Posts by Title

ICSS 20200809 Sun, Aug 9, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm7 75th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombing  By: Raj Sahai Two Atomic bombs dropped three days apart August 6 and August 9, 1945, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities, changed the trajectory of the world. To the US citizens, it was portrayed by the US government and the Mass Media as necessary to end WWII with a country that had started it by a surprise attack on the US Naval Base in Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, bringing a reluctant US into ...
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8 Years Before is an independently-funded documentary film directed by international journalist Donald Courter and produced collaboratively with international heavyweight fighting champion Jeff Monson. The film portrays in stark detail the long saga of suffering that the Donbass people endured at the hands of the Ukrainian military, following the 2014 Euromaidan coup d'etat. Through primary source accounts and interviews with ordinary citizens of Donbass, human stories with a perspective never before seen in the mainstream media are brought to light. Speaker: Don Courter Moscow-based journalist, filmmaker, and activist.  He is the director of 8 Years Before ...
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Afghanistan - Between Two Cold Wars  -  Sunday September 19 2021 10:30 AM Pacific Time - Dr. Bahman Azad Our program will trace US involvement in Afghanistan back to the 1950s Cold War to exert strategic control of the Soviet Union’s borders, especially after the Iranian Revolution. Combatting terrorism was not the issue. Rather, the US nurtured politicized Islamic jihadists in the form of the mujahedeen and the Taliban to destroy the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. From 1978-1992, the socialist-oriented government instituted modernization, emancipation of women, literacy, and land reform programs, only to be reversed.. From 1978-1992, the socialist government ...
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Robert Jensen will outline four key challenges facing humanity: size, scale, scope, and speed. What is the sustainable size of the human population? What is the appropriate scale of a human community? What is the scope of human competence to manage our interventions into the larger living world? At what speed must we move toward different living arrangements if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences? The sooner we face the realities of these challenges without unwarranted faith in ideology or technology, the more likely we can create the conditions for a soft landing for humanity. These ideas are drawn from ...
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 John Willich was a Prussian army career officer who quit after 25 years to become a carpenter. He was a German 48er who formed the proletarian army in the German Revolution with Friedrich Engels as second-in-command. He was exiled to England, where he joined Marx and Engels. Polemics between Willich and Marx-Engels led to his joining an opposing communist faction. In the 1850s he emigrated to the US where he become involved in communist clubs. He was an abolitionist who worked with free African Americans. In the Civil War, he started an innovative and highly praised German regiment. Conclusion: along ...
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ICSS 20200712 Sun, Jul 12, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Covid-19 and the crisis of neoliberalism - Basudev Nag Choudhary The COVID-19 disease caused by the novel corona virus has turned into a global pandemic with almost 5.5 million people confirmedly infected and over 3.5 hundred thousand deaths around more than a hundred countries. Irrespective of the fact whether the virus is a bio-weapon or naturally mutated, our aim is to show how it has impacted upon the global capitalist economy. Contrary to what is being campaigned from the mainstream institutions, it will be shown that the capitalist economy already ...
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ICSS 20200816 Sun, Aug 16, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Coronavirus: Scientific Realities vs. Economic Fallacies We are pleased that Georgi Marinov, Stanford postdoc in Genetics, , has accepted our invitation to speak about his recent article in LEFTEAST on this subject. Georgi Marinov, a post-doc researcher in Genetics at Stanford, has written one of the most prescient, widely-read, and important articles written from a Left perspective on COVID-19 pandemic and what we need to do to address it. Dr. Marinov describes the virus and the difficulties of knowing whether people will develop lasting immunity to it, and of developing ...
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ICSS 20200802 Sun, Aug 2, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Cuba: This is what medical internationalism looks like!. Please join us for what will be an illuminating conversation on contemporary Cuba's medical Internationalist work. Featured speakers will include Abraham Vela MD (a 2016 graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba) and Gail Walker (director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace). The event will be moderated by longtime Cuba solidarity activist Tony Ryan. Hold the date and please help in spreading the word!. Resources: ...
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1. Myth: Russia’s “Special Military Operation” (SMO) is an unprovoked war of conquest2. Myth: Russia miscalculated its military strategy in its invasion of Ukraine Russia is losing the war.3. Myth: the claim that Ukraine is natizified is a Russian propaganda ploy4. Myth: the world is united against the "Russian aggression" in Ukraine, Russia is isolated and growing more isolated.5. Myth: the economic sanctions against Russia are working, the Russian economy is a shambles, Putin is isolated, and the sanctions will eventually topple the "Putin regime" Instead of an hour presentation followed by a discussion, we will split the session into ...
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ICSS 20200823 Sun, Aug 23, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Drastically Cutting the Military Budget Why Is It Not a Campaign Issue? Hunger and homelessness stalk the poor. Jobs lost in the pandemic and the resulting economic collapse may not come back or will be even lower wage than before. Public education and transportation along with protecting the environment are on the chopping block, while the billionaires are raking in money. Our cities and states are economically strapped. Yet, elected officials have no idea how to run them without raising local taxes, laying off workers, or slashing benefits. Meanwhile ...
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Sun, Nov 21, 2021: 10:30 AM Pacific Time Elections in Nicaragua: a Report Back From an On the Ground Observer - Rick Sterling  ...
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Our speaker, John Parker began his trip to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on April 27 as part of a fact-finding mission organized by Struggle-La Lucha newspaper in the U.S. to gather eyewitness observations and testimony of Lugansk residents. He also visited Russia, where he conducted interviews and was present at the May 9 Victory Day parade, commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany and honoring the 27 million Soviet people who died fighting fascism. John Parker was a candidate for U.S. Senate in the June 7th election. He recently returned from Russia and the Donbas region on a fact-finding ...
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ICSS20200906 Group Discussion: Before and After November 2020 There are increasing concerns as to what will happen before, during, and after our November election so this is an opportunity to express our concerns. Our group discussion will be introduced by Gene Ruyle and other ICSS members with ample opportunity for discussion. Be prepared to voice, and defend, your views  For background, we will post a list of recommended sources in early September, for example in Democracy Now, the New York Times, and elsewhere ss they develop. ICSS member Sharon Rose will moderate. Resources: Session resources ...
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Group Discussion on the future of ourSunday Morning Programs - Sunday, January 2, 2022 HAPPY NEW YEAR! After a brief review of the history of the Marxist Library and the ICSS and the relationship between them, we will ask for input on our programs and suggestions for improvement. We are also seeking input on possible future programs ...
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ICSS group discussion: the communist manifesto Sunday, July 11, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific  We will go through this foundational work of Marxism reading selective paragraphs  with ample opportunity for discussion after each selection. Be prepared to voice, and defend, your views!    Our discussion will be led by ICSS member Gene Ruyle. In preparation, please re-read the Manifesto itself, and if there are particular passages you want the group to consider, please send the full text of those passages to <cuylerluyle@mac.com> by Saturday morning so they can be included—and bring your own copy to our Zoom meeting (available on the Marx-Engels Internet ...
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