ICSS Past Presentations

 Rick will speak about his recent trip to Russia and especially Crimea. In 2014, following the coup in the Ukrainian capital, Crimea had a referendum and decisively decided to secede from Ukraine and "re-unify" with Russia.  In many ways, the situation in Crimea is emblematic of the Ukraine conflict.  Rick will describe what he saw and learned on this trip. Rick Sterling is a Bay Area journalist, active with Mt Diablo Peace and Justice Center and Task Force on the Americas. 

July 29, 2022, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), raided the offices and homes of members of the Uhuru Movement. They broke down doors, broke windows, used flashbang devices and drones and threatened residents with automatic weapons. The US Govt has recently filed indictments against 3 Uhuru Movement leaders.This is a call to everyone to defend the right of African people and the Chairman of the African People's Socialist Party, Omali Yeshitela, to free speech. Speakers Mwezi...

  Goldman Sachs bank research this past week published a report that 300,000,000 jobs worldwide will be impacted by the now accelerating introduction of Artificial Intelligence software (machines) that will either eliminate or sharply reduce the hours of work for workers involved in simple decision-making tasks like customer service reps, paralegals, receptionists, retail services, human resources reps, copywriters, basic software coders, and countless other occupations. Its report...

 For background, see David's latest Photoessay, Wood Street Commons Final Stand. https://capitalandmain.com/wood-street-commons-final-stand  

The world working class and unions of the world are facing a major global struggle as the crisis of capitalism drives towards dictatorship and world war. Steve Zeltzer will look at the declining US imperialist empire and the intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry and the growing move towards a world war that threaten workers and people of the world. He will also look at the increasing attacks on the unions and the escalation of attacks on the working class to pay for the crisis.This also takes...

The loss of socialism is not as permanent as it appears and until capitalism’s inherent contradictions are resolved, its resurgence is not as improbable as Dugin suggests. Until then, we as Marxists should not dismiss those who have picked up the mantle of anti-imperialism since the demise of the former Soviet Union, no matter which political form it takes shape. By denouncing Dugin as a “fascist” and treating his work as unworthy of serious consideration, one is only showing that he is right...

In Africa as in the rest of the world, US machinations undermine its goals and bring other nations together as they seek to protect themselves from a desperate empire. See: https://www.laprogressive.com/africa/us-shoots-itself-in-the-foot Our Speaker, Ann Garrison, is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, who publishes regularly on the Black Agenda Report. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the...

After brief presentations by three ICSS members, Raj Sahai, Gene Ruyle, and Roger Harris, we will have an open discussion on this important topic.   

Silicon Valley Bank - previously the 16th largest bank in the US and reportedly a source of funding for half of all the tech startups in the US - has collapsed. It’s now become clear the more general banking crisis that has emerged is not due simply to a rogue, mismanaged bank that over-extended itself during the recent tech boom and then somehow mysteriously imploded in just 72 hours, March 7-9, until seized by the FDIC on the morning of March 10, 2023. Deeper, more systemic forces are at...

US aggression toward China is escalating and China is shedding its usual restraint to more clearly call out this aggression and warn the US not to overstep its red lines. K. J. Noh, an activist, journalist, and scholar on the geopolitics of the Asian continent, will discuss the renewed belligerence of South Korea under President Yoon Suk-yeol, the increasing militarization of Japan, shifting alliances in Western Asia, and how China, including Taiwan, is responding. Noh will also speak about...