Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism
This study group is reading and discussing Cedric Robinson's Black Marxism.
Capital’s Terrorists in the Long Nineteenth Century
Recording available on YouTubeIn his new book Capital's Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century, Chad E. Pearson details how US employers at the turn of the twentieth century deployed a variety of tactics to secure their power in and out of workplaces, acting extralegally through the Ku Klux Klan, Law and Order Leagues, Stockgrowers' organizations, and Citizens' Alliances,
Mutant Ecologies in the Age of Genomic Capital
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsIn their new book Mutant Ecologies: Manufacturing Life in the Age of Genomic Capital, Erica Borg and Amedeo Policante assess recent developments in genomic science, genome editing and the biotech industry, presenting a critical cartography of the shifting landscapes of capital accumulation conjured by such innovations. Discussants: Ariel Salleh and Stuart Newman.
Peru: Crisis and Uprising
Recording available on YouTubeA deepgoing political crisis is shaking Peru, with massive protests by working people in the countryside and cities, fierce repression by the armed forces and police, and desperate efforts to restore order by a widely hated right-wing Congress. Peruvian left activist and sociologist Nicolás Lynch reports on and analyzes these dramatic events direct from Lima. Video available at https://youtu.be/Go_iAP7gTII
Marx’s Grundrisse: Notebook VII
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsAn ongoing group conducting a page-by-page reading of Karl Marx's Grundrisse, a work that can be seen as a veritable "laboratory" in which we can observe Marx in the very process of unfolding his dialectical investigation of the movement of capitalist social and economic forms. In 2023 we will be working our way through Notebook VII, the final part of the book that includes the widely discussed "Fragment on Machines."
Staring Down the Apocalypse: Three Visions of Earth’s Future
The Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group will read three powerful explorations of human agency, individual and collective--three debut novels from three different time periods. Seventy years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Arthur C. Clarke's 1953 classic Childhood's End starkly portrayed one path for humanity in addressing its social ills. Kim Stanley ... Read more
Iran Awakening: Novels by Iranian Women
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThe winter 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group focuses on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will read three novels from the 1920s to the present: 'The Gardens of Consolation,' by Parisa Reza; 'Women Without Men,' by Shahrnush Parsipur; and 'Man of My Time,' by Dalia Sofer.
Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci
Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci's dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi.
Reading Mike Davis: Between Catastrophe and Revolution
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA 10-week series of readings to commemorate, celebrate, and learn from the ecological/Marxist works of Mike Davis (1946-2022).
Utopia and Modernity in China: Contradictions in Transition
Recording available on YouTubeEditors David Margolies and Qing Cao examine the contradictions inherent in China's attempt to achieve "socialism with Chinese characteristics" by promoting home-grown capitalism. Their book attempts to deconstruct the realities of this system in practice, focusing on the internal tensions between traditional Chinese values, neoliberal capitalism, and the CCP's vision of a transition to socialism in the 21st century.
Video available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/IMWTb07tBuk
Reading Marx’s Capital, Volume I
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsClose reading and discussion of Marx's magnum opus with Lisa Maya Knauer and other facilitators from the MEP's Capital Studies Group.
The Paris Commune: A New History
Recording available on YouTubeCarolyn J. Eichner and Mitch Abidor discuss Eichner's new history of the Paris Commune. Her compelling account "makes a complicated event understandable and vivid. Eichner’s rich portraits bring to life the freedom and empowerment the Communards experienced, juxtaposed with the bloody repression of its final days." (Sarah Fishman)
The Political Writings of Marx and Engels: Part II, Surveys From Exile
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThis group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. The primary text is the anthology 'Karl Marx: The Political Writings,' recently published by Verso. In this part 2, we will be reading the "Surveys From Exile" section, which begins with "The Class Struggles in France 1848-1850" and takes us through Marx's articles on the Civil War in the United States.
Towards a Revolution in Labor History
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA reading of Theodore W. Allen's unpublished manuscript, "Towards a Revolution in Labor History," convened with Sean Ahern. According to Allen, "the original sin of 'white' labor historiography lies in the misbegotten concept that excludes the Black bond-laborers from the 'working class.'”
The New Power Elite: C. Wright Mills Revisited
POSTPONED - to be rescheduledDue to circumstances beyond our control, this event is postponed. Contact info@marxedproject.org to be notified of the new date when rescheduled.
Heather Gautney, author of 'The New Power Elite,' offers a contemporary companion to C. Wright Mills's work through a fresh critique for the new millennium. She takes up the problems that Mills addressed and echoes his outrage over the injustices and ruin brought by today's elites.