Events
-
-
Slavery and Capitalism: A Reading Group
Online Event - Zoom MeetingJoin 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, ... Read more
-
Roundtable on Venezuela, Oil, and Global Politics
Recording available on YouTubeA 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 ... Read more
-
-
Marxist Psychology: Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Theory
FeaturedOnline Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupA 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 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.
-
Immigration and Chicano/Latin American Liberation: Repression & Resistance
FeaturedOnline Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupTuesdays, 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 ... Read more
Free -
Extraction: A Book Talk with Author Thea Riofrancos
FeaturedRecording available on YouTubeVirtual EventThea 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.
-
-
Social Reproduction Theory with Lisa Maya Knauer.
Online Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupKarl 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.
-
Protective Presence in the West Bank
Recording available on YouTubeSpecial EventLive 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 ... Read more
-
-
Reading Science Fiction and Speculative Literature Politically – Spring 2026 Edition
FeaturedOnline Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupAlternate Mondays, next on April 13, 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, ... Read more
Get Tickets Free -
Marx’s Capital, Vol. II – On the Circulation of Capital
FeaturedOnline Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupA 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.
-
Topics in Strategic Studies – Spring 2026 Series
FeaturedOnline Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupTuesdays, 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 ... Read more
Get Tickets Free -
The Aesthetics of Resistance: Art and Fascism in the 1930s
FeaturedOnline Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupJoin 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 ... Read more
Get Tickets Free -
Adam Smith and ‘The Wealth of Nations’ Book 2
Online Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupRead and discuss the works of Adam Smith in this ongoing study group. The group is currently reading Book 2 of Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations', which takes up the nature and functioning of capital.
Get Tickets Free -
Hegel for Radicals: The Philosophy of Right
Online Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupThe 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 ... Read more
-
Antonio Gramsci Studies: 2026 Series
Online Event - Zoom MeetingReading GroupThe continuing 2026 Gramsci Study Sessions meets Sundays at 11 am ET and will read and explore from: Selections from the Prison Notebooks Selections from Cultural Writings Selections from Political Writings Gramsci’s writings on international politics, as they relate to contemporary issues and conflicts. Participants may join in at any time. We share a vast ... Read more
Get Tickets Free -
-
‘Black History Is for Everyone’ with Brian Jones
FeaturedOnline Event - Zoom MeetingLongtime 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 ... Read more
Get Tickets Free