Author: icsswpadmin

This program will address how the Korean peninsula was tragically split, why it remains so, and its contemporary implications. Once part of the Japanese Empire, the Korean conflict degenerated into a stalemate. Most important was the admission by then US Secretary of State Dean Rusk on how the 38th Parallel was agreed to as the infamous demarcation line; why the decision was made to cross the 38th parallel; and how George Kennan urged Truman not to. This last development is most significant. And, how the stalemate in Korea impacted whether the U.S. would intervene in North Vietnam in April-May 1954 to relieve 15,000 French paratroopers surrounded by 55,000 Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu.

Our speaker, Mark Albertson, is a frequent presenter at the Library. In fact, according to his blog, in each of the last three years, he has logged 200-plus appearances. Mark is a military historian with a commanding knowledge of geo-politics. He is the historical research editor at Army Aviation magazine and is the historian for the Army Aviation Association of America. He has authored several books: USS Connecticut: Constitution State Battleship; They’ll Have to Follow You! The Triumph of the Great White Fleet; On History: A Treatise. He is at work on a two-volume history on the saga of Army aviation. Mark teaches history at Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Noah will discuss the issues that often arise when connecting Marxism and the working masses. 

Noah Khrachvik is a proud working class member of the Communist Party USA and co-director of the Midwestern Marx Institute for Marxist Theory and Political Analysis. He is 42 years old, married to the most understanding and patient woman on planet Earth (who puts up with all his deep-theory rants when he wakes up at two in the morning and can’t get back to sleep) and has a thirteen-year-old son who is far too smart for his own good. When he isn’t busy writing, organizing the working class, or fixing rich people’s houses all day, he enjoys doing absolutely nothing on the couch, surrounded by his family and books by Henry Winston.

The United States was a leading democracy two centuries ago. Now many other nations have leap-frogged over the US by developing better political/electoral systems. As a consequence, they also have better systems for healthcare, higher education, housing, and justice combined with increased personal safety. 

   The locked-down two-party system has joined with the vast inequality of wealth and power in the US in order to raise hurdles to block solutions that people want, create, and support. We will take a good look at those hurdles, many of which are now being highlighted during the presidential campaign of Cornel West, who is running as an independent “third party” candidate.

   There are solutions, and steps we can take. We will discuss why proportional representation is key to an inclusive multi-party system, and why ranked choice voting by itself has not lived up to its expectations.

   Laura Wells has been a Green Party activist since the party became ballot-qualified in California in early 1992. She is a co-coordinator of the state Coordinating Committee of the Green Party of California (GPCA). She has run for State Controller and Governor, and ran once for Congress. Laura Wells, both as a Green Party candidate and behind-the-scenes organizer, has experienced first-hand the roadblocks put up by the two Titanic parties, including being arrested outside of the gubernatorial debate in 2010 for the accurate charge of “trespassing at a private party.”

Website: https://laurawells.org/ 

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 year, India has placed itself in the center of rising international tensions, with Russia and China emerging at the opposite pole to the US led unipolar order. National elections are due in March/April 2024. Raj Sahai will provide his assessment of the emerging economic and political picture in India.

Our speaker, Raj Sahai, is a native of India and a longtime resident/citizen of the U.S. He is a founding member of our Program Committee.