ICSS Past Presentations

https://youtu.be/nitggCEusuA We need to analyze how the workers' struggle for socialism has changed from that of the past century.  In this session, we will go over the role of BRICS in the class struggle, why the U.S.-led bloc is the sole manifestation of imperialism today, and how to escape the patterns of stagnation that have long plagued much of the communist movement. Rainer Shea is a California, Humboldt County-based writer and activist who seeks to advance the class struggle and...

https://youtu.be/ZUZ_6p5hNOI Over recent weeks, chaos has engulfed Nepal. Public and private buildings have been set ablaze, with dozens of civilians reportedly killed. On September 9th, Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli resigned. The Western media has universally framed the upheaval as spontaneous revolutionary fervor on the part of Kathmandu’s “Gen Z”, motivated by anger over official corruption, unemployment, state efforts to censor social media, and more. However, there are unambiguous...

https://youtu.be/VeEHwKQda9o 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...

https://youtu.be/CXneZA2HZhM After two years of Al-Aqsa Flood and the rise of the new Palestinian revolution, and two years into the horrific expanded genocide against the Palestinian people carried out by the Zionist entity and its imperialist sponsors and partners (the United States, Canada, Britain, European states), where is the Palestinian movement today? This session will debunk and counter imperialist and Zionist propaganda and psychological warfare tactics that aim to instill...

https://youtu.be/zFQE-hOBeuA For humanity, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution represents hope; for the US imperial project, which seeks to crush any alternative to its order, it is a threat. Washington projects its drug problem onto Venezuela and the rest of Latin America. US policy under Trump, which confounds terrorism with criminal activity, is a cover for projecting military domination. Claiming the prerogative to unilaterally intervene in the sovereign territories of neighboring states to...

https://youtu.be/6hesdKm03SA Huge parades in Ho Chi Minh City this spring marked the 50th anniversary of April 30, 1975, when a North Viet Namese army tank crashed through the iron gates of the U.S. Embassy in Sai Gon. The military took the lead in the parade, but it soon changed to beautiful peace floats, music, doves, flowers, and thousands of workers and children, along with colorful cultural costumes. Our speaker, Nadya Williams, observed the celebrations and traveled throughout the...

https://youtu.be/RrvgOH0pGfc Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, communists had always believed that the only way a socialist state could be destroyed was by hostile forces from the outside. Now we know that this was tragically wrong. The Soviet Union was destroyed by betrayal from within.  Uncovering the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union is the most important question confronting Marxists, socialists, and communists today. This is the subject of Prof. Furr's talk.   Bio: Our...

https://youtu.be/xtsoU580eKI After the defeat of the revolutionary Filipino independence movement in 1902, Filipinos became the largest colonial workforce in the United States. Immigrant Filipino agricultural workers enabled the transformation of U.S. agriculture from simple small-scale farming into the corporate behemoth we have today. Decades of intense class warfare between Filipino agricultural workers and U.S. agribusiness capitalists culminated in the historic 1965 Grape Strikes of...

https://youtu.be/ToyQcjgpLGI Appealing to an ugly nativist strain in the US, the current occupant in the White House has criminalized migrants. In contrast, this program will present a Marxist analysis of migration. Migrants are integral to destination societies such as the US – truly a nation of immigrants. Join us for an examination of migration from both the perspective of the origin countries and the destination states. Our speaker, Immanuel Ness, is the author of the acclaimed Migration...

https://youtu.be/zClqBGeHQ20 How to describe the character of Russian society during the Putin presidency brings forth strong opinions, including from Marxists. Karl Sanchez believes that one must distinguish 'State Capitalism and the type of Socialism being employed by Russia and China. Currently all political-economies are hybrids - no nation is purely one or another. However, it is clear that some political-economic formats are detrimental to the majority and merit being radically reformed....