BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Marxist Education Project - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
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: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:20210212T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210212T190000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201230T225318Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210404T134716Z
UID:10006854-1613149200-1613156400@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Engels and the Dialectics of Nature
DESCRIPTION:Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black Holes\nA 9 session class and discussion with Alex Steinberg\nThis 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. \nALEX 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. \n  \nall classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject.org for a link code to be able to participate. \n  \nSyllabus (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 \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-02-12/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Classes/Events,Ecosocialism,Intro to Marxism,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MasslessWeylFermion.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210213T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210213T153000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210120T041519Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210213T013109Z
UID:10006176-1613223000-1613230200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Heterodox Socialism: Michael Brie\, Jean-Numa Ducange\, Kieran Durkin
DESCRIPTION:  \npresentations and discussion with MICHAEL BRIE\, JEAN-NUMA DUCANGE and KIERAN DURKIN \nThis 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) \nOn 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. \nJules 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. \nRaya 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. \nMICHAEL 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). \nJEAN-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). \nKIERAN 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). \n \nThis 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. \nMarx\, 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. \nfor information on the entire series: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14812 \nAll 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/heterodox-socialism-michael-brie-jean-numa-ducange-kieran-durkin/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Capital Studies,Caribbean Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Intro to Marxism,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Russian Revolution,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks,Social Democracy,Socialism
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Klee_BalloonDetailLowRez.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="The Revolutions Study Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210213T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210213T173000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201117T182334Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210220T044129Z
UID:10006827-1613230200-1613237400@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume 1\, Part 2
DESCRIPTION:Capital\, A Critique of Political Economy\, Karl Marx\nVolume I: The Process of Production of Capital\nSecond 12 Week Session Covering Chapter 4 thru Chapter 15\nwith Mary Boger \nVolume I of Capital begins the scientific presentation of the laws of motion that underlie the developmental processes that has led to the realities of our contemporary human condition. In only 200-300 years capitalist relations of re/production have absorbed all pre-capitalist societies into its circulation of commodities making all that exists\, whether real or imaginary\, means for investing money to make more money. Private ownership and control over our earth’s natural resources by the owners of capital and separation of the world’s population from any direct access to our conditions of life and what we produce have reduced our human productive activity to a thing that is bought and sold at the bidding of capital. \nUncovering the how\, what and for whom our life processes are determined based on the logic of using money in order to make more money is a journey we need to take if we are to consciously situate ourselves within our given historical process as effective political/social/universal actors. 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\, in Session I\, our first task was to break through the appearance and reveal the social content of the commodity form\, the beginning of the unraveling of the why and how of what we necessarily\, under the domination and exploitation of capital\, experience every day in our lives. \nSession 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. The analysis also enables us to understand the developmental processes that underlie the societal transformations that continuously occur as capital necessarily seeks to expand and accumulate more and more capital–increasing world populations as the employed part of the working class constantly grows while a relative surplus population thrown out of production grows even faster due to the ever increasing productivity of labor; along with constant introduction of new technologies–ever transforming our relation to nature\, each other and the how\, what for whom production takes place. \nNEW STUDENTS: (Please Note) Part I of Volume I lays out the fundamental laws of capitalist development and its internal contradictions. It is necessary to fully understand all that follows as Marx explicates the dynamics particular to the historical process that we are engaged in reproducing in our everyday life\, where the logic of re-production is based on money making more money. The First 12 Week Session covers Part I and has been recorded. It is available to be viewed through the MEP’s Vimeo. Upon registering\, these sessions will be made available and I recommend listening to as much as possible\, especially where Chapter 1 begins in in the fourth class. \nMary Boger\, political economist (MA) sociologist (PhD)\, and ethnographic researcher. MA Thesis: Marx on the Fetishism of Commodities. Dissertation: A Ghetto State of Ghettos: Palestinians Under Israeli Citizenship. A member of the original founders of the first School for Marxist Education (1975) and its continuation as the New York Marxist School/Brecht Forum (1979-2014) and Mary is now engaged with the work of the MEP. She has been teaching Capital for many years to students of all ages and diverse occupations\, backgrounds and countries of origin. Throughout these four and half decades. Mary has actively participated in movement struggles and solidarity work with a broad range of liberation struggles. \nAll classes and events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you would like to participate but cannot afford the stated fees or any fee at all\, please write to info@marxedproject.org for information on how to participate. \nThe photo above is from when many of the workers of Torino\, Italy occupied their factories during 1919-1920.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-02-13/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Intro to Marxism,Marx's Capital,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Science and Method,Science and Technology
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SummerLit2016_ForSite.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210214T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210214T130000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201116T154253Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210127T001609Z
UID:10006822-1613300400-1613307600@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:A People’s Guide to Capitalism
DESCRIPTION:A multi-week class conducted with Sam Salour\nA 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. \nAll events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject.org for reduced rates or the links for attending if you are unable to pay. \nSAM 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/2021-02-14/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Intro to Marxism,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Race and Class,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks,Socialism
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PeoplesGuideCoverPrint.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210214T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210214T160000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210201T031628Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210201T032538Z
UID:10006182-1613311200-1613318400@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Interpretation Machines: Contradictions of “Artificial Intelligence” in 21st Century Capitalism
DESCRIPTION:with Larry Lohmann\nBYOND DIGITAL CAPITALISM: NEW WAYS OF LIVING (presentation 3)\nSince 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. \nThis 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). \nLarry Lohmann works with The Corner House\, a UK-based solidarity and research organization. \nAll 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@marxedproject.org for a URL with the link for participation.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/interpretation-machines-contraditions-of-artificial-intelligence-in-21st-century-capitalism/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Labor History,Marxist Method,Pandemics and Capital,Political Economy,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AI_InterpretiveMachines.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210215T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210215T150000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201109T161432Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201111T171311Z
UID:10006812-1613394000-1613401200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Blood and Money
DESCRIPTION:From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism\nA Reprise of the Fall of 2020 Sessions\nCapital Studies Group of The MEP is proud to repeat this class for another 10 week term\nAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@marxedproject.org for zoom info if you are unable to pay. The stated fees are for all 10 sessions combined. \nThe 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. \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-02-15/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:African American History,Capital Studies,Caribbean Studies,Class,Classes/Events,Immigration,Indigenous Peoples,Intro to Marxism,Labor History,Marxist Method,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Method
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/slaverySM.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210215T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210215T200000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210103T192142Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210319T173858Z
UID:10006863-1613412000-1613419200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:The Last Years of Karl Marx: A new reading group
DESCRIPTION:An Intellectual Biography by Marcello Musto\nan eight-week reading and discussion group with The Capital Studies Group of The MEP \nIn 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. \nWith 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. \nMARCELLO 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). \nAll 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. \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx-a-five-week-reading-group/2021-02-15/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Capital Studies,Classes/Events,Intro to Marxism,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Method
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/LastYearsSM.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210216T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210216T160000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210108T151944Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210108T151945Z
UID:10006868-1613484000-1613491200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes\, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution
DESCRIPTION:A presentation with discussion with author Dan Hicks\nThe 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. \nWalk 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. \nDAN 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. \n“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 \n“Dan\, your words brought tears to my eyes. I salute you” — MC Hammer \nAll 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@marxedproject.org to receive a code to participate in this important event. \nThe time stated is for 2 to 4 pm USA EST\, or 7 to 9 PM GMT. Please see special offer for event plus book. 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-brutish-museums-the-benin-bronzes-colonial-violence-and-cultural-restitution/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Anti-colonialism,Classes/Events,Indigenous Peoples,Race and Class,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/BrutishMuseumsCoverSM.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="The Revolutions Study Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210217T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210217T210000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210112T165623Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210131T223435Z
UID:10006166-1613588400-1613595600@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:The Sinking Middle Class with David Roediger
DESCRIPTION:A presentation and discussion with author David Roediger\nIn 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. \nDrawing 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. \nDAVID 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. \n“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.”\n—George Lipsitz\, author of How Racism Takes Place
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-sinking-middle-class-a-new-book-from-david-roediger/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:African American History,Anti-colonialism,Capital Studies,Caribbean Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Immigration,Indigenous Peoples,Marxist Method,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Roediger_SocialMedia.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210218T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210218T210000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201214T175355Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210312T210306Z
UID:10006840-1613674800-1613682000@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:M.A.D. Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War
DESCRIPTION: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. \nWe 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. \nWhat 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? \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/m-a-d-lit-101-american-fiction-and-the-cold-war/2021-02-18/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,Classes/Events,Literary Studies,Multi-session Classes,Race and Class,Radical Literature,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MutualAssuredScreenSmallest.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="MEP Literature Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210219T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210219T190000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201230T225318Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210404T134716Z
UID:10006855-1613754000-1613761200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Engels and the Dialectics of Nature
DESCRIPTION:Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black Holes\nA 9 session class and discussion with Alex Steinberg\nThis 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. \nALEX 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. \n  \nall classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject.org for a link code to be able to participate. \n  \nSyllabus (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 \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-02-19/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Classes/Events,Ecosocialism,Intro to Marxism,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MasslessWeylFermion.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210220T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210220T173000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201117T182334Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210220T044129Z
UID:10006828-1613835000-1613842200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume 1\, Part 2
DESCRIPTION:Capital\, A Critique of Political Economy\, Karl Marx\nVolume I: The Process of Production of Capital\nSecond 12 Week Session Covering Chapter 4 thru Chapter 15\nwith Mary Boger \nVolume I of Capital begins the scientific presentation of the laws of motion that underlie the developmental processes that has led to the realities of our contemporary human condition. In only 200-300 years capitalist relations of re/production have absorbed all pre-capitalist societies into its circulation of commodities making all that exists\, whether real or imaginary\, means for investing money to make more money. Private ownership and control over our earth’s natural resources by the owners of capital and separation of the world’s population from any direct access to our conditions of life and what we produce have reduced our human productive activity to a thing that is bought and sold at the bidding of capital. \nUncovering the how\, what and for whom our life processes are determined based on the logic of using money in order to make more money is a journey we need to take if we are to consciously situate ourselves within our given historical process as effective political/social/universal actors. 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\, in Session I\, our first task was to break through the appearance and reveal the social content of the commodity form\, the beginning of the unraveling of the why and how of what we necessarily\, under the domination and exploitation of capital\, experience every day in our lives. \nSession 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. The analysis also enables us to understand the developmental processes that underlie the societal transformations that continuously occur as capital necessarily seeks to expand and accumulate more and more capital–increasing world populations as the employed part of the working class constantly grows while a relative surplus population thrown out of production grows even faster due to the ever increasing productivity of labor; along with constant introduction of new technologies–ever transforming our relation to nature\, each other and the how\, what for whom production takes place. \nNEW STUDENTS: (Please Note) Part I of Volume I lays out the fundamental laws of capitalist development and its internal contradictions. It is necessary to fully understand all that follows as Marx explicates the dynamics particular to the historical process that we are engaged in reproducing in our everyday life\, where the logic of re-production is based on money making more money. The First 12 Week Session covers Part I and has been recorded. It is available to be viewed through the MEP’s Vimeo. Upon registering\, these sessions will be made available and I recommend listening to as much as possible\, especially where Chapter 1 begins in in the fourth class. \nMary Boger\, political economist (MA) sociologist (PhD)\, and ethnographic researcher. MA Thesis: Marx on the Fetishism of Commodities. Dissertation: A Ghetto State of Ghettos: Palestinians Under Israeli Citizenship. A member of the original founders of the first School for Marxist Education (1975) and its continuation as the New York Marxist School/Brecht Forum (1979-2014) and Mary is now engaged with the work of the MEP. She has been teaching Capital for many years to students of all ages and diverse occupations\, backgrounds and countries of origin. Throughout these four and half decades. Mary has actively participated in movement struggles and solidarity work with a broad range of liberation struggles. \nAll classes and events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you would like to participate but cannot afford the stated fees or any fee at all\, please write to info@marxedproject.org for information on how to participate. \nThe photo above is from when many of the workers of Torino\, Italy occupied their factories during 1919-1920.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-02-20/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Intro to Marxism,Marx's Capital,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Science and Method,Science and Technology
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SummerLit2016_ForSite.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210220T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210220T200000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210217T154816Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210309T034652Z
UID:10006882-1613844000-1613851200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume 1\, Chapter 1\, Special 4 week
DESCRIPTION: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. \nRegister here on The MEP site.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1-chapter-1-special-4-week/2021-02-20/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Financialization,Labor History,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Race and Class,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CapV1Ch1_Feb2021.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210221T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210221T130000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201116T154253Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210127T001609Z
UID:10006823-1613905200-1613912400@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:A People’s Guide to Capitalism
DESCRIPTION:A multi-week class conducted with Sam Salour\nA 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. \nAll events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject.org for reduced rates or the links for attending if you are unable to pay. \nSAM 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/2021-02-21/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Intro to Marxism,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Race and Class,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks,Socialism
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PeoplesGuideCoverPrint.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210222T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210222T150000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201109T161432Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201111T171311Z
UID:10006813-1613998800-1614006000@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Blood and Money
DESCRIPTION:From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism\nA Reprise of the Fall of 2020 Sessions\nCapital Studies Group of The MEP is proud to repeat this class for another 10 week term\nAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@marxedproject.org for zoom info if you are unable to pay. The stated fees are for all 10 sessions combined. \nThe 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. \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-02-22/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:African American History,Capital Studies,Caribbean Studies,Class,Classes/Events,Immigration,Indigenous Peoples,Intro to Marxism,Labor History,Marxist Method,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Method
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/slaverySM.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210222T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210222T200000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210103T192142Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210319T173858Z
UID:10006864-1614016800-1614024000@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:The Last Years of Karl Marx: A new reading group
DESCRIPTION:An Intellectual Biography by Marcello Musto\nan eight-week reading and discussion group with The Capital Studies Group of The MEP \nIn 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. \nWith 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. \nMARCELLO 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). \nAll 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. \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx-a-five-week-reading-group/2021-02-22/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Capital Studies,Classes/Events,Intro to Marxism,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Method
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/LastYearsSM.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210223T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210223T200000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210204T080832Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210206T001151Z
UID:10006184-1614103200-1614110400@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Socialists on Social Media Platforms and Imagine Platform Socialism
DESCRIPTION:Tanner Mirrlees and Derek Hrynyshn\nSocialists on Social Media Platforms: Communicating within and Against Digital Capitalism by Tanner Mirrlees\nBertolt 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’. \nBrecht’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. \nWhile 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. \nTanner Mirrlees is Associate Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies at Ontario Tech University \nImagine Platform Socialism by Derek Hrynyshyn\nInvestigations 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. \nAt 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. \nThis 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. \nDerek Hrynyshyn teaches in the Department of Communication Studies at York University in Toronto\, Ontario. \n \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/socialist-on-social-media-platforms-and-imagine-platform-socialism/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Classes/Events,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mirleeshrynyshynTitle.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210225T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210225T210000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201214T175355Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210312T210306Z
UID:10006841-1614279600-1614286800@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:M.A.D. Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War
DESCRIPTION: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. \nWe 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. \nWhat 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? \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/m-a-d-lit-101-american-fiction-and-the-cold-war/2021-02-25/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,Classes/Events,Literary Studies,Multi-session Classes,Race and Class,Radical Literature,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MutualAssuredScreenSmallest.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="MEP Literature Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210226T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210226T190000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201230T225318Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210404T134716Z
UID:10006856-1614358800-1614366000@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Engels and the Dialectics of Nature
DESCRIPTION:Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black Holes\nA 9 session class and discussion with Alex Steinberg\nThis 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. \nALEX 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. \n  \nall classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject.org for a link code to be able to participate. \n  \nSyllabus (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 \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-02-26/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Classes/Events,Ecosocialism,Intro to Marxism,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MasslessWeylFermion.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210227T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210227T173000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201117T182334Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210220T044129Z
UID:10006829-1614439800-1614447000@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume 1\, Part 2
DESCRIPTION:Capital\, A Critique of Political Economy\, Karl Marx\nVolume I: The Process of Production of Capital\nSecond 12 Week Session Covering Chapter 4 thru Chapter 15\nwith Mary Boger \nVolume I of Capital begins the scientific presentation of the laws of motion that underlie the developmental processes that has led to the realities of our contemporary human condition. In only 200-300 years capitalist relations of re/production have absorbed all pre-capitalist societies into its circulation of commodities making all that exists\, whether real or imaginary\, means for investing money to make more money. Private ownership and control over our earth’s natural resources by the owners of capital and separation of the world’s population from any direct access to our conditions of life and what we produce have reduced our human productive activity to a thing that is bought and sold at the bidding of capital. \nUncovering the how\, what and for whom our life processes are determined based on the logic of using money in order to make more money is a journey we need to take if we are to consciously situate ourselves within our given historical process as effective political/social/universal actors. 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\, in Session I\, our first task was to break through the appearance and reveal the social content of the commodity form\, the beginning of the unraveling of the why and how of what we necessarily\, under the domination and exploitation of capital\, experience every day in our lives. \nSession 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. The analysis also enables us to understand the developmental processes that underlie the societal transformations that continuously occur as capital necessarily seeks to expand and accumulate more and more capital–increasing world populations as the employed part of the working class constantly grows while a relative surplus population thrown out of production grows even faster due to the ever increasing productivity of labor; along with constant introduction of new technologies–ever transforming our relation to nature\, each other and the how\, what for whom production takes place. \nNEW STUDENTS: (Please Note) Part I of Volume I lays out the fundamental laws of capitalist development and its internal contradictions. It is necessary to fully understand all that follows as Marx explicates the dynamics particular to the historical process that we are engaged in reproducing in our everyday life\, where the logic of re-production is based on money making more money. The First 12 Week Session covers Part I and has been recorded. It is available to be viewed through the MEP’s Vimeo. Upon registering\, these sessions will be made available and I recommend listening to as much as possible\, especially where Chapter 1 begins in in the fourth class. \nMary Boger\, political economist (MA) sociologist (PhD)\, and ethnographic researcher. MA Thesis: Marx on the Fetishism of Commodities. Dissertation: A Ghetto State of Ghettos: Palestinians Under Israeli Citizenship. A member of the original founders of the first School for Marxist Education (1975) and its continuation as the New York Marxist School/Brecht Forum (1979-2014) and Mary is now engaged with the work of the MEP. She has been teaching Capital for many years to students of all ages and diverse occupations\, backgrounds and countries of origin. Throughout these four and half decades. Mary has actively participated in movement struggles and solidarity work with a broad range of liberation struggles. \nAll classes and events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you would like to participate but cannot afford the stated fees or any fee at all\, please write to info@marxedproject.org for information on how to participate. \nThe photo above is from when many of the workers of Torino\, Italy occupied their factories during 1919-1920.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-02-27/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Intro to Marxism,Marx's Capital,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Science and Method,Science and Technology
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SummerLit2016_ForSite.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210227T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210227T200000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210217T154816Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210309T034652Z
UID:10006883-1614448800-1614456000@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume 1\, Chapter 1\, Special 4 week
DESCRIPTION: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. \nRegister here on The MEP site.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1-chapter-1-special-4-week/2021-02-27/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Financialization,Labor History,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Race and Class,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CapV1Ch1_Feb2021.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210228T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210228T130000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201116T154253Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210127T001609Z
UID:10006824-1614510000-1614517200@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:A People’s Guide to Capitalism
DESCRIPTION:A multi-week class conducted with Sam Salour\nA 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. \nAll events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject.org for reduced rates or the links for attending if you are unable to pay. \nSAM 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/a-peoples-guide-to-capitalism/2021-02-28/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Intro to Marxism,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Race and Class,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks,Socialism
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PeoplesGuideCoverPrint.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210228T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210228T160000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210206T201916Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210211T130441Z
UID:10006877-1614520800-1614528000@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:A New Digital Taylorism? with Matt Cole\, Hugo Radice\, Charles Umney
DESCRIPTION:The Political Economy of Datafication and Work: A New Digital Taylorism?\nwith Matthew Cole\, Hugo Radice and Charles Umney\nThis 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. \nTechnological 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. \nIn 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”. \nMATT COLE is a postdoctoral researcher with Fairwork Foundation at the Oxford Internet Institute\, University of Oxford. \nHUGO RADICE is Head of the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. \nCHARLES UMNEY is Associate Professor in the Work and Employment Relations Division at the University of Leeds Business School. \n  \nTHE 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. \nAll tickets are sliding scale. No on is denied admission for inability to pay. Write to info@marxedproject.org to receive the URL of the Zoom link for this or other classes and lectures you may want to attend.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/a-new-digital-taylorism-with-matt-cole-hugh-radice-charles-umney/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Labor History,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/DigiTaylor1.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210301T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210301T150000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201109T161432Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201111T171311Z
UID:10006814-1614603600-1614610800@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Blood and Money
DESCRIPTION:From Primitive Accumulation to Racial Capitalism\nA Reprise of the Fall of 2020 Sessions\nCapital Studies Group of The MEP is proud to repeat this class for another 10 week term\nAll tickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Email info@marxedproject.org for zoom info if you are unable to pay. The stated fees are for all 10 sessions combined. \nThe 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. \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/blood-and-money-reprised/2021-03-01/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:African American History,Capital Studies,Caribbean Studies,Class,Classes/Events,Immigration,Indigenous Peoples,Intro to Marxism,Labor History,Marxist Method,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Method
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/slaverySM.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210301T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210301T200000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210103T192142Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210319T173858Z
UID:10006865-1614621600-1614628800@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:The Last Years of Karl Marx: A new reading group
DESCRIPTION:An Intellectual Biography by Marcello Musto\nan eight-week reading and discussion group with The Capital Studies Group of The MEP \nIn 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. \nWith 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. \nMARCELLO 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). \nAll 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. \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-last-years-of-karl-marx-a-five-week-reading-group/2021-03-01/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Capital Studies,Classes/Events,Intro to Marxism,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Method
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/LastYearsSM.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210304T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210304T210000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201214T175355Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210312T210306Z
UID:10006842-1614884400-1614891600@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:M.A.D. Lit 101: American Fiction and the Cold War
DESCRIPTION: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. \nWe 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. \nWhat 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? \nThe 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.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/m-a-d-lit-101-american-fiction-and-the-cold-war/2021-03-04/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:American Literature,Classes/Events,Literary Studies,Multi-session Classes,Race and Class,Radical Literature,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MutualAssuredScreenSmallest.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="MEP Literature Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210305T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210305T190000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201230T225318Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210404T134716Z
UID:10006857-1614963600-1614970800@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Engels and the Dialectics of Nature
DESCRIPTION:Considerations in a Universe of Quarks and Black Holes\nA 9 session class and discussion with Alex Steinberg\nThis 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. \nALEX 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. \n  \nall classes and events are sliding scale. We do not deny admission anyone who does not have the ability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject.org for a link code to be able to participate. \n  \nSyllabus (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 \n 
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/engels-and-the-dialectics-of-nature/2021-03-05/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:Classes/Events,Ecosocialism,Intro to Marxism,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MasslessWeylFermion.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210306T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210306T173000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20201117T182334Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210220T044129Z
UID:10006830-1615044600-1615051800@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume 1\, Part 2
DESCRIPTION:Capital\, A Critique of Political Economy\, Karl Marx\nVolume I: The Process of Production of Capital\nSecond 12 Week Session Covering Chapter 4 thru Chapter 15\nwith Mary Boger \nVolume I of Capital begins the scientific presentation of the laws of motion that underlie the developmental processes that has led to the realities of our contemporary human condition. In only 200-300 years capitalist relations of re/production have absorbed all pre-capitalist societies into its circulation of commodities making all that exists\, whether real or imaginary\, means for investing money to make more money. Private ownership and control over our earth’s natural resources by the owners of capital and separation of the world’s population from any direct access to our conditions of life and what we produce have reduced our human productive activity to a thing that is bought and sold at the bidding of capital. \nUncovering the how\, what and for whom our life processes are determined based on the logic of using money in order to make more money is a journey we need to take if we are to consciously situate ourselves within our given historical process as effective political/social/universal actors. 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\, in Session I\, our first task was to break through the appearance and reveal the social content of the commodity form\, the beginning of the unraveling of the why and how of what we necessarily\, under the domination and exploitation of capital\, experience every day in our lives. \nSession 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. The analysis also enables us to understand the developmental processes that underlie the societal transformations that continuously occur as capital necessarily seeks to expand and accumulate more and more capital–increasing world populations as the employed part of the working class constantly grows while a relative surplus population thrown out of production grows even faster due to the ever increasing productivity of labor; along with constant introduction of new technologies–ever transforming our relation to nature\, each other and the how\, what for whom production takes place. \nNEW STUDENTS: (Please Note) Part I of Volume I lays out the fundamental laws of capitalist development and its internal contradictions. It is necessary to fully understand all that follows as Marx explicates the dynamics particular to the historical process that we are engaged in reproducing in our everyday life\, where the logic of re-production is based on money making more money. The First 12 Week Session covers Part I and has been recorded. It is available to be viewed through the MEP’s Vimeo. Upon registering\, these sessions will be made available and I recommend listening to as much as possible\, especially where Chapter 1 begins in in the fourth class. \nMary Boger\, political economist (MA) sociologist (PhD)\, and ethnographic researcher. MA Thesis: Marx on the Fetishism of Commodities. Dissertation: A Ghetto State of Ghettos: Palestinians Under Israeli Citizenship. A member of the original founders of the first School for Marxist Education (1975) and its continuation as the New York Marxist School/Brecht Forum (1979-2014) and Mary is now engaged with the work of the MEP. She has been teaching Capital for many years to students of all ages and diverse occupations\, backgrounds and countries of origin. Throughout these four and half decades. Mary has actively participated in movement struggles and solidarity work with a broad range of liberation struggles. \nAll classes and events are sliding scale. No one is denied admission for inability to pay. If you would like to participate but cannot afford the stated fees or any fee at all\, please write to info@marxedproject.org for information on how to participate. \nThe photo above is from when many of the workers of Torino\, Italy occupied their factories during 1919-1920.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1-part-2/2021-03-06/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Intro to Marxism,Marx's Capital,Multi-session Classes,Political Economy,Science and Method,Science and Technology
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SummerLit2016_ForSite.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Capital Studies Group":MAILTO:info@marxedproject.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210306T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210306T200000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210217T154816Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210309T034652Z
UID:10006884-1615053600-1615060800@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume 1\, Chapter 1\, Special 4 week
DESCRIPTION: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. \nRegister here on The MEP site.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1-chapter-1-special-4-week/2021-03-06/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:automation,Capital Studies,Class,Class and Gender,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Financialization,Labor History,Marx's Capital,Marxist Method,Political Economy,Race and Class,Science and Method,Science and Technology,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CapV1Ch1_Feb2021.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20210307T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20210307T163000
DTSTAMP:20260411T232630
CREATED:20210220T043201Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210220T051103Z
UID:10006885-1615125600-1615134600@marxedproject.org
SUMMARY:Empire’s Endgame with Gargi Bhattacharyya and co-authors including Adam Elliott-Cooper\, Sita Balani and others
DESCRIPTION:Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State \nby Gargi Bhattacharyya\, Adam Elliott-Cooper\, Sita Balani\, Kerem Nisancioglu\, Kojo Koram\, Dalia Gebrial\, Nadine El-Enany and Luke de Noronha \nModerated by Wilf Sullivan (Race Equality Officer\, Trades Union Congress\, London) \nEngaging 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. \n \nIn 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. \nGargi 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. \n  \nAll events are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. Please write to info@marxedproject.org to receive the URL for the zoom link for this or any other event or class you would like to be a part of.
URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/empires-endgame-with-gargi-bhattacharyya-and-co-authors-including-adam-elliott-cooper-sita-balani-and-others/
LOCATION:Online Event – Zoom Meeting
CATEGORIES:African American History,Anti-colonialism,British Imperialism,Caribbean Studies,Classes/Events,Emancipation,Labor History,Political Economy,Race and Class,Revolutions Study Group,Science and Method,Seminars and Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ChurchillCoopedSmall.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR