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ICSS 20210404 Sun, April 4, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific  Understanding the Mass Psychology of Neofascism Fascist rulers in the 20th century, as well as Neofascist forces across the globe in the early 21st century have managed to attract mass support from significant sections of working people. This is despite the fact that these reactionary projects intensify capitalist exploitation and undermine the material interests of many of their own followers. To understand this contradiction, we need to supplement current political economy analyses of Neofascism with a grasp of mass psychology processes, which are powerfully manipulated by neofascist leaders.Our speaker ...

ICSS 20210411 Ten Things for US to Understand about Latin America Sun, Apr 11, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific Our speaker, Laura Wells, just returned from two weeks in Nicaragua with a delegation sponsored by Sanctions Kill, Alliance for Global Justice, and Friends of the ATC. When she received the announcement for the delegation, she felt instantly inspired. She had already visited the other two countries named as the "Troika of Tyranny" by Trump's Secretary of State Pompeo. She knew "tyranny" was a lie about Cuba and Venezuela and wanted to see if it was also a lie about Nicaragua. She ...

ICSS 20210418 Mihir Desai on Law and People’s Rights in  India Sun, Apr  18, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific  Our speaker writes: I will be speaking about legislative and policy changes during the Modi Government affecting rights of people. This will include the new labour codes, farmers laws, laws concerning citizenship, love jihad laws, education policy, AADHAR act, changes in laws affecting NGOs, Environmental laws, laws concerning elections, demonetisation, etc. This will include the erosion of parliamentary democracy and  federal structure. The talk will also include the use of existing and new draconian laws. It will be in the overall context of ...

ICSS 20210425 Grover Furr on Issues in Soviet History Sun, Apr  25, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific Grover writes that he will discuss two subject in his talk. First, he will talk about his new book Trotsky and the Military Conspiracy, available from Amazon.com. Second, he will discuss the issues concerning evidence:  what evidence is; how to analyze it; what logical fallacies and false arguments are employed to avoid facing the evidence.Resources: ...

ICSS 20210502 Socialism: Scientific and Utopian - Eugene E Ruyle Sun, May  2, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific  Just as Darwin discovered the law of motion of biological evolution, so Marx and Engels discovered the law of motion of human history and with it, placed the science of human society on a firm, working class basis. In 1880, Engels published Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, explaining how socialism had been transformed from a utopia into a science. This science was further developed by Lenin who led the world historic October Revolution and is continuing to develop in other world historic revolutions ...

ICSS 20210509 Theory of Revolution - Mehmet Bayram Sun, May 9, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific The recent events call us to revisit Historical Materialism to understand what is happening.  The COVID-19 Pandemic, the re-emergence of the cold-war racing towards a real war, the Minneapolis murders by the police, the US police force becoming the third largest army in the world, the Amazon workers’ organizing efforts, the struggle of the health care workers, the Indian Farmers’ Strike, the failure of the world capitalist system to deal with a simple and preventable disease, and to allow millions of people ...

ICSS 20210516 Biden’s Foreign Policy – Hope or Horror? Sun., May 16, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm PDT Biden bellicosely proclaimed, “American is back,” in his major foreign policy priorities speech, reaffirming the bipartisan consensus of regime change, forever wars, and the NATO alliance. Republican neo-cons now shelter in the Democrat’s big tent, today’s party of war. Regardless of  the changing of the guard in Washington, the Biden’s policies will follow his predecessor, but will more effectively target official enemies such as Venezuela and Iran and will double down on Russia and China. The US empire is the main ...

ICSS20210523 The Significance of the Alabama Amazon Union Struggle: Building Solidarity in a Time of Transformation for the Working Class Judy Greenspan, a member of Workers World Party and the San Francisco Bay Area local organizing committee to support Alabama Amazon workers Our discussion of this important topic will be led by Judy Greenspan, a member of the Peace and Freedom Party, the Bay Area Chapter of Workers World Party, and the San Francisco Bay Area local organizing committee to support Alabama Amazon workers.Resources: Recommended background reading: WWP message on May Day 2020 is Organize! By Larry Holmeshttps://www.workers.org/2020/05/48257/ ...

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What constitutes (1) Imperialism and Fascism in our time at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century? (2) How is imperialism different today than in 1916 when Lenin penned his famous booklet? (3) How is Fascism today different than in 1935 and before when Dimitrov, Palme Dutt & Trotsky wrote to define it. What to call the new forms of fascism? (4) How have the wrong interpretations of fascism developed and where has it led Marxism? (5) What do the phenomenon of MAGA on one hand and Identity Politics of Liberalism represent today? (6) How to identify ...

Christopher's talk will focus on the current situation in the international communist movement and the various emerging contradictions and issues. It will address ongoing issues within Solidnet, the various positions of communist parties on Russia’s ongoing Special Military Operation, and how communists should approach multipolarity. Christopher Helali is the International Secretary of the American Communist Party (ACP) and North American chair of the DPRK International Solidarity Group. He is an educator, independent investigative journalist, researcher, and geopolitical analyst. Chris has studied at Cornell Law School, Dartmouth College, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, ...

Modern war is a product of imperialism and cannot be eliminated without destroying imperialism. The most important thing is the policy that the parties that led to that war were pursuing and will pursue after the end of the war. We are not opposed to all wars. There are just and unjust wars. We support just wars like the war against imperialism by the oppressed nations, the wars of the bourgeoisie against feudalism, the wars of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie and the wars of socialist countries against imperialist countries. Revisionist distortions on the question of war and the role ...

 The ICSS has hosted a number of Marxist intellectuals addressing imperialism and how is it manifest in the Ukraine conflict. There is a broad consensus on the left against weapons for endless war and for diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine – a conflict that risks nuclear conflagration. Progressive groups like the Peace In Ukraine Coalition (https://www.peaceinukraine.org/) oppose spending for militarism and support funds for jobs, healthcare, and housing. InPeace Talks Essential as War Rages on in Ukraine (https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/09/05/peace-talks-essential-war-rages-ukraine), Benjamin and Davies write how the US and its allies sabotaged a possible peace agreement in the early stages of the conflict and argue that one is ...

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network International Coordinator Charlotte Kates was arrested and charged by the Vancouver Police Department for a speech she gave on April 26 expressing support for the Palestinian resistance and calling for the Palestinian and Arab resistance – Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hezbollah – to be removed from so-called ‘terrorist lists’ in Canada and elsewhere. VPD officers arrested Kates while she was on the bus riding home after attending the establishment of the Palestine solidarity encampment at the University of British Columbia, and charged her with “public incitement ...

The Modi led BJP is in its 10th year governing India. India is 5th largest economy, has landed a mobile land rover on Moon's South pole, improved industrial infrastructure and has reduced absolute poverty. In 2023, India also surpassed China in population, but the per capita income remained low, with unemployment rising, and widened income and wealth disparity under the neoliberal economy. Social tensions have risen with its aggressive Hindutva ideology. India is in BRICS, SCO, and G20, of which it is the president in 2023. With its strong ties with the US cemented in his visit to Washington this ...

Speaker: Basudev Nag Chowdhury, People's Brigade Bangladesh has observed a students-led mass-upsurge to overthrow the Hasina government replacing it with an interim government led by Md. Yunus as the Chief Adviser, although unrest is still going on. In quick succession, Sri Lanka has experienced the electoral power capture by the communist party JVP. Pakistan is exhibiting similar unrest since the arrest of its ex-president Imran Khan. The Indian state is still managing the people’s grievances although unprecedented sparks of protests are being observed such as in Bengal. In the talk at ICSS, Com. BNC will try to explain the general characteristics ...