BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Marxist Education Project - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Marxist Education Project
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://marxedproject.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Marxist Education Project
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Halifax
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0300
TZNAME:ADT
DTSTART:20190310T060000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0300
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:AST
DTSTART:20191103T050000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0300
TZNAME:ADT
DTSTART:20200308T060000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0300
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:AST
DTSTART:20201101T050000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0300
TZNAME:ADT
DTSTART:20210314T060000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0300
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:AST
DTSTART:20211107T050000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0300
TZNAME:ADT
DTSTART:20220313T060000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0300
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:AST
DTSTART:20221106T050000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210919T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210919T160000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20210828T230200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210828T230200Z
UID:10006235-1632060000-1632067200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Looking Over the Abyss with Steven Colatrella and Michael Meeropol
DESCRIPTION:The US and Europe Beyond Capitalism\nEurope 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. \nThis 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. \nSteven 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. \nMichael 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/looking-over-the-abyss-with-steven-colatrella-and-michael-meeropol/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Accumulation of Capital,China,Class,Classes/Events,Financialization,Globalization,Hegemony,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ImageFromCover.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210617T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210617T210000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20210313T044932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T002134Z
UID:10006901-1623956400-1623963600@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Matters of State: Literature & Espionage
DESCRIPTION:The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novels\n \nWhy Spy Novels? \nSpy 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. \nTHE 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.” \nA 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. \nTHE 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. \nAMERICAN 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.” \n  \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-06-17/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,China,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Literary Studies,Marxist Method,Radical Literature
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LockNKey.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210610T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210610T210000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20210313T044932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T002134Z
UID:10006900-1623351600-1623358800@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Matters of State: Literature & Espionage
DESCRIPTION:The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novels\n \nWhy Spy Novels? \nSpy 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. \nTHE 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.” \nA 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. \nTHE 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. \nAMERICAN 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.” \n  \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-06-10/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,China,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Literary Studies,Marxist Method,Radical Literature
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LockNKey.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210603T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210603T210000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20210313T044932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T002134Z
UID:10006899-1622746800-1622754000@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Matters of State: Literature & Espionage
DESCRIPTION:The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novels\n \nWhy Spy Novels? \nSpy 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. \nTHE 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.” \nA 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. \nTHE 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. \nAMERICAN 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.” \n  \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-06-03/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,China,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Literary Studies,Marxist Method,Radical Literature
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LockNKey.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210527T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210527T210000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20210313T044932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T002134Z
UID:10006898-1622142000-1622149200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Matters of State: Literature & Espionage
DESCRIPTION:The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novels\n \nWhy Spy Novels? \nSpy 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. \nTHE 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.” \nA 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. \nTHE 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. \nAMERICAN 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.” \n  \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-05-27/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,China,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Literary Studies,Marxist Method,Radical Literature
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LockNKey.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210520T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210520T210000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20210313T044932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T002134Z
UID:10006897-1621537200-1621544400@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Matters of State: Literature & Espionage
DESCRIPTION:The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novels\n \nWhy Spy Novels? \nSpy 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. \nTHE 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.” \nA 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. \nTHE 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. \nAMERICAN 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.” \n  \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-05-20/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,China,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Literary Studies,Marxist Method,Radical Literature
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LockNKey.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210513T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210513T210000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20210313T044932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T002134Z
UID:10006896-1620932400-1620939600@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Matters of State: Literature & Espionage
DESCRIPTION:The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novels\n \nWhy Spy Novels? \nSpy 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. \nTHE 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.” \nA 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. \nTHE 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. \nAMERICAN 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.” \n  \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-05-13/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,China,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Literary Studies,Marxist Method,Radical Literature
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LockNKey.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210506T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210506T210000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20210313T044932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T002134Z
UID:10006895-1620327600-1620334800@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Matters of State: Literature & Espionage
DESCRIPTION:The MEP Literature Reading Group takes on three more spy novels\n \nWhy Spy Novels? \nSpy 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. \nTHE 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.” \nA 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. \nTHE 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. \nAMERICAN 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.” \n  \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/matters-of-state-literature-espionage/2021-05-06/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,China,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Literary Studies,Marxist Method,Radical Literature
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LockNKey.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20200921T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20200921T203000
DTSTAMP:20260424T090938
CREATED:20200731T232806Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200913T022158Z
UID:10006770-1600713000-1600720200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:China's Engine of Environmental Collapse
DESCRIPTION:Book discussion with author Richard Smith\nJust published this July\, 2020 by Pluto Press\nThis event is taking place at 6:30 pm originating in New York City (Eastern Standard Tune)\nAs 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. \nThis 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. \nRichard 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. \n \nHere 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 \nhttps://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/27/chinese-communist-party-environment-co2/\n\nThe book is available at the link below.\n\nhttps://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341576/chinas-engine-of-environmental-collapse/\n\nPeople can get it for 20% off with this coupon code: CHINA30.\nRichard 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. \nSliding 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. \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/chinas-engine-of-environmental-collapse/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Capital Studies,China,Classes/Events,Extractivism,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks,Socialism
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Smith_ChinaBook2020.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR