ICSS Past Presentations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aTJSYHrR5k The US/Israel are actively and overtly preparing for war on Iran. From their perspective current conditions may be favorable for an attack due to several strategic and geopolitical factors. Iran could be nearing weapons-grade uranium enrichment levels, but it does not yet have a nuclear deterrent capability. Additionally, regional instability—such as the weakening of Iran’s allies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen—may reduce the risk of retaliation....

https://youtu.be/gxSM56JfGnA On September 1, 1987, some of the most dedicated peace activists in the nation – including our two guests – were protesting outside the Concord Naval Weapons Station trying to block a Navy munitions train loaded with weapons bound for Nicaragua and El Salvador. Instead of stopping the train and arresting the protestors, authorities ordered the train to speed up. While some barely made it off the tracks, S. Brian Willson was run over. He suffered horrific injuries,...

https://youtu.be/YZcsGkPqcFY This Sunday, the Marxist Forum will analyze and discuss the U.S. trade war, tariffs, and globalization from a working class perspective. Allan Miller is a political activist and member of the ICSS Program Committee.  He has a PhD in economics from UC Riverside, and has taught data analysis and statistical programming at UC Berkeley Extension.

https://youtu.be/Rhrq93ZP0wU Sun., April 20, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm PDT From Shanghai to Xinjiang Speakers: Elicha Gastelumendi & Rick Sterling Elicha Gastelumendi and Rick Sterling will talk and show photos from their October 2024 visit to China. They were on their own in Shanghai and will describe what they saw in a regular community far from the booming downtown. Following that, they joined a delegation to Xinjiang organized by retired San Francisco Judge Julie Tang. Xinjiang is a...

https://youtu.be/VoFQB_I2DZk BRAZIL ON THE RAZOR´S EDGE The fight for sovereignty under imperialist and fascist attack The victory of President Lula in 2022 put a brake on the fascist crescendo in Brazil. But the government faces enormous challenges to keep up to its campaign promises. There are combined pressures from the financial market and the business elites, which are intertwined with and dependent on international financial capital. The increased size and strength of agribusiness, with...

https://youtu.be/ysPm_2TXcYM Sun., April 6, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm PDT Weaponizing Antisemitism by Project Esther Speaker: Seth Morrison Project Esther is the Heritage Foundation’s roadmap to destroy the pro-Palestine movement in the US.  This McCarthy era-like project falsely conflates anti-zionism with antisemitism and then deceptively accuses pro-Palestine activists of antisemitism. Our speaker, Seth Morrison, is a leader in the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an articulate advocate to peace...

https://youtu.be/af202Wxg5Nc Heightened ethnic and international tensions threaten balkanization in the Horn while Rwanda's Paul Kagame continues his brutal push to slice off a mineral-rich piece of Eastern Congo. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger confederate and expel French and US troops, mining corporations, and media. Ann Garrison is a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor and a Grayzone contributor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza...

https://youtu.be/y6XjMk87rtQ US President Donald Trump's policies, including shutting down NED and USAID, have engendered discussion about whether he intends to restrain U.S. imperialism or is simply adopting new approaches to US empire in an era of crisis. Discussion with Alexander McKay of the Marx Engels Lenin Institute.

https://youtu.be/EsRIcw1Ofiw Sarah Junkin Woodard comes to us from Nicaragua, representing the work of the Jubilee House Community, a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit she helped form in 1979.  Working with and on behalf of the poor in North Carolina for the first decade, the last 30 years have been spent in Nicaragua, with the project name of the Center for Development in Central America. The JHC-CDCA continues to respond to local needs, seeking resources to help the poor accomplish what they see...