Past Posts by Descending Date

We will have a group discussion on the lessons of the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany and the significance of the worldwide celebrations of Victory Day 2025.   Join us with your ideas, comments, and questions for what should be a lively and informative session! ...

"What is Economic Nationalism?"  Some historian's notes on the present antagonisms among the great powers. Anthony D'Agostino is a diplomatic historian, emeritus of SF State University, and has written 5 books, along with many articles and reviews over the years, on the history of international politics, with attention to the Russian revolution, Soviet politics, the Gorbachev period, and the fall of the Soviet Bloc. The last book was The Rise of Global Powers: International Politics in the Era of the World Wars (Cambridge U. Press, 2012).  Anthony is currently finishing up a history book on the Era of Globalization, 1968-2025. He also has ...

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. Israel’s recent normalization of relations with several Arab states could also provide a buffer against diplomatic backlash. Domestically, political leaders both Washington and Tel Aviv may view military action as a way to ...

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, but survived. He lost both legs and now walks via prostheses. Join us for a half-century reflection on the “American War” in ...

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 ...

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 large "autonomous region" thousands of miles west of Shanghai. This was a central gateway in the times of the Silk Road and in the ...

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 fascist ideas and the power of local landlords, is also linked to extremist factions of the military. In the cities, the alt-right recruits followers from the ranks ...

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 in West Asia, and a campaigner against the criminalization of pro- Palestinian speech. He has been active in Jewish organizations throughout his life.  He was formerly a leader in J Street and other ...

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 Democracy and Peace Prize for promoting peace through her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes Region. She can be reached on Twitter @AnnGarrison and at ann(at)anngarrison(dot)com ...

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 ...

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 as their priorities, particularly in the areas of sustainable economic development, organic agriculture, health care, and education. The JHC-CDCA is supported by grassroots donations, making it uniquely flexible in responding to climate crises, ...

Professor Rasmus will connect the dots between the Trump-Zelensky minerals deal, why the US wants out of Ukraine war and NATO, why DOGE proposes $2T cuts in foreign aid & domestic US spending. Reason: US empire’s maintenance cost is no longer affordable as currently structured and US elites are in process of restructuring it to reduce the cost and to prepare for future competition with BRICS and confrontation with China. Dr. Jack Rasmus, Ph.D Political Economy, teaches economics at St. Mary’s College in California. He is the author and producer of the numerous books, including The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic ...

Sun., March 2, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm PSTLatin America Resists Trump – Deportations, Drugs, and Economic WarfareSpeaker: John Perry   The main difference between Donald Trump and his predecessors is that the current CEO of the empire better exposes naked imperialism. With an ever more aggressive and virulent projection of hegemony, the Yankees view problems such as migration and drug trafficking as simply coming from the south, ignoring some of the underlying made-in-the-USA causes. To reverse that narrative, our speaker will provide a view from the south and how resistance is building in Latin America and the Caribbean.  Nicaragua-based John ...

Sun., February 23, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm Pacific TimeUkraine War End Game?Speaker: Allan Miller and Slava Jalili Events are unfolding rapidly as we approach November 24th, the third anniversary of the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine. Our speakers, Allan Miller and Slava Jalili, will provide important background information on the war, and an analysis of these current events. Allan Miller is a member of the ICSS Program Committee. Slava Jalili is a US-based anti-Banderist Ukrainian-American with friends and family in Ukraine ...

Sun., February 16, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm PSTSyria Report-backSpeaker: Dan Kovalik Our speaker, international human rights advocate and lawyer Dan Kovalik just returned from Syria, once a beautiful country and the cradle of civilization. He visited so that we could speak out for people there who can’t speak out because they fear violent repression. Dan will report back on the current situation in light of historical developments. The new de facto government was in large part brought to power by the US and other foreign entities and does not have a mandate or right to rule. Multiculturalism has been destroyed ...

The ceasefire in Gaza after 15 months of the genocidal Israeli war upon the Palestinian people, backed, armed and funded by the major imperialist powers -- particularly the United States -- has revealed many truths, including the failure of the Israeli regime to achieve its goals and the persistence, steadfastness and strength of the Palestinian resistance. The resistance in Palestine is currently presiding over a prisoner exchange process that is also liberating a significant number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, while Israel is escalating its attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. As half a million Palestinians in Gaza ...