice-histories-and-theories/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 5/23/2021 14:00 | 5/23/2021 16:00 | ||
| Re:sources / Re:lations with Working Group on Globalization and Culture | The Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture will share our collective research on two ubiquitous words of our contemporary vocabulary: resources and relations. There was a meeting on May 16 (described below in thematic Clusters One) and the next meeting will take place on June 6. The current WGGC collective of Aanchal Saraf, Bench Ansfield, Clara Wilson-Hawken, Ever Osorio, Jessica Marion Modi, Lucero Estrella, Maru Pabón, Michael Denning, Monique Flores Ulysses, Peter Raccuglia, Salonee Bhaman, and Simon Torracinta — work in American studies, African-American studies, Latinx studies, history, literary criticism, science and technology studies, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. WGGC will share their collective research on two ubiquitous words of our contemporary vocabulary: resources and relations. THEMATIC CLUSTERS ONE: On Sunday May 16, we will present the first two clusters, Affordances for Whom? Making and Unmaking Resources, and Language as Resource and Relation. The first part explores how land, nature, people, and time are conceived of and transformed into “resources”: depictions of land as a resource for migrants, and of migrants for empires; of Indigenous land as a resource for extraction and settlement; and of time as an abstract resource for leisure in the twentieth century. The second part examines language, poetry, and political slogans as resources and relations from post-emancipation Black cultures to contemporary Mexican feminisms. How do the abstractions of the category of “resource” – enforced by states, settlers, or science – change the meanings of concrete things? Who gets to define how and for whom resources are made? THEMATIC CLUSTERS TWO: On Sunday June 6, we will present the final two clusters: Source Memory: Relating Archival Contradictions and The Relations of Human Resources. The first part offers disparate meditations on the complex process of engaging with archival sources. Cohering around the verb “relate” – which means both to form an affinity or kinship with and to narrate a story – we take up stories of a record producer in everything but her own words, of an immigration bureaucracy’s interrogation of a man and his family, and of the piecing together of family histories in the intergenerational wake of an earthquake. Our final cluster probes the half-lives of human resources, from the origins of the discourse of human resources, to the depletion of inner resources and the politics of “burnout,” to the valuations of risk and life within viatical insurance in a pandemic. The Working Group on Globalization and Culture http://wggc.yale.edu/ is an interdisciplinary cultural studies laboratory that has been practicing collective research at Yale University since 2003. Over the years, we have presented work at numerous cultural studies conferences as well at The Marxist Education Project, the Left Forum, Occupy Boston, and the World Social Forum. Projects have been published as “Going into Debt,” online in Social Text’s Periscope, and as “Spaces and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology; a collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” appeared in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to get what you need to attend these events or any other classes or events. We do record all events and classes. For all those who are attending June 6 who would like to listen to the presentations from May 16, please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com and request that the recording be sent to you via email. . | The Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture will share our collective research on two ubiquitous words of our contemporary vocabulary: resources and relations this coming Sunday, June 6/ THEMATIC CLUSTERS: On Sunday June 6, we will present the two clusters: Source Memory: Relating Archival Contradictions and The Relations of Human Resources. | 5/3/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/resources-relations-with-working-group-on-globalization-and-culture/ | Accumulation of Capital|automation|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Extractivism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Migration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Speculative fiction | 6/6/2021 14:00 | 6/6/2021 16:00 | ||
| Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg: Reconsidering Primitive Accumulation | A 2 part presentation This session will be devoted to engaging with Rosa’s pivotal reworking of the concept of primitive accumulation, with attention to historical and contemporary South Africa, medieval European race-making and its legacies, and contemporary commodification of women’s reproductive labor. Essays under consideration are: “Disaggregating Primitive Accumulation”, Robert Nichols; “Luxemburg’s Contemporary Resonances in South Africa: Capital’s Renewed Super-Exploitation of People and Nature”, Patrick Bond; “Primitive Accumulation and the Government of the State in Post-Apartheid South Africa”, Ahmed Veriava; “Rosa Luxemburg and the Primitive Accumulation of Whiteness”, Siddhant Issar, Rachel H. Brown, and John McMahon; and “Creolizing The Accumulation of Capital through Social Reproduction Theory: A Distinctively Luxemburgian Feminism”, Ankica Čakardić Session A 12 noon to 2 pmRobert Nichols, University of Minnesota | This session will be devoted to engaging with Rosa’s pivotal reworking of the concept of primitive accumulation, with attention to historical and contemporary South Africa, medieval European race-making and its legacies, and contemporary commodification of women’s reproductive labor. | 5/3/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/creolizing-rosa-luxemburg-reconsidering-primitive-accumulation/ | Accumulation of Capital|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Extractivism|Globalization|historical materialism|Insurgency|Labor History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|South Africa | 5/8/2021 12:00 | 5/8/2021 16:30 | ||
| Fifth Summer of Noir: Last session this week (Derek Raymond and Denise Mina) | with The Marxist Education Project Literature Studies Group“As Georges Bataille tells us, there is a profound link between literature and evil. If writing and reading are transgressive acts, or crimes, which unmask deep philosophical truths about us and our world, then what does crime fiction — a genre focused on those transgressions — reveal? Scholars from Dennis Porter to Ernest Mandel argue that the crime genre is also distinctly social, even political, and revealing about mainstream ideology, power, and control.” —Russell Williams, “The Serie Noire and Social Intervention”, LA Review of Books, July 27, 2015 For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home. We have completed our discussions of Drive, Clark Gifford’s Body, Dread Journey, Black Wings Has My Angel and How the Dead Live.  SEPTEMBER 9 • THE LESS DEAD by DENISE MINA A story of daughters and mothers, secrets and choices, and how the search for the truth—and a long-hidden killer—will lead one woman to find herself. 336 pages Denise Mina is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia “Paddy” Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also dabbled in comic book writing, having written 13 issues of Hellblazer. | For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home. Join in for the last two books. | 5/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pandemic-summer-noir/2021-09-09/ | American Literature|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Radical Literature|Speculative fiction | 8/19/2021 19:00 | 8/19/2021 21:00 | ||
| Fifth Summer of Noir: Last session this week (Derek Raymond and Denise Mina) | with The Marxist Education Project Literature Studies Group“As Georges Bataille tells us, there is a profound link between literature and evil. If writing and reading are transgressive acts, or crimes, which unmask deep philosophical truths about us and our world, then what does crime fiction — a genre focused on those transgressions — reveal? Scholars from Dennis Porter to Ernest Mandel argue that the crime genre is also distinctly social, even political, and revealing about mainstream ideology, power, and control.” —Russell Williams, “The Serie Noire and Social Intervention”, LA Review of Books, July 27, 2015 For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home. We have completed our discussions of Drive, Clark Gifford’s Body, Dread Journey, Black Wings Has My Angel and How the Dead Live. SEPTEMBER 9 • THE LESS DEAD by DENISE MINA A story of daughters and mothers, secrets and choices, and how the search for the truth—and a long-hidden killer—will lead one woman to find herself. 336 pages Denise Mina is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia “Paddy” Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also dabbled in comic book writing, having written 13 issues of Hellblazer. | For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home. Join in for the last two books. | 5/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pandemic-summer-noir/2021-08-26/ | American Literature|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Radical Literature|Speculative fiction | 8/26/2021 19:00 | 8/26/2021 21:00 | ||
| Fifth Summer of Noir: Last session this week (Derek Raymond and Denise Mina) | with The Marxist Education Project Literature Studies Group“As Georges Bataille tells us, there is a profound link between literature and evil. If writing and reading are transgressive acts, or crimes, which unmask deep philosophical truths about us and our world, then what does crime fiction — a genre focused on those transgressions — reveal? Scholars from Dennis Porter to Ernest Mandel argue that the crime genre is also distinctly social, even political, and revealing about mainstream ideology, power, and control.” —Russell Williams, “The Serie Noire and Social Intervention”, LA Review of Books, July 27, 2015 For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home. We have completed our discussions of Drive, Clark Gifford’s Body, Dread Journey, Black Wings Has My Angel and How the Dead Live. SEPTEMBER 9 • THE LESS DEAD by DENISE MINA A story of daughters and mothers, secrets and choices, and how the search for the truth—and a long-hidden killer—will lead one woman to find herself. 336 pages Denise Mina is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia “Paddy” Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also dabbled in comic book writing, having written 13 issues of Hellblazer. | For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home. Join in for the last two books. | 5/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pandemic-summer-noir/2021-09-02/ | American Literature|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Radical Literature|Speculative fiction | 9/2/2021 19:00 | 9/2/2021 21:00 | ||
| Fifth Summer of Noir: Last session this week (Derek Raymond and Denise Mina) | with The Marxist Education Project Literature Studies Group“As Georges Bataille tells us, there is a profound link between literature and evil. If writing and reading are transgressive acts, or crimes, which unmask deep philosophical truths about us and our world, then what does crime fiction — a genre focused on those transgressions — reveal? Scholars from Dennis Porter to Ernest Mandel argue that the crime genre is also distinctly social, even political, and revealing about mainstream ideology, power, and control.” —Russell Williams, “The Serie Noire and Social Intervention”, LA Review of Books, July 27, 2015 For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home. We have completed our discussions of Drive, Clark Gifford’s Body, Dread Journey, Black Wings Has My Angel and How the Dead Live. SEPTEMBER 9 • THE LESS DEAD by DENISE MINA A story of daughters and mothers, secrets and choices, and how the search for the truth—and a long-hidden killer—will lead one woman to find herself. 336 pages Denise Mina is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia “Paddy” Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also dabbled in comic book writing, having written 13 issues of Hellblazer. | For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home. Join in for the last two books. | 5/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/pandemic-summer-noir/2021-09-09/ | American Literature|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Radical Literature|Speculative fiction | 9/9/2021 19:00 | 9/9/2021 21:00 | ||
| Marx’s Inquiry into the Birth of Capitalism: Why Does It Matter? | with John Milios“In themselves, money and commodities are no more capital than are the means of production and subsistence. They need to be transformed into capital.” —Karl Marx, Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1, Chapter 26 Since Adam Smith, political economists, historians and other social scientists have offered various explanations about the beginnings of capitalism as a mode of production. Their different conclusions imply very different ideas about what capitalism is. In The Origins of Capitalism as a Social System (Routledge paperback, 2019), author John Milios delves deeply into the historical circumstances that turned money and commodities into capital on a systemic scale. In doing so, he develops theoretical insights into the nature of capitalism as a system of class domination that has swept away all previously existing social relations throughout the world.As Marx argues, “original accumulation” of capital, the transformation of pre-capitalist to capitalist social relations, is not explained by the fairy tale of wise and thrifty household producers getting wealthy by their own labor. John Milios’ research into the “pre-capitalist money owner”, the role of commodity production (as opposed to production for direct consumption) based on slave labor in the ancient world, and the development of ”contractual money begetting” production in Europe in the middle ages, helps us understand what is and is not capitalism. He critically analyzes both Marxist and non-Marxist literature. He uses the rise and fall of the Venetian mercantile republic as a case study. He concludes that “No version of capitalism is the realm of … freedom or justice. Capitalism is a social system in which … coercion guaranteeing economic exploitation of the ruled by the rulers is incorporated into the economic relation itself.” JOHN MILIOS is Professor of Political Economy and the History of Economic Thought at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. He has authored more than two hundred papers published or forthcoming in refereed journals (in Greek, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese and Turkish) including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, History of Political Economy, History of Economics Review, Review of Political Economy, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Science & Society, Rethinking Marxism, Review of Radical Political Economics, and has participated as invited speaker in numerous international conferences. He has also authored or co-authored some eighteen scholarly books. His most recent books in English are A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and Its Crisis: Demystifying Finance (Routledge 2013, Paperback Edition 2014, co-authored with D. P. Sotiropoulos and S. Lapatsioras) and The Origins of Capitalism as a Social System: The Prevalence of an Aleatory Encounter (Routledge 2018). He is director of the quarterly journal of economic theory Thesseis (published since 1982 in Greek) and serves on the editorial boards of four scholarly journals. | As Marx argues, “original accumulation” of capital, the transformation of pre-capitalist to capitalist social relations, is not explained by the fairy tale of wise and thrifty household producers getting wealthy by their own labor. John Milios’ research into the “pre-capitalist money owner”, the role of commodity production (as opposed to production for direct consumption) based on slave labor in the ancient world, and the development of ”contractual money begetting” production in Europe in the middle ages, helps us understand what is and is not capitalism. He critically analyzes both Marxist and non-Marxist literature. He uses the rise and fall of the Venetian mercantile republic as a case study. He concludes that “No version of capitalism is the realm of … freedom or justice. Capitalism is a social system in which … coercion guaranteeing economic exploitation of the ruled by the rulers is incorporated into the economic relation itself.” | 5/25/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxs-inquiry-into-the-birth-of-capitalism-why-does-it-matter/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Enclosures|historical materialism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/10/2021 14:00 | 7/10/2021 16:00 | ||
| Grundrisse | Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in his notes of 1857-58 written during the first global economic crisis. Undiscovered for nearly fifty years and with only a few copies reaching the West from a limited 1939-40 publication in the USSR, these notes were first published in English as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy in 1973. In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. Subsequent sessions on the chapter on capital will comprise two additional following terms. We will be using the current Penguin edition. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on and off for seven years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of the Grundrisse and then Volume One through Three of Capital. We are using the paperback Penguin edition featuring a foreword by Martin Nicolaus. These first sessions conclude July 24. There will be a two week break with no sessions July 31 or August 7. A continuing Grundrisse group will then meet from August 14 through November 6, with no session during the Labor Day Weekend. All event and classes are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more info. | In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital that dominated much of the rest of his life. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. | 3/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse/2021-06-26/ | Marx’s Notebooks|Money and capital | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 6/26/2021 11:30 | 6/26/2021 13:30 | |
| Grundrisse | Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in his notes of 1857-58 written during the first global economic crisis. Undiscovered for nearly fifty years and with only a few copies reaching the West from a limited 1939-40 publication in the USSR, these notes were first published in English as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy in 1973. In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. Subsequent sessions on the chapter on capital will comprise two additional following terms. We will be using the current Penguin edition. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on and off for seven years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of the Grundrisse and then Volume One through Three of Capital. We are using the paperback Penguin edition featuring a foreword by Martin Nicolaus. These first sessions conclude July 24. There will be a two week break with no sessions July 31 or August 7. A continuing Grundrisse group will then meet from August 14 through November 6, with no session during the Labor Day Weekend. All event and classes are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more info. | In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital that dominated much of the rest of his life. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. | 3/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse/2021-07-03/ | Marx’s Notebooks|Money and capital | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 7/3/2021 11:30 | 7/3/2021 13:30 | |
| Grundrisse | Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in his notes of 1857-58 written during the first global economic crisis. Undiscovered for nearly fifty years and with only a few copies reaching the West from a limited 1939-40 publication in the USSR, these notes were first published in English as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy in 1973. In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. Subsequent sessions on the chapter on capital will comprise two additional following terms. We will be using the current Penguin edition. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on and off for seven years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of the Grundrisse and then Volume One through Three of Capital. We are using the paperback Penguin edition featuring a foreword by Martin Nicolaus. These first sessions conclude July 24. There will be a two week break with no sessions July 31 or August 7. A continuing Grundrisse group will then meet from August 14 through November 6, with no session during the Labor Day Weekend. All event and classes are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more info. | In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital that dominated much of the rest of his life. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. | 3/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse/2021-07-10/ | Marx’s Notebooks|Money and capital | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 7/10/2021 11:30 | 7/10/2021 13:30 | |
| Grundrisse | Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in his notes of 1857-58 written during the first global economic crisis. Undiscovered for nearly fifty years and with only a few copies reaching the West from a limited 1939-40 publication in the USSR, these notes were first published in English as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy in 1973. In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. Subsequent sessions on the chapter on capital will comprise two additional following terms. We will be using the current Penguin edition. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on and off for seven years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of the Grundrisse and then Volume One through Three of Capital. We are using the paperback Penguin edition featuring a foreword by Martin Nicolaus. These first sessions conclude July 24. There will be a two week break with no sessions July 31 or August 7. A continuing Grundrisse group will then meet from August 14 through November 6, with no session during the Labor Day Weekend. All event and classes are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more info. | In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital that dominated much of the rest of his life. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. | 3/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse/2021-07-17/ | Marx’s Notebooks|Money and capital | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 7/17/2021 11:30 | 7/17/2021 13:30 | |
| Grundrisse | Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in his notes of 1857-58 written during the first global economic crisis. Undiscovered for nearly fifty years and with only a few copies reaching the West from a limited 1939-40 publication in the USSR, these notes were first published in English as the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy in 1973. In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. Subsequent sessions on the chapter on capital will comprise two additional following terms. We will be using the current Penguin edition. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting on and off for seven years. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers who have dedicated themselves to a chronological reading of the Grundrisse and then Volume One through Three of Capital. We are using the paperback Penguin edition featuring a foreword by Martin Nicolaus. These first sessions conclude July 24. There will be a two week break with no sessions July 31 or August 7. A continuing Grundrisse group will then meet from August 14 through November 6, with no session during the Labor Day Weekend. All event and classes are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more info. | In the Grundrisse Marx arguably bridges his early writings on philosophy and Hegel, and the writing and revisions of Capital that dominated much of the rest of his life. We will undertake a close, word by word reading of the text with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. This first term will begin with the chapter on money. | 3/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse/2021-07-24/ | Marx’s Notebooks|Money and capital | Capital Studies|Class|Emancipation|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 7/24/2021 11:30 | 7/24/2021 13:30 | |
| A close reading of Part 8, The So-Called Primitive Accumulation, Chapters 26 to 33 of Capital | Convened with Sam SalourThis group will be doing a close reading of the eight chapters that make up Part 8 of Capital. Volume 1, beginning with Chapter 26 on “The Secret of Primitive Accumulation”. No prior reading or experience with Capital or other readings are required. The group will also consider the debates surrounding the origins of capitalism. This is a 10 week series that will end on Sunday August 1. The link for participation: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/ | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=12278 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | ||||
| Capital, V1, Part 2: The Transformation of Money Into Capital | Convened with Sam SalourA close reading with the Capital Studies Group convened by Sam Salour • SUNDAYS, 6:00 – 8:00 PM via ZoomBEGINNING JULY 11! We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. ADMISSION IS FREE. info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for other events and classes. The link for participation: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/ | We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. | 5/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-v1-part-8-the-so-called-primitive-accumulation-a-closer-reading/2021-08-15/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Enclosures|Food and politics|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Migration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 7/11/2021 18:00 | 7/11/2021 20:00 | ||
| Capital, V1, Part 2: The Transformation of Money Into Capital | Convened with Sam SalourA close reading with the Capital Studies Group convened by Sam Salour • SUNDAYS, 6:00 – 8:00 PM via ZoomBEGINNING JULY 11! We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. ADMISSION IS FREE. info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for other events and classes. The link for participation: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/ | We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. | 5/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-v1-part-8-the-so-called-primitive-accumulation-a-closer-reading/2021-07-18/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Enclosures|Food and politics|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Migration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 7/18/2021 18:00 | 7/18/2021 20:00 | ||
| Capital, V1, Part 2: The Transformation of Money Into Capital | Convened with Sam SalourA close reading with the Capital Studies Group convened by Sam Salour • SUNDAYS, 6:00 – 8:00 PM via ZoomBEGINNING JULY 11! We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. ADMISSION IS FREE. info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for other events and classes. The link for participation: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/ | We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. | 5/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-v1-part-8-the-so-called-primitive-accumulation-a-closer-reading/2021-07-25/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Enclosures|Food and politics|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Migration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 7/25/2021 18:00 | 7/25/2021 20:00 | ||
| Capital, V1, Part 2: The Transformation of Money Into Capital | Convened with Sam SalourA close reading with the Capital Studies Group convened by Sam Salour • SUNDAYS, 6:00 – 8:00 PM via ZoomBEGINNING JULY 11! We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. ADMISSION IS FREE. info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for other events and classes. The link for participation: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/ | We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. | 5/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-v1-part-8-the-so-called-primitive-accumulation-a-closer-reading/2021-08-01/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Enclosures|Food and politics|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Migration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 8/1/2021 18:00 | 8/1/2021 20:00 | ||
| Left Populism in Europe: Lessons From Jeremy Corbyn to Podemos | with author Marina Prentoulisjoined in conversation with Populism European editor David Broder This book evaluates the transformational process of left populism across grassroots, national and European levels and asks what we can do to harness the power of broad-based, popular left politics. While the right is using populist rhetoric to great effect, the left’s attempts have been much less successful. Syriza in Greece and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labor Party in Britain have both failed to introduce socialism in their countries, while Podemos has had better fortune in Spain and is now in government with the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.Bringing a wealth of experience in political organizing, Marina Prentoulis argues that left populism is a political logic that brings together isolated demands against a common enemy. She looks at how egalitarian pluralism could transform economic and political institutions in a radical, democratic direction. But each party does this differently, and the key to understanding where to go from here lies in a serious analysis of the roots of each movement’s base, the forms of party organization, and the particular national contexts. This book is a clear and holistic approach to left populism that will inform anyone wanting to understand and move forward positively during this bleak time for the left in Europe. “It’s been a dramatic decade for left-wing political projects in Greece, Spain, and the UK. Through personal experience, a wealth of interviews and analysis, Prentoulis pulls together an assessment which is vital for anyone who wants to understand the post-crash upsurge of radical politics in Europe.” —Nick Dearden, Director of Global Justice Now “Rigorously reflecting on the choreography of contemporary left-wing experiments flirting with left populism in crisis-ridden Europe, Prentoulis offers a challenging first assessment of its political advances, limitations and potential for left strategy.” —Yannis Stavrakakis, Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Marina Prentoulis is Associate Professor in Politics and Media at the University of East Anglia. She has been the UK spokesperson of Syriza and has given numerous interviews on British and International media including BBC’s Newsnight and the Andrew Marr Show as well as CNN and Sky News. David Broder is a Rome-based writer and translator. He is the European editor for Jacobin and regularly writes with a focus on Italy, including in the journal Internazionale. David is also the author of First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy (Verso). Books will be available on June 24. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied participation for inability to pay. Events and classes are free for those who write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | Bringing a wealth of experience in political organizing, Marina Prentoulis argues that left populism is a political logic that brings together isolated demands against a common enemy. She looks at how egalitarian pluralism could transform economic and political institutions in a radical, democratic direction. But each party does this differently, and the key to understanding where to go from here lies in a serious analysis of the roots of each movement’s base, the forms of party organization, and the particular national contexts. This book is a clear and holistic approach to left populism that will inform anyone wanting to understand and move forward positively during this bleak time for the left in Europe. | 6/16/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/left-populism-in-europe-lessons-from-jeremy-corbyn-to-podemos/ | European Politics|Populism | Capital Studies|Emancipation|historical materialism|Left Populism|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy | 7/16/2021 16:00 | 7/16/2021 18:00 | |
| Annual Pass |  This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-11-03/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/1/2022 | 8/1/2022 23:59 | ||
| Darko Suvin: Communism, Poetry, Comradeship—a celebratory reading and discussion | Come to celebrate the beginning of Darko Suvin’s 91st year of comradeship. A poem from 1993—one of many you can find with much more of Darko’s writing along with many decades of many poems per decade at darkosuvin.com Summer, On a HillFor MarcI took the best roads I could The choices got funnelled ever tighter Finally I’m here, this heavy Summer No other paths led to wider horizons So much is clear now to the future historians I pick up the sutras & Sam of the Stoa Alas! we’re back at where they speak to us: with regret I reread the clarions of Karl & bearings of Bert They sound like beautiful childhood tales of Tahiti A mantis the hue of withered grass for haying Swings its sickles, maybe for me. 1993 Darko Suvin will appear on the eve of his 91st birthday via an international video conference presented by The Marxist Education Project, in celebration of a life of communism, poetry, comradeship and all that goes into a life well-known for commitment to all of this and more. Readings and discussion: A selection of poems from Darko’s more than 40 years of writing poetry along with sharing memoirs of many more years of vigorous engagement while active in the multiple forms of struggle for communism from continents the world over that Darko has called home, will all be part of this mid-summer celebration a life of comradeship. Darko’s website (listed above) has many levels, from which a rich biography will emerge. All events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for obtaining a zoom url for participating on July 18. | Darko Suvin will appear on the eve of his 91st birthday via an international video conference presented by The Marxist Education Project, in celebration of a life of communism, poetry, comradeship and all that goes into a life well-known for commitment to all of this and more. Readings and discussion: A selection of poems from Darko’s more than 40 years of writing poetry along with sharing memoirs of many more years of vigorous engagement while active in the multiple forms of struggle for communism from continents the world over that Darko has called home, will all be part of this mid-summer celebration a life of comradeship. | 6/26/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/darko-suvin-communism-poetry-comradeship-a-celebratory-reading-and-discussion/ | Capital Studies|Class|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|historical materialism|Insurgency|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marx|Marxisms|Poetry|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism|Solidarity|Speculative fiction | 7/18/2021 17:00 | 7/18/2021 19:00 | ||
| Urban Displacements and Contemporary Capitalism | Governing Surplus and Survival in Global Capitalismwith author Susanne Soederberg In the 1870s, Friedrich Engels published a series of articles on “The Housing Question,” wherein he argued that decent, secure housing for the working class is incompatible with the commodity nature of urban property and human labor power in the capitalist system, as the movements of capital inevitably will undermine all piecemeal reforms. Soederberg pushes beyond dominant debates by treating low-rent housing as a unique commodity that provides a necessary place for the societal reproduction of labor power while being integrated into the global dynamics of capitalism. She argues that historical and geographical configurations of monetized governance, including landlords, employers and inter-scalar state practices, have served to reproduce urban displacements and obfuscate their gendered, class and racialized underpinnings. The outcome is the everyday facilitation and normalization of urban poverty and social marginalization on one side, and capital accumulation on the other.Berlin, Dublin, and Vienna are case studies. “What is the role of racialised barriers to housing in changing landscapes of accumulation? How does renting become a central process in disuniting working people? This insightful work guides the reader through this most urgent of debates.” —Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging, University of East London Susanne Soederberg, Professor of Political Economy in Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada, is also the author of Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry (2014) and Corporate Power and Ownership in Contemporary Capitalism (2010). | Susanne Soederberg argues that historical and geographical configurations of monetized governance, including landlords, employers and inter-scalar state practices, have served to reproduce urban displacements and obfuscate their gendered, class and racialized underpinnings. The outcome is the everyday facilitation and normalization of urban poverty and social marginalization on one side, and capital accumulation on the other. | 6/27/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/urban-displacements-and-contemporary-capitalism/ | Accumulation of Capital|African American History|Capital Studies|Class|Class and Gender|Enclosures|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Housing|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 9/25/2021 14:00 | 9/25/2021 16:00 | ||
| Capital, V1, Part 2: The Transformation of Money Into Capital | Convened with Sam SalourA close reading with the Capital Studies Group convened by Sam Salour • SUNDAYS, 6:00 – 8:00 PM via ZoomBEGINNING JULY 11! We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. ADMISSION IS FREE. info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for other events and classes. The link for participation: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/ | We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. | 5/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-v1-part-8-the-so-called-primitive-accumulation-a-closer-reading/2021-08-08/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Enclosures|Food and politics|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Migration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 8/8/2021 18:00 | 8/8/2021 20:00 | ||
| Capital, V1, Part 2: The Transformation of Money Into Capital | Convened with Sam SalourA close reading with the Capital Studies Group convened by Sam Salour • SUNDAYS, 6:00 – 8:00 PM via ZoomBEGINNING JULY 11! We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. ADMISSION IS FREE. info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for other events and classes. The link for participation: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/ | We will do a close reading of the chapters in Part Two of Volume I of Capital on “The Transformation of Money Into Capital”. In these chapters Marx introduces the fundamental concepts of capital,labor power, surplus value and the valorization process. | 5/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-v1-part-8-the-so-called-primitive-accumulation-a-closer-reading/2021-08-15/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Enclosures|Food and politics|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Migration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 8/15/2021 18:00 | 8/15/2021 20:00 | ||
| The MEP Bookstore, Summer/Fall 2021 (inclusive of shipping—US and Puerto Rico only) | These books are being offered at a discount to all of The MEP community with prices including books and shipping. Each book listed here is part of or related to a presentation, reading group or series of presentations both ongoing and beginning during the Winter term of 2021. Descriptions of books are either in descriptions on the site or will be described on the site shortly. A People’s Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier Class, Party and Revolution, A Socialist Register Reader The Last Years of Karl Marx by Marcello Musto Marx Dead and Alive by Andy Merrifield Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living Socialist Register 2020: Beyond Market Dystopia: New Ways of Living Pluto’s Wildcat Series: The High Cost of Free Shipping by Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Ellen Reese, Organizing Insurgency by Immanuel Ness, Amakomiti by Trevor Ngwane, Worker’s Inquiry and Global Class Struggle, edited by Robert Ovetz, Augmented Exploitation, Edited by Phoebe V. Moore and Jamie Woodcock, Wobblies of the World, edited by Peter Cole, David Struthers and Kenyon Zimmer. Pluto’s FireWorks Series: Pandemic Solidarity, edited by Marina Sitrin and Colectiva Sembrar, Exploring Degrowth by Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson, Reinventing the Welfare State by Ursula Huws, and Empire’s Endgame with contributions from Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani and more. The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks Voices of the Paris Commune translated by Mitch Abidor Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly, edited by Peter Cole BookMarx Bookmarks Unfortunately, we cannot calculate postage outside of the United States so the combined price is only good for mailing addresses in the United States. If you would like to calculate the cost of book and shipping to another country, write to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com indicating your interest and what you estimate postage will be. | Books that will be used during the Winter of 2021 sessions—good for a lifetime of learning. There are Socialist Registers for 2020 and 2021, Pluto’s Wildcat and FireWorks series. The any four, five or six books offers do include shipping. | 12/7/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-mep-bookstore-january-2021-term-books-with-shipping-included/1970-01-01/ | |||||
| Siegebreakers—an author presentation with Justin Poder followed by two weeks of discussion | A presentation with author Justin Podur followed by two weeks of discussion* — Thursdays, September 23 and 30 Under the crushing weight of the siege of Gaza, Laila and Nasser are members of the Palestinian resistance fighting desperately to free their people. Together, they learn of a plan to unite the disparate Palestinian factions and break Israel’s siege. Unknown to them, Ari, a brilliant Israeli spy, has decided that his conscience can no longer allow him to participate in the starvation of Gaza. A double agent whose every move is under mounting suspicion, Ari reaches out to the American contractors who trained him with a secret plan. As they all struggle to break the siege, they face the wrath of the Israeli military machine. “Siegebreakers is at once a gritty, violent thrill ride and the first book I would hand to someone who wants to understand Gaza today.” —Dr. Tarek Loubani, emergency doctor and volunteer physician at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City “Based on an industrious research, this dramatic and powerful tale shows once more the power of fiction to illuminate and expose what the media fails, or is unwilling, to disclose about life under siege in the Gaza Strip and its impact on the people incarcerated in it.” —Ilan Pappe, historian and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Justin Podur is the author of Haiti’s New Dictatorship. He has contributed chapters to Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan and Real Utopia. He is an associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. *Discount codes for purchase of books will be provided with registration 6:00 to 8:00 pm US EDT / 10 pm to midnight GMT | Under the crushing weight of the siege of Gaza, Laila and Nasser are members of the Palestinian resistance fighting desperately to free their people. Together, they learn of a plan to unite the disparate Palestinian factions and break Israel’s siege. Unknown to them, Ari, a brilliant Israeli spy, has decided that his conscience can no longer allow him to participate in the starvation of Gaza. A double agent whose every move is under mounting suspicion, Ari reaches out to the American contractors who trained him with a secret plan. As they all struggle to break the siege, they face the wrath of the Israeli military machine. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=12505 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | |||
| Siegebreakers: A discussion of Justin Podur’s novel set in Gaza | A novel by Justin Podurwith two weeks of group discussions*Justin made a presentation on Siegebreakers on Saturday, September 18 with the Marxist Education Project’s Literary Studies Group Under the crushing weight of the siege of Gaza, Laila and Nasser are members of the Palestinian resistance fighting desperately to free their people. Together, they learn of a plan to unite the disparate Palestinian factions and break Israel’s siege. Unknown to them, Ari, a brilliant Israeli spy, has decided that his conscience can no longer allow him to participate in the starvation of Gaza. A double agent whose every move is under mounting suspicion, Ari reaches out to the American contractors who trained him with a secret plan. As they all struggle to break the siege, they face the wrath of the Israeli military machine. “Siegebreakers is at once a gritty, violent thrill ride and the first book I would hand to someone who wants to understand Gaza today.” —Dr. Tarek Loubani, emergency doctor and volunteer physician at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City “Based on an industrious research, this dramatic and powerful tale shows once more the power of fiction to illuminate and expose what the media fails, or is unwilling, to disclose about life under siege in the Gaza Strip and its impact on the people incarcerated in it.” —Ilan Pappe, historian and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Justin Podur is the author of Haiti’s New Dictatorship. He has contributed chapters to Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan and Real Utopia. He is an associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. *Discount codes for purchase of book will be provided with registration Admissions: All events are sliding scale—choose any of the stated to contribute to The MEP. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. Very sorry. Not enough registrations. Please write for a refund. | Under the crushing weight of the siege of Gaza, Laila and Nasser are members of the Palestinian resistance fighting desperately to free their people. Together, they learn of a plan to unite the disparate Palestinian factions and break Israel’s siege. Unknown to them, Ari, a brilliant Israeli spy, has decided that his conscience can no longer allow him to participate in the starvation of Gaza. A double agent whose every move is under mounting suspicion, Ari reaches out to the American contractors who trained him with a secret plan. As they all struggle to break the siege, they face the wrath of the Israeli military machine. | 7/6/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/siegebreakers-author-presentation-with-justin-podur-with-two-weeks-discussion/2022-01-20/ | Emancipation|Food and politics|historical materialism|Insurgency|Israeli occupation|Palestine|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity | 1/6/2022 19:00 | 1/6/2022 21:00 | ||
| Ecosocialism in the Shadow of Covid | A 10-week online study (2 weeks remain—recordings of earlier sessions are available to new attendees)Convened with Fred Murphy and Steve KnightJoin The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group as we convene online this fall to consider new works on the political economy of global warming and the Covid-19 pandemic. We will read and discuss three books: The Corona Crash (Verso), by Grace Blakeley, details how the pandemic is ushering in a new era in which the corporate economy collapses into the arms of the state, and behemoths like Amazon and Netflix balloon in profit and power. White Skin, Black Fuel (Verso), by Andreas Malm and the Zetkin Collective, takes a comprehensive look at how extreme-right currents are responding to ecological crises with with authoritarian and xenophobic proposals while remaining ardent supporters of fossil capital – black fuels to support white supremacy. And A People’s Green New Deal (Pluto), by Max Ajl, engages critically with various Green New Deal proposals and sketches out a radical alternative committed to degrowth, anti-imperialism and agro-ecology. FRED MURPHY has co-led study groups at The MEP on ecosocialism, the history of capitalism, science and technology, and Latin American politics. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of The MEP ecosocialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist and is active with faith-centered groups, and reviews books on ecosocialism for Marx & Philosophy Review of Books. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | We will read and discuss three books: The Corona Crash (Verso), by Grace Blakeley, details how the pandemic is ushering in a new era in which the corporate economy collapses into the arms of the state, and behemoths like Amazon and Netflix balloon in profit and power. White Skin, Black Fuel (Verso), by Andreas Malm and the Zetkin Collective, takes a comprehensive look at how extreme-right currents are responding to ecological crises with with authoritarian and xenophobic proposals while remaining ardent supporters of fossil capital – black fuels to support white supremacy. And A People’s Green New Deal (Pluto), by Max Ajl, engages critically with various Green New Deal proposals and sketches out a radical alternative committed to degrowth, anti-imperialism and agro-ecology. | 7/7/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecosocialism-in-the-shadow-of-covid/2021-11-22/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Covid-19|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Extractivism|Food and politics|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/15/2021 13:00 | 11/15/2021 14:30 | ||
| Ecosocialism in the Shadow of Covid | A 10-week online study (2 weeks remain—recordings of earlier sessions are available to new attendees)Convened with Fred Murphy and Steve KnightJoin The Marxist Education Project’s Ecosocialism Study Group as we convene online this fall to consider new works on the political economy of global warming and the Covid-19 pandemic. We will read and discuss three books: The Corona Crash (Verso), by Grace Blakeley, details how the pandemic is ushering in a new era in which the corporate economy collapses into the arms of the state, and behemoths like Amazon and Netflix balloon in profit and power. White Skin, Black Fuel (Verso), by Andreas Malm and the Zetkin Collective, takes a comprehensive look at how extreme-right currents are responding to ecological crises with with authoritarian and xenophobic proposals while remaining ardent supporters of fossil capital – black fuels to support white supremacy. And A People’s Green New Deal (Pluto), by Max Ajl, engages critically with various Green New Deal proposals and sketches out a radical alternative committed to degrowth, anti-imperialism and agro-ecology. FRED MURPHY has co-led study groups at The MEP on ecosocialism, the history of capitalism, science and technology, and Latin American politics. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has been a co-leader of The MEP ecosocialist study groups since 2015. He is also a climate activist and is active with faith-centered groups, and reviews books on ecosocialism for Marx & Philosophy Review of Books. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | We will read and discuss three books: The Corona Crash (Verso), by Grace Blakeley, details how the pandemic is ushering in a new era in which the corporate economy collapses into the arms of the state, and behemoths like Amazon and Netflix balloon in profit and power. White Skin, Black Fuel (Verso), by Andreas Malm and the Zetkin Collective, takes a comprehensive look at how extreme-right currents are responding to ecological crises with with authoritarian and xenophobic proposals while remaining ardent supporters of fossil capital – black fuels to support white supremacy. And A People’s Green New Deal (Pluto), by Max Ajl, engages critically with various Green New Deal proposals and sketches out a radical alternative committed to degrowth, anti-imperialism and agro-ecology. | 7/7/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ecosocialism-in-the-shadow-of-covid/2021-11-22/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Covid-19|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Extractivism|Food and politics|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/22/2021 13:00 | 11/22/2021 14:30 | ||
| Political Economy of Labor Repression in the United States | with author Andrew KolinAndrew Kolin presents a detailed explanation of the essential elements that characterize capital’s relations to the working class and how capital relies on various forms of repressing reform and revolutionary movements by workers. The repression is directly linked to the class struggle between capital and labor. The starting point examines labor repression after the American Revolution. Andrew’s book then follows the role of the state along with the explosive growth of American capitalism to analyze the long history of capital and labor conflict with details of the US state being aligned with the interests of capital throughout American history. Wholesale exclusion of labor from a fundamental role in framing policy in these institutions was crucial in understanding the unfolding of labor repression. Repression emerges amid a social struggle to acquire and maintain control over policy-making bodies, which pits the few against the many. In response, labor attempts to push back against institutional exclusion in part by the formation of labor unions. Capital reacts to such actions using repression to prevent labor from having a greater role in social institutions. For instance, this is played out inside the workplace as capital and labor engage in a political struggle over the function of the workplace. Given capital’s monopoly of ownership, capital employs various means to repress labor at work, including the introduction of technology, mass firings, crushing strikes, and the use of force to break up unions.  The role of the state is not to be overlooked in its support of elite control over production, as well as aiding through legal means the growth of a capitalist economy in opposition to labor’s conception of greater economic democracy. Andrew’s work explains how and why the working classes will continue to confront repression by capital in old and new forms as we approach the second quarter of the 21st century. Andrew Kolin is professor of political science at Hilbert College. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Andrew Kolin presents a detailed explanation of the essential elements that characterize capital’s relations to the working class and how capital relies on various forms of repressing reform and revolutionary movements by workers. The repression is directly linked to the class struggle between capital and labor. The starting point examines labor repression after the American Revolution. Andrew’s book then follows the role of the state along with the explosive growth of American capitalism to analyze the long history of capital and labor conflict with details of the US state being aligned with the interests of capital throughout American history. | 7/9/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-economy-of-labor-repression-in-the-united-states/ | Accumulation of Capital|African American History|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Class and Gender|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 9/11/2021 14:00 | 9/11/2021 16:00 | ||
| Grundrisse: The Chapter on Money (The first two notebooks) | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse Perhaps the most curious and least understood aspect of Marx’s work is his method of analysis. Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However, to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of the Grundrisse. This work is perhaps the best representation of the process of thinking that found its culmination in Capital and we will be engaging with it during our study. Without a doubt, this will be a long and arduous process but we should always keep in mind that “there is no royal road to science and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits. Continuing on November 6, we will read from “The Chapter on Money” utilizing the Penguin edition of Marx’s Grundrisse. Recordings of prior sessions are available to all who would like to review. | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse | 7/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-the-chapter-on-money-the-first-two-notebooks/2021-11-20/ | Accumulation of Capital|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Emancipation|Globalization|Grundrisse|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 11/20/2021 11:00 | 11/20/2021 13:00 | ||
| Studies in the Works of Antonio Gramsci with Piruz Alemi | A Cultural Politics SeriesAntonio Gramsci is widely known throughout the world for his impact on social and political thought. 4 more sessions of this seminar continue a close reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, delving into key themes related to civil society, the state, hegemony, subaltern studies, cultural analysis, race, class and gender studies, film studies, linguistics, and critical theory.  Throughout these sessions, we will look to connect cultures and their human rights struggles. We will also explore those who influenced Gramsci, particularly Marx, but also Machiavelli and Croce. This seminar is accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci.Piruz Alemi holds a PhD in political economy from New School for Social Research as well as a MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival and teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | This 10-week session has four sessions remaining which feature a close reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We will look to connect cultures and their human rights struggles. We will also explore those who influenced Gramsci, particularly Marx, but also Machiavelli and Croce. This seminar is accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci. Join at any time. | 7/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/studies-in-the-works-of-antonio-gramsci-with-piruz-alemi/2021-11-14/ | Anti-fascism|Class|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Fordism|Hegemony|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor Organizing|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Working Class History | 10/31/2021 12:00 | 10/31/2021 13:30 | ||
| Studies in the Works of Antonio Gramsci with Piruz Alemi | A Cultural Politics SeriesAntonio Gramsci is widely known throughout the world for his impact on social and political thought. 4 more sessions of this seminar continue a close reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, delving into key themes related to civil society, the state, hegemony, subaltern studies, cultural analysis, race, class and gender studies, film studies, linguistics, and critical theory. Throughout these sessions, we will look to connect cultures and their human rights struggles. We will also explore those who influenced Gramsci, particularly Marx, but also Machiavelli and Croce. This seminar is accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci.Piruz Alemi holds a PhD in political economy from New School for Social Research as well as a MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival and teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | This 10-week session has four sessions remaining which feature a close reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We will look to connect cultures and their human rights struggles. We will also explore those who influenced Gramsci, particularly Marx, but also Machiavelli and Croce. This seminar is accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci. Join at any time. | 7/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/studies-in-the-works-of-antonio-gramsci-with-piruz-alemi/2021-11-07/ | Anti-fascism|Class|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Fordism|Hegemony|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor Organizing|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Working Class History | 11/7/2021 12:00 | 11/7/2021 13:30 | ||
| Studies in the Works of Antonio Gramsci with Piruz Alemi | A Cultural Politics SeriesAntonio Gramsci is widely known throughout the world for his impact on social and political thought. 4 more sessions of this seminar continue a close reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, delving into key themes related to civil society, the state, hegemony, subaltern studies, cultural analysis, race, class and gender studies, film studies, linguistics, and critical theory. Throughout these sessions, we will look to connect cultures and their human rights struggles. We will also explore those who influenced Gramsci, particularly Marx, but also Machiavelli and Croce. This seminar is accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci.Piruz Alemi holds a PhD in political economy from New School for Social Research as well as a MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival and teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | This 10-week session has four sessions remaining which feature a close reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We will look to connect cultures and their human rights struggles. We will also explore those who influenced Gramsci, particularly Marx, but also Machiavelli and Croce. This seminar is accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci. Join at any time. | 7/20/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/studies-in-the-works-of-antonio-gramsci-with-piruz-alemi/2021-11-14/ | Anti-fascism|Class|Class and Gender|Ecosocialism|Fordism|Hegemony|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor Organizing|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Working Class History | 11/14/2021 12:00 | 11/14/2021 13:30 | ||
| Capital, Volume II: The Process of Circulation of Capital | with Mary BogerVolume I of Capital is just the beginning of unraveling the underlying laws of capitalist development. In Volume I Marx demystifies “the commodity” by identifying the real sources of the production of wealth, namely, the human subject through our labor and nature. Capital subsumes these as commodities which are consumed within the process of production. After solving the form that the production of wealth takes within a society where generalized commodity production prevails under the domination of capital, Marx takes on the next big question. How the hell can reproduction of society as a whole take place when there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met and in the necessary proportions such that a continuous reproduction of the conditions of life can take place and reproduce the capitalist relations of production? In Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital, we discover the solution to this problem while new internal contradictions and instabilities at a societal level inherent to this mode of production are explained. The ground is then laid in combining the laws of motion peculiar to capitalism uncovered in the first two Volumes—The Process of Capitalist Production and The Process of the Circulation of Capital—to the analysis of the third Volume, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole.  We will begin our study of Volume II study by situating this volume in relation to the historical process of development of capitalist society which is premised on its specific social form of societal re-production, the production of capital. To do so we will study the closing sections of the Penguin edition of Volume I, specifically, Part VIII: “So-called Primitive Accumulation” and the “Appendix: Results of the Immediate Process of Production”. Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. MARY BOGER, an ethnographic researcher, has been teaching Capital since the first School for Marxist Education opened in 1975. Her major concerns are centrality of labor, shifts in the global working class, advancing international solidarity that can challenge the prerogatives of globalized capital and begin to shift our resources and activities towards remediation of nature and reclamation of our human species capacities. Mary has an MA in Economics, PhD in Sociology (A Ghetto State of Ghettos: Palestinians under Israeli Citizenship). All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | We will begin our study of Volume II study by situating this volume in relation to the historical process of development of capitalist society which is premised on its specific social form of societal re-production, the production of capital. To do so we will study the closing sections of the Penguin edition of Volume I, specifically, Part VIII: “So-called Primitive Accumulation” and the “Appendix: Results of the Immediate Process of Production”. Join us as we journey through this movement from the imaginary concrete to the abstract concrete to the real concrete. Come and challenge your way of thinking and understanding the world as it appears to you and begin to identify some of what needs to be overcome and done to bring about a better world. | 7/26/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-book-ii-the-process-of-circulation-of-capital/2021-10-16/ | Accumulation of Capital|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Financialization|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/16/2021 16:00 | 10/16/2021 18:00 | ||
| Augmented Exploitation: Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Work and Changes in the Labor Process | A 6 Week Close-Reading and Discussion seriesConducted with the Capital Studies GroupIn the Introduction to Augmented Exploitation, co-editors Phoebe Moore and Jamie Woodcock point up two main problems with how automation and artificial intelligence are being discussed as the end of the first quarter of the 21st century draws near. Number one is the claim that Al is changing the labor process in new and unprecedented ways. But capitalists have always introduced machines in order to increase the amount of what each worker can produce in a given period of time. This is where the second problem comes in—either a certain process will be automated, or it will not—a binary that focuses on machines and not on the workers who operate them. Rather than the prospects of automation and interpretive learning replacing workers, we need rather to see that these are augmentations of the labor process. Augmented Exploitation is divided into three areas: Making It, Faking It, and Breaking It. Going beyond platform work and the gig economy, the authors explore emerging forms of algorithmic governance and Al-augmented apps that collect data about workers and consumers in innovative ways, but also to to keep wages and worker representation under control. The contributors to Augmented Exploitation show that workers are not taking these dramatic changes lying down; they present case studies of new and exciting forms of resistance that are springing up across the globe. Join us to learn more of the reality of the impact of Artificial Intelligence (Al) on workers’ lives. During these six sessions we will also review several articles from this year’s Socialist Register, Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living. In particular, we will discuss “The Time of Our Lives”, Bryan Palmer’s essay on capital and temporality, and Larry Lohmann’s essay on “Interpretive Learning”. Time, always a frontier of class struggle, pushed by automation and other digital management controls that are ever-present today, is now at the forefront of contentious labor-capital relations. Lohmann stresses a number of challenges that interpretation machines have presented to movement organizing and in response argues that it is important to understand the continuities between industrial-era and digital-era value-creation rather than to only focus on the differences. He also emphasizes that the contradiction between living and dead labor that Marx identified not only persists in today’s digital economy, but also remains fundamental both to understanding crisis and to identifying possibilities for radical political change. The CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP has been meeting on Saturdays for more than four years. There are now several groups studying the two volumes of Capital along with an active Grundrisse reading group. We are students, activists and teachers who have dedicated ourselves to facilitating broad study of current issues of life and work during this late globalized stage of capitalist development in addition to the work we continue to do around Karl Marx’s Capital. For residents of the US and Puerto Rico, when you purchase the book along with registering for the class there is a $10 savings. This price includes shipping via USPS Media Mail. | In the Introduction to Augmented Exploitation, co-editors Phoebe Moore and Jamie Woodcock point up two main problems with how automation and artificial intelligence are being discussed as the end of the first quarter of the 21st century draws near. Number one is the claim that Al is changing the labor process in new and unprecedented ways. But capitalists have always introduced machines in order to increase the amount of what each worker can produce in a given period of time. This is where the second problem comes in—either a certain process will be automated, or it will not—a binary that focuses on machines and not on the workers who operate them. Rather than the prospects of automation and interpretive learning replacing workers, we need rather to see that these are augmentations of the labor process. Also discussed will be two of the many vital essays from this year’s Socialist Register—Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living. | 7/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/augmented-exploitation-artificial-intelligence-automation-work-and-changes-in-the-labor-process/ | Accumulation of Capital|Artificial Intelligence AI|automation|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Fordism|Globalization|Labor Process|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/23/2021 16:00 | 8/23/2021 18:00 | ||
| New York City and the Experience of Modernity, Fall session | An eight week series featuring visual and oral presentations along with discussions each week. Please note that this will be on Tuesdays, not Fridays. TWO MORE WEEKSConvened by Thomas WensingIn the year 1877, the signals were given for the rest of the century; the black would be put back; the strikes of white workers would not be tolerated; the industrial and political elites of North and South would take hold of the country and organize the greatest march of economic growth in human history. They would do it with the aid of, and at the expense of, black labor, white labor, Chinese labor, European immigrant labor, female labor, rewarding them differently by race, sex, national origin, and social class, in such a way as to create separate levels of oppression – a skillful terracing to stabilize the pyramid of wealth”[1]  This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role -, but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. In the previous course we saw how the idea of modernity originated in eighteenth-century Western Europe during the Age of Enlightenment. In this course we explore how modernity is not only an expression of the constellation of forces that builds modern societies, but from the onset has been an exclusionary project along racial, gender and class lines.Europe produced, in the words of Stuart Hall, a cultural identity which portrayed Europe as a distinct, unique and triumphant civilization[2]. The construction of otherness within the dominant European culture itself, and in relation to the exploration and conquest of the Americas, formed the pretext for native displacement and genocide, environmental exploitation and extractivism, oppression and slavery. These discourses of “self” and “otherness” are, of course, inextricably interwoven with the history of New York City, and have always been contested. This semester turns to the late 19th and 20th century and focuses on the way in which the building of New York City took place in an arena of contesting political, cultural and economic forces; that of the dominant, patriarchal, Anglo-Saxon, male, capitalist culture on one side, and that of the excluded social groups on the other. We will look at various groups, whether it be socialist, communist, feminist, black, or queer, which questioned the ‘centeredness’ of the West, – and the structures of oppression it built -, and which thus argued for the project of Reason and liberal democracy to be expanded and fulfil its promise. Writers and novelists have been able to direct the gaze at these groups which have been excluded from the path of progress, – as it was defined and constricted by society – to express diverging meanings to life in the metropolis. Theirs were often minority views, but in expressing them, they were able to carve out space for the ‘other’, and they have expanded the conversation and imagination in indelible ways. A question which looms large in this seminar is the relationship between individual agency and collective action. The seminar encourages the expression of personal, familial, local, and ethnic explorations and to tie these to larger societal trends. [3] The participants will be presented with multiple views of the same topic; one drawn from the professional literature, – either historical, architectural, sociological, or drawn from literary studies -, and one from fiction or biography. Two points of view are compared: that of sociologists, urban planners, geographers, and architects, with that of the subjective vantage point of the biographical account or the fictional character. Weekly Lectures and Bibliography: Each week consists of readings, one lecture class and one group discussion, preceded by a 20-minute introduction on the topic. [1] Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2008, p.253. [2] Hall, Stuart. “Introduction.” Essay. In Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies, edited by Stuart Hall, David Held, Don Hubert, and Kenneth Thompson, 7. Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 2011. [3] I refer here to Berman, Marshall, All That Is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1982, Verso, London, Brooklyn, 2010, p.346-347. Each week consists of readings, one lecture class and one group discussion, preceded by a 20-minute introduction on the topic. | In the year 1877, the signals were given for the rest of the century; the black would be put back; the strikes of white workers would not be tolerated; the industrial and political elites of North and South would take hold of the country and organize the greatest march of economic growth in human history. They would do it with the aid of, and at the expense of, black labor, white labor, Chinese labor, European immigrant labor, female labor, rewarding them differently by race, sex, national origin, and social class, in such a way as to create separate levels of oppression – a skillful terracing to stabilize the pyramid of wealth.” —Howard Zinn This is a seminar about New York City and its people. It is not a study of architectural styles and objects, – although the physical stuff of cities does play a role—but it is a course about the experience of the way in which modernity builds and destroys cities. | 8/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-york-city-and-the-experience-of-modernity-fall-session/2021-11-16/ | Capital Studies|Emancipation|Financialization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Housing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Working Class History | 11/16/2021 17:30 | 11/16/2021 19:30 | ||
| Women Write on the Verge of Historical Change: Last session | convened with the Literature Group of The MEPLast session with Insurrecto by Gina ApostolHistorical change, not historical fiction! We believe that reading well-wrought literature allows us to understand the undercurrents of history in unique and challenging ways. During this term, the MEP Literature Studies Group will read novels by women writers which explore the intersections of life in their communities, both at home and in the metropoles of Europe, India and the Philippines. These stories will take us to places and introduce us to people facing many of the dilemmas posed during late-stage capitalism, when the looming tipping points begin to collide. Reading and discussing these important writers could very well bring us to a broader sense of time and place. THE BOTTLE FACTORY OUTING • Beryl Bainbridge • 1973 / As dark and doomful as it is hilarious, Beryl Bainbridge’s Booker Prize-nominated novel follows Freda and Brenda, two unlucky-in-love bedsit-mates working in a wine-bottling factory in London, who find that their lives change forever after a team outing. Bainbridge based the novel on a miserable warehouse job she held in the late fifties, which came with the added ‘perk’ of an unlimited wine allowance. We have completed our discussion of this book. THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS • Kiran Desai • 2006 / The main themes are migration, living between two worlds, as well as living between the past and present. The story centers around the lives of Biju and Sai. Biju is an Indian living in the United States illegally, son of a cook who works for Sai’s grandfather. Sai is an orphan living in mountainous Kalimpong with her maternal grandfather Jemubhai Patel; the cook; and a dog named Mutt. Biju, the other character is an illegal alien residing in the United States, trying to make a new life for himself, and contrasts this with the experiences of Sai, an anglicized Indian girl living with her grandfather in India. We have completed our discussion of this book. HAPPINESS • Aminatta Forna • 2018 / Waterloo Bridge, London. Two strangers collide. Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, and Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes. From this chance encounter in the midst of the rush of a great city, numerous moments of connections span out and interweave, bringing disparate lives together. Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma and to check up on the daughter of friends, his ‘niece,’ Ama, who hasn’t called home in a while. It soon emerges that she has been swept up in an immigration crackdown—and now her young son Tano is missing. We have completed our discussion of this book. INSURRECTO • Gina Apostol • 2018 / This novel’s structure reflects how history comes at us in scattered shards, the way voices are amplified or silenced, story lines invented or forgotten. “We enter others’ lives through two mediums, words and time, both faulty,” one character observes. But a third medium — image — is a powerful recurring motif. Apostol is obsessed with the lens, the gaze, the way victim and victor, good and evil are identified based on who holds the camera and who consumes its product. Apostol pushes up against the limits of fiction in order to recover the atrocity in Balangiga, and in so doing, she shows us the dark heart of an untold and forgotten war that would shape the next century of the Philippines and in the United States. Inspired by a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States – and her recommendation we also read Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead – The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting since the first days of The Marxist Education Project in 2014. Each session, the Literature Group takes a thematic, historical, and political approach to the selections, which have included in-depth reading of Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings, Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years, followed by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, as well as groups focused on World War I, the depression of the 1930s, novels on migration, border politics, and labor organizing, Brecht plays, African novels from the continent, and our most recent session on Women Who Wrote Against Fascism. The group is now completing a fifth summer immersed in noir fiction, which will resume with a sixth summer noir series next year. | During this term, the MEP Literature Studies Group will read novels by women writers which explore the intersections of life in their communities, both at home and in the metropoles of Europe, India and the Philippines. These stories will take us to places and introduce us to people facing many of the dilemmas posed during late-stage capitalism, when the looming tipping points begin to collide. Reading and discussing these important writers could very well bring us to a broader sense of time and place. We will discussion Aminatta Forna and Gloria Apostol on December 2, 9, and 16. | 8/15/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-on-the-verge-of-historical-change/2021-12-16/ | Anti-colonialism|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction | 12/2/2021 19:00 | 12/2/2021 21:00 | ||
| Women Write on the Verge of Historical Change: Last session | convened with the Literature Group of The MEPLast session with Insurrecto by Gina ApostolHistorical change, not historical fiction! We believe that reading well-wrought literature allows us to understand the undercurrents of history in unique and challenging ways. During this term, the MEP Literature Studies Group will read novels by women writers which explore the intersections of life in their communities, both at home and in the metropoles of Europe, India and the Philippines. These stories will take us to places and introduce us to people facing many of the dilemmas posed during late-stage capitalism, when the looming tipping points begin to collide. Reading and discussing these important writers could very well bring us to a broader sense of time and place. THE BOTTLE FACTORY OUTING • Beryl Bainbridge • 1973 / As dark and doomful as it is hilarious, Beryl Bainbridge’s Booker Prize-nominated novel follows Freda and Brenda, two unlucky-in-love bedsit-mates working in a wine-bottling factory in London, who find that their lives change forever after a team outing. Bainbridge based the novel on a miserable warehouse job she held in the late fifties, which came with the added ‘perk’ of an unlimited wine allowance. We have completed our discussion of this book. THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS • Kiran Desai • 2006 / The main themes are migration, living between two worlds, as well as living between the past and present. The story centers around the lives of Biju and Sai. Biju is an Indian living in the United States illegally, son of a cook who works for Sai’s grandfather. Sai is an orphan living in mountainous Kalimpong with her maternal grandfather Jemubhai Patel; the cook; and a dog named Mutt. Biju, the other character is an illegal alien residing in the United States, trying to make a new life for himself, and contrasts this with the experiences of Sai, an anglicized Indian girl living with her grandfather in India. We have completed our discussion of this book. HAPPINESS • Aminatta Forna • 2018 / Waterloo Bridge, London. Two strangers collide. Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, and Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes. From this chance encounter in the midst of the rush of a great city, numerous moments of connections span out and interweave, bringing disparate lives together. Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma and to check up on the daughter of friends, his ‘niece,’ Ama, who hasn’t called home in a while. It soon emerges that she has been swept up in an immigration crackdown—and now her young son Tano is missing. We have completed our discussion of this book. INSURRECTO • Gina Apostol • 2018 / This novel’s structure reflects how history comes at us in scattered shards, the way voices are amplified or silenced, story lines invented or forgotten. “We enter others’ lives through two mediums, words and time, both faulty,” one character observes. But a third medium — image — is a powerful recurring motif. Apostol is obsessed with the lens, the gaze, the way victim and victor, good and evil are identified based on who holds the camera and who consumes its product. Apostol pushes up against the limits of fiction in order to recover the atrocity in Balangiga, and in so doing, she shows us the dark heart of an untold and forgotten war that would shape the next century of the Philippines and in the United States. Inspired by a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States – and her recommendation we also read Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead – The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting since the first days of The Marxist Education Project in 2014. Each session, the Literature Group takes a thematic, historical, and political approach to the selections, which have included in-depth reading of Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings, Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years, followed by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, as well as groups focused on World War I, the depression of the 1930s, novels on migration, border politics, and labor organizing, Brecht plays, African novels from the continent, and our most recent session on Women Who Wrote Against Fascism. The group is now completing a fifth summer immersed in noir fiction, which will resume with a sixth summer noir series next year. | During this term, the MEP Literature Studies Group will read novels by women writers which explore the intersections of life in their communities, both at home and in the metropoles of Europe, India and the Philippines. These stories will take us to places and introduce us to people facing many of the dilemmas posed during late-stage capitalism, when the looming tipping points begin to collide. Reading and discussing these important writers could very well bring us to a broader sense of time and place. We will discussion Aminatta Forna and Gloria Apostol on December 2, 9, and 16. | 8/15/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-on-the-verge-of-historical-change/2021-12-09/ | Anti-colonialism|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction | 12/9/2021 19:00 | 12/9/2021 21:00 | ||
| Women Write on the Verge of Historical Change: Last session | convened with the Literature Group of The MEPLast session with Insurrecto by Gina ApostolHistorical change, not historical fiction! We believe that reading well-wrought literature allows us to understand the undercurrents of history in unique and challenging ways. During this term, the MEP Literature Studies Group will read novels by women writers which explore the intersections of life in their communities, both at home and in the metropoles of Europe, India and the Philippines. These stories will take us to places and introduce us to people facing many of the dilemmas posed during late-stage capitalism, when the looming tipping points begin to collide. Reading and discussing these important writers could very well bring us to a broader sense of time and place. THE BOTTLE FACTORY OUTING • Beryl Bainbridge • 1973 / As dark and doomful as it is hilarious, Beryl Bainbridge’s Booker Prize-nominated novel follows Freda and Brenda, two unlucky-in-love bedsit-mates working in a wine-bottling factory in London, who find that their lives change forever after a team outing. Bainbridge based the novel on a miserable warehouse job she held in the late fifties, which came with the added ‘perk’ of an unlimited wine allowance. We have completed our discussion of this book. THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS • Kiran Desai • 2006 / The main themes are migration, living between two worlds, as well as living between the past and present. The story centers around the lives of Biju and Sai. Biju is an Indian living in the United States illegally, son of a cook who works for Sai’s grandfather. Sai is an orphan living in mountainous Kalimpong with her maternal grandfather Jemubhai Patel; the cook; and a dog named Mutt. Biju, the other character is an illegal alien residing in the United States, trying to make a new life for himself, and contrasts this with the experiences of Sai, an anglicized Indian girl living with her grandfather in India. We have completed our discussion of this book. HAPPINESS • Aminatta Forna • 2018 / Waterloo Bridge, London. Two strangers collide. Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, and Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes. From this chance encounter in the midst of the rush of a great city, numerous moments of connections span out and interweave, bringing disparate lives together. Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma and to check up on the daughter of friends, his ‘niece,’ Ama, who hasn’t called home in a while. It soon emerges that she has been swept up in an immigration crackdown—and now her young son Tano is missing. We have completed our discussion of this book. INSURRECTO • Gina Apostol • 2018 / This novel’s structure reflects how history comes at us in scattered shards, the way voices are amplified or silenced, story lines invented or forgotten. “We enter others’ lives through two mediums, words and time, both faulty,” one character observes. But a third medium — image — is a powerful recurring motif. Apostol is obsessed with the lens, the gaze, the way victim and victor, good and evil are identified based on who holds the camera and who consumes its product. Apostol pushes up against the limits of fiction in order to recover the atrocity in Balangiga, and in so doing, she shows us the dark heart of an untold and forgotten war that would shape the next century of the Philippines and in the United States. Inspired by a presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on her Indigenous Peoples History of the United States – and her recommendation we also read Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead – The MEP LITERATURE GROUP has been meeting since the first days of The Marxist Education Project in 2014. Each session, the Literature Group takes a thematic, historical, and political approach to the selections, which have included in-depth reading of Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings, Victor Serge’s Unforgiving Years, followed by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, as well as groups focused on World War I, the depression of the 1930s, novels on migration, border politics, and labor organizing, Brecht plays, African novels from the continent, and our most recent session on Women Who Wrote Against Fascism. The group is now completing a fifth summer immersed in noir fiction, which will resume with a sixth summer noir series next year. | During this term, the MEP Literature Studies Group will read novels by women writers which explore the intersections of life in their communities, both at home and in the metropoles of Europe, India and the Philippines. These stories will take us to places and introduce us to people facing many of the dilemmas posed during late-stage capitalism, when the looming tipping points begin to collide. Reading and discussing these important writers could very well bring us to a broader sense of time and place. We will discussion Aminatta Forna and Gloria Apostol on December 2, 9, and 16. | 8/15/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-write-on-the-verge-of-historical-change/2021-12-16/ | Anti-colonialism|Class|Class and Gender|Emancipation|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction | 12/16/2021 19:00 | 12/16/2021 21:00 | ||
| States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China | An ongoing free offeringA close reading of Theda Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions | Skocpol asserts that social revolutions are rapid and basic transformations of a society’s state and class structures. She distinguishes this from mere rebellions, which involve a revolt of subordinate classes but may not create structural change, and from political revolutions that may change state structures but not social structures. What is unique about social revolutions, she argues, is that basic changes in social structure and political structure occur in a mutually reinforcing fashion and these changes occur through intense sociopolitical conflict. A convergence of peasant rebellion on one hand and international pressures causing state breakdown on the other hand cause revolutionary social movements. | 8/16/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/states-and-social-revolutions-a-comparative-analysis-of-france-russia-and-china/2022-01-23/ | China|Chinese Revolution|Emancipation|Enclosures|French Revolution|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Russian Revolution|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/23/2022 18:00 | 1/23/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | A reading and discussion of Theodore W. Allen’s two volume work | Theodore W. Allen spent 30 years researching the primary sources and writing The Invention of the White Race (2 volumes), which provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over rebellious laboring class of European and Africans in the pattern setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the late 17th early 18th century. | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race/2021-12-14/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Insurgency|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/16/2021 18:30 | 11/16/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | A reading and discussion of Theodore W. Allen’s two volume work | Theodore W. Allen spent 30 years researching the primary sources and writing The Invention of the White Race (2 volumes), which provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over rebellious laboring class of European and Africans in the pattern setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the late 17th early 18th century. | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race/2021-11-23/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Insurgency|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/23/2021 18:30 | 11/23/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | A reading and discussion of Theodore W. Allen’s two volume work | Theodore W. Allen spent 30 years researching the primary sources and writing The Invention of the White Race (2 volumes), which provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over rebellious laboring class of European and Africans in the pattern setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the late 17th early 18th century. | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race/2021-11-30/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Insurgency|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/30/2021 18:30 | 11/30/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | A reading and discussion of Theodore W. Allen’s two volume work | Theodore W. Allen spent 30 years researching the primary sources and writing The Invention of the White Race (2 volumes), which provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over rebellious laboring class of European and Africans in the pattern setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the late 17th early 18th century. | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race/2021-12-07/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Insurgency|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/7/2021 18:30 | 12/7/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | A reading and discussion of Theodore W. Allen’s two volume work | Theodore W. Allen spent 30 years researching the primary sources and writing The Invention of the White Race (2 volumes), which provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over rebellious laboring class of European and Africans in the pattern setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the late 17th early 18th century. | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race/2021-12-14/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|Caribbean Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Insurgency|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/14/2021 18:30 | 12/14/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Essential Political Writings of Hubert Harrison | Selections from A Hubert Harrison Reader Reading and discussion with the The Revolutions Study Group Recognized by the contemporaries of his days as the leading orator, editor, thinker, organizer and writer in the Black Mecca of Harlem for over 10 years before his premature death at the age of 44, Harrison’s articles on socialism, Black self-determination, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, US History, class first vs race first discussion, WWI, imperialism and internationalism were read around the world and are as relevant today as they were a century ago. Jeffrey B Perry author of the 2 volume biography of Hubert Harrison (Columbia University Press) and editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader(Wesleyan University Press) describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009.We also meet on Tuesday nights where we study Theodore Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. There is a special offer to be part of this reading group and the Tuesday reading group for a combined price of $100. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Jeffrey B Perry describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-essential-political-writings-of-hubert-harrison/2021-12-02/ | African American History|American Literature|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor Process|Migration|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/4/2021 18:30 | 11/4/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Essential Political Writings of Hubert Harrison | Selections from A Hubert Harrison Reader Reading and discussion with the The Revolutions Study Group Recognized by the contemporaries of his days as the leading orator, editor, thinker, organizer and writer in the Black Mecca of Harlem for over 10 years before his premature death at the age of 44, Harrison’s articles on socialism, Black self-determination, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, US History, class first vs race first discussion, WWI, imperialism and internationalism were read around the world and are as relevant today as they were a century ago. Jeffrey B Perry author of the 2 volume biography of Hubert Harrison (Columbia University Press) and editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader(Wesleyan University Press) describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009.We also meet on Tuesday nights where we study Theodore Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. There is a special offer to be part of this reading group and the Tuesday reading group for a combined price of $100. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Jeffrey B Perry describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-essential-political-writings-of-hubert-harrison/2021-11-11/ | African American History|American Literature|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor Process|Migration|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/11/2021 18:30 | 11/11/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Essential Political Writings of Hubert Harrison | Selections from A Hubert Harrison Reader Reading and discussion with the The Revolutions Study Group Recognized by the contemporaries of his days as the leading orator, editor, thinker, organizer and writer in the Black Mecca of Harlem for over 10 years before his premature death at the age of 44, Harrison’s articles on socialism, Black self-determination, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, US History, class first vs race first discussion, WWI, imperialism and internationalism were read around the world and are as relevant today as they were a century ago. Jeffrey B Perry author of the 2 volume biography of Hubert Harrison (Columbia University Press) and editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader(Wesleyan University Press) describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009.We also meet on Tuesday nights where we study Theodore Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. There is a special offer to be part of this reading group and the Tuesday reading group for a combined price of $100. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Jeffrey B Perry describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-essential-political-writings-of-hubert-harrison/2021-11-18/ | African American History|American Literature|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor Process|Migration|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/18/2021 18:30 | 11/18/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Essential Political Writings of Hubert Harrison | Selections from A Hubert Harrison Reader Reading and discussion with the The Revolutions Study Group Recognized by the contemporaries of his days as the leading orator, editor, thinker, organizer and writer in the Black Mecca of Harlem for over 10 years before his premature death at the age of 44, Harrison’s articles on socialism, Black self-determination, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, US History, class first vs race first discussion, WWI, imperialism and internationalism were read around the world and are as relevant today as they were a century ago. Jeffrey B Perry author of the 2 volume biography of Hubert Harrison (Columbia University Press) and editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader(Wesleyan University Press) describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009.We also meet on Tuesday nights where we study Theodore Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. There is a special offer to be part of this reading group and the Tuesday reading group for a combined price of $100. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Jeffrey B Perry describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-essential-political-writings-of-hubert-harrison/2021-11-25/ | African American History|American Literature|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor Process|Migration|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/25/2021 18:30 | 11/25/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Essential Political Writings of Hubert Harrison | Selections from A Hubert Harrison Reader Reading and discussion with the The Revolutions Study Group Recognized by the contemporaries of his days as the leading orator, editor, thinker, organizer and writer in the Black Mecca of Harlem for over 10 years before his premature death at the age of 44, Harrison’s articles on socialism, Black self-determination, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, US History, class first vs race first discussion, WWI, imperialism and internationalism were read around the world and are as relevant today as they were a century ago. Jeffrey B Perry author of the 2 volume biography of Hubert Harrison (Columbia University Press) and editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader(Wesleyan University Press) describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” THE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (started at the Brecht Forum) has met since 2009.We also meet on Tuesday nights where we study Theodore Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. There is a special offer to be part of this reading group and the Tuesday reading group for a combined price of $100. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Jeffrey B Perry describes Harrison “as the most class conscious of the race radicals and the most race conscious of the class radicals in those years” adding that he is “a key link in the two great trends of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle—the labor and civil rights trend associated associated with A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist trend associated with Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.” | 8/22/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-essential-political-writings-of-hubert-harrison/2021-12-02/ | African American History|American Literature|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Labor Process|Migration|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/2/2021 18:30 | 12/2/2021 20:00 | ||
| James P. Cannon and the Emergence of Trotskyism in the United States, 1928-38 | A presentation and discussion with author Bryan D. PalmerBryan D. Palmer reinterprets the history of labor and the left in the 1930s in the United States, while considering the emergence of Trotskyism in the most advanced capitalist country in the world. Focusing on Cannon as the founder of American Trotskyism, Palmer builds on his earlier book, James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928 (2007), with a deeply-researched, elegantly-written study of Cannon and the Trotskyist movement in the United States from 1928-38. Situating this dissident communist movement within the history of class struggle, both national and international, Palmer examines how Cannon and others fought to revive a combative trade unionism, thwart fascism and the drift to war, refuse Stalinism’s many degenerations, and build a new Party and a new International, both of which would be dedicated to reviving and realizing the possibilities of revolutionary socialism. The result is a study that provides a definitive account of the largest and most influential Trotskyist movement in the world in the 1930s, a mobilization whose history recasts understandings of the more extensively-studied experience of United States working-class militancy and the place of the Comintern-affiliated Communist Party within it. Bryan D. Palmer is Professor Emeritus and former Canada Research Chair, Canadian Studies, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada. He is former editor of Labour/Le Travail, and has published extensively on the history of labor and the revolutiona3ry left, including the two-volume, Marxism and Historical Practice (Brill, 2015) and the co-authored, Toronto’s Poor: A Rebellious History (Between the Lines, 2016). All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Situating this dissident communist movement within the history of class struggle, both national and international, Palmer examines how Cannon and others fought to revive a combative trade unionism, thwart fascism and the drift to war, refuse Stalinism’s many degenerations, and build a new Party and a new International, both of which would be dedicated to reviving and realizing the possibilities of revolutionary socialism. | 8/23/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/james-p-cannon-and-the-emergence-of-trotskyism-in-the-united-states-1928-38/ | Anti-fascism|Bolshevism|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/23/2021 14:00 | 10/23/2021 16:00 | ||
| Looking Over the Abyss with Steven Colatrella and Michael Meeropol | The US and Europe Beyond CapitalismEurope and subsequently the United States rose to power and wealth along with the rise of capitalism. But capitalism has now shifted its attention to Asia, even as the conditions of ordinary workers in Europe and North America decline, and the political influence of the West wanes. Looking Over the Abyss argues that only by breaking decisively with capitalism, and aligning themselves with the majority of the world’s people against exploitation, can the peoples of Europe and the United States save their societies. They must look not into the abyss where capitalism now proposes to plunge them, but over the abyss, over the horizon of capitalism, to an alternative present and future beyond capitalism. This work proposes concrete steps that can be taken to change institutions to move beyond capitalism, and helps to clarify the meanings of key concepts such as the State, Nations, Internationalism, Capitalism, Corporation and Class in ways that are practical and useful for social change. This is an original, insightful and important discussion of the capitalisms found in Europe and North America and the abyss they face against Chinese competition. I found especially valuable Colatrella’s analyses of the different political histories, even sociologies of Europe’s and the US’s different capitalisms. The inability of either to compete with the low standard-of-living capitalism, now developing particularly in China, has already created the socio-economic conditions for the rightist, anti-democratic ‘strong men’ now prospering in the rest of the capitalist world. For Colatrella, a renewed socialist advance, which he well if briefly characterizes, is the way out of this abyss. —John McDermott is the author of Restoring Democracy to America and Employers’ Economics versus Employees’ Economy. Steven Colatrella is a longtime activist and college professor who has taught at many institutions in both the United States and Italy. He is the author of a book on globalization and immigration, Workers of the World: African and Asian Migrants in Italy in the 1990s, (Africa World Press: 2001) and has published articles and essays on capitalism, corporations, global governance and class. He lives in northern Italy. Michael Meeropol is an economist and author of Surrender: How the Clinton Administration Completed the Reagan Revolution, and Professor Emeritus of Economics, Western New England University. | Europe and subsequently the United States rose to power and wealth along with the rise of capitalism. But capitalism has now shifted its attention to Asia, even as the conditions of ordinary workers in Europe and North America decline, and the political influence of the West wanes. Looking Over the Abyss argues that only by breaking decisively with capitalism, and aligning themselves with the majority of the world’s people against exploitation, can the peoples of Europe and the United States save their societies. | 8/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/looking-over-the-abyss-with-steven-colatrella-and-michael-meeropol/ | Accumulation of Capital|China|Class|Financialization|Globalization|Hegemony|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 9/19/2021 14:00 | 9/19/2021 16:00 | ||
| First They Took Rome with author David Broder | How the Populist Right Conquered Italy“David Broder has produced an excellent account of what has made modern Italy different but also similar to other Western European states. It begins back in the early 1990s when Italy was once more a pioneer, in that it was the first Western democracy where an established and stable two-party system collapsed suddenly, opening the way for a series of new political forces, labelled populist, to emerge spectacularly and suddenly.” — Chris Bambery, Counterfire Many commentators blame Italy’s malaise on cultural ills—pointing to the corruption of public life or a supposedly endemic backwardness. In this reading, Italy has failed to converge with the neoliberal reforms mounted by other European countries, leaving it to trail behind the rest of the world. First They Took Rome offers a different perspective: Italy isn’t failing to keep up with its international peers but farther along the same path of decline they are following. In the 1980s, Italy boasted the West’s strongest Communist Party; today, social solidarity is collapsing, working people feel ever more atomized, and democratic institutions grow increasingly hollow. Studying the rise of forces like Matteo Salvini’s Lega, this book shows how the populist right drew on a deep well of social despair, ignored by the liberal center. Italy’s recent history is a warning from the future—the story of a collapse of public life that risks spreading across the West. DAVID BRODER is a Rome-based writer and translator. He is the European editor for Jacobin and regularly writes with a focus on Italy, including in the journal Internazionale. Verso has provided the following code (good through November, 2021) for 50% off of First They Took Rome. | Studying the rise of forces like Matteo Salvini’s Lega, this book shows how the populist right drew on a deep well of social despair, ignored by the liberal center. Italy’s recent history is a warning from the future—the story of a collapse of public life that risks spreading across the West. First They Took Rome offers this perspective: Italy isn’t failing to keep up with its international peers but farther along the same path of decline they are following. In the 1980s, Italy boasted the West’s strongest Communist Party; today, social solidarity is collapsing, working people feel ever more atomized, and democratic institutions grow increasingly hollow. | 9/3/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/first-they-took-rome-with-author-david-broder/ | Anti-fascism|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Italian history|Left Populism|Neo-fascism|Populism|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/24/2021 14:00 | 10/24/2021 16:00 | ||
| Catastrophe and Systemic Change: Learning from the Grenfell Tower Fire and Other Disasters | a presentation by Gill Kernick | Author Gill Kernick will present her powerful analysis of the Grenfell disaster and its aftermath. The recent fire of a tower block is a sharp reminder that many residential structures will fail—witness the Miami collapse and the recent apartment collapses In Milano, Italy. | 9/4/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/catastrophe-and-systemic-change-learning-from-the-grenfell-tower-fire-and-other-disasters/ | Climate Change|Housing|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Urbanism | 10/16/2021 14:00 | 10/16/2021 16:00 | ||
| Diary of a Digital Plague Year with Dennis Broe | Diary of a Digital Plague Year: Corona Culture, Serial TV and The Rise of The Streaming Services with author Dennis Broe DENNIS BROE, author of Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and The End of Leisure, will be talking about his new book Diary of a Digital Plague Year: Corona Culture, Serial TV and The Rise of The Streaming Services. The book offers a blow-by-blow account of the ongoing confinement, charting the changes in our lives exacerbated by the coronavirus. Corona culture is a digital culture extraordinaire for some, while for others it has increased panic and terror about being at work. The privileged site for this exploration is serial TV and its new mode of delivery, the increased power of the streaming services as they attempt to dominate and even throttle global media production in a neoliberal, privatized attack on publicly financed film and television. The book charts this rise in short bursts that in toto illuminate these rapidly evolving changes in all our lives, as Adorno’s Minima Moralia meets TV Guide. The talk will touch on the year’s highs and lows including “John Brown’s Maid,” on the travesty that was The Good Lord Bird; “Coming Undone: The Limits of MeToo” and Nicole Kidman’s power walks in The Undoing; and “Battling ’50s Apartheid One Monster at aTime” in the majestic Lovecraft Country. The year is also recounted in essays on film, art, books and Euro- and American Cultural Politics, all the while asking how to turn this new phase of Digital Disaster Capitalism into a more liberatory (Virtual) Road Ahead. Here’s what the critics are saying: “With his latest masterwork, Dennis Broe confirms what some of us already knew: when it comes to parsing and interrogating popular culture, he has no peer.” —Gerald Horne, author, Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary “Broe’s mastery of history, economics, and media let him provide details and insights that few other writers can match. These short, readable essays offer convincing explanations of the moment in which we live.” —Julia Lesage, Co-founder and editor of Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media “Dennis Broe is one of the most acute critics working today. He has an astounding capacity to reach beyond a specific medium to give us wide-ranging yet deep social, cultural, and economic contexts. A triumph” —Toby Miller, author of A Covid Charter, a Better World “Broe’s blisteringly inciteful commentary isn’t just important, it’s brave.” —From the Foreward by Redacted Tonight’s Lee Camp DENNIS BROE is the author of Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and The End of Leisure and Maverick or How The West Was Lost. His television criticism can be found at Bro on The Global Television Beat. His radio commentary can be heard on his show Breaking Glass onArt District Radio in Paris and on Arts Express on the Pacifica Network in the U.S. He is the author of two novels: Left of Eden, about the Hollywood blacklist and A Hello to Arms, about the postwar buildup of the weapons industry. He is currently teaching in the Masters’ Program at the Ecole Superieure de Journalisme in Paris, has taught at The Sorbonne, and was a full professor and director of the Media Arts Graduate Program at Long Island University in New York All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | DENNIS BROE, author of Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and The End of Leisure, will be talking about his new book Diary of a Digital Plague Year: Corona Culture, Serial TV and The Rise of The Streaming Services. The book offers a blow-by-blow account of the ongoing confinement, charting the changes in our lives exacerbated by the coronavirus. Corona culture is a digital culture extraordinaire for some, while for others it has increased panic and terror about being at work. | 9/7/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/diary-of-a-digital-plague-year-with-dennis-broe/ | Emancipation|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Globalization|Media Criticism|Pandemics|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction | 10/13/2021 18:00 | 10/13/2021 20:00 | ||
| Value, Fictitious Capital and Finance. The Timelessness of Karl Marx’s Capital with John Milios | Karl Marx’s monetary value theory constitutes a radical break from the David Ricardo’s classical notion of value; it conceives value not as a “quantity” of labor contained in the commodity but as a social relation expressing the immanent regularities of the capitalist mode of production. Starting from his value-form analysis in Part One of Volume 1 of Capital, Marx develops the concept of “fictitious capital” in Volume 3, which depicts the role of interest-bearing capital and the financial sphere. Marx’s analysis allows for an understanding of contemporary capitalism, financialization and crisis: financialization cannot be isolated from “real” economy; it should be conceived as a “technology” of exercising capitalist power and hegemony over the working classes and the society as a whole. Marx’s analysis provides the terms to rethink the contemporary neoliberal form of capitalism and its crisis as expressions of the contradictions inherent in the organization of capitalist power. JOHN MILIOS is Professor of Political Economy and the History of Economic Thought at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. He has authored more than two hundred papers published or forthcoming in refereed journals (in Greek, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese and Turkish) including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, History of Political Economy, History of Economics Review, Review of Political Economy, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Science & Society, Rethinking Marxism, Review of Radical Political Economics, and has participated as invited speaker in numerous international conferences. He has also authored or co-authored some eighteen scholarly books. His most recent books in English are A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and Its Crisis: Demystifying Finance (Routledge 2013, Paperback Edition 2014, co-authored with D. P. Sotiropoulos and S. Lapatsioras) and The Origins of Capitalism as a Social System: The Prevalence of an Aleatory Encounter (Routledge 2018). He is director of the quarterly journal of economic theory Thesseis (published since 1982 in Greek) and serves on the editorial boards of four scholarly journals. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. Art by John Heartfield | Starting from his value-form analysis in Part One of Volume 1 of Capital, Marx develops the concept of “fictitious capital” in Volume 3, which depicts the role of interest-bearing capital and the financial sphere. Marx’s analysis allows for an understanding of contemporary capitalism, financialization and crisis: financialization cannot be isolated from “real” economy; it should be conceived as a “technology” of exercising capitalist power and hegemony over the working classes and the society as a whole. Marx’s analysis provides the terms to rethink the contemporary neoliberal form of capitalism and its crisis as expressions of the contradictions inherent in the organization of capitalist power. | 9/7/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/value-fictitious-capital-and-finance-the-timelessness-of-karl-marxs-capital-with-john-milios/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Financialization|Globalization|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/6/2021 14:00 | 11/6/2021 16:00 | ||
| Revolution in the Virocene: Near (or Nearing) the End of Time | a presentation by the SITUATIONS COLLECTIVE (PROJECT OF THE RADICAL IMAGINATION)This event is based on the collective work which appears in the current issue of Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination, Vol. IX,available at info@radicalimagination.institute from Pandemic Paper, no 1“The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the “state of emergency” in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism. One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress, its opponents treat it as a historical norm…”. —Walter Benjamin, “Theses (VIII) on the Philosophy of History” (1940) Foreclosing the PoliticalCOVID-19 and the emergent virocene has made insurgency explicit in the real State of emergency. We have been awakened from our collective ahistorical and apolitical slumbers. In an instant, the mantra of there is no alternative has been replaced by whatever happens, nothing will ever be the same. The ideology that says radical transformation is unrealistic has been irrevocably discredited. The bonds and rituals of everyday life have been loosened, fragmented and disjointed. What seemed inevitable and iron clad now feels flimsy as nation states globally scramble to find solutions that don’t exist. This opens up a space for thinking, and for politics. This new situation underscores a critical need for both practical intervention and an attempt at building a convergent philosophy that anticipates the praxis of the future. We have endured over 40 years of the foreclosure of the political and suffered its failures to the limit in which the State and its functioning doesn’t seem to exist except as an appendage of the needs and welfare of the Global corporations. We inhabit a transnational garrison state, inside the automated logic of a newly formed atomistic, disoriented, disembodied populace, a multitude of chaotic flux without political direction or organization. As we have painfully learned from history, this kind of situation is capital for right-wing populism with its accompanying authoritarian personalities and, on the other side, at best a mild form of ambiguous socialist desire. Our enemies act quickly and often with unified fronts. The SITUATIONS COLLECTIVE collaborators on “Revolution in the Virocene” as Pandemic Paper No. 1 are Peter Bratsis, Jeremy Glick, Bruno Gulli, Josh Kolbo, Kristin Lawler and Michael Pelias. | In an instant, the mantra of there is no alternative has been replaced by whatever happens, nothing will ever be the same. The ideology that says radical transformation is unrealistic has been irrevocably discredited. The bonds and rituals of everyday life have been loosened, fragmented and disjointed. What seemed inevitable and iron clad now feels flimsy as nation states globally scramble to find solutions that don’t exist. This opens up a space for thinking, and for politics. This new situation underscores a critical need for both practical intervention and an attempt at building a convergent philosophy that anticipates the praxis of the future. | 9/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revolution-in-the-virocene-near-or-nearing-the-end-of-time/ | automation|Capital Studies|Covid-19|Critical Theory|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/9/2021 14:00 | 10/9/2021 16:00 | ||
| The Bisbee Deportation / The Battle of Blair Mountain | Both of these new books are essential to having an understanding of the history of American class struggles.I’ll Forget It When I Die: The Bisbee Deportation of 1917 (AK Press, 2021) | • On July 12, 1917, in the mining town of Bisbee Arizona, twelve hundred striking miners and their supporters were rounded up by forces organized by the town sheriff and the mining companies, marched through the town, parked in the town’s baseball field, and then put in boxcars and shipped into the New Mexican desert. • When the smoke cleared on the Battle of Blair Mountain, an estimated 1 million rounds were fired, dozens were killed, and 985 miners were arrested. The uprising was suppressed, but public awareness about the appalling conditions in which the miners were forced to live, work, and raise their families grew considerably. | 9/21/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-bisbee-deportation-the-battle-of-blair-mountain/ | Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|Extractivism|Hegemony|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Syndicalism|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 10/20/2021 18:00 | 10/20/2021 20:00 | ||
| Clipped Coins and Civilizing Money: George Caffentzis on John Locke and David Hume | Clipped Coins, Abused Words and Civil Government: John Locke’s Philosophy of Money | George Caffentzis makes both an intervention in the field of monetary philosophy and into Marxist conceptions of the relation between philosophy and capitalist development. Clipped Coins and Civilizing Money have just been released by Pluto Press. George will be joined in discussion with Peter Linebaugh and Carl Wennerlind | 9/24/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/clipped-coins-and-civilizing-money-george-caffentzis-on-john-locke-and-david-hume/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Critical Theory|Hegemony|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Working Class History | 10/30/2021 14:00 | 10/30/2021 16:00 | ||
| Everyone a Legislator with author Michael Denning | Aspects of Gramsci’s work for the 21st Century: A presentation and discussion with Michael Denning“Perhaps Gramsci’s political science is … a “necessary expression of his time, the short twentieth century, an era now ended, the ae of three words divided between Fordist capitalism, bureaucratic communism and the post-colonial settlements of decolonization. If this is true, is there a future for Gramsci’s legacy?” —Michael Denning In the introduction to the May/June, 2021 New Left Review is this summary of Michael Denning’s essay, “Everyone a Legislator”: “What is the principal legacy today of Gramsci’s writing on politics. Often taken to be a theory of the party as a “modern prince” derived from Machiavelli, can this still be so in an epoch when political parties are everywhere in decline? This year in the May June issue of New Left Review, Michael Denning reasons that what now matters in Gramsci’s work is his theory of organizing and a premonitory form of democratic legislation.” The essay is available online at https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii129. The image used here, Verso la città futura (toward a future city), was painted on the side of an apartment complex on via Canova in Florence by artist Jorit. Underlying the painting, inscribed into the 213 meter wall is the following from Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks: “Even when everything is or seems lost, one must calmly get back to work, starting from the beginning…The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old dies and the new cannot be born”. Michael Denning is the author of Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution (2015); Culture in the Age of Three Worlds (2004); The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century (1997); Mechanic Accents: Dime Novels and Working Class Culture in America (1987); and Cover Stories: Narrative and Ideology in the British Spy Thriller (1987). Michael teaches American Studies at Yale University, where he coordinates the Working Group on Globalization and Culture. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “Perhaps Gramsci’s political science is … a “necessary expression of his time, the short twentieth century, an era now ended, the ae of three words divided between Fordist capitalism, bureaucratic communism and the post-colonial settlements of decolonization. If this is true, is there a future for Gramsci’s legacy?” —Michael Denning | 10/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/everyone-a-legislator-with-author-michael-denning/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Critical Theory|Emancipation|Fordism|Hegemony|historical materialism|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Marx|Marxisms|Neo-fascism|Organizing|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy | 11/20/2021 14:00 | 11/20/2021 16:00 | ||
| Parade of the Old New with artist/author Zoe Beloff | A presentation and discussion of Booklyn’s important new accordion fold-out 40-panel book with painter and author Zoe Bellof A discussion by Zoe Beloff about her new 40-panel accordion book that reproduces, Parade of the Old New, an epic panorama on cardboard panels, a 40 meter long allegory of the American body politic. The title is taken from a 1938 poem by Bertolt Brecht that inspired the theme of this work; now more than ever, we are not finished with the past and the past is not finished with us. The project was launched with Trump’s inauguration and continued until he was defeated at the ballot box. It begins with the president’s triumphal entry into Washington DC. Beyond stretches a country where the Mexican border walls meets Japanese internment camps from the 1940s at a vanishing point. It chronicles the desecration of public lands for profit, the battle of Charlottesville, the arrest of undocumented workers across the country and the detention of asylum seekers at the border. It illustrates the toll of COVID 19, the work of the nurses, the breadlines, young people painting Black Lives Matter mapping a road ahead, the storming of the Capitol and finally the flickering light of what might be a new beginning. Zoe will also talk about her essay also included in the book “The Troublemakers: History Painting in the Real World” in which she explores how painters have explored themes of social justice. She brings the writing of both Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht to bear on how we can think through the representation of history and lived experience. ZOE BELLOF is an artist and filmmaker based in New York. She aims to make radical art that educates, entertains, and provokes discussion. Most importantly, as her work attests, she believes protest should be vibrant, humorous and colorful, a carnival of resistance to light the way in dark times. Zoe’s work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings; venues include the Whitney Museum, Site Santa Fe, the MHKA museum in Antwerp, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. However she particularly enjoys working in alternative venues that are free and open to the community for events and conversations. These have included in New York City; The Coney Island Museum, Participant, Momenta and The James Gallery at the CUNY Graduate Center. She has been awarded fellowships from. The Graham Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Radcliffe Institute at Harvard and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is a professor at Queens College CUNY. BOOKLYN, INC. is a non profit organization founded in 1999 and located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Their mission is to promote artists’ books as art and research material and to assist artists and organizations in documenting, exhibiting, and distributing their artwork and archives. They specifically assist artists and organizations committed to environmental and social justice. | A discussion by Zoe Beloff about her new 40-panel accordion book that reproduces, Parade of the Old New, an epic panorama on cardboard panels, a 40 meter long allegory of the American body politic. The title is taken from a 1938 poem by Bertolt Brecht that inspired the theme of this work; now more than ever, we are not finished with the past and the past is not finished with us. The project was launched with Trump’s inauguration and continued until he was defeated at the ballot box. It begins with the president’s triumphal entry into Washington DC.Parade of the Old New is distributed by Booklyn, Inc. (booklyn.org). Booklyn also represents Beloff’s work within the library and academic market. | 10/14/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/parade-of-the-old-new-with-artist-author-zoe-beloff/ | Anti-fascism|Capital vs. Labor|Class and Gender|Emancipation|Insurgency|Labor Organizing|Neo-fascism|Organizing|Poetry|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/5/2021 14:00 | 12/5/2021 16:00 | ||
| Revenge Capitalism with Max Haiven | Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable DebtsA presentation with discussion with author Max Haiven“Max Haven retraces the roots of the current regression, of the reactionary trend that is driving the world toward a new darkness. These roots are humiliation and revenge. In my opinion this book is of strategical importance.” —Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, author of Futurability The Age of Impotence and the Horizon of Possibility Capitalism is in a profound state of crisis. Beyond the mere dispassionate cruelty of “ordinary” structural violence, it appears today as a global system bent on reckless economic revenge; its expression found in mass incarceration, climate chaos, unpayable debt, pharmaceutical violence and the relentless degradation of common life. In Revenge Capitalism, Max Haiven argues that this economic vengeance helps us explain the culture and politics of revenge we see in society more broadly. Moving from the history of colonialism and its continuing effects today, he examines the opioid crisis in the US, the growth of ‘surplus populations’ worldwide and unpacks the central paradigm of unpayable debts – both as reparations owed, and as a methodology of oppression. Revenge Capitalism offers no easy answers, but Max has made a powerful call to the radical imagination: “When you live in someone else’s utopia, all you have is revenge. We live in capitalism’s utopia, a world almost completely reconfigured to suit the needs of accumulation. And the world’s alight, and ours is an age of vengeance. It is vengeance, sadly, that is usually directed at those who least deserve it and which leaves those whose actions led to the current state of affairs, or who benefit from it, free or even more empowered.” —Max Haiven, from his introduction to Revenge Capitalism MAX HAIVEN is a writer and teacher and Canada Research Chair in Culture, Media and Social Justice. His most recent books are Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization (2018) and Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts (2020). Max also edits VAGABONDS, a series of short, radical books from Pluto Press. He teaches at Lakehead University, where he co-directs the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL). All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | In Revenge Capitalism, Max Haiven argues that this economic vengeance helps us explain the culture and politics of revenge we see in society more broadly. Moving from the history of colonialism and its continuing effects today, he examines the opioid crisis in the US, the growth of ‘surplus populations’ worldwide and unpacks the central paradigm of unpayable debts – both as reparations owed, and as a methodology of oppression. Revenge Capitalism offers no easy answers, but Max has made a powerful call to the radical imagination: “When you live in someone else’s utopia, all you have is revenge. We live in capitalism’s utopia, a world almost completely reconfigured to suit the needs of accumulation. And the world’s alight, and ours is an age of vengeance. It is vengeance, sadly, that is usually directed at those who least deserve it and which leaves those whose actions led to the current state of affairs, or who benefit from it, free or even more empowered.” —Max Haiven, from his introduction to Revenge Capitalism | 10/21/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/revenge-capitalism-with-max-haiven/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Critical Theory|Emancipation|Labor Organizing|Organizing|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/21/2021 14:00 | 11/21/2021 16:00 | ||
| George Caffentzis on Locke and Hume: Book special prices are still available | This is a special offer for those who would like either or both of the books that George Caffentzis has written and presented about on Saturday, October 30, accompanied by Peter Linebaugh and Carl Wennerlind. You can still buy the books event though the event has passed. Both books are offered here with media mail (US and Puerto ‘Rico only) at affordable combined prices. | Both books by George Caffentzis, CLIPPED COINS and CIVILIZING MONEY are still available! Buy one or both. | 10/25/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/george-caffentzis-on-locke-and-hume-books-and-the-event/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/8/2021 14:05 | 11/8/2021 16:00 | ||
| The Warehouse: Workers and Robots at Amazon with Alessandro Delfanti | “Delfanti has done here what more critics of Amazon should — listen carefully to the people whose work makes the corporation function. Those of us fighting for a better future than Amazon’s dystopia have much to learn from this book”. — Dania Rajendra, Inaugural Director, Athena Coalition ‘Work hard, have fun, make history’ proclaims the slogan on the walls of Amazon’s warehouses. This cheerful message hides a reality of digital surveillance, aggressive anti-union tactics and disciplinary layoffs. Reminiscent of the tumult of early industrial capitalism, the hundreds of thousands of workers who help Amazon fulfil consumers’ desire are part of an experiment in changing the way we all work. In this book, Alessandro Delfanti takes readers inside Amazon’s warehouses to show how technological advancements and managerial techniques subdue the workers rather than empower them, as seen in the sensors that track workers’ every movement around the floor and algorithmic systems that re-route orders to circumvent worker sabotage. He looks at new technologies including robotic arms trained by humans and augmented reality goggles, showing that their aim is to standardize, measure and discipline human work rather than replace it. Despite its innovation, Amazon will always need living labor’s flexibility and low cost. And as the warehouse is increasingly automated, worker discontent increases. Striking under the banner “we are not robots”, employees have shown that they are acutely aware of such contradictions. The only question remains: how long will it be until Amazon’s empire collapses? ALESSANDRO DELFANTI teaches Digital Media at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science (Pluto, 2013). All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “Delfanti has done here what more critics of Amazon should — listen carefully to the people whose work makes the corporation function. Those of us fighting for a better future than Amazon’s dystopia have much to learn from this book”. — Dania Rajendra, Inaugural Director, Athena Coalition | 10/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-warehouse-workers-and-robots-at-amazon-with-alessandro-delfanti/ | Accumulation of Capital|Artificial Intelligence AI|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|Fordism|Globalization|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Marx|Organizing|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/16/2021 18:00 | 11/16/2021 20:00 | ||
| The Art of Diane Esmond | Presented by her son Victor Wallis Diane Esmond (1910-1981) left an under-appreciated legacy of paintings. Although her artistic eye ranged over many subjects, her culminating evocations of the tropical forest have taken on added importance in the decades since her death. Based for most of her life in France, she displayed her work in Paris in the 1930s and internationally from the ‘50s through the ‘70s. Forced into exile in 1940, she spent the intervening years in New York; the paintings she left behind were seized (and many destroyed) by the Nazi occupation regime. Her later work, inspired by wide travel, showed a continuous evolution of style, but her orientation was more toward creating works of beauty than to keeping up with current trends of the art world. Victor Wallis remained in the United States when his mother returned to France; he has preserved the extensive correspondence that they maintained over the last 25 years of her life. Although known primarily for his political writings including Red-Green Revolution (2018), Democracy Denied (2019), and Socialist Practice (2020), Victor is also an amateur musician and has long been interested in the social roots of various art forms | Diane Esmond (1910-1981) left an under-appreciated legacy of paintings. Although her artistic eye ranged over many subjects, her culminating evocations of the tropical forest have taken on added importance in the decades since her death. Based for most of her life in France, she displayed her work in Paris in the 1930s and internationally from the ‘50s through the ‘70s. Forced into exile in 1940, she spent the intervening years in New York; the paintings she left behind were seized (and many destroyed) by the Nazi occupation regime | 10/31/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-art-of-diane-esmond/ | Art and politics|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/26/2021 14:00 | 11/26/2021 16:00 | ||
| A Guide to The Communist Manifesto with Phil Gasper | The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels A presentation with Phil Gasper “…All this attention to Marx’s ideas is certainly welcome. But – and of course there is a ‘but’ – with few exceptions, recent commentators have restricted their praise of the Manifesto to what it says about the nature and workings of the capitalist system. Yet Marx and Engels did not write the Manifesto as a piece of abstract economic analysis. It was intended as a revolutionary call to action – an explanation not only of what is wrong with society, but how it can be transformed to create “an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all” (Pt. II, ¶ 74). Central to this strategy for change is their claim that in the modern working class – the proletariat – capitalism has produced “its own gravediggers” (Pt. I, ¶ 53). That is, that capitalism itself has created the instrument of its abolition – an oppressed class with both the capacity and the interest to fight for the overthrow of the existing system, the emancipation of all humanity, and which, unlike previous oppressed classes, Twas capable of democratic self-rule…. The claim that the proletariat is a revolutionary class is the heart and soul of The Communist Manifesto.” —Phil Gasper, International Socialist Review, Issue 5 Here, at last, is an authoritative introduction to history’s most important political document, with the full text of The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. This beautifully organized and presented edition of The Communist Manifestois fully annotated, with clear historical references and explication, additional related texts, and a glossary that will bring the text to life for students, as well as the general reader. Since it was first written in 1848, the Manifesto has been translated into more languages than any other modern text. It has been banned, censored, burned, and declared “dead.” But year after year, the text only grows more influential, remaining required reading in courses on philosophy, politics, economics, and history. PHIL GASPER is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame de Namur University and the editor of The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History’s Most Important Political Document (Haymarket, 2005) and Imperialism and War: Classic Writings by V.I. Lenin and Nikolai Bukarin (Haymarket, 2017). He is a co-editor of the journal New Politics and a member of DSA and of the Tempest Collective. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | IF YOU CANNOT OURCHASE ON OUR SITE, TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT EVENTBRITE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/203494927807 Since Phil produced this edition, the English-reading left has had an authoritative introduction to history’s most important political document, with the full text of The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. This beautifully organized and presented edition of The Communist Manifestois fully annotated, with clear historical references and explication, additional related texts, and a glossary that will bring the text to life for students, as well as the general reader. Since it was first written in 1848, the Manifesto has been translated into more languages than any other modern text. It has been banned, censored, burned, and declared “dead.” But year after year, the text only grows more influential, remaining required reading in courses on philosophy, politics, economics, and history. | 11/2/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-guide-to-the-communist-manifesto-with-phil-gasper/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Critical Theory|Emancipation|Engels|Globalization|historical materialism|Marx|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Working Class History | 12/4/2021 14:00 | 12/4/2021 16:00 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Reading and discussion with the Capital Studies GroupSix More Sessions (recordings of earlier sessions available) “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” —István Mészáros During these next eight sessions we will do an ongoing close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). This read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” For reference, the sections we will first cover are presented here from the Table of Contents:
All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. | During these remaining eight sessions we will do an ongoing close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). This read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. | 11/10/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros/2022-02-16/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Critical Theory|Emancipation|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/2/2022 17:00 | 2/2/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Reading and discussion with the Capital Studies GroupSix More Sessions (recordings of earlier sessions available) “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” —István Mészáros During these next eight sessions we will do an ongoing close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). This read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” For reference, the sections we will first cover are presented here from the Table of Contents:
All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. | During these remaining eight sessions we will do an ongoing close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). This read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. | 11/10/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros/2022-02-09/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Critical Theory|Emancipation|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/9/2022 17:00 | 2/9/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Reading and discussion with the Capital Studies GroupSix More Sessions (recordings of earlier sessions available) “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” —István Mészáros During these next eight sessions we will do an ongoing close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). This read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” For reference, the sections we will first cover are presented here from the Table of Contents:
All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. | During these remaining eight sessions we will do an ongoing close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). This read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. | 11/10/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros/2022-02-16/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Critical Theory|Emancipation|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology | 2/16/2022 17:00 | 2/16/2022 18:30 | ||
| 50 Years of Anti-Imperialist Writing: Galeano, Rodney, and Ghosh | Convened with Fred Murphy, Gerardo Rénique and Gunnett KaafA reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America (1971) and Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. These discussions will be led by Gerardo Rénique and Fred Murphy, joined by Gunnett Kaaf for the Africa sessions and consideration of Walter Rodney’s study. Gerardo Rénique taught history for many years at the City College of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on Latin America, ecosocialism, and related topics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. Gunnett Kaaf is a Marxist activist and writer based in Bloemfontein, South Africa. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry URL to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | A reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s OPEN VEINS OF LATIN AMERICA (1971) and Walter Rodney’s HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published THE NUTMEG’S CURSE: PARABLES FOR A PLANET IN CRISIS. | 11/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/50-years-of-anti-imperialist-writing-galeano-rodney-and-ghosh/2022-01-31/ | Africa|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Food and politics|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|South Africa | 1/3/2022 12:00 | 1/3/2022 13:30 | ||
| 50 Years of Anti-Imperialist Writing: Galeano, Rodney, and Ghosh | Convened with Fred Murphy, Gerardo Rénique and Gunnett KaafA reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America (1971) and Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. These discussions will be led by Gerardo Rénique and Fred Murphy, joined by Gunnett Kaaf for the Africa sessions and consideration of Walter Rodney’s study. Gerardo Rénique taught history for many years at the City College of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on Latin America, ecosocialism, and related topics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. Gunnett Kaaf is a Marxist activist and writer based in Bloemfontein, South Africa. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry URL to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | A reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s OPEN VEINS OF LATIN AMERICA (1971) and Walter Rodney’s HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published THE NUTMEG’S CURSE: PARABLES FOR A PLANET IN CRISIS. | 11/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/50-years-of-anti-imperialist-writing-galeano-rodney-and-ghosh/2022-01-10/ | Africa|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Food and politics|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|South Africa | 1/10/2022 12:00 | 1/10/2022 13:30 | ||
| 50 Years of Anti-Imperialist Writing: Galeano, Rodney, and Ghosh | Convened with Fred Murphy, Gerardo Rénique and Gunnett KaafA reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America (1971) and Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. These discussions will be led by Gerardo Rénique and Fred Murphy, joined by Gunnett Kaaf for the Africa sessions and consideration of Walter Rodney’s study. Gerardo Rénique taught history for many years at the City College of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on Latin America, ecosocialism, and related topics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. Gunnett Kaaf is a Marxist activist and writer based in Bloemfontein, South Africa. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry URL to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | A reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s OPEN VEINS OF LATIN AMERICA (1971) and Walter Rodney’s HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published THE NUTMEG’S CURSE: PARABLES FOR A PLANET IN CRISIS. | 11/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/50-years-of-anti-imperialist-writing-galeano-rodney-and-ghosh/2022-01-17/ | Africa|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Food and politics|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|South Africa | 1/17/2022 12:00 | 1/17/2022 13:30 | ||
| 50 Years of Anti-Imperialist Writing: Galeano, Rodney, and Ghosh | Convened with Fred Murphy, Gerardo Rénique and Gunnett KaafA reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America (1971) and Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. These discussions will be led by Gerardo Rénique and Fred Murphy, joined by Gunnett Kaaf for the Africa sessions and consideration of Walter Rodney’s study. Gerardo Rénique taught history for many years at the City College of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on Latin America, ecosocialism, and related topics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. Gunnett Kaaf is a Marxist activist and writer based in Bloemfontein, South Africa. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry URL to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | A reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s OPEN VEINS OF LATIN AMERICA (1971) and Walter Rodney’s HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published THE NUTMEG’S CURSE: PARABLES FOR A PLANET IN CRISIS. | 11/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/50-years-of-anti-imperialist-writing-galeano-rodney-and-ghosh/2022-01-24/ | Africa|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Food and politics|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|South Africa | 1/24/2022 12:00 | 1/24/2022 13:30 | ||
| 50 Years of Anti-Imperialist Writing: Galeano, Rodney, and Ghosh | Convened with Fred Murphy, Gerardo Rénique and Gunnett KaafA reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America (1971) and Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. These discussions will be led by Gerardo Rénique and Fred Murphy, joined by Gunnett Kaaf for the Africa sessions and consideration of Walter Rodney’s study. Gerardo Rénique taught history for many years at the City College of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on Latin America, ecosocialism, and related topics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught Latin American history at the New School for Social Research. In the 1980s he traveled in Latin America as a journalist for several socialist publications. Gunnett Kaaf is a Marxist activist and writer based in Bloemfontein, South Africa. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry URL to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | A reading group to celebrate and reflect on two classic works of anti-imperialist writing first published fifty years ago but with an ongoing worldwide impact: Eduardo Galeano’s OPEN VEINS OF LATIN AMERICA (1971) and Walter Rodney’s HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA (1972). Extending our scope to Asia and bringing matters up to the present day, we will conclude by reading Amitav Ghosh’s just-published THE NUTMEG’S CURSE: PARABLES FOR A PLANET IN CRISIS. | 11/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/50-years-of-anti-imperialist-writing-galeano-rodney-and-ghosh/2022-01-31/ | Africa|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Food and politics|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|South Africa | 1/31/2022 12:00 | 1/31/2022 13:30 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Last two weeks until spring term | Notebook 3: two more sessions until the next termNewcomers are welcome to join this diverse, and very welcoming international group of reading discussants when you are able “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse Perhaps the most curious and least understood aspect of Marx’s work is his method of analysis. Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However, to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of the Grundrisse. This work is perhaps the best representation of the process of thinking that found its culmination in Capital and we will be engaging with it during our study. Without a doubt, this will be a long and arduous process but we should always keep in mind that “there is no royal road to science and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits. Continuing on December 4, we will read from “The Chapter on Money” utilizing the Penguin edition of Marx’s Grundrisse. Recordings of prior sessions are available to all who would like to review. These sessions are open to people joining when possible. We are attempting to read and thoroughly discuss each Notebook in a series of 10-12 week sessions. | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse | 11/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxs-grundrisse-2nd-session/2022-04-09/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Grundrisse|Labor Process|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/2/2022 11:00 | 4/2/2022 13:00 | ||
| Brecht’s Communist Manifesto Today! | Poetry, Utopia, Doctrine Darko Suvin with Pratyush Chandra, Bill Henning, Javeed Malik & Neeraj Malick, and Christopher Winks“Poetry and communism: forms for emancipatory egalitarian longing. As vectors of desire, they intertwine frustration and hope, utopia and organization, bread and roses. They call us to attend to the past, not just to survive, but to establish again the revolutionary horizon we need to live. Communism and poetry: Darko Suvin shows us how they are the same.” —Jodi Dean, author of Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging A POEM • WHAT EXISTENTIAL ANTI-UTOPIA MEANS FOR US • BERTOLT BRECHT: (THE MANIFESTO) • COMMENTS ON BRECHT’S MANIFESTO • WHAT IS TO BE DONE? In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” —1848 Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels.Come join in a celebration and reclamation of the challenge Marx and Engels gave humanity in the original 1848 Communist Manifesto, reclaimed and rewritten anew in poetry by Bertolt Brecht in the 20th century. Thanks to Darko Suvin, poet and revolutionary intellectual, Brecht’s unpublished work has been translated into English and is here, ready to be appropriated by us of the 21st century. The Marxist Education Project is proud to present a reading and discussion of Brecht’s work and its meaning for us at a time when all of humanity, our earth, and all life as we know it is threatened by the moribund laws of self-seeking capitalist private property. Brecht premises his poem on the practical reality, only fully in place after WWII, of a globalized capitalized world. Marx understood that capitalist relations would globalize our societies and earth and saw this taking place, but during his lifetime this had not yet been fully achieved. Now, having occupied our earth, today, the Bezos and company are exploring the possibilities of extending their private interests into our universe all for their personal aggrandizement and under the dictates of money making more money, accumulation for the sake of accumulation. Our guest speakers and discussants will explore the relations of poetry, the meaning of utopia and anti-utopia, and doctrine as we re-envision the emancipatory project and the necessity of self-consciously identifying the difficult tasks of transitioning specific to our particular country’s development while always in relation to and for the mutual development of each and all. Interestingly, Brecht closes his Manifesto replying to Marx and Engels closing line in their Manifesto, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win,” by answering, “How may the workers break their own class chains? Only by breaking everybody’s chains.” Marx once said that there are historical moments when the working class must gain class-consciousness and become historical subjects. We are at just such a historical moment. Are we up to the task? This event is sliding scale: $23 for those who can afford front row orchestra seating / $3 General Admission a / $0 General Admission b With registration a link for the event will be provided in time for attending this event. | Brecht closes his Manifesto replying to Marx and Engels closing line in their Manifesto, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win,” by answering, “How may the workers break their own class chains? Only by breaking everybody’s chains.” Marx once said that there are historical moments when the working class must gain class-consciousness and become historical subjects. We are at just such a historical moment. Are we up to the task? | 11/13/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/brechts-communist-manifesto-today/ | Art and politics|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Covid-19|Emancipation|Globalization|historical materialism|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/26/2021 10:30 | 11/26/2021 12:30 | ||
| The Condition of the Working Class in Turkey | Labor under Neoliberal AuthoritarianismEditors Çağatay Edgücan Şahin and Mehmet Erman Erol joined by contributors Cosku Celik, Ertan Erol, and Elif HacısalihoğluA comprehensive new study that uncovers the real story of working-class struggle in TurkeyDecades of neoliberal authoritarianism have propelled Turkey into crisis. Regime change, economic disaster and Erdogan’s ambition to impose ‘one-man rule’ have shaken the foundations of Turkish political life. This presentation will look at the historical and current outcomes brough about by the authoritarian, militarized civil life for Turkish workers. What will be the long term consequences for workers in Turkey? Moving beyond the headlines and personalities, this book uncovers the real condition of the working class in modern Turkey. Combining field research and in-depth interviews, this book offers cutting-edge analyses of workplace struggles, trade unionism, the AKP’s relationship with neoliberalism, migration, gender, agrarian change and precarity, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on workers. This volume also brings together a broad range of Turkish activists and scholars who consider what the dynamics and contradictions of working-class resistance against Turkey’s neoliberal authoritarian regime have become; worker self-management, organized labor, and class struggles in rural areas are examined. Çağatay Edgücan Şahin is an Associate Professor of Labor Economics at the University of Ordu, Turkey. He has published various books including Human Capital and Human Resources: A Critical Approach (2011). Mehmet Erman Erol is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK. He has contributed to journals and books on Turkish & Middle East political economy and labor market restructuring. Cosku Celik (York University, Visiting Assistant Professor). Her chapter entitled ‘The Making of the Rural Proletariat in Neoliberal Turkey’ Elif Hacısalihoğlu (Trakya University, Turkey, Assistant Professor). Chapter ‘A View of Precarization from Turkey: Urban-rural Dynamics and Intergenerational Precarity’ Ertan Erol (Istanbul University, Turkey, Assistant Professor) Chapter ‘Burden or a Saviour at a time of Economic Crisis: AKP’s ‘Open-Door Migration Policy’ and its Impact on Labor Market Restructuring in Turkey All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Moving beyond headlines and personalities, uncovered are the real working class conditions in modern Turkey. Combining field research and interviews, cutting-edge analyses of workplace struggles, trade unionism, the AKP’s relationship with neoliberalism, migration, gender, agrarian change and precarity, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on workers are presented succinctly. Brought together by a broad range of Turkish activists and scholars who consider what the dynamics and contradictions of working-class resistance against Turkey’s neoliberal authoritarian regime have become. | 11/14/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-condition-of-the-working-class-in-turkey/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class and Gender|Covid-19|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Organizing|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 12/15/2021 14:00 | 12/15/2021 16:00 | ||
| We Are “Nature” Defending Itself: Entangling Art, Activism and Autonomous Zones | THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED. A later date in 2022 will be found.by Isabelle Fremeaux and Jay JordanChronicles the story of the ZAD (zone to defend), a resistant land occupation emerging out of a decades-long struggle which stopped a new airport projectIn 2008, as the storms of the financial crash blew, Isabelle Fremeaux and Jay Jordan deserted the metropolis and their academic jobs, traveling across Europe in search of post-capitalist utopias. They wanted their art activism to no longer be uprooted. They arrived at a place French politicians had declared lost to the republic, otherwise known as the ZAD (the zone to defend): a messy but extraordinary canvas of commoning, illegally occupying 4,000 acres of wetlands where an international airport was planned. In 2018, the 40-year-long struggle snatched an incredible victory, defeating the airport expansion project through a powerful cocktail that merged creation and resistance. Fremeaux and Jordan blend rich eyewitness accounts with theory, inspired by a diverse array of approaches, from neo-animism to revolutionary biology, insurrectionary writings and radical art history. This event considers one of a number of books from the new Pluto Books Vagabonds series. Published in collaboration with the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest. Further info: https://vagabonds.xyz/wandi/ Isabelle Fremeaux is a popular educator and action researcher. She was formerly Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck College London. Along with Jay Jordan, she is a coordinator of The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination. Jay Jordan is co-founder of Reclaim the Streets (1995-2000) and the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, and co-author of We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anticapitalism (Verso, 2003) and A User’s Guide to Demanding the Impossible (Minor Compositions, 2011). He is a coordinator of The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. We have introduced a $2.50 rate (less than a one way transit fare) for those who want to contribute but have difficulty with all three levels of our sliding scale of $7 to $11. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Register with the “Cash at First Session” option if you are not able to pay. | Chronicles the story of the ZAD (zone to defend), a resistant land occupation emerging out of a decades-long struggle which stopped a new airport project. Fremeaux and Jordan blend rich eyewitness accounts with theory, inspired by a diverse array of approaches, from neo-animism to revolutionary biology, insurrectionary writings and radical art history. | 11/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/we-are-nature-defending-itself-entangling-art-activism-and-autonomous-zones/ | Agribusiness|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Food and politics|Insurgency|Mutual Aid|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/2/2022 18:00 | 1/2/2022 20:00 | ||
| Rethinking Alternatives with Marx: Economy, Ecology and Migration | Himani Bannerji, Michael Brie, Gregory Claeys, and Silvia Federici with editor Marcello Musto
This book presents a Marx that is in many ways different from the one popularized by the dominant currents of 20th century Marxism. The dual aim of this collective volume is to contribute to a new critical discussion on Marx’s critique of political economy and to develop a deeper analysis of certain questions, like ecology and migration, to which relatively little attention has been paid until recently. Contributions of globally renowned scholars, from nine countries and multiple academic disciplines, offer diverse and innovative perspectives on Marx’s points of view about ecology, migration, gender, the capitalist mode of production, the labour movement, globalization, social relations, and the contours of a possible socialist alternative. Order the book here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-81764-0 This event is sponsored by the Marxist Education Project, Shelter & Solidarity, The Community Church of Boston, Encuentro5, Hardball Press, and Socialism & Democracy | The dual aim of this collective volume is to contribute to a new critical discussion on Marx’s critique of political economy and to develop a deeper analysis of certain questions, like ecology and migration, to which relatively little attention has been paid until recently. | 11/19/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/rethinking-alternatives-with-marx-economy-ecology-and-migration/ | Accumulation of Capital|Agribusiness|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Immigration|Indigenous Peoples|Marx|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/18/2021 14:00 | 12/18/2021 16:00 | ||
| Disputing the Deluge with Darko Suvin joined by Editor Hugh O’Connell and special guests | Collected 21st-Century Writings on Utopia, Narration, and Survival by DARKO SUVIN | Darko Suvin’s writings from the early 2000s investigate the function of literary genres and reconsider the relationship between science fiction and fantasy, the essays collected here highlight the value of science fiction for grappling with the key events and transformations of recent years. Suvin’s interrogations show how speculative fiction has responded to 9/11, the global war on terror, the 2008economic collapse, and the rise of conservative populism, along with contemporary critical utopian analyses of the Capitalocene, the climate crisis,COVID19, and the decline of democracy. This collection allows new generations of students and scholars to engage directly with his work and its continuing importance and timeliness. | 11/28/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/disputing-the-deluge-with-darko-suvin-joined-by-editor-hugh-oconnell-and-special-guests/ | Art and politics|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Critical Theory|Emancipation|Fantasy Fiction|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marx|Media Criticism|Modernity|Pandemics|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Science Fiction|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/12/2021 10:30 | 12/12/2021 12:30 | ||
| After Wampum, the Evolution of Money in Colonial America | with Peter FayHow did money evolve? In Das Kapital Karl Marx says commodities emerged in early societies: “where communities have their boundaries, at their points of contact with othercommunities.” Money then “comes to be attached either to the most important articles of exchange from outside… or to the object of utility which forms the chief element of indigenous alienable wealth.” Did this evolution also occur on boundaries of later empires? We will travel back in time to colonial New England and New York to closely examine Marx’s views on money at the periphery of the British empire. Scarcity of British currency forced many commodities toward the role of “universal equivalent”: Indian corn, tobacco, pieces of eight. But it was colonial thirst for luxury commodities like beaver pelts that finally drove an explosive growth in the one money-commodity facilitating that trade: wampum. All traditions in this world became inverted: Indigenous nations who dominated the wealth in wampum and fur were soon its slave. Wampum had opposite meanings to different actors speaking a polyglot of Algonquian or European tongues. To Narragansettpeople it was a symbol of great spiritual power to bond tribes in fealty. To European fur traders it was a debaser of tribal customs to foster commodity production. To Puritan governors it was a ransom from tribes for penalties and treaties. But to all it was an indispensable bond, constantly evolving and expanding, without which society would unravel.  For twenty years, PETER FAY has researched history across dozens of archives, participating in public art and historical projects as a Marxist public historian at universities, libraries, and public forums across New England. He uncovered never-before known histories of Black and Indigenous Revolutionary War veterans, early millworkers, and mariners, during the transformation of enslaved labor to wage slavery in Rhode Island.Peter is a co-founder of the Newport Middle Passage Project, the Jamestown Friends of Black History and sits on the Board of the Jamestown Historical Society. Earlier he held leadership positions in the labor movement in steel, electrical, and health care. He retired after a 30-year career in software engineering in commercial and educational institutions, most recently at Brown University. Pictured above: European and indigenous fur traders in North America (Fadden, 1777, Wikimedia Commons) | A TALK WITH PETER FAY We will travel back in time to colonial New England and New York to closely examine Marx’s views on money at the periphery of the British empire. Scarcity of British currency forced many commodities toward the role of “universal equivalent”: Indian corn, tobacco, pieces of eight. But it was colonial thirst for luxury commodities like beaver pelts that finally drove an explosive growth in the one money-commodity facilitating that trade: wampum. | 12/7/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/wampum-and-the-evolution-of-money-in-colonial-america/2022-01-31/ | Capital Studies|Colonialism|Grundrisse|historical materialism|Money|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/31/2022 18:00 | 1/31/2022 20:00 | ||
| A People’s History of Detroit | with authors Mark Jay and Philip Conklin Recent bouts of gentrification and investment in Detroit have led some to call it the greatest turnaround story in American history. Meanwhile, activists point to the city’s cuts to public services, water shutoffs, mass foreclosures, and violent police raids. In A People’s History of Detroit, Mark Jay and Philip Conklin use a class framework to tell a sweeping story of Detroit from 1913 to the present, embedding Motown’s history in a global economic context. Attending to the struggle between corporate elites and radical working-class organizations, Jay and Conklin outline the complex sociopolitical dynamics underlying major events in Detroit’s past, from the rise of Fordism and the formation of labor unions, to deindustrialization and the city’s recent bankruptcy. They demonstrate that Detroit’s history is not a tale of two cities—one of wealth and development and another racked by poverty and racial violence; rather it is the story of a single Detroit that operates according to capitalism’s mandates. “Jay and Conklin work backward before working forward. The authors first offer a people’s history of Detroit’s present, subverting chronology to read the resurgence narrative of Detroit against the grain and reveal the erasure of Black Detroit via the myth of Detroit’s ‘Golden Age’ in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. This allows them, and therefore us, to understand the systemic problems facing contemporary Detroit first, and then uncover their prehistory second, instead of the other way around.” — Hannah Zeavin, Los Angeles Review of Books “Equal parts an urban history of a single city and a sweeping theory of capitalism. . . . Through a detailed exposition of one city’s past,A People’s History of Detroitimagines what a people’s future could look like in Detroit—and in other cities.” — David Helps, Public Books Mark Jay received his PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Philip Conklin is a PhD student in the History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. They are coeditors of the literary and political magazine The Periphery. BOOKS AVAILABLE DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS dukeupress.edu 320 PAGES / 17 ILLUSTRATIONS order the book with this discount code: E20HSTRY | Mark Jay and Philip Conklin outline the complex sociopolitical dynamics underlying major events in Detroit’s past, from the rise of Fordism and the formation of labor unions, to deindustrialization and the city’s recent bankruptcy. They demonstrate that Detroit’s history is not a tale of two cities—one of wealth and development and another racked by poverty and racial violence; rather it is the story of a single Detroit that operates according to capitalism’s mandates. | 12/7/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-detroit/ | Accumulation of Capital|Austerity|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Financialization|Fordism|Globalization|historical materialism|Housing|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Organizing|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Urbanism|Working Class History | 1/8/2022 14:00 | 1/8/2022 16:00 | ||
| Power Despite Precarity | Strategies for the Contingent Faculty Movement in Higher Educationwith authors Joe Berry and Helena Worthen“A masterful look at the challenges involved with organizing workers in higher education. Berry and Worthen provide excellent recommendations regarding vision and strategy, making the book valuable beyond the field of higher education.” —Bill Fletcher, Jr., author of They’re Bankrupting Us: And Twenty Other Myths about Unions Higher education is the site of an ongoing conflict. At the heart of this struggle are the precariously employed faculty ‘contingents’ who work without basic job security, living wages or benefits. Yet they have the incentive and, if organized, the power to shape the future of higher education.Power Despite Precarity is part history, part handbook and a wholly indispensable resource in this fight. Joe Berry and Helena Worthen outline the four historical periods that led to major transitions in the work-lives of faculty of this sector. They then take a deep dive into the 30-year-long struggle by California State University lecturers to negotiate what is recognized as the best contract for contingents in the US. The authors ask: what is the role of universities in society? Whose interests should they serve? What are the necessary conditions for the exercise of academic freedom? Providing strategic insight for activists at every organizing level, they also tackle ‘troublesome questions’ around legality, union politics, academic freedom and how to recognize friends (and foes) in the struggle. Joe Berry is a founder of the Chicago Coalition of Academic Labor and a long-time leader of the international COCAL and New Faculty Majority. He has served on many national contingent faculty committees. He is the author of Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education (Monthly Review Press, 2005). Helena Worthen is a novelist, union activist and retired contingent faculty worker. Her book, What Did You Learn at Work Today? The Forbidden Lessons of Labor Education (Hardball, 2013) won the 2014 Best Book award from the United Association for Labor Education. BOOK AVAILABLE AT plutobooks.com USE 30% DISCOUNT CODE: MEP THE TIMES LISTED ARE EASTERN US and CANADA Eastern Standard Time / This event will be 9:30 to 11:30 PM GMT | Power Despite Precarity is part history, part handbook and a wholly indispensable resource in this fight. Joe Berry and Helena Worthen outline the four historical periods that led to major transitions in the work-lives of faculty of this sector. They then take a deep dive into the 30-year-long struggle by California State University lecturers to negotiate what is recognized as the best contract for contingents in the US. | 12/10/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/power-despite-precarity/ | Austerity|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class and Gender|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/14/2022 17:30 | 1/14/2022 19:30 | ||
| Part 1 of Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, the 3-volume edition | A 10-week session with Piruz Alemi | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=13713 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | ||||
| Part One of Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | Study conducted with Piruz Alemi | These seminars are accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci. This first session will be followed by consecutive sessions. | 12/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/part-one-of-antonio-gramscis-prison-notebooks-3-volume-version/2022-03-27/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class and Gender|Critical Theory|Fordism|Hegemony|historical materialism|Italian history|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/13/2022 12:00 | 3/13/2022 13:30 | ||
| Six Month Pass through November 30, 2022 | MORE AFFORDABLE PASSES!We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. THIS IS REALLY A MORE THAN 6-MIONTH PASS, ESPECIALLY IF PURCHASED BEFORE THE END OF MAY! There are a number of significant series that are being offered between now and October 31, 2022 including the the new series on precariousness and a second Gramsci course which considers the 3-volume version of the Prison Notebooks that will begin in late January, a new Socialist Register series on Class, Party, Revolution and Capitalism, Technology, Labor. The next Grundrisse group begins April 23. The new combined 2 volumes of Invention of the White Race will be a new class which you can still join this February. On May 7 Marcello Musto will be joined with John Bellamy Foster for a discussion on The Marx Revival: Ecology and Communism. The next in the annual Socialist Register series occurs will feature Sam Gindin, Adolph Reed Jr., Toure Reed,James Schneider, Hilary Wainwrite on Polarization and Socialism. There are a wide range of other events and classes being finalized and will be seen soon on this site, social media and elsewhere.. All classes that are ongoing beyond the six months, if enrolled in during this period, are covered with this 6 month pass. | We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. | 12/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/multi-month-pass-to-june-30-2021/2022-06-06/ | Communism|Das Kapital|Engels|Gramsci|Lenin|Luxemburg|Marx|marxism|Marxisms|Revolution|Socialism | African American History|Agribusiness|American Literature|automation|Bolshevism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Climate Change|Dance|Ecosocialism|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/6/2022 14:30 | 6/6/2022 23:30 | |
| Six Month Pass through November 30, 2022 | MORE AFFORDABLE PASSES!We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. THIS IS REALLY A MORE THAN 6-MIONTH PASS, ESPECIALLY IF PURCHASED BEFORE THE END OF MAY! There are a number of significant series that are being offered between now and October 31, 2022 including the the new series on precariousness and a second Gramsci course which considers the 3-volume version of the Prison Notebooks that will begin in late January, a new Socialist Register series on Class, Party, Revolution and Capitalism, Technology, Labor. The next Grundrisse group begins April 23. The new combined 2 volumes of Invention of the White Race will be a new class which you can still join this February. On May 7 Marcello Musto will be joined with John Bellamy Foster for a discussion on The Marx Revival: Ecology and Communism. The next in the annual Socialist Register series occurs will feature Sam Gindin, Adolph Reed Jr., Toure Reed,James Schneider, Hilary Wainwrite on Polarization and Socialism. There are a wide range of other events and classes being finalized and will be seen soon on this site, social media and elsewhere.. All classes that are ongoing beyond the six months, if enrolled in during this period, are covered with this 6 month pass. | We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. | 12/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/multi-month-pass-to-june-30-2021/2022-06-13/ | Communism|Das Kapital|Engels|Gramsci|Lenin|Luxemburg|Marx|marxism|Marxisms|Revolution|Socialism | African American History|Agribusiness|American Literature|automation|Bolshevism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Climate Change|Dance|Ecosocialism|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/13/2022 14:30 | 6/13/2022 23:30 | |
| Six Month Pass through November 30, 2022 | MORE AFFORDABLE PASSES!We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. THIS IS REALLY A MORE THAN 6-MIONTH PASS, ESPECIALLY IF PURCHASED BEFORE THE END OF MAY! There are a number of significant series that are being offered between now and October 31, 2022 including the the new series on precariousness and a second Gramsci course which considers the 3-volume version of the Prison Notebooks that will begin in late January, a new Socialist Register series on Class, Party, Revolution and Capitalism, Technology, Labor. The next Grundrisse group begins April 23. The new combined 2 volumes of Invention of the White Race will be a new class which you can still join this February. On May 7 Marcello Musto will be joined with John Bellamy Foster for a discussion on The Marx Revival: Ecology and Communism. The next in the annual Socialist Register series occurs will feature Sam Gindin, Adolph Reed Jr., Toure Reed,James Schneider, Hilary Wainwrite on Polarization and Socialism. There are a wide range of other events and classes being finalized and will be seen soon on this site, social media and elsewhere.. All classes that are ongoing beyond the six months, if enrolled in during this period, are covered with this 6 month pass. | We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. | 12/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/multi-month-pass-to-june-30-2021/2022-06-20/ | Communism|Das Kapital|Engels|Gramsci|Lenin|Luxemburg|Marx|marxism|Marxisms|Revolution|Socialism | African American History|Agribusiness|American Literature|automation|Bolshevism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Climate Change|Dance|Ecosocialism|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/20/2022 14:30 | 6/20/2022 23:30 | |
| Six Month Pass through November 30, 2022 | MORE AFFORDABLE PASSES!We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. THIS IS REALLY A MORE THAN 6-MIONTH PASS, ESPECIALLY IF PURCHASED BEFORE THE END OF MAY! There are a number of significant series that are being offered between now and October 31, 2022 including the the new series on precariousness and a second Gramsci course which considers the 3-volume version of the Prison Notebooks that will begin in late January, a new Socialist Register series on Class, Party, Revolution and Capitalism, Technology, Labor. The next Grundrisse group begins April 23. The new combined 2 volumes of Invention of the White Race will be a new class which you can still join this February. On May 7 Marcello Musto will be joined with John Bellamy Foster for a discussion on The Marx Revival: Ecology and Communism. The next in the annual Socialist Register series occurs will feature Sam Gindin, Adolph Reed Jr., Toure Reed,James Schneider, Hilary Wainwrite on Polarization and Socialism. There are a wide range of other events and classes being finalized and will be seen soon on this site, social media and elsewhere.. All classes that are ongoing beyond the six months, if enrolled in during this period, are covered with this 6 month pass. | We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. | 12/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/multi-month-pass-to-june-30-2021/2022-06-27/ | Communism|Das Kapital|Engels|Gramsci|Lenin|Luxemburg|Marx|marxism|Marxisms|Revolution|Socialism | African American History|Agribusiness|American Literature|automation|Bolshevism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Climate Change|Dance|Ecosocialism|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/27/2022 14:30 | 6/27/2022 23:30 | |
| Six Month Pass through November 30, 2022 | MORE AFFORDABLE PASSES!We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. THIS IS REALLY A MORE THAN 6-MIONTH PASS, ESPECIALLY IF PURCHASED BEFORE THE END OF MAY! There are a number of significant series that are being offered between now and October 31, 2022 including the the new series on precariousness and a second Gramsci course which considers the 3-volume version of the Prison Notebooks that will begin in late January, a new Socialist Register series on Class, Party, Revolution and Capitalism, Technology, Labor. The next Grundrisse group begins April 23. The new combined 2 volumes of Invention of the White Race will be a new class which you can still join this February. On May 7 Marcello Musto will be joined with John Bellamy Foster for a discussion on The Marx Revival: Ecology and Communism. The next in the annual Socialist Register series occurs will feature Sam Gindin, Adolph Reed Jr., Toure Reed,James Schneider, Hilary Wainwrite on Polarization and Socialism. There are a wide range of other events and classes being finalized and will be seen soon on this site, social media and elsewhere.. All classes that are ongoing beyond the six months, if enrolled in during this period, are covered with this 6 month pass. | We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. | 12/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/multi-month-pass-to-june-30-2021/2022-07-04/ | Communism|Das Kapital|Engels|Gramsci|Lenin|Luxemburg|Marx|marxism|Marxisms|Revolution|Socialism | African American History|Agribusiness|American Literature|automation|Bolshevism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Climate Change|Dance|Ecosocialism|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/4/2022 14:30 | 7/4/2022 23:30 | |
| Six Month Pass through November 30, 2022 | MORE AFFORDABLE PASSES!We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. THIS IS REALLY A MORE THAN 6-MIONTH PASS, ESPECIALLY IF PURCHASED BEFORE THE END OF MAY! There are a number of significant series that are being offered between now and October 31, 2022 including the the new series on precariousness and a second Gramsci course which considers the 3-volume version of the Prison Notebooks that will begin in late January, a new Socialist Register series on Class, Party, Revolution and Capitalism, Technology, Labor. The next Grundrisse group begins April 23. The new combined 2 volumes of Invention of the White Race will be a new class which you can still join this February. On May 7 Marcello Musto will be joined with John Bellamy Foster for a discussion on The Marx Revival: Ecology and Communism. The next in the annual Socialist Register series occurs will feature Sam Gindin, Adolph Reed Jr., Toure Reed,James Schneider, Hilary Wainwrite on Polarization and Socialism. There are a wide range of other events and classes being finalized and will be seen soon on this site, social media and elsewhere.. All classes that are ongoing beyond the six months, if enrolled in during this period, are covered with this 6 month pass. | We are now offering a six month pass for the prices of the previous 4 month passes. If you are paying for yourself and any additional person, you are now able to have two people attend all events, classes or film showings (post-pandemic) that The MEP offers. | 12/17/2020 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/multi-month-pass-to-june-30-2021/2022-07-11/ | Communism|Das Kapital|Engels|Gramsci|Lenin|Luxemburg|Marx|marxism|Marxisms|Revolution|Socialism | African American History|Agribusiness|American Literature|automation|Bolshevism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Class|Climate Change|Dance|Ecosocialism|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Indigenous Peoples|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/11/2022 14:30 | 7/11/2022 23:30 | |
| Lefebvre / Althusser: Humanist and Anti-Humanist Marxism | Considerations for Opposition to Capital in the 21st Centurywith Andy MerrifieldAndy Merrifield has written two significant essays regarding the relationships of the lives and works of Henri Lefebvre and Louis Althusser, their working together and apart, both essays being important for conceiving next steps for an internationalist left now more than half a century past the events of 1968 in France and the Hot Autumn of 1969 shortly thereafter in Italy. Links to each essay is below the extracted quotes below.  “LIKE MARX INVERTING HEGEL, Lefebvre stands mainstream economic and sociological wisdom on its head: ‘we must consider industrialization as a stage of urbanization,’ he says, ‘as a moment, an intermediary, an instrument. In the double process (industrialization-urbanization), after a certain period the latter term becomes dominant, taking over from the former.’ This is a bold, provocative statement for any Marxist. For it suggests that the mainstay of the capitalist economy isn’t so much industrialization as urbanization, that industrialization all along was but a special form of urbanization. Capitalism reigns, Lefebvre says, because it now manages and manufactures a very special commodity: urban space itself — an abundant source of surplus value as well as a massive means of production, both a launch pad and rocket in a stratospheric global market.” —Andy Merrifield, https://mronline.org/2021/03/28/lefebvre-in-the-age-of-covid/ “LEFEBVRE’S AND ALTHUSSER’S WORK OVER THAT DECADE [1970s], from differing tried to valorize for the Left a capitalist state in crisis. Could a unified Left leverage state power away from a disgruntled Right? Could it do so in the streets, in the factories, and through the ballot box? Could forces within the state be modified by organized pressure from the outside? Could pressure from the outside not only transform the inside but actually become that inside? ‘Ons’engage,’ Althusser used to say, ‘et puis on voit.’ And yet, after engaging, after jumping into the fray, what one saw was a dramatic power shift, a transition and renewal in the reverse direction. It was the Right who got its act together, who closed ranks, whose class power ‘condensed,’ just as the Left’s fell apart, as its unity fractured into disunity.” —Andy Merrifield, https://mronline.org/2021/06/13/lefebvre-and-althusser-reinterpreting-marxist-humanism-and-anti-humanism/ “Dialectical Urbanism shows a fruitful direction for the Marxism of the future. Exploring the collision between abstract capitalist space and concrete human place, Andy Merrifield offers a fresh vision of the totality of modern life.” —Marshall Berman, City University of New York “Exceptionally well written, informative insightful, thoughtful and thought-provoking, Marx, Dead and Alive: Reading Capital in Precarious Times is an extraordinary study and one that should be a part of every community, college, and university library Contemporary Political Science and Theory collection.” —Midwest Book Review Andy Merrifield is an independent scholar and the author of numerous books including his most recent Marx Dead and Alive (2020), of which his presentation with The MEP last year was one of our highlight events. His other books include Dialectical Urbanism (Monthly Review, 2002), Magical Marxism (Pluto Press, 2011), The Amateur (Verso Books, 2018), and What We Talk About When We Talk About Cities (and Love) (OR Books, 2018). All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry URL to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Could a unified Left leverage state power away from a disgruntled Right? Could it do so in the streets, in the factories, and through the ballot box? Could forces within the state be modified by organized pressure from the outside? Could pressure from the outside not only transform the inside but actually become that inside? These and more questions will be discussed. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/lefebvre-althusser-humanist-and-anti-humanist-marxism/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Critical Theory|Emancipation|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Urbanism | 1/23/2022 14:00 | 1/23/2022 16:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Theodore W. Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=13806 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | |||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-05-10/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/15/2022 18:30 | 3/15/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-03-22/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/22/2022 18:30 | 3/22/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-03-29/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/29/2022 18:30 | 3/29/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-04-05/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/5/2022 18:30 | 4/5/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-04-12/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/12/2022 18:30 | 4/12/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-04-19/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/19/2022 18:30 | 4/19/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-04-26/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/26/2022 18:30 | 4/26/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-05-03/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/3/2022 18:30 | 5/3/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Invention of the White Race | Volume One, Racial Oppression and Social Control (1994) and | In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 12/29/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-invention-of-the-white-race-new-edition/2022-05-10/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|historical materialism|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/10/2022 18:30 | 5/10/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Politics of Permaculture with Terry Leahy | ‘What is permaculture?’If you have just heard of the movement and do not know much about it, you might well think that permaculture is about food growing and gardens. But if you have asked a permaculture afficionado you will have been told that that conception is a mistake. In fact, there are a variety of different ways of defining permaculture. As a sustainable system of agriculture based on tree crops, as a system of sustainable agriculture and settlement design, as a design philosophy for a sustainable society. There is much to be gained from exploring these different conceptions in detail. Those are questions about the foundation of permaculture in ideas. But it is also important to explain permaculture as a social movement, a body of people, their actions and the ways that they think about the world.  Permaculture is an environmental movement that makes us reevaluate what it means to be sustainable. Through innovative agriculture and settlement design, the movement creates new communities that are harmonious with nature. It has grown from humble origins on a farm in 1970s Australia and flourished into a worldwide movement that confronts industrial capitalism.The Politics of Permaculture is one of the first books to unpack the theory and practice of this social movement that looks to challenge the status quo. Drawing upon the rich seam of publications and online communities from the movement as well as extensive interviews with permaculture practitioners and organisations from around the world, Leahy explains the ways permaculture is understood and practiced in different contexts. In the face of extreme environmental degradation and catastrophic climate change, we urgently need a new way of living. This book is available to download through the Open Access program. TERRY LEAHY has been involved in the permaculture movement since its founding in 1978. He has lectured in universities since 1973 and retired at the end of 2016. His recent book, Food Security for Rural Africa: Feeding the Farmers First (Routledge, 2018), outlines a permaculture strategy for Africa and shows how projects can be designed to make this work in practice. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Permaculture is an environmental movement that makes us reevaluate what it means to be sustainable. Through innovative agriculture and settlement design, the movement creates new communities that are harmonious with nature. It has grown from humble origins on a farm in 1970s Australia and flourished into a worldwide movement that confronts industrial capitalism. Terry Leahy’s THE POLITICS OF PERMACULTURE is one of the first books to unpack the theory and practice of this social movement that looks to challenge the status quo. | 12/30/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-politics-of-permaculture-with-terry-leahy/ | Agribusiness|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 2/5/2022 16:00 | 2/5/2022 18:00 | ||
| A People’s History of Detroit and Detroit, I Do Mind Dying | reading and discussion for 4 weeks with the Capital Studies Group of the Marxist Education Project These two books will be the focus: A People’s History of Detroit by Mark Jay and Philip Conklin with Detroit, I Do Mind Dying by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin. In A People’s History of Detroit, Mark Jay and Philip Conklin use a class framework to tell a sweeping story of Detroit from 1913 to the present, embedding Motown’s history in a global economic context. Attending to the struggle between corporate elites and radical working-class organizations, Jay and Conklin outline the complex sociopolitical dynamics underlying major events in Detroit’s past, from the rise of Fordism and the formation of labor unions, to deindustrialization and the city’s recent bankruptcy. Detroit: I Do Mind Dying tracks the extraordinary development of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers as they became two of the landmark political organizations of the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely heralded as one the most important books on the black liberation movement. “Equal parts an urban history of a single city and a sweeping theory of capitalism. . . . Through a detailed exposition of one city’s past, A People’s History of Detroit imagines what a people’s future could look like in Detroit—and in other cities.” — David Helps, Public Books THE CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is comprised of a group of instructors, students, activists, and others who often engage with close readings of books and other texts that address issues central to the development of understanding how the class struggle between capital and labor has played out and is especially interested in the development of deep historical understandings of the development of capitalism globally, nationally, regionally, and also in areas local to participants. Currently, the Capital Studies Group convenes on Saturdays 11 am to 1 pm each week in discussion of Marx’s Grundrisse. A discounted A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF DETROIT is available from DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS dukeupress.edu 320 PAGES / 17 ILLUSTRATIONS order the book with this discount code: E20HSTRY DETROIT: I DO MIND DYING is available from Haymarket Books (and they ship quickly) https://www.haymarketbooks.org/ All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to the Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by the Marxist Education Project. | In A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF DETROIT, Mark Jay and Philip Conklin use a class framework to tell a sweeping story of Detroit from 1913 to the present, embedding Motown’s history in a global economic context DETROITL I DO MIND DYING tracks the extraordinary development of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers | 1/6/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-detroit-and-detroit-i-do-mind-dying/2022-02-17/ | Accumulation of Capital|African American History|Austerity|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Fordism|historical materialism|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/10/2022 17:30 | 2/10/2022 19:00 | ||
| Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy with Anitra Nelson | In order to overcome environmental and social crises, we must move beyond money‘“Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines, or else you say something which in fact is true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.” —Noam Chomsky, Propaganda and the Public Mind (2001) “If you had to choose one book to read on making the next political economy and reinventing postcapitalism it should be this one.” —Adam David Morton, Global Capitalism, Global War, Global Crisis (2018) “A fascinating portal into arguments about why we need to get beyond money.” —Harry Cleaver, Rupturing the Dialectic (2017) Many radical approaches for achieving postcapitalism target capital, maintaining money and markets in their visions and strategies. But what if money is the barrier to us achieving ecological sustainability and social equality? After all, we know how to live sustainably but market-based economies which of necessity are centered on monetary values prevent us from instituting the social and ecological measures required for health and peaceful co-existence among our own and with the other species of this earth. So, what might a world beyond the discipline and constraints of the market look and feel like? And how would it operate to meet our basic needs? Moving from production for trade (for the market) to production on demand, activist scholar Anitra Nelson advocates a community mode of production and calls on us to ‘occupy the world’. Come along to hear about and engage in this lively intervention in current debates on postcapitalist futures. ANITRA NELSON is a global–local activist and Honorary Principal Fellow at University of Melbourne (Australia), author of Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (2018) co-author of Exploring Degrowth (2020), co-editor of Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (2011) and Marx’s Concept of Money: The God of Commodities (1999/2014). See: https://anitranelson.info | What might a world beyond the discipline and constraints of the market look and feel like? How would it operate to meet our basic needs? Moving from production for trade (for the market) to production on demand, activist scholar Anitra Nelson advocates a community mode of production and calls on us to ‘occupy the world’. Come along to hear about and engage in this lively intervention in current debates on postcapitalist futures. | 1/10/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/beyond-money-a-postcapitalist-strategy-with-anitra-nelson/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Marx|Marxisms|Money|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Transition from Capitalism | 2/26/2022 16:00 | 2/26/2022 18:00 | ||
| The Art of Activism | YOUR ALL-PURPOSE GUIDE TO MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE!A presentation and discussion with Steve Duncombe and Steve LambertTHE ART OF ACTIVISM brings together the authors’ extensive practical knowledge—gleaned from over a decade’s experience training activists around the world—with theoretical insights from fields as far-ranging as cultural studies and cognitive science. From the United Farm Workers’ boycott movement in sixties’ California to a canal-side beach in present-day Saint Petersburg, these pages are packed with contemporary and historical case studies that have been shown to work in practice. There will also be discussion of the workbook that accompanies the core book which contains 50 expertly crafted exercises to help activists flex their creative imagination and hone political tactics, with step-by-step indications of to become the most persuasive and impactful artistic activist you can possibly be.  THE TWO STEVES: Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert are co-founders of the Center for Artistic Activism, a non-profit research and training organization devoted to helping activists create more like artists and artists to strategize more like activists. Over the past decade, they’ve trained more than 1000 artistic activists across the United States and around the world. Steve D. is a lifelong activist, who has also published six books and countless articles on the intersection of culture and politics, most notably Dream or Nightmare: Reimagining Politics in an Age of Fantasy, and the Cultural Resistance Reader. Steve L. is an internationally recognized artist whose public projects have appeared in Times Square, cities around the United States, and in London and Melbourne. He is featured in four documentary films and over two dozen books. He’s worked alongside the Yes Men and Greenpeace, and won awards from the Art Matters Foundation, Prix Ars Electronica, and Creative Work Fund. Lambert is a professor of New Media at Purchase College, the State University of New York’s public arts college. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | THE ART OF ACTIVISM brings together the authors’ extensive practical knowledge—gleaned from over a decade’s experience training activists around the world—with theoretical insights from fields as far-ranging as cultural studies and cognitive science. | 1/12/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-art-of-activism/ | Anti-capitalist art|Art and politics|Critical Theory|Cultural Resistance|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/19/2022 14:00 | 2/19/2022 16:00 | ||
| Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation: A discussion with Marcello Musto and Michael Hardt | “The realm of freedom really begins only where labor determined by necessity and external expediency ends; it lies by its very nature beyond the sphere of material production proper. Just as the savage must wrestle with nature to satisfy his needs, to maintain and reproduce his life, so must civilized man, and he must do so in all forms of society and under all possible modes of production. This realm of natural necessity expands with his development, because his needs do too; but the productive forces to satisfy these expand at the same time. Freedom, in this sphere, can consist only in this, that socialized man, the associated producers, govern the human metabolism with nature in a rational way, bringing it under their collective control instead of being dominated by it as a blind power; accomplishing it with the least expenditure of energy and in conditions most worthy and appropriate for their human nature. But this always remains a realm of necessity. The true realm of freedom, the development of human powers as an end in itself, begins beyond it, though it can only flourish with this realm of necessity as its basis. The reduction of the working day is the basic prerequisite.” —Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume Three The postcapitalist system of production, together with scientific–technological progress and a consequent reduction of the working day, creates the possibility for a new social formation in which the coercive, alienated labor imposed by capital and subject to its laws is gradually replaced with conscious, creative activity beyond the yoke of necessity, and in which complete social relations take the place of random, undifferentiated exchange dictated by the laws of commodities and money. It is no longer the realm of freedom for capital but the realm of genuine human freedom. —Marcello Musto, Introduction to Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation Marcello Musto is a professor of Sociology at York University (Toronto, Canada) and is acknowledged globally as one of the authors who has made significant contributions to the revival of Marx studies over the last decade. His major writings comprise Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (Bloomsbury, 2018); and The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography (Stanford, 2020). Among his edited books there are Workers Unite! The International 150 Years Later (Bloomsbury, 2014); Marx’s Capital after 150 Years: Critique and Alternative to Capitalism, (Routledge, 2019); and The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Interpretations (Cambridge, 2020). His writings are available at www.marcellomusto.org and have been published in 25 languages. MICHAEL HARDT is a professor of Literature at Duke University, and a political philosopher whose writings explore new forms of domination in the world as well as social movements and other forces of liberation that counter such domination. In the Empire trilogy—Empire (Harvard, 2000), Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire(Penguin, 2004), and Commonwealth (Harvard, 2009)—he and Antonio Negri investigate the political, legal, economic, and social aspects of globalization. Their most recent work, Assembly (Oxford, 2017), challenges social movements having traditional, centralized forms of political leadership and instead advocate a social unionism—a combination of mixing labor organizing with social movements. | The event marks the publication of “Karl Marx’s on Alienation,” edited by Marcello Musto. This is an essential volume. The introduction written by Marcello provides a guide to the concept of alienation prior to Marx, Marx’s essential thought and writings over three periods of his working life. This brief quote from Volume Three of CAPITAL is one of many presented and discussed: “The realm of freedom really begins only where labor determined by necessity and external expediency ends; it lies by its very nature beyond the sphere of material production proper. Just as the savage must wrestle with nature to satisfy his needs, to maintain and reproduce his life, so must civilized man, and he must do so in all forms of society and under all possible modes of production. This realm of natural necessity expands with his development, because his needs do too; but the productive forces to satisfy these expand at the same time. Freedom, in this sphere, can consist only in this, that socialized man, the associated producers, govern the human metabolism with nature in a rational way, bringing it under their collective control instead of being dominated by it as a blind power; accomplishing it with the least expenditure of energy and in conditions most worthy and appropriate for their human nature. But this always remains a realm of necessity. The true realm of freedom, the development of human powers as an end in itself, begins beyond it, though it can only flourish with this realm of necessity as its basis. The reduction of the working day is the basic prerequisite.” —Karl Marx Come join Michael Hardt and Marcello Musto as they discuss with each other and those present from this essential volume for study—and practice. | 1/12/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|Grundrisse|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/19/2022 14:00 | 3/19/2022 16:00 | ||
| A People’s History of Detroit and Detroit, I Do Mind Dying | reading and discussion for 4 weeks with the Capital Studies Group of the Marxist Education Project These two books will be the focus: A People’s History of Detroit by Mark Jay and Philip Conklin with Detroit, I Do Mind Dying by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin. In A People’s History of Detroit, Mark Jay and Philip Conklin use a class framework to tell a sweeping story of Detroit from 1913 to the present, embedding Motown’s history in a global economic context. Attending to the struggle between corporate elites and radical working-class organizations, Jay and Conklin outline the complex sociopolitical dynamics underlying major events in Detroit’s past, from the rise of Fordism and the formation of labor unions, to deindustrialization and the city’s recent bankruptcy. Detroit: I Do Mind Dying tracks the extraordinary development of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers as they became two of the landmark political organizations of the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely heralded as one the most important books on the black liberation movement. “Equal parts an urban history of a single city and a sweeping theory of capitalism. . . . Through a detailed exposition of one city’s past, A People’s History of Detroit imagines what a people’s future could look like in Detroit—and in other cities.” — David Helps, Public Books THE CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is comprised of a group of instructors, students, activists, and others who often engage with close readings of books and other texts that address issues central to the development of understanding how the class struggle between capital and labor has played out and is especially interested in the development of deep historical understandings of the development of capitalism globally, nationally, regionally, and also in areas local to participants. Currently, the Capital Studies Group convenes on Saturdays 11 am to 1 pm each week in discussion of Marx’s Grundrisse. A discounted A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF DETROIT is available from DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS dukeupress.edu 320 PAGES / 17 ILLUSTRATIONS order the book with this discount code: E20HSTRY DETROIT: I DO MIND DYING is available from Haymarket Books (and they ship quickly) https://www.haymarketbooks.org/ All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to the Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by the Marxist Education Project. | In A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF DETROIT, Mark Jay and Philip Conklin use a class framework to tell a sweeping story of Detroit from 1913 to the present, embedding Motown’s history in a global economic context DETROITL I DO MIND DYING tracks the extraordinary development of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers | 1/6/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-peoples-history-of-detroit-and-detroit-i-do-mind-dying/2022-02-17/ | Accumulation of Capital|African American History|Austerity|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Fordism|historical materialism|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/17/2022 17:30 | 2/17/2022 19:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Last two weeks until spring term | Notebook 3: two more sessions until the next termNewcomers are welcome to join this diverse, and very welcoming international group of reading discussants when you are able “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse Perhaps the most curious and least understood aspect of Marx’s work is his method of analysis. Marx viewed all his economic laws as tendencies and it is hard to deny that those tendencies are becoming more and more the realities of today’s capitalism. However, to understand our society we need to do more than reading and accepting his concepts, we must critically analyze them and look for the way of thinking that produced them. It is with this goal in my mind that we should embark on a journey through the long and complex sentences of the Grundrisse. This work is perhaps the best representation of the process of thinking that found its culmination in Capital and we will be engaging with it during our study. Without a doubt, this will be a long and arduous process but we should always keep in mind that “there is no royal road to science and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits. Continuing on December 4, we will read from “The Chapter on Money” utilizing the Penguin edition of Marx’s Grundrisse. Recordings of prior sessions are available to all who would like to review. These sessions are open to people joining when possible. We are attempting to read and thoroughly discuss each Notebook in a series of 10-12 week sessions. | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, The Grundrisse | 11/12/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxs-grundrisse-2nd-session/2022-04-09/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Grundrisse|Labor Process|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/9/2022 11:00 | 4/9/2022 13:00 | ||
| Insurrecto with author Gina Apostol in conversation with Patricia McManus | “Of course, as opposed to the colonizer, the world of the colonized is visibly and thus irreparably multiple – because included in the world of the colonized is the world of the colonizer.”. —How Do We Know the Things That Make Us?, An essay from Gina Apostol Gina Apostol’s Insurrecto is a harrowing depiction of the nearly 125-year history of U.S. intervention, occupation, and domination in the Philippines. Through a compelling historical, cultural, post-modernist journey, the author recounts the U.S. hold on the Philippines, as told by Magsalin, a Filipina translator and screenwriter, and Chiara, an American filmmaker. The U.S.-made merry-go-round of dictators has circled around Manila and the 7,000-plus islands of the Philippines since the 1901 massacre at Balangiga—the slaughter of more than 2,500 Filipinos in  retaliation for 40 American soldiers killed in a raid by local national liberationists. When President Theodore Roosevelt issued a command to pacify the Philippines after the raid was reported to him, the local U.S. general issued the following command: “I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me… The interior of Samar must be made a howling wilderness.” From that point on he was known as “Howling Wilderness” Smith. Insurrecto spans the decades from the moment of the massacre to the current Duterte regime, with much between—a fractured story of torture and misrepresentation over many years of U.S. and western hegemony.Please join Gina Apostol and Patricia McManus for an evening of discovery as they discuss the inspiration, writing, and more of this astonishing novel (published by Soho Press). GINA APOSTOL’s third book, Gun Dealers’ Daughter, won the2013 PEN/Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize. Her first two novels, Bibliolepsy and The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, both won the Juan Laya Prize for the Novel (Philippine National Book Award). She was a fellow at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy, among other fellowships. Her essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Foreign Policy, Gettysburg Review, Massachusetts Review, and others. She lives in New York City and western Massachusetts and grew up in Tacloban, Philippines. She teaches at the Fieldston School in New York City. PATRICIA McMANUS is a Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities at University of Brighton. She is the founder of the Dystopia Project. Her research interests are the novel—in particular the problems involved in understanding genre as a productive force in literary history—and Marxism as a methodology for utopianism. | Gina Apostol’s “Of course, as opposed to the colonizer, the world of the colonized is visibly and thus irreparably multiple – because included in the world of the colonized is the world of the colonizer.”. —“How Do We Know the Things That Make Us?”, An essay from Gina Apostol | 1/24/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/insurrecto/ | American Imperialism|American Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Colonialism|Critical Theory|Cultural Resistance|Globalization|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/12/2022 14:00 | 3/12/2022 16:00 | ||
| Part One of Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | Study conducted with Piruz Alemi | These seminars are accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci. This first session will be followed by consecutive sessions. | 12/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/part-one-of-antonio-gramscis-prison-notebooks-3-volume-version/2022-03-20/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class and Gender|Critical Theory|Fordism|Hegemony|historical materialism|Italian history|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/20/2022 12:00 | 3/20/2022 13:30 | ||
| Part One of Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | Study conducted with Piruz Alemi | These seminars are accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work, including those just beginning their studies of Gramsci. This first session will be followed by consecutive sessions. | 12/17/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/part-one-of-antonio-gramscis-prison-notebooks-3-volume-version/2022-03-27/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class and Gender|Critical Theory|Fordism|Hegemony|historical materialism|Italian history|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/27/2022 12:00 | 3/27/2022 13:30 | ||
| Late Capitalist Fascism | What if fascism can no longer be confined to political parties or ultra nationalist politicians but has become something much more diffuse that is spread across our societies as cultural expressions and psychological states? This is the thesis developed by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, who argues that late capitalism has produced hollowed-out and exchangeable subjectivities that provide a breeding ground for a new kind of diffuse, banal fascism. The overt and concentrated fascism of the new fascist parties thrives on the diffuse fascism present in social media and everyday life, where the fear of being left behind and losing out has fuelled resentment towards foreigners and others who are perceived as threats to a national community under siege. Only by confronting both the overt fascism of parties and politicians and the diffuse fascism of everyday life will we be able to combat fascism effectively and prevent the slide into barbarism. MIKKEL BOLT RASMUSSEN is an art historian, cultural critic and professor in Political Aesthetics at the University of Copenhagen. He has written books on the Situationist International, politicized contemporary art and the revolutionary tradition. Previous books include Trump’s Counter-Revolution (Zero Books, 2018) and After the Great Refusal (Zero Books, 2018). Pictured are: Estonian fascist Kaalep and French fascist LePen smiling together as they mutually display the fascist sign for white supremacy. LePen later asked Kaalep to take the image off his Facebook photo stream. More photos include a “White Way” protest in Plauen, Germany, a large fascist gathering in Poland, the neo-Nazi Kotleba in Slovenia, along with English fascists in the heart of London. Order Mikkel’s book here: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=late-capitalist-fascism–9781509547432. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | What if fascism can no longer be confined to political parties or ultra nationalist politicians but has become something much more diffuse that is spread across our societies as cultural expressions and psychological states? This is the thesis developed by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, who argues that late capitalism has produced hollowed-out and exchangeable subjectivities that provide a breeding ground for a new kind of diffuse, banal fascism. | 1/25/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/late-capitalist-fascism/ | Alienation|Anti-fascism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Globalization|Media Criticism|Neo-fascism|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/13/2022 14:00 | 2/13/2022 16:00 | ||
| Never-Ending War!: Novels on Conflict, Resistance and Resilience | with The MEP Literature Studies Group (five more weeks)“Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit  reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment.Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac (originally published in 1832) One of the shorter, but also prescient novels of Balzac’s “The Human Comedy” (La Comédie Humaine), Colonel Chabert Balzac juxtaposes two world-views: the Napoleonic value-system, founded on honor and military valor and that of the Restoration, through the story of a returning soldier who is literally dead to the world. The discussion of this has concluded. At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (2018) Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War One. Peppered with bullets and magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of the “Great War’, as WWI was known until the next world war. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a descent into complete madness The discussion of this has concluded. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donaghue (2020) Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love. In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center—the ward where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined. Conquered City by Victor Serge (1932) 1919-1920: St. Petersburg, city of the czars, has fallen to the Revolution. Conquered City is about terror: the Red Terror and the White Terror. But mainly about the Red, the Communists who have dared to pick up the weapons of power—police, guns, jails, spies, treachery—in the doomed gamble that by wielding them righteously, they can put an end to the need for terror, perhaps forever. Conquered City is their tragedy and testament. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969) Slaughterhouse Five follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain’s assistant during World War II, to the post-war years, with Billy occasionally traveling through time. The time travel returns to the fire-bombing of Dresden, which was a firebombing by the British and Americans incinerating about 25,000. Vonnegut’s novel has been called an example of “unmatched moral clarity” and “one of the most enduring antiwar novels of all time”. Vonnegut had been a prisoner of war in Dresden during this bombing. | “Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment. | 1/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/never-ending-war-novels-on-conflict-resistance-and-resilience/2022-04-21/ | American Literature|Anti-capitalist art|Art and politics|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction|War Fiction | 3/24/2022 19:00 | 3/24/2022 21:00 | ||
| Never-Ending War!: Novels on Conflict, Resistance and Resilience | with The MEP Literature Studies Group (five more weeks)“Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment.Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac (originally published in 1832) One of the shorter, but also prescient novels of Balzac’s “The Human Comedy” (La Comédie Humaine), Colonel Chabert Balzac juxtaposes two world-views: the Napoleonic value-system, founded on honor and military valor and that of the Restoration, through the story of a returning soldier who is literally dead to the world. The discussion of this has concluded. At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (2018) Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War One. Peppered with bullets and magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of the “Great War’, as WWI was known until the next world war. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a descent into complete madness The discussion of this has concluded. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donaghue (2020) Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love. In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center—the ward where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined. Conquered City by Victor Serge (1932) 1919-1920: St. Petersburg, city of the czars, has fallen to the Revolution. Conquered City is about terror: the Red Terror and the White Terror. But mainly about the Red, the Communists who have dared to pick up the weapons of power—police, guns, jails, spies, treachery—in the doomed gamble that by wielding them righteously, they can put an end to the need for terror, perhaps forever. Conquered City is their tragedy and testament. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969) Slaughterhouse Five follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain’s assistant during World War II, to the post-war years, with Billy occasionally traveling through time. The time travel returns to the fire-bombing of Dresden, which was a firebombing by the British and Americans incinerating about 25,000. Vonnegut’s novel has been called an example of “unmatched moral clarity” and “one of the most enduring antiwar novels of all time”. Vonnegut had been a prisoner of war in Dresden during this bombing. | “Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment. | 1/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/never-ending-war-novels-on-conflict-resistance-and-resilience/2022-03-31/ | American Literature|Anti-capitalist art|Art and politics|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction|War Fiction | 3/31/2022 19:00 | 3/31/2022 21:00 | ||
| Never-Ending War!: Novels on Conflict, Resistance and Resilience | with The MEP Literature Studies Group (five more weeks)“Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment.Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac (originally published in 1832) One of the shorter, but also prescient novels of Balzac’s “The Human Comedy” (La Comédie Humaine), Colonel Chabert Balzac juxtaposes two world-views: the Napoleonic value-system, founded on honor and military valor and that of the Restoration, through the story of a returning soldier who is literally dead to the world. The discussion of this has concluded. At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (2018) Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War One. Peppered with bullets and magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of the “Great War’, as WWI was known until the next world war. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a descent into complete madness The discussion of this has concluded. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donaghue (2020) Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love. In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center—the ward where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined. Conquered City by Victor Serge (1932) 1919-1920: St. Petersburg, city of the czars, has fallen to the Revolution. Conquered City is about terror: the Red Terror and the White Terror. But mainly about the Red, the Communists who have dared to pick up the weapons of power—police, guns, jails, spies, treachery—in the doomed gamble that by wielding them righteously, they can put an end to the need for terror, perhaps forever. Conquered City is their tragedy and testament. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969) Slaughterhouse Five follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain’s assistant during World War II, to the post-war years, with Billy occasionally traveling through time. The time travel returns to the fire-bombing of Dresden, which was a firebombing by the British and Americans incinerating about 25,000. Vonnegut’s novel has been called an example of “unmatched moral clarity” and “one of the most enduring antiwar novels of all time”. Vonnegut had been a prisoner of war in Dresden during this bombing. | “Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment. | 1/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/never-ending-war-novels-on-conflict-resistance-and-resilience/2022-04-07/ | American Literature|Anti-capitalist art|Art and politics|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction|War Fiction | 4/7/2022 19:00 | 4/7/2022 21:00 | ||
| Never-Ending War!: Novels on Conflict, Resistance and Resilience | with The MEP Literature Studies Group (five more weeks)“Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment.Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac (originally published in 1832) One of the shorter, but also prescient novels of Balzac’s “The Human Comedy” (La Comédie Humaine), Colonel Chabert Balzac juxtaposes two world-views: the Napoleonic value-system, founded on honor and military valor and that of the Restoration, through the story of a returning soldier who is literally dead to the world. The discussion of this has concluded. At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (2018) Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War One. Peppered with bullets and magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of the “Great War’, as WWI was known until the next world war. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a descent into complete madness The discussion of this has concluded. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donaghue (2020) Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love. In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center—the ward where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined. Conquered City by Victor Serge (1932) 1919-1920: St. Petersburg, city of the czars, has fallen to the Revolution. Conquered City is about terror: the Red Terror and the White Terror. But mainly about the Red, the Communists who have dared to pick up the weapons of power—police, guns, jails, spies, treachery—in the doomed gamble that by wielding them righteously, they can put an end to the need for terror, perhaps forever. Conquered City is their tragedy and testament. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969) Slaughterhouse Five follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain’s assistant during World War II, to the post-war years, with Billy occasionally traveling through time. The time travel returns to the fire-bombing of Dresden, which was a firebombing by the British and Americans incinerating about 25,000. Vonnegut’s novel has been called an example of “unmatched moral clarity” and “one of the most enduring antiwar novels of all time”. Vonnegut had been a prisoner of war in Dresden during this bombing. | “Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment. | 1/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/never-ending-war-novels-on-conflict-resistance-and-resilience/2022-04-14/ | American Literature|Anti-capitalist art|Art and politics|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction|War Fiction | 4/14/2022 19:00 | 4/14/2022 21:00 | ||
| Never-Ending War!: Novels on Conflict, Resistance and Resilience | with The MEP Literature Studies Group (five more weeks)“Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment.Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac (originally published in 1832) One of the shorter, but also prescient novels of Balzac’s “The Human Comedy” (La Comédie Humaine), Colonel Chabert Balzac juxtaposes two world-views: the Napoleonic value-system, founded on honor and military valor and that of the Restoration, through the story of a returning soldier who is literally dead to the world. The discussion of this has concluded. At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (2018) Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War One. Peppered with bullets and magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of the “Great War’, as WWI was known until the next world war. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a descent into complete madness The discussion of this has concluded. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donaghue (2020) Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love. In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center—the ward where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined. Conquered City by Victor Serge (1932) 1919-1920: St. Petersburg, city of the czars, has fallen to the Revolution. Conquered City is about terror: the Red Terror and the White Terror. But mainly about the Red, the Communists who have dared to pick up the weapons of power—police, guns, jails, spies, treachery—in the doomed gamble that by wielding them righteously, they can put an end to the need for terror, perhaps forever. Conquered City is their tragedy and testament. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969) Slaughterhouse Five follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain’s assistant during World War II, to the post-war years, with Billy occasionally traveling through time. The time travel returns to the fire-bombing of Dresden, which was a firebombing by the British and Americans incinerating about 25,000. Vonnegut’s novel has been called an example of “unmatched moral clarity” and “one of the most enduring antiwar novels of all time”. Vonnegut had been a prisoner of war in Dresden during this bombing. | “Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” – Neil Gaiman The Marxist Education Project Lit reading group revisits some literary classics along with contemporary novels that are prescient and compelling –challenging us to think about our understanding of history and how we will confront the present moment. | 1/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/never-ending-war-novels-on-conflict-resistance-and-resilience/2022-04-21/ | American Literature|Anti-capitalist art|Art and politics|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction|War Fiction | 4/21/2022 19:00 | 4/21/2022 21:00 | ||
| Marx and Spinoza: Connections and Provocations | A presentation and discussion with Jason Read“…in the postindustrial age the Spinozan critique of representation of capitalist power corresponds more to the truth than does the analysis of political economy.” | “Readers of contemporary theory will perhaps not be surprised to see the name Spinoza paired with that of Marx. Ever since Louis Althusser argued that he | and his cowriters of Reading Capital | there has been an increased inquiry into the points of connection between Marx and Spinoza. It might even be possible to say that what the Hegel/Marx connection was to a previous generation | animating the writings of Adorno | Sartre | Lukacs | etc. the Marx/Spinoza connection is to a current collection of philosophers ranging from Althusser | |
| Thirst: The Rich Are Vampires | with author Nicholas PowersVampires are symbols of the ruling class. In Karl Marx’s Capital and Bob Marley’s Babylon System they make visible their extraction of surplus-value from working classes the world over. In the new novel Thirst,writer/activist Nicholas Powers renews the vampire genre by placing an upsurge of the politics of resistance, an all-out attack on racism, heteronormative sexism and anti-fascism at the heart of capital, with Thirst being a stake to be driven through that heart.  DR. NICHOLAS POWERS is a poet, journalist and Associate Professor of Literature. His writing has appeared in Truth-Out, The Indypendent, The Catalyst, Raw Story, Business Insider, Lucid News, The Village Voice and Vibe. His two previous books Theater of War and The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street were published by Upset Press. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Vampires are symbols of the ruling class. In Karl Marx’s Capital and Bob Marley’s Babylon System they make visible their extraction of surplus-value from working classes the world over. In the new novel Thirst,writer/activist Nicholas Powers renews the vampire genre by placing an upsurge of the politics of resistance, an all-out attack on racism, heteronormative sexism and anti-fascism at the heart of capital, with Thirst being a stake to be driven through that heart. | 1/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=14188 | American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marx’s Capital|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Speculative fiction | 6/3/2022 17:30 | 6/3/2022 19:30 | ||
| Socialist Register 2022 — Polarization and Socialism: The Direction Forward | with Greg Albo, Sam Gindin, Adolph and Touré Reed, James Schneider and Hilary Wainwright participating in the concluding session of this this four-session seriesIt is a truism that electoral politics and political identity in the USA and Europe today are polarized to a degree unknown since the 1930s. It is a commonplace among the pundits of the ruling class that somehow “both sides” must return to “moderate” common sense to avoid a violent rupture of our society. They seldom question the underlying causes of this polarization, let alone whether it is rooted in the very nature of late capitalism. This is not the case with the contributors to the 58th volume of Socialist Register. From different perspectives, they ask us to think about the deep social contradictions exposed by increasing polarization of the most economically developed societies along lines of wealth, race, gender, nation-state, and region. Members of this class meet once each month for four months to discuss selected articles from SR 58 with editor Greg Albo, joined by various authors organized around the following themes on one Sunday a month from February 20 through May 115, 2022. The two remaining single sessions will each have a separate ordering position on the website as well. Please pay attention to the international time changes that are not in sync and will occur during the duration of this series. PART 4May 15 • Polarization and Socialism: The Direction ForwardFinding a Way Forward: Lessons from the Corbyn Project with James Schneider and Hilary Wainwright • American Workers and the Left after Trump with Sam Gindin • The Evolution of Race under Neoliberalism with Adolph and Touré Reed This year’s Socialist Register presentations are presented in honor of Leo Panitch  LEO PANITCH • 1945-2020 / All of us at The Marxist Education Project appreciate all that Leo did and is continuing to do following his untimely death one year ago this past December. This series which begins on February 20 is presented in his memory as it represents a few of the many fruits that still spring from the myriad seeds that Leo has planted A limited number of Socialist Register 58 books are available from the MEP, SR58 is also available in print and digital forms from MR Press in the US, Merlin Press in the UK, and from Fernwood Press in Canada, or from the Socialist Register website. | It is a truism that electoral politics and political identity in the USA and Europe today are polarized to a degree unknown since the 1930s. It is a commonplace among the pundits of the ruling class that somehow “both sides” must return to “moderate” common sense to avoid a violent rupture of our society. They seldom question the underlying causes of this polarization, let alone whether it is rooted in the very nature of late capitalism. This is not the case with the contributors to the 58th volume of Socialist Register. From different perspectives, they ask us to think about the deep social contradictions exposed by increasing polarization of the most economically developed societies along lines of wealth, race, gender, nation-state, and region. Members of this class meet once each month for four months to discuss selected articles from SR 58 with editor Greg Albo, joined by various authors organized around the following themes on one Sunday a month from March 20 through May 115, 2022. The recording of the February 20 session is available by writing to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | 2/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-register-2022-new-polarizations-old-contradictions-the-crisis-of-centrism/2022-05-15/ | Accumulation of Capital|Austerity|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/15/2022 14:00 | 5/15/2022 16:00 | ||
| The Hard Right and the Political Parties of Capital | 2nd in the Socialist Register 58 Series: Old Polarizations, New Contradictions: The Crisis of Centrism | 2nd in the Socialist Register 58 Series: Old Polarizations, New Contradictions: The Crisis of Centrism BILL FLETCHER on Trump and the Danger of Right-wing Populism in the US SAMIR GANDESHA on Identity Crisis: The Politics of False Concreteness INGAR SOLTY on Market Polarization Means Political Polarization | 2/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-hard-right-and-the-political-parties-of-capital/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Anti-fascism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Emancipation|Fascism|Food and politics|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Neo-fascism|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Race and Class|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/20/2022 14:01 | 3/20/2022 16:00 | ||
| Old and New Contradictions: Opening event of Socialist Register 2022 series | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=14252 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | 2/23/2023 19:26 | |||||
| Old and New Contradictions: Opening Socialist Register 2022 Session—The Crisis of Centrism | Opening session of the Winter/Spring panels of authors who have presented essays in the current Socialist Register, No. 58.Featuring | The stage is set well for Socialist Register No. 58 in the Preface by Greg Albo and Colin Leys: [In the midst of the] “current multi-dimensional crisis, the center-right consensus that was struck around the neoliberal policy regime has been steadily splintering, with a phalanx of far right and neo-fascist groups inserting themselves into electoral politics and gaining prominence ‘in the streets’ (not least in motley demonstrations against pandemic measures of any kind, from lockdowns to masking). The observation that capitalism is always characterized by just such economic and political polarizations has preoccupied – even haunted –socialist analysis from its very origins: in Marx’s and Engels’ memorable phrase of revolutionary optimism in The Communist Manifesto, ‘the more or less open civil war, raging within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and … lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat’. In the much picked-over chapter in Marx’s Capital on ‘The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation’, the language is just as vibrant but now stark in its imagery: ‘The greater the social wealth, the functioning capital, the extent and energy of its growth, and therefore also the greater the absolute mass of the proletariat and the productivity of itslabor, the greater is the industrial reserve army…. Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time the accumulation of misery, the torment of labor, slavery, ignorance, brutalization at the opposite pole, i.e. on the side of the class that produces its own product as capital.’ | 2/6/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/old-and-new-contradictions-opening-socialist-register-2022-session-the-crisis-of-centrism/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Class and Gender|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialist Register | 2/20/2022 14:01 | 2/20/2022 16:00 | ||
| Soldiers of Revolution | with author Mark Lause | In SOLDIERS OF REVOLUTION, historian Mark A. Lause analyzes changes in European warfare in the closing decades of the 19th century and the consequences for working-class movements. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 introduced new military technologies, transformed the organization of armies, and upset the continental balance of power. The mass armies that became a new standard required mass mobilizations of working people, who exercised a new power through social democratic parties and insurgent movements. | 2/8/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/soldiers-of-revolution/ | Emancipation|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/27/2022 14:00 | 3/27/2022 16:00 | ||
| Animals and Capitalism: Reading and Reflecting on ‘Porkopolis’ | Convened by Terike Haapoja and Fred MurphyA discussion and reading group on the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. We will explore the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice.  The main reading will be Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. Through these readings we will explore how exploitation of animal bodies and the labor of nonhuman animals is bound up in the exploitation of human workers and the overall development of capitalism. Author Alex Blanchette will be joining us on March 9 to introduce his book.Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Six more sessions remain | The main reading for these sessions will be Alex Blanchette’s PORKOPOLIS: AMERICAN ANIMALITY, STANDARDIZED LIFE, AND THE FACTORY FARM, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. | 2/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-and-capitalism%e2%80%a8-reading-and-reflecting-on-porkopolis/2022-04-20/ | Agribusiness|Alienation|Animals and Capital|automation|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Evolutionary biology|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/16/2022 17:00 | 3/16/2022 18:30 | ||
| Animals and Capitalism: Reading and Reflecting on ‘Porkopolis’ | Convened by Terike Haapoja and Fred MurphyA discussion and reading group on the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. We will explore the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice. The main reading will be Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. Through these readings we will explore how exploitation of animal bodies and the labor of nonhuman animals is bound up in the exploitation of human workers and the overall development of capitalism. Author Alex Blanchette will be joining us on March 9 to introduce his book.Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Six more sessions remain | The main reading for these sessions will be Alex Blanchette’s PORKOPOLIS: AMERICAN ANIMALITY, STANDARDIZED LIFE, AND THE FACTORY FARM, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. | 2/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-and-capitalism%e2%80%a8-reading-and-reflecting-on-porkopolis/2022-03-23/ | Agribusiness|Alienation|Animals and Capital|automation|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Evolutionary biology|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/23/2022 17:00 | 3/23/2022 18:30 | ||
| Animals and Capitalism: Reading and Reflecting on ‘Porkopolis’ | Convened by Terike Haapoja and Fred MurphyA discussion and reading group on the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. We will explore the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice. The main reading will be Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. Through these readings we will explore how exploitation of animal bodies and the labor of nonhuman animals is bound up in the exploitation of human workers and the overall development of capitalism. Author Alex Blanchette will be joining us on March 9 to introduce his book.Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Six more sessions remain | The main reading for these sessions will be Alex Blanchette’s PORKOPOLIS: AMERICAN ANIMALITY, STANDARDIZED LIFE, AND THE FACTORY FARM, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. | 2/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-and-capitalism%e2%80%a8-reading-and-reflecting-on-porkopolis/2022-03-30/ | Agribusiness|Alienation|Animals and Capital|automation|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Evolutionary biology|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/30/2022 17:00 | 3/30/2022 18:30 | ||
| Animals and Capitalism: Reading and Reflecting on ‘Porkopolis’ | Convened by Terike Haapoja and Fred MurphyA discussion and reading group on the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. We will explore the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice. The main reading will be Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. Through these readings we will explore how exploitation of animal bodies and the labor of nonhuman animals is bound up in the exploitation of human workers and the overall development of capitalism. Author Alex Blanchette will be joining us on March 9 to introduce his book.Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Six more sessions remain | The main reading for these sessions will be Alex Blanchette’s PORKOPOLIS: AMERICAN ANIMALITY, STANDARDIZED LIFE, AND THE FACTORY FARM, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. | 2/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-and-capitalism%e2%80%a8-reading-and-reflecting-on-porkopolis/2022-04-06/ | Agribusiness|Alienation|Animals and Capital|automation|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Evolutionary biology|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/6/2022 17:00 | 4/6/2022 18:30 | ||
| Animals and Capitalism: Reading and Reflecting on ‘Porkopolis’ | Convened by Terike Haapoja and Fred MurphyA discussion and reading group on the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. We will explore the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice. The main reading will be Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. Through these readings we will explore how exploitation of animal bodies and the labor of nonhuman animals is bound up in the exploitation of human workers and the overall development of capitalism. Author Alex Blanchette will be joining us on March 9 to introduce his book.Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Six more sessions remain | The main reading for these sessions will be Alex Blanchette’s PORKOPOLIS: AMERICAN ANIMALITY, STANDARDIZED LIFE, AND THE FACTORY FARM, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. | 2/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-and-capitalism%e2%80%a8-reading-and-reflecting-on-porkopolis/2022-04-13/ | Agribusiness|Alienation|Animals and Capital|automation|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Evolutionary biology|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/13/2022 17:00 | 4/13/2022 18:30 | ||
| Animals and Capitalism: Reading and Reflecting on ‘Porkopolis’ | Convened by Terike Haapoja and Fred MurphyA discussion and reading group on the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. We will explore the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice. The main reading will be Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. Through these readings we will explore how exploitation of animal bodies and the labor of nonhuman animals is bound up in the exploitation of human workers and the overall development of capitalism. Author Alex Blanchette will be joining us on March 9 to introduce his book.Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Six more sessions remain | The main reading for these sessions will be Alex Blanchette’s PORKOPOLIS: AMERICAN ANIMALITY, STANDARDIZED LIFE, AND THE FACTORY FARM, with supplemental texts on nonhuman animal work in the history of capitalism, Marxism and animal liberation, biological reproduction in animal agriculture, and related topics. | 2/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-and-capitalism%e2%80%a8-reading-and-reflecting-on-porkopolis/2022-04-20/ | Agribusiness|Alienation|Animals and Capital|automation|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Evolutionary biology|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/20/2022 17:00 | 4/20/2022 18:30 | ||
| The European Radical Left: Movements and Parties Since the 1960s | with author Giorgos CharalambousIs today’s left really new? How has the European radical left evolved?Giorgos Charalambous answers these questions by looking at three moments of rapid political change – the late 1960s to late 1970s; the turn of the millennium; and post-2008. He challenges the conventional understanding of a ‘new left’, drawing out continuities with earlier movements and parties. Charalambous examines the ‘Long ’68’, symbolized by the May uprisings in France, which saw the rise of new left forces and the widespread criticism by younger radical activists of traditional communist and socialist parties. He puts this side by side with the turn of the millennium when the Global Justice Movement rose to prominence and changed the face of the international left, and also the period after the financial crash of 2008 and the rise of anti-austerity politics which initiated the most recent wave of new left parties such as Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece. With a unique ‘two-level’ perspective, Charalambous approaches the left through both social movements and party politics, looking at identities, rhetoric and organization, and bringing a fresh new approach to radical history, as well as assessing challenges for both activists and scholars. This book is available to download through the Open Access program. Giorgos Charalambous is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Department of Politics and Governance, University of Nicosia. He is also the co-convenor of the Left Radicalism Specialist Group at the Political Studies Association. Charalambous is the author of European Integration and the Communist Dilemma (Ashgate, 2013), and has co-edited Party-Society Relations in Cyprus (Routledge, 2016) and Left Radicalism and Populism in Europe (Routledge, 2019). | With a unique ‘two-level’ perspective, Giorgos Charalambous approaches the left through both social movements and party politics, looking at identities, rhetoric and organization, and bringing a fresh new approach to radical history, as well as assessing challenges for both activists and scholars. | 2/12/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-european-radical-left-movements-and-parties-since-the-1960s-2/ | Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Italian history|Left Populism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy|Socialism|Solidarity | 3/6/2022 13:00 | 3/6/2022 15:00 | ||
| Arise: Power, Strategy and Union Resurgence | with author Jane HolgateIn Arise, Jane Holgate argues that unions must revisit their understanding of power in order to regain influence and confront capital. Drawing on two decades of research and organizing experience, Holgate examines the structural inertia of today’s unions from a range of perspectives: from strategic choice, leadership and union democracy to politics, tactics and the agency afforded to the majority of union members. In the midst of a neoliberal era of economic crisis and political upheaval, the labor movement stands at a crossroads. Union membership is on the rise, but the ‘turn to organizing’ has largely failed to translate into meaningful gains for workers. There is much discussion about the lack of collectivism among workers due to casualization, gig work and precarity, yet these conditions were standard in the UK when workers built the foundations of the 19th-century trade union movement. Drawing on history and case studies of unions developing the effective use of power, Jane Holgate’s book lays out strategies for moving beyond the pessimism that prevails in much of today’s union movement. By placing power analysis back at the heart of workers’ struggle, the chapters of Arise demonstrate that transformational change is not only possible, but within reach. JANE HOLGATE is Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Leeds. She is the co-editor of Union Voices: Developing Organizing in the UK (Ithaca 2012) and has held a number of positions in the trade union movement as an NGA “mother of chapel”, Unison branch chair and regional council delegate, UCU caseworker and secretary of Hackney Trades Union Council. She has worked closely on research projects with trade unions, including the GMB, TGWU, CWU, Bectu, Usdaw and the Trades Union Congress. Discount code for purchasing from Pluto: MEP All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Drawing on history and case studies of unions developing the effective use of power, Jane Holgate’s book lays out strategies for moving beyond the pessimism that prevails in much of today’s union movement. By placing power analysis back at the heart of workers’ struggle, the chapters of Arise demonstrate that transformational change is not only possible, but within reach. | 2/13/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/arise-power-strategy-and-union-resurgence/ | Capital vs. Labor|Class|Emancipation|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Organizing|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/8/2022 13:00 | 5/8/2022 15:00 | ||
| Rubbish Belongs to the Poor | Hygienic Enclosure and the Waste CommonsPresentation and discussion with author Patrick O’HareRubbish. Waste. Trash. Whatever term you choose to describe the things we throw away, the connotations are the same; of something dirty, useless and incontrovertibly ‘bad’. But does such a dismissive rendering mask a more nuanced reality? In Rubbish Belongs to the Poor, Patrick O’Hare journeys to the heart of Uruguay’s waste disposal system in order to reconceptualize rubbish as a 21st century commons, at risk of enclosure. On a giant landfill site outside the capital Montevideo we meet the book’s central protagonists, the ‘classifiers’: waste-pickers who recover and recycle materials in and around its fenced but porous perimeter. Here the struggle of classifiers against the enclosure of the landfill, justified on the grounds of hygiene, is brought into dialogue with other historical and contemporary enclosures – from urban privatizations to rural evictions — to shed light on the nature of contemporary forms of capitalist dispossession. Supplementing this rich ethnography with the author’s own insights from dumpster diving in the UK, the book analyzes capitalism’s relations with its material surpluses and what these tell us about its expansionary logics, limits and liminal spaces. Rubbish Belongs to the Poor ultimately proposes a fundamental rethinking of the links between waste, capitalism and dignified work. Patrick O’Hare is a social anthropologist and activist. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and is currently a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Researcher at the University of St Andrews. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | Rubbish. Waste. Trash. Whatever term you choose to describe the things we throw away, the connotations are the same; of something dirty, useless and incontrovertibly ‘bad’. But does such a dismissive rendering mask a more nuanced reality? In RUBBISH BELONGS TO THE POOR Patrick O’Hare journeys to the heart of Uruguay’s waste disposal system in order to reconceptualize rubbish as a 21st century commons, at risk of enclosure. | 2/16/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/rubbish-belongs-to-the-poor/ | Austerity|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Colonialism|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Enclosures|Extractivism|Globalization|Precarity|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/3/2022 14:00 | 4/3/2022 16:00 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-08-24/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/4/2022 17:00 | 5/4/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-05-11/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/11/2022 17:00 | 5/11/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-08-29/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/23/2022 17:00 | 5/23/2022 18:30 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-09-25/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 5/22/2022 18:00 | 5/22/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-05-29/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 5/29/2022 18:00 | 5/29/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-06-05/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 6/5/2022 18:00 | 6/5/2022 20:00 | ||
| Global Political Struggles of the Working Class | The Double Consciousness of Capital with author DAVID HARVEY | The Double Consciousness of Capital with author DAVID HARVEY Social Sources of Political Polarization in Russia with authors ILYA MATVEEV and OLEG ZHURAVLEV The Far Right, Corporate Power, and Social Struggles in Brazil with authors VIRGINIA FONTES, ANA GARCIA and REJANE HOEVELER | 3/6/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/global-political-struggles-of-the-working-class/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Crisis|Du Bois|Globalization|Grundrisse|Hegemony|Latin America|Pandemics|Russia|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/10/2022 14:00 | 4/10/2022 16:00 | ||
| After the Pandemic: Rebuilding the Medicare for All Movement | with Mark Dudzic The world’s most expensive healthcare system failed catastrophically under the real-world structure test of the pandemic. This crisis drove home both the absurdity of linking healthcare to employment and the importance of treating healthcare as a decommodified public good. But the politics of the emerging post pandemic period are not conducive to big, transformative initiatives like Medicare for All. We will explore this disjuncture between social necessity and political possibility and how it might be resolved with particular emphasis on the role of the institutional labor movement. MARK DUDZIC is the Chair of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer and is a longtime union organizer and activist. | The Covid crisis drove home both the absurdity of linking healthcare to employment and the importance of treating healthcare as a decommodified public good. But the politics of the emerging post pandemic period are not conducive to big, transformative initiatives like Medicare for All. | 3/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/after-the-pandemic-rebuilding-the-medicare-for-all-movement/ | Austerity|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Covid-19|Crisis|Food and politics|Healthcare|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/9/2022 14:00 | 4/9/2022 16:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-06-12/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 6/12/2022 18:00 | 6/12/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-06-19/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 6/19/2022 18:00 | 6/19/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-06-26/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 6/26/2022 18:00 | 6/26/2022 20:00 | ||
| The Solutions are Already Here with author Peter Gelderloos | Strategies for Ecological Revolution from BelowAs the climate crisis worsens, we must look to revolutionary strategy for justiceAre alternative energies and Green New Deals enough to deliver environmental justice? Peter Gelderloos argues that international governmental responses to the climate emergency are structurally incapable of solving the crisis. But there are possibilities.  Across the world, grassroots networks of local communities are working to realize their visions of an alternative revolutionary response to planetary destruction, often pitted against the new megaprojects promoted by greenwashed alternative energy infrastructures and the neocolonialist, technocratic policies that are the forerunners of the Green New Deal. Gelderloos interviews food sovereignty activists in Venezuela, Indigenous communities reforesting their lands in Brazil and anarchists fighting biofuel plantations in Indonesia, looking at the battles that have cancelled airports, stopped pipelines, and helped the most marginalized to fight borders and environmental racism, to transform their cities, to win a dignified survival. All author royalties and proceeds from this event will go to the Indigenous reforesting initiatives in Brazil and anarchists fighting biofuels in Indonesia. PETER GELDERLOOS is a writer and movement participant. He is the author of How Nonviolence Protects the State, Anarchy Works and Worshiping Power: An Anarchist View of Early State Formation. He has contributed chapters to anthologies Keywords for Radicals and Riots and Militant Occupations. | Across the world, grassroots networks of local communities are working to realize their visions of an alternative revolutionary response to planetary destruction, often pitted against the new megaprojects promoted by greenwashed alternative energy infrastructures and the neocolonialist, technocratic policies that are the forerunners of the Green New Deal. Gelderloos interviews food sovereignty activists in Venezuela, Indigenous communities reforesting their lands in Brazil and anarchists fighting biofuel plantations in Indonesia, looking at the battles that have cancelled airports, stopped pipelines, and helped the most marginalized to fight borders and environmental racism, to transform their cities, to win a dignified survival. | 3/12/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-solutions-are-already-here-with-author-peter-gelderloos/ | Accumulation of Capital|Agribusiness|Anti-colonialism|Climate Change|Colonialism|Cultural Resistance|Ecosocialism|Emancipation|Enclosures|Extractivism|Insurgency|Latin America|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/19/2022 16:00 | 4/19/2022 18:00 | ||
| Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim Our Digital Future from Big Tech | With author James MuldoonA bold new manifesto for digital technology after capitalism“A punchy analysis of the platform economy that offers more than a critique of big tech’s vision of our collective future. Muldoon sketches the contours of a democratic socialist alternative.” — Aaron Benanav, Researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin and author of Automation and the Future of Work “Encourages us to open our minds fully to the possibility of an alternative future, in which technology is put to work for the many, not the few’ — Lizzie O’Shea, lawyer and author of Future Histories Whoever controls the platforms, controls the future. Platform Socialism sets out an alternative vision and concrete proposals for a digital economy that expands our freedom. Powerful tech companies now own the digital infrastructure of twenty-first century social life. Masquerading as global community builders, these companies have developed sophisticated new techniques for extracting wealth from their users. James Muldoon shows how grassroots communities and transnational social movements can take back control from Big Tech. He reframes the technology debate and proposes a host of new ideas from the local to the international for how we can reclaim the emancipatory possibilities of digital platforms. Drawing on sources from forgotten histories to contemporary prototypes, he proposes an alternative system and charts a roadmap for how we can get there. JAMES MULDOON is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Exeter, Head of Digital Research at Autonomy, and YouTube philosopher at Political Philosophy. He also works directly with digital businesses transitioning to fair work practices. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Time magazine and the Huffington Post. For a discount on James’ book: plutobooks.com | James Muldoon shows how grassroots communities and transnational social movements can take back control from Big Tech. He reframes the technology debate and proposes a host of new ideas from the local to the international for how we can reclaim the emancipatory possibilities of digital platforms. Drawing on sources from forgotten histories to contemporary prototypes, he proposes an alternative system and charts a roadmap for how we can get there. | 3/15/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/platform-socialism-how-to-reclaim-our-digital-future-from-big-tech/ | automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Globalization|Labor Process|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/23/2022 14:00 | 4/23/2022 16:00 | ||
| From Science Fiction to Visionary Fiction: Learning from Octavia Butler | “All organizing is science fiction. Organizers and activists dedicate their lives to creating and envisioning another world, or many other worlds—so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than science fiction stories? ” from Walidah Imarisha’s Introduction to Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. This reading group, centered on Octavia Butler, begins 15 years after her passing. Appropriately, her influence continues to grow. Her writing and her life has nurtured a rising generation of social-justice oriented authors of color, particularly women. When looking at the wider culture, it is apparent that at least five films and series based on her novels have hit or may soon be widely available. Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. For a taste, check out “To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It,” by Walidah Imarisha. embed the url: https://onezero.medium.com/black-lives-matter-is-science-fiction-how-envisioning-a-better-future-makes-it-possible-5e14d35154e3 | Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. | 3/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-science-fiction-to-visionary-fiction-learning-from-octavia-butler/2022-06-20/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Science Fiction|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/9/2022 17:00 | 5/9/2022 18:30 | ||
| From Science Fiction to Visionary Fiction: Learning from Octavia Butler | “All organizing is science fiction. Organizers and activists dedicate their lives to creating and envisioning another world, or many other worlds—so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than science fiction stories? ” from Walidah Imarisha’s Introduction to Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. This reading group, centered on Octavia Butler, begins 15 years after her passing. Appropriately, her influence continues to grow. Her writing and her life has nurtured a rising generation of social-justice oriented authors of color, particularly women. When looking at the wider culture, it is apparent that at least five films and series based on her novels have hit or may soon be widely available. Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. For a taste, check out “To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It,” by Walidah Imarisha. embed the url: https://onezero.medium.com/black-lives-matter-is-science-fiction-how-envisioning-a-better-future-makes-it-possible-5e14d35154e3 | Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. | 3/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-science-fiction-to-visionary-fiction-learning-from-octavia-butler/2022-05-16/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Science Fiction|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/16/2022 17:00 | 5/16/2022 18:30 | ||
| From Science Fiction to Visionary Fiction: Learning from Octavia Butler | “All organizing is science fiction. Organizers and activists dedicate their lives to creating and envisioning another world, or many other worlds—so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than science fiction stories? ” from Walidah Imarisha’s Introduction to Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. This reading group, centered on Octavia Butler, begins 15 years after her passing. Appropriately, her influence continues to grow. Her writing and her life has nurtured a rising generation of social-justice oriented authors of color, particularly women. When looking at the wider culture, it is apparent that at least five films and series based on her novels have hit or may soon be widely available. Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. For a taste, check out “To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It,” by Walidah Imarisha. embed the url: https://onezero.medium.com/black-lives-matter-is-science-fiction-how-envisioning-a-better-future-makes-it-possible-5e14d35154e3 | Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. | 3/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-science-fiction-to-visionary-fiction-learning-from-octavia-butler/2022-05-23/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Science Fiction|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/23/2022 17:00 | 5/23/2022 18:30 | ||
| From Science Fiction to Visionary Fiction: Learning from Octavia Butler | “All organizing is science fiction. Organizers and activists dedicate their lives to creating and envisioning another world, or many other worlds—so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than science fiction stories? ” from Walidah Imarisha’s Introduction to Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. This reading group, centered on Octavia Butler, begins 15 years after her passing. Appropriately, her influence continues to grow. Her writing and her life has nurtured a rising generation of social-justice oriented authors of color, particularly women. When looking at the wider culture, it is apparent that at least five films and series based on her novels have hit or may soon be widely available. Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. For a taste, check out “To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It,” by Walidah Imarisha. embed the url: https://onezero.medium.com/black-lives-matter-is-science-fiction-how-envisioning-a-better-future-makes-it-possible-5e14d35154e3 | Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. | 3/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-science-fiction-to-visionary-fiction-learning-from-octavia-butler/2022-05-30/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Science Fiction|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/30/2022 17:00 | 5/30/2022 18:30 | ||
| From Science Fiction to Visionary Fiction: Learning from Octavia Butler | “All organizing is science fiction. Organizers and activists dedicate their lives to creating and envisioning another world, or many other worlds—so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than science fiction stories? ” from Walidah Imarisha’s Introduction to Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. This reading group, centered on Octavia Butler, begins 15 years after her passing. Appropriately, her influence continues to grow. Her writing and her life has nurtured a rising generation of social-justice oriented authors of color, particularly women. When looking at the wider culture, it is apparent that at least five films and series based on her novels have hit or may soon be widely available. Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. For a taste, check out “To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It,” by Walidah Imarisha. embed the url: https://onezero.medium.com/black-lives-matter-is-science-fiction-how-envisioning-a-better-future-makes-it-possible-5e14d35154e3 | Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. | 3/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-science-fiction-to-visionary-fiction-learning-from-octavia-butler/2022-06-06/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Science Fiction|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/6/2022 17:00 | 6/6/2022 18:30 | ||
| From Science Fiction to Visionary Fiction: Learning from Octavia Butler | “All organizing is science fiction. Organizers and activists dedicate their lives to creating and envisioning another world, or many other worlds—so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than science fiction stories? ” from Walidah Imarisha’s Introduction to Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. This reading group, centered on Octavia Butler, begins 15 years after her passing. Appropriately, her influence continues to grow. Her writing and her life has nurtured a rising generation of social-justice oriented authors of color, particularly women. When looking at the wider culture, it is apparent that at least five films and series based on her novels have hit or may soon be widely available. Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. For a taste, check out “To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It,” by Walidah Imarisha. embed the url: https://onezero.medium.com/black-lives-matter-is-science-fiction-how-envisioning-a-better-future-makes-it-possible-5e14d35154e3 | Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. | 3/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-science-fiction-to-visionary-fiction-learning-from-octavia-butler/2022-06-13/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Science Fiction|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/13/2022 17:00 | 6/13/2022 18:30 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-05-13/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 12/31/2022 11:00 | 12/31/2022 13:00 | ||
| El Golpe: US Labor, the CIA, and the Coup at Ford in Mexico | by Rob McKenzie with Patrick DunneTrue crime meets political thriller in an explosive exposé of US meddling in MexicoEarly in my research, a friend with excellent knowledge of the United Auto Workers internal operations told me, “Don’t give up. They are hiding something”…’  It’s 1990, and US labor is being outsourced to Mexico. Rumors of a violent confrontation at the Mexican Ford Assembly plant on January 8 reach the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in the US: nine employees had been shot by a group of drunken thugs and gangsters, in an act of political repression which changed the course of Mexican and US workers’ rights forever. Rob McKenzie was working at the Ford Twin Cities Assembly plant in Minnesota when he heard of the attack. He didn’t believe the official story, and began a years-long investigation to uncover the truth. His findings took him further than he expected – all the way to the doors of the CIA. Virtually unknown outside of Mexico, the full story of ‘El Golpe’, or ‘The Coup’, is a dark tale of political intrigue that still resonates today. Rob McKenzie worked at the Twin City Ford Assembly Plant in St. Paul, Minnesota as an assembler, electrician and full-time union representative. In 1998 he became President of his United Auto Workers branch, and later was elected to the Minnesota State AFL-CIO Executive Board. Patrick Dunne is a graduate in History from the University of Cambridge, with a dissertation on ‘The AFL-CIO and the Coup against Allende’. Discount code for the book at plutobooks.com = MEP | It’s 1990, and US labor is being outsourced to Mexico. Rumors of a violent confrontation at the Mexican Ford Assembly plant on January 8 reach the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in the US: nine employees had been shot by a group of drunken thugs and gangsters, in an act of political repression which changed the course of Mexican and US workers’ rights forever. Rob McKenzie was working at the Ford Twin Cities Assembly plant in Minnesota when he heard of the attack. He didn’t believe the official story, and began a years-long investigation to uncover the truth. His findings took him further than he expected – all the way to the doors of the CIA. | 4/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/el-golpe-us-labor-the-cia-and-the-coup-at-ford-in-mexico/ | Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Colonialism|Insurgency|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Latin America|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/30/2022 14:00 | 4/30/2022 16:00 | ||
| From Science Fiction to Visionary Fiction: Learning from Octavia Butler | “All organizing is science fiction. Organizers and activists dedicate their lives to creating and envisioning another world, or many other worlds—so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than science fiction stories? ” from Walidah Imarisha’s Introduction to Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. This reading group, centered on Octavia Butler, begins 15 years after her passing. Appropriately, her influence continues to grow. Her writing and her life has nurtured a rising generation of social-justice oriented authors of color, particularly women. When looking at the wider culture, it is apparent that at least five films and series based on her novels have hit or may soon be widely available. Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. For a taste, check out “To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It,” by Walidah Imarisha. embed the url: https://onezero.medium.com/black-lives-matter-is-science-fiction-how-envisioning-a-better-future-makes-it-possible-5e14d35154e3 | Writing in the years of momentous change from 1971 to 2006, Octavia Butler embodied the emergence of “visionary fiction” as a new way to write, read and draw inspiration from science fiction. This spring, the Marxist Education Project’s first literature reading group devoted to science fiction will read Kindred (1979) and Parable of the Sower (1993), both now graphic novels and soon film and streaming series. Fifteen years on since her passing, Butler’s influence continues to grow. We will also read NK Jemisin’s Fifth Season (2015) and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red (2017) to explore some of Butler’s lasting legacy. We will also make room to explore related short stories, graphic novels, essays, films, and more. | 3/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-science-fiction-to-visionary-fiction-learning-from-octavia-butler/2022-06-20/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Science Fiction|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/20/2022 17:00 | 6/20/2022 18:30 | ||
| The End of Capitalism: The Thought of Henryk Grossman | A presentation and discussion with author Ted ReeseFrom the IntroductionHenryk Grossman is a name most socialists or students of political and social theory, let alone the mass of working people around the world, have probably never heard of. Yet Grossman, a Polish Jew born in 1881, deserves recognition as the most sophisticated proponent since Karl Marx of a devastating claim about the nature of our social world. For, if Grossman’s neglected but brilliant insight into economics is correct, then capitalism – the social system that has dominated life all over the globe for the past few centuries – may well be entering what he called its ‘final breakdown’. The claim that capitalism is unsustainable has been ridiculed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Capitalists declared ‘the end of history’ – their system had proven to be the stronger and would go on uncontested until the heat death of the universe. The same view dominated after the 1883 death of Marx, whose three-volume masterpiece Capital exposed capitalism as a crisis-ridden and historically transient economic system (mode of production). For the next half century even Marx’s self-proclaimed successors either declared capitalism to be crisis-free and inexhaustible, or formulated flawed theories of crisis and collapse that did not support their own claims. Against the grain, Grossman dedicated himself to restoring the basis of scientific socialism. In 1929 he illuminated Marx’s insights with a rare clarity and wit in his own great work, The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System, published in 1929. The book received an almost universally hostile reception. Attacked by both reformist social democrats and revolutionary communists, Grossman stood accused of promoting a ‘mechanical’ or ‘automatic’ theory of socialism’s ‘inevitable’ victory over capitalism that underplayed the importance of class struggle. TED REESE is a British Marxist in the tradition of Henryk Grossman. In Reese’s first book, Socialism or Extinction: Climate, Automation and War in the Final Capitalist Breakdown (2019) he argues: that capitalism is the cause of and can only continue to accelerate the existential climate crisis; that socialism and a plant-based (mainly hemp and mycelium) industrial revolution are required to save the planet’s habitability; that automation is abolishing the source of profit; and that the descent into negative interest rates indicates that capitalism is now entering its final crisis, meaning that socialism is becoming an economic necessity for the first time – but that the crisis also threatens the greatest world war to date between the imperialist powers. | Henryk Grossman is a name most socialists or students of political and social theory, let alone the mass of working people around the world, have probably never heard of. Yet Grossman, a Polish Jew born in 1881, deserves recognition as the most sophisticated proponent since Karl Marx of a devastating claim about the nature of our social world. For, if Grossman’s neglected but brilliant insight into economics is correct, then capitalism – the social system that has dominated life all over the globe for the past few centuries – may well be entering what he called its ‘final breakdown’. The claim that capitalism is unsustainable has been ridiculed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Capitalists declared ‘the end of history’ – their system had proven to be the stronger and would go on uncontested until the heat death of the universe. The same view dominated after the 1883 death of Marx, whose three-volume masterpiece Capital exposed capitalism as a crisis-ridden and historically transient economic system (mode of production). | 4/8/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-end-of-capitalism-the-though-of-henryk-grossman/ | Accumulation of Capital|automation|Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Marx|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/24/2022 14:00 | 4/24/2022 16:00 | ||
| Building Alternatives in Rojava: Women’s Liberation & Cooperative Economy | A presentation and discussion with Emre Sahin and Meghan BodetteSince the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, the peoples of Northeast Syria, commonly known as Rojava, have been building an alternative system of governance based on the principles of direct democracy, gender equality, pluralism, anti-capitalism, and social ecology. On the occasion of International Workers’ Day, this event will focus on two of the pillars of Rojava’s vision as developed by the Kurdish movement, namely women’s liberation and cooperative economy. Our speakers will trace the development of the Kurdish women’s movement and discuss the growth of Rojava’s cooperative economy, highlighting women’s autonomous economic organizing.  Emre Sahin is a participant and researcher of social movements, particularly the Kurdish movement, and a sociologist at Binghamton University. Meghan Bodette is a researcher focused on Turkey, Syria and Kurdish issues. | Our speakers will trace the development of the Kurdish women’s movement and discuss the growth of Rojava’s cooperative economy, highlighting women’s autonomous economic organizing. Emre Sahin is a participant and researcher of social movements, particularly the Kurdish movement, and a sociologist at Binghamton University. Meghan Bodette is a researcher focused on Turkey, Syria and Kurdish issues. | 4/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/building-alternatives-in-rojava-womens-liberation-cooperative-economy/ | Anti-colonialism|Anti-fascism|Civil War|Class and Gender|Colonialism|Cultural Resistance|Emancipation|Gender|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Women | 5/1/2022 16:00 | 5/1/2022 18:00 | ||
| Socialist Register 2022: Polarization and Socialism: The Direction Forward | withSam Gindin, Adolph Reed, Jr., Toure Reed, Vishwas Satgur, James Schneider and Hilary Wainwright, VISHWAS SATGUREpidemiological Neoliberalism in South Africa In this presentation, Vishwas Satgar sets out the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa as an example of polarized access to medical services shamelessly piled on top of acute polarizations of income and employment and ecological vandalism. But the ANC government’s neoliberal pandemic response, “has also unleashed a cycle of post-apartheid progressive resistance.” JAMES SCHNEIDER and HILARY WAINWRIGHT Finding a Way Forward: Lessons from the Corbyn Project A discussion of the lessons to be learned from the experience of Momentum as a national campaign organization for the left wing of the UK Labour Party and its achievements (despite ultimate failure to elect a government led by Jeremy Corbyn). They are optimists in their accounting of the new spaces that are now open for a radical democratic politics in Britain. ADOLPH REED, JR. and TOURE REED “Race” and Racial Justice under Neoliberalism This presentation links the rise of the hard right in US politics to the marginalization of the progressive pole as “the black political class” became embedded in “the Democratic Party’s commitment to a programme of retrenchment.” Addressing poverty and continuing social inequality in the black community requires building a broader working-class movement. SAM GINDIN American Workers and the Left after Trump: Polarized Options Sam argues that the inherent limits of Democratic Party “Keynesian” reflation still constitutes a difficult terrain for the left in the USA, which needs to take care not to slip into the trap of spending all its energies defending the liberal forces exemplified by Biden as opposed to organizing labor and independent social struggles. Summary by series editor GREG ALBO Vishwas Satgar, associate professor of International Relations, University of Witwatersrand, is principal investigator for Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene. James Schneider, communications director of Progressive International, is a co-founder of Momentum and was a spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn; Hilary Wainwright is an editor of Red Pepper magazine and a fellow of the Transnational Institute and Honorary Associate of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University. Adolph Reed Jr. is Professor Emeritus of political science, University of Pennsylvania; Touré F. Reed is a professor of history at Illinois State University. Sam Gindin is former research director of the Canadian Auto Workers and co-author of The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire. Socialist Register #58 is available for $28 including shipping via US Media Mail (this offer is only good for the US and Puerto Rico). In Canada Socialist Register is available from Fernwood Books and in Europe from The Merlin Press. | VISHWAS SATGUR on Epidemiological Neoliberalism in South Africa JAMES SCHNEIDER and HILARY WAINWRIGHT on Finding a Way Forward: Lessons from the Corbyn Project ADOLPH REED, JR. and TOURE REED on “Race” and Racial Justice under Neoliberalism SAM GINDIN on American Workers and the Left after Trump: Polarized Options | 4/10/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-register-2022-polarization-and-socialism-the-direction-forward/ | Covid-19|Fascism|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism|Socialist Register | 5/15/2022 2:00 | 5/15/2022 16:00 | ||
| The London Revolution: 1640 – 1643: Class Struggles in 17th Century England | A presentation with discussion with author Michael SturzaMichael Sturza’s work chronicles England’s history through the revolution in 1641 – 1642, which toppled the feudal political system, and its aftermath. It explores how the growing capitalist economy fundamentally conflicted with decaying feudal society, causing tensions and dislocations that affected all social classes in the early modern period. In contrast with most other works, this book posits that the fundamental driving force of the revolution was the militant Puritan movement supported by the class of petty-bourgeois artisan craftworkers, instead of the moderate gentry in the House of Commons. The London Revolution 1640 – 1643 further traces the detrimental effects of the political alliance between the free-trade Atlantic merchants and the gentry for the revolution. Despite the conservative and contradictory nature of the English bourgeois revolution, the experience in London is the original source for democratic ideas that were codified in the 1689 Bill of Rights and the U.S. Bill of Rights a century later. Taken in its entirety, The London Revolution 1640 – 1643 refutes the virulent attacks on Marxist social class analysis spearheaded by revisionist historians who would rather write the concept of revolution out of history. MICHAEL STURZA has been a life-long socialist political activist. A native New Yorker who grew up in Brooklyn, he learned about radical politics from his father who had been active in the labor movement of the 1930s. In 1966, he attended his first mass anti-Vietnam War rally with other students from his high school. In college, while actively involved in working class struggles, he studied Marxism, and, in 1974, graduated cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo. In the following decades, while continuing to study Marxism and the history of labor and liberation movements, he remained a labor activist. Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sturza also helped mobilize workers and minorities against Klan and Nazi terror in major cities across the country, demonstrating that the integrated labor movement was the main force that could defend all of their intended victims. Michael’s book is available from The Mad Duck Coalition: http://www.themadduckcoalition.org and can be purchased as an ebook from most online book sellers except Amazon. | Michael Sturza’s work chronicles England’s history through the revolution in 1641 – 1642, which toppled the feudal political system, and its aftermath. It explores how the growing capitalist economy fundamentally conflicted with decaying feudal society, causing tensions and dislocations that affected all social classes in the early modern period. In contrast with most other works, this book posits that the fundamental driving force of the revolution was the militant Puritan movement supported by the class of petty-bourgeois artisan craftworkers, instead of the moderate gentry in the House of Commons. | 4/10/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-london-revolution-1640-1643-class-struggles-in-17th-century-england/ | Enclosures|England|London|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/25/2022 14:00 | 3/25/2022 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part 1—History | with Alex SteinbergAn 8-week course that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and was never affiliated with a university since his graduate school days. He has taught at alternative educational institutions and informally. Conference, Presenter at First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Topics have included the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, Hegel’s Philosophy of History. (2001-2020) | It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. | 4/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-1-history/2022-07-10/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Hegel|Philosophy of History|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/22/2022 16:30 | 5/22/2022 18:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part 1—History | with Alex SteinbergAn 8-week course that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and was never affiliated with a university since his graduate school days. He has taught at alternative educational institutions and informally. Conference, Presenter at First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Topics have included the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, Hegel’s Philosophy of History. (2001-2020) | It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. | 4/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-1-history/2022-05-29/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Hegel|Philosophy of History|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/29/2022 16:30 | 5/29/2022 18:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part 1—History | with Alex SteinbergAn 8-week course that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and was never affiliated with a university since his graduate school days. He has taught at alternative educational institutions and informally. Conference, Presenter at First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Topics have included the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, Hegel’s Philosophy of History. (2001-2020) | It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. | 4/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-1-history/2022-06-05/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Hegel|Philosophy of History|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/5/2022 16:30 | 6/5/2022 18:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part 1—History | with Alex SteinbergAn 8-week course that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and was never affiliated with a university since his graduate school days. He has taught at alternative educational institutions and informally. Conference, Presenter at First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Topics have included the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, Hegel’s Philosophy of History. (2001-2020) | It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. | 4/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-1-history/2022-06-12/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Hegel|Philosophy of History|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/12/2022 16:30 | 6/12/2022 18:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part 1—History | with Alex SteinbergAn 8-week course that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and was never affiliated with a university since his graduate school days. He has taught at alternative educational institutions and informally. Conference, Presenter at First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Topics have included the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, Hegel’s Philosophy of History. (2001-2020) | It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. | 4/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-1-history/2022-06-19/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Hegel|Philosophy of History|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/19/2022 16:30 | 6/19/2022 18:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part 1—History | with Alex SteinbergAn 8-week course that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and was never affiliated with a university since his graduate school days. He has taught at alternative educational institutions and informally. Conference, Presenter at First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Topics have included the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, Hegel’s Philosophy of History. (2001-2020) | It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. | 4/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-1-history/2022-06-26/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Hegel|Philosophy of History|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/26/2022 16:30 | 6/26/2022 18:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part 1—History | with Alex SteinbergAn 8-week course that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and was never affiliated with a university since his graduate school days. He has taught at alternative educational institutions and informally. Conference, Presenter at First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Topics have included the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, Hegel’s Philosophy of History. (2001-2020) | It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. | 4/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-1-history/2022-07-03/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Hegel|Philosophy of History|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/3/2022 16:30 | 7/3/2022 18:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part 1—History | with Alex SteinbergAn 8-week course that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and was never affiliated with a university since his graduate school days. He has taught at alternative educational institutions and informally. Conference, Presenter at First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Topics have included the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, Hegel’s Philosophy of History. (2001-2020) | It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. We will begin by introducing the very idea of History, a unique contribution of Hegel to our understanding of the world. We will read some key writings of Hegel from the Philosophy of History and the Phenomenology of Spirit and explain their significance for our time. | 4/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-1-history/2022-07-10/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|Hegel|Philosophy of History|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/10/2022 16:30 | 7/10/2022 18:00 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-05-18/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/18/2022 17:00 | 5/18/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-05-25/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/25/2022 17:00 | 5/25/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Marx Revival: John Bellamy Foster and Marcello Musto | Shelter and Solidarity and the Marxist Education Project are co-sponsoring this event The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Interpretations A focus on Ecology with John Bellamy Foster and a presentation on Communism with Marcello Musto “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal and marginal course adoption, selective co-optation and selective bowdlerization: these are some of the strategies of establishment intellectuals over the years in response to the challenger of the thinker born 204 years ago in Trier. Yet, here we are near the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, and it sometimes seems that Karl Marx’s ideas have never been as topical, or as commanding of respect and interest, as they are today.” —Marcello Musto, from the Preface, The Marx Revival The Marx Revival is a revelation: a Marx for our times. — Nancy Fraser The Marx Revival will be the place to start in Marx scholarship. —Gregory Claeys This is Marx for the 21st century. —Göran Therborn John Bellamy Foster is the editor of Monthly Review and is also Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon. John is the author of the forthcoming Ecology in the Anthropocene (Monthly Review Press), the editor of works by Istvan Mészáros. He has written many books including The Robbery of Nature (with Brett Clark) and The Return of Nature,which won the Deutscher Memorial prize. Marcello Musto is co-editor of the Marx, Engels, Marxisms series of works with Palgrave Macmillan and is Associate Professor of Sociological Theory at York University. Marcello has authored and edited many volumes including Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International, The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography, and Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation. | The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Interpretations A focus on Ecology with John Bellamy Foster and a presentation on Communism with Marcello Musto. “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal and marginal course adoption, selective co-optation and selective bowdlerization: these are some of the strategies of establishment intellectuals over the years in response to the challenger of the thinker born 204 years ago in Trier. Yet, here we are near the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, and it sometimes seems that Karl Marx’s ideas have never been as topical, or as commanding of respect and interest, as they are today.” —Marcello Musto, from the Preface, The Marx Revival | 4/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-marx-revival-john-bellamy-foster-and-marcello-musto/ | Capital Studies|Climate Change|communism|Ecosocialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/7/2022 14:00 | 5/7/2022 16:00 | ||
| The London Revolution 1640 – 1643: Class Struggles in 17th Century England | A presentation with discussion with author Michael SturzaMichael Sturza’s work chronicles England’s history through the revolution in 1641 – 1642, which toppled the feudal political system, and its aftermath. It explores how the growing capitalist economy fundamentally conflicted with decaying feudal society, causing tensions and dislocations that affected all social classes in the early modern period. In contrast with most other works, this book posits that the fundamental driving force of the revolution was the militant Puritan movement supported by the class of petty-bourgeois artisan craftworkers, instead of the moderate gentry in the House of Commons. The London Revolution 1640 – 1643 further traces the detrimental effects of the political alliance between the free-trade Atlantic merchants and the gentry for the revolution. Despite the conservative and contradictory nature of the English bourgeois revolution, the experience in London is the original source for democratic ideas that were codified in the 1689 Bill of Rights and the U.S. Bill of Rights a century later. Taken in its entirety, The London Revolution 1640 – 1643 refutes the virulent attacks on Marxist social class analysis spearheaded by revisionist historians who would rather write the concept of revolution out of history. Michael’s book is available from The Mad Duck Coalition: www.themadduckcoalition.org and can be purchased as an ebook from most online book sellers except Amazon. Michael Sturza has been a life-long socialist political activist. A native New Yorker who grew up in Brooklyn, he learned about radical politics from his father who had been active in the labor movement of the 1930s. In 1966, he attended his first mass anti-Vietnam War rally with other students from his high school. In college, while actively involved in working class struggles, he studied Marxism, and, in 1974, graduated cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo. | This work chronicles England’s history through the revolution in 1641 – 1642, which toppled the feudal political system, and its aftermath. It explores how the growing capitalist economy fundamentally conflicted with decaying feudal society, causing tensions and dislocations that affected all social classes in the early modern period. In contrast with most other works, this book posits that the fundamental driving force of the revolution was the militant Puritan movement supported by the class of petty-bourgeois artisan craftworkers, instead of the moderate gentry in the House of Commons. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=14816 | 5/3/2022 18:00 | 5/3/2022 20:00 | |||
| The Embrace of Capital with author Don Milligan | Capitalism has swallowed us whole. It’s a love hate relationship.A presentation and discussion with Don Milligan“So refreshing and joyously subversive to read a communist’s analysis of why communism is so terribly unappetizing.” —Yanis YaroufakisThe “spectre of communism” which Karl Marx confidently evoked in 1848 is now nothing more than a ghostly and ghastly nightmare, without form or substance. This is because working people have developed a love-hate relationship with capitalism. They hate insecurity, inequality, and greed, and love civic and political freedom. They love mass consumption, and accept the logic of commerce. Barreling along through wars, revolutions, epidemics, and crises of all sorts, working people in their millions have consistently dumfounded and dismayed the left, by their refusal to countenance any alternative to the capitalist mode of life. We have to ask: Is it possible to reverse this reality, and once again talk of the necessity of communism? Don Milligan has been a gay activist, trade unionist, and a member of the communist movement for many decades. He published the pamphlet, The Politics of Homosexuality in 1973, and The Truth About the Aids Panic, with Michael Fitzpatrick in 1987, and also completed a doctoral thesis, ‘The Aesthetic of Emancipation: A study of the relation between Raymond Williams’s socialism and his literary criticism, cultural analysis and theoretical writings’, in 2003. He lives in Manchester, UK. To order Don’s book: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/ordering/ | The “spectre of communism” which Karl Marx confidently evoked in 1848 is now nothing more than a ghostly and ghastly nightmare, without form or substance. This is because working people have developed a love-hate relationship with capitalism. They hate insecurity, inequality, and greed, and love civic and political freedom. They love mass consumption, and accept the logic of commerce. Barreling along through wars, revolutions, epidemics, and crises of all sorts, working people in their millions have consistently dumfounded and dismayed the left, by their refusal to countenance any alternative to the capitalist mode of life. We have to ask: Is it possible to reverse this reality, and once again talk of the necessity of communism? | 4/24/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-embrace-of-capital-with-author-don-milligan/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Class and Gender|communism|Fascism|Fordism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/14/2022 14:00 | 5/14/2022 16:00 | ||
| Siegebreakers: A discussion of Justin Podur’s novel set in Gaza | A novel by Justin Podurwith two weeks of group discussions*Justin made a presentation on Siegebreakers on Saturday, September 18 with the Marxist Education Project’s Literary Studies Group Under the crushing weight of the siege of Gaza, Laila and Nasser are members of the Palestinian resistance fighting desperately to free their people. Together, they learn of a plan to unite the disparate Palestinian factions and break Israel’s siege. Unknown to them, Ari, a brilliant Israeli spy, has decided that his conscience can no longer allow him to participate in the starvation of Gaza. A double agent whose every move is under mounting suspicion, Ari reaches out to the American contractors who trained him with a secret plan. As they all struggle to break the siege, they face the wrath of the Israeli military machine. “Siegebreakers is at once a gritty, violent thrill ride and the first book I would hand to someone who wants to understand Gaza today.” —Dr. Tarek Loubani, emergency doctor and volunteer physician at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City “Based on an industrious research, this dramatic and powerful tale shows once more the power of fiction to illuminate and expose what the media fails, or is unwilling, to disclose about life under siege in the Gaza Strip and its impact on the people incarcerated in it.” —Ilan Pappe, historian and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Justin Podur is the author of Haiti’s New Dictatorship. He has contributed chapters to Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan and Real Utopia. He is an associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. *Discount codes for purchase of book will be provided with registration Admissions: All events are sliding scale—choose any of the stated to contribute to The MEP. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. Very sorry. Not enough registrations. Please write for a refund. | Under the crushing weight of the siege of Gaza, Laila and Nasser are members of the Palestinian resistance fighting desperately to free their people. Together, they learn of a plan to unite the disparate Palestinian factions and break Israel’s siege. Unknown to them, Ari, a brilliant Israeli spy, has decided that his conscience can no longer allow him to participate in the starvation of Gaza. A double agent whose every move is under mounting suspicion, Ari reaches out to the American contractors who trained him with a secret plan. As they all struggle to break the siege, they face the wrath of the Israeli military machine. | 7/6/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/siegebreakers-author-presentation-with-justin-podur-with-two-weeks-discussion/2022-01-20/ | Emancipation|Food and politics|historical materialism|Insurgency|Israeli occupation|Palestine|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity | 1/20/2022 18:00 | 1/20/2022 20:00 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-05-30/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/30/2022 17:00 | 5/30/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-06-06/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/6/2022 17:00 | 6/6/2022 18:30 | ||
| Corporate Capitalism and the Integral State | Watch the video of this May 24, 2022, event on YouTube Stephen Maher’s new book, Corporate Capitalism and the Integral State: General Electric and a Century of American Power, uses the relationship between the American state and General Electric from 1880 to 1980 to develop an original conception of what Gramsci called the “integral state.” Based on extensive archival research, it challenges the idea that the political power of capital is the result of corporate lobbying of a passive state. Rather, it shows how state power has been critical for the development and evolution of corporate organization. Moreover, the book reveals how the activism of the state has been indispensable for organizing fractious business interests into capitalist class power, including by taking the lead in forming and mobilizing business associations such as the Business Roundtable, Business Council, Committee for Economic Development, and others. Such lobbying groups thus constitute part of an integral state that traverses formal state institutions as well as civil society organizations. This deep structural relationship between the state and capital has profound implications for how we think about American democracy today. Stephen Maher is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Ontario Tech University, Canada, and Associate Editor of Socialist Register. | Video available: https://youtu.be/-t2O5SmzCr4 Steve Maher’s new book uses the relationship between the American state and General Electric from 1880 to 1980 to develop an original conception of what Gramsci called the “integral state.” It shows how state power has been critical for the development and evolution of corporate organization. | 5/2/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/corporate-capitalism-and-the-integral-state/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Financialization|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Classes/Events>Video Available | 5/24/2022 18:00 | 5/24/2022 20:00 | ||
| State Forms and Forming States: A 2-day presentation | Two afternoons with The Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureIn a two-part presentation, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture will share our collective research on states: states of governmentality, states of matter, states of being. States move through us, states congeal borders, states govern, states violate, states intervene, states organize abandonment, states let die. States also signal a condition of being–states of emergency, states of grace, states of matter, statelessness. What a sorry state you’re in! There are corrupt states, failed states, and disordered states of the economy. In many “state” formations, stability is revered. We challenge its troubling promise to bind places and peoples together, to curate state feelings, while attending to the ways in which groups gather to diffuse and refuse boundaries in altered states. Together, our panels suggest that when states transform, perhaps it is a revolution or perhaps–it is alchemy. The project is divided into two halves: First part: STATE CURATORS | In a two-part presentation, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture will share our collective research on states: states of governmentality, states of matter, states of being. States move through us, states congeal borders, states govern, states violate, states intervene, states organize abandonment, states let die. States also signal a condition of being–states of emergency, states of grace, states of matter, statelessness. What a sorry state you’re in! | 5/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/state-forms-and-forming-states-a-2-day-presentation/2022-05-22/ | Capital Studies|Enclosures|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|State Formation | 5/21/2022 16:00 | 5/21/2022 18:00 | ||
| State Forms and Forming States: A 2-day presentation | Two afternoons with The Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureIn a two-part presentation, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture will share our collective research on states: states of governmentality, states of matter, states of being. States move through us, states congeal borders, states govern, states violate, states intervene, states organize abandonment, states let die. States also signal a condition of being–states of emergency, states of grace, states of matter, statelessness. What a sorry state you’re in! There are corrupt states, failed states, and disordered states of the economy. In many “state” formations, stability is revered. We challenge its troubling promise to bind places and peoples together, to curate state feelings, while attending to the ways in which groups gather to diffuse and refuse boundaries in altered states. Together, our panels suggest that when states transform, perhaps it is a revolution or perhaps–it is alchemy. The project is divided into two halves: First part: STATE CURATORS | In a two-part presentation, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture will share our collective research on states: states of governmentality, states of matter, states of being. States move through us, states congeal borders, states govern, states violate, states intervene, states organize abandonment, states let die. States also signal a condition of being–states of emergency, states of grace, states of matter, statelessness. What a sorry state you’re in! | 5/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/state-forms-and-forming-states-a-2-day-presentation/2022-05-22/ | Capital Studies|Enclosures|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|State Formation | 5/22/2022 16:00 | 5/22/2022 18:00 | ||
| Dream Lovers: The Gamification of Relationships | A presentation and discussion with author Alfie BownHow (and why) are new technologies radically reshaping our desires?We are in the middle of a desirevolution — a fundamental and political transformation of the way we desire as human beings. Perhaps as always, new technologies – with their associated and inherited political biases – are organizing and mapping the future. What we don’t seem to notice is that the primary way in which our lives are being transformed is through the manipulation and control of desire itself. Our very impulses, drives and urges are ‘gamified’ to suit particular economic and political agendas, changing the way we relate to everything from lovers and friends to food and politicians. Digital technologies are transforming the subject at the deepest level of desire – re-mapping its libidinal economy — in ways never before imagined possible. From sexbots to smart condoms, fitbits to VR simulators and AI to dating algorithms, the ‘love industries’ are at the heart of the future smart city and the social fabric of everyday life. This book considers these emergent technologies and what they mean for the future of love, desire, work and capitalism. Alfie Bown is a Lecturer in Digital Media at Royal Holloway University London. He is a founding editor of 1968 Press and his journalism has appeared in Tribune, New Statesman, Paris Review and the Guardian. His other books include The Playstation Dreamworld and Post-Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production. ‘If you want a glimpse into how our desires are manufactured under our new techno-feudal order, and how love can prove our last defense, read Alfie Bown’s Dream Lovers” —Yanis Varoufakis “Dream Lovers is an exciting, astute analysis of how our capacity for desire and reverie has been slotted into the grooves of digital capitalism, and made to work for profit — from porn to Pokemon”. — Richard Seymour, author of The Twittering Machine | We are in the middle of a desirevolution — a fundamental and political transformation of the way we desire as human beings. Perhaps as always, new technologies – with their associated and inherited political biases – are organizing and mapping the future. What we don’t seem to notice is that the primary way in which our lives are being transformed is through the manipulation and control of desire itself. Our very impulses, drives and urges are ‘gamified’ to suit particular economic and political agendas, changing the way we relate to everything from lovers and friends to food and politicians. Digital technologies are transforming the subject at the deepest level of desire – re-mapping its libidinal economy — in ways never before imagined possible. | 5/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/dream-lovers-the-gamification-of-relationships/ | 5/22/2022 13:00 | 5/22/2022 15:00 | |||
| Utopia and Modernity in China: Contradictions in Transition | A video of this March 22, 2023, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel.  The success of China’s industrial/technical revolution since the 1980s has been international market-driven and led by private capital. But this capitalist “utopia” sits uneasily with both traditional Chinese values and the socialism that has been the foundation of the People’s Republic since the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949. Utopia and Modernity in China, edited by David Margolies and Qing Cao, examines the contradictions inherent in China’s attempt to achieve “socialism with Chinese characteristics” by promoting home-grown capitalism. The book attempts to deconstruct the realities of this system in practice, focusing on the internal tensions between traditional Chinese values, neoliberal capitalism, and the CCP’s vision of a transition to socialism in the 21st century. It offers an unusual insight into the complex cultural forces that are rapidly reshaping both China and world capitalism.Book available from the publisher, Pluto Press. David Margolies is Emeritus Professor of English at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of Shakespeare’s Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays, and edited Culture as Politics: Selected Writings of Christopher Caudwell. Qing Cao is Associate Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Durham. He is the author of China under Western Gaze, and co-editor of Discourse, Politics and Media in Contemporary China and Brand China in the Media. | Editors David Margolies and Qing Cao examine the contradictions inherent in China’s attempt to achieve “socialism with Chinese characteristics” by promoting home-grown capitalism. Their book attempts to deconstruct the realities of this system in practice, focusing on the internal tensions between traditional Chinese values, neoliberal capitalism, and the CCP’s vision of a transition to socialism in the 21st century. Video available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/IMWTb07tBuk | 5/6/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/china-utopia-modernity/ | China|Chinese Revolution|History|Literature|Modernity|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism|State Formation | 3/22/2023 19:00 | 3/22/2023 21:00 | ||
| The Marx Revival, moderated by Marcello Musto | Marcello Musto moderates a discussion with co-authors from the Marx Revival book from Cambridge University Press.Bob Jessop on State | The aim of “THE MARX REVIVIAL” is to reopen for discussion, in a critical and innovative manner, the classical themes of Marx’s thought, and to develop a deeper analysis of certain questions to which relatively little attention has been paid until now. It is hoped that the volume will therefore help to bring Marx closer both to those who think everything has already been written about his work and to a new generation of readers who have not yet been seriously confronted with his writings. — Marcello Musto, Preface to The Marx Revival | 5/12/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-marx-revival-moderated-by-marcello-musto/ | 5/21/2022 13:00 | 5/21/2022 15:00 | |||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-06-13/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/13/2022 17:00 | 6/13/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-06-20/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/20/2022 17:00 | 6/20/2022 18:30 | ||
| Joyce, Marx, Lefebvre: Considerations for the 21st Century | A video of this August 20, 2022, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Two days after Bloomsday 2022, Andy Merrifield joined us to consider how Karl Marx and Henri Lefebvre help shed new light on James Joyce – and vice versa. Capital circulated through Marx the same way the Liffey circulated through Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake: “a commodius vicus of recirculation.” Each book is a “hypertext,” a big, intricately entangled, introverted yet expansive text, historical yet somehow universal, exuberant and imaginative and at times colossally difficult to understand. Joyce said his principal character H. C. Earwicker was a “fargazer,” whose “patternmind” dreamed the vastest dream, whose sigla HCE meant “Here Comes Everybody.” Capital was Marx’s dreaming fargazing, his Here Comes Everybody, a condition, he thought, where all countries were headed, his image of everybody’s future. The babbelers with their thangas vain have been (:onjusium hold them!) they were and went; thigging thugs were and houhnhymn songroms were and comely norgels were andpollyfoolfiansees Menn have thawed, clerks have surssurhummed, the blond has sought of the brune: Elsekiss thou may, mean Kerry piggy?: and the duncledames have countered with the hellish fellows: Who ails tongue coddeau, aspace ofdumbillsilly? And they fell upong one another: and themselves they have fallen. And still nowanights and by nights of yore do all boldfloras of thefield to they shy faun lovers say only: Cull me ere I wilt to thee!: and, but a little later: Pluck me whilst I blush, be troth! For that say ing is as old as the howitts. Lave a whale a while in a whillbarrow (isn’t it the truath I’m tallinye?) to havefins andflippers that shimmy and shake. Tim Timmycan timpedhir, tampting Tam. Fleppety! Flippety! Fleapow! –James Joyce, Finnegan’s Wake ANDY MERRIFIELD is an independent scholar and the author of numerous books including Marx Dead and Alive (2020), which he presented at The Marxist Education Project in November 2020. Andy’s most recent presentation this past January addressed Humanism and Anti-Humanism in a discussion of Henri Levebvre and Louis Althusser. Andy’s other books include Dialectical Urbanism (Monthly Review, 2002), Magical Marxism (Pluto Press, 2011), The Amateur (Verso Books, 2018), and What We Talk About When We Talk About Cities (and Love) (OR Books, 2018). | 6/2/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/joyce-marx-lefebvre-considerations-for-the-21st-century/ | Capital|World literature | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method | 6/18/2022 14:00 | 6/18/2022 16:00 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-10-03/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/8/2022 17:00 | 8/8/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-06-27/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/27/2022 17:00 | 6/27/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-07-04/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/4/2022 17:00 | 7/4/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-07-11/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/11/2022 17:00 | 7/11/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-07-18/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/18/2022 17:00 | 7/18/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-07-25/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/25/2022 17:00 | 7/25/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-08-01/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/1/2022 17:00 | 8/1/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-08-08/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/8/2022 17:00 | 8/8/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-08-15/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/15/2022 17:00 | 8/15/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-08-22/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/22/2022 17:00 | 8/22/2022 18:30 | ||
| A close reading of Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation | with the Capital Studies GroupMany authors who have written on this concept over the 20th century have primarily based their interpretations on Marx’s early writings. In this anthology, however, Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. This group will read and discuss the Introduction to this collection and then the selections from Marx’s writings on alienation, beginning with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. From there we move on to key passages from Grundrisse and Capital, Volumes One and Three. We will read and discuss the book in its entirety. We welcome those who are new to Marxist ideas as well as those who have read broadly in the works of Marx and others on these topics. | In this anthology Marcello Musto focuses in on Marx’s later economic works, in which his thoughts on alienation were elaborated rather differently than in his philosophical manuscripts. Additionally, the writings collated in this volume are unique in their presentation of not only Marx’s critique of capitalism, but also his suggestions about communist society. This wide-ranging collection of Marx’s ideas on alienation provides an important critical tool both for understanding the past and for building a critique of contemporary society. | 3/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/a-close-reading-of-karl-marxs-writings-on-alienation/2022-08-29/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Critical Theory|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Precarity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/29/2022 17:00 | 8/29/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-06-01/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/1/2022 17:00 | 6/1/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-06-08/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/8/2022 17:00 | 6/8/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-06-15/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/15/2022 17:00 | 6/15/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-06-22/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/22/2022 17:00 | 6/22/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-06-29/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/29/2022 17:00 | 6/29/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-07-06/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/6/2022 17:00 | 7/6/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-07-13/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/13/2022 17:00 | 7/13/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-07-20/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/20/2022 17:00 | 7/20/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-07-27/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/27/2022 17:00 | 7/27/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-08-03/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/3/2022 17:00 | 8/3/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-08-10/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/10/2022 17:00 | 8/10/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-08-17/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/17/2022 17:00 | 8/17/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Necessity of Social Control by István Mészáros | Presented with The Capital Studies Group“We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros These sessions are devoted to a close reading of Mészáros’ The Necessity of Social Control (Monthly Review Press). We read in order to better understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the forms of domination and exploitation inherent in its logic, historical efforts to develop an alternative economy and society, and the challenge of sustainable development and substantive equality. We aim to develop our own knowledge of the necessary conditions for emancipation and discuss the relevance of the text for our lives today. Daniel Singer writes that the most important lesson from Mészáros “is the confrontation between two fundamentally opposed “metabolisms.” The rule of capital is presented as an integrated system… The socialist project must be equally comprehensive… How do you mobilize people within the framework of the existing society, while providing answers that take you beyond its confines?” The Capital Studies Group has been meeting from the beginning of The Marxist Education Project during the fall of 2014. We are a diverse group of students, activists and teachers from all corners of the world who have dedicated ourselves to the reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital and related works to such a study. All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you choose to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to obtain an entry url to any. event or class presented by The Marxist Education Project. | “We are living in a time of unprecedented historical crisis, which affects all forms of the capital system, not just capitalism. It is easy to understand, then, that the only thing that could produce a viable solution to the contradictions that we have to face would be a radical socialist alternative to capital’s mode of social metabolic control.” István Mészáros | 2/17/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-necessity-of-social-control-by-istvan-meszaros-2/2022-08-24/ | Alienation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/24/2022 17:00 | 8/24/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Working Class and the Middle Classes: Allies or Foes? with John Milios | A video of this August 20, 2022, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. The classical political economists defined three social classes on the basis of their forms of income: capitalists (profits), workers (wages), and landowners (rents). Marx, in his critique of political economy, developed a new, non-economistic and non-mechanistic “relational” class theory. On the basis of Marx’s approach, we can tackle complex problems concerning the class structure of contemporary societies and the gray area between the working and middle classes. Certain intermediary middle-class sub-collectivities can be identified between the capitalist and the working class: the middle bourgeoisie, the traditional petty bourgeoisie, and the new petty bourgeoisie. Depending not only on their structural characteristics but also on the specific conjuncture, as in an economic crisis for example, the middle classes tend to polarize in class struggle between the two main classes of capitalist society. JOHN MILIOS is Professor of Political Economy and the History of Economic Thought at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. He has authored more than two hundred papers published or forthcoming in refereed journals (in Greek, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese and Turkish) including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, History of Political Economy, History of Economics Review, Review of Political Economy, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Science & Society, Rethinking Marxism, and the Review of Radical Political Economics, and has participated as invited speaker in numerous international conferences. He has also authored or co-authored some eighteen scholarly books. His most recent books in English are A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and Its Crisis: Demystifying Finance (Routledge 2013, Paperback Edition 2014, co-authored with D. P. Sotiropoulos and S. Lapatsioras) and The Origins of Capitalism as a Social System: The Prevalence of an Aleatory Encounter (Routledge 2018). He is director of the quarterly journal of economic theory Thesseis (published in Greek since 1982) and serves on the editorial boards of four other scholarly journals. All events are sliding scale: choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission because of an inability to pay. Email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for further information. | A lecture by JOHN MILIOS, Professor of Political Economy at the National Technical University of Athens. The classical political economists defined three social classes on the basis of their forms of income: capitalists (profits), workers (wages), and landowners (rents). Marx, in his critique of political economy, developed a new, non-economistic and non-mechanistic “relational” class theory. On the basis of Marx’s approach, we can tackle complex problems concerning the class structure of contemporary societies and the gray area between the working and middle classes. | 7/28/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-working-class-and-the-middle-classes-allies-or-foes-with-john-milios/ | Capital|Class formation|Exploitation|Political economy|wages|working class | Capital Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/20/2022 13:00 | 8/20/2022 15:00 | |
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-07-03/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 7/3/2022 18:00 | 7/3/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-07-10/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 7/10/2022 18:00 | 7/10/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-07-17/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 7/17/2022 18:00 | 7/17/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-07-24/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 7/24/2022 18:00 | 7/24/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-07-31/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 7/31/2022 18:00 | 7/31/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-08-07/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 8/7/2022 18:00 | 8/7/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-08-14/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 8/14/2022 18:00 | 8/14/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-08-21/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 8/21/2022 18:00 | 8/21/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-08-28/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 8/28/2022 18:00 | 8/28/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-09-04/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 9/4/2022 18:00 | 9/4/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-09-11/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 9/11/2022 18:00 | 9/11/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-09-18/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 9/18/2022 18:00 | 9/18/2022 20:00 | ||
| Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence | The Economics of Global Turbulence: A Close Reading and DiscussionConvened by Sam SalourRobert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005 (1998, rev. 2006) remains among the best accounts of the evolution of advanced capitalist economies since the Second World War. His analysis of the long downturn, although strongly criticized by certain Marxists, proved able to account not only for the great recession but also for the global economic stagnation ever since. Even bourgeois scholars of different persuasions – whether neoclassical, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian or Kaleckian – now acknowledge that the dynamism of the advanced capitalist economies has been slowing dynamism ever since the 1980s. We are engaging in a close reading of the text with extensive discussion. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of Brenner’s The Boom and The Bubble and his article “What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America,” in which he extends his analysis to account for the Great Recession. Robert Brenner is professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. His influential article, “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe,” imprinted his name on a central debate concerning the origins of capitalism – the Brenner Debate. No prerequisites nor any preparation is required. There is no charge for this class. Click here to register. | We are engaged in a close reading and extensive discussion of Robert Brenner’s The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. We read 10 to 15 pages in each session and expect to finish the book in 6 months. We will follow up with a reading of other recent works by Brenner, including The Boom and the Bubble. | 3/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/robert-brenners-the-economics-of-global-turbulence/2022-09-25/ | Accumulation of Capital|Crisis|Globalization|Political Economy | 9/25/2022 18:00 | 9/25/2022 20:00 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2022-09-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 9/1/2022 | 9/1/2022 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2022-10-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/1/2022 | 10/1/2022 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2022-11-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/1/2022 | 11/1/2022 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2022-12-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/1/2022 | 12/1/2022 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-01-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/1/2023 | 1/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-02-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/1/2023 | 2/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-03-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/1/2023 | 3/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-04-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 4/1/2023 | 4/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-05-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/1/2023 | 5/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-06-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/1/2023 | 6/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-07-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 7/1/2023 | 7/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-08-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 8/1/2023 | 8/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-09-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 9/1/2023 | 9/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-10-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/1/2023 | 10/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-11-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/1/2023 | 11/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 6/18/2021 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/annual-pass/2023-12-01/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/1/2023 | 12/1/2023 23:59 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book). “Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-12-27/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 9/13/2022 18:30 | 9/13/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-09-20/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 9/20/2022 18:30 | 9/20/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-09-27/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 9/27/2022 18:30 | 9/27/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-10-04/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 10/4/2022 18:30 | 10/4/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-10-11/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 10/11/2022 18:30 | 10/11/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-10-18/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 10/18/2022 18:30 | 10/18/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-10-25/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 10/25/2022 18:30 | 10/25/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-11-01/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 11/1/2022 18:30 | 11/1/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-11-08/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 11/8/2022 18:30 | 11/8/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-11-15/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 11/15/2022 18:30 | 11/15/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-11-22/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 11/22/2022 18:30 | 11/22/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-11-29/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 11/29/2022 18:30 | 11/29/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-12-06/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 12/6/2022 18:30 | 12/6/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-12-13/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 12/13/2022 18:30 | 12/13/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-12-20/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 12/20/2022 18:30 | 12/20/2022 20:00 | ||
| Invention of the White Race – Fall 2022 | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race, including vol. 1, Racial Oppression and Social Control; and vol. 2, The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (the 2022 edition combines both volumes into a single book).“Racial Capitalism,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Whiteness Studies,” “The 1619 controversy,” “Identity Politics,” “Black Marxism,” “Caste vs Race” all identify some of the ideas, lenses and explanations that contend for our attention. A fair consideration of these and related approaches may be well informed by studying The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen. We will read from the third edition, which combines both volumes into a single book with a new introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry, Allen’s literary executor. (Available from Verso at a 30% discount)In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. It provides a historical materialist analysis of racial oppression and the white identity which emerged as a principal form of social control over a rebellious laboring class of Europeans and Africans in the pattern-setting colonies of Virginia and Maryland in the 17th and early 18th century. It is a history for today. Sean Ahern was radicalized as a NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975)” which served as a precis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading and discussion group convened with Sean Ahern, on Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race. In 1972, after over 30 years of activism in the labor and communist movements, Allen shared the following strategic insight with a new generation of revolutionaries: “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy. White supremacy is both the keystone (in the arch) and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy, the historic form of bourgeois rule in the US. It is a vulnerable point because it is a historically developed and unresolvable internal contradiction of US bourgeois democracy. It is the decisive vulnerable point because – as history has repeatedly proved – the basic class contradictions in bourgeois democracy can never fully mature until and unless the anti-proletarian nature of white supremacy has been completely established in the minds of the proletarian masses.” Allen spent the next 20 years researching the primary sources and writing his magnum opus. | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/invention-of-the-white-race-fall-2022/2022-12-27/ | African American History|Colonialism|Indigenous Peoples|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class | 12/27/2022 18:30 | 12/27/2022 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-04-18/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 2/7/2023 18:30 | 2/7/2023 20:00 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-08-15/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/15/2022 17:00 | 8/15/2022 18:30 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-08-22/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/22/2022 17:00 | 8/22/2022 18:30 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-08-29/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/29/2022 17:00 | 8/29/2022 18:30 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-09-05/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/5/2022 17:00 | 9/5/2022 18:30 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-09-12/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/12/2022 17:00 | 9/12/2022 18:30 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-09-19/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/19/2022 17:00 | 9/19/2022 18:30 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-09-26/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/26/2022 17:00 | 9/26/2022 18:30 | ||
| Science Fiction/ Visionary Fiction Reading Group Summer Season |
—The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin Summertime reading has a special place in our imaginative processes. This August and September, join us to read visionary fiction together, challenge our understandings, and explore how we can avoid getting eaten. The name visionary fiction derives from the legacy of Octavia Butler and others today sharing and learning from science fiction. We draw on this work to better envision social justice, a post-capitalist future, and paths to get there. This process works best together in a circle reading together. Join us Monday, August 8 at 5 pm for the summer season of MEP’s Visionary Fiction reading group. We will choose what novel to read together that evening. We will read at a pace that suits the group and supplement with suggestions for short stories, related non-fiction, film, and more. Science fiction background prerequisites? None. Once you register, we will add you to our Slack channel for sharing suggested reading and select short stories. (Fine to join after the first session.) Mondays 5:00-6:30 pm, 8 weeks. photo: July 2022 photo from the James Webb telescope: the edge of a nearby star-forming region called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Thanks to NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI | 7/31/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-season-science-fiction-visionary-fiction-reading-group/2022-10-03/ | science fiction|visionary fiction | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/3/2022 17:00 | 10/3/2022 18:30 | ||
| Facebooking the Anthropocene with Bob Ostertag | Watch the video of this September 27, 2022, event on YouTube. Bob Ostertag’s new book, Facebooking the Anthropocene in Raja Ampat: Technics and Civilization in the 21st Century, offers a deeply intimate portrait of the cataclysmic shifts between humans, technology, and the so-called natural world. Amid the breakneck pace of both technological advance and environmental collapse, he explores how we are changing as fast as the world around us—from how we make music, to how we have sex, to what we do to survive, and who we imagine ourselves to be. And though the environmental crisis terrifies and technology overwhelms, Ostertag finds enough creativity, compassion, and humor in our evolving behavior to keep us laughing and inspired as the world we are building overtakes the world we found. Bob Ostertag is a true polymath who has covered wars in Central America, recorded dozens of music projects, and published books on startlingly eclectic subjects. He fuses his travels as a touring musician with his journalist’s eye for detail and the long view of a historian. Book available from PM Press. | Video available: https://youtu.be/EG2B_Vf1KZY Bob Ostertag’s new book, Facebooking the Anthropocene in Raja Ampat: Technics and Civilization in the 21st Century, offers a deeply intimate portrait of the cataclysmic shifts between humans, technology, and the so-called natural world. Amid the breakneck pace of both technological advance and environmental collapse, he explores how we are changing as fast as the world around us—from how we make music, to how we have sex, to what we do to survive, and who we imagine ourselves to be. And though the environmental crisis terrifies and technology overwhelms, Ostertag finds enough creativity, compassion, and humor in our evolving behavior to keep us laughing and inspired as the world we are building overtakes the world we found. Video available at https://youtu.be/EG2B_Vf1KZY | 8/23/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/facebooking-the-anthropocene-with-robert-ostertag/ | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|automation|Climate Change|Colonialism|Crisis|Cultural Resistance|Emancipation|Modernity|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Classes/Events>Video Available | 9/27/2022 18:30 | 9/27/2022 20:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-12-14/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 10/12/2022 17:00 | 10/12/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-10-19/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 10/19/2022 17:00 | 10/19/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-10-26/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 10/26/2022 17:00 | 10/26/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-11-02/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 11/2/2022 17:00 | 11/2/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-11-09/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 11/9/2022 17:00 | 11/9/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-11-16/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 11/16/2022 17:00 | 11/16/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-11-23/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 11/23/2022 17:00 | 11/23/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-11-30/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 11/30/2022 17:00 | 11/30/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-12-07/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 12/7/2022 17:00 | 12/7/2022 18:30 | ||
| Climate, Class, and Degrowth | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two new Verso titles that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet, and The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. As one reviewer noted, “Both take as foundational premises that we must move beyond capitalism to solve the climate crisis, yet they critique political economy in fundamentally different ways. While The Future is Degrowth argues for abolishing the capitalist growth imperative, Climate Change as Class War argues against degrowth and advocates for a decommodified Green New Deal.” We will address such questions as: What do advocates of “degrowth” mean by this term? How and why do capitalist growth and accumulation threaten human survival? What are the most useful frameworks to help us organize movements for climate justice? What demands should we prioritize and what lessons can we draw from previous historical movements? How can utopian thinking expand our horizons in what must be a massive fight for a more sustainable future? Where does working-class organizing come into the picture, and what other allies and social forces can be mobilized? Ten weekly sessions, convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | Join the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group as we reconvene to consider two books that are provoking wide discussion and debate: Matt Huber’s Climate Change as Class War, and The Future Is Degrowth, by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan, and Andrea Vetter. | 8/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/climate-class-and-degrowth/2022-12-14/ | Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Social Reproduction|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 12/14/2022 17:00 | 12/14/2022 18:30 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom |  At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places.Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-12-18/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 10/9/2022 11:00 | 10/9/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-10-16/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 10/16/2022 11:00 | 10/16/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-10-23/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 10/23/2022 11:00 | 10/23/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-10-30/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 10/30/2022 11:00 | 10/30/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-11-06/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 11/6/2022 11:00 | 11/6/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-11-13/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 11/13/2022 11:00 | 11/13/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-11-20/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 11/20/2022 11:00 | 11/20/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-11-27/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 11/27/2022 11:00 | 11/27/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-12-04/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 12/4/2022 11:00 | 12/4/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-12-11/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 12/11/2022 11:00 | 12/11/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Social Classes, Revolution, and Human Freedom | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the recently published anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings with introduction by David Fernbach (Verso – 3 volumes in one, in paperback and e-book). We will also read extensively from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, vol. 2, The Politics of Social Classes (MR Press; paper-back and e-book). Note that the Marx writings are available in many other places. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group will read and discuss original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system – the class that has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-social-classes-revolution-and-human-freedom/2022-12-18/ | Civil War|Class|communism|Engels|England|French Revolution|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 12/18/2022 11:00 | 12/18/2022 13:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group |  The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-12-15/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 10/13/2022 19:00 | 10/13/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-10-20/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 10/20/2022 19:00 | 10/20/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-10-27/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 10/27/2022 19:00 | 10/27/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-11-03/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 11/3/2022 19:00 | 11/3/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-11-10/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 11/10/2022 19:00 | 11/10/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-11-17/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 11/17/2022 19:00 | 11/17/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-11-24/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 11/24/2022 19:00 | 11/24/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-12-01/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 12/1/2022 19:00 | 12/1/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-12-08/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 12/8/2022 19:00 | 12/8/2022 21:00 | ||
| The Novels of Nanni Balestrini with the MEP Literature Group | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter and continues its tradition of reading international political fiction. We will read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. These selections are in honor of Michael Lardner, an enthusiast of Balestrini’s writing and the convener of the MEP’s literature group for many years. Balestrini, born in 1935, had by the early 1960s an active literary career in Gruppo 63, edited journals, and participated in computer experiments. From literary spats, he moved to political involvement during Italy’s Years of Lead (ca. 1968-1988). Upon being charged with membership in a guerrilla group he fled to Paris and later to Germany. We Want Everything chronicles a rebellion centered at the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin; The Unseen continues the story of Italy’s explosive 1970s when the young and unemployed of cities joined workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “politics of refusal” called forth draconian repression from the employers and the state. We will begin with selections of Balestrini’s poetry. | The MEP Literature Group resumes this fall/winter to read several works by the Italian author Nanni Balestrini, including We Want Everything and The Unseen. | 8/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-novels-of-nanni-balestrini-with-the-mep-literature-group/2022-12-15/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Fordism|Insurgency|Italian history|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Poetry|Radical Literature|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry|Working Class History | 12/15/2022 19:00 | 12/15/2022 21:00 | ||
| Celebrate the Life of Michael Lardner |  Watch the video of this October 16, 2022, event on YouTube Michael Lardner, longtime organizer with the Marxist Education Project, died on July 21, 2022, following a brief but valiant struggle with an aggressive cancer. Michael was a long-time activist, starting as an organizer with the United Farm Workers in his early 20s, eventually working as a typesetter for Win magazine, published by the War Resisters League, where he honed his skills in type, graphic design, and printing. Throughout his life he believed in the importance of studying history, politics, philosophy, economics, the visual arts and music, and relished conversation and discussion with many friends, new and old, who joined him at classes and events, over dinner and drinks, and during the last few years using the Internet to never cease exchanging ideas with his many friends and comrades. Michael remained committed to promoting non-sectarian progressive educational opportunities through his involvement with the New York Marxist School, The Brecht Forum, and the Marxist Education Project. He loved literature, always finding beauty and an expansive understanding in the language, type styling, graphic design, and of course a good book cover! Living in New York City and Montclair, New Jersey for over 45 years, Michael never stopped loving his home state of Michigan, Port Huron where he grew up, and his hometown Detroit sports teams. He traveled around the world, making lasting friendships. He communicated his passion and commitments with grace, humor, and intense interest in the world around him. If you would like to make a monetary contribution in Michael’s memory, Alana, Nora, and Dan (Michael’s partner and children) suggest the Marxist Education Project, Brooklyn Animal Action, NARAL, or an organization of your choice. | Video available: https://youtu.be/aGkzsiT7kdQ Michael Lardner, longtime organizer with the Marxist Education Project, died on July 21, 2022, following a brief but valiant struggle with an aggressive cancer. Join us to celebrate his life and contributions. If you are unable to attend in person a Zoom link will be provided when you register or submit the RSVP. | 9/15/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/celebrate-the-life-of-michael-lardner/ | Classes/Events>Video Available | 10/16/2022 13:00 | 10/16/2022 17:00 | ||
| Adventure Capitalism: Raymond Craib Looks at ‘Libertarian Exit’ | Watch the video of this October 22, 2022, event on YouTube The past half century is littered with the remains of experiments in “libertarian exit.” Raymond Craib‘s new PM Press book Adventure Capitalism traces the history history of individualist, property-oriented “escape” projects pursued by the likes of Michael Oliver, Peter Thiel, and Bitcoin bros. Based on research in archives in the US, the UK, and Vanuatu, as well as in FBI files, Craib explores in careful detail the ideology and practice of libertarian exit and its place in the histories of contemporary capitalism, decolonization, empire, and oceans and islands.Raymond Craib teaches History at Cornell University. His research interests lie at the intersection of geography, politics, and everyday practice. His other works include The Cry of the Renegade: Politics and Poetry in Interwar Chile; Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive Landscapes; and, with Barry Maxwell, No Gods No Masters No Peripheries: Global Anarchisms. | Video available: https://youtu.be/QwctEaH5_54 The past half century is littered with the remains of experiments in “libertarian exit.” Raymond Craib’s new PM Press book Adventure Capitalism traces the history history of individualist, property-oriented “escape” projects pursued by the likes of Michael Oliver, Peter Thiel, and Bitcoin bros. | 9/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/adventure-capitalism-raymond-craib-looks-at-libertarian-exit/ | Accumulation of Capital|American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Colonialism|Enclosures|Extractivism|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Classes/Events>Video Available | 10/22/2022 14:00 | 10/22/2022 16:00 | ||
| Jean Jaurès and the Socialist History of the French Revolution | Watch the video from this October 25, 2022, event on YouTube Jean Jaurès’s magisterial work, A Socialist History of the French Revolution, has endured for over a century as one of the most influential accounts ever published. Mitchell Abidor‘s abridged translation of the original six-volume work makes this new edition truly accessible to an Anglophone audience. Geoff Kurtz, author of a 2014 biography of Jaurès, joins Mitch for a conversation about the History and the author’s life and times. | Video available: https://youtu.be/mtT8owRC5Fw Jean Jaurès’s magisterial work, A Socialist History of the French Revolution, has endured for over a century as one of the most influential accounts ever published. Mitchell Abidor’s abridged translation of the original six-volume work makes this new edition truly accessible to an Anglophone audience. Geoff Kurtz, author of a 2014 biography of Jaurès, joins Mitch for a conversation about the History and the author’s life and times. | 9/29/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/jean-jaures-and-the-socialist-history-of-the-french-revolution/ | French Revolution|historical materialism|Literature|Marx|Marxisms|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Classes/Events>Video Available|Working Class History | 10/25/2022 18:30 | 10/25/2022 20:30 | ||
| Envisioning Social Change: New Voices in Science Fiction | In order to build a better world, we have to envision it first. Join us to read more science fiction through the lens of social change. Readings this fall will include Selections from Octavia’s Brood, edited by adrienne marie brown and Walida Imarisha, who conceptualized Visionary Fiction and this book to honor Octavia Butler. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, winner of the 2015 Arthur C Clark award and recent streamed series. Selections from NK Jemisin, Ted Chiang other related fiction and non-fiction selected by the Science Fiction-Visionary Fiction reading group (Photo: Octavia E Butler Landing on Mars) | 9/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/science-and-visionary-fiction-fall-reading-group/2022-11-28/ | vsf | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/24/2022 17:00 | 10/24/2022 18:30 | ||
| Envisioning Social Change: New Voices in Science Fiction | In order to build a better world, we have to envision it first. Join us to read more science fiction through the lens of social change. Readings this fall will include Selections from Octavia’s Brood, edited by adrienne marie brown and Walida Imarisha, who conceptualized Visionary Fiction and this book to honor Octavia Butler. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, winner of the 2015 Arthur C Clark award and recent streamed series. Selections from NK Jemisin, Ted Chiang other related fiction and non-fiction selected by the Science Fiction-Visionary Fiction reading group (Photo: Octavia E Butler Landing on Mars) | 9/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/science-and-visionary-fiction-fall-reading-group/2022-10-31/ | vsf | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/31/2022 17:00 | 10/31/2022 18:30 | ||
| Envisioning Social Change: New Voices in Science Fiction | In order to build a better world, we have to envision it first. Join us to read more science fiction through the lens of social change. Readings this fall will include Selections from Octavia’s Brood, edited by adrienne marie brown and Walida Imarisha, who conceptualized Visionary Fiction and this book to honor Octavia Butler. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, winner of the 2015 Arthur C Clark award and recent streamed series. Selections from NK Jemisin, Ted Chiang other related fiction and non-fiction selected by the Science Fiction-Visionary Fiction reading group (Photo: Octavia E Butler Landing on Mars) | ,2022-09-30 | tribe_events | vsf | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 11/7/2022 17:00 | 11/7/2022 18:30 | 11/7/2022 21:00 | |
| Envisioning Social Change: New Voices in Science Fiction | In order to build a better world, we have to envision it first. Join us to read more science fiction through the lens of social change. Readings this fall will include Selections from Octavia’s Brood, edited by adrienne marie brown and Walida Imarisha, who conceptualized Visionary Fiction and this book to honor Octavia Butler. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, winner of the 2015 Arthur C Clark award and recent streamed series. Selections from NK Jemisin, Ted Chiang other related fiction and non-fiction selected by the Science Fiction-Visionary Fiction reading group (Photo: Octavia E Butler Landing on Mars) | 9/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/science-and-visionary-fiction-fall-reading-group/2022-11-14/ | vsf | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 11/14/2022 17:00 | 11/14/2022 18:30 | ||
| Envisioning Social Change: New Voices in Science Fiction | In order to build a better world, we have to envision it first. Join us to read more science fiction through the lens of social change. Readings this fall will include Selections from Octavia’s Brood, edited by adrienne marie brown and Walida Imarisha, who conceptualized Visionary Fiction and this book to honor Octavia Butler. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, winner of the 2015 Arthur C Clark award and recent streamed series. Selections from NK Jemisin, Ted Chiang other related fiction and non-fiction selected by the Science Fiction-Visionary Fiction reading group (Photo: Octavia E Butler Landing on Mars) | 9/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/science-and-visionary-fiction-fall-reading-group/2022-11-21/ | vsf | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 11/21/2022 17:00 | 11/21/2022 18:30 | ||
| Envisioning Social Change: New Voices in Science Fiction | In order to build a better world, we have to envision it first. Join us to read more science fiction through the lens of social change. Readings this fall will include Selections from Octavia’s Brood, edited by adrienne marie brown and Walida Imarisha, who conceptualized Visionary Fiction and this book to honor Octavia Butler. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, winner of the 2015 Arthur C Clark award and recent streamed series. Selections from NK Jemisin, Ted Chiang other related fiction and non-fiction selected by the Science Fiction-Visionary Fiction reading group (Photo: Octavia E Butler Landing on Mars) | 9/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/science-and-visionary-fiction-fall-reading-group/2022-11-28/ | vsf | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 11/28/2022 17:00 | 11/28/2022 18:30 | ||
| Envisioning Social Change: New Voices in Science Fiction | In order to build a better world, we have to envision it first. Join us to read more science fiction through the lens of social change. Readings this fall will include Selections from Octavia’s Brood, edited by adrienne marie brown and Walida Imarisha, who conceptualized Visionary Fiction and this book to honor Octavia Butler. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, winner of the 2015 Arthur C Clark award and recent streamed series. Selections from NK Jemisin, Ted Chiang other related fiction and non-fiction selected by the Science Fiction-Visionary Fiction reading group (Photo: Octavia E Butler Landing on Mars) | 9/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=16094 | vsf | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 12/5/2022 17:00 | 12/5/2022 18:30 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit |  An eight-week course presented by Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world.It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | With Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 10/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-ii-phenomenology-of-spirit/2022-12-17/ | Critical Theory|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 10/29/2022 14:00 | 10/29/2022 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit | An eight-week course presented by Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | With Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 10/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-ii-phenomenology-of-spirit/2022-11-05/ | Critical Theory|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 11/5/2022 14:00 | 11/5/2022 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit | An eight-week course presented by Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | With Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 10/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-ii-phenomenology-of-spirit/2022-11-12/ | Critical Theory|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 11/12/2022 14:00 | 11/12/2022 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit | An eight-week course presented by Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | With Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 10/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-ii-phenomenology-of-spirit/2022-11-19/ | Critical Theory|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 11/19/2022 14:00 | 11/19/2022 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit | An eight-week course presented by Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | With Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 10/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-ii-phenomenology-of-spirit/2022-11-26/ | Critical Theory|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 11/26/2022 14:00 | 11/26/2022 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit | An eight-week course presented by Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | With Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 10/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-ii-phenomenology-of-spirit/2022-12-03/ | Critical Theory|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 12/3/2022 14:00 | 12/3/2022 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit | An eight-week course presented by Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | With Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 10/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-ii-phenomenology-of-spirit/2022-12-10/ | Critical Theory|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 12/10/2022 14:00 | 12/10/2022 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part II – Phenomenology of Spirit | An eight-week course presented by Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx turned Hegel on his head. In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | With Alex Steinberg. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Spring of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s Philosophy of History. We will dive directly into that mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make Hegel’s book less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 10/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-part-ii-phenomenology-of-spirit/2022-12-17/ | Critical Theory|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 12/17/2022 14:00 | 12/17/2022 16:00 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism |  This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2023-01-18/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 10/26/2022 18:00 | 10/26/2022 19:30 | ||
| Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire |  A video of this October 29, 2022, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel.It’s in our food, our cosmetics, our fuel and our bodies. Palm oil, found in half of supermarket products, has shaped our world. Max Haiven uncovers how the gears of capitalism are literally and metaphorically lubricated by this ubiquitous elixir. With a sweeping, experimental narrative, Haiven takes us on a global journey that includes looted treasures, the American system of mass incarceration, the history of modern art and the industrialisation of war. Beyond simply calling for more consumer boycotts, Haiven argues for recognising in palm oil humanity’s profound potential to shape our world beyond racial capitalism and neo-colonial dispossession. Max Haiven is a writer and teacher and Canada Research Chair in Culture, Media and Social Justice. His most recent books are Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization (2018) and Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts (2020). Max also edits VAGABONDS, a series of short, radical books from Pluto Press. He teaches at Lakehead University, where he co-directs the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL). | Video available: https://youtu.be/C5YAw174E7s Palm oil, found in half of supermarket products, has shaped our world. Max Haiven uncovers how the gears of capitalism are literally and metaphorically lubricated by this ubiquitous elixir. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/palm-oil-the-grease-of-empire/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Colonialism|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Extractivism|Food and politics|Globalization|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Migration|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/29/2022 14:00 | 10/29/2022 16:00 | ||
| Climate Justice and Socialist Strategy with Jason W. Moore | King’s Triple Evils, Modern Environmentalism, and the ‘World Revolution’ of 1968A video of this November 6, 2022, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., came out publicly against the Vietnam War in a speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam.” Beyond, in that title, meant everything. King not only broke with the liberal establishment, which viewed the war as a separate issue from racism and as an aberration in American foreign policy. King simultaneously presented a radical critique that linked racism and exploitation at home and abroad and began to elaborate a vision of an American socialism animated by a searing indictment of capitalism’s “triple evils” (racism, militarism, and class exploitation). Such a socialism would be grounded in a triple alliance encompassing the antiwar, civil rights, and labor movements. In this talk, Jason W. Moore addresses the missed opportunity for a program of planetary justice as the “Environmentalism of the Rich” came to the fore after 1968 and overshadowed King’s appeal for a radical turn. As King underscored in his final months, justice cannot be effectively pursued piece by piece. The “whole society” with and within the web of life must be reinvented, inasmuch as we are “all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” At the end of the Capitalocene and the beginning of the planetary inferno, climate justice – and socialist strategy – must proceed as if “all life were interrelated.”  Jason W. Moore is an environmental historian and historical geographer at Binghamton University, where he is Professor of Sociology. His books include Capitalism in the Web of Life (2015), Anthropocene or Capitalocene? (2016), and (with Raj Patel), A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things (2017). Moore’s books and essays on environmental history, capitalism, and social theory – translated into over 20 languages – have been recognized with numerous academic awards. He co-coordinates the World-Ecology Research Network. | Video available at https://youtu.be/2nZ9xgNn35A Jason W. Moore addresses the missed opportunity for a program of planetary justice as the “Environmentalism of the Rich” came to the fore after 1968 and overshadowed Martin Luther King, Jr.’s appeal for radical action against capitalism’s “triple evils” of racism, militarism, and class exploitation. As King underscored in his final months, justice cannot be effectively pursued piece by piece. The “whole society” with and within the web of life must be reinvented, inasmuch as we are “all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” | 10/19/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/moore-climate-justice/ | Anti-racism|capitalism|capitalist crisis|crisis|ecology|ecosocialism|Political economy|racism|Socialism|white supremacy | Accumulation of Capital|American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Food and politics|historical materialism|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy|Socialism|Solidarity|Transition from Capitalism | 11/6/2022 14:00 | 11/6/2022 16:00 | |
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-11-02/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 11/2/2022 18:00 | 11/2/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-11-09/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 11/9/2022 18:00 | 11/9/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-11-16/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 11/16/2022 18:00 | 11/16/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-11-23/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 11/23/2022 18:00 | 11/23/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-11-30/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 11/30/2022 18:00 | 11/30/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-12-07/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 12/7/2022 18:00 | 12/7/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-12-14/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 12/14/2022 18:00 | 12/14/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-12-21/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 12/21/2022 18:00 | 12/21/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2022-12-28/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 12/28/2022 18:00 | 12/28/2022 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2023-01-04/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 1/4/2023 18:00 | 1/4/2023 19:30 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2023-01-11/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 1/11/2023 18:00 | 1/11/2023 19:30 | ||
| Global Civil War: Capitalism Post-Pandemic | Watch the video from this November 19, 2022, event on YouTube.With William I. Robinson Global Civil War provides a big-picture account of how the coronavirus pandemic and new digital technologies have transformed capitalism and the entire global economy and society. Analyzing the concentration of power and control in the hands of corporate conglomerates, tech giants, megabanks, and the military-industrial complex, the book documents the extent of unprecedented global inequalities as the mass of humanity faces violent dispossession and uncertain survival. The book issues a dire warning against the emergence of a dystopic digitalized dictatorship but also finds great hope and inspiration in the burgeoning social movements of the poor and the dispossessed as humanity descends into global civil war.William I. Robinson is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Among his many books are Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity (2014); Into the Tempest: Essays on the New Global Capitalism (2018); and The Global Police State (2020). Global Civil War is available from the publisher, PM Press. | Video available: https://youtu.be/FlJYh3VDWNU William I. Robinson’s new book Global Civil War provides a big-picture account of how the coronavirus pandemic and new digital technologies have drastically transformed capitalism and the entire global economy and society. Analyzing the concentration of power and control in the hands of corporate conglomerates, tech giants, megabanks, and the military-industrial complex, the book documents the extent of unprecedented global inequalities as the mass of humanity faces violent dispossession and uncertain survival. The book issues a dire warning against the emergence of a dystopic digitalized dictatorship but also finds great hope and inspiration in the burgeoning social movements of the poor and the dispossessed as humanity descends into global civil war. | 11/4/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/global-civil-war-capitalism-post-pandemic/ | anti-imperialism|capitalism|class and race|Climate Change|crisis|Political economy|Revolution | Accumulation of Capital|American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|China|Class|Climate Change|Colonialism|Covid-19|Crisis|Fascism|Financialization|Globalization|Insurgency|Migration|Neo-fascism|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Pandemics|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism|Solidarity | 11/19/2022 14:00 | 11/19/2022 16:00 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-03-12/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 11/20/2022 13:00 | 11/20/2022 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2022-11-27/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 11/27/2022 13:00 | 11/27/2022 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2022-12-04/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 12/4/2022 13:00 | 12/4/2022 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2022-12-11/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 12/11/2022 13:00 | 12/11/2022 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2022-12-18/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 12/18/2022 13:00 | 12/18/2022 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-01-08/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 1/8/2023 13:00 | 1/8/2023 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-01-15/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 1/15/2023 13:00 | 1/15/2023 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-01-22/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 1/22/2023 13:00 | 1/22/2023 14:30 | |
| From Austerity to Fascism: The Capital Order | A video of this December 10, 2022, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel.  Clara E. Mattei presents The Capital Order, in which she explores the intellectual origins of austerity to uncover its originating motives: the protection of capital – and indeed capitalism – in times of social upheaval from below. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Britain and Italy, she offers a damning account of the rise of austerity – and of modern economics – at the levers of contemporary political power. Mattei reveals how the threat of working-class power in the years after World War I animated policies that elevated owners, smothered workers, and imposed a rigid economic hierarchy across societies. Where austerity “succeeded,” relatively speaking, was in their enrichment of ruling-class interests who accumulated power and capital at the expense of labor. Here is where the true value of austerity can be observed: its insulation of entrenched privilege and its elimination of all alternatives to capitalism.Clara E. Mattei is assistant professor of economics at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She was a 2018-2019 member of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Studies. | In The Capital Order, Clara E. Mattei explores the intellectual origins of austerity to uncover its originating motives: the protection of capital-and indeed capitalism – in times of social upheaval from below. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Britain and Italy, she offers a damning account of the rise of austerity – and of modern economics – at the levers of contemporary political power. Mattei reveals how the threat of working-class power in the years after World War I animated top-down economic policies that elevated owners, smothered workers, and imposed a rigid economic hierarchy across societies. | 11/26/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/from-austerity-to-fascism-the-capital-order/ | Austerity|Capital|capital accumulation|capitalist crisis|crisis|fascism|finance capital and fascism|Political economy | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-fascism|Austerity|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|England|Fascism|Globalization|Italian history|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/10/2022 14:00 | 12/10/2022 16:00 | |
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-02-06/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 12/5/2022 17:00 | 12/5/2022 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2022-12-12/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 12/12/2022 17:00 | 12/12/2022 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2022-12-19/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 12/19/2022 17:00 | 12/19/2022 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2022-12-26/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 12/26/2022 17:00 | 12/26/2022 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-01-02/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 1/2/2023 17:00 | 1/2/2023 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-01-09/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 1/9/2023 17:00 | 1/9/2023 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-01-16/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 1/16/2023 17:00 | 1/16/2023 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-01-23/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 1/23/2023 17:00 | 1/23/2023 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-01-30/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 1/30/2023 17:00 | 1/30/2023 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-02-06/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 2/6/2023 17:00 | 2/6/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project. Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes).Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-04-02/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 1/29/2023 13:30 | 1/29/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-02-05/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 2/5/2023 13:30 | 2/5/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-02-12/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 2/12/2023 13:30 | 2/12/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-02-19/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 2/19/2023 13:30 | 2/19/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-02-26/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 2/26/2023 13:30 | 2/26/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-03-05/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 3/5/2023 13:30 | 3/5/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-03-12/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 3/12/2023 13:30 | 3/12/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-03-19/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 3/19/2023 13:30 | 3/19/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-03-26/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 3/26/2023 13:30 | 3/26/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 12/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i/2023-04-02/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 4/2/2023 13:30 | 4/2/2023 15:30 | ||
| Mutant Ecologies in the Age of Genomic Capital |  The interconnected fields of genomic science, genome editing, and biotechnology have emerged over the past half-century as a revolution in the production of new life forms that have been eagerly adopted by agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and other business sectors. While many – including the Nobel Committee – have heralded this as a “new epoch” of limitless possibilities for positive transformation, In Mutant Ecologies: Manufacturing Life in the Age of Genomic Capital, Erica Borg and Amedeo Policante show how genetic science has been deeply intertwined from its beginning with the raw imperatives of capital accumulation. “Genomic capital,” the authors’ term for the use of genetic materials in industrial production, has literally altered many of life’s metabolic processes in service to capital’s demands. Within a socio-historical context defined by the iron rules of competition and exploitation, capital no longer contents itself with simply appropriating the living bodies of plants and animals but purposefully designs their internal metabolism, and in that way it redesigns the countless living vectors that constitute the global biosphere. This biological revolution will ripple through the everyday lives of people everywhere. Erica and Amedeo will present Mutant Ecologies and Ariel Salleh and Stuart Newman will discuss the book and initiate the conversation.Book available from the publisher, Pluto Press. Erica Borg is a geographer and political ecologist based at King’s College, London. Their research focuses on the relations between capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy and ecological crisis. Amedeo Policante is a Researcher at the Nova University of Lisbon. His writings interrogate the nexus of extraction, exploitation and expropriation that fuels the contemporary world market. He is the author of two books: The Pirate Myth and The New Mercenaries. Ariel Salleh (discussant) is the author of Ecofeminism as Politics and numerous other books and essays on political ecology as an emerging study of humanity-nature relations. Her “embodied materialist” approach emphasizes the centrality of reproductive or regenerative labour in the world system. At present she is Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Humanities, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. Stuart Newman (discussant) is professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College and a leading scientific critic of the use of developmental biology to modify human species identity, including cloning and germline genetic manipulation. Among his numerous books and publications, Stuart is the co-author with Tina Stevens of Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial BioScience. | In their new book Mutant Ecologies: Manufacturing Life in the Age of Genomic Capital, Erica Borg and Amedeo Policante assess recent developments in genomic science, genome editing and the biotech industry, presenting a critical cartography of the shifting landscapes of capital accumulation conjured by such innovations. Discussants: Ariel Salleh and Stuart Newman. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mutant-ecologies-in-the-age-of-genomic-capital/ | Accumulation of Capital|Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Covid-19|Evolutionary biology|Healthcare|Pandemics|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction | 2/4/2023 16:00 | 2/4/2023 18:00 | ||
| Capital’s Terrorists in the Long Nineteenth Century | A video of this January 28, 2023, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. With author Chad E. Pearson In his new book Capital’s Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century, Chad E. Pearson details how US employers at the turn of the twentieth century deployed a variety of tactics to secure their power in and out of workplaces. Through the Ku Klux Klan, Law and Order Leagues, Stockgrowers’ organizations, and Citizens’ Alliances, they applied extralegal repressive techniques – including whippings, kidnappings, drive-out campaigns, incarcerations, arsons, hangings, and shootings – as well as less overtly illegal tactics such as shutting down meetings, barring speakers from lecturing through blacklists, and book burning. Driven by unambiguous economic and managerial interests, the birth of law-and-order politics as we know it can be found in 19th-century campaigns of organized terror against an assortment of ordinary people across racial lines.Book available from online sellers and from the publisher, University of North Carolina Press Chad E. Pearson is a labor historian at the University of North Texas and author of Capital’s Terrorists and Reform or Repression: Organizing America’s Anti-Union Movement. He has published essays in Jacobin, Counterpunch, Monthly Review, and other journals. | In his new book Capital’s Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century, Chad E. Pearson details how US employers at the turn of the twentieth century deployed a variety of tactics to secure their power in and out of workplaces, acting extralegally through the Ku Klux Klan, Law and Order Leagues, Stockgrowers’ organizations, and Citizens’ Alliances, | 12/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capitals-terrorists/ | Capital vs. Labor|Class|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Populism|Repression|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|Syndicalism|Women|Working Class History | 1/28/2023 14:00 | 1/28/2023 18:00 | ||
| Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: ‘The Gardens of Consolation,’ by Parisa Reza; ‘Women Without Men,’ by Shahrnush Parsipur; and ‘Man of My Time,’ by Dalia Sofer. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-seven-novels-by-iranian-women/2023-03-09/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|War Fiction|Women | 1/19/2023 19:00 | 1/19/2023 20:30 | ||
| Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: ‘The Gardens of Consolation,’ by Parisa Reza; ‘Women Without Men,’ by Shahrnush Parsipur; and ‘Man of My Time,’ by Dalia Sofer. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-seven-novels-by-iranian-women/2023-01-26/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|War Fiction|Women | 1/26/2023 19:00 | 1/26/2023 20:30 | ||
| Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: ‘The Gardens of Consolation,’ by Parisa Reza; ‘Women Without Men,’ by Shahrnush Parsipur; and ‘Man of My Time,’ by Dalia Sofer. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-seven-novels-by-iranian-women/2023-02-02/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|War Fiction|Women | 2/2/2023 19:00 | 2/2/2023 20:30 | ||
| Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: ‘The Gardens of Consolation,’ by Parisa Reza; ‘Women Without Men,’ by Shahrnush Parsipur; and ‘Man of My Time,’ by Dalia Sofer. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-seven-novels-by-iranian-women/2023-02-09/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|War Fiction|Women | 2/9/2023 19:00 | 2/9/2023 20:30 | ||
| Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: ‘The Gardens of Consolation,’ by Parisa Reza; ‘Women Without Men,’ by Shahrnush Parsipur; and ‘Man of My Time,’ by Dalia Sofer. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-seven-novels-by-iranian-women/2023-02-16/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|War Fiction|Women | 2/16/2023 19:00 | 2/16/2023 20:30 | ||
| Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: ‘The Gardens of Consolation,’ by Parisa Reza; ‘Women Without Men,’ by Shahrnush Parsipur; and ‘Man of My Time,’ by Dalia Sofer. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-seven-novels-by-iranian-women/2023-02-23/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|War Fiction|Women | 2/23/2023 19:00 | 2/23/2023 20:30 | ||
| Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: ‘The Gardens of Consolation,’ by Parisa Reza; ‘Women Without Men,’ by Shahrnush Parsipur; and ‘Man of My Time,’ by Dalia Sofer. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-seven-novels-by-iranian-women/2023-03-02/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|War Fiction|Women | 3/2/2023 19:00 | 3/2/2023 20:30 | ||
| Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: ‘The Gardens of Consolation,’ by Parisa Reza; ‘Women Without Men,’ by Shahrnush Parsipur; and ‘Man of My Time,’ by Dalia Sofer. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-seven-novels-by-iranian-women/2023-03-09/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Asia|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|War Fiction|Women | 3/9/2023 19:00 | 3/9/2023 20:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-03-22/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 1/18/2023 17:00 | 1/18/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-01-25/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 1/25/2023 17:00 | 1/25/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-02-01/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 2/1/2023 17:00 | 2/1/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-02-08/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 2/8/2023 17:00 | 2/8/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-02-15/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 2/15/2023 17:00 | 2/15/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-02-22/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 2/22/2023 17:00 | 2/22/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-03-01/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 3/1/2023 17:00 | 3/1/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-03-08/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 3/8/2023 17:00 | 3/8/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-03-15/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 3/15/2023 17:00 | 3/15/2023 18:30 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-01-07/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 1/7/2023 11:00 | 1/7/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-01-14/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 1/14/2023 11:00 | 1/14/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-01-21/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 1/21/2023 11:00 | 1/21/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-01-28/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 1/28/2023 11:00 | 1/28/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-02-04/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 2/4/2023 11:00 | 2/4/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-02-11/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 2/11/2023 11:00 | 2/11/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-02-18/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 2/18/2023 11:00 | 2/18/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7-2023-02-25/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 2/25/2023 11:00 | 2/25/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-03-04/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 3/4/2023 11:00 | 3/4/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-03-11/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 3/11/2023 11:00 | 3/11/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-03-18/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 3/18/2023 11:00 | 3/18/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-03-25/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 3/25/2023 11:00 | 3/25/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-04-01/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 4/1/2023 11:00 | 4/1/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-04-08/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 4/8/2023 11:00 | 4/8/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-04-15/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 4/15/2023 11:00 | 4/15/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-04-22/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 4/22/2023 11:00 | 4/22/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-04-29/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 4/29/2023 11:00 | 4/29/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-05-06/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 5/6/2023 11:00 | 5/6/2023 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII | “Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high…” —Karl Marx, Grundrisse Karl Marx developed his foundational thought and research for Capital in the notes of 1857-58, published posthumously as the Grundrisse (approximately translated as “rough draft”). Written during the first global economic crisis but undiscovered for nearly 50 years, only a few copies reached the West from a limited 1939-40 USSR edition. The work was finally published in English in 1973 as Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. “The enormous manuscript should be taken for what it is: a frenetic, and genial, intellectual note-taking…. The Grundrisse can be seen as a veritable ‘laboratory’ in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. It is thus an ideal text for stimulating a discussion about the articulation and development of the Marxian critique of political economy.” —Ricardo Bellofiore et al., In Marx’s Laboratory We meet weekly to conduct a careful, page by page reading of the text, with a view to understanding the concepts that evolve within it. During the winter and spring 2023 we will be reading the final notebook, number VII, which begins with the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” The MEP’s CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP have been reading together for six years. Newcomers are encouraged to join – prior knowledge of Capital and related works is helpful but not required. A complete video archive of prior Grundrisse sessions is available for review by participants. For more information email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | An ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable “laboratory” in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed “Fragment on Machines.” | 4/3/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/grundrisse-notebook7/2023-05-13/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Capital Studies|Crisis|Critical Theory|Grundrisse|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Science and Method|Transition from Capitalism | 5/13/2023 11:00 | 5/13/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-04-16/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 1/22/2023 11:00 | 1/22/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-01-29/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 1/29/2023 11:00 | 1/29/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-02-05/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 2/5/2023 11:00 | 2/5/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-02-12/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 2/12/2023 11:00 | 2/12/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-02-19/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 2/19/2023 11:00 | 2/19/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-02-26/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 2/26/2023 11:00 | 2/26/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-03-05/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 3/5/2023 11:00 | 3/5/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-03-12/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 3/12/2023 11:00 | 3/12/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-03-19/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 3/19/2023 11:00 | 3/19/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-03-26/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 3/26/2023 11:00 | 3/26/2023 13:00 | ||
| Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution | A series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist writings of Mike Davis (1946-2022). Davis’s works spanned urban studies to history, geography to political science, and more. They have become crucial reference points for the production of new knowledge by generations of scholars, artists, and activists. During 10 weekly sessions we will read and discuss key chapters from five of Mike Davis’s books: Planet of Slums, Dead Cities, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Old Gods, New Enigmas. Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight, who have co-led the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group since 2016. | A 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022). | 12/11/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-mike-davis/2023-03-22/ | Africa|Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Asia|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Globalization|Marx|Marxisms|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Pandemics|Political Economy|Precarity|Socialism | 3/22/2023 17:00 | 3/22/2023 18:30 | ||
| Led By Women: The New Opposition to Theocracy in Iran | PLEASE NOTE: EVENT SADLY CANCELLED DUE TO A FAMILY ILLNESS Iranian-American anthropologist Narges Bajoghli discusses the current events in Iran and addresses some of the following questions: Why are young women and young people in general sustaining this mass movement? What is the condition of ethnic minorities (Kurds, Balochs, Turks, Arabs) in Iran today and what is their role in the struggle against theocracy? What is the social condition and political organization of the working class in Iran today, and how do Iranian workers relate to this struggle? What is the prospect for a secular revolution in Iran, and how might that impact the geopolitics of the region? Narges Bajoghli is Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, and co-director of the Rethinking Iran initiative there. She is the author of Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic (Stanford University Press, 2019). | Iranian-American anthropologist Narjes Bajoghli discusses the current events in Iran and addresses some of the following questions: Why are young women and young people in general sustaining this mass movement? What is the condition of ethnic minorities (Kurds, Balochs, Turks, Arabs) in Iran today and what is their role in the struggle against theocracy? What is the social condition and political organization of the working class in Iran today, and how do Iranian workers relate to this struggle? What is the prospect for a secular revolution in Iran, and how might that impact the geopolitics of the region? | 12/30/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=16763 | Asia|Class|Crisis|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|Gender|Hegemony|Insurgency|Modernity|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Organizing|Political Economy|Repression|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|State Formation|Women | 1/21/2023 14:00 | 1/21/2023 16:00 | ||
| Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. Robinson argued that Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents. Analyses of African-American history need to acknowledge this; from the time of the early formation of a world bourgeoisie, to the African diaspora, to the Atlantic slave trade, to the 20th Century. Robinson’s text also addresses the work and legacies of C.L.R. James, W.E.B. Dubois, and Richard Wright in their anticapitalist positions and their contributions to and conflicts with Western Marxism. Convened by William Stroud and Peter Wilson. | This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism. | 10/7/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/cedric-robinsons-black-marxism/2023-01-18/ | Africa|African American History|Anti-colonialism|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Socialism|Working Class History | 1/18/2023 18:00 | 1/18/2023 19:30 | ||
| The New Power Elite: C. Wright Mills Revisited | THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED – new date to be announced
 In The New Power Elite, Heather Gautney offers us a contemporary companion to Mills’s work through a fresh critique for the new millennium. She takes up the problems that Mills addressed and echoes his outrage over the injustices and ruin brought by today’s elites. She grounds her analysis more in political economy than in institutional authority as Mills did. Gautney also accounts for changes in global capitalism over the last forty years, arguing that neoliberalism and the centering of the market in political and social life has ushered in ever more extreme forms of violence and exploitation and a drift toward authoritarianism.Heather Gautney, Associate Professor of Sociology at Fordham University, has authored numerous books and articles on social inequality, U.S. politics, labor, and social movements, and opinion essays for major news outlets. She has served as a senior policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders. (This event was originally scheduled for Wednesday, April 19.) | Due to circumstances beyond our control, this event is postponed. Contact info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com to be notified of the new date when rescheduled. Heather Gautney, author of ‘The New Power Elite,’ offers a contemporary companion to C. Wright Mills’s work through a fresh critique for the new millennium. She takes up the problems that Mills addressed and echoes his outrage over the injustices and ruin brought by today’s elites. | 1/24/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-power-elite/ | Anti-fascism|Capital Studies|Class|Fascism|Financialization|Fordism|Globalization|Hegemony|History|Modernity|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Political Economy|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|State Formation|US History | 4/19/2023 19:00 | 4/19/2023 21:00 | ||
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-01-29/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 1/29/2023 13:00 | 1/29/2023 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-02-05/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 2/5/2023 13:00 | 2/5/2023 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-02-12/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 2/12/2023 13:00 | 2/12/2023 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-02-19/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 2/19/2023 13:00 | 2/19/2023 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-02-26/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 2/26/2023 13:00 | 2/26/2023 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-03-05/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 3/5/2023 13:00 | 3/5/2023 14:30 | |
| Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci | With Piruz AlemiJuxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK. | Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi. | 11/9/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/women-life-freedom-iran-through-gramscis-lens/2023-03-12/ | anti-imperialism|class and gender|counter-hegemony|documentary|film|Gramsci|hegemony|Iran|Marxist Method|nationalism|Revolution | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Asia|Class and Gender|Fascism|Film and television|Classes/Events>Film Screenings|Gender|Hegemony|historical materialism|Insurgency|Marxist Method|Media Criticism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Populism|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Women | 3/12/2023 13:00 | 3/12/2023 14:30 | |
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit |  A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world.It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-05-06/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 3/4/2023 14:00 | 3/4/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-03-11/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 3/11/2023 14:00 | 3/11/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-03-18/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 3/18/2023 14:00 | 3/18/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-03-25/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 3/25/2023 14:00 | 3/25/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-04-01/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 4/1/2023 14:00 | 4/1/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-04-08/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 4/8/2023 14:00 | 4/8/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-04-15/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 4/15/2023 14:00 | 4/15/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-04-22/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 4/22/2023 14:00 | 4/22/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-04-29/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 4/29/2023 14:00 | 4/29/2023 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit | A 10-week course with Alex Steinberg that will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. It has often been said that that Marx “turned Hegel on his head.” In this series we will explore the meaning of that phrase and its implications for those of us who are confronting problems of a world on fire. The problems we face today in this epoch of the decay of capitalism, imperialism, war, a global pandemic, economic crisis, the return of fascism, climate change are unprecedented. This class series is a continuation of the series from the Fall of 2022 where we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. No prior experience with studying Hegel is expected or required. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. To accommodate new students and to re-acquaint continuing students the first sessions will consist of a review in which we will summarize the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the first four chapters, on Sense Certainty, Perception, the Understanding, The Master-Slave Dialectic, and Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019–2021. | A continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time. | 2/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-iii/2023-05-06/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History | 5/6/2023 14:00 | 5/6/2023 16:00 | ||
| Peru: Crisis and Uprising | Banners read, “They all must go! Jail the murderers! Elections now! Not one more death! Out with Dina Boluarte! Down with the racist civil-military dictatorship! Shut down Congress! For a people’s constituent assembly!”A video of this February 22, 2023, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. A deepgoing political crisis is shaking Peru, with massive protests by working people in the countryside and cities, murderous repression by the armed forces and police, and desperate efforts to restore order by a widely hated right-wing Congress and an unelected president, Dina Boluarte. Women and Quechua and Aymara people from the Andean countryside and interior cities are taking a leading role in demanding that Boluarte and the Congress resign and that a democratic constituent assembly be convened to enable a government that represents Peru’s diversity rather than the exploitative, racist elites of Lima. Join us as Peruvian left activist and sociologist Nicolás Lynch reports on and analyzes these dramatic events direct from Lima. Historian Gerardo Rénique moderates and joins the conversation. Nicolás Lynch has published many books and essays on Peruvian politics and history. He has taught at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima and has served as Peru’s Minister of Education and as Ambassador to Argentina. Lynch holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the New School for Social Research. Gerardo Rénique taught Latin American history for many years at the City College of New York. He is a frequent contributor to Socialism and Democracy and NACLA: Report on the Americas. His research interests include the political traditions of popular movements in Latin America, and race, national identity and state formation in Mexico. | A deepgoing political crisis is shaking Peru, with massive protests by working people in the countryside and cities, fierce repression by the armed forces and police, and desperate efforts to restore order by a widely hated right-wing Congress. Peruvian left activist and sociologist Nicolás Lynch reports on and analyzes these dramatic events direct from Lima. Video available at https://youtu.be/Go_iAP7gTII | 2/6/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peru-crisis-and-uprising/ | Crisis|Cultural Resistance|Extractivism|Gender|Indigenous Peoples|Insurgency|Latin America|Left Populism|Neo-fascism|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|Women | 2/22/2023 19:00 | 2/22/2023 21:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-02-14/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 2/14/2023 18:30 | 2/14/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-02-21/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 2/21/2023 18:30 | 2/21/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-02-28/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 2/28/2023 18:30 | 2/28/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-03-07/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 3/7/2023 18:30 | 3/7/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-03-14/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 3/14/2023 18:30 | 3/14/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-03-21/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 3/21/2023 18:30 | 3/21/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-03-28/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 3/28/2023 18:30 | 3/28/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-04-04/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 4/4/2023 18:30 | 4/4/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-04-11/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 4/11/2023 18:30 | 4/11/2023 20:00 | ||
| Towards a Revolution in Labor History | Norfolk, Virginia shipyards, built with chattel bond laborA reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” a text that challenges “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography,” which according to Allen “lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’”In this heretofore unpublished manuscript, Theodore W. Allen, author of the acclaimed The Invention of the White Race, challenges a new generation of labor historians and activists to break from what he described as “The Great White Assumption … the acceptance of the ‘white’ identity of European Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.” Allen maintains that this “assumption” has shaped the field of US labor history since the 19th century and “lies at the root of harmful omissions and distortions of the historical record, which need to be criticized and corrected if the study of labor history is to contribute to the development of class consciousness of the American working class and a viable alternative to the ruinous policies of the ruling class.” We will read Allen’s manuscript along with selections from other works by Allen and other labor historians. Convened with Sean Ahern. Sean was radicalized as an NYC high school student between 1968-1971 and was drawn to activism in labor struggles in the 70s and 80s with the American Postal Workers Union and the Transport Workers. Sean lives on the Lower East Side where he grew up and went to school. Sean met Theodore Allen in 1971, studied with him, and helped to distribute “Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race” (1975), which served as a précis for The Invention of the White Race. | A reading of Theodore W. Allen’s unpublished manuscript, “Towards a Revolution in Labor History,” convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, “the original sin of ‘white’ labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the ‘working class.’” | 8/5/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/towards-a-revolution-in-labor-history/2023-04-18/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 4/18/2023 18:30 | 4/18/2023 20:00 | ||
| Marx Every Month |  All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. We begin on April 20 with Marx’s Wage-Labor and Capital. Please read the text beforehand. We will conclude by choosing the next selection and taking volunteers to lead the next discussion. | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=17194 | Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 4/20/2023 19:00 | 4/20/2023 20:30 | ||
| Marx Every Month | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. We begin on April 20 with Marx’s Wage-Labor and Capital. Please read the text beforehand. We will conclude by choosing the next selection and taking volunteers to lead the next discussion. | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=17206 | Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 5/18/2023 19:00 | 5/18/2023 20:30 | ||
| Marx Every Month | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. We begin on April 20 with Marx’s Wage-Labor and Capital. Please read the text beforehand. We will conclude by choosing the next selection and taking volunteers to lead the next discussion. | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=17207 | Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 6/15/2023 19:00 | 6/15/2023 20:30 | ||
| Marx Every Month | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. We begin on April 20 with Marx’s Wage-Labor and Capital. Please read the text beforehand. We will conclude by choosing the next selection and taking volunteers to lead the next discussion. | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=17208 | Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 7/13/2023 19:00 | 7/13/2023 20:30 | ||
| Marx Every Month | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. We begin on April 20 with Marx’s Wage-Labor and Capital. Please read the text beforehand. We will conclude by choosing the next selection and taking volunteers to lead the next discussion. | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=17209 | Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 8/10/2023 19:00 | 8/10/2023 20:30 | ||
| Marx Every Month | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. We begin on April 20 with Marx’s Wage-Labor and Capital. Please read the text beforehand. We will conclude by choosing the next selection and taking volunteers to lead the next discussion. | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=17210 | Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 9/7/2023 19:00 | 9/7/2023 20:30 | ||
| Marx Every Month | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. We begin on April 20 with Marx’s Wage-Labor and Capital. Please read the text beforehand. We will conclude by choosing the next selection and taking volunteers to lead the next discussion. | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=17211 | Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 10/5/2023 19:00 | 10/5/2023 20:30 | ||
| Marx Every Month | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. We begin on April 20 with Marx’s Wage-Labor and Capital. Please read the text beforehand. We will conclude by choosing the next selection and taking volunteers to lead the next discussion. | All are welcome to these discussions of classic pamphlets, essays, or addresses by Karl Marx on the third Thursday of each month. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=17212 | Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 11/2/2023 19:00 | 11/2/2023 20:30 | ||
| Animals at Work Under Capitalism | A discussion and reading group, moderated by Terike Haapoja, on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. The class is a sequel to the MEP’s 2022 “Animals and Capitalism” sessions, this time with a specific focus on labor. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? What new forms of animal labor are emerging (emotional, reproductive, entertainment…)? How do nonhuman animals rebel against their exploitation, and how might a revolutionary multispecies labor movement take shape? The class will discuss readings on the work of nonhuman animals in the history of capitalism, Marxism and theories of labor, and related topics. We will explore how exploitation of animal bodies of all species is bound up in the overall development of capitalism. (Participation in the 2022 class is not required.) Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. | A discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? | 3/7/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-work-capitalism/2023-05-17/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Food and politics|historical materialism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Socialism | 3/29/2023 12:00 | 3/29/2023 13:30 | ||
| Animals at Work Under Capitalism | A discussion and reading group, moderated by Terike Haapoja, on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. The class is a sequel to the MEP’s 2022 “Animals and Capitalism” sessions, this time with a specific focus on labor. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? What new forms of animal labor are emerging (emotional, reproductive, entertainment…)? How do nonhuman animals rebel against their exploitation, and how might a revolutionary multispecies labor movement take shape? The class will discuss readings on the work of nonhuman animals in the history of capitalism, Marxism and theories of labor, and related topics. We will explore how exploitation of animal bodies of all species is bound up in the overall development of capitalism. (Participation in the 2022 class is not required.) Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. | A discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? | 3/7/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-work-capitalism/2023-04-05/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Food and politics|historical materialism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Socialism | 4/5/2023 12:00 | 4/5/2023 13:30 | ||
| Animals at Work Under Capitalism | A discussion and reading group, moderated by Terike Haapoja, on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. The class is a sequel to the MEP’s 2022 “Animals and Capitalism” sessions, this time with a specific focus on labor. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? What new forms of animal labor are emerging (emotional, reproductive, entertainment…)? How do nonhuman animals rebel against their exploitation, and how might a revolutionary multispecies labor movement take shape? The class will discuss readings on the work of nonhuman animals in the history of capitalism, Marxism and theories of labor, and related topics. We will explore how exploitation of animal bodies of all species is bound up in the overall development of capitalism. (Participation in the 2022 class is not required.) Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. | A discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? | 3/7/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-work-capitalism/2023-04-12/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Food and politics|historical materialism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Socialism | 4/12/2023 12:00 | 4/12/2023 13:30 | ||
| Animals at Work Under Capitalism | A discussion and reading group, moderated by Terike Haapoja, on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. The class is a sequel to the MEP’s 2022 “Animals and Capitalism” sessions, this time with a specific focus on labor. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? What new forms of animal labor are emerging (emotional, reproductive, entertainment…)? How do nonhuman animals rebel against their exploitation, and how might a revolutionary multispecies labor movement take shape? The class will discuss readings on the work of nonhuman animals in the history of capitalism, Marxism and theories of labor, and related topics. We will explore how exploitation of animal bodies of all species is bound up in the overall development of capitalism. (Participation in the 2022 class is not required.) Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. | A discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? | 3/7/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-work-capitalism/2023-04-19/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Food and politics|historical materialism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Socialism | 4/19/2023 12:00 | 4/19/2023 13:30 | ||
| Animals at Work Under Capitalism | A discussion and reading group, moderated by Terike Haapoja, on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. The class is a sequel to the MEP’s 2022 “Animals and Capitalism” sessions, this time with a specific focus on labor. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? What new forms of animal labor are emerging (emotional, reproductive, entertainment…)? How do nonhuman animals rebel against their exploitation, and how might a revolutionary multispecies labor movement take shape? The class will discuss readings on the work of nonhuman animals in the history of capitalism, Marxism and theories of labor, and related topics. We will explore how exploitation of animal bodies of all species is bound up in the overall development of capitalism. (Participation in the 2022 class is not required.) Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. | A discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? | 3/7/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-work-capitalism/2023-04-26/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Food and politics|historical materialism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Socialism | 4/26/2023 12:00 | 4/26/2023 13:30 | ||
| Animals at Work Under Capitalism | A discussion and reading group, moderated by Terike Haapoja, on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. The class is a sequel to the MEP’s 2022 “Animals and Capitalism” sessions, this time with a specific focus on labor. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? What new forms of animal labor are emerging (emotional, reproductive, entertainment…)? How do nonhuman animals rebel against their exploitation, and how might a revolutionary multispecies labor movement take shape? The class will discuss readings on the work of nonhuman animals in the history of capitalism, Marxism and theories of labor, and related topics. We will explore how exploitation of animal bodies of all species is bound up in the overall development of capitalism. (Participation in the 2022 class is not required.) Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. | A discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? | 3/7/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-work-capitalism/2023-05-03/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Food and politics|historical materialism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Socialism | 5/3/2023 12:00 | 5/3/2023 13:30 | ||
| Animals at Work Under Capitalism | A discussion and reading group, moderated by Terike Haapoja, on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. The class is a sequel to the MEP’s 2022 “Animals and Capitalism” sessions, this time with a specific focus on labor. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? What new forms of animal labor are emerging (emotional, reproductive, entertainment…)? How do nonhuman animals rebel against their exploitation, and how might a revolutionary multispecies labor movement take shape? The class will discuss readings on the work of nonhuman animals in the history of capitalism, Marxism and theories of labor, and related topics. We will explore how exploitation of animal bodies of all species is bound up in the overall development of capitalism. (Participation in the 2022 class is not required.) Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. | A discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? | 3/7/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-work-capitalism/2023-05-10/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Food and politics|historical materialism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Socialism | 5/10/2023 12:00 | 5/10/2023 13:30 | ||
| Animals at Work Under Capitalism | A discussion and reading group, moderated by Terike Haapoja, on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. The class is a sequel to the MEP’s 2022 “Animals and Capitalism” sessions, this time with a specific focus on labor. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? What new forms of animal labor are emerging (emotional, reproductive, entertainment…)? How do nonhuman animals rebel against their exploitation, and how might a revolutionary multispecies labor movement take shape? The class will discuss readings on the work of nonhuman animals in the history of capitalism, Marxism and theories of labor, and related topics. We will explore how exploitation of animal bodies of all species is bound up in the overall development of capitalism. (Participation in the 2022 class is not required.) Terike Haapoja is a visual artist based in New York. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installations, videos, writings and collaborative projects that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world; mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; and the possibility of political multispecies alliances. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts and New York University. | A discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines? | 3/7/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-work-capitalism/2023-05-17/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Food and politics|historical materialism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Socialism | 5/17/2023 12:00 | 5/17/2023 13:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-02-13/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 2/13/2023 17:00 | 2/13/2023 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-02-20/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 2/20/2023 17:00 | 2/20/2023 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-02-27/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 2/27/2023 17:00 | 2/27/2023 18:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 12/1/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-03-06/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 3/6/2023 17:00 | 3/6/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-04-02/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 4/2/2023 11:00 | 4/2/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile | At Karl Marx’s burial, his lifelong friend Frederick Engels said that he was “above all, a revolutionist.” Yet, after 150 years, his critique of political economy is arguably better understood and respected than his political theory of working-class revolution. This is ironic since Marx intended his critique of capitalist economies to be the intellectual buttress for his theory of revolution. Marx never wrote a work on political theory comparable to Capital. Perhaps because of this, his ideas about the state, governments, political struggles, and social revolutions have been propounded and interpreted in many ways by many different parties. This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. That class has the power, by abolishing itself, to usher in a society beyond class exploitation. The primary text is the anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings, three volumes in one, recently published by Verso. This group began in fall 2022 and completed part 1 of the text, covering the Communist Manifesto and Marx’s commentary on the 1848 revolutions in Europe as they unfolded. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology ‘Karl Marx: The Political Writings,’ recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the “Surveys From Exile” section, which begins with “The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850” and takes us through Marx’s articles on the Civil War in the United States. | 12/20/2022 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-political-writings-of-marx-and-engels-part-ii-surveys-from-exile/2023-04-16/ | Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|communism|Crisis|Emancipation|Engels|England|France|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|State Formation|US History|Working Class History | 4/16/2023 11:00 | 4/16/2023 13:00 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-05-15/ | sf/vf | Class | 3/13/2023 17:00 | 3/13/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Paris Commune: A New History | A video of this March 13, 2023, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Carolyn J. Eichner and Mitch Abidor discuss Eichner’s new book, The Paris Commune: A Brief History. Her compelling account “makes a complicated event understandable and vivid. Eichner’s rich portraits bring to life the freedom and empowerment the Communards experienced, juxtaposed with the bloody repression of its final days.” (Sarah Fishman, author of From Vichy to the Sexual Revolution: Gender and Family Life in Postwar France) At dawn on March 18, 1871, Parisian women stepped between cannons and French soldiers, using their bodies to block the army from taking the artillery from their working-class neighborhood. When ordered to fire, the troops refused and instead turned and arrested their leaders. Thus began the Paris Commune, a 72-day conflict that ended with the ferocious slaughter of communards by French troops. The Commune stands as a critical and pivotal moment in nineteenth-century history, as the linchpin between revolutionary pasts and futures, and as a crucible allowing glimpses of alternate possibilities. Upending hierarchies of class, religion, and gender, the Commune emerged as a touchstone for the subsequent century-and-a-half of revolutionary and radical social movements.  Carolyn J. Eichner teaches in the Departments of History and Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Her books include Surmounting the Barricades: Women in the Paris Commune and Feminism’s Empire.Mitch Abidor is the editor and translator of Voices of the Paris Commune and Communards. A contributing writer for Jewish Currents, his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Dissent, and many other publications. The Paris Commune: A Brief History is available from Rutgers University Press. | Carolyn J. Eichner and Mitch Abidor discuss Eichner’s new history of the Paris Commune. Her compelling account “makes a complicated event understandable and vivid. Eichner’s rich portraits bring to life the freedom and empowerment the Communards experienced, juxtaposed with the bloody repression of its final days.” (Sarah Fishman) | 3/13/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-paris-commune-a-new-history/ | Anarchism|Capital vs. Labor|Class|communism|France|French Revolution|History|Modernity|Repression|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Women|Working Class History | 4/8/2023 13:00 | 4/8/2023 15:00 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks |  In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work.Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-09-17/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 4/22/2023 11:00 | 4/22/2023 12:30 | ||
| Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-ii/2023-05-18/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Poetry|Radical Literature|Repression|Revolutions|Social Reproduction|War Fiction|Women | 3/30/2023 19:00 | 3/30/2023 21:00 | ||
| Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-ii/2023-04-06/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Poetry|Radical Literature|Repression|Revolutions|Social Reproduction|War Fiction|Women | 4/6/2023 19:00 | 4/6/2023 21:00 | ||
| Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-ii/2023-04-13/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Poetry|Radical Literature|Repression|Revolutions|Social Reproduction|War Fiction|Women | 4/13/2023 19:00 | 4/13/2023 21:00 | ||
| Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-ii/2023-04-20/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Poetry|Radical Literature|Repression|Revolutions|Social Reproduction|War Fiction|Women | 4/20/2023 19:00 | 4/20/2023 21:00 | ||
| Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-ii/2023-04-27/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Poetry|Radical Literature|Repression|Revolutions|Social Reproduction|War Fiction|Women | 4/27/2023 19:00 | 4/27/2023 21:00 | ||
| Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-ii/2023-05-04/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Poetry|Radical Literature|Repression|Revolutions|Social Reproduction|War Fiction|Women | 5/4/2023 19:00 | 5/4/2023 21:00 | ||
| Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-ii/2023-05-11/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Poetry|Radical Literature|Repression|Revolutions|Social Reproduction|War Fiction|Women | 5/11/2023 19:00 | 5/11/2023 21:00 | ||
| Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women | I speak from the deep end of night. | The spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/iran-awakening-ii/2023-05-18/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Gender|Literature|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Poetry|Radical Literature|Repression|Revolutions|Social Reproduction|War Fiction|Women | 5/18/2023 19:00 | 5/18/2023 21:00 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-06-18/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 4/16/2023 13:30 | 4/16/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-04-23/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 4/23/2023 13:30 | 4/23/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-04-30/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 4/30/2023 13:30 | 4/30/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-05-07/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 5/7/2023 13:30 | 5/7/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-05-14/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 5/14/2023 13:30 | 5/14/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-05-21/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 5/21/2023 13:30 | 5/21/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-05-28/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 5/28/2023 13:30 | 5/28/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-06-04/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 6/4/2023 13:30 | 6/4/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-06-11/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 6/11/2023 13:30 | 6/11/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (second series) | Covering Parts III and IV of Capital, volume 1Join us in a close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital – already in progress – guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This spring, we are reading Parts III and IV, on the production of absolute and relative surplus value. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel.Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Second series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 3 and 4 of Capital I, on the production of absolute and relative surplus-value. | 3/28/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-i-series2/2023-06-18/ | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Precarity|Social Reproduction | 6/18/2023 13:30 | 6/18/2023 15:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-06-25/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 4/23/2023 11:00 | 4/23/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-04-30/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 4/30/2023 11:00 | 4/30/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-05-07/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 5/7/2023 11:00 | 5/7/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-05-14/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 5/14/2023 11:00 | 5/14/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-05-21/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 5/21/2023 11:00 | 5/21/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-05-28/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 5/28/2023 11:00 | 5/28/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-06-04/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 6/4/2023 11:00 | 6/4/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-06-11/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 6/11/2023 11:00 | 6/11/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-06-18/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 6/18/2023 11:00 | 6/18/2023 12:30 | ||
| Political Writings of Marx and Engels III | This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online. Moderated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of The Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | Discussion of texts by Marx and Engels on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program. | 4/2/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-writings-iii/2023-06-25/ | Anarchism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|China|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|communism|Engels|England|France|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|State Formation|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 6/25/2023 11:00 | 6/25/2023 12:30 | ||
| Arise! The Mexican Revolution’s Global Impact | With Author Christina Heatherton The Mexican Revolution was a global event that catalyzed international radicals in unexpected sites and struggles. Christina Heatherton’s book Arise! Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution reveals how activists around the world found inspiration and solidarity in revolutionary Mexico. Heatherton traces the paths of Black American artist Elizabeth Catlett, Indian anti-colonial activist M.N. Roy, Mexican revolutionary leader Ricardo Flores Magón, Okinawan migrant organizer Paul Shinsei Kōchi, Soviet feminist Alexandra Kollontai, and other key figures. From art collectives and farm worker strikes to prison “universities,” Arise! reconstructs how radical organizers found new ways to fight global capitalism and forge an anti-racist internationalism from below.Christina Heatherton is the Elting Associate Professor of American Studies and Human Rights at Trinity College. With Jordan T. Camp she edited Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter and Freedom Now! Struggles for the Human Right to Housing in LA and Beyond. She currently codirects the Trinity Social Justice Initiative and is co-host and co-producer of the SJI’s podcast Conjuncture. Arise! is available from the publisher, University of California Press. | The Mexican Revolution catalyzed international radicals in unexpected sites and struggles. Christina Heatherton’s book Arise! reveals how activists around the world found inspiration and solidarity in revolutionary Mexico. | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/arise-mexican-revolution/ | American Imperialism|Anti-capitalist art|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-colonialism|Art and politics|Bolshevism|Capital vs. Labor|Colonialism|communism|Cultural Resistance|Globalization|History|Indigenous Peoples|Insurgency|Labor History|Latin America|Mexican Revolution|Modernity|Revolutions|Russian Revolution|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|Women|Working Class History | 4/26/2023 19:00 | 4/26/2023 21:00 | ||
| Worn Out: Retail Workers vs. Digital Surveillance | A video of this April 29, 2023, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel.With Author Madison Van Oort Beneath the success of fast fashion, a grimmer story is told by Madison Van Oort in Worn Out: How Retailers Surveil and Exploit Workers in the Digital Age and How Workers Are Fighting Back. Going undercover in two of the world’s largest fast fashion stores in New York City, she observed firsthand how data and surveillance shape the lives of the people who do the actual producing and selling. Van Oort’s interviews with dozens of front line workers and labor activists show how workers are fighting back, and her research exposes the exploitative reality of retail labor as digital tools lubricate the shift toward just-in-time retail by collecting real-time data on not only customer behavior but also worker performance. Automated scheduling platforms, biometric time clocks, and cashier metrics increase these workers’ already heightened insecurity. One of the first ethnographies of this “thriving” industry, Worn Out pulls open the curtain between production and consumption and reveals the real cost of fast fashion.Madison Van Oort is a researcher based in Minneapolis. She received her PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2018, and her academic writing has appeared in the journals Critical Sociology, Ethnography, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society as well as the anthology Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life. Worn Out is her first book. Worn Out is available from the publisher, MIT Press. | Beneath the success of fast fashion, a grimmer story is told by Madison Van Oort in Worn Out: How Retailers Surveil and Exploit Workers in the Digital Age and How Workers Are Fighting Back. Going undercover in two of the world’s largest fast fashion stores in New York City, she observed firsthand how data and surveillance shape the lives of the people who do the actual producing and selling. | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/worn-out/ | Alienation|Artificial Intelligence AI|automation|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Organizing|Precarity|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|Women | 4/29/2023 14:00 | 4/29/2023 16:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction |  A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.”In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023/2023-06-13/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 4/25/2023 18:30 | 4/25/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023/2023-05-02/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 5/2/2023 18:30 | 5/2/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023/2023-05-09/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 5/9/2023 18:30 | 5/9/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023/2023-05-16/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 5/16/2023 18:30 | 5/16/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023/2023-05-23/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 5/23/2023 18:30 | 5/23/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023/2023-05-30/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 5/30/2023 18:30 | 5/30/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023/2023-06-06/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 6/6/2023 18:30 | 6/6/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023/2023-06-13/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 6/13/2023 18:30 | 6/13/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction in America. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” In a 1968 speech Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Black Reconstruction as “a monumental achievement … White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.” Sean Ahern is a long-time New York City labor activist and anti-racist fighter. He has worked as a labor organizer in the US Postal Service, the transit industry, and education. | A close reading over 10 weeks of W.E.B. Du Bois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, with Sean Ahern. The book provides a basis for a much overdue revolution in US labor history. As Du Bois so eloquently and bluntly put in in 1935: “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see again for many decades. Yet, the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” | 4/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-reconstruction-2023-2023-06-20/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Crisis|Du Bois|Emancipation|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Migration|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|US History|Working Class History | 6/19/2023 18:30 | 6/19/2023 20:00 | ||
| Reading Marx in the Anthropocene |  An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with side glances at Saito’s critics and further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” Saito’s book, says Gareth Dale, offers us “the next step in a transformation of our understanding of ‘Marx’s ecology.’ For his Marx, human society arises from nature: it is simultaneously of it and against it, in that humans are conscious of their relationship to nature and consciously shape it, in a relationship that develops historically. The term that captures this is metabolism, referring to humanity’s interaction with nature through social labor—a relationship that becomes increasingly riven the more it is subsumed under capital.” Through a close examination of Marx’s unpublished notes on natural science and anthropology from the 1870s, Saito uncovers Marx’s late recognition that the productive forces “do not automatically prepare the material foundation for new post-capitalist society but rather exacerbate the robbery of nature.” Thus he presents us with a Marx who in his final years was effectively advocating “degrowth communism.”Facilitated by Fred Murphy, who has led numerous MEP study groups on Marxism, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American history and politics. | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with some side glances at some of Saito’s critics and at further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” | 4/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-anthropocene/2023-06-27/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Ecosocialism|Engels|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 5/9/2023 13:00 | 5/9/2023 14:30 | ||
| The Fallout of War: Chronologies of Conflict | A video of this May 6, 2023, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureFirst of two parts. Part Two War: what is it, and what is it good for? War might seem like a foregone conclusion or a state of exception; in either case it is an archetype of crisis. In two linked sessions, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture presents their collective research on a keyword of contemporary cultural studies – war – and investigates its many valences as lived reality and as metaphor. Trade wars can become militarized, and hot wars can look cold, depending on your vantage point. The race war, Twitter tells us, is impending; but in an age of US forever war(s), understanding war as punctuating the flow of history seems to be entirely insufficient. War is, some argue, a way of life, a structuring condition that shapes our examinations of the history of the present. The war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on COVID, the war on Christmas – war is also a ubiquitous metaphor, a self-righteous idiom that announces moral panic and articulates racial logic in otherwise terms. But metaphors of war have also influenced various radical traditions and social movements, including anti-war activism and Gramsci’s deployment of metaphors of war in his theorizing of hegemony. Taking account of war as constitutive of the present, the working group explores war’s meanings as event, analytic, and metaphor. Panel I Presentations: Damanpreet Pelia reflects on teaching “civil wars” both as metaphor and historical event, the usefulness of reading old texts, and the problem of making sense of the present in the classroom. Michael Denning reviews Marxist theories of war, developing an account of capitalist conscription and imperial wars. Lucero Estrella thinks comparatively about Japanese-Mexicans and Japanese-Americans on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border during World War II. Jessica Marion Modi thinks through the metaphorics of war in black poetry following World War II, theorizing the “off-rhyme situation,” as poet Gwendolyn Brooks called it, of a postwar atomic age and slowly decolonizing world in which black Americans had fought for democracy abroad without the provision of it at home. Salonee Bhaman writes on the “Culture Wars” from the rise if the New Right to the “Witch Hunts” of the present day. Marú Pabón chairs this panel. The Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture is an interdisciplinary cultural studies laboratory that has been practicing collective research at Yale University for two decades. Over the years, we have presented work collaboratively at numerous cultural studies conferences as well as at the Marxist Education Project, the Left Forum, Occupy Boston, and the World Social Forum. Past projects have been published as “Going into Debt,” online in Social Text’s Periscope, and as “Spaces and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology; a collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” appeared in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. The current members—Aanchal Saraf, Damanpreet Pelia, Javier Porras Madero, Jessica Marion Modi, Lucero Estrella, Madeleine Han, Maru Pabón, Michael Denning, Monique Flores Ulysses, and Salonee Bhaman—work in American studies, history, Latinx studies, literary criticism, African-American studies, Asian American studies, comparative literature, and womens, gender and sexuality studies. | In the first of two linked sessions, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture presents their collective research on a keyword of contemporary cultural studies – war – and investigates its many valences as lived reality and as metaphor. Taking account of war as constitutive of the present, the working group explores war’s myriad meanings. | 4/21/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/wggc2023-1/ | American Imperialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Colonialism|Globalization|History|Indigenous Peoples|Insurgency|Latin America|Marx|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|State Formation|War | 5/6/2023 14:00 | 5/6/2023 17:00 | ||
| The Fallout of War: Metonyms of Militarism | A video of this May 13, 2023, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel.Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureSecond of two parts. Part One War: what is it, and what is it good for? War might seem like a foregone conclusion or a state of exception; in either case it is an archetype of crisis. In two linked sessions, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture presents their collective research on a keyword of contemporary cultural studies – war – and investigates its many valences as lived reality and as metaphor. Trade wars can become militarized, and hot wars can look cold, depending on your vantage point. The race war, Twitter tells us, is impending; but in an age of US forever war(s), understanding war as punctuating the flow of history seems to be entirely insufficient. War is, some argue, a way of life, a structuring condition that shapes our examinations of the history of the present. The war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on COVID, the war on Christmas – war is also a ubiquitous metaphor, a self-righteous idiom that announces moral panic and articulates racial logic in otherwise terms. But metaphors of war have also influenced various radical traditions and social movements, including anti-war activism and Gramsci’s deployment of metaphors of war in his theorizing of hegemony. Taking account of war as constitutive of the present, the working group explores war’s meanings as event, analytic, and metaphor. Panel II Presentations: Aanchal Saraf theorizes nuclear fallout in the Pacific as war itself moving through the landscapes, bodies, and generations of the Marshall Islands and its peoples. Javier Porras Madero explores “Dirty Wars” in Latin America for their classed, raced, and gendered dimensions as well as their implications for how we may understand conflict, violence, and the global Cold War. Madeleine Han’s presentation focuses on the Han River both as the face of South Korean postwar economic development (referred to as the “Miracle on the Han”) and as a repository of submerged cold war memories. Maru Pabón examines the dominant genres and styles of two poetic projects that emerged out of anticolonial/anti-imperial struggles in Palestine and Cuba, shiʿr al-muqawama and coloquialismo, in relation to the distinct temporalities of the two conflicts. Monique Flores Ulysses considers U.S. cultural texts seemingly disconnected from war but nonetheless imbricated in war-making during the early years of the Global War on Terror. Michael Denning chairs this panel. The Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture is an interdisciplinary cultural studies laboratory that has been practicing collective research at Yale University for two decades. Over the years, we have presented work collaboratively at numerous cultural studies conferences as well as at the Marxist Education Project, the Left Forum, Occupy Boston, and the World Social Forum. Past projects have been published as “Going into Debt,” online in Social Text’s Periscope, and as “Spaces and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology; a collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” appeared in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. The current members—Aanchal Saraf, Damanpreet Pelia, Javier Porras Madero, Jessica Marion Modi, Lucero Estrella, Madeleine Han, Maru Pabón, Michael Denning, Monique Flores Ulysses, and Salonee Bhaman—work in American studies, history, Latinx studies, literary criticism, African-American studies, Asian American studies, comparative literature, and womens, gender and sexuality studies. | Video available at https://youtu.be/h0dYxI2zDoY In the second of two linked sessions, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture presents their collective research on a keyword of contemporary cultural studies – war – and investigates its many valences as lived reality and as metaphor. Taking account of war as constitutive of the present, the working group explores war’s myriad meanings. | 4/21/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/wggc2023-2/ | African American History|American Imperialism|American Literature|Anti-colonialism|Art and politics|Asia|Caribbean Studies|Class|Colonialism|Globalization|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Poetry|Political Economy|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|State Formation|War|War Fiction|Working Class History | 5/13/2023 14:00 | 5/13/2023 17:00 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-03-20/ | sf/vf | Class | 3/20/2023 17:00 | 3/20/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-03-27/ | sf/vf | Class | 3/27/2023 17:00 | 3/27/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-04-03/ | sf/vf | Class | 4/3/2023 17:00 | 4/3/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-04-10/ | sf/vf | Class | 4/10/2023 17:00 | 4/10/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-04-17/ | sf/vf | Class | 4/17/2023 17:00 | 4/17/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-04-24/ | sf/vf | Class | 4/24/2023 17:00 | 4/24/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-05-01/ | sf/vf | Class | 5/1/2023 17:00 | 5/1/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-05-08/ | sf/vf | Class | 5/8/2023 17:00 | 5/8/2023 18:30 | ||
| The Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time.
All three create and adapt new worlds to explore themes of existential species and environmental survival. All three awaken us to the political stakes of communication and conflict across social systems. And finally, all three invite us to perceive otherness deeply and act strategically. Our readings and discussion do not depend on a science fiction background–just the desire we all share to envision the and how to get there. | 3/10/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/politics-of-theother-new-visionary-fiction/2023-05-15/ | sf/vf | Class | 5/15/2023 17:00 | 5/15/2023 18:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-04-23/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 4/23/2023 11:00 | 4/23/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-04-30/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 4/30/2023 11:00 | 4/30/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-05-07/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 5/7/2023 11:00 | 5/7/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-05-14/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 5/14/2023 11:00 | 5/14/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-05-21/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 5/21/2023 11:00 | 5/21/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-05-28/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 5/28/2023 11:00 | 5/28/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-06-04/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 6/4/2023 11:00 | 6/4/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-06-11/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 6/11/2023 11:00 | 6/11/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome to join. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 3/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/gramsci-prison-notebooks/2023-06-18/ | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 6/18/2023 11:00 | 6/18/2023 12:30 | ||
| Reading Marx in the Anthropocene | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with side glances at Saito’s critics and further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” Saito’s book, says Gareth Dale, offers us “the next step in a transformation of our understanding of ‘Marx’s ecology.’ For his Marx, human society arises from nature: it is simultaneously of it and against it, in that humans are conscious of their relationship to nature and consciously shape it, in a relationship that develops historically. The term that captures this is metabolism, referring to humanity’s interaction with nature through social labor—a relationship that becomes increasingly riven the more it is subsumed under capital.” Through a close examination of Marx’s unpublished notes on natural science and anthropology from the 1870s, Saito uncovers Marx’s late recognition that the productive forces “do not automatically prepare the material foundation for new post-capitalist society but rather exacerbate the robbery of nature.” Thus he presents us with a Marx who in his final years was effectively advocating “degrowth communism.” Facilitated by Fred Murphy, who has led numerous MEP study groups on Marxism, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American history and politics. | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with some side glances at some of Saito’s critics and at further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” | 4/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-anthropocene/2023-05-16/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Ecosocialism|Engels|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 5/16/2023 13:00 | 5/16/2023 14:30 | ||
| Reading Marx in the Anthropocene | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with side glances at Saito’s critics and further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” Saito’s book, says Gareth Dale, offers us “the next step in a transformation of our understanding of ‘Marx’s ecology.’ For his Marx, human society arises from nature: it is simultaneously of it and against it, in that humans are conscious of their relationship to nature and consciously shape it, in a relationship that develops historically. The term that captures this is metabolism, referring to humanity’s interaction with nature through social labor—a relationship that becomes increasingly riven the more it is subsumed under capital.” Through a close examination of Marx’s unpublished notes on natural science and anthropology from the 1870s, Saito uncovers Marx’s late recognition that the productive forces “do not automatically prepare the material foundation for new post-capitalist society but rather exacerbate the robbery of nature.” Thus he presents us with a Marx who in his final years was effectively advocating “degrowth communism.” Facilitated by Fred Murphy, who has led numerous MEP study groups on Marxism, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American history and politics. | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with some side glances at some of Saito’s critics and at further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” | 4/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-anthropocene/2023-05-23/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Ecosocialism|Engels|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 5/23/2023 13:00 | 5/23/2023 14:30 | ||
| Reading Marx in the Anthropocene | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with side glances at Saito’s critics and further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” Saito’s book, says Gareth Dale, offers us “the next step in a transformation of our understanding of ‘Marx’s ecology.’ For his Marx, human society arises from nature: it is simultaneously of it and against it, in that humans are conscious of their relationship to nature and consciously shape it, in a relationship that develops historically. The term that captures this is metabolism, referring to humanity’s interaction with nature through social labor—a relationship that becomes increasingly riven the more it is subsumed under capital.” Through a close examination of Marx’s unpublished notes on natural science and anthropology from the 1870s, Saito uncovers Marx’s late recognition that the productive forces “do not automatically prepare the material foundation for new post-capitalist society but rather exacerbate the robbery of nature.” Thus he presents us with a Marx who in his final years was effectively advocating “degrowth communism.” Facilitated by Fred Murphy, who has led numerous MEP study groups on Marxism, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American history and politics. | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with some side glances at some of Saito’s critics and at further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” | 4/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-anthropocene/2023-05-30/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Ecosocialism|Engels|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 5/30/2023 13:00 | 5/30/2023 14:30 | ||
| Reading Marx in the Anthropocene | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with side glances at Saito’s critics and further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” Saito’s book, says Gareth Dale, offers us “the next step in a transformation of our understanding of ‘Marx’s ecology.’ For his Marx, human society arises from nature: it is simultaneously of it and against it, in that humans are conscious of their relationship to nature and consciously shape it, in a relationship that develops historically. The term that captures this is metabolism, referring to humanity’s interaction with nature through social labor—a relationship that becomes increasingly riven the more it is subsumed under capital.” Through a close examination of Marx’s unpublished notes on natural science and anthropology from the 1870s, Saito uncovers Marx’s late recognition that the productive forces “do not automatically prepare the material foundation for new post-capitalist society but rather exacerbate the robbery of nature.” Thus he presents us with a Marx who in his final years was effectively advocating “degrowth communism.” Facilitated by Fred Murphy, who has led numerous MEP study groups on Marxism, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American history and politics. | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with some side glances at some of Saito’s critics and at further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” | 4/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-anthropocene/2023-06-06/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Ecosocialism|Engels|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 6/6/2023 13:00 | 6/6/2023 14:30 | ||
| Reading Marx in the Anthropocene | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with side glances at Saito’s critics and further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” Saito’s book, says Gareth Dale, offers us “the next step in a transformation of our understanding of ‘Marx’s ecology.’ For his Marx, human society arises from nature: it is simultaneously of it and against it, in that humans are conscious of their relationship to nature and consciously shape it, in a relationship that develops historically. The term that captures this is metabolism, referring to humanity’s interaction with nature through social labor—a relationship that becomes increasingly riven the more it is subsumed under capital.” Through a close examination of Marx’s unpublished notes on natural science and anthropology from the 1870s, Saito uncovers Marx’s late recognition that the productive forces “do not automatically prepare the material foundation for new post-capitalist society but rather exacerbate the robbery of nature.” Thus he presents us with a Marx who in his final years was effectively advocating “degrowth communism.” Facilitated by Fred Murphy, who has led numerous MEP study groups on Marxism, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American history and politics. | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with some side glances at some of Saito’s critics and at further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” | 4/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-anthropocene/2023-06-13/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Ecosocialism|Engels|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 6/13/2023 13:00 | 6/13/2023 14:30 | ||
| Reading Marx in the Anthropocene | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with side glances at Saito’s critics and further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” Saito’s book, says Gareth Dale, offers us “the next step in a transformation of our understanding of ‘Marx’s ecology.’ For his Marx, human society arises from nature: it is simultaneously of it and against it, in that humans are conscious of their relationship to nature and consciously shape it, in a relationship that develops historically. The term that captures this is metabolism, referring to humanity’s interaction with nature through social labor—a relationship that becomes increasingly riven the more it is subsumed under capital.” Through a close examination of Marx’s unpublished notes on natural science and anthropology from the 1870s, Saito uncovers Marx’s late recognition that the productive forces “do not automatically prepare the material foundation for new post-capitalist society but rather exacerbate the robbery of nature.” Thus he presents us with a Marx who in his final years was effectively advocating “degrowth communism.” Facilitated by Fred Murphy, who has led numerous MEP study groups on Marxism, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American history and politics. | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with some side glances at some of Saito’s critics and at further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” | 4/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-anthropocene/2023-06-20/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Ecosocialism|Engels|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 6/20/2023 13:00 | 6/20/2023 14:30 | ||
| Reading Marx in the Anthropocene | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with side glances at Saito’s critics and further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” Saito’s book, says Gareth Dale, offers us “the next step in a transformation of our understanding of ‘Marx’s ecology.’ For his Marx, human society arises from nature: it is simultaneously of it and against it, in that humans are conscious of their relationship to nature and consciously shape it, in a relationship that develops historically. The term that captures this is metabolism, referring to humanity’s interaction with nature through social labor—a relationship that becomes increasingly riven the more it is subsumed under capital.” Through a close examination of Marx’s unpublished notes on natural science and anthropology from the 1870s, Saito uncovers Marx’s late recognition that the productive forces “do not automatically prepare the material foundation for new post-capitalist society but rather exacerbate the robbery of nature.” Thus he presents us with a Marx who in his final years was effectively advocating “degrowth communism.” Facilitated by Fred Murphy, who has led numerous MEP study groups on Marxism, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American history and politics. | An eight-week reading group centered on Kohei Saito’s newly published Marx in the Anthropocene: Toward the Idea of Degrowth Communism, with some side glances at some of Saito’s critics and at further elaborations of the notion of “degrowth communism.” | 4/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-anthropocene/2023-06-27/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Climate Change|Colonialism|communism|Ecosocialism|Engels|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Mészáros|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism | 6/27/2023 13:00 | 6/27/2023 14:30 | ||
| ‘The Man Who Changed Colors’ | With Bill Fletcher Jr, activist/author/crime novelist When a dockworker falls to his death under strange circumstances, investigative journalist David Gomes is on the case. His dogged pursuit of the truth puts his life in danger and upends the scrappy Cape Cod newspaper he works for. The Man Who Changed Colors delves into the complicated relationships between Cape Verdean Americans and African Americans, Portuguese fascist gangs, and abusive shipyard working conditions.“Bill Fletcher is a truth seeker and a truth teller – even when he’s writing fiction. Not unlike Bill, his character David Gomes is willing to put his life and career in peril to expose the truth. A thrilling read!” – Tavis Smiley, broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author  Bill Fletcher Jr has been an activist since his teen years. He has been active in workplace and community struggles and in electoral campaigns. He has worked for several labor unions in addition to serving as a senior staff person in the national AFL-CIO. Fletcher is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies and the former president of TransAfrica Forum. His books include a previous David Gomes story, The Man Who Fell From the Sky, and nonfiction works The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941 (with Peter Agard); Solidarity Divided (with Dr. Fernando Gapasin), and ‘They’re Bankrupting Us’ and Twenty Other Myths About Unions. Fletcher is a syndicated columnist and a regular media commentator on television, radio and the Web.Book available from Hardball Press. | Video available at https://youtu.be/ABOczzUs8nQ Bill Fletcher Jr’s ‘The Man Who Changed Colors’ delves into the complicated relationships between Cape Verdean Americans and African Americans, Portuguese fascist gangs, and abusive shipyard working conditions. When a dockworker falls to his death under strange circumstances, investigative journalist David Gomes is on the case. His dogged pursuit of the truth puts his life in danger and upends the scrappy Cape Cod newspaper he works for. | 5/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-man-who-changed-colors/ | African American History|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Colonialism|Cultural Resistance|Globalization|History|Labor Organizing|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Migration|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|US History | 6/3/2023 14:00 | 6/3/2023 16:00 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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, she has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-08-24/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 6/29/2023 19:00 | 6/29/2023 20:30 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-07-06/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 7/6/2023 19:00 | 7/6/2023 20:30 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-07-13/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 7/13/2023 19:00 | 7/13/2023 20:30 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-07-20/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 7/20/2023 19:00 | 7/20/2023 20:30 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-07-27/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 7/27/2023 19:00 | 7/27/2023 20:30 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-08-03/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 8/3/2023 19:00 | 8/3/2023 20:30 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-08-10/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 8/10/2023 19:00 | 8/10/2023 20:30 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-08-17/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 8/17/2023 19:00 | 8/17/2023 20:30 | ||
| Summertime … and the Living Ain’t Easy: Black Noir | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Black writers – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. “Mystery fiction written by Black authors is, not surprisingly, often very different from work in that broadly defined genre written by white writers.” –Black Noir We will read these four books: If He Hollers, Let Him Go by Chester Himes A Red Death by Walter Mosley Black Water Rising by Attica Locke The Man Who Changed Colors by Bill Fletcher Jr. Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-noir/2023-08-24/ | African American History|Alienation|American Literature|Anti-capitalist Literature|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature | 8/24/2023 19:00 | 8/24/2023 20:30 | ||
| Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future | The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective–three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 classic Childhood’s End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley Robinson’s first novel, The Wild Shore, published in 1984 at the height of Reaganism, imagined the emergence of resistance to geopolitical and environmental disasters. M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi’s just published Everything for Everyone explores a collective response to the crises of today. We will supplement these with other recommended readings and videos. | 6/17/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/staring-down-the-apocalypse-three-visions/2023-03-06/ | sf/vf | Classes/Events | 2/13/2023 17:00 | 2/13/2023 18:30 | ||
| “We’re Going on an Adventure”: Summer Visionary Fiction | The MEP’s Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Ruin this summer. The novel’s catch-phrase, “We’re going on an adventure,” signals Tchaikovsky’s intention to take on overlapping themes of contemporary significance–desperate efforts to escape war and corporate destruction on Earth, species-level competition to make new homes elsewhere, and the varieties and the social significance artificial intelligence. Above all, the book continues the author’s exploration of empathy between his characters and with us, his readers: “I wanted to write sections from the point of view of an octopus.” As befits summertime reading, we will add other selections as we go, meshing these themes with the interests of the group. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 6/18/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/we_re_going_on_an_adventure/ | Art and politics|Dystopian literature|Evolutionary biology|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science Fiction|War | 6/19/2023 17:00 | 6/19/2023 18:30 | ||
| “We’re Going on an Adventure”: Summer Visionary Fiction… | The MEP’s Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Ruin this summer. The catchphrase, “We’re going on an adventure,” signals the novel’s overlapping themes of contemporary significance–desperate efforts to escape war and corporate destruction on Earth, species-level competition to make new homes elsewhere, and the varieties and the social significance of artificial intelligence. Above all, the book continues the author’s exploration of empathy between his characters and with us, his readers: “I wanted to write sections from the point of view of an octopus.” As befits summertime reading, we will add other selections as we go, meshing these themes with the interests of the group. | The Marxist Education Project’s Literature Group continues its summertime tradition of reading noir fiction: the popular American crime genre that explores the corruption of society – and, in our selected books by Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, and Bill Fletcher Jr. – corruption in the workplace, in unions, and among workers. | 8/18/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/were-going-on-an-adventure-summer-visionary-fiction-bak/ | Art and politics|Dystopian literature|Evolutionary biology|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science Fiction|War | 6/26/2023 17:00 | 6/26/2023 18:30 | ||
| Summer with Hegel: The Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit | A seven-week summer course with Alex Steinberg that concludes our ongoing studies of Hegel’s mysterious work, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will do a close reading of the Preface to the Phenomenology , a work that can be read on its own and is considered the most succinct and comprehensive statement of Hegel’s philosophy.These sessions introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. No prior experience with Hegel or attendance at previous classes is expected or required. Our goal is to make Hegel’s dialectic less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in his thought and its significance for our time. We will be reading Terry Pinkard’s translation of the Phenomenology, published by Cambridge University Press. A free version is available online. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019-2021. | A seven-week summer course with Alex Steinberg that concludes our ongoing studies of Hegel’s mysterious work, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will do a close reading of the Preface to the Phenomenology , a work that can be read on its own and is considered the most succinct and comprehensive statement of Hegel’s philosophy. | 6/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-with-hegel/2023-08-19/ | Hegel|historical materialism|History|Marx and Hegel|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 7/8/2023 10:00 | 7/8/2023 12:00 | ||
| “We’re Going on an Adventure”: Summer Visionary Fiction | The MEP’s Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Ruin this summer. The catchphrase, “We’re going on an adventure,” signals the novel’s overlapping themes of contemporary significance–desperate efforts to escape war and corporate destruction on Earth, species-level competition to make new homes elsewhere, and the varieties and the social significance of artificial intelligence. Above all, the book continues the author’s exploration of empathy between his characters and with us, his readers: “I wanted to write sections from the point of view of an octopus.” As befits summertime reading, we will add other selections as we go, meshing these themes with the interests of the group. | 6/23/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/were-going-on-an-adventure-summer-visionary-fiction/2023-08-07/ | Art and politics|Evolutionary biology|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science Fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction|War Fiction | 6/26/2023 17:00 | 6/26/2023 18:30 | |||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (third series) | Covering Parts V through VIII of Capital, volume 1Join us as we continue the close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital begun earlier this year, guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This fall we will be reading Parts V through VIII, covering Wages, the Accumulation of Capital, and the so-called Primitive Accumulation. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel. Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Third series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 5 through 8 of Capital I, on wages, the accumulation of capital, and the so-called primitive accumulation. | 7/31/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-capital-3rd-series/2023-11-12/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Colonialism|communism|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Science and Method|Working Class History | 9/10/2023 13:30 | 9/10/2023 15:30 | ||
| Chile’s 9/11: Fifty Years of Literary Resistance | September 2023 marks fifty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. To honor the struggles and sufferings of the Chilean people, the MEP’s Literature Group dedicates two eight-week series to Chilean writers active before, during, and since the Pinochet dictatorship. In addition to the justly well-known writings of Roberto Bolaño, many of our readings will be from translations by Megan McDowell. McDowell has worked with US and British independent publishers to promote a diverse group of writers largely unfamiliar to American audiences. Our aim, to quote McDowell, is “to expand our circles of empathy.” Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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, she has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation. | September 2023 marks fifty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. To honor the struggles and sufferings of the Chilean people, the MEP’s Literature Group dedicates two eight-week series to Chilean writers active before, during, and since the Pinochet dictatorship. | 8/16/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/chile-literary-resistance/2023-11-16/ | American Imperialism|Anti-fascism|Cultural Resistance|History|Insurgency|Latin America|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Radical Literature|Socialism | 9/28/2023 19:00 | 9/28/2023 21:00 | ||
| The Spectre Still Haunting: Introducing the Revolutionary Politics of Marx and Engels | An introductory 10-week reading group for those just getting acquainted with Marxist ideas, based on Marx and Engels’ elegant and rousing classic The Manifesto of the Communist Party and Frederick Engels’ Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. We will be guided by China Miéville’s thoughtful, provocative meditations on the Manifesto, A Spectre Haunting. While Miéville is best known for his speculative fiction, he is equally brilliant as a contemporary communist political commentator. A manifesto embraces contradiction. It is unafraid of paradox. Facilitated by David Worley of the MEP’s Revolutions Study Group. | An introductory reading group for those just getting acquainted with Marxist ideas, based on Marx and Engels’ elegant and rousing classic The Manifesto of the Communist Party. We will be guided by China Miéville’s thoughtful, provocative meditations on the Manifesto, A Spectre Haunting. | 8/25/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-spectre-still-haunting-introducing-the-revolutionary-politics-of-marx-and-engels/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Class and Gender|communism|Crisis|Engels|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marxisms|Marxist Method|Modernity|Philosophy of History|Political Economy|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Revolutions Study Group|Socialism|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 12/6/2023 17:00 | 12/6/2023 18:30 | ||
| Commons, Commoning, Communism | Various forms of commoning, some traditional and some not, provided the proletariat with means of survival in the struggle against capitalism. Commoning is a basis of proletarian class solidarity, and we can find this before, during, and after both the semantic and the political birth of communism. –Peter LinebaughBefore the advent of capitalism, much of humanity produced their immediate livelihoods on lands and with tools to which they either had rights of use or held as individual property. All that came to a violent end with what Marx preferred to call the “original expropriation” (often misleadingly termed “primitive accumulation”) whereby the producers were deprived of access and the commons were enclosed. Peasants and artisans mounted strong resistance over centuries but in the end a propertyless proletariat emerged in countryside and city in England and other countries where capitalism triumphed. Such struggles continue down to the present, however, as working people continue to challenge new forms of expropriation such as intellectual-property laws, private patents on seeds and other life forms, displacement of urban communities, extortion through petty fines and regressive taxation, and seizures of land and water for mining and other profitable purposes. This reading group will explore the historical roots and persistence of such crimes and resistance by reading together The War Against the Commons, by Ian Angus; Stop, Thief! by Peter Linebaugh; and related texts. Facilitated by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight of the MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group. | Before the advent of capitalism, much of humanity produced their immediate livelihoods on lands and with tools to which they either had rights of use or held as individual property. All that came to a violent end with what Marx preferred to call the “original expropriation” (often misleadingly termed “primitive accumulation”). This reading group will explore the historical roots and persistence of such crimes and the resistance they evoke by reading together Ian Angus’s recently published The War Against the Commons, Peter Linebaugh’s Stop Thief! and related texts. | 8/16/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/commons-commoning-communism/2023-11-28/ | Accumulation of Capital|Agribusiness|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Enclosures|Extractivism|Food and politics|historical materialism|History|Indigenous Peoples|Labor History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Precarity|Race and Class|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism|Working Class History | 9/26/2023 13:00 | 9/26/2023 14:30 | ||
| Imperialism: The Long View and the Big Picture | Video introductionImperialism is an economic and political system of war and conquest by great powers, but it is also the lived experience of the conquered and subjugated. This almost always entails the murder, rape, theft, enslavement, and myriad humiliations of the dominated and colonized. Empires have committed genocide, eliminating entire peoples, and ethnocide, erasing the nationality, language, and culture of the conquered. And the conquered have resisted, risen up, rebelled, and often succeeded at least for a time in escaping the grip of empires. Even so, new imperial or neocolonial systems often reimpose their domination in new ways, leading to further resistance and rebellion. In eight weekly sessions guided by Dan La Botz, we will look at imperialism in the long view, from the ancient world to today. We will examine the experience of imperialism and the theoretical justifications for it, as well as anti-imperialist movements and their arguments. We will look at imperialism as economic phenomenon, as political strategy, as cultural experience, and as psychological affect. We will discuss imperialism and gender and imperialism and the environment. See the initial syllabus for further details. Dan La Botz is a retired historian of the United States and Latin America and a longtime political activist on the left. He holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Cincinnati and has taught at several universities, most recently in the City University of New York School of Labor and Urban Studies. He is the author of a dozen books and scores of journalistic and academic articles on labor movements, social movements, and politics in the United States, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Indonesia. He is a co-editor of the journal New Politics. | In eight weekly sessions guided by Dan La Botz, we will look at imperialism in the long view, from the ancient world to today. We will examine the experience of imperialism and the theoretical justifications for it, as well as anti-imperialist movements and their arguments. We will look at imperialism as economic phenomenon, as political strategy, as cultural experience, and as psychological affect. We will discuss imperialism and gender and imperialism and the environment. | 8/21/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/imperialism-long-view/ | Accumulation of Capital|Africa|American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Anti-fascism|Antiquity|Asia|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|China|Colonialism|Extractivism|Globalization|historical materialism|History|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Migration|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|War | 11/14/2023 19:00 | 11/14/2023 20:30 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: The Science of Logic | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues this fall with a reading of Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx’s Capital. Alex Steinberg will guide participants past the legendary obstacles to understanding this unsurpassed presentation of dialectics. Its depth and systematic structure is without parallel in any other of Hegel’s works. Eight weekly sessions will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. No prior experience with Hegel or attendance at previous classes is expected or required. Our goal is to make Hegel’s dialectic less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in his thought and its significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is the facilitator of Hegel for Radicals. He is an independent scholar who has taught and published on topics such as the philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and humanism, Hegel’s philosophy of history and Hegel’s Phenomenology at various alternative educational institutions. Alex was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. he has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2020-2021. | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues this fall with a reading of Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx’s Capital. Alex Steinberg will guide participants past the legendary obstacles to understanding this unsurpassed presentation of dialectics. Its depth and systematic structure is without parallel in any other of Hegel’s works. | 8/22/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-science-of-logic/2023-12-16/ | Hegel|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Science and Method|Spinoza | 11/18/2023 11:00 | 11/18/2023 13:00 | ||
| Theodore Allen’s ‘The Kernel and Meaning’: A Strategic Critique of U.S. Labor History | “The South, after the war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see for many decades. Yet the labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and meaning of the labor movement in the United States.” –W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction Before Theodore W. Allen turned to his magnum opus, The Invention of the White Race, he drafted an essay “The Kernel and Meaning: A Contribution to a Proletarian Critique of U.S. Historiography.” In it, he assessed how the industrial bourgeoisie successfully overturned plantation capital’s rule while assuring its own ascendancy over the proletariat. Allen reviewed six commonly held explanations as to why, despite favorable objective conditions, the U.S. left and workers movements failed to establish socialism or even a permanent working-class party. Inspired by Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction, Allen introduced an extended critique of the “white blind spot” in Marxist-oriented historiography as a key source of the failure to develop a proletarian strategy. Subsequent chapters highlight Du Bois’s emphasis on the central role of the fight against white supremacy in the class struggles of that era and the defeat of Black-white solidarity during Reconstruction, the 1877 railroad strike, the Black Exodus, the Redeemer-Populist struggles in the 1880s, and the rise of Jim Crow. Participants in this six-session group will read and discuss the original, 160-page typescript of Allen’s unpublished essay, written in the 1970s and accessible through the Special Collections of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Facilitated by David Slavin. David has taught US and world history at the college level for 30 years and written two books on French anti-imperialist movements and race. In the 1970s he was a construction worker and labor troublemaker in NYC and, in the mid-1980s, research director of District 1199, the NYC hospital workers union. He grew up in the Bronx, has lived in Atlanta for the past twenty years, and just finished an essay on “Redlining the Working Class: The Social Security Act of 1935, the New Deal, and the Nationalization of Jim Crow.” | Before Theodore W. Allen turned to his magnum opus, The Invention of the White Race, he drafted an essay “The Kernel and Meaning: A Contribution to a Proletarian Critique of U.S. Historiography.” In it, he assessed how the industrial bourgeoisie successfully overturned plantation capital’s rule while assuring its own ascendancy over the proletariat. Allen reviewed six commonly held explanations as to why, despite favorable objective conditions, the U.S. left and workers movements failed to establish socialism or even a permanent working-class party. Participants in this group will read and discuss the original, 160-page typescript of Allen’s unpublished essay. | 8/22/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/kernel-and-meaning/ | African American History|Capital vs. Labor|Civil War|Class|Du Bois|Emancipation|History|Labor History|Left Populism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Organizing|Political Economy|Race and Class|Repression|Solidarity|Syndicalism|US History|Working Class History | 11/16/2023 18:30 | 11/16/2023 20:00 | ||
| Oppression and Resistance in New Chinese and Chinese-American Science Fiction | Join us to read selections from the best of Chinese and Chinese-American science fiction. Over the last ten years, authors have reached English-speaking audiences with exciting and award-winning new literature using the metaphors and methods of speculative and visionary writing. The new wave of younger Chinese science fiction writers often brings exciting explorations of political and social themes. Alongside daring new scientific imaginations, our selections this fall feature issues of anti-Asian violence and racism, colonialism, then and now, and the cruelties of global capitalism, often resulting in resistance to oppression. Our selections truly merit the new tag of “visionary fiction.” Our reading group includes people steeped in the speculative fiction tradition as well as new readers exploring themes with us for the first time. The tilt of global economics, scientific research, and politics Eastward makes this fall’s theme timely. Our list, still in formation, tentatively includes: Vagabonds by Hao Jinfang, as well as her Hugo award-winning story, “Folding Beijing” Selections from short story collections written, translated or edited by Ken Liu: Hidden Planets, Broken Planets, and The Hidden Girl Babel, by RF Kuang Our Missing Children, by Celeste Ng Severance, by Ling Ma We plan to experiment with a hybrid format. We will meet monthly for a longer, in-depth discussion as we finish a book. This more typical book club may better suit you if you want to read on your own and then take part in an overall discussion of the readings. We will also continue our weekly ninety-minute meetings for those who can make that commitment. You can register for all or just the monthly longer sessions. Convened by Steve Backman, long-time explorer of the visionary side of science fiction; member of the MEP leadership team | Before Theodore W. Allen turned to his magnum opus, The Invention of the White Race, he drafted an essay “The Kernel and Meaning: A Contribution to a Proletarian Critique of U.S. Historiography.” In it, he assessed how the industrial bourgeoisie successfully overturned plantation capital’s rule while assuring its own ascendancy over the proletariat. Allen reviewed six commonly held explanations as to why, despite favorable objective conditions, the U.S. left and workers movements failed to establish socialism or even a permanent working-class party. Participants in this group will read and discuss the original, 160-page typescript of Allen’s unpublished essay. | 8/25/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/oppression-and-resistance-in-new-chinese-and-chinese-american-science-fiction/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Race and Class|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Visionary Fiction | 9/18/2023 17:00 | 9/18/2023 18:30 | ||
| Oppression and Resistance in New Chinese and Chinese-American Science Fiction | Join us to read selections from the best of Chinese and Chinese-American science fiction. Over the last ten years, authors have reached English-speaking audiences with exciting and award-winning new literature using the metaphors and methods of speculative and visionary writing. The new wave of younger Chinese science fiction writers often brings exciting explorations of political and social themes. Alongside daring new scientific imaginations, our selections this fall feature issues of anti-Asian violence and racism, colonialism, then and now, and the cruelties of global capitalism, often resulting in resistance to oppression. Our selections truly merit the new tag of “visionary fiction.” Our reading group includes people steeped in the speculative fiction tradition as well as new readers exploring themes with us for the first time. The tilt of global economics, scientific research, and politics Eastward makes this fall’s theme timely. Our list, still in formation, tentatively includes: Vagabonds by Hao Jinfang, as well as her Hugo award-winning story, “Folding Beijing” Selections from short story collections written, translated or edited by Ken Liu: Hidden Planets, Broken Planets, and The Hidden Girl Babel, by RF Kuang Our Missing Children, by Celeste Ng Severance, by Ling Ma We plan to experiment with a hybrid format. We will meet monthly for a longer, in-depth discussion as we finish a book. This more typical book club may better suit you if you want to read on your own and then take part in an overall discussion of the readings. We will also continue our weekly ninety-minute meetings for those who can make that commitment. You can register for all or just the monthly longer sessions. Convened by Steve Backman, long-time explorer of the visionary side of science fiction; member of the MEP leadership team Please click to see ticket options for this series and register. You can see all registration options on the first date listing for this reading group. | Before Theodore W. Allen turned to his magnum opus, The Invention of the White Race, he drafted an essay “The Kernel and Meaning: A Contribution to a Proletarian Critique of U.S. Historiography.” In it, he assessed how the industrial bourgeoisie successfully overturned plantation capital’s rule while assuring its own ascendancy over the proletariat. Allen reviewed six commonly held explanations as to why, despite favorable objective conditions, the U.S. left and workers movements failed to establish socialism or even a permanent working-class party. Participants in this group will read and discuss the original, 160-page typescript of Allen’s unpublished essay. | 9/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/oppression-and-resistance-in-new-chinese-and-chinese-american-science-fiction-2/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Race and Class|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Visionary Fiction | 9/25/2023 17:00 | 9/25/2023 18:30 | ||
| Oppression and Resistance in New Chinese and Chinese-American Science Fiction | Join us to read selections from the best of Chinese and Chinese-American science fiction. Over the last ten years, authors have reached English-speaking audiences with exciting and award-winning new literature using the metaphors and methods of speculative and visionary writing. The new wave of younger Chinese science fiction writers often brings exciting explorations of political and social themes. Alongside daring new scientific imaginations, our selections this fall feature issues of anti-Asian violence and racism, colonialism, then and now, and the cruelties of global capitalism, often resulting in resistance to oppression. Our selections truly merit the new tag of “visionary fiction.” Our reading group includes people steeped in the speculative fiction tradition as well as new readers exploring themes with us for the first time. The tilt of global economics, scientific research, and politics Eastward makes this fall’s theme timely. Our list, still in formation, tentatively includes: Vagabonds by Hao Jinfang, as well as her Hugo award-winning story, “Folding Beijing” Selections from short story collections written, translated or edited by Ken Liu: Hidden Planets, Broken Planets, and The Hidden Girl Babel, by RF Kuang Our Missing Children, by Celeste Ng Severance, by Ling Ma We plan to experiment with a hybrid format. We will meet monthly for a longer, in-depth discussion as we finish a book. This more typical book club may better suit you if you want to read on your own and then take part in an overall discussion of the readings. We will also continue our weekly ninety-minute meetings for those who can make that commitment. You can register for all or just the monthly longer sessions. Convened by Steve Backman, long-time explorer of the visionary side of science fiction; member of the MEP leadership team Please click to see ticket options for this series and register. You can see all registration options on the first date listing for this reading group. | Before Theodore W. Allen turned to his magnum opus, The Invention of the White Race, he drafted an essay “The Kernel and Meaning: A Contribution to a Proletarian Critique of U.S. Historiography.” In it, he assessed how the industrial bourgeoisie successfully overturned plantation capital’s rule while assuring its own ascendancy over the proletariat. Allen reviewed six commonly held explanations as to why, despite favorable objective conditions, the U.S. left and workers movements failed to establish socialism or even a permanent working-class party. Participants in this group will read and discuss the original, 160-page typescript of Allen’s unpublished essay. | 9/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/oppression-and-resistance-in-new-chinese-and-chinese-american-science-fiction-3/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Race and Class|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Visionary Fiction | 10/2/2023 17:00 | 10/2/2023 18:30 | ||
| Oppression and Resistance in New Chinese and Chinese-American Science Fiction | Join us to read selections from the best of Chinese and Chinese-American science fiction. Over the last ten years, authors have reached English-speaking audiences with exciting and award-winning new literature using the metaphors and methods of speculative and visionary writing. The new wave of younger Chinese science fiction writers often brings exciting explorations of political and social themes. Alongside daring new scientific imaginations, our selections this fall feature issues of anti-Asian violence and racism, colonialism, then and now, and the cruelties of global capitalism, often resulting in resistance to oppression. Our selections truly merit the new tag of “visionary fiction.” Our reading group includes people steeped in the speculative fiction tradition as well as new readers exploring themes with us for the first time. The tilt of global economics, scientific research, and politics Eastward makes this fall’s theme timely. Our list, still in formation, tentatively includes: Vagabonds by Hao Jinfang, as well as her Hugo award-winning story, “Folding Beijing” Selections from short story collections written, translated or edited by Ken Liu: Hidden Planets, Broken Planets, and The Hidden Girl Babel, by RF Kuang Our Missing Children, by Celeste Ng Severance, by Ling Ma We plan to experiment with a hybrid format. We will meet monthly for a longer, in-depth discussion as we finish a book. This more typical book club may better suit you if you want to read on your own and then take part in an overall discussion of the readings. We will also continue our weekly ninety-minute meetings for those who can make that commitment. You can register for all or just the monthly longer sessions. Convened by Steve Backman, long-time explorer of the visionary side of science fiction; member of the MEP leadership team Please click to see ticket options for this series and register. You can see all registration options on the first date listing for this reading group. | Before Theodore W. Allen turned to his magnum opus, The Invention of the White Race, he drafted an essay “The Kernel and Meaning: A Contribution to a Proletarian Critique of U.S. Historiography.” In it, he assessed how the industrial bourgeoisie successfully overturned plantation capital’s rule while assuring its own ascendancy over the proletariat. Allen reviewed six commonly held explanations as to why, despite favorable objective conditions, the U.S. left and workers movements failed to establish socialism or even a permanent working-class party. Participants in this group will read and discuss the original, 160-page typescript of Allen’s unpublished essay. | 9/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/oppression-and-resistance-in-new-chinese-and-chinese-american-science-fiction-4/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Race and Class|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Visionary Fiction | 10/9/2023 17:00 | 10/9/2023 18:30 | ||
| Oppression and Resistance in New Chinese and Chinese-American Science Fiction | Join us to read selections from the best of Chinese and Chinese-American science fiction. Over the last ten years, authors have reached English-speaking audiences with exciting and award-winning new literature using the metaphors and methods of speculative and visionary writing. The new wave of younger Chinese science fiction writers often brings exciting explorations of political and social themes. Alongside daring new scientific imaginations, our selections this fall feature issues of anti-Asian violence and racism, colonialism, then and now, and the cruelties of global capitalism, often resulting in resistance to oppression. Our selections truly merit the new tag of “visionary fiction.” Our reading group includes people steeped in the speculative fiction tradition as well as new readers exploring themes with us for the first time. The tilt of global economics, scientific research, and politics Eastward makes this fall’s theme timely. Our list, still in formation, tentatively includes: Vagabonds by Hao Jinfang, as well as her Hugo award-winning story, “Folding Beijing” Selections from short story collections written, translated or edited by Ken Liu: Hidden Planets, Broken Planets, and The Hidden Girl Babel, by RF Kuang Our Missing Children, by Celeste Ng Severance, by Ling Ma We plan to experiment with a hybrid format. We will meet monthly for a longer, in-depth discussion as we finish a book. This more typical book club may better suit you if you want to read on your own and then take part in an overall discussion of the readings. We will also continue our weekly ninety-minute meetings for those who can make that commitment. You can register for all or just the monthly longer sessions. Convened by Steve Backman, long-time explorer of the visionary side of science fiction; member of the MEP leadership team Please click to see ticket options for this series and register. You can see all registration options on the first date listing for this reading group. | Before Theodore W. Allen turned to his magnum opus, The Invention of the White Race, he drafted an essay “The Kernel and Meaning: A Contribution to a Proletarian Critique of U.S. Historiography.” In it, he assessed how the industrial bourgeoisie successfully overturned plantation capital’s rule while assuring its own ascendancy over the proletariat. Allen reviewed six commonly held explanations as to why, despite favorable objective conditions, the U.S. left and workers movements failed to establish socialism or even a permanent working-class party. Participants in this group will read and discuss the original, 160-page typescript of Allen’s unpublished essay. | 9/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/oppression-and-resistance-in-new-chinese-and-chinese-american-science-fiction-5/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Race and Class|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Visionary Fiction | 10/16/2023 17:00 | 10/16/2023 18:30 | ||
| Oppression and Resistance in New Chinese and Chinese-American Science Fiction | Join us to read selections from the best of Chinese and Chinese-American science fiction. Over the last ten years, authors have reached English-speaking audiences with exciting and award-winning new literature using the metaphors and methods of speculative and visionary writing. The new wave of younger Chinese science fiction writers often brings exciting explorations of political and social themes. Alongside daring new scientific imaginations, our selections this fall feature issues of anti-Asian violence and racism, colonialism, then and now, and the cruelties of global capitalism, often resulting in resistance to oppression. Our selections truly merit the new tag of “visionary fiction.” Our reading group includes people steeped in the speculative fiction tradition as well as new readers exploring themes with us for the first time. The tilt of global economics, scientific research, and politics Eastward makes this fall’s theme timely.
Convened by Steve Backman, long-time explorer of the visionary side of science fiction; member of the MEP leadership team Please watch for information about the Visionary Fiction Reading Group’s new themes and readings for the winter season | Before Theodore W. Allen turned to his magnum opus, The Invention of the White Race, he drafted an essay “The Kernel and Meaning: A Contribution to a Proletarian Critique of U.S. Historiography.” In it, he assessed how the industrial bourgeoisie successfully overturned plantation capital’s rule while assuring its own ascendancy over the proletariat. Allen reviewed six commonly held explanations as to why, despite favorable objective conditions, the U.S. left and workers movements failed to establish socialism or even a permanent working-class party. Participants in this group will read and discuss the original, 160-page typescript of Allen’s unpublished essay. | 9/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/oppression-and-resistance-in-new-chinese-and-chinese-american-science-fiction-6/ | Classes/Events|Race and Class|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Visionary Fiction | 12/18/2023 17:00 | 12/18/2023 18:30 | ||
| What Do We Need Bosses For? with Pete Dolack |  Propaganda endlessly blares, “There is no alternative” to capitalism. But there is always an alternative. Humanity need not be condemned to sit by helplessly as an uncontrollable economic and political system spanning the world brings us devastating inequality, precarious jobs, environmental destruction, and life-threatening global warming. Pete Dolack’s latest book, What Do We Need Bosses For?: Toward Economic Democracy, analyzes past and present efforts to establish systems of economic democracy on a national or society-wide basis. In this context the book dissects the mounting inequalities of capitalism and discusses theoretical ideas as to how we might organize a better world.Working people have repeatedly sought to create such a world. They have organized to reverse their subordinate positions in capitalist production and take charge of their working lives and their workplaces through egalitarian movements. Political democracy is impossible without economic democracy. Economic democracy, in turn, is impossible under capitalism. As ever more people realize the present world system offers them nothing but more hardship, movements to create a better world inevitably will rise again. Alternatives discussed in the book include workers’ self-management in Yugoslavia, workers’ control in Czechoslovakia, the social-property area of Allende-era Chile, the democratic confederalism of Rojava, the cooperatives of Cuba and the communes of Venezuela, with brief discussions of a few other examples, including co-management in Tanzania, Chinese industrial cooperatives and British work-ins. In addition to What Do We Need Bosses For?, Pete Dolack is also the author of It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment, a book examining the 20th century’s socialist experiments so we can do it better in the 21st century. He publishes on various websites, including CounterPunch, ZNet, The Ecologist, Dandelion Salad and his own Systemic Disorder blog. As an activist, Pete has participated in efforts around human rights, environmental, trade and social issues, among them the No Spray Coalition, the Brooklyn Greens, New Yorkers Against Fascism, Amnesty International and, most recently, Trade Justice New York Metro. | Pete Dolack’s latest book, What Do We Need Bosses For?: Toward Economic Democracy, analyzes past and present efforts to establish systems of economic democracy on a national or society-wide basis. In this context the book dissects the mounting inequalities of capitalism and discusses theoretical ideas as to how we might organize a better world. | 10/4/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/what-do-we-need-bosses-for-with-pete-dolack/ | Capital vs. Labor|Class|Hegemony|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Labor Organizing|Political Economy|Precarity|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism|Solidarity | 10/21/2023 14:00 | 10/21/2023 16:00 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks | In these sessions led by Piruz Alemi, we will continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. A Gramscian “Past & Present” approach is key to our work. Throughout these sessions, we will attempt to connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles such as those unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement – all are welcome. | We continue to study selected passages from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We delve into key themes and concepts related to civil society and state: politics and the arts, racism, class and gender, religion, linguistics, and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies, as well as the role of intellectuals and activists in discovering new methods and languages to be transformative. | 10/23/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-antonio-gramscis-prison-notebooks/ | Gramsci | Class|Fascism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Left Populism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Populism|Race and Class|Revolutions|Science and Method|Socialism|State Formation | 12/17/2023 11:00 | 12/17/2023 12:30 | |
| Blood and Fire: The Violent Origins of Capitalism | Join the MEP’s Capital Study Group in a four-week study of the concluding section of volume I of Marx’s Capital, which discloses the widespread violence and dispossession – in both Europe and colonized areas – that accompanied the emergence of capitalism. For Marx, the history of this original expropriation or “primitive accumulation” was “written in letters of blood and fire.” In order for social relations to become structured around the production of commodities, direct producers had to be violently separated from their means of subsistence, and common resources had to be concentrated and privatized. This series both concludes our year-long close reading of Capital, Volume I, and introduces the work for new readers who are welcome and encouraged to attend. It is also a good opportunity for those who had to drop out along the way to return to the study of Capital. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel. Illustration depicts the clearing (enclosure) of the Scottish Highlands, which Marx details in chapter 27 of Capital. | Join the MEP’s Capital Study Group in a four-week study of the concluding section of volume I of Marx’s Capital, which discloses the widespread violence and dispossession – in both Europe and colonized areas – that accompanied the emergence of capitalism. | 10/29/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/blood-and-fire/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|Capital Studies|Colonialism|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|State Formation|War | 12/17/2023 13:30 | 12/17/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I (third series) | Covering Parts V through VIII of Capital, volume 1Join us as we continue the close reading of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital begun earlier this year, guided by an experienced team led by Lisa Maya Knauer. This fall we will be reading Parts V through VIII, covering Wages, the Accumulation of Capital, and the so-called Primitive Accumulation. Each week, we recap the passages covered at the previous session, introduce new material, and open up a discussion. We read the more challenging sections together a paragraph or two at a time. Supplementary materials and/or questions for reflection are circulated prior to each week’s session, and the conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel. Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review our Privacy Policy | Third series in our close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus, with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. This series covers parts 5 through 8 of Capital I, on wages, the accumulation of capital, and the so-called primitive accumulation. | 11/19/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-capital-3rd-series-2/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Colonialism|communism|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|History|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Science and Method|Working Class History | 11/12/2023 13:30 | 11/12/2023 15:30 | ||
| Marxism and the Capitalist State | A video of this December 16, 2024, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. A lively discussion with the editors and several contributors to the just-released Marxism and the Capitalist State: Towards a New Debate. The collected essays combine general theoretical reappraisals with investigations of contemporary challenges, including new technologies, the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, and changes in social reproduction. This project began from a shared commitment to understanding the specifically capitalist character of the modern state in relation to the causes of our current age of global catastrophe and the overcoming of capitalist social relations. Our panel will feature the book’s three editors: Rob Hunter holds a PhD in Politics from Princeton University, USA. He is a member of the Legal Form editorial collective. Rafael Khachaturian is a Lecturer in Critical Writing at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Eva Nanopoulos is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Nanopoulos co-edits the blog Legal Form and she co-directs the Queen Mary Centre of Law and Society in a Global Context and co-founded its “Law and Marxism” series. And joining them we will have four contributors: Alyssa Battistoni, “State, Capital, Nature: State Theory for the Capitalocene” Nate Holdren, “Social Murder: Capitalism’s Systematic and State-Organized Killing” Chris O’Kane, “The Marx Revival and State Theory: Towards a Negative-Dialectical Critical Social Theory of the State” Steve Maher, “From Economic to Political Crisis: Trump and the Neoliberal State” | 11/29/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-the-capitalist-state/ | Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/16/2023 14:00 | 12/16/2023 16:00 | |||
| Classical Political Economy and Marx’s Critique: Theories of Surplus-Value | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, we are reading closely and discussing Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value (sometimes referred to as Volume 4 of Capital), supplemented by chapters from I.I. Rubin’s History of Economic Thought. This ongoing reading group is facilitated by the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. To join the group in progress, send email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Marx’s Grundrisse, we are now engaged in a close reading of Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value (sometimes referred to as Volume 4 of Capital), supplemented by chapters from I.I. Rubin’s History of Economic Thought. | 12/3/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=19323 | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Classes/Events|historical materialism|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 7/20/2024 11:00 | 7/20/2024 13:00 | ||
| Chile’s 9/11: Fifty Years of Literary Resistance | September 2023 marks fifty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. To honor the struggles and sufferings of the Chilean people, the MEP’s Literature Group dedicates two eight-week series to Chilean writers active before, during, and since the Pinochet dictatorship. In addition to the justly well-known writings of Roberto Bolaño, many of our readings will be from translations by Megan McDowell. McDowell has worked with US and British independent publishers to promote a diverse group of writers largely unfamiliar to American audiences. Our aim, to quote McDowell, is “to expand our circles of empathy.” Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. To participate, send email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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, she has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation. | September 2023 marks fifty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. To honor the struggles and sufferings of the Chilean people, the MEP’s Literature Group dedicates two eight-week series to Chilean writers active before, during, and since the Pinochet dictatorship. | 12/5/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=19368 | American Imperialism|Anti-fascism|Cultural Resistance|History|Insurgency|Latin America|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Radical Literature|Socialism | 12/7/2023 19:00 | 12/7/2023 21:00 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I | “Scornful neglect and intemperate hostility, haughty dismissal…, selective co-optation and … bowdlerization”: this is how Marcello Musto, author of The Marx Revival, describes responses to the ideas of Karl Marx by respectable pundits over the past century. To truly appreciate Marx’s thinking, there is no substitute for a close reading of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society: of “capitalism,” a system of production that now dominates the most remote corners of the globe. Marx was arguably the first writer on the subject to immerse himself not only in theories of political economy but in concrete economic and sociological data (such as it was at the time). The study of Capital is at the core of the Marxist Education Project.Participants in this class will closely read and discuss Marx’s Capital, volume 1, guided by Lisa Maya Knauer and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The course is offered in 11-week segments, recurring until we have read the entire book (however long that takes). Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Review the MEP’s Privacy Policy | Close reading and discussion of Marx’s magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=19469 | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Enclosures|England|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|Transition from Capitalism | 1/29/2023 13:30 | 1/29/2023 15:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital Volume I | Participants in this group are closely reading and discussing Volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital: A Critique of Political Economy.  The study of Capital has been at the core of the Marxist Education Project since its inception. Every generation involved in struggle since Marx’s time has rediscovered Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society. For key chapters or sections, we do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants read other sections on their own, and we summarize and discuss when we meet. In line with Marx’s own approach in Capital, we both take it all very seriously and make it fun as well. If you have read Capital before – or if you have never read it – studying it together with us will deepen your understanding of the world today and refresh your political commitments. Lisa Maya Knauer guides this group, along with other experienced MEP teachers. Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. This reading group is ongoing. Please contact us if you wish to join the group in progress. | Participants in this class are closely reading and discussing Volume I of Karl Marx’s ‘Capital, A Critique of Political Economy.’ The second 10-week series starts April 6 with Chapter 6, ‘The Sale and Purchase of Labor Power.’ | 12/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i-2-7/2024-06-15/ | Capital Studies|Classes/Events|Intro to Marxism|Political Economy|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 6/15/2024 16:00 | 6/15/2024 18:00 | ||
| Multispecies Marxism: Reading and Reflecting on Animals and Capital | An eight-session reading and discussion group on the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, historically and today. Led by anthropologist Gizem Haspolat and visual artist Terike Haapoja, this class continues our successful sessions on animals and capitalism in 2022 and 2023, this time looking through a multispecies lens at key concepts of Marxism, such as ‘value’, ‘primitive accumulation’, ‘species being’, ‘circulation’, and ‘resistance.’ We will explore the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice. The main reading will be Animals and Capital (2023) by Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel (available in paperback and eBook formats from various online outlets). Participation in previous sessions is not required. Gizem Haspolat is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Rice University. Her areas of interest are critical animal studies, animal geographies, and human–nonhuman animal relations. In her ongoing research, she explores live animal trade as a site that intensifies the translations between ‘animal’ and capital, through an investigation of Turkey’s live cattle imports. Terike Haapoja 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. | An eight-session discussion and reading group on the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, historically and today. We will be looking through a multispecies lens at key concepts of Marxism, such as ‘value’, ‘primitive accumulation’, ‘species being’, ‘circulation’, and ‘resistance.’ | 12/14/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/multispecies-marxism/ | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital Studies|Classes/Events|Ecosocialism|Food and politics|_Seasons>Reading Group | 1/24/2024 13:00 | 1/24/2024 14:30 | ||
| The Circulation of Capital: Reading Volume II of Marx’s Capital | In Volume I of Capital, Marx analyzes the processes of capitalist production and accumulation and identifies the real sources of wealth: nature and the labor performed by working people. In Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital, he addresses the next big question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? We discover the answer, but we also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. Marx thereby lays the groundwork for the system-wide analyses in Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. We welcome all who have a basic knowledge of Volume I of Capital to this ongoing weekly study group. Participants will closely read and discuss Volume II, guided by Fred Murphy and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel. The series is ongoing until we have read the entire book. Contact us if you would like to join the group in progress.Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. | A weekly study group covering Marx’s Capital, Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital. In this volume, Marx addresses the question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? We discover the answer, but we also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. | 2/6/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=19513 | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Crisis|historical materialism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 6/10/2024 18:30 | 6/10/2024 20:00 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass constitutes an annual donation to help sustain the Marxist Education Project’s classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on October 7, 2024, will be valid until October 31, 2025.) | This pass constitutes an annual donation to help sustain the Marxist Education Project’s classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on October 7, 2024, will be valid until October 31, 2025.) | 12/15/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=19532 | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 11/30/2024 | 11/30/2024 23:59 | ||
| Reading Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks – Spring 2024 | In this ongoing weekly reading group, we continue to read and learn from Gramsci’s Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Led by Piruz Alemi, we explore key themes and concepts related to politics and civil society, including race, class and gender, religion, linguistic and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, the arts and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies. Reading with a “Gramscian Past and Present” approach, we consider how intellectuals and organizers discover new, transformative methods and languages for the struggles of today. Throughout these sessions, we connect our own cultures and life experiences with contemporary struggles including the unfolding in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Participation in previous sessions is not a requirement; all are welcome. | In this ongoing weekly reading group, we continue to read and learn from Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. We explore key themes and concepts related to politics and civil society, including race, class and gender, religion, linguistic and other methods of analysis, critical theory, mass media, the arts and cinema, hegemony, and subaltern studies. | 12/16/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-antonio-gramscis-prison-notebooks-winter-2024/ | Classes/Events|_Seasons>Reading Group | 4/28/2024 11:00 | 4/28/2024 12:30 | ||
| Chile’s 9/11: Fifty Years of Literary Resistance | September 2023 marks fifty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. To honor the struggles and sufferings of the Chilean people, the MEP’s Literature Group dedicates two eight-week series to Chilean writers active before, during, and since the Pinochet dictatorship. In addition to the justly well-known writings of Roberto Bolaño, many of our readings will be from translations by Megan McDowell. McDowell has worked with US and British independent publishers to promote a diverse group of writers largely unfamiliar to American audiences. Our aim, to quote McDowell, is “to expand our circles of empathy.” Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. To participate, send email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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, she has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation. | September 2023 marks fifty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. To honor the struggles and sufferings of the Chilean people, the MEP’s Literature Group dedicates two eight-week series to Chilean writers active before, during, and since the Pinochet dictatorship. | 12/20/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=19618 | American Imperialism|Anti-fascism|Cultural Resistance|History|Insurgency|Latin America|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Radical Literature|Socialism | 12/21/2023 19:00 | 12/21/2023 21:00 | ||
| Chile’s 9/11: Fifty Years of Literary Resistance | Weekly reading group in progress, ending 2/8/24. September 2023 marked fifty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. To honor the struggles and sufferings of the Chilean people, the MEP’s Literature Group dedicates this reading group to Chilean writers active before, during, and since the Pinochet dictatorship. In addition to the justly well-known writings of Roberto Bolaño, many of our readings will be from translations by Megan McDowell. McDowell has worked with US and British independent publishers to promote a diverse group of writers largely unfamiliar to American audiences. Our aim, to quote McDowell, is “to expand our circles of empathy.” Full book descriptions and a reading schedule are available here. To participate, send email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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, she has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation. | Reading group in progress, ending 2/8/24. September 2023 marked fifty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. To honor the struggles and sufferings of the Chilean people, the MEP’s Literature Group is reading Chilean writers active before, during, and since the Pinochet dictatorship. | 12/20/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/chile-literary-resistance-2-3/ | American Imperialism|Anti-fascism|Cultural Resistance|History|Insurgency|Latin America|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neo-fascism|Radical Literature|Socialism | 2/8/2024 19:00 | 2/8/2024 21:00 | ||
| Reading Science Fiction Politically | The Science and Visionary Fiction reading group reconvenes April 15 for a new Spring season. Watch this space for coming reading selections and use the website contact page for questions and suggestions. * * * Join us this winter to read five landmark, award-winning novels, and novellas using science fiction to shine a sharp light on social and political conditions today. Our authors fluidly extrapolate from capitalism today for encounters with the climate crisis, artificial intelligence, gender, relationships, race and class. Each has science with the science supporting envisioning and speculation about a just way forward and the obstacles in getting there. Our group reads each book in sequence split over two to four weeks. Our discussions expand from themes in the fiction to critical topics of today’s struggles–war, elections, climate, and more. Whether you have read a lot of classic science fiction, join us if you read fiction passionately and enjoy talking about it, sharing reviews and multimedia, and using reading and writing fiction to deepen our political commitments. Winter selections (still in formation!)
Inquire if you’d like to register for some and not all books. Convened by Steve Backman, long-time explorer of the visionary side of science fiction and part of the MEP exec team | 12/21/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-science-fiction-politically-a-winter-reading-group/ | Classes/Events|Science Fiction|Visionary Fiction | 4/8/2024 16:00 | 4/8/2024 17:30 | |||
| Hegel for Radicals: The Science of Logic II | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues this winter with our reading of Part II of Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic. Over 12 weeks we will cover Books 2 and 3, Essence and the Concept. The first session on January 27 will be a review of Book I, Being, to help new students catch up. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx’s Capital. Alex Steinberg will guide participants past the legendary obstacles to understanding this unsurpassed presentation of dialectics. Its depth and systematic structure is without parallel in any other of Hegel’s works. These sessions bring out what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. No prior experience with Hegel or attendance at previous classes is expected or required. Our goal is to make Hegel’s dialectic less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in his thought and its significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is the facilitator of Hegel for Radicals. He is an independent scholar who has taught and published on topics such as the philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and humanism, Hegel’s philosophy of history and Hegel’s Phenomenology at various alternative educational institutions. Alex was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. he has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2020-2021. | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues our reading of Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic, Part II. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx’s Capital. Alex Steinberg guides participants past the legendary obstacles to understanding this unsurpassed presentation of dialectics. Its depth and systematic structure is without parallel in any other of Hegel’s works. | 12/21/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-for-radicals-the-science-of-logic-ii/ | Hegel|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Science and Method|Spinoza | 4/13/2024 11:00 | 4/13/2024 13:00 | ||
| If We Burn: Mass Protest and Political Strategy for the 21st Century | What can the last fifteen years of worldwide mass protests teach us about strategy and organization for socialism? Street protests and organizing from Seattle WTO to Occupy and on to George Floyd Black Lives Matter demonstrated new tactics, new generations of activists, and new lessons about the future. Likewise, worldwide protests from the Arab Spring to Latin America, Europe, and Hong Kong also struck hard and have brought many important lessons. Join us for reading and discussion probing three connected themes:
Readings will include selections from newly published analyses of and theoretical reflection on recent struggles in the United States and globally: If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution, by Vincent Bevins (PublicAffairsBooks) Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, by Zeynap Tufekci (Yale) Communism and Strategy: Rethinking Political Mediations, by Isabelle Garo (Verso) Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization, by Rodrigo Nunes (Verso) Bringing direct experience from Brazil, France, Turkey, and the United States, these authors invite reconsideration of political and organizational strategy in light of the worldwide extent of recent struggles. We will make this a new, collaborative exercise and add related readings, multimedia, and possibly guest talks suggested by participants in the reading group. Tuesdays, at 6:30 pm EST; Winter series ends April 30; RSVP for information about coming Spring series. Photos: Occupy Wall Street, 1 year later (credit Glenn Halog: 2012); Black Lives Matter (credit: Taymaz Valley 2020) Convened by Steve Backman and Rebecca Minnich | Why has the worldwide wave of mass protest in the decade of the 2010s given way to such a strong tide of reaction? And even with that counter-trend, what accounts for what some have called the Marxist revival, a new trend of theorizing and strategizing on the left. Join us this winter to read and reflect on what went right in the last decade, what new organizing now reflects its legacy, and what remains unfulfilled. | 12/26/2023 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/if-we-burn-political-strategy-for-21st-century/ | Classes/Events|Organizing|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group | 4/30/2024 18:30 | 4/30/2024 20:30 | ||
| The Fall and Rise of American Finance | huhVideo available here for this February 10, 2024, event  It is today all but taken for granted by critical political economists – and by political figures from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders – that finance is parasitic on industry. Financialization, in this view, amounts to financial institutions capturing the state, hollowing out the “real” economy, and thereby hastening the decline of capitalism. But Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno pose a bold challenge to this hypothesis in their new book, The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to Blackrock. Surveying the last century of capitalist development, they insist that, despite the costs to workers and the middle class, financialization has boosted competitiveness and strengthened capital – all with the support of an ever stronger and more authoritarian state. This has culminated since the 2008 crisis in a new economic regime – “a new finance capital” – marked by unprecedented concentration and centralization in the hands of the “Big Three” asset management firms (BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity).Unlike most recent MEP programming, this event will be presented live and in-person at The People’s Forum in New York City, with an online Zoom option for remote participants and a live stream on YouTube. Get your ticket below. Stephen Maher is Assistant Professor of Economics at SUNY Cortland, and Co-Editor of the Socialist Register. He is also the author of Corporate Capitalism and the Integral State: General Electric and a Century of American Power (Palgrave, 2022). Scott Aquanno is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ontario Tech University, and a Visiting Associate at the Global Labour Research Centre at York University. He is the author of Crisis of Risk: Subprime Debt and US Financial Power from 1944 to Present (Edward Elgar, 2021). The book is available from the publisher, Verso Books. | In-person event at The People’s Forum in NYC featuring Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno, authors of ‘The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to Blackrock.’ They insist that financialization has not implied the hollowing out of the “real” economy, the decline of capitalism, or the retreat of the state. Rather, it has served to intensify competitive discipline to maximize profits and the exploitation of labor occurred with the support of an increasingly authoritarian state. | 1/10/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/maher-aquannozzz/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Globalization|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/10/2024 14:00 | 2/10/2024 16:00 | ||
| Marx for Cats with Leigh Claire La Berge | A video of this February 24, 2024, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. “All history is the history of cat struggle.” In Marx for Cats: A Radical Bestiary, our guest speaker Leigh Claire La Berge follows feline footprints through Western economic history to reveal an animality at the heart of Marxism. She draws on a twelve-hundred-year arc spanning capitalism’s feudal prehistory, its colonialist and imperialist ages, the bourgeois revolutions that supported capitalism, and the communist revolutions that opposed it. Attending to myriad archival appearance of lions, tigers, wildcats, and other felines, La Berge argues that these creatures have been central to Marxist understandings of the economy and politics. Asking what humans and animals owe each other in a moment of ecological crisis, La Berge joins current debates about ecosocialism. This playful and generously illustrated radical bestiary demonstrates that class struggle is ultimately an interspecies collaboration. This event is held in conjunction with the MEP’s reading group Multispecies Marxism where we are discussing the central role of nonhuman animals in the capitalist economy, historically and today. Leigh Claire La Berge is Professor of English at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, and author of Marx for Cats as well as Wages Against Artwork: Decommodified Labor and the Claims of Socially Engaged Art. Register for the Zoom event and you will receive a 40% discount code to purchase Marx for Cats from Duke University Press. Participants are encouraged to read some or all of the book beforehand. | “All history is the history of cat struggle.” In “Marx for Cats: A Radical Bestiary,” our guest speaker Leigh Clare La Berge follows feline footprints through Western economic history to reveal an animality at the heart of Marxism. By asking what humans and animals owe each other in a moment of ecological crisis, La Berge joins current debates about the need for and possibility of eco-socialism. | 1/18/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-for-cats/ | Animals and Capital|Capital vs. Labor|Class|communism|Ecosocialism|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 2/24/2024 14:00 | 2/24/2024 16:00 | ||
| Palestine: Celebrating 75 Years of Literature | Read Palestinian fiction, poetry, and related literature in weekly meetings with the MEP’s Literature Group. The ongoing catastrophe in the Middle East breaks our hearts daily. As part of our mission to explore creative political resistance to oppression, we will read several novels and poems by Palestinian authors. The novels selected for this session include prominent and emerging writers investigating themes since 1947 of armed resistance, class, the refugee experience, and women’s experience of conflict. We invite participants to add to our selections, published from 1949 to the present, and tentatively include: Things You May Find HIdden in My Ear by Mosab Abu Toha; Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli; selected stories by Ghassan Kanafani; Out of Time: The Collected Stories of Samira Azzam, Arabesques by Anton Shammas, The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan, Wild Thorns, by Sahar Khalifeh; Passage to the plaza, by Sahar Khalifeh; A Day in the Life of Abed Salama; Palestine +100, edited by Basma Ghalayini. Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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, she has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation. This group’s final session is June 27. Please contact us if you wish to join the group in progress. The map: sampled from the amazing Visualizing Palestine project website. | Read Palestinian fiction, poetry, and related literature in weekly meetings with the MEP’s Literature Group. The ongoing catastrophe in the Middle East breaks our hearts daily. As part of our mission to explore creative political resistance to oppression, we will read several novels and poems by Palestinian authors. | 1/13/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/palestine-celebrating-75-years-literature/ | Classes/Events|Literature|Palestine|_Seasons>Reading Group|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 6/13/2024 7:00 | 6/13/2024 21:00 | ||
| Late Fascism: a Conversation With Alberto Toscano | A video of this March 3, 2024, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. A talk and conversation with Alberto Toscano about his powerful new book Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis. Toscano asks, how should we name, map and respond to the present state of affairs where the forces of authoritarianism and reaction seem to have the upper hand? Drawing especially on Black radical and anticolonial theories of fascism, the book makes clear the limits of associating fascism primarily with the kinds of political violence experienced in past European regimes. Toscano argues we should see fascism as a changing process, a threat anchored in racial and colonial capitalism, which continues to evolve in the present day. In the words of Robin D.G. Kelley, “Late Fascism is brilliant, incisive, and right on time.” The book is available from Verso. Alberto Toscano teaches at Simon Fraser University and at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the editor of Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s Abolition Democracy and a member of the editorial board of Historical Materialism. | In ‘Late Fascism’ Alberto Toscano asks, how should we name, map and respond to the present state of affairs where the forces of authoritarianism and reaction seem to have the upper hand? Drawing especially on Black radical and anticolonial theories of fascism, Toscano makes clear the limits of associating fascism primarily with the kinds of political violence experienced in past European regimes. He argues that we should see fascism as a changing process, a threat anchored in racial and colonial capitalism, which continues to evolve in the present day. | 2/1/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/late-fascism-a-conversation-with-alberto-toscano/ | Fascism|Neo-fascism|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Organizing|Race and Class|Repression|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|State Formation | 3/2/2024 14:00 | 3/2/2024 16:00 | ||
| Fletcher and Davidson: Campaigns, Movements and Organizing Strategies | A video of this March 16, 2024, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Bill Fletcher Jr. and Carl Davidson join us for a talk and discussion jumping off from their recent article on political strategy–“Campaigns and Movements: How Are They Connected, How Do They Differ?” (Convergence, October 6, 2023). In a wide-ranging survey, Fletcher and Davidson reference the 1960 Greensboro, NC, Woolworth’s sit-in, the 1963 March on Washington, the 2020 killing of George Floyd, as well as older historic organizing campaigns and upsurges. They invite us to distinguish what we can control from what we cannot in our organizing: “Social movements will emerge; we just cannot predict when.” Our guests will discuss new thoughts they have had about the article and the response it has provoked, all of which also fit well with other MEP programming this winter. Count on a lively discussion! Bill Fletcher Jr. is an internationally known trade unionist, international solidarity activist, writer, and now member of the editorial board of The Nation. His most recent book is the 2023 mystery novel The Man Who Changed Colors from Hardball Press. Carl Davidson is a veteran writer and organizer today, with roots in the New Left of the 1960s. Carl maintains the Online University of the Left, posts regularly on his “Left Links” Substack, and participates regularly in the MEP’s Gramsci reading group. Photo: Protesters with Signs at March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C., USA, photo by Marion S. Trikosko, August 28, 1963 (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images, available for non-commercial use) | 2/19/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-fall-and-rise-of-american-finance/ | 3/16/2024 14:00 | 3/16/2024 16:00 | ||||
| Vincent Bevins presents If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution | Why did the global mass protests from 2010 to 2010 so powerfully express desires to change the world? What did they achieve, where did they miss the mark and what comes next? Join us as Vincent Bevins presents his passionate, politically-aware, and personal history of the decade based on visits and interviews to ten countries on the political front lines in those years. “In this remarkably assured and sweeping history of the present, Bevins introduces us to the activists, hackers, punks, martyrs, and the millions of ordinary people whose spontaneous acts of bravery spurred the mass protests of the last ten years” (Merve Emre in the New Yorker). Join us for an evening of new insight and conversation about this new book and the author’s current projects. Vincent Bevins is an award-winning journalist and correspondent. He covered Southeast Asia for the Washington Post, reporting from across the entire region and paying special attention to the legacy of the 1965 massacre in Indonesia, which he wrote about in his previous book, The Jakarta Method. Along with years of other experience as a journalist worldwide, he served as the Brazil correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, and his connections to the struggles there helped inspire this new book. Photo: #VenPraRua, or “Come to the streets,” a hashtag and slogan in street protests across Brazil in 2013, photo by Pedro Paddington used under CC license | 3/8/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/vincent-bevins-presents-if-we-burn-the-mass-protest-decade-and-the-missing-revolution/ | featured | featured|Political Strategy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/13/2024 19:00 | 3/13/2024 21:00 | ||
| Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society | Michael Heinrich presents his biography-in-progress of Karl Marx, which has already gained glowing reviews from Marxist scholars the world over. In the first volume published in English by Monthly Review Press, Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society, Heinrich deals extensively with Marx’s youth and his studies in Bonn and Berlin. It also examines the function of poetry in Marx’s intellectual development and his first encounter with Hegelian philosophy and the so-called “young Hegelians.” The volume begins a multidimensional look at Karl Marx and aims to include what most biographies have reduced to mere background: the contemporary conflicts, struggles, and disputes that engaged Marx at the time of his writings, alongside his complex relationships with a varied assortment of friends and opponents. “A masterful work by one of the leading Marx scholars of his generation. Simply wonderful—analytical depth, critical knowledge, clarity of comprehension and presentation, grasp of theoretical and historical contexts, combine to create a most insightful Marx biography that will be an indispensable and lasting resource that scholars and researchers, activists and critics alike, should—and will—return to frequently.” —Werner Bonefeld, University of York, UK; author, Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy Marx has found his perfect biographer…. Heinrich’s attitude is the same as that of Marx: DOUBT EVERYTHING, even Marx himself. Only through this critical perspective Marx’s ambiguities and contradictions can be revealed, and his greatness and legacy be reclaimed. —Riccardo Bellofiore, University of Bergamo, Italy; author, In Marx’s Laboratory: Critical Interpretations of the Grundrisse Michael Heinrich teaches economics in Berlin and is managing editor of PROKLA: Journal for Critical Social Science. He is the author of The Science of Value: Marx’s Critique of Political Economy between Scientific Revolution and Classical Tradition, and editor, with Werner Bonefeld, of Capital and Critique: After the “New Reading” of Marx. | 2/27/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/michael-heinrich/ | featured | Capital Studies|communism|featured|Hegel|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Modernity|Philosophy|Philosophy of History|Poetry|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism | 3/26/2024 18:00 | 3/26/2024 20:00 | ||
| Marxism and Planetary Crises: New Works, New Debates | The MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group resumes consideration of capitalism’s catastrophic impact on the Earth’s climate and other critical systems, and ecosocialist strategies to challenge it. In eight weekly sessions beginning April 24, we will address important new work in ecological Marxism and environmental justice, with chapters from and critical reviews of these books, along with recently published essays by Andreas Malm and others:
All are welcome – participation in previous sessions is not required. Final session is June 19 – contact us if you wish to join. Convened by Fred Murphy, who has co-led recurring ecosocialist sessions with Steve Knight since 2016. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. | The MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group resumes consideration of capitalism’s catastrophic impact on the Earth’s climate and other critical systems, and ecosocialist strategies to challenge it. In eight weekly sessions beginning April 24, we will address important new work in ecological Marxism and environmental justice. | 3/25/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxism-and-planetary-crises-new-works-new-debates/2024-06-19/ | Agribusiness|American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Climate Change|Colonialism|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Globalization|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 6/12/2024 13:00 | 6/12/2024 14:30 | ||
| Annual Pass | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | This pass entitles the purchaser to attend any or all Marxist Education Project classes and events during an entire year from the month of purchase. (For example, a pass purchased on January 7, 2023, will be valid until January 31, 2024.) | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=20635 | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 3/31/2024 | 3/31/2024 23:59 | ||
| ‘Trotsky in Tijuana’ with Author Dan La Botz | Join author Dan La Botz for a five-week reading and discussion of his counter-historical novel Trotsky in Tijuana. In La Botz’s portrayal, the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was not murdered by Stalin’s henchman Ramón Mercador in August 1940 after all, but was rescued and spirited off to Tijuana at the direction of Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas. From the small city on the U.S. border, Trotsky continues to lead his Fourth International organization in planning a world revolution to overthrow both the global capitalist system and Stalin’s bureaucracy in the Soviet Union. The book is both a portrait of Leon Trotsky as an aging and isolated figure, and an exploration of his ideas. We look at Trotsky’s relations with his partner Natalia Sedova, with a new lover Rachel Silberstein, with his favorite secretary Jean van Heijenoort, and with various other friends and comrades. With Trotsky we also follow developments in World War II and attempt to forecast the war’s outcome and aftermath. Trotsky’s story is paralleled in the background by an account of Stalin in the same period. The 464-page novel is broken into 81 bite-sized chapters; readers have described it as a quick and easy read. Dan will lead weekly discussions April 24 through May 22, separating historical fact from fiction and comparing the book with other novels about its protagonist. Trotsky in Tijuana is available from booksellers in paperback $22.99 and eBook format for $2.99. More information is available at trotskyintijuana.com. Dan La Botz is a retired historian of the United States and Latin America and a longtime political activist on the left. He holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Cincinnati and has taught at several universities, most recently in the City University of New York School of Labor and Urban Studies. He is the author of a dozen books and scores of journalistic and academic articles on labor movements, social movements, and politics in the United States, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Indonesia. He is a co-editor of the journal New Politics. | 4/2/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/trotsky-in-tijuana/ | featured | communism|Fascism|Literature|Mexican Revolution|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|Repression|Revolutions|Russian Revolution|Socialism|Speculative fiction|War|Working Class History | 4/24/2024 19:00 | 4/24/2024 20:30 | ||
| Animals, Capitalism, Marxism: A Conversation | Join the authors of two major works on animals and capitalism for an event exploring the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice. Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel and Alex Blanchette bring to the Marxist Education Project an ongoing conversation they have been conducting this spring as Visiting Fellows at the Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Program. Wadiwel is the author of Animals and Capital and Blanchette is the author of Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm. Both books have recently been featured in MEP reading groups. Dinesh Wadiwel is Associate Professor in Human Rights and Socio-Legal Studies at The University of Sydney. He has been active in anti-poverty and disability rights movements. Previous books include The War against Animals and, as co-editor, Foucault and Animals (Brill, 2016). Alex Blanchette is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Tufts University. He also co-edited How Nature Works: Rethinking Labor on a Troubled Planet, which analyzes how non-human beings are enlisted into capitalist work regimens. His current research addresses the politics of quitting meatpacking, based on ethnographic interviews with ex-workers from across the United States. | Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel and Alex Blanchette explore the potential and limits of Marxist theory for addressing the roles and fates of nonhuman animals, as well as ways to connect anticapitalist struggles to animal liberation and environmental justice. Wadiwel is the author of Animals and Capital and Blanchette is the author of Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm. | 4/2/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/animals-capitalism-conversation/ | Accumulation of Capital|Agribusiness|Alienation|Animals and Capital|automation|Capital Studies|Class|Ecosocialism|featured|Food and politics|Labor Process|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Pandemics|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry | 5/8/2024 19:00 | 5/8/2024 21:00 | ||
| David McNally: Marx and Colonialism | A recording of this May 18, 2024, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. We marked the tenth anniversary of the Marxist Education Project with this keynote talk by David McNally on Marx and colonialism. The concluding chapter of Capital volume 1 tackles “the modern theory of colonization,” yet Marx only half-delivers on the promise implied. Rather than present a full-fledged account of capitalist colonialism, he pivots back to Europe and the processes of primitive accumulation. McNally fills in crucial gaps in Marx’s text, suggesting directions in which he might have gone in analyzing colonial relations and the globalization of capitalism outside of Europe – centering bondage, slavery, colonialism, and racism as foundational elements of global capitalism. David McNally is a good friend of the Marxist Education Project. Our most successful reading groups in the past 10 years featured his book Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance and Empire, and we have also studied his Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance. David is the 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. | David McNally joins our 10th anniversary celebration of the MEP with a keynote talk on “Marx and Colonialism: The End of Capital and the Beginning of a Journey.” | 4/8/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mcnally-marx-and-colonialism/ | Accumulation of Capital|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Colonialism|Enclosures|Globalization|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity | 5/18/2024 12:30 | 5/18/2024 14:30 | ||
| The New Shape of the Struggle: Neoliberalism and Fascism | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=20714 | 4/9/2024 8:00 | 4/9/2024 17:00 | |||||
| Reading Science Fiction Politically – Spring 2024 Season | The Science and Visionary Fiction reading group meets weekly to read and discuss science, visionary and speculative fiction that bears on politics, the environment, and the struggle for a better future for all. We focus on the concept of visionary fiction, emerging from Octavia Butler’s writings and beautifully articulated ten years ago by Walidah Imarisha, “To Build a Future Without Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It First.” While far from earthbound, and while not immune from reexamining the past or imagining, we do so to stay with the present, and with paths forward that do need new envisioning and imagining. This year, our selections have explored how artificial and nonhuman intelligence heighten both contradictions and possibilities. In the best of contemporary science fiction (and science fiction-adjacent) writing, conflicts over these issues illustrate the larger dimensions of social conflict today. To start the spring season, we will read Ray Nayler’s 2022 novel, The Mountain in the Sea. Nayler’s novel encompasses these themes–nonhuman (octopus) intelligence, artificial intelligence, climate justice and capitalist disregard for the earth, all in intensely human terms. Join in now to help select the additional titles to add to our current list. | 4/11/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/scienceandvisionaryfictionspring24/ | featured | Artificial Intelligence AI|Science Fiction | 4/29/2024 16:00 | 4/29/2024 16:00 | ||
| 2024 Community Celebration | Join us May 18At The People’s Forum in NYC or Remotely via ZoomTo celebrate ten years of the Marxist Education Project’s programming, we invite you to join us and your fellow participants, pass holders, and supporters at The People’s Forum in NYC on May 18 (or online – a Zoom link will be provided). Following David McNally’s keynote talk at 12:30 pm ET on Marx and Colonialism, we will break for refreshments and, at 3 pm ET, reconvene for a short presentation by the MEP executive team on the Project’s history, current status and needs, and future plans. We will then welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions, and indicate ways you can become more involved in our work. Please RSVP so that we will have a count of participants. You are welcome to join us at 3 pm ET if you cannot attend the entire afternoon. | 4/25/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/2024-community-celebration/ | 5/18/2024 14:30 | 5/18/2024 17:00 | ||||
| Trotsky in New York Walking Tour | Socialists and Immigrants in the Lower East SideJoin Alex Steinberg for a historical walking tour of Lower Manhattan as we explore some of the places where Leon Trotsky visited and worked during his nine week stay in New York in early 1917. We will explore the culture of the radicalized immigrant communities of Yiddish-speaking Jews from Eastern Europe as well as German, Russian, Italian and Greek immigrants. These communities supported a thriving socialist movement in New York. And in 1917, ferment and struggle increased dramatically as America entered World War I on April 6, 1917 and Russia’s revolutionary wave exploded a few months later. After beginning at Cooper Union, we will walk to 77 St. Marks Place, which housed the offices of the Russian language newspaper Novy Mir and where Trotsky and other future Bolshevik leaders worked daily. From there, the tour will walk to the building of the Jewish Daily Forward in Seward Park, where we will learn of Trotsky’s dramatic confrontation with more conservative socialists. As we walk we will pass by a number of places that were important in understanding the history of the social struggles of immigrants in a New York very different than the city we know today. Led by Alex Steinberg who has taught a number of classes with the Marxist Education Project. Meet in front the main entrance of The Great Hall of Cooper Union, behind the statue of Peter Cooper, East 7th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues. | 4/29/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/trotsky-in-new-york-walking-tour-2/ | History|Russian Revolution|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 5/11/2024 11:00 | 5/11/2024 14:00 | |||
| Reading Science Fiction Politically: Diverging Futures | In Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba, edited by Basma Ghalayini, as well as other recent books, Palestinian authors have begun to discover the power of science fiction. “Everyday life, for [Palestinian writers] is a kind of dystopia.” In this situation, “The real future –the actual future — is unknowable. But for SF writers, the mere idea of ‘things to come’ is license to re-imagine, re-configure, and re-interrogate the present.” This spring, the MEP Science and Visionary Fiction reading group will use this exciting new collection — and related political analyses of the war and political situation now as well as additional short fiction published elsewhere–to expand our understanding of the situation and struggle now in Palestine. And we will also use it to reach further into science fiction’s exploration of a future, just society. And we will deepen our appreciation of this new literature by reading with it other visions of pathways to a livable future, a just social order on Earth, in fiction and nonfiction:
This list is tentative and subject to change, other short selections or paring back by the reading group. Here is the tentative meeting schedule: May 27: Palestine +100 June 3: Palestine +100, Too Like the Lighting, chapters 1-3 June 10: Too Like the Lighting, chapters 3-6 June 17: Too Like the Lighting, chapters 7-10 June 24: Too Like the Lighting, chapters 11-15 July 2 July 8 July 15 July 22 July 29 –summer break– | 4/27/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-science-fiction-politically-diverging-futures/ | featured | _Seasons>Fall 2024|featured|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Palestine|Science Fiction|Visionary Fiction | 8/5/2024 16:00 | 8/5/2024 17:30 | ||
| Reading Gramsci for Today’s Movements | Sundays at 11 am ET An ongoing study group on the Prison Notebooks and other works of Antonio Gramsci. We explore Gramsci’s themes and concepts, including state-civil society relations, historical bloc, hegemony, spontaneity, strategy and tactic, and language. We follow Gramsci’s philological method, addressing such areas as linguistics, cinema, critical theory, literature, journalism, comics, animation, plastic arts, mass media and Machiavellian political studies. We draw on Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom movement and its documentary evidence, along with other shared historical movements, experiences and cultures in U.S., Iran and worldwide, towards change and “What-ought-to-be.” No prior knowledge of Gramsci is required. Session contributors lead the discussions on passages from Gramsci’s works and bring their own experiences, philosophies and scholarship to our readings. RSVP below if you wish to attend and we will send you the Zoom link. A suggested donation of $50 or whatever amount you can afford is welcome and appreciated. Convened by Piruz Alemi. Piruz has a PhD in Political Economy and an MFA in Documentary Film Making from City University of New York (CUNY). Piruz is an independent scholar-activist in Gramsci’s work and cultural studies, with a focus on the common struggle of politics of race in the U.S. and gender segregation in Iran and the wider region. | An ongoing study group on the Prison Notebooks and other works of Antonio Gramsci. We explore Gramsci’s themes and concepts, including state-civil society relations, historical bloc, hegemony, spontaneity, strategy and tactic, and language. We follow Gramsci’s philological method, addressing such areas as linguistics, cinema, critical theory, literature, journalism, comics, animation, plastic arts, mass media and Machiavellian political studies. | 5/3/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-gramsci-for-todays-movements-spring-2024/ | featured|Iran|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 1/19/2025 11:00 | 1/19/2025 12:30 | ||
| Fascism, Antifascism, Gaza, and Political Strategy | Where does the rising wave of authoritarianism and “late fascism” fit in the global relations of force at work today? And what paths of resistance work in response? The war in Gaza has brought to a head the left’s strategic dilemmas facing new, overt forms of fascism. Questions include the historical relationship of settler colonialism and national forms of fascism; the horrific escalation of the long war on Palestine; the opportunities and dangers for the left in national elections in the US and other countries. We will explore these questions through three points of departure that touch on race, gender, settler colonialism, fossil fascism, and the carceral state.
We will structure this as a focused, six to eight-week study emphasizing selections from these three books that most relate to the present moment, with other parts optional readings. And we will supplement these books with important analyses of the present moment. Convened by Steve Backman and Rebecca Minnich Photo: An uncredited photo obtained by The Times shows an inverted US flag, a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” phenomenon, at Supreme Court Justice Alito’s residence on Jan. 17, 2021, three days before the Biden inauguration. | 5/17/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fascism-antifascism-gaza-and-political-strategy/ | featured | featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 7/30/2024 18:30 | 7/30/2024 20:30 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: The Science of Logic III | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues this summer with a reading of the third and final part of Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic. This is the discussion of the Notion culminating in the Absolute Idea. There will be a review session for recurring students as well as those who missed Part I, Being, and Part II, Essence. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx’s Capital. Alex Steinberg will guide participants past the legendary obstacles to understanding this unsurpassed presentation of dialectics. Its depth and systematic structure is without parallel in any other of Hegel’s works. Eight weekly sessions will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. No prior experience with Hegel or attendance at previous classes is expected or required. Our goal is to make Hegel’s dialectic less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in his thought and its significance for our time. Alex Steinberg is the facilitator of Hegel for Radicals. He is an independent scholar who has taught and published on topics such as the philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and humanism, Hegel’s philosophy of history and Hegel’s Phenomenology at various alternative educational institutions. Alex was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. He has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2020-2021. | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals concludes our reading of Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic, Part III. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx’s Capital. Alex Steinberg guides participants past the legendary obstacles to understanding this unsurpassed presentation of dialectics. Its depth and systematic structure is without parallel in any other of Hegel’s works. | 6/11/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-science-of-logic-3/ | featured | featured|Hegel|Marx and Hegel|Marxist Method|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Science and Method|Spinoza|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 8/24/2024 11:00 | 8/24/2024 13:00 | |
| Summer Noir 2024 | The MEP Literature Group’s Summer Noir tradition of enjoying the bracing vitality of pulp continues with six short novels on the themes of difficult trips and political mayhem. Be warned: Do not expect happy endings in novels featuring corruption, futility and deception. Enrollees need not attend all sessions; to accommodate summer travel, we selected short novels which we can discuss in in a single session. Trips that Go Wrong – July July 11: Tropic Moon, by Georges Simenon, 152 pages. July 18: Basic Black with Pearls, by Helen Weinzweig, 160 pages. July 25: The Taiga Syndrome, by Cristina Rivera Garza. 128 pages. Political Turmoil – August August 1: Skeletons in the Closet, Jean-Patrick Manchette, 178 pages. August: 8 Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin, Gabriel García Márquez, 160 pages. August 15: Plan B, Chester Himes. 164 pages The Literature Group will resume reading novels set in Palestine in September. | 6/11/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/summer-noir-2024/ | featured | featured|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 8/22/2024 19:00 | 8/22/2024 19:00 | ||
| Palestine: Celebrating 75 Years of Literature | Read Palestinian fiction, poetry, and related literature in weekly meetings with the MEP’s Literature Group. The ongoing catastrophe in the Middle East breaks our hearts daily. As part of our mission to explore creative political resistance to oppression, we will read several novels and poems by Palestinian authors. The novels selected for this session include prominent and emerging writers investigating themes since 1947 of armed resistance, class, the refugee experience, and women’s experience of conflict. We invite participants to add to our selections, published from 1949 to the present, and tentatively include: Things You May Find HIdden in My Ear by Mosab Abu Toha; Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli; selected stories by Ghassan Kanafani; Out of Time: The Collected Stories of Samira Azzam, Arabesques by Anton Shammas, The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan, Wild Thorns, by Sahar Khalifeh; Passage to the plaza, by Sahar Khalifeh; A Day in the Life of Abed Salama; Palestine +100, edited by Basma Ghalayini. Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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, she has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation. This group’s final session is June 27. Please contact us if you wish to join the group in progress. The map: sampled from the amazing Visualizing Palestine project website. | Read Palestinian fiction, poetry, and related literature in weekly meetings with the MEP’s Literature Group. The ongoing catastrophe in the Middle East breaks our hearts daily. As part of our mission to explore creative political resistance to oppression, we will read several novels and poems by Palestinian authors. | 6/12/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/palestine-celebrating-75-years-of-literature/ | Classes/Events|Literature|Palestine|_Seasons>Reading Group | 8/29/2024 2:04 | 8/29/2024 6:04 | ||
| Classical Political Economy and Marx’s Critique: Theories of Surplus-Value | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, we are reading closely and discussing Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value (sometimes referred to as Volume 4 of Capital), supplemented by chapters from I.I. Rubin’s History of Economic Thought. This ongoing reading group is facilitated by the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. To join the group in progress, send email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Marx’s Grundrisse, we are now engaged in a close reading of Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value (sometimes referred to as Volume 4 of Capital), supplemented by chapters from I.I. Rubin’s History of Economic Thought. | 6/15/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=21102 | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Classes/Events|historical materialism|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 6/29/2024 11:00 | 6/29/2024 13:00 | ||
| Classical Political Economy and Marx’s Critique: Theories of Surplus-Value | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, we are reading closely and discussing Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value (sometimes referred to as Volume 4 of Capital), supplemented by chapters from I.I. Rubin’s History of Economic Thought. This ongoing reading group is facilitated by the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. To join the group in progress, send email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Marx’s Grundrisse, we are now engaged in a close reading of Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value (sometimes referred to as Volume 4 of Capital), supplemented by chapters from I.I. Rubin’s History of Economic Thought. | 6/15/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=21108 | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Classes/Events|historical materialism|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 6/29/2024 11:00 | 6/29/2024 13:00 | ||
| Studies in Marx’s Capital | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study of Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, this group has been reading closely and discussing Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value and related articles and books analyzing and amplifying the three volumes of Marx’s Capital. At present (November 2024) we are completing a study of capitalist landholding and ground rent. Future readings may include Mute Compulsion: A Marxist Theory of the Economic Power of Capital, by Søren Mau, and The Automatic Fetish: The Law of Value in Marx’s Capital, by Beverley Best. RSVP below if you wish to join this ongoing study group and we will send you the Zoom link. A suggested donation of $50 or whatever amount you can afford is welcome and appreciated. | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, we have been reading closely and discussing Marx’s ‘Theories of Surplus Value’ and related works. At present we are completing a study of capitalist landholding and ground rent. Future readings may include Soren Mau’s ‘Mute Compulsion’ and Beverley Best’s ‘The Automatic Fetish.’ | 6/16/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/theories-surplus-value-4/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Classes/Events|historical materialism|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 11/9/2024 11:00 | 11/9/2024 13:00 | ||
| Classical Political Economy and Marx’s Critique: Theories of Surplus-Value | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Karl Marx’s Grundrisse, we are reading closely and discussing Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value (sometimes referred to as Volume 4 of Capital), supplemented by chapters from I.I. Rubin’s History of Economic Thought. This ongoing reading group is facilitated by the MEP’s Capital Studies Group. To join the group in progress, send email to info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | Following up on the MEP’s long-running study group on Marx’s Grundrisse, we are now engaged in a close reading of Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value (sometimes referred to as Volume 4 of Capital), supplemented by chapters from I.I. Rubin’s History of Economic Thought. | 6/16/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=21115 | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Classes/Events|historical materialism|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 7/13/2024 11:00 | 7/13/2024 13:00 | ||
| The Circulation of Capital: Reading Volume II of Marx’s Capital | In Volume I of Capital, Marx analyzes the processes of capitalist production and accumulation and identifies the real sources of wealth: nature and the labor performed by working people. In Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital, he addresses the next big question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? We discover the answer, but we also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. Marx thereby lays the groundwork for the system-wide analyses in Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole.We welcome all who have a basic knowledge of Volume I of Capital to this ongoing weekly study group. Participants will closely read and discuss Volume II, guided by Fred Murphy and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We will use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we will do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants will read other sections on their own, and we will summarize and discuss when we meet. The conversation continues in the group’s Slack channel. The series is ongoing until we have read the entire book. Contact us if you would like to join the group in progress. Fred Murphy has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. | A weekly study group covering Marx’s Capital, Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital. In this volume, Marx addresses the question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? We discover the answer, but we also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. | 6/26/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=21147 | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Crisis|historical materialism|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 7/29/2024 18:30 | 7/29/2024 20:00 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital Volume I | Participants in this group are closely reading and discussing Volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. The study of Capital has been at the core of the Marxist Education Project since its inception. Every generation involved in struggle since Marx’s time has rediscovered Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origin and trajectory of modern society. For key chapters or sections, we do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants read other sections on their own, and we summarize and discuss when we meet. In line with Marx’s own approach in Capital, we both take it all very seriously and make it fun as well. If you have read Capital before – or if you have never read it – studying it together with us will deepen your understanding of the world today and refresh your political commitments. Lisa Maya Knauer guides this group, along with other experienced MEP teachers. Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. This study group is ongoing until we have read the entire book. At present we are reading Part Seven, “The Process of Accumulation of Capital.” RSVP below to join the group in progress. There is no registration fee but a suggested donation of $50 or whatever amount you can afford is welcome and appreciated. | Participants in this class are closely reading and discussing Volume I of Karl Marx’s ‘Capital, A Critique of Political Economy.’ At present we are reading Part Seven, “The Process of Accumulation of Capital.” | 7/1/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-marxs-capital-volume-i-2/ | Capital Studies|Classes/Events|Intro to Marxism|Political Economy|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 10/19/2024 16:00 | 10/19/2024 18:00 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital Volume I | Participants in this group are closely reading and discussing Volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. The study of Capital has been at the core of the Marxist Education Project since its inception. Every generation involved in struggle since Marx’s time has rediscovered Marx’s sustained effort to describe and explain the origins and trajectory of modern society. For key chapters or sections, we do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants read other sections on their own, and we summarize and discuss when we meet. In line with Marx’s own approach in Capital, we both take it all very seriously and make it fun as well. If you have read Capital before – or if you have never read it – studying it together with us will deepen your understanding of the world today and refresh your political commitments. Lisa Maya Knauer guides this group, along with other experienced MEP teachers. Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. This reading group is ongoing. Please contact us if you wish to join the group in progress. | Participants in this class are closely reading and discussing Volume I of Karl Marx’s ‘Capital, A Critique of Political Economy.’ The second 10-week series starts April 6 with Chapter 6, ‘The Sale and Purchase of Labor Power.’ | 7/1/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=21177 | Capital Studies|Classes/Events|Intro to Marxism|Political Economy|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 7/6/2024 16:00 | 7/6/2024 18:00 | ||
| The Circulation of Capital: Volume II of Marx’s Capital | In Volume I of Capital, Marx analyzes the processes of capitalist production and accumulation and identifies the real sources of wealth: nature and the labor performed by working people. In Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital, he addresses the next big question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? We discover the answer, but we also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. Marx thereby lays the groundwork for the system-wide analyses in Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole.We welcome all who have a basic knowledge of Volume I of Capital to this ongoing weekly study group. Participants are closely reading and discussing Volume II, guided by Fred Murphy and other experienced students of Marx from the MEP. We use a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we do a line-by-line reading with commentary and occasional supplemental materials. Participants read other sections on their own, and we summarize and discuss when we meet. The series is ongoing until we have read the entire book. At present we are reading Part Three, “The Reproduction and Circulation of the Total Social Capital.” Fred Murphy facilitates this group. Fred has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. RSVP below to join the group in progress. There is no registration fee but a suggested donation of $50 or whatever amount you can afford will help support the work of the MEP. | A weekly study group covering Marx’s Capital, Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital. In this volume, Marx addresses the question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? We discover the answer, but we also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. | 7/22/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-ii-4-2/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Crisis|historical materialism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Political Economy|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|_Seasons>Summer 2024 | 11/11/2024 18:30 | 11/11/2024 20:00 | ||
| AI versus Labor: Luddism and Beyond | Weekly sessions on Tuesdays at 1 pm through December 2024 Is Artificial Intelligence (AI, sic) really the dire threat to the future of humanity as even some of its proponents claim, or is it a more mundane and familiar threat to working people who face loss of their livelihoods and/or further speed-up and alienation? The entire history of industrial capitalism is punctuated by recurring waves of automation to reduce labor costs and turnover time, each time provoking strong resistance by the affected workforce. This reading group will probe the history both of AI and computer technology specifically and of working-class resistance to capitalist automation in general. In eight weekly sessions we will read, discuss, and critique two recent works: Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job, by Gavin Mueller; and The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence, by Matteo Pasquinelli. Both are available in paper and eBook format from the publisher, Verso Books. Additional reading selections will be provided in PDF format. Facilitated by Fred Murphy. Fred has led numerous study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. There is no fee for this eight-week online reading group – RSVP below if you wish to attend and we will send you the Zoom link. A suggested donation of $50 or whatever amount you can afford is welcome and appreciated. | 8 weekly sessions starting Oct 1. Is Artificial Intelligence (AI, sic) really the dire threat to the future of humanity as even some of its proponents claim, or is it a more mundane and familiar threat to working people who face loss of their livelihoods and/or further speed-up and alienation? The entire history of industrial capitalism is punctuated by recurring waves of automation to reduce labor costs and turnover time, each time provoking strong resistance by the affected workforce. This reading group will probe the history both of AI and computer technology specifically and of working-class resistance to capitalist automation in general. | 8/29/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/ai-versus-labor-luddism-and-beyond/ | featured | Accumulation of Capital|Alienation|Artificial Intelligence AI|automation|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Class|Class and Gender|_Seasons>Fall 2024|featured|Gender|History|Labor History|Labor Process|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Precarity|_Seasons>Reading Group|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Solidarity|Women | 11/26/2024 13:00 | 11/26/2024 14:30 | |
| Henri Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life |  Written in three volumes over thirty-five years, Henri Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life is a major manifesto of humanist Marxism, and a clarion call for revolutionary praxis through sustained critique of daily living. “Lefebvre pushed philosophy out into the streets,” the critic McKenzie Wark has written; his work has influenced fields as diverse as sociology, cultural studies, architecture and urban planning, as well as movements including the Situationist International and the activists of May 1968.The suggested text for this open-ended reading group is the three-volume Critique of Everyday Life, available in paperback or e-book from Verso Books. No previous knowledge of Marxism or Henri Lefebvre’s work is required to participate. Convening this reading group, Steve Knight has been involved as both a participant and reading group co-leader with the MEP since 2016. He is a former university literature and writing instructor, and has also worked in finance. The group will meet weekly on Wednesdays from 2-3:30pm US ET, beginning February 5, 2025. There is no fee for this online reading group – RSVP below if you wish to attend and we will send you the Zoom link. A suggested donation of $50 or whatever amount you can afford is welcome and appreciated. | An open-ended reading group on Henri Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life – a major manifesto of humanist Marxism and a clarion call for revolutionary praxis through sustained critique of daily living. “Lefebvre pushed philosophy out into the streets,” the critic McKenzie Wark has written; his work has influenced fields as diverse as sociology, cultural studies, architecture and urban planning, as well as movements including the Situationist International and the activists of May 1968. | 9/3/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/critique-everyday-life/ | featured | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/5/2025 14:00 | 2/5/2025 15:30 | |
| Celebrating 75 Years of Palestinian Literature – Final Series | Three weekly sessions on Thursdays at 7 pm US ET, Starting January 9 The MEP’s months-long reading of Palestinian literature concludes in January with a reading of the recently issued memoir My Palestine: An Impossible Exile by Mohammad Tarbush. This highly praised memoir written by a man born during the Nakba and who died after completing this work early in 2024 covers the events that have been themes throughout our readings. Mohammad Tarbush was a key part of the national movement and his life displays the struggles and turmoil of his people. Reading Schedule: Jan 9 -Introduction, Preface, Chapters 1-7 Jan 16 – Chapters 8-14 Jan 23 – Chapters 15 to End The Marxist Education Project Literature Group will continue reading Palestinian literature this fall. We will use our grief over the daily news reports of death and suffering to develop an understanding of Palestinians as more than victims of the moment, but as a nation with a lively and broad-themed cultural response to colonial oppression. You can also check out last fall’s now-completed syllabus here. And preview our February series featuring two novels from Burundi Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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. | 9/6/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/celebrating-75-years-of-palestinian-literature-new-series/ | Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 1/23/2025 19:00 | 1/23/2025 21:00 | |||
| Conversations on the US Elections | Join us online on Tuesday, September 17 at 6:30 pm US ET for an open-ended conversation about the evolving US political conjuncture now shaping the November elections. Drawing on our recent study of political strategy and fascism, we will assess the contending social and political forces in the US election campaign and consider the various approaches put forward by currents on the American left. Please RSVP below and we will send you a Zoom link to join the conversation. A donation of $5 or more will help support the work of the MEP. Here are some items we’ve run across about the elections and the present moment which you might find useful. Watch for an announcement for the next elections discussion on Tuesday, October 15. | Join us online on Tuesday, September 17 at 6:30 pm US ET for an open-ended conversation about the evolving US political conjuncture now shaping the November elections. Drawing on our recent study of political strategy and fascism, we will assess the contending social and political forces in the US election campaign and consider the various approaches put forward by currents on the American left. | 9/6/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mep-elections-discussion-2/ | featured | Classes/Events|featured | 9/17/2024 18:30 | 9/17/2024 20:00 | |
| Reading Science Fiction Politically: In Ascension | March 17, Mondays, new season continuing every other Monday at 5:00 pm US ET The long-running Science and Visionary Fiction book group next reads In Ascension by Martin MacInnes. Set against looming climate disaster, MacInnes’s powerful story moves from the still-unexplored vastness of the ocean to the beckoning vastness of interstellar space. For politically-oriented fiction readers, MacInnes provokes discussion of how social relations and contradictions shape and distort scientific discovery and research. The novel explores these themes from the vantage point of richly-drawn Dutch marine scientist Leigh Hasenbosch. Join us March 3 for lively discussion on this 2024 Arthur C Clarke Award winner for 2024, also long-listed for the 2023 Booker Prize. In Ascension offers a powerful opportunity for introspection and intentionality as we all explore our relationship to and our agency in the ongoing crisis around us. We read this and all our selections mindful of our book group’s 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. This spring, we will continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar. Whether you have always read science fiction or never given it a second thought, consider spending a season with the MEP Science and Visionary Fiction book group. And help us choose our spring list, from among these and other titles under consideration:
| “To build a better future, we have to envision it first.” Reading science fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for “envisioning” a future worth building. This fall, we continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar. | 9/9/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/21268/ | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science Fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction | 3/17/2025 17:00 | 3/17/2025 18:30 | ||
| Reading Science Fiction Politically: Envision the Future We Seek | Eight Mondays at 4:00 pm US ET, beginning September 23. “To build a better future, we have to envision it first.” Reading science fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for “envisioning” a future worth building. This fall, we continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar. Whether you have always read science fiction or never given it a second thought, consider spending a season with the MEP Science and Visionary Fiction book group. This fall, we will start a new series exploring climate and political crisis from new vantage points. In a change of format, we will read and meet to discuss one novel (or equivalent in shorter fiction) each month, your main commitment in joining the group. We will get together optionally on some off weeks for additional discussion of related reviews, literary criticism, blog posts, and more of interest to the group. Our list for the fall includes:
Join the group now, and help choose our winter set of titles. Books under consideration–mostly current favorite titles, mostly highly political fiction–include:
Related readings we have in mind for off weeks include essays from Fredric Jameson’s Archaeologies of the Future. | “To build a better future, we have to envision it first.” Reading science fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for “envisioning” a future worth building. This fall, we continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=21346 | Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Science Fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction | 9/23/2024 16:00 | 9/23/2024 17:30 | ||
| Book Talk: Liberating | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=21399 | 9/18/2024 8:00 | 9/18/2024 17:00 | |||||
| Book Talk: Liberating Abortion | A recording of this October 20, 2024, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Regina Mahone presents Liberating Abortion, a galvanizing history recentering people of color to put forth a timely argument that we must liberate abortion for all. In their book Mahone and co-author Renee Bracey Sherman illustrate the long racist history that brought us to this moment, uncover the hidden figures who laid the foundations that activists and storytellers are building on today, and explain how abortion has been and remains essential to the health of our communities. Liberating Abortion takes us back to the basics of sex education, detailing the traditions of abortion over centuries, while examining how society makes us feel about our experiences. The book presents rigorous research, never-before-heard stories, and eye-opening interviews with over 50 people of color who’ve had abortions – including activists, actresses, television writers, politicians, and the two Black members of Jane, the Chicago feminist service that provided abortions before Roe. With poignant storytelling and precise analysis, Liberating Abortion will change how you think about abortion forever. Regina Mahone is a writer and editor whose work explores the intersections between race, class, and reproductive rights. A senior editor at The Nation, she also runs Repro Nation, a monthly newsletter about global efforts to protect reproductive freedom. With Renee Bracey Sherman she co-hosts the podcast The A Files: A Secret History of Abortion from The Meteor. Regina has written for publications including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Rewire News Group, Romper, The Nation, and Truthout. She lives in New Jersey with her partner and two children. Liberating Abortion will be released on October 1 and is available for pre-order at liberatingabortion.org. | Regina Mahone presents Liberating Abortion, a galvanizing history recentering people of color to put forth a timely argument that we must liberate abortion for all. Mahone and co-author Renee Bracey Sherman illustrate the long racist history that brought us to this moment, uncover the hidden figures who laid the foundations that activists and storytellers are building on today, and explain how abortion has been and remains essential to the health of our communities. | 9/19/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/book-talk-liberating-abortion/ | featured | Abortion|African American History|Class and Gender|_Seasons>Fall 2024|featured|Gender|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Women | 10/20/2024 14:00 | 10/20/2024 15:30 | |
| Book Talk: On the History of Capitalist ‘Reforms’ | A recording of this October 13, 2024, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Giampaolo Conte presents A History of Capitalist Transformation: A Critique of Liberal-Capitalist Reforms, just published by Routledge. Since the recent financial crises, the expression “liberal reform” has come to evoke austerity and economic malaise, especially for the working classes and a segment of the middle class. Conte’s historical research demonstrates that the chief purpose of such reforms has been to integrate semi-peripheral states into the capitalist world-economy. Rules, institutions, attitudes, and procedures are imposed in accord with the economic and political interests of capitalist élites and hegemonic states – first by Britain, then by the United States. In all situations, the velvet glove barely conceals the armored fist. The goals and methods – more or less the same today as 300 years ago – promote the ongoing dissolution of traditional societies in the peripheries of the contemporary world. “A fascinating account of state debt as a mechanism in international relations forcing liberal reforms on the capitalist periphery, doing away with ways of social life in conflict with the requirements of modern capital formation. Contains striking historical material from countries like Egypt and China during Polanyi’s Long Nineteenth Century.” – Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Giampaolo Conte teaches in Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts at the University of Rome 3. He is a Research Associate of ISEM-CNR, and editorial assistant for The Journal of European Economic History. | Giampaolo Conte presents ‘A History of Capitalist Transformation: A Critique of Liberal-Capitalist Reforms’, just published by Routledge. Conte’s historical research demonstrates that the chief purpose of such reforms has been to integrate semi-peripheral states into the capitalist world-economy. | 9/22/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/book-talk-on-the-history-of-capitalist-reforms/ | featured | Accumulation of Capital|American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Colonialism|_Seasons>Fall 2024|featured|History|Imperialism|Modernity|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/13/2024 14:00 | 10/13/2024 15:30 | |
| Hegel’s ‘Science of Logic’ – An Epilogue and a Prologue | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals introduces what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. We are reading the Introduction and Preliminary Concepts from Hegel’s Encyclopedia Logic, sometimes called “The Shorter Logic.” The material we are discussing can stand alone as an Introduction to Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic. But for those who have already studied the Science of Logic with us this can serve as completion of the Circle of the dialectic. We are reading from: G. W. F. Hegel, The Encyclopaedia Logic, also known as Part I of the Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences, translation by T. F. Geraets, W. A. Suchting, and H. S. Harris. Hackett Publishing Company, 1991. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and lifelong socialist who has taught classes in Marxist philosophy, Hegel, the dialectics of nature, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at the New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, The Brecht Forum, the Marxist Education Project, and other venues. Alex was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. In addition to his scholarly activities Alex has been involved with the governance of WBAI radio, most recently as Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019 – 2021. Matthew Strauss is an independent scholar and a revolutionary communist. He is affiliated with the Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists (CORS) of Columbus, Ohio, and was a member for eleven years of the International Socialist Organization until its dissolution. Registration for this group is now closed. | Hegel for Radicals concludes the current series with a nine-week course co-hosted by Alex Steinberg and Matthew Strauss. We are reading the Introduction and Preliminary Concepts from Hegel’s Encyclopedia Logic, sometimes called “The Shorter Logic.” This material can stand alone as an Introduction to Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic. But for those who have already studied the Science of Logic with us this can serve as completion of the Circle of the dialectic. | 9/30/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-science-of-logic-an-epilogue-and-a-prologue/ | _Seasons>Fall 2024|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method | 12/14/2024 11:00 | 12/14/2024 13:00 | ||
| Immigration and Chicano/Latin American Liberation: Repression & Resistance | Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET Join us for an overview study of the relationship between Mexican immigration and the United States: its colonial foundation, vibrant new communities, cyclical labor exploitation, and state-sanctioned repression, liberation struggles. The Chicano liberation movement emerged as a direct response to this, and its legacy is critical to understanding immigration struggles today and modern nativist and fascist-aligned counter-responses. Convened by the MEP Political Strategy Study Group, including Steve Backman, Fred Murphy, and new volunteers Camilo Pérez-Bustillo and others. Our primary reading is No One Is Illegal, by Justin Akers Chacon and Mike Davis (Haymarket Books, 2018 Updated Edition). We supplement this with additional recommended readings for which we will provide links or copies, and, based on initial discussion, we may recommend a second book as “primary.” We have planned for six weeks, optionally extending to eight. Given the richness of the topics and based on interest, we may plan for follow-on study in the spring. This study continues the long-running “Historical Roots of American Fascism” series and takes it in a new direction. Our historical readings first focused on the 1830s and 1840s counter-revolution of Texan settlers against native peoples, Mexico, and people of Mexican origins with long traditions in the Southwest. This study brings our focus forward to the patterns of life and struggle in the twentieth century and twentieth-first century. Using the lens of Chicano political traditions, we expect it to provide insight on national conditions throughout the US. We continue to have three points of reference:
We will make available a new syllabus while continuing to update our long-term bibliography of supplementary readings. | 10/2/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/historical-roots/ | _Seasons>Fall 2025|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Reading Group | 2/10/2026 19:00 | 2/10/2026 20:30 | |||
| Conversations on the US Elections – What happens next? | Join us online on Wednesday, November 6 at 6:30 pm US ET for a first-impressions conversation on whatever results are known of the 2024 US elections. We will not know everything; many things will play out over the months that follow. We will know some things that have already taken shape. We can ask what will governing look like, what new shapes may fascism take, what directions will capitalism take, and how resistance will evolve. What does the election mean for climate struggle, Palestine solidarity, reproductive freedom, challenging the carceral state? Recent MEP study groups and events have taken on these and related questions. We will bring those studies to bear on these questions, and bring to bear your participation in these struggles as well. Join us for this open-ended conversation about the evolving US political conjuncture now shaping the November elections. We will also introduce a new study group beginning in November that will examine the historical roots of American fascism to better understand its threat today and the work that lies ahead. Please RSVP below and we will send you a Zoom link to join the conversation. A donation of $5 or more will help support the work of the MEP. Here are some items we’ve run across about the elections and the present moment which you might find useful. | Join us for a first-impressions conversation on whatever results are known of the 2024 US elections. We will not know everything; many things will play out over the months that follow. We will know some things that have already taken shape. We can ask what will governing look like, what new shapes may fascism take, what directions will capitalism take, and how resistance will evolve. What does the election mean for climate struggle, Palestine solidarity, reproductive freedom, challenging the carceral state? | 10/13/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/conversations-on-the-us-elections-what-happens-next/ | featured | Classes/Events|featured | 11/6/2024 18:30 | 11/6/2024 20:00 | |
| A Prime Competitor: Understanding Amazon’s Market Power | A recording of this November 20, 2024, event is available on our YouTube channel. Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno present an innovative analysis of Amazon’s market power, drawing on major themes from Marx’s Capital, volume 2. In a recent report prepared for Amazon Worker Solidarity, they challenge understandings of “monopoly” common in mainstream economics as well as among sections of the left. Amazon’s “bigness” and lack of a direct competitor would seem to suggest that it should be considered a monopoly. And yet, far from exhibiting the tell-tale signs of increasing monopoly prices, inefficiency, and technological stagnation, Amazon has engaged in cutthroat price competition, built a highly efficient and technologically advanced logistics system, and unleashed competitive forces whose effects have reverberated across the retail sector and beyond. Moreover, Amazon’s distinct vertically integrated structure, competing across a range of sectors including retail, e-commerce, logistics, online search engines, and media entertainment – each dominated by large firms – suggests that today’s giant corporations are not significantly encumbered by barriers to entry. Stephen Maher is Assistant Professor of Economics at SUNY Cortland, and Co-Editor of the Socialist Register. With Scott Aquanno he co-authored The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to Blackrock (Verso, 2024). Steve is also the author of Corporate Capitalism and the Integral State: General Electric and a Century of American Power (Palgrave, 2022). Scott Aquanno is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ontario Tech University, and a Visiting Associate at the Global Labour Research Centre at York University. With Stephen Maher he co-authored The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to Blackrock (Verso, 2024). Scott is also the author of Crisis of Risk: Subprime Debt and US Financial Power from 1944 to Present (Edward Elgar, 2021). | Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno present an innovative analysis of Amazon’s market power, drawing on major themes from Marx’s Capital, volume 2. In a recent contribution published by Canada’s Socialist Project, they challenge understandings of “monopoly” common in mainstream economics as well as among sections of the left. | 10/31/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/amazon-market-power/ | featured | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|_Seasons>Fall 2024|featured|Intro to Marxism|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 11/20/2024 19:00 | 11/20/2024 21:00 | |
| Marx Miniseries: The ‘Resultate’ | Having completed a year-long study of Marx’s Capital, volume 1, the MEP’s Capital Studies Group is closely reading the chapter Marx omitted from the original book. Titled “Results of the Immediate Process of Production” and often referred to by the German Resultate, this long chapter was published as an Appendix to the Penguin edition of Capital I. It can be read as a bridge between volumes 1 and 2 of Capital and presents a number of concepts in greater depth, including the distinctions between productive and unproductive labor and between “formal” and “real” subsumption of labor to capital. Facilitated by Fred Murphy and Lisa Maya Knauer. | The MEP’s Capital Studies Group presents a miniseries on the chapter Marx omitted from published editions of Capital. Titled “Results of the Immediate Process of Production” and often referred to by the German ‘Resultate’, this long chapter can be read as a bridge between volumes 1 and 2 of Capital. | 10/31/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-miniseries-the-resultate/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|_Seasons>Fall 2024|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group | 1/4/2025 16:00 | 1/4/2025 17:30 | ||
| Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume III | Volume III of Capital – The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole – integrates and completes Marx’s analysis, 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 of capitalism. It is essential to understanding the current moment of late capitalist/imperialist development, in which we see the rise of rentier and finance capital and the commodification of debt; continuously rising prices that bring still more poverty and starvation; new technologies turned into means of extracting rents; the privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; and the list goes on. Participants in this long-running study group have been closely reading and discussing Volume III, using a hybrid approach to cover the entire book. For key chapters or sections, we do a line-by-line reading with pauses for questions and commentary. Participants read other sections on their own, along with occasional supplemental materials such as passages from Beverley Best’s highly praised companion to Volume III, The Automatic Fetish. The series is nearing completion with study of Part Six on Ground-Rent.Registration is now closed, but please email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com if you are interested in further Capital studies. Fred Murphy facilitates this group. Since 2015 Fred has led numerous MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research and reported from Latin America for several socialist publications. | A weekly study group covering Marx’s Capital, Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. This work integrates and completes Marx’s analysis, 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 of capitalism. | 11/19/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-volume-iii/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Crisis|Financialization|historical materialism|History|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 11/24/2025 18:30 | 11/24/2025 20:00 | ||
| Translating ‘Capital’ for the 21st Century | A recording of this December 14, 2024, event is available on YouTube. The appearance of a new English-language edition of Marx’s Capital, Volume I, translated by Paul Reitter and edited by Paul North and Paul Reitter, has been a momentous occasion. Join a conversation with Reitter and noted Marx scholar Michael Heinrich on the challenges of translating Marx for 21st century readers, the weaknesses and strengths of earlier translations, and the ways the new edition can help us understand Marx’s analyses of capital and value. Paul Reitter is Professor of Germanic languages and literatures at The Ohio State University, where his scholarship focuses on German-Jewish culture and the history of higher education. He is the author of The Anti-Journalist: Karl Kraus and Jewish Self-Fashioning in Fin-de-Siecle Europe; On the Origins of Jewish Self-Hatred, and Bambi’s Jewish Roots: Essays on German-Jewish Culture. Michael Heinrich served on the Editorial Board for the new edition of Capital. He taught economics in Berlin and was managing editor of PROKLA: Journal for Critical Social Science. He is the author of a number of books on Marx and Capital, including An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital, Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society, and The Science of Value: Marx’s Critique of Political Economy between Scientific Revolution and Classical Tradition. | The appearance of a new English-language edition of Marx’s Capital, Volume I, translated and edited by Paul Reitter and Paul North, has been a momentous occasion. Join a conversation with Reitter, North, and noted Marx scholar Michael Heinrich on the challenges of translating Marx for 21st century readers, the weaknesses and strengths of earlier translations, and the ways the new edition can help us understand Marx’s analyses of capital and value. | 11/26/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/translating-capital/ | featured | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Engels|_Seasons>Fall 2024|featured|Intro to Marxism|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/14/2024 14:00 | 12/14/2024 16:00 | |
| Reading Capital in an Age of Climate Change | A recording of this January 8, 2025, event is available on YouTube. While there is a robust and exploding literature on capitalism as the root cause of climate change, few have systematically explored Karl Marx’s most important finished work – Volume 1 of Capital – to bring to light the climate repercussions of capital’s “laws of motion.” Volume 1 is of special importance to a Marxist climate politics given the centrality of production in causing climate change itself. Matt Huber highlights the relevance to the climate crisis of key concepts such as value, the hidden abode of production, surplus-value, the accumulation of capital, primitive accumulation, and the expropriation of the expropriators. Matt Huber is Professor of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University and the author of two books, Climate Change as Class War and Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital. | Matt Huber highlights the relevance to the climate crisis of key concepts from Marx’s ‘Capital’ such as value, the hidden abode of production, surplus-value, the accumulation of capital, primitive accumulation, and the expropriation of the expropriators. | 12/11/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-climate-change/ | featured | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Capital vs. Labor|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|featured|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 1/8/2025 19:00 | 1/8/2025 20:30 | |
| Literature of Burundi – A poorly reported conflict | Thursdays in February, Starting February 6, at 7:00 pm US ET In February, the Literature Reading Group will leave countries with extensive literature translated into English for Burundi, an East African nation considered the poorest country in the world. Burundi has had only two novels translated into English. Both novels take as a backdrop the country’s history of tribal conflict between Tutsi and Hutu in the lives of two young boys. February 6 – Baho! A Novel by Roland Rugero (Author), Christopher Schaefer (Translator). 91 pages When Nyamuragi, an adolescent mute, attempts to ask a young woman in rural Burundi for directions to an appropriate place to relieve himself, his gestures are mistaken as premeditation for rape. To the young woman’s community, his fleeing confirms his guilt, setting off a chain reaction of pursuit, mob justice, and Nyamuragi’s attempts at explanation. Young Burundian novelist Roland Rugero’s second novel Baho!, the first Burundian novel to ever be translated into English, explores the concepts of miscommunication and justice against the backdrop of war-torn Burundi’s beautiful green hillsides. February 13 and 20 – Small Country by Gaël Faye (Author) 2019 192 pages, Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister Ana, is something close to paradise. These are carefree days of laughter and adventure – sneaking Supermatch cigarettes and gorging on stolen mangoes – as he and his mischievous gang of friends transform their tiny cul-de-sac into their kingdom. But dark clouds are gathering over this small country, and soon their peaceful existence will shatter when Burundi, and neighboring Rwanda, are brutally hit by civil war and genocide. A novel of extraordinary power and beauty, Small Country describes an end of innocence as seen through the eyes of a child caught in the maelstrom of history. Shot through with shadows and light, tragedy and humor, it is a stirring tribute not only to a dark chapter in Africa’s past, but also to the bright days that preceded it. Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell, who 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 seven 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. | 12/19/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/literature-of-burundi-a-poorly-reported-conflict/ | Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes | 2/27/2025 19:00 | 2/27/2025 21:00 | |||
| Adam Smith and ‘The Wealth of Nations’ | Join Russell Dale to read and discuss the works of Adam Smith in this ongoing study group. At present the group is 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. We are reading the Oxford University Press edition of the work – the full title is An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1976; General editors: R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner; textual editor: W. B. Todd). The book has been republished by The Liberty Fund and made widely available in a two-volume photographic reproduction edition. Russell Dale taught philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY, for many years but is now retired. He has been a collaborator of the Marxist Education Project since its inception. He is on the Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society. | 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. | 12/22/2024 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/adam-smith/ | Capital Studies|England|_Seasons>Fall 2026|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method | 9/26/2026 11:00 | 9/26/2026 13:00 | ||
| Marx’s Capital Volume 1: A Short Course for Today | A 12-session study group, February 1 – April 26 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.  Experienced Capital study leader Lisa Maya Knauer will facilitate as we explore the relevance of Marx’s analysis to our current context. While we will go over the assigned material each week, participants will read the material on their own in advance. This reading group is open to both Capital newbies and those who have read it previously but want a refresher. Lisa Maya Knauer, our facilitator, has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. This group is approaching completion – please email info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com if you still wish to join. | 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. | 1/14/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxs-capital-volume-1-short-course-for-today/ | Capital Studies|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Social Reproduction|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 4/26/2025 16:00 | 4/26/2025 18:00 | ||
This open-ended 2025 Gramsci Sessions will read from and explore:
Participants may join in at any time. We share a vast database of articles and secondary sources on Gramsci towards research and application of Gramsci’s approach to concrete realities of our interest. All participants have the opportunity to lead discussions, and we transcribe, archive and share the commentaries on a weekly basis. In effect, we collectively write and apply Gramsci’s approach to international issues of interest to the group. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=22422 | |||||||
| Antonio Gramsci Studies | The ongoing Gramsci Study Sessions meet on Sundays at 11 am ET. At present we are reading and exploring:
Participants 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. Piruz 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. | 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. | 1/16/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/antonio-gramsci-studies-2026-sessions/ | featured | _Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|Gramsci|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group | 9/27/2026 11:00 | 9/27/2026 12:30 | |
| LA Is Burning with Dennis Broe | A recording of this February 15, 2025, event is available on our YouTube channel. Politicians are blaming the destruction and loss of life in the Los Angeles wildfires on each other, but the truth is the fires are the result of not even years or decades but centuries of neglect. Dennis Broe examines this history and sheds light on the ingrained power, the structural class and racial imbalances, and the wanton devastation of a city organized not for its people but for its elites. Using Mike Davis’s classic Ecology of Fear as a blueprint, Broe will put the still smoldering fires in context by looking at five areas: the geological long durée of a land of fires, earthquakes, tornados and mudslides; the ecological relationship of the fires to ever more intense global warming; the neoliberal moment of the deterioration of the state in its domestic and global dimensions; the region’s sedimented class and racial inequalities (exemplified by the recently devastated African-American community of Altadena); and the altered character of Los Angeles–and especially “Hollywood”–as no longer simply a site of imagined disasters but one that is now all too real. Dennis Broe, a journalist, critic and scholar who has taught at the Sorbonne and spoken at many MEP events, is the author of many books on film noir, media, and television, including five novels set in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s, the latest of which is The Dark Ages, about the coming of McCarthyism to Hollywood. | Dennis Broe examines the history of LA wildfires to shed light on the ingrained power, the structural class and racial imbalances, and the wanton devastation of a city organized not for its people but for its elites. | 1/31/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/la-is-burning-with-dennis-broe/ | Class|Climate Change|Cultural Resistance|Film and television|History|Housing|Media Criticism|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Urbanism|US History|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 2/15/2025 14:00 | 2/15/2025 15:30 | ||
| Bertolt Brecht’s Anti-Capitalist Aesthetics | A video of this February 22, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Presenting Bertolt Brecht’s Adaptations and Anti-capitalist Aesthetics Today, a new book by Anthony Squiers. The author will provide an overview of Brecht’s revolutionary Marxist aesthetic and examine its usefulness as a weapon in today’s struggles. Squiers’s book, published by Brill, examines Brecht’s theory and method of adaptation, using four key Brechtian concepts: Fabel, gestus, estrangement effects, and historicizing. Using that framework, it analyzes four Brechtian adaptations: The Tutor, Don Juan, “Socrates Wounded,” and Kriegsfibel, concluding that Brecht is useful for anti-capitalist aesthetics today because through him one can foster a new consciousness which enables the creation of better social conditions. The book is of value to theatrical practitioners, artists, and theorists. Anthony Squiers is a faculty member at AMDA College of the Performing Arts and co-editor of E-CIBS, the performance journal of the International Brecht Society. He is author of An Introduction to the Social and Political Philosophy of Bertolt Brecht. | Anthony Squiers presents an overview of Brecht’s revolutionary Marxist aesthetic and examine its usefulness as a weapon in today’s struggles. | 2/4/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/bertolt-brechts-anti-capitalist-aesthetics/ | Alienation|Anti-capitalist art|Art and politics|Cultural Resistance|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 2/22/2025 14:00 | 2/22/2025 15:30 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: The Phenomenology of Spirit | The MEP’s recurring Hegel for Radicals series introduces what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. Over 16 Saturdays, beginning March 8, we will read and discuss one of the most influential books of all time, Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. This massive retelling of humanity defies traditional divisions between history, philosophy, comedy, and tragedy. As participants in Hegel’s Bacchanalian Revel we will step through such themes as
This journey provides a foundation for Hegel’s dialectic, which is in turn a key to Marx’s Capital. We recommend the translation by A.V. Miller of the Phenomenology of Spirit, published by Oxford University Press and readily available as an inexpensive paperback. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar and lifelong socialist who has taught classes in Marxist philosophy, Hegel, the dialectics of nature, Heidegger, and Nietzsche at the New Space for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education, The Brecht Forum, the Marxist Education Project, and other venues. Alex was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. In addition to his scholarly activities Alex has been involved with the governance of WBAI radio, most recently as Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019 – 2021. Registration for this study group is now closed. | Over 16 Saturdays, beginning March 8, we will read and discuss one of the most influential books of all time, Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. This massive retelling of humanity defies traditional divisions between history, philosophy, comedy, and tragedy. | 2/9/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-phenomenology/ | Alienation|Critical Theory|French Revolution|Hegel|History|Marx and Hegel|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 7/19/2025 11:00 | 7/19/2025 13:00 | ||
| Karl Marx and Republicanism: Reading ‘Citizen Marx’ | “… It is still not adequately appreciated that Marx’s principal political value was freedom, A five-session reading groupWhat better time than the present moment to revisit Karl Marx’s commitment to the democratic republic as a necessary (if not sufficient) step on the path to human freedom? Over five weekly meetings we will read and discuss Bruno Leipold’s recently published Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought. As some of the most powerful capitalists in history are openly disavowing political democracy and calling for the unbridled rule of private wealth, we revisit Karl Marx’s revolutionary republicanism and his ideas about political power and social classes. Convened by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | What better time than the present moment to revisit Karl Marx’s commitment to the democratic republic as a necessary (if not sufficient) step on the path to human freedom? Over five weekly meetings we will read and discuss Bruno Leipold’s recently published Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought. | 2/22/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/citizen-marx-karl-marx-and-republicanism/ | Anarchism|Capital vs. Labor|communism|England|France|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Republicanism|Revolutions|Social Democracy|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 5/7/2025 18:00 | 5/7/2025 19:30 | ||
| ‘Citizen Marx’ with author Bruno Leipold | A video of this March 26, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. As some of the most powerful capitalists in history are openly disavowing political democracy and calling for the unbridled rule of private wealth, now is a good time to revisit Karl Marx’s revolutionary republicanism and his ideas about political power and social classes. In his recently published Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought, Bruno Leipold argues that Karl Marx’s thinking was deeply informed by republicanism. Challenging common depictions of Marx that downplay or ignore his commitment to politics, democracy, and freedom, Leipold shows that Marx viewed democratic political institutions as crucial to overcoming the social unfreedom and domination of capitalism. Placing Marx’s republican communism in its historical context—but not consigning him to that context—Leipold traces Marx’s shifting relationship to republicanism across three broad periods. First, Marx began his political life as a republican committed to a democratic republic in which citizens held active popular sovereignty. Second, he transitioned to communism, criticizing republicanism but incorporating the republican opposition to arbitrary power into his social critiques. He argued that although a democratic republic was not sufficient for emancipation, it was necessary for it. Third, spurred by the events of the Paris Commune of 1871, he came to view popular control in representation and public administration as essential to the realization of communism. Leipold shows how Marx positioned his republican communism to displace both antipolitical socialism and anticommunist republicanism. One of Marx’s great contributions, Leipold suggests, was to place politics (and especially democratic politics) at the heart of socialism. Bruno Leipold is a fellow in political theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the coeditor of Radical Republicanism: Recovering the Tradition’s Popular Heritage. | What better time than the present moment to revisit Karl Marx’s commitment to the democratic republic as a necessary (if not sufficient) step on the path to human freedom? Author Bruno Leipold presents his recently published ‘Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought.’ | 2/22/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/citizen-marx-bruno-leipold/ | Anarchism|Capital vs. Labor|communism|England|featured|France|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Republicanism|Revolutions|Social Democracy|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 3/26/2025 18:00 | 3/26/2025 20:30 | ||
| Darkest Los Angeles | Film Noir, Greed, and Corporate Graft in LaLa LandA five-session reading group with novelist and scholar Dennis Broe, presented by the Institute for the Radical Imagination and co-sponsored by the MEP, LA Progressive and People’s WorldOrson Welles once called Los Angeles “a bright, guilty place,” and that is as true today as it was in the 1940s when Welles coined this description. Dennis Broe leads a group reading of his five Los Angeles novels* set in the film-noir period of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The contradictions we will unearth in that postwar period, the period of crime films that visually documented this seedy reality, have never been resolved, only continually papered over, and so they resound today. We will look at five industries and moments in this period with a view toward explaining how the postwar period set the tone for what was to follow, leading to the present era of a vast income disparity and frequent “natural,” though totally avoidable, disasters. *The novels – Left of Eden, A Hello to Arms, The Precinct with the Golden Arm, The House That Buff Built, and The Dark Ages – are detailed in this syllabus. They are available from various online booksellers. Dennis Broe is a professor, journalist and novelist whose books include: Film Noir, American Workers and Postwar Hollywood; Class, Crime and International Film Noir: Globalizing America’s Dark Art; and Cold War Expressionism: Perverting the Politics of Perception. He has taught at The Sorbonne and is the Parisian correspondent for Arts Express on The Pacifica Network. Dennis also writes for LA Progressive, People’s World, Crime Time, Culture Matters, the British daily Morning Star and Monthly Review Online. His series of five novels is continuing with his latest, Pornocopia, about the corporate takeover of Las Vegas and the porn industry. Dennis has also just launched a new podcast, Culture and Barbarism, with Toby Miller. Register for this class series at the Institute for the Radical Imagination | Dennis Broe leads a group reading of his five Los Angeles novels set in the film-noir period of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The contradictions we will unearth in that postwar period, the period of crime films that visually documented this seedy reality, have never been resolved, only continually papered over, and so they resound today. | 4/15/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/darkest-los-angeles/ | Alienation|American Literature|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Capital vs. Labor|Cultural Resistance|Film and television|History|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|Race and Class|Radical Literature|_Seasons>Reading Group|Repression|_Seasons>Spring 2025|Urbanism | 5/23/2025 19:00 | 5/23/2025 20:30 | ||
| ‘The Late Marx’s Revolutionary Roads’ with author Kevin Anderson | A video of this March 29, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Kevin B. Anderson presents his newly published book, The Late Marx’s Revolutionary Roads, based on systematic analysis of Karl Marx’s “Ethnological Notebooks” and related Marx texts from his final years, 1869-1883. In these writings, Marx traveled beyond the boundaries of capital and class in the Western European and North American contexts, turning his attention to colonialism, agrarian Russia and India, Indigenous societies, and gender. Anderson’s book focuses on how the late Marx sees a wider revolution that included the European proletariat but would be touched off by revolts by oppressed ethno-racial groups, peasant communes, and Indigenous communist groups, in many of which women held great social power. As Anderson shows, the late Marx elaborated a truly global, multilinear theory of modern society and its revolutionary possibilities that continues to speak to us today. The Late Marx’s Revolutionary Roads: Colonialism, Gender, and Indigenous Communism is available from Verso and from other online booksellers. Kevin B. Anderson teaches at University of California, Santa Barbara. He has been a scholar-activist since the 1970s, working in social and political theory, especially Marx, Hegel, Lenin, Luxemburg, Marxist humanism, and the Frankfurt School. Among his numerous books are Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism (1995), Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (with Janet Afary, 2005), and Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity and Non-Western Societies (2010/2016). He is is the coeditor, with Peter Hudis, of the Rosa Luxemburg Reader. He writes regularly for New Politics, The International Marxist-Humanist, LA Progressive, and Jacobin. | Kevin Anderson presents his newly published book, ‘The Late Marx’s Revolutionary Roads,’ based on systematic analysis of Karl Marx’s “Ethnological Notebooks” and related Marx texts from his final years, 1869-1883. | 3/10/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/late-marx-revolutionary-roads/ | Anti-colonialism|Asia|British Imperialism|Colonialism|communism|historical materialism|Imperialism|Indigenous Peoples|Marx|Modernity|Political Economy|Political Strategy|Race and Class|Russia|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 3/29/2025 14:00 | 3/29/2025 15:30 | ||
| Trump, the State, and Global Capital | A video of this April 19, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel.A conversation with Steve Maher and Clara MatteiIn the early weeks of the Trump administration in the United States we have seen on-again, off-again tariffs, bluster against longstanding allies and friendly approaches to erstwhile foes, alarming threats to civil liberties and press freedom, accelerating deportations of immigrant workers, mass firings and layoffs of Federal employees, dismantling of key Federal agencies, and indifference toward threats of measles and bird-flu epidemics – and that’s only a partial list. Looking at all this through a Marxist lens presents a major challenge, but who better to meet it than Steve Maher and Clara Mattei, whose historical analyses of finance capital and the capitalist state have garnered well-deserved praise. Join us as we engage Steve and Clara in an open-ended conversation aimed at bringing some clarity to the burgeoning chaos that is shaking up U.S. and global capitalism and the imperialist state system. Stephen Maher is Assistant Professor of Economics at SUNY Cortland, and Co-Editor of the Socialist Register. With Scott Aquanno he is the co-author of The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to Blackrock. Steve also authored Corporate Capitalism and the Integral State: General Electric and a Century of American Power. Clara E. Mattei is the author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism. She is Professor of Economics and Director of the recently inaugurated Center for Heterodox Economics (CHE) at The University of Tulsa. She previously taught at the The New School for Social Research and was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies. | Looking at the early weeks of the Trump regime through a Marxists lens presents a major challenge, but who better to meet it than Steve Maher and Clara Mattei, whose historical analyses of finance capital and the capitalist state have garnered well-deserved praise. Join us as we engage Steve and Clara in an open-ended conversation aimed at bringing some clarity to the burgeoning chaos that is shaking up U.S. and global capitalism and the imperialist state system. | 3/14/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/trump-global-capital/ | Accumulation of Capital|American Imperialism|Anti-fascism|Austerity|Capital Studies|Crisis|Fascism|Financialization|Globalization|Hegemony|Imperialism|Marxist Method|Migration|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Political Economy|Populism|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|US History|Classes/Events>Video Available|_Seasons>Winter 2025 | 4/19/2025 14:00 | 4/19/2025 16:00 | ||
| Reading Death of the Author by Nigeria’s Nnedi Okorafor | Next, Monday June 30, 5:00 pm Africanfuturism 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 Dip 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. Death 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. July Book Selection: Severance, by Ling Ma. For 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. Give 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 | “To build a better future, we have to envision it first.” Reading science fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for “envisioning” a future worth building. We continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar. | 3/13/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-science-fiction-politically-summer-25/ | featured | Science Fiction>Africanfuturism|featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Literature>Visionary Fiction | 6/30/2025 17:00 | 6/30/2025 18:30 | |
| Exploring the Literature of Afro-Surrealism | Thursdays, 7-9 pm ET, beginning April 24 This spring, the MEP Literature Reading Group takes up novels loosely grouped as “Afro-Surrealism.” Borrowing from use by Amiri Baraka in the 1970s, D. Scot Miller encouraged use of the term through his 2009 essay, “Afrosurreal Manifesto.” Writers and artists in the African diaspora have now reclaimed the imaginative, wondrous, and contradictory aspects of Black life and artistic expression from the belittling slights of Western surrealists. We will read three novels contributing to this revival:
Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell and the MEP Literature Reading Group. Jacqueline Cantwell 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. The image used here accompanied the Fall 2013 publication of Miller’s essay in Black Camera, based on artist and creative Sherese Francis’ 2012 illustration for Miller’s essay on Francis’ blog, futuristically ancient. | 3/20/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/exploring-the-literature-of-afro-surrealism/ | Africa|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Spring 2025 | 5/8/2025 19:00 | 5/8/2025 21:00 | |||
| State of Emergency in US Higher Education | A video of this April 12, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Alan Wald presents an overview of the state of emergency in higher education in the United States that recalls earlier eras of extreme political repression, such as McCarthyism in the 1950s. Students, faculty, and staff at US colleges and universities who stand up for Palestinian human rights and stopping the genocide in Gaza are being punished by the administrations, and in some cases – such as Mahmoud Khalil – threatened with deportation. They are charged with being antisemitic, even though the movement is antiracist and a sizable fraction of the protesters are themselves Jewish. This campaign is being used as a smokescreen to dismantle programs in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and set Jews against other minorities. Students, faculty, and staff are facing deportation, arrest, suspension, termination, and other draconian measures that undermine both civil liberties and academic freedom. Alan Wald is active in this controversy as it plays out at the University of Michigan (U-M), through his membership in the U-M Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, and nationally, as a member of the Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace. He is the H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus of English Literature and American Culture at U-M, and formerly director of the U-M Department of American Culture. His academic specialty is the US Literary Left, about which he has authored nine books, and he is an editor of the journals Against the Current and Science & Society. | Alan Wald presents an overview of the state of emergency in higher education in the United States that recalls earlier eras of extreme political repression, such as McCarthyism in the 1950s. Students, faculty, and staff at US colleges and universities who stand up for Palestinian human rights and stopping the genocide in Gaza are being threatened with deportation and punished by the administrations. | 3/26/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/state-of-emergency-in-us-higher-education/ | Anti-fascism|Israeli occupation|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Political Strategy|Repression|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|_Seasons>Spring 2025|US History|Classes/Events>Video Available | 4/12/2025 14:00 | 4/12/2025 16:00 | ||
| Reading ‘Human Acts’ by Han Kang | Thursday, May 15 – 7 pm ET MEP’s Literature Reading Group will commemorate the 1980 South Korean pro-democracy uprising with a reading of Han Kang’s Human Acts. On May 18, 1980, the citizens of Gwangju, South Korea rose up in a ten-day revolt against the imposition of martial law. Factory workers, university and high school students, and ordinary citizens ran the city. On May 27, the South Korean army brutally put down “The Gwangju Commune” in a series of massacres and tortures. Han Kang took as her theme the army’s devastating brutalities against survivors who had longed for justice. The book narrates in restrained and precise language the harrowing aftereffects of bodily violation and grief on survivors. In 2024, the Nobel Prize committee honored Han Kang for literature, and, to honor her and the Korean Democratic Movement, join us to read this powerful and controversial novel together. Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell and the MEP Literature Reading Group. Jacqueline Cantwell 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. | 3/31/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-human-acts-by-han-kang/ | _Seasons>Spring 2025 | 5/15/2025 19:00 | 5/15/2025 20:30 | |||
| 60 Years Since the April Revolution in Santo Domingo | Sixty years ago, on April 24, 1965, tens of thousands of ordinary people in Santo Domingo (also known as the Dominican Republic) joined a popular revolt which sought to restore President Juan Bosch to power after he was overthrown in a US-backed, right-wing military coup in September, 1963. Posing a threat to both local elites and Washington’s geopolitical expansion in the Caribbean, the April Revolution, and the subsequent anti-imperialist resistance that sprang up against US military occupation, contributed to the development of anti-imperialist politics in Santo Domingo and beyond. Join us on May 3 for a panel to commemorate the 6oth anniversary of the April Revolution and discuss its political implications, the role of working-class Afro-Dominicans, women, LGBTQ people, Haitian internationalist fighters, socialists, writers and artists, as well as the worldwide international solidarity movement that ensued in the face of imperialist onslaught. Génesis Lara is a scholar of Caribbean and Afro-Latinx Studies. Raised in both the Bronx and Miami, her research focuses on gender, Blackness, social movements, human rights, and diaspora world making. She explores the ways Afro-Caribbean women mobilized grief and mourning as ways to contest state violence in the twentieth century. Her work poses larger questions of ways Black people have conceived and fought for human rights. Génesis Lara completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Florida and her PhD at the University of California, Davis. Gina Goico is a multidisciplinary artist, scholar, and self-proclaimed necia. Goico navigates their identity and the spaces where they exist in the Dominican Republic and the United States through their work, which ranges from embroidery to installations, ink drawings, and performances. Goico’s research focuses on how the aesthetics, performances, and organizing of self-identifying black Dominican artists and organizers operate as strategies that queer state-circulated identity in the Dominican Republic and its New York City diaspora. Goico was a Van Lier Fellow and artist in residence with Smack Mellon. They also participated in the AIM fellowship at The Bronx Museum of the Arts and were artist-in-residence at The Laundromat Project Kelly Street. Goico holds an AAS in Fine Arts and Illustration from Altos de Chavón and a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design. They also have an MA in Arts Politics from NYU and are PhD candidate in Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. Amaury Rodriguez has been involved in Haitian-Dominican solidarity activism for more than two decades. His writing has appeared in NACLA, El Salto, Esendom and Jacobin. He is co-editor, with Raj Chetty, of a special issue of The Black Scholar journal dedicated to Dominican Black Studies. Matías Bosch Carcuro studied Environmental Sciences and Arts at the Central University of Chile. He has a MA in Social Sciences with a minor in Politics and a MA in Public Management and Policy from the University of Chile. He is also a University professor and researcher on political economy, labor, development models, social rights, social protection and security systems, as well as state policies targeting discriminated and overexploited working people. | Join us on May 3 for a panel to commemorate the 6oth anniversary of the April Revolution in Santo Domingo and discuss its political implications, the role of working-class Afro-Dominicans, women, LGBTQ people, Haitian internationalist fighters, socialists, writers and artists as well as the worldwide international solidarity movement that ensued in the face of imperialist onslaught. | 4/19/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/60-years-april-revolution/ | American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Colonialism|History|Immigration|Insurgency|Latin America|Migration|Race and Class|Repression|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Spring 2025|US History|War | 5/3/2025 14:00 | 5/3/2025 16:00 | ||
| ‘Roses for Gramsci’ with Andy Merrifield | A video of this May 17, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Author Andy Merrifield presents Roses for Gramsci, a remarkable personal journey through the life and writings of the great Sardinian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci. In the summer of 2023, Merrifield and his family move from the UK to Rome to begin a new life. Soon after his arrival, the author visits Gramsci’s grave and decides to take a volunteer position helping to maintain the cemetery. At the Non-Catholic Cemetery, home also to the great Romantics, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, he keeps a watchful eye on Gramsci’s tombstone, talking to some of his visitors, admiring the roses and notes that Gramsci’s guests leave, and communing with the sentinel cat that keeps watch near the gravesite. Thus begins Merrifield’s deep dive into Gramsci’s life almost a century after his death.  The result is a stunning portrait that offers fresh insights into nearly every aspect of Gramsci’s often tortured existence: a childhood scarred by severe health problems; his grasp of the culture of workers and peasants; his growing understanding of political economy; his friendship with the economist Piero Sraffa; his frustration trying to communicate with and be father to the son he never saw; his generosity and kindness. Above all, Merrifield illuminates how Gramsci kept his humanity, suffering horribly in prison while writing a revolutionary classic, The Prison Notebooks. Personal, compassionate, moving—and illustrated with the author’s photographs —Merrifield revives both the legacy and meaning of Gramsci’s work and the dying art of belles lettres. Roses for Gramsci is an evocative and indelible book.Andy Merrifield is an independent scholar and author of a dozen books including, most recently, Beyond Plague Urbanism and Marx, Dead and Alive: Reading “Capital” in Precarious Times. He has written numerous articles, essays and reviews appearing in Monthly Review, The Nation, Harper’s Magazine, New Left Review, The Guardian, Literary Hub, Jacobin, and Dissent. He is a prolific writer about urbanism, political theory and literature. | Author Andy Merrifield presents ‘Roses for Gramsci,’ a remarkable personal journey through the life and writings of the great Sardinian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci. | 4/22/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/roses-for-gramsci/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Class|communism|Cultural Resistance|Fascism|featured|Fordism|Gramsci|Hegemony|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Italian history|Poetry|Political Economy|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism|_Seasons>Spring 2025|Classes/Events>Video Available | 5/17/2025 14:00 | 5/17/2025 16:00 | ||
| Oversight: Through the Lens of Spectacle | Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureFirst of two parts. Part Two “The spectacle is the bad dream of modern society in chains, expressing nothing more than its wish for sleep,” Guy Debord declared in The Society of the Spectacle (1967): it is “a permanent opium war.” A half-century later, the specter of the spectacle continues to haunt Marxist cultural studies. Do we still sleep in Debord’s spectacle, a world of images, infinitely consumable and reproducible, devoid of meaning outside the hollow, homogenous temporality of the commodity? Or have we entered an age where the audience is more appropriately conceived, not as isolated onlookers, but as a network of users–with unprecedented access to digital information while subjected to pervasive forms of control and surveillance? Does “a critical theory of the spectacle” still allow us to make sense of shared sensorial flashpoints, past and present? And what does it mean to be a spectator–to regard, to look, to witness? In two linked panels, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture proposes to track “the worldwide division of spectacular tasks” from lens manufacture to retail logistics, stadiums to camptowns, polar expeditions to spring festivals, as well as revolutionary specters in novels and borders, assassinations and squares. The first panel, “Oversight,” considers the dual meanings of oversight: as surveillance – “watching over” – and as that which is missed – “overlooked.” In “The Revolution Will Be Televised,” Henry Zhang tracks the evolution of China’s Spring Festival Gala from its antecedent in Cultural Revolution-era Model Opera to its 21st-century, anti-communist offshoot, Shen Yun. In “Bausch & Lomb and the Legacy of Stereoscopic Vision” Jane Zhang examines the production and marketing of optical lens to foreground the stereoscopic quality of vision integral to the formation of corporate identity at the turn of the twentieth century. In a pre-history of our contemporary era of Amazon last-mile delivery and e-commerce, Sofia Cutler follows the delivery drivers who serviced elite white women shopping at early 20th-century department stores to show how their labor transformed shopping “From Errand to Spectacle.” In “Arenas of Conflict” Jess Cruz traces the unexpected uses of Miami’s stadiums and their links to the city’s multigenerational devotion to anti-communism and transnational right-wing politics. In “Detouring the US Military Camptown,” Madeleine Han explores tourism as memory work toward remembering the US military’s legacy and ongoing occupation of Korea. The Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture is an interdisciplinary cultural studies research collective that has been practicing at Yale University since 2003. Over the years, we have presented our work at the Left Forum, Historical Materialism, the Marxist Education Project, Occupy Boston, and the World Social Forum. Past projects have appeared as “Going into Debt,” online in Social Text‘s Periscope, and as “Spaces and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology; a collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” was published in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. Our current members are: Damanpreet Pelia (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research interests include religion, sovereignty, and empire); Henry Zhang (doctoral researcher in English; research focuses on the aesthetics of post-war memory and post-socialist transition in East Asia and its diaspora during the long cold war); Jane Zhang (doctoral researcher in Comparative Literature and Film & Media Studies; research focuses on the intersecting history of medicine, consumer culture, and notions of selfhood); Javier Porras Madero (doctoral researcher in Latin American history; research focuses on revolution and border formation); Jess Cruz (doctoral researcher in History; research focuses on the history of Miami, Florida as a center for the Latin American Right across the 1980s-1990s); Madeleine Han (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research focuses on US militarism, cold war cultures, and overlapping imperialisms in Asia); Michael Denning (professor of American Studies; research focuses on labor, critical theory, and social movements); Morgan E. Freeman (doctoral researcher in American Studies; her research focuses on the contemporary art and visual cultures of Black and Native practitioners as it relates to belonging and place specificity); Sofia Cutler (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research traces the cultural and political history of last-mile delivery–or the last-leg of a product’s long journey across supply chains to a customer’s front door; and Suvij Sudershan (doctoral researcher in English and Film; research focuses on 19th and 20th century global anglophone, francophone, and South Asian vernacular literature, the development of the novel, ideas of realism and modernism, and the depiction of peasant revolt and rural modernization). | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=23673 | ||||||
| Through the Lens of Spectacle: Panel 1, Oversight | Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureA video of this June 15, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. “The spectacle is the bad dream of modern society in chains, expressing nothing more than its wish for sleep,” Guy Debord declared in The Society of the Spectacle (1967): it is “a permanent opium war.” A half-century later, the specter of the spectacle continues to haunt Marxist cultural studies. Do we still sleep in Debord’s spectacle, a world of images, infinitely consumable and reproducible, devoid of meaning outside the hollow, homogenous temporality of the commodity? Or have we entered an age where the audience is more appropriately conceived, not as isolated onlookers, but as a network of users–with unprecedented access to digital information while subjected to pervasive forms of control and surveillance? Does “a critical theory of the spectacle” still allow us to make sense of shared sensorial flashpoints, past and present? And what does it mean to be a spectator–to regard, to look, to witness? In two linked panels, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture proposes to track “the worldwide division of spectacular tasks” from lens manufacture to retail logistics, stadiums to camptowns, polar expeditions to spring festivals, as well as revolutionary specters in novels and borders, assassinations and squares. The first panel, “Oversight,” considers the dual meanings of oversight: as surveillance – “watching over” – and as that which is missed – “overlooked.” In “That Superficial, Theatric Sense,” Suvij Sudershan opens by exploring the resonances of spectacle and speculation in reflections on revolutions from Edmund Burke to Lukács. In “Roving Eyes: The Stereoscopic Vision of War,” Jane Zhang examines the production and marketing of optical lens to offer an alternative history of stereoscopic vision. In a pre-history of our contemporary era of Amazon last-mile delivery and e-commerce, “From Errand to Spectacle,” Sofia Cutler follows the delivery drivers who serviced elite white women shopping at early 20th-century department stores to show how their labor transformed shopping. In “Vita Contemplativa: Beijing Coma and China’s Modern Constitution,” Henry Zhang explores Ma Jian’s anatomy of the student movement and its aftermath. In “Arenas of Conflict” Jess Cruz traces the unexpected uses of Miami’s stadiums and their links to the city’s multigenerational devotion to anti-communism and transnational right-wing politics. The Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture is an interdisciplinary cultural studies research collective that has been practicing at Yale University since 2003. Over the years, we have presented our work at the Left Forum, Historical Materialism, the Marxist Education Project, Occupy Boston, and the World Social Forum. Past projects have appeared as “Going into Debt,” online in Social Text‘s Periscope, and as “Spaces and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology; a collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” was published in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. Our current members are: Damanpreet Pelia (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research interests include religion, sovereignty, and empire); Henry Zhang (doctoral researcher in English; research focuses on the aesthetics of post-war memory and post-socialist transition in East Asia and its diaspora during the long cold war); Jane Zhang (doctoral researcher in Comparative Literature and Film & Media Studies; research focuses on the intersecting history of medicine, consumer culture, and notions of selfhood); Javier Porras Madero (doctoral researcher in Latin American history; research focuses on revolution and border formation); Jess Cruz (doctoral researcher in History; research focuses on the history of Miami, Florida as a center for the Latin American Right across the 1980s-1990s); Madeleine Han (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research focuses on US militarism, cold war cultures, and overlapping imperialisms in Asia); Michael Denning (professor of American Studies; research focuses on labor, critical theory, and social movements); Morgan E. Freeman (doctoral researcher in American Studies; her research focuses on the contemporary art and visual cultures of Black and Native practitioners as it relates to belonging and place specificity); Sofia Cutler (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research traces the cultural and political history of last-mile delivery–or the last-leg of a product’s long journey across supply chains to a customer’s front door; and Suvij Sudershan (doctoral researcher in English and Film; research focuses on 19th and 20th century global anglophone, francophone, and South Asian vernacular literature, the development of the novel, ideas of realism and modernism, and the depiction of peasant revolt and rural modernization). | “The spectacle is the bad dream of modern society in chains, expressing nothing more than its wish for sleep,” Guy Debord declared in The Society of the Spectacle (1967): it is “a permanent opium war.” A half-century later, the specter of the spectacle continues to haunt Marxist cultural studies. In two linked panels, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture proposes to track “the worldwide division of spectacular tasks” from lens manufacture to retail logistics, stadiums to camptowns, polar expeditions to spring festivals, as well as revolutionary specters in novels and borders, assassinations and squares. | 5/12/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/yale-wggc-2025-1/ | featured | Alienation|American Imperialism|Art and politics|Asia|Colonialism|Critical Theory|Cultural Resistance|featured|Globalization|Imperialism|Marxisms|Modernity|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Spring 2025|Urbanism|Classes/Events>Video Available | 6/15/2025 14:00 | 6/15/2025 16:00 | |
| Through the Lens of Spectacle: Panel 2, Witness | Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureA video of this June 21, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. “The spectacle is the bad dream of modern society in chains, expressing nothing more than its wish for sleep,” Guy Debord declared in The Society of the Spectacle (1967): it is “a permanent opium war.” A half-century later, the specter of the spectacle continues to haunt Marxist cultural studies. Do we still sleep in Debord’s spectacle, a world of images, infinitely consumable and reproducible, devoid of meaning outside the hollow, homogenous temporality of the commodity? Or have we entered an age where the audience is more appropriately conceived, not as isolated onlookers, but as a network of users–with unprecedented access to digital information while subjected to pervasive forms of control and surveillance? Does “a critical theory of the spectacle” still allow us to make sense of shared sensorial flashpoints, past and present? And what does it mean to be a spectator–to regard, to look, to witness? In two linked panels, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture proposes to track “the worldwide division of spectacular tasks” from lens manufacture to retail logistics, stadiums to camptowns, polar expeditions to spring festivals, as well as revolutionary specters in novels and borders, assassinations and squares. The second panel, “Witness,” asks how various spectral presences–of memory, rebellion, interiority, history–demand us to account for spectacle’s reversals, negations, and reenactments in mass protests and counter-spectacles. Is the society of the spectacle necessarily also one of bearing witness? In “Delineating Specters,” Javier Porras Madero considers how the conjuration and nationalization of specters deepened the contradictions of border formation in the decades following the Mexican Revolution. In “Spectacles of Sympathy,” Morgan E. Freeman analyzes human interest stories produced in the age of polar exploration to consider this genre as a vehicle for mythologies of the bourgeoisie. In “Spectacular Reversal,” Damanpreet Pelia reflects on the spectacle of political violence by tracking the spectral presence of the bāz (from the Persian for hawk) in the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in 1984. In “The Spectacle of the Mass Demonstration,” Michael Denning reflects on Marx’s account of mass demonstrations and universal suffrage in the wake of a decade of occupations: citizens in the streets and elected populists as the religion of everyday life. In “Detouring the US Military Camptown,” Madeleine Han explores tourism as memory work toward remembering the US military’s legacy and ongoing occupation of Korea. The Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture is an interdisciplinary cultural studies research collective that has been practicing at Yale University since 2003. Over the years, we have presented our work at the Left Forum, Historical Materialism, the Marxist Education Project, Occupy Boston, and the World Social Forum. Past projects have appeared as “Going into Debt,” online in Social Text‘s Periscope, and as “Spaces and Times of Occupation” in Transforming Anthropology; a collective interview regarding “Matters of Life and Death” was published in Revue Française d’Études Américaines. Our current members are: Damanpreet Pelia (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research interests include religion, sovereignty, and empire); Henry Zhang (doctoral researcher in English; research focuses on the aesthetics of post-war memory and post-socialist transition in East Asia and its diaspora during the long cold war); Jane Zhang (doctoral researcher in Comparative Literature and Film & Media Studies; research focuses on the intersecting history of medicine, consumer culture, and notions of selfhood); Javier Porras Madero (doctoral researcher in Latin American history; research focuses on revolution and border formation); Jess Cruz (doctoral researcher in History; research focuses on the history of Miami, Florida as a center for the Latin American Right across the 1980s-1990s); Madeleine Han (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research focuses on US militarism, cold war cultures, and overlapping imperialisms in Asia); Michael Denning (professor of American Studies; research focuses on labor, critical theory, and social movements); Morgan E. Freeman (doctoral researcher in American Studies; her research focuses on the contemporary art and visual cultures of Black and Native practitioners as it relates to belonging and place specificity); Sofia Cutler (doctoral researcher in American Studies; research traces the cultural and political history of last-mile delivery–or the last-leg of a product’s long journey across supply chains to a customer’s front door; and Suvij Sudershan (doctoral researcher in English and Film; research focuses on 19th and 20th century global anglophone, francophone, and South Asian vernacular literature, the development of the novel, ideas of realism and modernism, and the depiction of peasant revolt and rural modernization). | “The spectacle is the bad dream of modern society in chains, expressing nothing more than its wish for sleep,” Guy Debord declared in The Society of the Spectacle (1967): it is “a permanent opium war.” A half-century later, the specter of the spectacle continues to haunt Marxist cultural studies. In two linked panels, the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture proposes to track “the worldwide division of spectacular tasks” from lens manufacture to retail logistics, stadiums to camptowns, polar expeditions to spring festivals, as well as revolutionary specters in novels and borders, assassinations and squares. | 5/12/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/yale-wggc-2025-2/ | Alienation|American Imperialism|Art and politics|Asia|Colonialism|Critical Theory|Cultural Resistance|featured|Globalization|Imperialism|Marxisms|Modernity|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Spring 2025|Urbanism|Classes/Events>Video Available | 6/21/2025 14:00 | 6/21/2025 16:00 | ||
| Trotsky in New York Walking Tour | Socialists and Immigrants in the Lower East SideJoin Alex Steinberg and Daniel Lazare for a historical walking tour of Lower Manhattan as we explore some of the places where Leon Trotsky visited and worked during his nine week stay in New York in early 1917. We will explore the culture of the radicalized immigrant communities of Yiddish-speaking Jews from Eastern Europe as well as German, Russian, Italian and Greek immigrants. These communities supported a thriving socialist movement in New York. And in 1917, ferment and struggle increased dramatically as America entered World War I on April 6, 1917 and Russia’s revolutionary wave exploded a few months later. After beginning at Cooper Union, we will walk to 77 St. Marks Place, which housed the offices of the Russian language newspaper Novy Mir and where Trotsky and other future Bolshevik leaders worked daily. From there, the tour will walk to the building of the Jewish Daily Forward in Seward Park, where we will learn of Trotsky’s dramatic confrontation with more conservative socialists. As we walk we will pass by a number of places that were important in understanding the history of the social struggles of immigrants in a New York very different than the city we know today. Led by Alex Steinberg and Daniel Lazare. Alex is a frequent teacher of Marxist Education Project classes on the philosophy of Hegel and related topics. Daniel is is a journalist and author; his books include The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy. Meet in front of the main entrance to The Great Hall of Cooper Union, behind the statue of Peter Cooper, East 7th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues. | Join Alex Steinberg and Daniel Lazare for a historical walking tour of Lower Manhattan as we explore some of the places where Leon Trotsky visited and worked during his nine week stay in New York in early 1917. | 5/19/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/trotsky-in-new-york-tour/ | History|Russian Revolution|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 6/28/2025 15:00 | 6/28/2025 17:00 | ||
| Aristotle, Hegel, Marx: A Philosophical Dialogue | A video of this June 29, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Join us for a dialogue on philosophical themes featuring two authors of forthcoming books from Stanford University Press. Michael Lazarus is the author of Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx, and Jensen Suther is the author of True Materialism: Hegelian Marxism and the Modernist Struggle for Freedom. Lazarus situates Marx within a shared tradition of ethical inquiry, placing him in close dialogue with Aristotle and Hegel. His book traces the ethical and political dimensions of Marx’s work missed by Hannah Arendt and Alasdair MacIntyre, two of the most profound critics of modern politics and ethics. Ultimately, the book claims that Marx’s value-form theory is both a continuation of Aristotelian and Hegelian themes and at the same time his most distinctive theoretical achievement. In True Materialism, Suther engages with three titans of literary modernism—Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, and Samuel Beckett—to pursue not only an account of Hegel’s materialism but also a new critique of capitalist modernity. Breaking with the received view of Marx’s relation to German Idealism, the book argues that the materialist critique of capitalist production is inseparable from Hegel’s idea that the demand for freedom is a demand for mutual recognition. Michael Lazarus is a postdoctoral research fellow at Deakin University. Jensen Suther received his PhD from Yale University and is currently a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. | Join us for a dialogue on philosophical themes featuring the authors of two forthcoming books. Michael Lazarus is the author of ‘Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx,’ and Jensen Suther is the author of ‘True Materialism: Hegelian Marxism and the Modernist Struggle for Freedom.’ | 5/28/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/aristotle-hegel-marx/ | featured | Antiquity|communism|featured|Hegel|historical materialism|History|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Modernity|Philosophy|Philosophy of History|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Summer 2025|Classes/Events>Video Available | 6/29/2025 16:00 | 6/29/2025 18:00 | |
| Literary Echoes of Vietnam’s 1975 Victory | While the bombs were falling, only a stone wouldn’t be terrified. If the Americans noticed movement in the forest, they would eliminate the forest. Who knows how much money was spent? American taxpayers’ money. If a cluster of napalm bombs were dropped, the jungle would turn into a sea of fire. Can you imagine a sea of fire? –Bao Ninh Join with the MEP Literature Group to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1975 fall of Saigon, bringing an end to the Vietnam War. This month, we will read two volumes by Bao Ninh–The Sorrow of War and Hà Nôi at Midnight. Born in October 1952, Bao Ninh experienced the effects of US bombing while growing up and later joined the “Glorious 27th Youth Brigade” at the age of 17. Bao Ninh’s writing offers restrained, poignant, yet powerful accounts of the “sorrow of war,” the losses and grief of a generation who fought to unify the country. Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell and the MEP Literature Reading Group. Jacqueline Cantwell 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. (Bao Ninh quote from Ken Burns’ series The Vietnam War) | 5/30/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fall_of_saigon/ | featured | featured|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|_Seasons>Summer 2025|War | 6/26/2025 19:00 | 6/26/2025 20:30 | ||
| Reading Death of the Author by Nigeria’s Nnedi Okorafor | Next, Monday June 16, 5:00 pm Africanfuturism 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 Dip 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. Death 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. For 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. All are welcome. Participants drop in, stay for a while or longer, and contribute to lively, present day-centered discussions. Everyone has something to contribute. Whether you read from this realm regularly or have hardly ever given it a second thought, consider spending some summer reading time with us now. Convened by Steve Backman | “To build a better future, we have to envision it first.” Reading science fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for “envisioning” a future worth building. We continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=23977 | featured | Science Fiction>Africanfuturism|featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Literature>Visionary Fiction | 6/16/2025 17:00 | 6/16/2025 18:30 | |
| Book Talk: Brian Kwoba on Hubert Harrison | A video of this July 1, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Brian 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. The following excerpt from the Introduction to Kwoba’s book gives a taste of his new approach: “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. In 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.” In 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. Harrison 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. In 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. After 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. In 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. As 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.”… Scholars 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. And this is precisely why it is so revealing to study Hubert Henry Harrison. On 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. Recovering 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.” | 6/24/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/kwoba_on_harrison/ | featured | featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Reading Group|_Seasons>Summer 2025|Classes/Events>Video Available | 7/1/2025 19:00 | 7/1/2025 20:30 | ||
| Reading Science Fiction Politically: Severance by Ling Ma | Next, Monday July 14, 5:00 pm Get 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. Into 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. The 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. For 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. Give 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. | “To build a better future, we have to envision it first.” Reading science fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for “envisioning” a future worth building. We continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar. | 7/7/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-science-fiction-politically-severance-by-ling-ma/ | featured | Science Fiction>Africanfuturism|featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Literature>Visionary Fiction | 7/14/2025 17:00 | 7/14/2025 18:30 | |
| Summer in France in the Shade of Noir | 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.
Convened 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. | The MEP Literature Group continues its tradition of easy summer reading focusing on the noir genre. Our two selections – ‘Command Performance’ and ‘Creation Lake’ – 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. | 7/11/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/shade-of-noir/ | featured | Anti-capitalist Literature|featured|France|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Noir Fiction|_Seasons>Reading Group|_Seasons>Summer 2025 | 8/28/2025 19:00 | 8/28/2025 21:00 | |
| Resisting Oppression: Reading Science Fiction Politically | Next on Monday September 29, 5:00 pm We 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.
 Written 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. Our 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. Also watch for our next selection, Susana Morris’ new biography of Octavia Butler. Convened by Steve Backman, reading visionary fiction since introduced to the liberating power of Alice in Wonderland and Jules Verne at a very young age. | “To build a better future, we have to envision it first.” Reading science fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for “envisioning” a future worth building. We continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar. | 7/25/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/resistance-to-oppression-reading-science-fiction-politically/ | featured | Science Fiction>Africanfuturism|_Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Literature>Visionary Fiction | 9/29/2025 17:00 | 9/29/2025 18:30 | |
| Kirstin Munro: Marxist Feminism Beyond Women | To adequately grasp the ways that capitalism organizes production and reproduction in our everyday lives, Kirstin Munro argues that we need to begin our critique not with the household labor process and its outputs, but with the essence of separation that appears in commodities. Previous attempts to find a source of women’s subordination in Marx’s theory of value (a “unitary theory” of sexism and exploitation) have largely resulted in transhistorical theories of household production that are based in biological determinism and presuppose a bourgeois family-household form that was never universally adopted by the working class. Regardless of the specific social form, one output of the household production process is always labor-power. It is the dependence on commodities that makes capitalist household production different from other forms of household production. Kirstin Munro Is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. Her first book, The Production of Everyday Life in Eco-Conscious Households, was published in 2023. A second book, to be published by Verso in 2026, argues that Marxist-feminist theories of household production must go beyond notions of “women” and “wives” in order to fully grasp the contradictions between human needs and the imperatives of accumulation. Her edited collection of essays by Lise Vogel, The Contested Domain, will be published by Pluto Press in November. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=24173 | featured | Classes/Events>Book talks|Capital Studies|Class and Gender|_Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|Marx|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Women | 11/16/2025 14:00 | 11/16/2025 16:00 | ||
| Capitalism and the Politics of Nature with Alyssa Battistoni | A video of this November 16, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. In her new book Free Gifts, Alyssa Battistoni explores capitalism’s persistent failure to place value on nature. She argues that the key question is not the moral issue of why some kinds of nature shouldn’t be commodified, but the economic puzzle of why they haven’t been. Why have some things come to have value under capitalism—and why have others not. Recovering and reinterpreting classical economists’ idea of “free gifts of nature,” Battistoni builds on Karl Marx’s critique of political economy to show how capitalism fundamentally treats nature as free for the taking. She addresses four different instances of the free gift in political economic thought, each in a specific domain: natural agents in industry, pollution in the environment, reproductive labor in the household, and natural capital in the biosphere. In so doing, she offers new readings of major twentieth-century thinkers, including Friedrich Hayek, Simone de Beauvoir, Garrett Hardin, Silvia Federici, and Ronald Coase. Ultimately, she offers a novel account of freedom for our ecologically troubled present, developing a materialist existentialism to argue that capitalism limits our ability to be responsible for our relationships to the natural world, and imagining how we might live freely while valuing nature’s gifts. Alyssa Battistoni is assistant professor of political science at Barnard College. She is the coauthor of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, the Guardian, Boston Review, n+1, Dissent, The New Statesman, Jacobin, and New Left Review. | Rescheduled to November 16 / In her new book ‘Free Gifts,’ Alyssa Battistoni explores capitalism’s persistent failure to place value on nature. But the key question is not the moral issue of why some kinds of nature shouldn’t be commodified, but the economic puzzle of why they haven’t been. Recovering and reinterpreting classical economists’ idea of “free gifts of nature,” Battistoni builds on Karl Marx’s critique of political economy to show how capitalism fundamentally treats nature as free for the taking. | 8/20/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/freegifts-battistoni/ | Accumulation of Capital|Classes/Events>Book talks|Climate Change|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|_Seasons>Fall 2025|Marx|Marxisms|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Classes/Events>Video Available | 11/16/2025 14:00 | 11/16/2025 16:00 | ||
| ‘Fake Work’ with Leigh Claire La Berge | A video of this September 24, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Using 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. Leigh 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. | 8/20/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/fake-work-la-berge/ | featured | Classes/Events>Book talks|Capital Studies|_Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|humor|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Media Criticism|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Classes/Events>Video Available | 9/24/2025 19:00 | 9/24/2025 20:00 | ||
| Hubert Harrison: Forbidden Genius of Black Radicalism | A video of this November 8, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Brian Kwoba‘s recently published Hubert Harrison: Forbidden Genius of Black Radicalism introduces the working-class journalist, activist, and educator Hubert Henry Harrison (1883-1927), who generated an array of visionary solutions to the systemic injustices of his day. After blazing a trail for Black workers and organizers in the Socialist Party of America and the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913, Harrison emerged as the most prominent Black freethinker and free lover of his generation. He also practiced armed self-defense and called for an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist “Colored International” alliance in the face of European colonization in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Most spectacularly, Harrison’s Liberty League of Negro Americans catalyzed the rise of Marcus Garvey and the largest international organization of African people in modern history. Because of his fearless radicalism, however, the full scope of Harrison’s revolutionary legacy has been largely erased from popular memory … until now. Dr. Brian Kwoba was born in Manchester, Connecticut, and raised in Boulder, Colorado. After earning his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Cornell University, he spent six years teaching high school and middle school history and social studies in Boston before heading to the University of Oxford for his doctoral degree in history. Dr. Kwoba is currently an associate professor of history and also the director of African and African American Studies at the University of Memphis. Over the past two decades, Dr. Kwoba has been an activist on issues including anti-imperialism, immigrant workers rights, climate justice, Falastin, decolonizing education, pan-Africanism, and the movement for Black lives. In his spare time, he is a big time music lover (especially live jazz), an Afrobeats DJ, and a frequent traveler to Kenya where he visits his dad’s side of the family. Image l/r: author Brian Kwoba; Hubert Harrison with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Big Bill Haywood, and other leaders of 1913 Paterson, NJ silk workers strike; book cover. | 8/27/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/kwoba-on-hubert-harrison/ | Africa|American Imperialism|Classes/Events>Book talks|_Seasons>Fall 2025|History|Political Strategy|Race and Class|Repression|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy|Socialism|US History|Classes/Events>Video Available|War|Working Class History | 11/8/2025 14:00 | 11/8/2025 16:00 | |||
| Karl Marx in America with Andrew Hartman | A video of this October 26, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Historian 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. Andrew 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. | 8/27/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-in-america/ | featured | African American History|American Imperialism|Classes/Events>Book talks|Civil War|_Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Political Economy|Political Strategy|Race and Class|Republicanism|Revolutions|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialism|US History|Classes/Events>Video Available|War | 10/26/2025 14:00 | 10/26/2025 16:00 | ||
| Marx’s Capital, Volume I – A Short Course on Capitalist Production | A 12-session study group, September 20 through December 13 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-session study group covering key sections of the book. Experienced Capital study leader Lisa Maya Knauer will facilitate as we explore the relevance of Marx’s analysis to our current context. While we will go over the assigned material each week, participants will read the material on their own in advance. This reading group is open to both Capital newbies and those who have read it previously but want a refresher. Lisa Maya Knauer, our facilitator, has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Enrollment in this series is now closed – please watch for future sessions on Marx’s Capital. | 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. | 8/28/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-short-course/ | Capital Studies|_Seasons>Fall 2025|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Social Reproduction | 12/6/2025 16:00 | 12/6/2025 18:00 | ||
| Marx’s Capital, Vol. II – On the Circulation of Capital | In Volume I of Capital, Marx analyzes the processes of capitalist production and accumulation and identifies the real sources of wealth: nature and the labor performed by working people. In Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital, he addresses the next big question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? In this study group, we will discover some answers, but we will also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. Marx ‘s analysis in Volume II lays the groundwork for his system-wide summation in Volume III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole.We welcome all who have a basic knowledge of Volume I of Capital to this study group. Participants read selections on their own each week and meet for clarifying discussions, guided by experienced students of Marx from the MEP. For certain key and/or difficult sections, we do line-by-line readings in class. Fred Murphy facilitates this group. Fred has led several Capital study groups and numerous others on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics at the Marxist Education Project since 2015. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. | A ten-session study group covering Marx’s Capital, Volume II, The Process of Circulation of Capital. Marx addresses the question: How can the reproduction of society as a whole take place, if there is no conscious social planning that ensures that all needs are met, in the necessary proportions, such that life can persist and the capitalist relations of production be sustained? We discover the answer, but we also learn of new contradictions and sources of crisis inherent to capitalist society. | 8/28/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-vol2-shortcourse/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Crisis|historical materialism|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method|Social Reproduction|_Seasons>Spring 2026 | 4/13/2026 18:30 | 4/13/2026 20:00 | ||
| The Aesthetics of Resistance: Art and Fascism in the 1930s | Join ongoing weekly sessions of the MEP Literature Group as we read together The Aesthetics of Resistance, the masterwork of German author Peter Weiss. This trilogy of historical novels opens in 1937 and details the interactions of the narrator and his peers and family with historical figures of the European left engaged in the fight against fascism. As the characters encounter each other clandestinely to discuss political questions, they also discuss works of art and question how the art of the past can support their resistance to a horrific present: what can art suggest for a future they may not live to see? Just as Weiss’s characters rely upon group discussion, readers of this trilogy have often formed reading groups to aid their understanding of the novelist’s ambitions. The MEP is joining this leftist tradition. We will read these challenging novels slowly and discuss themes such as strategy and tactics in the fight against fascism, and the works of art that inspired the characters’ discussions. Familiarity with art history or with Europe in the 1930s is neither required nor expected. Publisher’s web pages for The Aesthetics of Resistance: Volume 1 / Volume 2 / Volume 3 Second-hand bookstores, online resellers, and public libraries may have copies of these books available. Convened 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. | 8/29/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/aesthetics-of-resistance/ | Anti-fascism|Art and politics|_Seasons>Fall 2026|Fascism|Gender|Germany|historical materialism|History|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Marx|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy of History|Political Strategy|Radical Literature|_Seasons>Reading Group|Social Democracy|Socialism|_Seasons>Spring 2026|War|War Fiction|_Seasons>Winter 2026 | 9/17/2026 19:00 | 9/17/2026 21:00 | |||
| Reading ‘Karl Marx in America’ | An eight-week study of Andrew Hartman’s recently published 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. Facilitated by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes. | 9/2/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-karl-marx-in-america/ | Civil War|_Seasons>Fall 2025|historical materialism|Housing|Intro to Marxism|Labor History|Marx|Marxisms|Political Economy|Political Strategy|Race and Class|_Seasons>Reading Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Democracy|Socialism|US History|Working Class History | 12/18/2025 18:30 | 12/18/2025 20:00 | |||
| Octavia Butler: ‘Positive Obsession’ and ‘Wild Seed’ | Alternate Mondays, Next on December 8, 5-6:30 pm ET Watch for new selections coming soon, featuring Frankenstein and the Chicano Frankenstein. Join us for a new appreciation of Octavia Butler, beginning with Susana M. Morris’s pathbreaking new biography, Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia Butler followed by Butler’s prophetic Wild Seed and other short selections. Offered by the Speculative and Visionary Fiction reading group. Morris’s just published biography blends commentary on Butler’s work and life against the social and political conditions she lived and wrote in. Butler developed her literary powers during the Reagan years while living a far from easy life. As Dana A. Williams notes in her New York Times review, “One of the biography’s most compelling themes is Butler’s sustained critique of American imperialism. From the scorched landscapes in Parable of the Sower to the uneasy alliances between humans and the Oankali (an “alien” race in the Xenogenesis series) to the entanglement of history and power in Kindred, Butler’s fiction exposes the toll of empire (and its illusion of progress) on the body, on the planet and on humanity.” Whether you have read a lot or a little of Butler’s fiction, we encourage you to join with the MEP’s long-running reading group for a new introduction to Butler’s pivotal role in reshaping science, visionary and speculative fiction, helping inspire the emergence of Afro-Futurism, and influencing a new generation of younger writers. We will accompany our reading of the biography with short selections from Butler’s fiction and other related materials. Convened by Steve Backman | 9/3/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/read-positive-obsession-the-life-and-times-of-octavia-e-butler/ | American Literature|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Dystopian literature|_Seasons>Fall 2025|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction|Visionary Fiction|Women | 12/8/2025 17:00 | 12/8/2025 18:30 | |||
| Planetary Crises: ‘Anthropocene Communism’ | Next monthly session October 21The MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group meets monthly to discuss important new works on the science and politics of the climate emergency, the nature of economic and ecological crises, and related topics. On October 21 we will consider Anthropocene Communism: Land and Capital in the Age of Disaster, by Paul Guillibert. In Anthropocene Communism, the philosopher and activist Paul Guillibert proposes a new communism to move us beyond the ecological crisis of late capitalism. In a highly original reading of Karl Marx’s exchanges with Russian populists, and informed by the cultural studies of Raymond Williams, the José Carlos Mariátegui, and Ernst Bloch, Guillibert develops a philosophical naturalism that rethinks our relations with the environment. For Guillibert, if we are to move beyond the Anthropocene, we must develop new strategies. Communism must become environmentalism, and political ecology can only become truly revolutionary once it is communist. Other recent books of interest to this group are listed here. Facilitated by Fred Murphy. Since 2015 Fred has led numerous MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, political economy, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research and reported from Latin America for several socialist publications. | The MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group meets monthly to discuss important new works on the science and politics of the climate emergency, the nature of economic and ecological crises, and related topics. | 9/9/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/planetary-crises-2026/ | Accumulation of Capital|Agribusiness|Crisis|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|_Seasons>Fall 2026|Imperialism|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Social Reproduction | 10/21/2026 13:00 | 10/21/2026 14:30 | ||
| Hegel’s Preface to the ‘Phenomenology’ | (ends on December 13) This eight-session course with Alex Steinberg concludes our ongoing studies of Hegel’s mysterious work, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will do a close reading of the Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, a work that can be read on its own and is considered the most succinct and comprehensive statement of Hegel’s philosophy. These sessions introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. No prior experience with Hegel or attendance at previous classes is expected or required. Our goal is to make Hegel’s dialectic less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in his thought and its significance for our time.There are 3 acceptable translations of the Phenomenology of Spirit available: One by A.V. Miller published by Oxford University Press, another by Terry Pinkard from Cambridge University Press, and another translation that includes only the Preface, by Yirmiyahu Yovel from Princeton University Press with a detailed commentary. Alex Steinberg is an independent scholar. He has taught on topics such as the Philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and Humanism, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History at various alternative educational institutions and informally. He was a Conference Presenter at the First International Conference on Trotsky in Havana, Cuba. Alex has been also involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2019-2021. | 9/8/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-preface-to-the-phenomenology/ | _Seasons>Fall 2025|Hegel|historical materialism|History|Marx and Hegel|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Philosophy of History|Science and Method | 12/13/2025 11:00 | 12/13/2025 13:00 | |||
| The Politics of Collecting with Eunsong Kim | In her new book, The Politics of Collecting: Race and the Aestheticization of Property, Eunsong Kim traces how racial capitalism and colonialism situated the rise of US museum collections and conceptual art forms. Ranging from the conception of philanthropy devised by the robber barons of the late nineteenth century to ongoing digitization projects, Kim provides a new history of contemporary art that accounts for the complicated entanglement of race, capital, and labor behind storied art institutions and artists. Drawing on history, theory, and economics, Kim challenges received notions of artistic success and talent and calls for a new vision of art beyond the cultural institution. Eunsong Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Northeastern University. Her practice spans literary studies, critical digital studies, poetics, translation, visual culture and critical race & ethnic studies. She is also the author of Gospel of Regicide (2017) and, with Sung Gi Kim, a translation of Kim Eon Hee’s poetic text Have You Been Feeling Blue These Days? (2019). In 2021 she co-founded the journal offshoot, an arts space for transnational activist conversations. | 9/16/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/the-politics-of-collecting-with-eunsong-kim/ | Anti-capitalist art|Art and politics|Classes/Events>Book talks|Colonialism|Cultural Resistance|_Seasons>Fall 2025|Literature|Media Criticism|Poetry|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 10/11/2025 14:00 | 10/11/2025 15:30 | |||
| Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary, with Mitchell Abidor | A video of this November 1, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Mitchell Abidor, author of Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary presents the book in conversation with Jacob Plitman, former publisher of Jewish Currents.  Today, 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.Mitchell 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). A 30% discount code for Victor Serge and other Pluto Press books by Mitchell Abidor will be provided to all ticket purchasers. | Join us for a conversation with Mitchell Abidor, author of the forthcoming book, “Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary.” Today, 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? | 10/8/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/serge-unruly-revolutionary/ | featured | Anarchism|Anti-capitalist Literature|Anti-fascism|Art and politics|Bolshevism|Classes/Events>Book talks|communism|_Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|France|History|Literature|Marxisms|Poetry|Radical Literature|Russia|Russian Revolution|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Classes/Events>Video Available|War|Working Class History | 11/1/2025 14:00 | 11/1/2025 15:30 | |
| Animals and Capitalism: Metabolic Labor | Final session, December 16 A 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. Convened 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. | A five-session 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. 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. | 10/23/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/metabolic-labor/ | featured | Agribusiness|Animals and Capital|Capital Studies|_Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|Labor Process|Marxisms|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Classes/Events>Science and Technology|Social Reproduction | 12/16/2025 12:00 | 12/16/2025 13:30 | |
| Slavery and Capitalism: A Book Talk by David McNally | A video of this November 29, 2025, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. A 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. “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  David 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.Join our five-week reading group on Slavery and Capitalism starting December 1. | 10/25/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mcnally-slavery-capitalism/ | African American History|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital vs. Labor|Caribbean Studies|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|_Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|historical materialism|History|Labor History|Marx|Marxist Method|Political Economy|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Slavery | 11/29/2025 14:00 | 11/29/2025 16:00 | |||
| Slavery and Capitalism: A Reading Group | Join us for a nine-session reading group on David McNally’s recently published Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History. McNally’s book presents a systematic Marxist account of the capitalist character of Atlantic slavery 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. Facilitated by Fred Murphy. Over the past decade, Fred has led numerous MEP study groups on political economy, ecosocialism, science and technology, and Latin American politics. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. Enrollment for this study group is now closed. | 10/25/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/slavery-and-capitalism-a-reading-group/ | Accumulation of Capital|African American History|Anti-colonialism|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|Caribbean Studies|Civil War|Class|Colonialism|Du Bois|Emancipation|_Seasons>Fall 2025|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|Race and Class|Slavery|Social Reproduction|US History | 1/19/2026 18:30 | 1/19/2026 20:00 | |||
| Historical Roots of American Fascism: Gilded Age to the Second World War (copy) | Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET Now Reading Hammer and Hoe, by Robin D.G. Kelley Take part in MEP’s Political Strategy Study Group’s sweeping look at the history and political significance of the major waves of struggle and counter-revolution in the United States. For September, we focus our reading on Robin D.G. Kelley’s Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. We selected this book as part of our study of the turn of the century “Gilded Age” period through to the Depression, New Deal and World War II:
We continue have three points of reference:
We envision an overall year-long plan of study, divided into historical units. You can join at any time:
And throughout, supplementary readings and presentations to reflect directly on the present day. Each week, we consider our historical topics against the backdrop of the ongoing political ferment under the Trump regime. The class syllabus is in progress, along with this bibliography of supplementary readings. Convened by Steve Backman, Rebecca Minnich, Fred Murphy and Carl Davidson | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=24970 | featured | _Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Reading Group | 10/28/2025 19:00 | 10/28/2025 20:30 | ||
| Historical Roots of American Fascism: Hubert Harrison and Black Radicalism (not used) | Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET Take part in reading selections from A Hubert Harrison Reader, Jeff Perry editor, and Hubert Harrison: Forbidden Genius of Black Radicalism, by Brian Kwoba. MEP’s Political Strategy Study Group continues its sweeping look at the history and political significance of the major waves of struggle and counter-revolution in the United States. This fall, we will read book selections and articles to deepen our understanding of the radical ferment in Harlem in New York at the same moment as–and feeding–the Harlem Renaissance. As working class writer, teacher, and organizer, Harrison’s distinctive socialism and internationalism fueled radical currents in the Socialist Party, the IWW, the Garvey movement and New York City and wider culture and politics.
We continue have three points of reference:
The class syllabus is in progress, along with this bibliography of supplementary readings. Convened by Steve Backman, Rebecca Minnich, Fred Murphy and Carl Davidson | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=24981 | featured | _Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Reading Group | 11/4/2025 19:00 | 11/4/2025 20:30 | ||
| Hegel, Marx, and Capital | A video of this December 17, 2025 event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Andy 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.” Andy 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. | Andy Blunden presents insights from two new books on Marx’s use of Hegel’s Logic in the writing of Capital. | 11/17/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-marx-blunden/ | Capital Studies|Critical Theory|_Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx|Marx and Hegel|Marx’s Capital|Philosophy|Political Economy|Science and Method|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks | 12/17/2025 19:00 | 12/17/2025 20:30 | ||
| Marxist Psychology: Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Theory | 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. Bridging 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.”Turning 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… Carl 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. Registration for this series is now closed. | 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. | 11/19/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxist-psychology-ratner/ | Critical Theory|featured|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Political Economy|Psychology|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method|_Seasons>Winter 2026 | 2/8/2026 16:00 | 2/8/2026 17:30 | ||
| New Studies on the Left: A Panel Discussion |  Contributors Erica Carter, Jay Jurie, Paul Krehbiel, Harry Targ, Janet Tucker, Meta Van Sickle join editor Carl Davidson for a discussion of the latest New Studies on the Left. Contributors to this edition address four related themes: “Analysis and Global Reach,” “Labor Rising Helps Everyone Else,” and “Civil Society and Campaigns on Social Terrain,” and “Theory for Our Time.” Our panel will tie these themes together to explore where we stand, particularly in the United States, in reaching a critical point in peaceful non-cooperation with the present regime’s policies at home and worldwide. Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism publishes this new series in tribute to the original, early 1960s New Studies on the Left. | 11/19/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/new-studies-on-the-left-panel-discussion/ | Classes/Events>Book talks|_Seasons>Fall 2025|Classes/Events>Panel Discussion|Present Moment | 1/7/2026 19:30 | 1/7/2026 21:00 | |||
| Speculative Fiction: Reading Classic ‘Frankenstein’ and Modern ‘Chicano Frankenstein’ | Alternate Mondays, Next on February 16, 5-6:30 pm ET Watch this space for new 2026 selections! Join us for a holiday treat: We will read Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein alongside a modern take, Chicano Frankenstein. Mary Shelley arguably initiated the new sphere of “speculative fiction” with her 1818 novel. Shelley wrote the novel to explore–to speculate–on science and technology without societal limits, racism-like prejudice and based on appearance, the consequences of family strains and attenuated parental responsibility, humanity and the natural world, loneliness and isolation, and unchecked ambition on the eve of capitalism. No wonder it has had such lasting impact given these themes, far beyond Frankenstein’s relegation in mass culture to “horror.” Daniel A. Olivas takes the classic themes one step further, socializing them to present date realities of authoritarianism and inequitable treatment of immigration. This just published novel uses speculative fiction to challenge us to consider what it truly means to recognize ourselves as human in today’s politicized and polarized society. And as a special holiday social event, we will screen the new Frankenstein film by acclaimed Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro. With these special additions, we aim to connect our readings and discussion to the new reading group series also starting on Immigration, Chicano Liberation, and Repressive Responses Whether you have read a lot or a little speculative, we encourage you to give a try to the MEP’s long-running reading group. We have updated our name from “science and visionary fiction” to the more encompassing speculative fiction for 2026. Convened by Steve Backman and the Speculative Fiction Reading Group | 12/3/2025 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=25604 | American Literature|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction|Visionary Fiction|_Seasons>Winter 2026|Women | 2/16/2026 17:00 | 2/16/2026 18:30 | |||
| Social Reproduction Theory with Lisa Maya Knauer. |  This six-week reading group, facilitated by Lisa Maya Knauer, will focus on one of the germinal texts of social reproduction theory: Lise Vogel’s groundbreaking 1983 work, Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory. Marx argued that capital accumulation depends not only upon the production of goods and the extraction of surplus value, but also on the reproduction of capitalist social relations and above all of the class of people who have nothing to sell but their labor power. Social reproduction theory analyzes the processes whereby working classes and their conditions of life are sustained over time. Marx only sketched the concept in very broad terms, but it was taken up and expanded upon by Marxist and radical feminists in the 1970s and 1980s. Vogel and others argued that women’s oppression under capitalism is linked to their role in social (as well as biological) reproduction. We will supplement Vogel’s classic work with some early writings by the Wages for Housework campaign and more recent scholarship, including a newly published collection of Lise Vogel’s essays, The Contested Domain. Some familiarity with Marxist and/or feminist theory is helpful but not essential.Lisa Maya Knauer stumbled across the writings of the Wages for Housework campaign in the mid-1970s when she was a college student. A few years later, she started reading Marx’s Capital at the MEP’s predecessor, the School for Marxist Education. She is a co-founder of the MEP and has led our Capital Volume I reading groups for the past few years. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. Registration for this group is now closed. Contact info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com for more information. | Karl Marx only sketched the concept of social reproduction in very broad terms, but it was taken up and expanded upon by Marxist and radical feminists, starting in the 1970s and 1980s. They argued that women’s oppression under capitalism is linked to their role in social (as well as biological) reproduction. This reading group will look at one of the germinal texts of social reproduction theory: Lise Vogel’s groundbreaking 1983 work, Marxism and the Oppression of Women. | 1/13/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/social-reproduction-theory-with-lisa-maya-knauer/ | Capital Studies|Class and Gender|_Seasons>Fall 2025|Gender|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Social Reproduction|Women | 2/28/2026 16:00 | 2/28/2026 17:30 | ||
| Roundtable on Venezuela, Oil, and Global Politics | A video of this January 21, 2026, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. A conversation among leading left critics of the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuelan sovereignty and its attempt to seize that nation’s oil wealth. Matt Huber challenges interpretations of these events as simply another case of “blood for oil.” Steve Maher assesses the implications for global political economy, Christy Thornton offers analysis of the diverse effects on – and responses by – Mexico and other Latin American states, and Camilo Pérez-Bustillo explores the relationship between U.S imperial aggression in Latin America and terror against migrants at home. Matt Huber is Professor of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University and the author of Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital, and Climate Change as Class War. Steve Maher is Assistant Professor of Economics at SUNY Cortland, and Co-Editor of the Socialist Register. With Scott Aquanno he is the co-author of The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to Blackrock. Steve also authored Corporate Capitalism and the Integral State: General Electric and a Century of American Power. Christy Thornton is Associate Professor of History at New York University, where she is also affiliated faculty in the Department of Sociology and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She is the author of Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy. Christy is also the co-director, with Quinn Slobodian, of the History and Political Economy Project. She served for five years as Executive Director of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). Camilo Pérez-Bustillo is the co-founder and coordinator of the International Tribunal of Conscience of Peoples in Movement (Mexico City). He is also the leading translator into English of work by Argentine/Mexican philosopher Enrique Dussel, including The Theological Metaphors of Marx (Duke, 2024) | 1/12/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/venezuela-oil-politics/ | featured | American Imperialism|Anti-colonialism|Anti-fascism|Caribbean Studies|Colonialism|Extractivism|Immigration|Imperialism|Latin America|Left Populism|Neo-fascism|Political Economy|Populism|Present Moment|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Classes/Events>Video Available|_Seasons>Winter 2026 | 1/21/2026 19:30 | 1/21/2026 21:00 | ||
| Social Reproduction Theory with Lisa Maya Knauer | “Every social process of production is at the same time a process of reproduction.” Marx argued in Volume 1 of Capital that capital accumulation depends not only upon the production of goods and the extraction of surplus value, but also on the reproduction of capitalist social relations. Capitalism has created a class of people who have nothing to sell but their labor power, and another class that controls the means of production and has the money to pay wages and purchase that labor power. Social reproduction theory examines the processes whereby working classes and their conditions of life are sustained over time. Marx only sketched the concept of social reproduction in very broad terms, but it was taken up and expanded upon by Marxist and radical feminists, starting in the 1970s and 1980s. They argued that women’s oppression under capitalism is linked to their role in social (as well as biological) reproduction. This reading group will look at one of the germinal texts of social reproduction theory: Lise Vogel’s groundbreaking 1983 work, Marxism and the Oppression of Women. We will supplement this with some of the early writings of the Wages for Housework campaign, and more recent scholarship, including a newly published collection of Vogel’s essays, _. Some familiarity with Marxist theory is helpful but not essential. Lisa Maya Knauer stumbled across the writings of the “wages for housework” campaign in the mid-1970s when she was a college student. A few years later, she started reading Marx’s Capital at the MEP’s predecessor, the School for Marxist Education. She is a co-founder of the MEP and has led our Capital Volume I reading groups for the past few years. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=26008 | ||||||
| Extraction: A Book Talk with Author Thea Riofrancos | Live event concluded, but you may watch the recording on YouTube.Will green capitalism save us from the climate crisis? “Clean” technologies and renewable energy are certainly growing sites of capitalist investment, with government policies playing a key role in making these sectors profitable. But the supply chains that produce the technologies pose vexing dilemmas for the energy transition. These dilemmas are most dramatic at the extractive frontiers of green capitalism: where the natural resources needed to manufacture electric vehicles and build windmills are extracted. Thea Riofrancos, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, unpacks these challenges through the lens of lithium, a so-called “critical mineral” essential for its role in decarbonizing one of the most polluting sectors: transportation. With forecasters predicting an enormous surge in lithium demand, exceeding existing supplies, Global North governments and downstream firms scramble to “secure” lithium, resulting in a new state-corporate alliance and the return of vertical integration. Meanwhile, Global South governments are attempting to leverage critical mineral deposits into sustainable and sovereign economic development. And, across the world, environmental and Indigenous movements contest the rapid expansion of extraction, defending ecosystems, livelihoods, and waterways already under pressure from global warming from a new boom in mining. It is in the play of these forces, unfolding amidst geopolitical rivalry and economic turbulence, that the energy transition will be forged. To conclude, Riofrancos will explore the possibility of a less mining-intensive pathway to zero-carbon transportation. Thea Riofrancos is Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, a Strategic Co-Director of the Climate and Community Institute, and a fellow at the Transnational Institute. Her research focuses on resource extraction, renewable energy, climate change, the global lithium sector, green technologies, social movements, and the Latin American left. She is also the author of Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador and the coauthor of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal. Her writings have appeared in scholarly journals and in the New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, n+1, and Dissent. | Thea Riofrancos, author of ‘Extractions,’ unpacks the challenges of “green capitalism” through the lens of lithium, a so-called “critical mineral” essential for its role in decarbonizing one of the most polluting sectors: transportation. | 1/14/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/extraction-a-book-talk-with-author-thea-riofrancos/ | _Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Classes/Events>Book talks|Climate Change|Ecosocialism|Extractivism|Imperialism|Indigenous Peoples|Latin America|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Winter 2026 | 2/25/2026 19:00 | 2/25/2026 20:30 | ||
| Monthly Literature Group: ‘Tijuana Straits’ | Monthly sessions, on or about the last Saturday of each month The 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. Review our previous selections here. Convened 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. | 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. | 1/21/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/monthly-literature-group/ | _Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|Literature|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Reading Group | 8/29/2026 14:00 | 8/29/2026 16:00 | ||
| Hegel for Radicals: The Philosophy of Right | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues this Spring with a ten-session seminar on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. This work is a treatise on the meaning of freedom and the kind of institutions that are required for its realization. We will debunk previous myths that Hegel was a reactionary spokesman of the Prussian monarchy and show the truly radical view that Hegel championed under difficult conditions of censorship and political persecution, much like those of our own time. This study of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right is inspired by the insight of Andy Blunden, in his recent book, The Capital-Logic Debate, that the key to understanding Marx’s dialectical method in his investigation of Capital lies in understanding the method Hegel employed in the Philosophy of Right. For the main text the preferred version is Outlines of the Philosophy of Right, edited by Stephen Houlgate (Oxford University Press, 2008). Also acceptable is Elements of the Philosophy of Right, edited by Allen W. Wood (Cambridge University Press, 1991). Previous classes in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and/or the Science of Logic will be helpful but are not a requirement for these sessions. Each participant will be expected to make at least one presentation during the ten-week seminar. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx’s Capital. Alex Steinberg will guide participants past the legendary obstacles to understanding this supremely concrete application of Hegel’s dialectical method. Alex Steinberg is the facilitator of Hegel for Radicals. He is an independent scholar who has taught and published on topics such as the philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and humanism, Hegel’s philosophy of history and Hegel’s Phenomenology at various alternative educational institutions. Alex has also been involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2020-2021. | The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues ten sessions on Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’, a treatise on the meaning of freedom and the kind of institutions that are required for its realization. Our study is inspired by the insight of Andy Blunden, in his recent book, ‘The Capital-Logic Debate’, that the key to understanding Marx’s dialectical method in his investigation of Capital lies in understanding the method Hegel employed in the Philosophy of Right. | 1/30/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegels-philosophy-of-right/ | Hegel|historical materialism|History|Marx and Hegel|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Philosophy of History|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method|_Seasons>Spring 2026|_Seasons>Winter 2026 | 6/13/2026 11:00 | 6/13/2026 13:00 | ||
| Reading Science and Speculative Literature Politically – Spring 2026 Edition | Alternate Mondays, Next on February 16, 5-6:30 pm ET Join us to sample exciting new short fiction and non-fiction to assess the state of socially-conscious, political speculative fiction today. Speculative fiction, reborn from traditional science fiction, and also known by its alter ego visionary fiction and other its other identities, including horror, more than ever offers space for exploration of class, race, gender, freedom struggles and authoritarian repression. We read it to envision the futures we seek and empower our commitments, enliven our reflection, and energize our communities. This spring, we take a step back to sample authors, stories and essays from three new and recent collections:
We also have a short list of longer fiction to select a next novel or two from, based on these discussions:
No matter how hard or easy you find it to visualize a just future, we encourage you to give a try to the MEP’s long-running speculative literature reading group. Convened by the Speculative Fiction Reading Group. | 2/6/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=26245 | American Literature|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Dystopian literature|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|_Seasons>Spring 2026|Visionary Fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction|Women | 3/23/2026 17:00 | 3/23/2026 18:30 | |||
| Topics in Strategic Studies – Spring 2026 Series | Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET Join 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. This 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.” As 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. | We are currently reading ‘The Choice of Civil War’ 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.” | 2/6/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/political-strategy/ | featured | featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group|_Seasons>Spring 2026 | 6/16/2026 19:00 | 6/16/2026 20:30 | |
| Immigration and Chicano/Latin American Liberation: Repression & Resistance | Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET Join us for an overview study of the relationship between Mexican immigration and the United States: its colonial foundation, vibrant new communities, cyclical labor exploitation, and state-sanctioned repression, liberation struggles. The Chicano liberation movement emerged as a direct response to this, and its legacy is critical to understanding immigration struggles today and modern nativist and fascist-aligned counter-responses. Convened by the MEP Political Strategy Study Group, including Steve Backman, Fred Murphy, and new volunteers Camilo Pérez-Bustillo and others. Our primary reading is No One Is Illegal, by Justin Akers Chacon and Mike Davis (Haymarket Books, 2018 Updated Edition). We supplement this with additional recommended readings for which we will provide links or copies, and, based on initial discussion, we may recommend a second book as “primary.” We have planned for six weeks, optionally extending to eight. Given the richness of the topics and based on interest, we may plan for follow-on study in the spring. This study continues the long-running “Historical Roots of American Fascism” series and takes it in a new direction. Our historical readings first focused on the 1830s and 1840s counter-revolution of Texan settlers against native peoples, Mexico, and people of Mexican origins with long traditions in the Southwest. This study brings our focus forward to the patterns of life and struggle in the twentieth century and twentieth-first century. Using the lens of Chicano political traditions, we expect it to provide insight on national conditions throughout the US. We continue to have three points of reference:
We will make available a new syllabus while continuing to update our long-term bibliography of supplementary readings. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=26251 | featured | _Seasons>Fall 2025|featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Reading Group | 2/3/2026 19:00 | 2/3/2026 20:30 | ||
| Protective Presence in the West Bank | Live event concluded, but you may watch the recording on YouTube.The only people standing beside the Palestinians of the West Bank as they defend themselves from ethnic cleansing are protective presence activists. Celeste Marcus and Mitch Abidor have both spent time in the West Bank doing protective presence, accompanying Palestinians in their fields and with their flocks and confronting settlers who are far less likely to kill and even attack Palestinians if protective presence activists are on the ground. Mitch and Celeste will be discussing their experiences and their new organization, Protective Presence USA, which is assisting Americans in joining this effort to fight off the annexation of Palestinian land. Mitch Abidor is a writer and translator. His latest book is Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary. He’s currently working on an oral history of the Israeli socialist anti-Zionist organization Matzpen. Celeste Marcus is the executive editor of Liberties Journal and the author of Chaim Soutine: Genius, Obsession and a Dramatic Life in Art. She has written widely about settler terrorism in the West Bank. | 3/9/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/protective-presence/ | Anti-colonialism|Anti-fascism|_Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Colonialism|Imperialism|Israeli occupation|Organizing|Palestine|Present Moment|Repression|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|_Seasons>Spring 2026|Classes/Events>Video Available|War | 3/21/2026 14:00 | 3/21/2026 15:30 | |||
| Reading Science Fiction and Speculative Literature Politically – Spring 2026 Edition | Alternate Mondays, next on June 15, 5-6:30 pm ET MEP’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. In May, we read: Other Spring readings have been: Convened by the Science and Speculative Fiction Reading Group. | 3/12/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/speculative-fiction-politically-spring-2026/ | featured | American Literature|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Dystopian literature|featured|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Radical Literature|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|_Seasons>Spring 2026|Visionary Fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction|Women | 6/15/2026 17:00 | 6/15/2026 18:30 | ||
| ‘Black History Is for Everyone’ with Brian Jones | A video of this May 2, 2026, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. Longtime 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. Brian 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. | 4/3/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/black-history-jones/ | featured | Africa|African American History|_Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Classes/Events>Book talks|Civil War|Colonialism|Du Bois|featured|History|Labor History|Race and Class|_Seasons>Spring 2026|US History|Working Class History | 5/2/2026 14:00 | 5/2/2026 15:30 | ||
| Approaching the Limit: Panel 1, Thresholds | Panel Presentation by the Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureBoundary, 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? In 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. The 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) Suvij 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. The 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. | In 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. I their geographical and methodological variety, our papers collectively map out the terrai of this keyword, and seek to determine the bounds, so to speak, of studying, theorizing and making culture at the limit. | 4/29/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/yale-wggc-thresholds/ | featured | _Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Critical Theory|Cultural Resistance|featured|Globalization|historical materialism|History|Marx|Media Criticism|Modernity|Classes/Events>Panel Discussion|Political Strategy|Republicanism|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Spring 2026 | 6/6/2026 14:00 | 6/6/2026 16:00 | |
| Approaching the Limit: Panel 2, Extremities | Yale Working Group on Globalization and CultureBoundary, 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? In 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. In 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) Nathaniel 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. The 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. | In 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. I 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. This second panel questions the socio-spatial manifestations of the limit and its political and property avatars: the border the boundary, and the zone. | 4/29/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/yale-wggc-extremities/ | featured | _Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Critical Theory|Cultural Resistance|featured|Globalization|historical materialism|History|Immigration|Latin America|Modernity|Classes/Events>Panel Discussion|Political Economy|Present Moment|Race and Class|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Spring 2026 | 6/7/2026 14:00 | 6/7/2026 16:00 | |
| A People’s Guide to Capitalism | Summer introductory sessions on the political economy of capitalismIn 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.  “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 McNallyFacilitated 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. Registration for this study group is now closed. For information contact info@mepnet.wpenginepowered.com | Summer introductory sessions on the political economy of capitalism: In ten weekly sessions starting June 8, we will read and discuss 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%. | 4/29/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/peoples-guide-to-capitalism-2026/ | featured | Accumulation of Capital|automation|Capital Studies|Crisis|featured|Globalization|historical materialism|History|Imperialism|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Social Reproduction|_Seasons>Spring 2026|_Seasons>Summer 2026 | 8/3/2026 18:30 | 8/3/2026 20:00 | |
| Marx and the Body with Søren Mau | 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. This talk is based on Søren Mau’s article “Karl Marx and the Body: Towards an Eco-Marxist Philosophical Anthropology” in Body & Society 32(1). Søren 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. | 5/2/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marx-and-the-body/ | featured | Class and Gender|Critical Theory|Ecosocialism|featured|historical materialism|Marx|Political Economy|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Summer 2026|Women | 6/21/2026 14:00 | 6/21/2026 15:30 | ||
| Late-Stage Capitalism? Accumulation in the Ruins | A video of this June 27, 2026, event is available on the MEP’s YouTube channel. A panel celebrating the 2026 edition of Socialist Register The 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. Panelists: 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. | A panel celebrating the 2026 edition of Socialist Register. The 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?). | 5/26/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/socialist-register-2026/ | featured | Accumulation of Capital|Artificial Intelligence AI|Capital Studies|Class|Crisis|Fascism|featured|Financialization|Globalization|History|Imperialism|Marxist Method|Money|Neo-fascism|Neoliberal Authoritarianism|Classes/Events>Panel Discussion|Political Economy|Political Strategy|Present Moment|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Socialist Register|_Seasons>Summer 2026|Transition from Capitalism|Classes/Events>Video Available|War | 6/27/2026 14:00 | 6/27/2026 16:00 | |
| Porn & Gambling and the American Psyche | With the American empire in decline as Iran may be the American empire’s Suez, a moment that signaled the end of the British empire and with working and living conditions worsening for most American workers as prices rise, wages stagnate and AI comes for their jobs, on offer to appease them are the twin “vices” of porn and gambling, both of which have penetrated deeply into the society and reached astronomical levels of profit: Porn and Gambling the new bread and circuses, only without the bread. This talk will look at these industries with their own ever expanding profit margins as both penetrate into the mainstream. Porn is now four times more profitable than the Hollywood film industry, though the two have a symbiotic relation, with the online porn service OnlyFans offering easy money for young working-class women who either abandon college or work in the industry to afford higher education. Likewise, sports betting which is now ubiquitous as more states throw off gambling restrictions also is expanding through online betting houses like Kalshi and Polymarket to include politics as areas of gambling as well, with even The Financial Times now quoting Polymarket, rather than pollsters, as a predicting service. Everything is now reduced to odds on which way the event will go, including not only elections but also Trump’s foreign wars (“When will he invade,” etc.) Both of these essentially working-class modes of exploitation also their have their upper class even more cutthroat means of expression; porn in the Epstein Scandal with the Epstein Elite and gambling in the Trump insider manipulation of the stock market. We’ll talk about the lure of porn and gambling, the addictive quality of both, ways they intersect with the American family structure, and ways those who participate in both industries are attempting to succeed and in some cases unionize. Dennis Broe’s latest Harry Palmer Mystery is Pornocopia about the porn and gambling industries in LA and Las Vegas as well as the moment of a confluence of financial capital, the mob and government. | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=27155 | ||||||
| Porn, Gambling, and the American Psyche with Dennis Broe | 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. With 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. Dennis 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. Dennis 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. | 6/16/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/porn-gambling/ | featured | Alienation|Capital vs. Labor|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|featured|Film and television|Labor Organizing|Literature|Media Criticism|Political Economy|Present Moment|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|_Seasons>Summer 2026 | 7/11/2026 14:00 | 7/11/2026 15:30 | ||
| Get blood and consciousness moving with “Ring Shout” | Next on Monday August 31, 5-6:30 pm ET for Ring Shout Reading Science Fiction Politically, Midterms edition explores climate crisis, artificial intelligence in politics, a reawakened Klan, and more by way of four recent novels and selected short stories. Our next book, Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Cleark, poses a well-timed question: consider with us, what if the monstrous, demonic rebirthed KKK in the 1910s had actual demons for leaders? A non-stop thrill ride featuring three fearless and well-drawn women monster-fighters rallying their community to drive out the “Ku Kluxers.” Have you noticed that, as contemporary politics veers into the fantastical, more writers have embraced the fantastical, speculative, visionary, horror to explore politics realistically? If that contradiction intrigues you, we welcome you to our twice-a-month reading group. Jump in any time to sample the best of socially-conscious and political literature traditionally called science fiction. We read it to get ready for this year’s elections, envision the futures we seek and empower our commitments, enliven our reflection, and energize our communities.
And bookmark this page for coming selections | 6/16/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/reading-science-fiction-politically-midterms-edition/ | American Literature|Class and Gender|Cultural Resistance|Classes/Events>Literary Studies|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|_Seasons>Summer 2026|Literature>Visionary Fiction|Visionary Fiction | 8/31/2026 17:00 | 8/31/2026 18:30 | |||
| Muskism, Global Trends, and Political Strategy Today | Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET Beginning July 14 For 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. To 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. We 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. | We are currently reading ‘The Choice of Civil War’ 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.” | 6/17/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/muskism-and-political-challenges-today/ | featured | Artificial Intelligence AI|featured|Gramsci|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group|_Seasons>Summer 2026 | 7/14/2026 19:00 | 7/14/2026 20:30 | |
| Refusal of Work: The Writings of Harry Cleaver | Refuse work. Revolt against capitalism. Read Harry Cleaver. In that order. Repeat. (Postponed from September 20) Join 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. Robert 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. Kevin 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. | Join 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 “inversion of the class perspective,” the crisis of capitalism, and the ongoing necessity of re-reading Marxist theory. | 8/12/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/writings-of-harry-cleaver/ | featured | Alienation|automation|_Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Classes/Events>Book talks|Capital vs. Labor|Class|communism|_Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|historical materialism|Insurgency|Labor History|Marx|Political Economy|Political Strategy|Precarity|Radical Literature|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Solidarity|Workers’ Inquiry | 10/10/2026 14:00 | 10/10/2026 15:30 | |
| ‘The Future of Revolution’ with Jasper Bernes | 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. “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 Jasper 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. | 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. 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. | 8/12/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/future-of-revolution/ | featured | Anarchism|Bolshevism|_Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Classes/Events>Book talks|Class|communism|_Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|Italian history|Labor History|Marx|Organizing|Political Strategy|Revolutions|Rosa Luxemburg|Russian Revolution|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Syndicalism|Workers’ Inquiry | 10/17/2026 14:00 | 10/17/2026 15:30 | |
| Marx’s Capital, Volume I – A Short Course on Capitalist Production | A 12-session study group, September 19 through December 5 Have you always wanted to study Marx’s Capital, Volume 1, but hesitated because of the time commitment to read the entire volume from start to finish? Join us for a 12-session study group covering key sections of the book. Experienced Capital study leader Lisa Maya Knauer facilitates as we explore the relevance of Marx’s analysis to our current context. While we will go over the assigned material each week, participants will read the material on their own in advance. This study group is open to both Capital newbies and those who have read it previously but want a refresher. Lisa will be using the new Reitter-North translation of Capital, but participants are welcome to use any available edition. Lisa Maya Knauer has been involved with Marxist education in New York for her entire adult life, and has taught a variety of classes at the MEP and its predecessors. Her current activist work focuses on immigrant workers’ rights and indigenous struggles for land and water. In her day job, she is a tenured radical at a public university. | 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. | 8/12/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/capital-short-course-2026/ | Capital Studies|_Seasons>Fall 2026|historical materialism|History|Intro to Marxism|Labor Process|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Modernity|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Social Reproduction | 9/26/2026 16:00 | 9/26/2026 18:00 | ||
| The Works of Henri Lefebvre: Four Lectures | We introduce the work of French Marxist theorist Henri Lefebvre through four monthly lectures presented by cultural studies scholar Iván Zatz-Díaz. Lecture 1—October 11 Metaphilosophy: 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. Lecture 2—November 15 Critique 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.Lecture 3—December 6 The 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. Lecture 4—January 10 Critique 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. Iván 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). | We introduce the work of French Marxist theorist Henri Lefebvre through four monthly lectures presented by cultural studies scholar Iván Zatz-Díaz. | 8/26/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/four-lectures-lefebvre/ | featured | Alienation|Critical Theory|Cultural Resistance|_Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|France|Hegel|historical materialism|Marx|Marxisms|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Urbanism | 10/11/2026 13:00 | 10/11/2026 15:30 | |
| Mikhail Baitalsky’s ‘Notebooks for the Grandchildren’ |  Translator Marilyn Vogt-Downey presents a poignant memoir by Mikhail Baitalsky, a Ukrainian survivor of the 1930s purges in Soviet Union. Notebooks for the Grandchildren: Recollections of a Supporter of the Marxist Opposition to Stalin Who Survived the Stalin Terror is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand what went wrong after the great Russian Revolution of 1917. Through the eyes of young Ukrainians like himself, who came of age fighting for the Revolution but were murdered in the late 1930s, Baitalsky recounts the Revolution’s hopes—and its tragic unraveling under Stalin. He narrates how Stalin rose to power and carried out the “political counterrevolution” that silenced so many. Arrested three times by the Stalin regime, Baitalsky survived to tell this story.Marilyn Vogt-Downey translated for the Writings of Leon Trotsky series (1970s) for Pathfinder Press and Samizdat: Voices of the Soviet Opposition (1974) and was a contributor to the Bulletin in Defense of Marxism (1990s) as well as to Truthout and Counterpunch. She taught high school economics and foreign policy in NYC for 26 years and is currently a delegate to the United Federation of Teachers Retiree Chapter. | Translator Marilyn Vogt-Downey presents a poignant memoir by Mikhail Baitalsky, a Ukrainian survivor of the 1930s purges in Soviet Union. ‘Notebooks for the Grandchildren’ is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand what went wrong after the great Russian Revolution of 1917. | 8/14/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/mikhail-baitalskys-notebooks-for-the-grandchildren/ | Anti-capitalist Literature|Bolshevism|_Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Classes/Events>Book talks|_Seasons>Fall 2026|History|Radical Literature|Repression|Russia|Russian Revolution|Socialism|War|Working Class History | 9/26/2026 14:00 | 9/26/2026 15:30 | ||
| Historical-Materialist Psychology: Vygotsky’s Contribution | 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.
Carl 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. | 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.” | 8/26/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/marxist-psychology-2/ | Critical Theory|_Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|historical materialism|Intro to Marxism|Marx|Marxist Method|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Political Economy|Psychology|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method | 10/4/2026 16:00 | 10/4/2026 17:30 | ||
| ‘Beneath the Wage’ with Annie McClanahan | A conversation with author Annie McClanahan on Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work (Zone Books, 2026). Today, 80 percent of U.S. workers do service work, from delivering takeout to mopping floors to teaching. Do these jobs have anything in common? Who is doing this work? And what kind of labor politics does it generate? Although service work has often been treated as a footnote to modern capitalism, this talk uses service work to challenge conventional assumptions about how work is waged, regulated, managed, and automated. It explores three paradigmatic types of contemporary service labor—superexploited tipwork, deskilled clerical microwork, and informalized gigwork—and argues that work done “beneath the wage” depends on racialized and gendered forms of economic domination and is often excluded from labor organizing and regulation. Yet service work has also begun to generate a new politics of solidarity, one that rejects the compromises of industrial unionism and attends instead to the problem of reproduction in a low-wage economy. Annie McClanahan is Professor of English at the University of California–Irvine. She directs the UC Marxist Institute for Research, is Faculty Co-Director for UCI-LIFTED, which offers a bachelors degree to incarcerated students, and is the Vice President for the Council of UC Faculty Associations. She is also the author of Dead Pledges: Debt, Crisis, and 21st Century Culture (Stanford University Press, 2017). | A conversation with author Annie McClanahan on ‘Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work.’ Today, 80 percent of U.S. workers do service work, from delivering takeout to mopping floors to teaching. Do these jobs have anything in common? Who is doing this work? And what kind of labor politics does it generate? | 8/14/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/beneath-the-wage-with-annie-mcclanahan/ | _Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Classes/Events>Book talks|Capital vs. Labor|Class and Gender|_Seasons>Fall 2026|Gender|Healthcare|Labor Organizing|Labor Process|Organizing|Political Economy|Precarity|Classes/Events>Seminars and Talks|Social Reproduction|Solidarity | 10/25/2026 14:00 | 10/25/2026 15:30 | ||
| Highlights of Capital Volume III: The Automatic Fetish | Volume III of Marx’s Capital – The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole – integrates and completes Marx’s analysis, 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 of capitalism. It is essential to understanding the current moment of late capitalist/imperialist development, in which we see the rise of rentier and finance capital and the commodification of debt; continuously rising prices that bring still more poverty and starvation; new technologies turned into means of extracting rents; the privatization of public spaces, properties and institutions; and the list goes on. In this series of ten weekly sessions, we will be guided through the key concepts in Capital III using Beverley Best’s highly praised companion volume, The Automatic Fetish: The Law of Value in Marx’s Capital.Fred Murphy will facilitate this group. Since 2015 Fred has led numerous MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research and reported from Latin America for several socialist publications. | 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. | 8/14/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/automatic-fetish-2026/ | Accumulation of Capital|Capital Studies|Crisis|_Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|Financialization|historical materialism|History|Marx|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes>Marx’s Capital|Marxist Method|Money|Political Economy|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method | 10/19/2026 18:30 | 10/19/2026 20:00 | ||
| Capitalism: The Insatiable Machine with Trevor Jackson | 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. With 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. Full 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. | Join us for a conversation with Trevor Jackson on his book ‘The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Conquered the World.’ Full 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. | 8/17/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/insatiable-machine/ | featured | Accumulation of Capital|Asia|_Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Classes/Events>Book talks|British Imperialism|Capital Studies|_Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|Globalization|historical materialism|History|Imperialism|Modernity|Money|Political Economy|Slavery|US History|Working Class History | 10/4/2026 14:00 | 10/4/2026 15:30 | |
| Topics in Political Strategy | Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET 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. Bookmark this page for our coming-soon fall readings coming. And do register (for free) for access to our private community chat and our regularly-updated study guide. We 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. | We are currently reading ‘The Choice of Civil War’ 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.” | 8/20/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=27527 | featured | Artificial Intelligence AI|_Seasons>Fall 2026|featured|Gramsci|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group|_Seasons>Summer 2026 | 9/1/2026 19:00 | 9/1/2026 20:30 | |
| Topics in Political Strategy: ‘Nerd Reich’ and ‘We Still Here’ | Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET Next on September 1 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. This fall, we read two critical commentaries on two very different ends of the present moment and organizing responses to it. We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest and Possibility, by Marc Lamont Hill. We trace back to 2020 and the uprising that “marked a new phase in the Movement for Black Lives.” Hill “critically examines the “pre-existing conditions” that have led us to this moment of crisis and upheaval, guiding us through both the perils and possibilities, and helping us imagine an abolitionist future.” (from Bookshop.org listing) The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, by Gil Durán, a journalist traces back from the rise of JD Vance, to Peter Thiel, and then further to the right. “These guys were never libertarians,” says Durán. “Now that they are the government, we see their true face: They’re fascists, and they’re authoritarians.” (Quoted on Democracy Now!) We 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. | 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. | 8/21/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/topics-in-political-strategy-2/ | featured | Artificial Intelligence AI|Gramsci|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group|_Seasons>Summer 2026 | 9/22/2026 19:00 | 9/22/2026 20:30 | |
| P DJeli Clark on ‘Ring Shout’, Writing Stories, Building Worlds, Usually Fantastic | Phenderson Djéli Clark is the award winning and Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy nominated author of the novel Ring Shout, which MEP’s Speculative Fiction will read next. Clark also has written Abeni’s Song and A Master of Djinn, and the novellas The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Fireside Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies including, Griots, Hidden Youth and Clockwork Cairo. He is a founding member of FIYAH Literary Magazine and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons. Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, Texas, he spent the early formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. When not writing speculative fiction, P. Djèlí Clark works as an academic historian whose research spans comparative slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World. He melds this interest in history and the social world with speculative fiction, and has written articles on issues ranging from racism and H.P. Lovecraft to critiques of George Schuyler’s Black Empire, and has been a panelist and lecturer at conventions, workshops and other genre events. Join us for what promises to be a wide-ranging, exhilarating conversation. | 8/22/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/p-djeli-clark-on-ring-shout-writing-stories-building-worlds-usually-fantastic/ | _Seasons>Book Event or Panel|Classes/Events|_Seasons>Fall 2026|Speculative fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction | 9/28/2026 17:00 | 9/28/2026 18:30 | |||
| Hegel for Radicals: On Art and Literature | The End of History is here! So proclaimed Francis Fukuyama in the 1990’s, following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In the 1960’s the philosopher and art critic Arthur C. Danto proclaimed The End of Art, noting the ascendancy of Andy Warhol’s pop art. The idea can also be traced back to the early years of the 20th century with Marcel Duchamp, Dadaism, and Cubism. The genesis of both concepts, The End of History and the End of Art 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. We will read the Introduction and several selected sections from the body of the lectures. As in virtually every area which he investigated, Hegel brought about a revolution in the way we think of art and literature. He anticipated the development of modernism before it arrived, as well as the enigmas raised by postmodernism. Agree with Hegel or not, it is no exaggeration to say that all contemporary discourse about art and literature takes his work as its point of departure. This class series begins on October 31 and will introduce what is living in Hegel for those who want to change the world. Our goal is to make Hegel’s dialectic less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in his thought and its significance for our time. Previous classes in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, The Science of Logic and/or The Philosophy of Right will be helpful but are not a requirement for this class. Every participant in the class will be expected to make at least one presentation during the semester. Alex Steinberg is the facilitator of Hegel for Radicals. He is an independent scholar who has taught and published on topics such as the philosophy of Heidegger and Nazism, Marxism and humanism, Hegel’s philosophy of history and Hegel’s Phenomenology at various alternative educational institutions. Alex has also been involved with the governance of WBAI radio in New York and its parent organization, Pacifica, most recently as the Chair of the Pacifica National Board from 2020-2022. | 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. | 9/18/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/hegel-art-literature/ | Anti-capitalist art|Anti-capitalist Literature|Antiquity|Art and politics|Cultural Resistance|_Seasons>Fall 2026|French Revolution|Germany|Hegel|historical materialism|History|Literature|Marx and Hegel|Modernity|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Philosophy|Philosophy of History|Poetry|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science and Method | 10/31/2026 11:00 | 10/31/2026 13:00 | ||
| Elections and Tech Futures: Read Malka Older’s ‘Infomocracy’ | An MEP Literature Book Group, meeting alternate Mondays at 5 pm ET “It’s been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global microdemocracy.” So begins Infomocracy, Malka Older’s political thriller of a science fiction story, one whose path we may have already started down. NPR’s review called it “kinetic and gripping,” and all the more so now. Executive Director of Global Voices, Malka Older has worked at the intersection of writing and activism for many years. She brings her connection to global justice to this, her debut novel, and all she has written since. This summer and fall, our Reading Science Fiction Politically book group has pursued a midterm elections series, exploring climate crisis, artificial intelligence, a reawakened Klan, and more by way of four recent novels and selected short stories. We now turn just before the November elections to our selection most connected with the struggling electoral system. Have you noticed that, as contemporary politics veers into the fantastical, more writers have embraced the fantastical, speculative, visionary, horror to explore politics realistically? If that contradiction intrigues you, we welcome you to our twice-a-month reading group. Jump in any time to sample the best of socially-conscious and political literature traditionally called science fiction. We read it to get ready for this year’s elections, envision the futures we seek and empower our commitments, enliven our reflection, and energize our communities. Here’s our recent list:
Please bookmark this page for coming selections | 9/27/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/elections-and-tech-futures-read-malka-olders-infomocracy/ | American Literature|_Seasons>Fall 2026|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|_Seasons>Reading Group|Science Fiction|Speculative fiction|Visionary Fiction|Literature>Visionary Fiction | 10/12/2026 17:00 | 10/12/2026 18:30 | |||
| Topics in Political Strategy: End Times Fascism | Weekly on Tuesdays, 7-9 pm ET “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. As 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. We 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. | 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. | 9/27/2026 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/event/topics-in-political-strategy-end-times-fascism/ | featured | Artificial Intelligence AI|_Seasons>Fall 2026|Fascism|featured|Classes/Events>Multi-session Classes|Political Strategy|_Seasons>Reading Group | 10/13/2026 19:00 | 10/13/2026 20:30 | |
| Hegel for Radicals: On Art and Literature | 1/1/1970 | https://mepnet.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=28202 |
In 1956, sociologist C. Wright Mills published The Power Elite, a study that challenged conventional postwar assumptions that the United States was a society of democracy and upward mobility. Mills analyzed how power and social status in the 1950s had become concentrated in an immense corporate-government power complex that overrode the country’s apparently democratic and egalitarian institutions. Mills feared that, if not constrained, concentration and centralization of power at the top of modern society would result in a revival of the violent capitalist authoritarianism or fascism that marked the 1920s and 30s. The Power Elite had a profound influence on the rise of the New Left and contributed to the revival of Marxism in the 1960s (although Mills himself was not a Marxist).