ICSS Past Presentations

This Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library session covers the attacks on the pro-Palestine, anti-genocide movement being made in the name of "fighting antisemitism," A group discussion  follows several short presentations on the subject.      

The 200-year history of the Monroe Doctrine is a history of US imperialism. Among Washington’s recent junior partners, Israel stands out as an accomplice to the US imperial project not only in the old world but in this hemisphere as well.  Beginning with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the course of what is labeled Manifest Destiny (term was applied in 1845) will be charted through the 19th century.  The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 is a continuation of the planned expansion across the North...

This talk will cover from the late 1970s to present, with main focus on the past few years. Two aspects: far rightwing direct action (e.g., direct attacks on racial, religious, gender, communist and other political attacks) and legislative rollbacks on the same groups (e.g., Moms for Liberty attempts to promote reactionary education policies). Also, it will cover various groups and their ideologies, chief social traits and international interconnections among them. Finally, some proposals to...

In the face of a renewed global crisis of overproduction, the imperialists have determined that, in the present conditions, their best chance of saving themselves and their system remains in huddling together under the military and economic leadership of the USA and aiming their combined force at the destruction of the primary centers of independence and sovereignty in the world – Russia and China. In doing so, they hope to bring about a repeat of the carnival of pillaging they enjoyed after...

Nora Barrows-Friedman of The Electoric Intifada will present and lead our discussion Nora Barrows-Friedman is a journalist, editor, radio broadcaster, musician, and mother. Since 2012 she has served as associate editor and audio production director for The Electronic Intifada, an independent publication focused on Palestinian issues. She is the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine (Just World Books, 2014).     

Palestinian-American Professor Rashid Khalidi has described Gaza as "a pressure cooker" that "had to explode." Israeli holocaust scholar Raz Segal has decried Israel’s assault on Gaza as “a textbook case of genocide.”The Palestinian military action in Gaza this week shows that "the colonial powers can no longer believe they can force people to live under the conditions Israel has subjected Palestinians to and expect no retaliation of the oppressed" says Khalidi. The Palestinian rebellion is a...

According to our speaker, the Biden administration’s lawfare against Trump issupported by the left because of their own McCarthyism. The national security state,through the Biden administration, is engaging in lawfare to eliminate Biden’s onlyserious challenger and fix the 2024 election. Much of the progressive movement, ratherthan protest and stop police state interference, is supportive of it, even though thislawfare will be used against them in the future. The cause for the silence among...

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....

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...

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...