Past Posts by Descending Date

Sun, Jan. 24, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm The US Capitol Building Riot and Its Blowback: The Only Thing Scarier than QAnon Is the Reaction to It The right-wing riot at the US Capitol on January 6 was a spectacle, complete with Confederate flags and a QAnon shaman in red-white-and-blue face paint. Some half of the active electorate sympathized with the belief that the 2020 presidential election was a steal. The other half of the active electorate was abhorrent, speaking with semi-religious reverence about the desecration of sacred institutions. The true blue had suspected that the Russians stole the ...
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Sun, Jan 17, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm The Farmer’s Movement in India Present protests of farmers have grown with tens of thousands in opposition to the three farm laws government of India passed in the parliament where the ruling BJP has majority, taking advantage of the Covid pandemic lockdown period which restricted the movements and thus also protests. These 3 laws have the purpose of denying fair prices to farmers, to the advantage of big (capitalist) privately owned corporations both Indian and foreign. They will be allowed to take over agricultural land, to hoard agricultural produce and sell them ...
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Sun, Jan 10, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Michael Roberts, The Story of the Year of the COVID: But What Now for 2021? 2020 will go down in history - a worldwide pandemic from a previously unknown virus deadly to humans, killing millions or leaving them with permanent health problems; forcing lockdowns across the world that destroyed the world economy in the worst slump in the history of capitalism; and driving millions globally into poverty and loss of livelihood. Where did all this come from? Can capitalism come out of this unscarred? With vaccines on the way is the ...
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ICSS 20200913 Sun, Sep 27, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Labor and Immigration David Bacon will talk about the struggles of farmworkers on the West Coast to organize, and the way it's affected by their work lives and status as immigrants. He'll include photographs and a description of his documentary work process. Our speaker, David Bacon is a photojournalist, author, political activist, and union organizer who has focused on labor issues, particularly those related to immigrant labor. He has written several books and numerous articles on the subject. Bacon's parents were strong supporter of unionism and his early interest ...
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ICSS20200906 Group Discussion: Before and After November 2020 There are increasing concerns as to what will happen before, during, and after our November election so this is an opportunity to express our concerns. Our group discussion will be introduced by Gene Ruyle and other ICSS members with ample opportunity for discussion. Be prepared to voice, and defend, your views  For background, we will post a list of recommended sources in early September, for example in Democracy Now, the New York Times, and elsewhere ss they develop. ICSS member Sharon Rose will moderate. Resources: Session resources ...
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ICSS 20200830  The Past and future of US policing.  By: Tony Platt Sun, Aug 30, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pmThe past and future of U.S. policingNoted historian and criminologist Tony Platt will share his long research and insights into the carceral state known as the USA. Tony Platt has been involved since the 1960s in issues relating to criminal justice, race, inequality, and social justice in American history. He taught at the University of Chicago, Berkeley, and California state universities. He is currently a Distinguished Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law & Society in Berkeley’s Law School. A founding ...
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ICSS 20200823 Sun, Aug 23, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Drastically Cutting the Military Budget Why Is It Not a Campaign Issue? Hunger and homelessness stalk the poor. Jobs lost in the pandemic and the resulting economic collapse may not come back or will be even lower wage than before. Public education and transportation along with protecting the environment are on the chopping block, while the billionaires are raking in money. Our cities and states are economically strapped. Yet, elected officials have no idea how to run them without raising local taxes, laying off workers, or slashing benefits. Meanwhile ...
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ICSS 20200816 Sun, Aug 16, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Coronavirus: Scientific Realities vs. Economic Fallacies We are pleased that Georgi Marinov, Stanford postdoc in Genetics, , has accepted our invitation to speak about his recent article in LEFTEAST on this subject. Georgi Marinov, a post-doc researcher in Genetics at Stanford, has written one of the most prescient, widely-read, and important articles written from a Left perspective on COVID-19 pandemic and what we need to do to address it. Dr. Marinov describes the virus and the difficulties of knowing whether people will develop lasting immunity to it, and of developing ...
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ICSS 20200809 Sun, Aug 9, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm7 75th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombing  By: Raj Sahai Two Atomic bombs dropped three days apart August 6 and August 9, 1945, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities, changed the trajectory of the world. To the US citizens, it was portrayed by the US government and the Mass Media as necessary to end WWII with a country that had started it by a surprise attack on the US Naval Base in Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, bringing a reluctant US into ...
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ICSS 20200802 Sun, Aug 2, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Cuba: This is what medical internationalism looks like!. Please join us for what will be an illuminating conversation on contemporary Cuba's medical Internationalist work. Featured speakers will include Abraham Vela MD (a 2016 graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba) and Gail Walker (director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace). The event will be moderated by longtime Cuba solidarity activist Tony Ryan. Hold the date and please help in spreading the word!. Resources: ...
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ICSS 20200726  Sun, Jul 26, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Socialism, Communism, Democracy, and Dictatorship: A Scientific Perspective. Too many leftists and socialists remain wedded to bourgeois ideology and therefore cannot understand the world we live in, much less change it. ICSS Member Eugene Ruyle will clarify issues such as the nature of scientific socialism, the class nature of the state, the distinction between bourgeois and proletarian democracy, and role of the dictatorship of the proletariat in transition from capitalism to communism. Come prepared to ask questions, challenge the speaker, and defend your own views..Resources: ...
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ICSS 20200719 Sun, Jul 19, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Group Discussion: What Is Neoliberalism? Our group discussion will be introduced and led by ICSS member Alan Miller. Gene Ruyle has suggested the following as interesting supplemental reading: “The Tale of the Dueling Economists.” (Keynes vs Hayek) By Nancy F. Koehn, NY Times, Oct. 22, 2011: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/business/keynes-hayek-views-origins-of-an-economics-debate-review.html. Come prepared to discuss and defend your views!Resources:  “The Tale of the Dueling Economists.” (Keynes vs Hayek) By Nancy F. Koehn, NY Times, Oct. 22, 2011: “The Tale of the Dueling Economists.” (Keynes vs Hayek) By Nancy F. Koehn, NY Times, Oct ...
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ICSS 20200712 Sun, Jul 12, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Covid-19 and the crisis of neoliberalism - Basudev Nag Choudhary The COVID-19 disease caused by the novel corona virus has turned into a global pandemic with almost 5.5 million people confirmedly infected and over 3.5 hundred thousand deaths around more than a hundred countries. Irrespective of the fact whether the virus is a bio-weapon or naturally mutated, our aim is to show how it has impacted upon the global capitalist economy. Contrary to what is being campaigned from the mainstream institutions, it will be shown that the capitalist economy already ...
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