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:20180630T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180630T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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:20260406T203106 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 BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180531T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180531T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180319T043327Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180319T043327Z UID:10003909-1527795000-1527802200@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/2018-05-31/ 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:20180531T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180531T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180314T125001Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T125001Z UID:10006286-1527795000-1527802200@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner DESCRIPTION:William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel\, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work\, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. \nThis May\, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel\, the Beacon Press anthology\, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond\, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race\, class\, the rendering of historical presentation\, claims on sectors of our shared history\, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. \nTHE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-31/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TurnerRevoltSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180529T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180529T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180426T141046Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180505T142036Z UID:10003913-1527622200-1527629400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Small Is Necessary DESCRIPTION:Shared Living on a Shared Planet\nwith author Anitra Nelson \nA presentation and discussion with activist-scholar Anitra Nelson\, whose new book Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (Pluto Press) argues for ‘eco-collaborative housing’\, i.e. smaller homes with shared spaces and facilities. \nHouses and apartments in countries like the US\, Canada and Australia grew larger in the 20th century even as household sizes shrank. This has made housing less environmentally sustainable and it contributes to the housing affordability crisis. Since the US mortgage fiasco triggered the Global Financial Crisis many countries have experienced skyrocketing house prices. Meanwhile\, the withdrawal of state support for social and public housing means that private ownership or rental are the only options. \nSmall is Necessary advocates not only for smaller dwellings in compact settlements but for shared spaces and facilities. Anitra presents a range of practical options from co-living in a household to co-housing and eco-villages. She weighs the pros and cons of the tiny house movement and assesses the potential and limits of radical squats along the way. She considers the future of eco-collaborative housing managed by various different drivers—governments\, market developers\, and sharing economy initiatives\, and grassroots communities. \nAnitra has had ten years’ experience living in two different Australian housing collectives\, but her new book is research-based\, especially drawing on ecological footprint studies. \nThe author will sign books at the end of the program. \nAnitra Nelson is an activist-scholar whose research interests focus on housing and community-based sustainability\, environmental justice and non-monetary futures. She is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Urban Research\, RMIT University (Melbourne\, Australia). She was a Carson Fellow at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2016–2017) and was a Visiting Scholar at the New School for Social Research (2012). She is a co-editor of Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (2011) and Housing for Degrowth: Principles\, Models\, Challenges and Opportunities (forthcoming). URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/small-is-necessary/ LOCATION:New Perspectives Theatre\, 456-458 West 37th Street\, New York\, NY\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SmallIs_Cover_site.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180524T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180524T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180319T043327Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180319T043327Z UID:10003908-1527190200-1527197400@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/2018-05-24/ 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:20180524T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180524T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180314T125001Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T125001Z UID:10006285-1527190200-1527197400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner DESCRIPTION:William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel\, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work\, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. \nThis May\, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel\, the Beacon Press anthology\, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond\, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race\, class\, the rendering of historical presentation\, claims on sectors of our shared history\, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. \nTHE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-24/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TurnerRevoltSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180521T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180521T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180314T042243Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T042243Z UID:10006279-1526931000-1526938200@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-1930-1949/2018-05-21/ 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:20180519T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180519T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180101T041555Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180327T223445Z UID:10003875-1526727600-1526738400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital: Volume 1 DESCRIPTION:Karl 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. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1/2018-05-19/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Screen-Shot-2014-10-25-at-2.54.40-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180517T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180517T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180319T043327Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180319T043327Z UID:10003907-1526585400-1526592600@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/2018-05-17/ 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:20180517T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180517T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180314T125001Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T125001Z UID:10006284-1526585400-1526592600@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner DESCRIPTION:William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel\, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work\, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. \nThis May\, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel\, the Beacon Press anthology\, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond\, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race\, class\, the rendering of historical presentation\, claims on sectors of our shared history\, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. \nTHE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-17/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TurnerRevoltSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180514T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180514T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180314T042243Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T042243Z UID:10006278-1526326200-1526333400@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-1930-1949/2018-05-14/ 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:20180512T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180512T140000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180101T041555Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180327T223445Z UID:10003874-1526122800-1526133600@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Capital: Volume 1 DESCRIPTION:Karl 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. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/capital-volume-1/2018-05-12/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Screen-Shot-2014-10-25-at-2.54.40-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180510T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180510T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180319T043327Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180319T043327Z UID:10003906-1525980600-1525987800@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/2018-05-10/ 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:20180510T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180510T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180314T125001Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T125001Z UID:10006283-1525980600-1525987800@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner DESCRIPTION:William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968. The novel made the world conscious of the slave revolt in Virginia led by Turner in 1831. Styron was a white writer from Virginia. In response to the success of Styron’s novel\, an anthology of African-American criticism was published by Beacon Press featuring the work 10 different critics. In addition to the criticism of Styron there were a number of African-American writers who were encouraged and praised Styron for his work\, most notably James Baldwin. Baldwin predicted that the history of the rebellion would continue to be written for years. This remains true today. \nThis May\, our Thursday literature group will read Styron’s novel\, the Beacon Press anthology\, William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond\, as well as the essay Baldwin wrote in defense of Styron. Many profound questions concerning race\, class\, the rendering of historical presentation\, claims on sectors of our shared history\, etc. are raised in the novel and in the anthology. We will discuss as many of these questions as possible including having a careful read of Baldwin’s essay on the work. This class is also part of The MEP noting this being a half-century since the pivotal year of 1968. \nTHE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES READING GROUP which has grown from the enthusiastic call for the need of greater understanding of the long history of the peoples of North America and other continents of the world who were of those continents before and remain after the European colonists came to settle and bring this capitalist relations to every corner of the globe. Our group began following a stirring presentation by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz September of 2014 where she introduced An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/styrons-confessions-of-nat-turner/2018-05-10/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TurnerRevoltSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180509T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180509T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180327T131113Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180327T131113Z UID:10003912-1525894200-1525901400@marxedproject.org SUMMARY:Archive That Comrade! DESCRIPTION:Left Memory Politics\, Toxic Fame and the Populist Archive\nA talk with author Phil Cohen \n“Don’t mourn\, organize!” was a favored campaign slogan of the old Left\, part of a commitment to struggles of long duration against social injustice and a belief in the ultimate triumph of socialism. But with the rise of identity politics\, the importance of memory work\, of recording and celebrating hitherto hidden and ignored life histories\, has been widely recognized along with a nostalgic tendency in some quarters to mourn the “world we have lost” where working class culture\, tied to the labor movement\, was a major and progressive political force. But are the do-it-yourself archival practices of the me-too generation really an effective tool for building a shared sense of culture and community in which feelings of anger and loss can be addressed\, so that grief does not have to be sublimated in grievance? \nBy the same token\, how successful has the New Left been in challenging the multi-media apparatus of fame and celebrity which has come to dominate the politics of public commemoration? How far can the rise of the populist archive\, designed to communicate ‘positive images’ of maligned minorities\, be seen as a response both to the death of the collective hero\, and as a reaction against the competitive individualism promoted by the fame academy? \nIn this talk Phil will address these questions by looking at some recent controversies surrounding public memorials\, monuments and archives in both the UK and USA and by arguing for an alternative democratic politics of the archive. \nPhil Cohen is a scholar activist who has worked for over 40 years with working class and immigrant communities in the East End of London as they respond to the impact of large scale demographic and socio-economic change linked to globalization and de-industrialization. As an urban ethnographer he is especially interested in how political and cultural values are transmitted between generations—or not. Among his many books are Knuckle Sandwich: Growing Up in the Working Class City (Penguin 1978)\, Re-thinking the Youth Question (Palgrave 1998)\, Reading Room Only: Memoir of a Radical Bibliophile (Five Leaves 2013)\, Graphologies (Mica Press 2015) and Archive That Comrade: Left Legacies and the Counter Culture of Remembrance (PM Press 2018). Website and blog: www.philcohenworks.com \nTickets are sliding scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay. URL:https://marxedproject.org/event/archive-that-comrade/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ArchiveThatFlyerSite.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20180507T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20180507T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T203106 CREATED:20180314T042243Z LAST-MODIFIED:20180314T042243Z UID:10006277-1525721400-1525728600@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-1930-1949/2018-05-07/ LOCATION:United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://marxedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FightersSite.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR