The Marxist Education Project (MEP) is a unique radical adult-education project with roots dating back to the mid-1970s. Our classes, reading and study groups, book release events, and panel discussions and other programs explore the roots of oppression and give voice to resistance and liberation. These programs provide deep background on issues of political economy, class, race, gender, sexuality, and the natural environment. We do this by teaching, reading key texts together, inviting authors, and provoking lively, respectful discussion and debate.
After decades of in-person programs in New York City, we went online out of necessity at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a welcome by-product, we found a wider audience and have stuck with the change, although we do host occasional in-person events in NYC.
The MEP has offered close to 2,000 individual events and class sessions since reorganizing in 2014. While much of our audience resides in the United States, we welcome participants from throughout the world. Our formats range from study groups and classes with assigned readings and discussion questions, to reading aloud together in the traditional working-class self-education manner, to talks and panel presentations by guest speakers and commentators.
As our name suggests, we define ourselves as a “project” and not as a political organization. We see our purpose as education that supports organizers, theorists, and teachers in the struggles they identify with. While we embrace Marxism as our framework, it is a Marxism enriched by the full range of global liberation struggles and theoretical contributions since Marx’s own time.
Try us out with a class or reading group that interests you, then become part of our community, volunteer to teach, facilitate, or organize events. If you have a class or event to propose, please let us know at info@marxedproject.org.
Organization and Legal Standing
The Marxist Education Project operates as a program of the Movement Education Project Group, Inc. (MEPG). The MEPG has registered in the state of New York as a private, nonprofit company and with the IRS as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.
The MEP is managed by an Executive Committee responsible to the Board of Directors of the MEPG. As of August 2025, the Executive Committee consists of David Worley (president), Fred Murphy (vice president), Lisa Maya Knauer, and Steve Backman.
The MEP and the MEPG are entirely independent of any other organization, party, publisher, or academic institution. We welcome transparent interactions with people and organizations of good will for the advancement of common values.
We rely almost entirely on the financial support we receive through individual contributions. Such support enables us to cover our main expenses for publicity, outreach, communication, and operations. At present, we operate on an all-volunteer basis, but when funds allow we will add paid staff to broaden our reach. We would also like to offer modest stipends or honoraria to speakers and facilitators.
We remain committed to our longstanding policy of turning away no one due to inability to pay: indeed, for the last year and more, we have experimented with offering programming entirely free of charge. This is one part of the legacy left us by Michael Lardner. Our ability to do this in turn depends on the generosity, loyalty, and commitment of those who make regular contributions to support the MEP.
A Note on Our History
The School for Marxist Education (SME) was founded in 1975 in New York City. In the late 1980s, the SME joined with members of the New York Marxist School to launch the Brecht Forum. The Brecht thrived for many years, presenting classes and events at sites first in midtown Manhattan and later on the West Side. Rising real-estate costs and other complications contributed to its closure in 2014. At that point, some of the Brecht’s teachers and organizers began offering classes and events at The Brooklyn Commons. These efforts were soon reorganized under the rubric of the Marxist Education Project.
The inimitable Michael Lardner led the MEP until his untimely death in 2022. This collage features some of the iconic posters he created to publicize the events he so carefully and lovingly organized:
The closing of the Brecht Forum era did not bring to an end our ideas nor the need to address the questions of the era, though many need to be reformulated and new organizational forms appropriate to current conditions surely need to be found. We look to all generations in all our diverse cultural, ethnic, religious and national expressions, gender identifications, sexual orientations, and commitments to particular issues and movements that advance us all towards human emancipation. We look forward to many more years of learning and struggle.
MEP Privacy Policy
Please consult this page to learn about the MEP’s privacy policies.
Marxist Education Project
388 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11217-3651
Email: info@marxedproject.org