Past Posts by Descending Date

Join us for what will be an excellent panel discussion with: Gloria La Riva - ANSWER Coalition Message from Pablo Menendez - North American musician and bandleader resident in Cuba since 1966 Cheryl LaBash - co-chair of the National Network on Cuba Sun, aUGUST 22, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific Resources: ...

THE STRUGGLE FOR IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY -  THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (AND THE MEDIA): The Case of Purdue University Harry Targ, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, Purdue University, Blogger at Diary of a Heartland Radical, co-chair of CCDS, and author of books and articles on international relations, Cuba, and the labor movement. Sunday, august 15, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific time The attacks on “critical race theory” are part of an assault by sectors of the capitalist class who seek to shape who and what is taught in educational systems. This talk will address ideological struggles, the ...

The imperative need to develop a Leninist United Front to combat the menace of Fascist and White Supremacist attacks in today’s US Sunday, August 8, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific time Speaker: Elazar Friedman The presentation will use two models as diagnostic tools. 1.) The Ernst Meyer led KPD’s model of United WC Front and the lessons of abandoning this powerful model in the third period and then zig zagging to class collaborationist coalition People’s Fronts-betraying Proletarian class independence 2.) The 1984 United Front like action at SF Pier 80 led by Howard Keylor Longshore of the Trotskyist ...

Sunday, July 25, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific What Is the Crisis of Soviet History of the Stalin Period, and What Should We Do About It? Professor Grover Furr The history of the first workers’ state, the USSR, during its heroic period, when it was led by Joseph Stalin – that history is withheld from us. It is somothered by lies from influential, dishonest sources. In my talk, I will discuss the following topics: How do we know this is so? What is the situation? Who are the liars? How important is this? And most important: What should ...

Secretary Blinken has recently asserted that conflict in the South China Sea (SCS) between the Philippines and China could justify US war against China, due to a mutual defense treaty. This pronouncement comes as the US rallies its allies to form a bloc against China, escalates economic war, and heightens rhetoric against China. This presentation will explain: Why the SCS--and the Phillipines--are critical to US global geostrategy The SCS arbitral tribunal decision that the US claims as justification for Phillipine claims The history & context of the current cold war against China How the war would unfold Sunday, July 18, 2021: ...

ICSS group discussion: the communist manifesto Sunday, July 11, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific  We will go through this foundational work of Marxism reading selective paragraphs  with ample opportunity for discussion after each selection. Be prepared to voice, and defend, your views!    Our discussion will be led by ICSS member Gene Ruyle. In preparation, please re-read the Manifesto itself, and if there are particular passages you want the group to consider, please send the full text of those passages to <cuylerluyle@mac.com> by Saturday morning so they can be included—and bring your own copy to our Zoom meeting (available on the Marx-Engels Internet ...

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ICSS 20210627 Norman Finkelstein on Gaza, Palestine & Israel in the shifting sands of US & World Politics  Sun, june 27, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific Israel has become increasingly militarily stronger ever since its founding in 1948 approved by the UN Commission. It's founding was opposed by the Palestinians, Arab countries, India and many other countries. The US, Britain, France, and the USSR had supported the founding of Israel, though the USSR had initially supported a secular state with both the Palestinians and Jews as having equal rights. Palestinians have since split between the secular PLO which ...

Sun, June 20, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific time Working on documentary film “Déjà vu”, the team of Bedabrata Pain, Sristy Agrawal, Rajashik Tarafder & Rumela Gangopadhyay, took a 10,000 km journey through the heart of rural America. They met farmers across the spectrum covering dairy, grain, poultry, beef and hog along the mid-western agricultural states. They found out why rural people supported Trump. A surprised discovery was that the American farm landscape, like India’s, is dominated by small farmers. They make up 90% of all farms, but produce only 25% by prices of products and that farmer ...

ICSS 20210613 The communist party and the United auto workers union - Roger Keeran Sun, June 13, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific At the urging of union organizers today, International Publishers recently republished The Communist Party and the Auto Workers Unions, by Roger Keeran, a book originally published in 1980 and long out of print.  The author will discuss the circumstances around the book's original publication, the significance of the struggles it describes, and its relevance for our times.Resources: https://www.intpubnyc.com/product/the-communist-party-and-the-auto-workers-union/ ...

Israel/Palestine: A Historical Perspective from a Palestinian Communist What were the main motives behind the Balfour Declaration, imperialism's November 1917 commitment to carve up Palestine? What was Lenin and the Comintern's position on Zionism and partition of Palestine? Why did Soviet leaders support US imperialism in creating the Israeli state? Why did they arrange to arm Zionist bands, crucial to their 1948 victory? This is the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune. Why do so few in the workers' movement know about the Beirut Commune of 1976, and how its defeat contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union? These ...

Israel, A Beachhead in the Middle East From European Colony to US Power Projection Platform Stephen Gowans is an independent political analyst whose principal interest is in who influences formulation of foreign policy in the United States. His writings, which appear on his What’s Left blog, have been reproduced widely in online and print media in many languages and have been cited in academic journals and other scholarly works. He is the author of two acclaimed books Washington’s Long War on Syria (2017) and Patriots Traitors and Empires, The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom (2018), both published by Baraka ...

ICSS20210523 The Significance of the Alabama Amazon Union Struggle: Building Solidarity in a Time of Transformation for the Working Class Judy Greenspan, a member of Workers World Party and the San Francisco Bay Area local organizing committee to support Alabama Amazon workers Our discussion of this important topic will be led by Judy Greenspan, a member of the Peace and Freedom Party, the Bay Area Chapter of Workers World Party, and the San Francisco Bay Area local organizing committee to support Alabama Amazon workers.Resources: Recommended background reading: WWP message on May Day 2020 is Organize! By Larry Holmeshttps://www.workers.org/2020/05/48257/ ...

ICSS 20210516 Biden’s Foreign Policy – Hope or Horror? Sun., May 16, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm PDT Biden bellicosely proclaimed, “American is back,” in his major foreign policy priorities speech, reaffirming the bipartisan consensus of regime change, forever wars, and the NATO alliance. Republican neo-cons now shelter in the Democrat’s big tent, today’s party of war. Regardless of  the changing of the guard in Washington, the Biden’s policies will follow his predecessor, but will more effectively target official enemies such as Venezuela and Iran and will double down on Russia and China. The US empire is the main ...

ICSS 20210509 Theory of Revolution - Mehmet Bayram Sun, May 9, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific The recent events call us to revisit Historical Materialism to understand what is happening.  The COVID-19 Pandemic, the re-emergence of the cold-war racing towards a real war, the Minneapolis murders by the police, the US police force becoming the third largest army in the world, the Amazon workers’ organizing efforts, the struggle of the health care workers, the Indian Farmers’ Strike, the failure of the world capitalist system to deal with a simple and preventable disease, and to allow millions of people ...

ICSS 20210502 Socialism: Scientific and Utopian - Eugene E Ruyle Sun, May  2, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific  Just as Darwin discovered the law of motion of biological evolution, so Marx and Engels discovered the law of motion of human history and with it, placed the science of human society on a firm, working class basis. In 1880, Engels published Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, explaining how socialism had been transformed from a utopia into a science. This science was further developed by Lenin who led the world historic October Revolution and is continuing to develop in other world historic revolutions ...