Conversations on the US Elections
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsJoin 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.
Reading Science Fiction Politically: Envision the Future We Seek
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participants"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.
Book Talk: On the History of Capitalist ‘Reforms’
Video available on YouTubeGiampaolo 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.
Reading Marx’s Capital Volume I
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsParticipants 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."
Book Talk: Liberating Abortion
Video available on YouTubeRegina 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.
Studies in Marx’s Capital
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsFollowing 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 reading selections from David Harvey's 'The Limits to Capital,' and we plan to read Soren Mau's 'Mute Compulsion' and Beverley Best's 'The Automatic Fetish.'
Hegel’s ‘Science of Logic’ – An Epilogue and a Prologue
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.
Reading Gramsci for Today’s Movements
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsAn 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.
The Circulation of Capital: Volume II of Marx’s Capital
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA 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.
AI versus Labor: Luddism and Beyond
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participants8 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.
Conversations on the US Elections – What happens next?
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsJoin 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?
Celebrating 75 Years of Palestinian Literature – New Series
On-Line via Zoom You will receive Zoom link by email before the event., NYFifteen weekly sessions on Thursdays at 7 pm US ET, Oct 3 - Jan 30 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, ... Read more
Marx Miniseries: The ‘Resultate’
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThe MEP's Capital Studies Group presents a four-week 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.
Historical Roots of American Fascism and Political Strategy Today
On-Line via Zoom You will receive Zoom link by email before the event., NYThe new season of the Political Strategy reading group will explore in depth six major waves of struggle and counter-revolution in the United States, from the early decades of the republic to the present. With each new era, we will use readings and discussion to address three major points of analysis: Sources, strengths, and strategies ... Read more
A Prime Competitor: Understanding Amazon’s Market Power
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsStephen 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.