Posts by Title

It is thirty years since the Rwandan genocide.  The presentation will explain this horrific but poorly understood crime and its aftermath.  One consequence that will be discussed in greater detail is the tight-knit relationship between Rwanda and Israel.  Both countries depend on their victimization narratives to justify what they do in Gaza and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ann Garrison is a journalist who focuses on the countries of the  African Great Lakes Region.  She is a Contributing Editor of the Black Agenda Report, a contributor to Pacifica Radio and many other platforms.  Her previous presentation at ICSS can be found at https://icssmarx.org/us-shoots-itself-in-the-foot-in-africa-again-ann-garrison-sunday-april-16-2023-1030am-pacific-time/ ...

Report Back from Russia and Donetsk - Dan Kovalik - January 8, 2023 10:30 AM Pacific Time ...

Just back from the West Bank, international human rights advocate and lawyer Dan Kovalik will discuss the current situation in Palestine in light of historical developments. In addition to Gaza, the West Bank has been under ferocious Israeli attack and repression. The general population in the West Bank is experiencing increased Israeli settler violence with over 300 Palestinians murdered and 3000 arrested since October 7. Last month, our speak visited Cairo with the first international solidarity delegation, which tried unsuccessfully to enter Gaza and bring humanitarian aid through the Rafa crossing. Dan Kovalik has written extensively on international human rights ...

Mehmet Bayram just came back from visiting and traveling inside Turkey.  Capitalism and more integration to imperialism has left Turkiye as a failed, narco, gang-run country.  Corruption, smuggling, human trafficking, worker exploitation has become the norm under Islamofascism where in contradiction to classical fascism, the state has withdrawn from all spheres of life except those related to the political dictatorship or to the profit making areas of the few monopolies.  Resembling the Mad Max post-apocalypse films, daily life has been abandoned to gangs and these gangs control laws, rules, government and spheres of influence.  Mehmet will focus on regular daily ...

Sun., February 16, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm PSTSyria Report-backSpeaker: Dan Kovalik Our speaker, international human rights advocate and lawyer Dan Kovalik just returned from Syria, once a beautiful country and the cradle of civilization. He visited so that we could speak out for people there who can’t speak out because they fear violent repression. Dan will report back on the current situation in light of historical developments. The new de facto government was in large part brought to power by the US and other foreign entities and does not have a mandate or right to rule. Multiculturalism has been destroyed ...

Our speaker, Danny Shaw, is among the many voices for Palestine who have been punished for speaking out against genocide. After 18 years of teaching in the Latin American and Latinx Studies Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, he was fired last month for his social media posts educating and organizing against the Israeli-U.S. genocide in Gaza. He has been camped out with the hundreds of students, faculty, alumni and staff that make up the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment. We urge you to sign the petition in support of Danny Shaw, who has spoken at the Marxist Library ...

The left in India is woefully silent on this movement and has not even summarized the significance of the movement, let alone learn anything from it. The left in US today remains fairly unconcerned about the enduring farm crisis in the country. But should it remain aloof from it? Is there a problem with the “center-of-attention” of the left worldwide? Has it got side-tracked into politics of disinformation and politics of diversion? Has it become more or less a side-show for liberalism? Is it getting so caught up with electoral politics that it is failing to set a new agenda ...

As a UCLA art major and activist working to establish the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Mary Uyematsu, set out to document the Asian American Movement happening in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. This Movement found its roots in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement, and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and was sparked by the struggles for ethnic studies and the protests against the Vietnam War, and the recognition of the People’s Republic of China. Mary published her photography collection from this Movement in 2020, to document the anti-imperialist issues that politicized our ...

Roe v. Wade to be abolished? That's the intent of the pending Supreme Court decision, a draft copy of which has already been leaked to the media. This will be a human rights disaster for women. On May 11,2022  the U.S. Senate voted down the Women’s Health Protection Act 49 to 51. The WHPA would have made abortion legal, eliminating the role of the Supreme Court on the issue of abortion and nullifying the pending Supreme Court decision,  How do we fight back against this grossly undemocratic decision? We certainly can't trust the Democratic Party leadership, Speaker: Rosa Astra, an ...

China’s emergence as an economic powerhouse is a game-changer on a world scale today, with its Belt and Road Initiative, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BRICS+ trade alliance and numerous bilateral trade agreements. China is the top trading partner of over 120 countries and has become an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and their brutal structural adjustment, deregulation and privatization programs (SAPs). Every international gathering, trade agreement and aid shipment confirms that China is a lifeline for the Global South. With the development of a multipolar world, US hegemony is being challenged. Russia is a ...

Journalist, Author, and Activist Caleb Maupin - Jan 23, 2022 10:30 AM Pacific Time Caleb Maupin is a widely acclaimed speaker, writer, journalist, and political analyst. He has traveled extensively in the Middle East and in Latin America. He was involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement from its early planning stages, and has been involved in many struggles for social justice. He is an outspoken advocate of international friendship and cooperation, as well 21st Century Socialism. http://www.calebmaupin.com ...

Our speakers, Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny will discuss their book,  Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union (2004), and  their reflections since writing the book, including Gorbachev’s role in overturning socialism in the Soviet Union, why he arose, whether this was inevitable, and what lessons are to be learned.    Roger Keeran is  Professor Emeritus at Empire State School of the State University of New York (SUNY), He has been a member of the Communist Party USA for three decades and is currently a member of the advisory board of the Marxist journal Science & Society.    Joe Jamison (Thomas Kenny) is co-author with Roger Keeran ...

ICSS 20200726  Sun, Jul 26, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Socialism, Communism, Democracy, and Dictatorship: A Scientific Perspective. Too many leftists and socialists remain wedded to bourgeois ideology and therefore cannot understand the world we live in, much less change it. ICSS Member Eugene Ruyle will clarify issues such as the nature of scientific socialism, the class nature of the state, the distinction between bourgeois and proletarian democracy, and role of the dictatorship of the proletariat in transition from capitalism to communism. Come prepared to ask questions, challenge the speaker, and defend your own views..Resources: ...

...

Harpal Brar will be speaking on his latest book, Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: Marketisation of the Chinese Economy. which explores the path of China after Mao's death, considering the role of the Great Leap Forward in China's economic development and current success, and the truth behind the political events of the Cultural Revolution. Brar tackles the ultimate question: would China have been better off having continued to use centralized planning, or were the reforms and marketization necessary and beneficial? Harpal Brar, former Chairman of the CPGB-ML, is a prominent political economist, author, and journalist ...

Socialists in the Euro-American left have never really understood the dialectics of the Chinese Revolution from the formation of the People's Republic, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, to the present. Just what is going on with the Communist Party of China (CPC)? Our speaker will help us better understand the dynamics of modern China.​  Our speaker, Kenneth Hammond, is a professor in East Asian Studies & Global History at New Mexico State University. He earned his PhD in History and East Asian Studies and was active in the student movement at Kent State Univeristy. He is also the author ...