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Book Talk: On the History of Capitalist ‘Reforms’

Giampaolo Conte presents ‘A History of Capitalist Transformation: A Critique of Liberal-Capitalist Reforms’, just published by Routledge. Conte’s historical research demonstrates that the chief purpose of such reforms has been to integrate semi-peripheral states into the capitalist world-economy.

Book Talk: Liberating Abortion

Liberating Abortion

Regina Mahone presents Liberating Abortion, a galvanizing history recentering people of color to put forth a timely argument that we must liberate abortion for all. Mahone and co-author Renee Bracey Sherman illustrate the long racist history that brought us to this moment, uncover the hidden figures who laid the foundations that activists and storytellers are building on today, and explain how abortion has been and remains essential to the health of our communities.

Conversations on the US Elections

Join us online on Tuesday, September 17 at 6:30 pm US ET for an open-ended conversation about the evolving US political conjuncture now shaping the November elections. Drawing on our recent study of political strategy and fascism, we will assess the contending social and political forces in the US election campaign and consider the various approaches put forward by currents on the American left.

Henri Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life

Tenants march for "Our City, Our Homes"

An open-ended reading group on Henri Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life – a major manifesto of humanist Marxism and a clarion call for revolutionary praxis through sustained critique of daily living. “Lefebvre pushed philosophy out into the streets,” the critic McKenzie Wark has written; his work has influenced fields as diverse as sociology, cultural studies, architecture and urban planning, as well as movements including the Situationist International and the activists of May 1968.

AI versus Labor: Luddism and Beyond

AI-versus-Labor

8 weekly sessions starting Oct 1. Is Artificial Intelligence (AI, sic) really the dire threat to the future of humanity as even some of its proponents claim, or is it a more mundane and familiar threat to working people who face loss of their livelihoods and/or further speed-up and alienation? The entire history of industrial capitalism is punctuated by recurring waves of automation to reduce labor costs and turnover time, each time provoking strong resistance by the affected workforce. This reading group will probe the history both of AI and computer technology specifically and of working-class resistance to capitalist automation in general.

Summer Noir 2024

Illustrating Noir theme with woman sitting in darkened room with the cat.

The MEP Literature Group’s Summer Noir tradition of enjoying the bracing vitality of pulp continues with six short novels on the themes of difficult trips and political mayhem. Be warned: … Read more

Hegel for Radicals: The Science of Logic III

An engraved portrait of a youner Hegel

The MEP’s recurring series Hegel for Radicals continues this summer with a reading of the third and final part of Hegel’s magnum opus, The Science of Logic. This is the discussion of the Notion culminating in the Absolute Idea. There will be a review session for recurring students as well as those who missed Part I, Being, and Part II, Essence. Familiarity with this work greatly aids any reading of Marx’s Capital.

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