Past Posts by Descending Date

 The ICSS has hosted a number of Marxist intellectuals addressing imperialism and how is it manifest in the Ukraine conflict. There is a broad consensus on the left against weapons for endless war and for diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine – a conflict that risks nuclear conflagration. Progressive groups like the Peace In Ukraine Coalition (https://www.peaceinukraine.org/) oppose spending for militarism and support funds for jobs, healthcare, and housing. InPeace Talks Essential as War Rages on in Ukraine (https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/09/05/peace-talks-essential-war-rages-ukraine), Benjamin and Davies write how the US and its allies sabotaged a possible peace agreement in the early stages of the conflict and argue that one is ...
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Our speakers, Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny will discuss their book,  Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union (2004), and  their reflections since writing the book, including Gorbachev’s role in overturning socialism in the Soviet Union, why he arose, whether this was inevitable, and what lessons are to be learned.    Roger Keeran is  Professor Emeritus at Empire State School of the State University of New York (SUNY), He has been a member of the Communist Party USA for three decades and is currently a member of the advisory board of the Marxist journal Science & Society.    Joe Jamison (Thomas Kenny) is co-author with Roger Keeran ...
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Michael Roberts will analyse the latest developments in the major economies as inflation rates reach 40-year highs and economic activity heads towards stagnation or worse.  What are the causes of this and what policies are needed to end this crisis? Our speaker, Michael Roberts, worked in the City of London as an economist for over 40 years. He has closely observed the machinations of global capitalism from within the dragon’s den. At the same time, he was a political activist in the labour movement for decades. Since retiring, he has written several books.  The Great Recession – a Marxist view(2009); The Long Depression (2016); Marx 200: ...
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The AFL-CIO has since its existence been involved in taking money from the CIA and other government agencies for international operations around the world It has supported coups in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Ukraine, and attempted coups in Venezuela, Cuba. It now operates in over 60 countries without real transparency and reports to the membership of the AFL-CIO members. Most workers in the AFL-CIO do not know about this history or the fact that the AFL-CIO “Solidarity Center” gets $75 million a year from the National Endowment for Democracy which is directly from the US government. This panel of ...
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Our speaker will be Professor Gerald Horne, Moores Professor of History at the University of Houston has published dozens of books. Hear his presentation on his latest: 'The Counter-Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism', 2022, which has implications for California and Indigenous History--and the prospects for a unique form of fascism ...
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What are the motives and likely effects of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan? We will be looking at these questions in the light of the interlocking crises of the US empire, US capitalism and the US Democratic Party. We will start the discussion with short presentations by Gene Ruyle, Veterans for Peace and ICSS, Raj Sahai of ICSS, and David Ewing, Chair of the US-China Friendship Society ...
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'The canonical accounts of Lenin’s last writings accept the version that Lenin left a “testament” that included a number of negative remarks about Joseph Stalin, and that Lenin wished to remove Stalin from the position of General Secretary of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik). This version stems partly from Leon Trotsky, who embraced it eagerly in his campaign to replace Stalin as Party leader; partly from Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya; and partly from Nikita Khrushchev and the Khrushchev-era last edition of Lenin’s works, the Polnoe Sobranie Sochinenii (“Complete Collection of Writings''), or PSS.   Professor Valentin A. Sakharov of Moscow State ...
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On Feb 4, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with China's President Xi Jinping at tthe opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing  They released a 5000-word document, "Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development." This document expresses the views of two of the world's largest nuclear powers, both permanent members of the UN Security Council. As such, it merits full discussion and we are inviting a panel to lead our discussion ...
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1. Myth: Russia’s “Special Military Operation” (SMO) is an unprovoked war of conquest2. Myth: Russia miscalculated its military strategy in its invasion of Ukraine Russia is losing the war.3. Myth: the claim that Ukraine is natizified is a Russian propaganda ploy4. Myth: the world is united against the "Russian aggression" in Ukraine, Russia is isolated and growing more isolated.5. Myth: the economic sanctions against Russia are working, the Russian economy is a shambles, Putin is isolated, and the sanctions will eventually topple the "Putin regime" Instead of an hour presentation followed by a discussion, we will split the session into ...
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Even the corporate press pronounced Biden’s recent Summit of the Americas meeting in Los Angeles as a flop, while the balance between red states (and we don’t mean Republican) and blue states south of the Rio Grande is tipping to the left. Most recently, Colombia elected its first left leaning president, following similar victories in Chile, Peru, and Honduras, which in turn followed Bolivia, Argentina, and Mexico.  And the frontrunner in Brazil’s presidential contest slated for October is a leftist. Meanwhile Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela – countries led by explicitly socialist parties – remain in the crosshairs of US imperialism, suffering ...
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Our speaker, John Parker began his trip to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on April 27 as part of a fact-finding mission organized by Struggle-La Lucha newspaper in the U.S. to gather eyewitness observations and testimony of Lugansk residents. He also visited Russia, where he conducted interviews and was present at the May 9 Victory Day parade, commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany and honoring the 27 million Soviet people who died fighting fascism. John Parker was a candidate for U.S. Senate in the June 7th election. He recently returned from Russia and the Donbas region on a fact-finding ...
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Often we only see  the border from the U.S. side, despite the fact that many more people live in the border region south of the wall than north of it.  Despite the media fascination with the wall, people live their lives and organize vibrant social movements that are virtually invisible in the U.S. Yet they have a direct impact. From winter strawberries to flat panel televisions, people north of the border consume what’s produced just a few miles south of it.  This presentation, with photographs, will probe more deeply into the lives of the people of the border itself, rather than simply ...
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Roe v. Wade to be abolished? That's the intent of the pending Supreme Court decision, a draft copy of which has already been leaked to the media. This will be a human rights disaster for women. On May 11,2022  the U.S. Senate voted down the Women’s Health Protection Act 49 to 51. The WHPA would have made abortion legal, eliminating the role of the Supreme Court on the issue of abortion and nullifying the pending Supreme Court decision,  How do we fight back against this grossly undemocratic decision? We certainly can't trust the Democratic Party leadership, Speaker: Rosa Astra, an ...
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Spanning nearly the entirety of the Western left in its inadequate response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, organizations ranging from the U.S.-based Democratic Socialists of America to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) have all mistakenly branded the Russian special military operation in Ukraine as an "invasion" and the proxy war between Washington and Moscow as an "inter-imperial" conflict. American journalist and political analyst Max Parry explains how this misinterpretation only serves US-NATO imperialism, even when they claim to denounce the latter. Max Parry is an independent journalist and geopolitical analyst based in New York City. His writing has appeared widely ...
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As the imperialist warmongering by the US, NATO and the EU against Russia has recently escalated into a proxy war in Ukraine, a revolutionary party, "The Revolutionary Workers’ Party (DIP, Devrimci İşçi Partisi in Turkish), has taken an unflinching anti-imperialist stance that distinguished it from most organizations and groupings on the Left. In this session, we will discuss the role of Turkey as a NATO ally in this war, and the strategy revolutionaries in the NATO countries should take towards the war. We will talk about Turkey’s involvement not only in Ukraine as a NATO country but also its involvement ...
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The left in India is woefully silent on this movement and has not even summarized the significance of the movement, let alone learn anything from it. The left in US today remains fairly unconcerned about the enduring farm crisis in the country. But should it remain aloof from it? Is there a problem with the “center-of-attention” of the left worldwide? Has it got side-tracked into politics of disinformation and politics of diversion? Has it become more or less a side-show for liberalism? Is it getting so caught up with electoral politics that it is failing to set a new agenda ...
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