Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time.
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.
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 Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThe Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left ... Read more
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Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA reading of Theodore W. Allen's unpublished manuscript, "Towards a Revolution in Labor History," convened with Sean Ahern.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.'”
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
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."
Hegel for Radicals: Part III – Phenomenology of Spirit
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA continuation of the Fall 2022 series in which we introduced Hegel’s mysterious book, The Phenomenology of Spirit. We will make the Phenomenology less mysterious as we go along and try to tease out the revolutionary implications in the thought of Hegel and explain their significance for our time.
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.
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 Politics of the Other: New Visionary Fiction
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThe Science and Visionary Fiction Reading Group spring season takes on three of the most richly inventive and deeply challenging novels of our time. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left ... Read more
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.'”
Animals at Work Under Capitalism
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsA discussion and reading group on the central role of human and nonhuman animal labor in the capitalist economy, both historically and today. What are the anthropocentric premises underlying mainstream understandings of labor in Marxist theory? How might we expand our thinking to include the multiple forms of nonhuman labor necessary for capitalism? What kinds of labor do nonhuman animals provide in production, and on what cultural, ideological and economic bases is work divided among people, nonhuman animals and machines?
Iran Awakening II: More Novels by Iranian Women
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThe spring 2023 series of the MEP Literature Group continues to focus on Iranian women writing since the 1978-79 Revolution whose stories are set inside Iran.