BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Marxist Education Project - ECPv6.15.18//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:20170312T060000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0300 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:AST DTSTART:20171105T050000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0300 TZNAME:ADT DTSTART:20180311T060000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0300 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:AST DTSTART:20181104T050000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0300 TZNAME:ADT DTSTART:20190310T060000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0300 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:AST DTSTART:20191103T050000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180730T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180730T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180628T035019Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180628T035019Z UID:10006294-1532977200-1532984400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:The Prince and The Modern Prince DESCRIPTION:Machiavelli\, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism \nNiccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work\, The Prince\, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects.\nThe Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists\, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote?\nThis 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property\, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies\, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm)\nParticipants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-07-30/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Machiavelli_Gramsci_Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180728T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180728T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180502T015537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180502T015537Z UID:10003933-1532775600-1532786400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume I DESCRIPTION:Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group \nKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other\, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity\, intertwined with growing inequality and misery\, alienation\, stunting of human potential\, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way\, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. \nThe Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students\, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-i/2018-07-28/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AssemblyLibros2Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180726T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180726T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180430T135232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180622T132301Z UID:10003920-1532631600-1532638800@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way DESCRIPTION:Deals made in the shade by those packing heat\nSix noir novels for the Summer of 2018 \nNOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM \nRed Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)\nDrawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike\, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op\, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. \nFarewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)\nMoose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma\, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night\, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers\, drug peddling psychics\, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. \nThe Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957)\nSet in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors\, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead\, the question is\, which of the self-deceiving\, vicious\, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson\, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. \nThe Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972)\nThis\, like all good descendents of pulps\, is a quick\, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette\, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968\, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie\, a troubled young woman\, and her charge\, an unpleasant orphan. \nRipley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. \nThe Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006)\nFour friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices\, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency\, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast\, greedy army officers\, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor\, despite the grisly realities. \nTHE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-07-26/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Summer18Noir_site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180723T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180723T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180628T035019Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180628T035019Z UID:10006293-1532372400-1532379600@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:The Prince and The Modern Prince DESCRIPTION:Machiavelli\, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism \nNiccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work\, The Prince\, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects.\nThe Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists\, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote?\nThis 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property\, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies\, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm)\nParticipants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-07-23/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Machiavelli_Gramsci_Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180721T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180721T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180502T015537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180502T015537Z UID:10003932-1532170800-1532181600@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume I DESCRIPTION:Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group \nKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other\, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity\, intertwined with growing inequality and misery\, alienation\, stunting of human potential\, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way\, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. \nThe Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students\, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-i/2018-07-21/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AssemblyLibros2Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180719T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180719T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180430T135232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180622T132301Z UID:10003919-1532026800-1532034000@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way DESCRIPTION:Deals made in the shade by those packing heat\nSix noir novels for the Summer of 2018 \nNOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM \nRed Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)\nDrawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike\, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op\, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. \nFarewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)\nMoose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma\, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night\, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers\, drug peddling psychics\, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. \nThe Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957)\nSet in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors\, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead\, the question is\, which of the self-deceiving\, vicious\, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson\, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. \nThe Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972)\nThis\, like all good descendents of pulps\, is a quick\, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette\, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968\, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie\, a troubled young woman\, and her charge\, an unpleasant orphan. \nRipley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. \nThe Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006)\nFour friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices\, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency\, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast\, greedy army officers\, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor\, despite the grisly realities. \nTHE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-07-19/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Summer18Noir_site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180718T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180718T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180622T133530Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180622T133530Z UID:10006289-1531940400-1531949400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Red/Green Revolution DESCRIPTION:The Politics and Technology of Ecosocialism\nwith author Victor Wallis \nRed-Green Revolution is an impassioned and informed confrontation with the planetary emergency brought about by accelerated ecological devastation in the last half-century. Victor Wallis argues that sound ecological policy requires a socialist framework\, based on democratic participation and drawing on the historical lessons of earlier efforts. \nIn the age of Trump and with a lack of sound U.S. ecological policies\, Wallis’s book could not come at a better time. Red-Green Revolution confronts the emergency produced by the accelerated devastation of the last half-century. The human species is in a race against time to salvage and restore what it can of the environmental conditions that make a healthy existence possible. This task requires us to reconsider not only the type of energy that we use\, but also the institutions\, the technology\, and the social relationships that determine what is produced\, in what quantities\, by what methods\, and to what ends. \nAt the heart of Wallis’s call to action is the ever-vital debate of capitalism vs. socialism and their relationships to protecting ecological order. Arguing that proper ecological policy requires a socialist framework\, based on democratic participation and drawing on the historical lessons of earlier efforts\, Wallis writes about how the task of establishing such a framework may evolve through the convergence of popular struggles – against all forms of oppression – as these have emerged under conditions of crisis. \nVictor Wallis is a professor of Liberal Arts at the Berklee College of Music. For twenty years he was the managing editor of Socialism and Democracy and has been writing on ecological issues since the early 1990s. His writings have appeared in journals such as Monthly Review and New Political Science\, and have been translated into thirteen languages. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/red-green-revolution/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Red_GreenBook_newsSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180716T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180716T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180628T035019Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180628T035019Z UID:10006292-1531767600-1531774800@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:The Prince and The Modern Prince DESCRIPTION:Machiavelli\, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism \nNiccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work\, The Prince\, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects.\nThe Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists\, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote?\nThis 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property\, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies\, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm)\nParticipants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-07-16/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Machiavelli_Gramsci_Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180714T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180714T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180502T015537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180502T015537Z UID:10003931-1531566000-1531576800@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume I DESCRIPTION:Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group \nKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other\, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity\, intertwined with growing inequality and misery\, alienation\, stunting of human potential\, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way\, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. \nThe Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students\, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-i/2018-07-14/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AssemblyLibros2Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180712T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180712T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180430T135232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180622T132301Z UID:10003918-1531422000-1531429200@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way DESCRIPTION:Deals made in the shade by those packing heat\nSix noir novels for the Summer of 2018 \nNOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM \nRed Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)\nDrawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike\, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op\, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. \nFarewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)\nMoose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma\, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night\, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers\, drug peddling psychics\, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. \nThe Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957)\nSet in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors\, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead\, the question is\, which of the self-deceiving\, vicious\, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson\, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. \nThe Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972)\nThis\, like all good descendents of pulps\, is a quick\, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette\, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968\, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie\, a troubled young woman\, and her charge\, an unpleasant orphan. \nRipley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. \nThe Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006)\nFour friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices\, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency\, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast\, greedy army officers\, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor\, despite the grisly realities. \nTHE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-07-12/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Summer18Noir_site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180709T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180709T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180628T035019Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180628T035019Z UID:10006291-1531162800-1531170000@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:The Prince and The Modern Prince DESCRIPTION:Machiavelli\, Gramsci: Political Power and 21st Century Capitalism \nNiccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) is considered by many to be the father of modern political science and political philosophy. In his most famous work\, The Prince\, Machiavelli explores the nature of political power and the relationship between ruler and subjects.\nThe Prince is often viewed as being a handbook for authoritarian rulers while others argue that Machiavelli was in fact a “republican” who inspired the later Enlightenment theorists of political democracy. Machiavelli has also been studied by a range of Marxists\, most notably by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci who wrote The Modern Prince while still a prisoner of Italy’s fascist regime. Gramsci analyzes Machiavelli in the context of his trying to understand how power is exercised and maintained under capitalism. What does Machiavelli have to offer Marxists and why is he still relevant nearly 500 years after he wrote?\nThis 7-week class will read Machiavelli’s The Prince along with several analyses of it starting with Gramsci but also including Marxist historian Ellen Meiksins Wood (Liberty and Property\, Chapter 3 “The Renaissance City State”) and political philosopher Antionio Negri (Insurgencies\, Chapter 2 “Virtue and Fortune: The Machiavellian Paradigm)\nParticipants should come to the first class having read Chapter 3 (The Renaissance City State) in Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Liberty and Property (available as a free PDF online). URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-prince-and-the-modern-prince/2018-07-09/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Machiavelli_Gramsci_Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180707T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180707T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180502T015537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180502T015537Z UID:10003930-1530961200-1530972000@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume I DESCRIPTION:Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group \nKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other\, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity\, intertwined with growing inequality and misery\, alienation\, stunting of human potential\, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way\, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. \nThe Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students\, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-i/2018-07-07/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AssemblyLibros2Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180705T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180705T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180430T135232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180622T132301Z UID:10003917-1530817200-1530824400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way DESCRIPTION:Deals made in the shade by those packing heat\nSix noir novels for the Summer of 2018 \nNOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM \nRed Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)\nDrawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike\, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op\, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. \nFarewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)\nMoose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma\, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night\, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers\, drug peddling psychics\, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. \nThe Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957)\nSet in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors\, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead\, the question is\, which of the self-deceiving\, vicious\, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson\, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. \nThe Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972)\nThis\, like all good descendents of pulps\, is a quick\, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette\, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968\, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie\, a troubled young woman\, and her charge\, an unpleasant orphan. \nRipley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. \nThe Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006)\nFour friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices\, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency\, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast\, greedy army officers\, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor\, despite the grisly realities. \nTHE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-07-05/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Summer18Noir_site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180702T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180702T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180531T123602Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180628T040412Z UID:10006288-1530559800-1530567000@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital’s 21st Century Endgame DESCRIPTION:Capital’s 21st Century Endgame: Building a Planet-Wide Opposition\nA Reading and Discussion Group with\nThe Capital Studies Organizing Task Force \nTHIS CLASS IS POSTPONED UNTIL LATER IN THE 2018/2019 SEASON \nThe conditions capital is making for all life on earth is playing out like a science fiction endgame. An international movement with profound social force that absolutely brings an end to this game is imperative. This critical reading/study is a beginning. Other related sessions will happen over the next few years. We will begin by studying two relatively recent works that trace the history of capitalist/imperialist development leading to where we are currently positioned as the world approaches having a population of eight billion: an updated Planet of Slums by Mike Davis and Samir Amin’s The World We Wish to See. In the fall we will take up Ernest Screpanti’s Global Imperialism and the Great Crisis: The Uncertain Future of Capitalism and more. \nRight now\, a handful of individuals control as much wealth as half of the world’s population – an accumulation of capital made possible by the labor of the global working classes\, past and present\, and accompanied by rollbacks of democratic rights\, increasing precarity of labor through\nautomation and multiple other factors\, and never-ending imperial wars. Our aim is to better understand the dynamics that have led to the global spread of capitalism\, while also analyzing the successes and failures of global opposition to capitalism and imperialism\, so we can become conscious political actors and help shape strong enough social movements worldwide that can overcome capitalist exploitation\, permanent wars\, and the destruction of our planet. \nThe World We Wish to See\nSamir Amin\nThe World We Wish to See presents a sweeping view of 20th century political history and a stirring appeal to take political culture seriously. Amin assesses the potential and limitations of the many movements to confront global capitalism in the 21st century. Amin explains that effective opposition must be based on a “convergence in diversity” of oppressed and exploited people—whether workers\, peasants\, students\, or any other opponent of capitalism and imperialism. What is needed is a new “international” that has an open and flexible organizational structure to coordinate opposition movements around the world. \nPlanet of Slums\nMike Davis\nDavis presents an account of the rapid rise of the world’s slums. According to the United Nations\, more than one billion people now live in the slums of the cities of the Global South. In Planet of Slums\, Davis explores the future of a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world. From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila\, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization\, and even from economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat is a wholly unforeseen development\, and asks whether the great slums\, as a terrified Victorian middle class once imagined\, are volcanoes waiting to erupt. \nThe Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital\, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capitals-21st-century-endgame-2018-07-02/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/PlanetSlumsSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180630T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180630T173000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180531T122746Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180531T122746Z UID:10003941-1530372600-1530379800@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Prague Spring: 50 Years Later DESCRIPTION:with Pete Dolack \nHistories of the 1968 Prague Spring tend to focus exclusively on the drama inside the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and the personality of reformer Alexander Dubček. The fuller story of the Prague Spring is the grassroots movement for workers’ control of industry and economic democracy. \nAlthough reformers within the Communist Party sought significant reforms to the overly centralized system copied from the Soviet Union\, including advocacy of workers’ councils\, there were significant differences between the more modest reforms put forth by Czechoslovak economists and the more thorough-going concepts of activists and workers themselves. \nThis was a true grassroots effort\, mostly organized by trade union officials and rank-and-file Communist Party members. One interesting wrinkle is that unions\, representing members as individuals and freed from state control\, would continue to exist alongside the workers’ councils. All this was to happen in a socialized economy in which formal ownership would continue to reside with the state but in which state and party control would be drastically curtailed. \nIn this conception\, which began to be implemented in some of the country’s biggest enterprises\, the workforce as a whole would meet in assemblies to decide broad policies and freely elect a council from their ranks that would coordinate management. Each worker would be a part of the enterprise assembly and be members of independent unions that would represent workers as individuals in disputes with the collective or with higher administrative bodies. Thus each half of the duality would be represented through separate institutions. \nStatutes had been developed in several factories across the country\, and a national conference that sought to codify a system of workers’ control took place in which approximately one-sixth of the country’s workers were represented\, before the experiment began to be shut down. Naturally\, such a well-developed movement did not spring into being spontaneously\, but rather was the product of earlier experiments\, years of debate\, and memories of councils established in the 1940s. In part\, it was also an attempt at reversing several years of economic stagnation\, a stagnation that signaled that the model imposed by the Soviet Union had reached its limits. \nPete Dolack is the author of It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment\, a study of the 20th century’s attempts to transcend capitalism that includes a chapter analyzing the Prague Spring and the workers’ control movement. He is at work on his second book\, focused on economic democracy\, and writes the Systemic Disorder blog\, which discusses the ongoing economic crisis of capitalism and the environmental and political issues connected to it. His writings also appear in popular outlets including CounterPunch and ZNet. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/prague-spring-50-years-later/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Prague-1968Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180630T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180630T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180502T015537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180502T015537Z UID:10003929-1530356400-1530367200@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume I DESCRIPTION:Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group \nKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other\, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity\, intertwined with growing inequality and misery\, alienation\, stunting of human potential\, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way\, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. \nThe Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students\, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-i/2018-06-30/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AssemblyLibros2Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180628T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180628T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180430T135232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180622T132301Z UID:10003916-1530212400-1530219600@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way DESCRIPTION:Deals made in the shade by those packing heat\nSix noir novels for the Summer of 2018 \nNOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM \nRed Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)\nDrawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike\, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op\, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. \nFarewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)\nMoose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma\, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night\, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers\, drug peddling psychics\, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. \nThe Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957)\nSet in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors\, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead\, the question is\, which of the self-deceiving\, vicious\, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson\, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. \nThe Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972)\nThis\, like all good descendents of pulps\, is a quick\, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette\, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968\, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie\, a troubled young woman\, and her charge\, an unpleasant orphan. \nRipley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. \nThe Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006)\nFour friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices\, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency\, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast\, greedy army officers\, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor\, despite the grisly realities. \nTHE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-06-28/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Summer18Noir_site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180626T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180626T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180623T030733Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180623T031301Z UID:10006290-1530014400-1530021600@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Comrade Eli Messinger DESCRIPTION:The Marxist Education Project lost long-term comrade Eli Messinger today\, June 22\, 2018. \nThe published obituary is below. In the middle of obituary are these key sentences: “A tireless activist for a wide range of anti-war\, human rights\, and revolutionary social change efforts. Eli was a committed fighter with a great sense of humor.” \nEli joined The Marxist Education Collective in 1977 and worked more than tirelessly well into the 1980s. He never gave up interest nor lacked in support of the project to provide non-dogmatic non-sectarian Marxist education to as broad a public as possible. He was instrumental in establishing a Science Task Force at The New York Marxist School and did much to expand our focus on developments in science in classes\, forums and other key parts of our curriculum. \nAll of us at The Marxist Education Project express our sympathy to Eli’s family\, many friends and the wide world of comrades he selflessly shared his life with. \nMESSINGER\, Eli Charles MD \nDied June 22\, 2018\, aged 81.Beloved husband of Barbara Barnes. Wonderful father to Daniel [Batya]\, Miriam [Felicia]\, Adam [Kira]\, Benjie [Jamie]. Grandfather of 8\, great-grandfather of 2. Survived by sister\, Susan Avner\, and former wife\, Ruth Messinger. Beloved son of Ben and Edna Messinger. Child and adolescent psychiatrist\, political activist\, Marxist intellectual. Worked for 30 years in child and adolescent psychiatry at Metropolitan Hospital. A tireless activist for a wide range of anti-war\, human rights\, and revolutionary social change efforts. Eli was a committed fighter with a great sense of humor. Graduated Lafayette College 1955\, Harvard Medical School 1959. \nFuneral service Tuesday\, 12 noon\, Plaza Funeral Home\, 630 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY 10024. The family will be at 41 W 96th St. (Apt. 3A) Tuesday from 4-7 pm. \nContributions may be made to Perlman Music Program https://perlmanmusicprogram.org/support/support-us\, 19 W 69th St.\, Rm 1101\, NY\, NY 10023 or the Marxist Education Project https://marxedproject.org/product/donation/ URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/comrade-eli-messinger/ LOCATION:Plaza Funeral Home\, 630 Amsterdam Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10024 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/EliMessinger.jpg GEO:40.7907814;-73.9730625 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Plaza Funeral Home 630 Amsterdam Avenue New York NY 10024;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=630 Amsterdam Avenue:geo:-73.9730625,40.7907814 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180625T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180625T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180531T123602Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180531T123602Z UID:10006287-1529955000-1529962200@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital’s 21st Century Endgame DESCRIPTION:Capital’s 21st Century Endgame: Building a Planet-Wide Opposition\nA Reading and Discussion Group with\nThe Capital Studies Organizing Task Force \nThe conditions capital is making for all life on earth is playing out like a science fiction endgame. An international movement with profound social force that absolutely brings an end to this game is imperative. This critical reading/study is a beginning. Other related sessions will happen over the next few years. We will begin by studying two relatively recent works that trace the history of capitalist/imperialist development leading to where we are currently positioned as the world approaches having a population of eight billion: an updated Planet of Slums by Mike Davis and Samir Amin’s The World We Wish to See. In the fall we will take up Ernest Screpanti’s Global Imperialism and the Great Crisis: The Uncertain Future of Capitalism and more. \nRight now\, a handful of individuals control as much wealth as half of the world’s population – an accumulation of capital made possible by the labor of the global working classes\, past and present\, and accompanied by rollbacks of democratic rights\, increasing precarity of labor through\nautomation and multiple other factors\, and never-ending imperial wars. Our aim is to better understand the dynamics that have led to the global spread of capitalism\, while also analyzing the successes and failures of global opposition to capitalism and imperialism\, so we can become conscious political actors and help shape strong enough social movements worldwide that can overcome capitalist exploitation\, permanent wars\, and the destruction of our planet. \nThe World We Wish to See\nSamir Amin\nThe World We Wish to See presents a sweeping view of 20th century political history and a stirring appeal to take political culture seriously. Amin assesses the potential and limitations of the many movements to confront global capitalism in the 21st century. Amin explains that effective opposition must be based on a “convergence in diversity” of oppressed and exploited people—whether workers\, peasants\, students\, or any other opponent of capitalism and imperialism. What is needed is a new “international” that has an open and flexible organizational structure to coordinate opposition movements around the world. \nPlanet of Slums\nMike Davis\nDavis presents an account of the rapid rise of the world’s slums. According to the United Nations\, more than one billion people now live in the slums of the cities of the Global South. In Planet of Slums\, Davis explores the future of a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world. From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila\, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization\, and even from economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat is a wholly unforeseen development\, and asks whether the great slums\, as a terrified Victorian middle class once imagined\, are volcanoes waiting to erupt. \nThe Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital\, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capitals-21st-century-endgame/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/PlanetSlumsSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180623T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180623T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180502T015537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180502T015537Z UID:10003928-1529751600-1529762400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume I DESCRIPTION:Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group \nKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other\, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity\, intertwined with growing inequality and misery\, alienation\, stunting of human potential\, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way\, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. \nThe Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students\, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-i/2018-06-23/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AssemblyLibros2Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180621T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180621T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180430T135232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180622T132301Z UID:10003915-1529607600-1529614800@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way DESCRIPTION:Deals made in the shade by those packing heat\nSix noir novels for the Summer of 2018 \nNOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM \nRed Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)\nDrawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike\, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op\, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. \nFarewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)\nMoose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma\, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night\, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers\, drug peddling psychics\, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. \nThe Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957)\nSet in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors\, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead\, the question is\, which of the self-deceiving\, vicious\, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson\, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. \nThe Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972)\nThis\, like all good descendents of pulps\, is a quick\, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette\, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968\, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie\, a troubled young woman\, and her charge\, an unpleasant orphan. \nRipley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. \nThe Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006)\nFour friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices\, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency\, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast\, greedy army officers\, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor\, despite the grisly realities. \nTHE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-06-21/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Summer18Noir_site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180620T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180620T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180513T133552Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180513T133553Z UID:10003939-1529523000-1529530200@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Fighting for Space DESCRIPTION:How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction\nWith author Travis Lupick\nPublished by Arsenal Pulp Press / Distributed by AK Press\nBooks will be available at the event \nAll are encouraged to attend. No one turned away for inability to pay.\nDonations of $6\, $10 or $15 accepted \nNorth America is in the grips of a drug epidemic; with the introduction of fentanyl\, the chances of a fatal overdose are greater than ever\, prompting many to rethink the war on drugs. There were more than 60\,000 opiod overdose deaths in the United States in 2016—this annual death toll increases yearly. This is mass murder. While deaths across the continent continue to climb\, Fighting for Space (published by Arsenal Pulp Press / Distributed by AK Press) explains the concept of harm reduction as a crucial component of a city’s response to the drug crisis. \nIt tells the story of a grassroots group of drug users in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside who waged a political street fight for two decades to transform how the city treats its most marginalized citizens. Over the past twenty-five years\, this group of residents from Canada’s poorest neighborhood organized themselves in response to the growing number of overdose deaths and demanded that drug users be given the same rights as any other citizen; against all odds\, they eventually won. \nBut just as their battle came to an end\, fentanyl arrived and opioid deaths across North America reached an all-time high. The “genocide” in Vancouver finally sparked government action. Twenty years later\, as the same pattern plays out in other cities\, there is much that advocates for reform can learn from Vancouver’s experience. Fighting for Space tells that story—including case studies in Ohio\, Florida\, New York\, California\, Massachusetts\, and Washington state—with the same passionate fervor as the activists whose tireless work gave dignity to drug users and saved countless lives. \n“The story of the Downtown Eastside is one of the most inspiring\, moving\, and enraging stories of our time. This beautiful and haunting book finally does it justice. This is essential history―and it isn’t over.” ―Johann Hari\, author\, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War On Drugs \n“Fighting for Space is a colourful\, fast-paced\, well-researched account of the unique circumstances\, tragic and inspiring events\, and the courageously maverick characters that established Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as North America’s harm-reduction capital. Also ranging across the continent\, from Ohio to California to Florida\, Travis Lupick’s fascinating book should help inform a more rational understanding of addictions treatment and drug policies everywhere.” ―Gabor Maté M.D.\, author\, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction \nTravis Lupick is an award-winning journalist based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the author of Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction. He works as a staff reporter for the Georgia Straight newspaper and has also written about drug addiction\, harm reduction\, and mental health for the Toronto Star and Al Jazeera English\, among other outlets. For Fighting for Space\, he received the 2018 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Travis has also worked as a journalist in Sierra Leone\, Liberia\, Malawi\, Nepal\, Bhutan\, Peru\, and Honduras. Follow him on Twitter: @tlupick. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/fighting-for-space/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/FightingForSpaceSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180616T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180616T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180502T015537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180502T015537Z UID:10003927-1529146800-1529157600@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume I DESCRIPTION:Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group \nKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other\, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity\, intertwined with growing inequality and misery\, alienation\, stunting of human potential\, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way\, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. \nThe Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students\, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-i/2018-06-16/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AssemblyLibros2Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180614T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180614T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180430T135232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180622T132301Z UID:10003914-1529002800-1529010000@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Summer In The Dark: Crime and the Capitalist Way DESCRIPTION:Deals made in the shade by those packing heat\nSix noir novels for the Summer of 2018 \nNOTE THAT THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED TO 7:00 PM \nRed Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)\nDrawn upon his experience as a Pinkerton strike breaker in the 1920 Anaconda miners strike\, Hammett creates the character of the Continental Op\, a detective hired by a copper boss to clear the town of the gangsters the boss originally hired to break a miners’ strike. The Continental Op knows the gangsters and he knows the cops and he knows how to set them against each other—all set in the town of Poisonville. \nFarewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)\nMoose Malloy just got out of prison and he’s looking for Velma\, his old flame. The big man drags Philip Marlowe into the search for Velma. By the end of the night\, Marlowe witnesses Malloy kill a man. The cops aren’t overly concerned to find Malloy because the dead man is black. Marlowe decides to keep looking for Velma. The search draws him into the seedy side of Hollywood: blackmailers\, drug peddling psychics\, crooked cops and a crooked city government.. \nThe Kill Off by Jim Thompson (1957)\nSet in a resort town which did not enjoy any kind of post-war boom. Not only is the town not getting enough summer visitors\, the richest lady in town is a mean gossip and everyone has a reason to kill her. When she’s found dead\, the question is\, which of the self-deceiving\, vicious\, and broke residents killed her? Jim Thompson\, honored as a “dimestore Dostoevsky” excels in writing the interior monologues of isolated and frustrated small town individuals. \nThe Mad and The Bad by Patrick Manchette (1972)\nThis\, like all good descendents of pulps\, is a quick\, violent story with an ending that is not a comfortable happy solution. Manchette\, a veteran of the events of France during May of 1968\, returned the French detective story to corruption and violence. In The Mad and The Bad thugs and a contract killer attempt to kill Julie\, a troubled young woman\, and her charge\, an unpleasant orphan. \nRipley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) continues the successful career of the murderer and art forger Thomas Ripley who decides to amuse himself by manipulating a man who slighted him into committing murder. Ripley uses gossip and the unsavory characters who move art forgeries to break a sick man anxious for his family’s well-being after his death. \nThe Shadow of a Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (2006)\nFour friends gather to play dominoes in 1922. The Mexican Revolution has been betrayed and the four are trying to get by: the poet by writing patent medicine ad copy; the union organizer by silences and strikes; the lawyer by representing prostitutes; and the crime reporter by churning out copy. Left to their own devices\, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency\, but they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast\, greedy army officers\, and American industrialists. Taibo sets the four out to investigate with a great sense of humor\, despite the grisly realities. \nTHE ANTI-BOURGEOIS SUMMER READING GROUP is open to all. This is a second consecutive summer exploring noir/crime fiction. We spend two weeks on each book. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/summer-in-the-dark-crime-and-the-capitalist-way/2018-06-14/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Summer18Noir_site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180613T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180613T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180519T143752Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180612T143103Z UID:10003940-1528912800-1528925400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Nicaragua in Crisis DESCRIPTION:A Forum with Father Octavio Altamirano • Jorge Blass •\nDan La Botz • Lisa Maya Knauer • Nicaraguan Students\nco-sponsored with Haymarket Books\, NACLA\, New Politics and Democratic Socialists of America\, NYC Chapter\nWITH THE CHANGE OF VENUE\, THIS IS NOW A DONATIONS-BASED EVENT.\nSince late April the Nicaraguan Sandinista government of President Daniel Ortega has been challenged first by a popular uprising in which dozens were killed by the government and then by mass demonstrations demanding peace and justice. Now the Catholic Church is attempting to mediate between the Ortega government and the movement\, but so far without success. What is the source of Nicaragua’s crisis today? And what are the roots of the problem in the experience of the last forty years? How does it affect Nicaraguan immigrants to the United States? What stand should progressive Americans take on the Nicaraguan crisis? \nSOME OF YOU HAVE PAID FOR TICKETS FOR THE OTHER VENUE. THESE PURCHASES CAN BE A DONATION OR WE CAN REFUND YOU IF YOU PROVIDE AN ADDRESS. info@marxedproject.org URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/nicaragua-in-crisis/ LOCATION:St Peters Church\, 619 Lexington Avenue\, New York ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nicaragua_manifestacionesSite.jpg GEO:40.7585654;-73.9703834 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=St Peters Church 619 Lexington Avenue New York;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=619 Lexington Avenue:geo:-73.9703834,40.7585654 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180611T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180611T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180314T042243Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T042243Z UID:10006281-1528745400-1528752600@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 DESCRIPTION:An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group \nOf 20th-century revolutions\, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930\, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement\, slaughtered militant workers and peasants\, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war\, interrupted by a Japanese invasion\, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war\, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed\, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check marxedproject.org for updates to the reading list. \nTHE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone\, however the group has held together\, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution\, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917\, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya\, the Haitian Revolution\, the European Revolutions of 1848\, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year\, the Spanish Civil War\, the Mexican Revolution\, the Socialist (2nd) International\, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-06-11/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FightersSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180609T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180609T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180502T015537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180502T015537Z UID:10003926-1528542000-1528552800@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital\, Volume I DESCRIPTION:Class & Discussion with Capital Studies Group \nKarl Marx’s Capital remains the fundamental text for understanding how capitalism works. By unraveling the commoditized forms of our interactions with nature and each other\, it provides tools to understand capitalism’s astounding innovativeness and productivity\, intertwined with growing inequality and misery\, alienation\, stunting of human potential\, and ecological destruction all over the globe. In this way\, Capital offers the reader a methodology for doing our own analysis of current developments. \nThe Capital Studies Group has been meeting on Saturdays for nearly two years. We are a diverse group of students\, activists and teachers who are now dedicating themselves to a chronological reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Capital. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-i/2018-06-09/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AssemblyLibros2Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180607T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180607T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180319T043327Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180319T043327Z UID:10003910-1528399800-1528407000@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:The Political Economy of Money and Finance DESCRIPTION:Presented by the Capital Studies Organizing Task Force\n10 sessions \nThere has been much talk in recent years about the “financialization” of capitalism and the increasingly dominant and totally destructive role of money and finance. But what exactly is “financialization” and is this something truly new for capitalism or simply the latest manifestation of a phenomenon and process that has earlier historical roots and is basic and fundamental to the way that capitalism functions? And\, what is the role of money and finance in 21st century capitalism? \nTo understand “financialization” and the pronounced instability of the world economy since the 1970s\, this reading group will undertake a close reading (over 10 weeks) of Costas Lapavitsas and Makoto Itoh’s book Political Economy of Money and Finance. The book attempts to offer a systematic theoretical examination of money and finance by re-examining the classical foundations of political economy and the creator of money and assessing all of the important theoretical schools since then\, including Marxist\, Keynesian\, post-Keynesian and monetarist thinkers. \nLapavitsas and Itoh argue that monetary and financial instability has roots in capitalist production and trade\, as well as in the defects of the mechanisms of money and finance. Thus\, no mix of policies can fully establish monetary and financial harmony\, though different policies can significantly ameliorate or worsen instability. To sustain its central claim\, the book also re-examines the historical and logical origin of money\, the creation of interest bearing capital\, the spontaneous emergence of the capitalist credit system\, the process of capitalist crisis\, and the nature and function of the central banks. In addition\, by presenting insights from Japanese political economy largely ignored in Anglo-Saxon economics\, the authors contribute to a radical political economy based on a thorough historical analysis of capitalism. \nThe Capital Studies Organizing Task Force are workers and allies who gather frequently to study the three volumes of Marx’s Capital\, in order to be concrete in our analysis of capital and to better inform the class struggles against capitalists and their collaborators. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-political-economy-of-money-and-finance/2018-06-07/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FinanceMoney_Site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180605T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180605T193000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190204 CREATED:20180513T045915Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180513T045915Z UID:10003938-1528221600-1528227000@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Climate Leviathan DESCRIPTION:The Political Challenge of Global Warming \nConvened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight \nHow will anthropogenic climate disruption transform alter the world’s basic political arrangements? In their new book Climate Leviathan\, Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright warn that global warming will push capitalist elites toward an authoritarian imposition of “planetary sovereignty” to confront the crisis. In this four-week reading group we will examine their argument and the alternative they present: “a global\, grassroots\, and broad-based network … driven by a desire for a deeper form of democracy\, one that provides communities with real control over those resources that are most critical to collective survival—the health of the water\, air\, and soil.” \nFRED MURPHY has co-led several MEP study groups on Marxism\, science\, nature\, and ecosocialism. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research. STEVE KNIGHT has participated in and co-led MEP study groups on ecosocialism since 2015. His review of Shock of the Anthropocene is forthcoming in the journal Marx & Philosophy. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/climate-leviathan/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ClimateLeviathanSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180604T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180604T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T190205 CREATED:20180314T042243Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T042243Z UID:10006280-1528140600-1528147800@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:The Chinese Revolution: 1930-1949 DESCRIPTION:An 11-Week session with The Revolutions Study Group \nOf 20th-century revolutions\, the upheaval in China that culminated in the declaration in 1949 of the People’s Republic was arguably just as significant as the Russian Revolution of 1917. We begin with the Chinese Revolution in 1930\, after the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Shek turned on the mass movement\, slaughtered militant workers and peasants\, and declared war on Communists. The Communist Party regrouped in remote rural areas and reoriented its activity from urban industrial working class to organizing a peasant rebellion from these rural bases. This led to a prolonged civil war\, interrupted by a Japanese invasion\, which in turn became part of World War Two. After the war\, the struggle between the armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists resumed\, ending with Chiang’s fleeing to Taiwan and the final victory of the Communist army in 1949. The primary reading will be Mark Selden: China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. Check marxedproject.org for updates to the reading list. \nTHE REVOLUTIONS STUDY GROUP (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. Individual participants have come and gone\, however the group has held together\, studying in depth a wide range of history including the French Revolution\, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917\, the Mau-Mau Revolt in Kenya\, the Haitian Revolution\, the European Revolutions of 1848\, the May movement in France of 1968 and the Hot Autumn of Italy the following year\, the Spanish Civil War\, the Mexican Revolution\, the Socialist (2nd) International\, and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/the-chinese-revolution-1930-1949/2018-06-04/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FightersSite.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR