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Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library (And Related Events During the Week)

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Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library (And Related Events During the Week) [;’;[u7- SUNDAY MORNING AT THE MARXIST LIBRARY (AND RELATED EVENTS DURING THE WEEK) At NPML, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA 94609 Info contact Gene Ruyle: Ph: 510-332-3865 Email: [email protected] Sun, Oct 15, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library Moderator: Raj Sahai • Sharat G. Lin: Centennial Legacies of the Russian Revolution: Triumphs, Flaws, and Alternatives By Sharat G. Lin ABSTRACT: The Russian Revolution remains arguably the single most important event of the past century, casting its legacy on every revolutionary social experiment on the planet, carrying lessons for the struggle for the survival of the revolution, creating an alternative advanced socio-economic model to capitalism, providing an umbrella for national liberation movements to throw off colonialism, shaping the balance of forces to the present day, and setting a pattern of democratic centralism. Each and every one of these aspects had its triumphs and its flaws. Sharat G. Lin, PhD is a research fellow at the San José Peace and Justice Center and an advisor to the Initiative for Equality. He writes and lectures on global political economy, labor migration, the Middle East, South Asia, and public health. Related article: Sharat G. Lin, "On the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution: Why Socialism Did Not Fail", Monthly Review, 29 October 2007 https://mronline.org/2007/10/29/on-the-ninetieth-anniversary-of-the-russian- revolution-why-socialism-did-not-fail/ • Gerald Smith: Art and the Russian Revolution ABSTRACT: The Russian Revolution led to a burst of artistic creativity. Gerald Smith, a member of the Creative Lens Collective, will discuss various aspects of this revolutionary period in artistic history. Sun, Oct 22, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library Moderator: Lew Finzel • Guillermo Herrera: The Status of Minority Nations within the USSR ABSTRACT: The status of national minorities within the constituent republics of the USSR is a standard of human rights as compared to "Jim Crow" USA and British Empire. In 3 parts: 1) The Russian Empire; 2) The Stalin era (1927 to 1953); 3) The post-Stalin era (1954 to 1991) • Anthony D'Agostino: WWII as the Triumph of the Russian Revolution. ABSTRACT: Forthcoming Sun, Oct 29, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library Moderator: Lew Finzel • Richard Becker: The Bolsheviks in Power: Three Indispensable Tasks ABSTRACT: Following the seizure of power, the Bolsheviks were confronted with three immense and immediate tasks: building the new Red Army to defend the Soviet republic against a war of annihilation by the imperialist countries and domestic counter-revolutionaries; addressing a deep economic crisis and widespread hunger; and, reorganizing the left-wing of the world working class movement on a revolutionary basis through the Communist International. How did the Revolution survive against seemingly overwhelming odds? • A Marxist-Humanist Perspective: Lenin and Russian Revolution, especially "what happens after?" ABSTRACT: One hundred years ago Russian workers and peasant masses shook the world as they overthrew the Tsar's regime and established a new order. What can today's movement, searching for revolutionary new beginnings in the face of the totality of the present crisis, learn from that history? Weighing heavily on today's mind is how events unfolded in the Russian Revolution and revolutions since. Indeed, the question, "What happens after the conquest of power?", preoccupied Lenin as he struggled to realize his vision of a new society, in which he sought to bring everyone "to a man, woman and child" into running the state and society. Let's examine the uniqueness and limits of Lenin's philosophic preparation for revolution and especially Lenin's struggles after the revolution from the 1920-21 Trade Union Debate to his 1922-23 Testament. Sun, Nov 5, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library Moderator: Raj Sahai • Lew Finzel & Urszula Wislanka: China Mieville’s “October:” Book Review in Two Parts ABSTRACT: “October is still ground zero for arguments about fundamental radical social change. Its degradation was not a given, was not written in any stars.” —China Mieville, October. Science fiction writer, China Mieville, has just published October (Verso Press: London, New York, 2017), a story of the 1917 Russian Revolution from February to October. Unusually, October does not make the revolution a background for an adventure or love story. The revolution itself, contradictory as it was, is the main character of the book. As with any look at history, the point is not to re-live the past, but to see what can we learn from it. What do we learn from 1917 for today? Lew Finzel will introduce China Mieville as a science fiction/fantasy writer. Urszula Wislanka will take up several of the contradictions and ask where we stand on those questions now. Sun, Nov 12, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Russian Revolution Centennial: Moderator: Lew Finzel • Gary Hicks: The Comintern and the US and South Africa ABSTRACT: I am going to try and express some ideas about how we might look at the role of the Comintern in the building of the CPs of of the US and South Africa in the 1920s. This activity consisted of a decade of organizing, discourse, polemic on the part of a most international cadre of West Indian, South African, Soviet, Finnish, British, and North American comrades, participating in various commissions, organizations congresses, conferences • Raj Sahai: Dawn of a New Era: The Russian Revolution and the World ABSTRACT: The presentation will argue that: The February and October 1917 Russian Revolutions together heralded a new era for humanity, not just for the multi-ethnic peoples of the Russian empire. It ended monarchy as an institution governing society all over the world, which end was heralded in the French Revolution of 1789 but which remained incomplete. It began the end of colonial ownership of the world’s countries in Asia and Africa by the rich handful of European countries. It made the masses as active agents: makers of history on a global scale. It ushered in the era of liberation…the world will never be same again…Socialism is the future of the world despite the present reaction personified by Trumpism. (117 words) Raj Sahai is a Socialist & Anti-Imperialist War Activist, and a member of ICSS. Wed or Thu, Nov 15 or 16, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm China and thes Russian Revolution: Maoist Perspectives Our comrade, Sui Hin Lee, is bringing a delegation of young Chinese activists in a tour of the United States. They will discuss their views, mostly Maoist, of the Russian Revolution and its Centennial. Sui Hin Lee will translate. Sun, Nov 19, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Russian Revolution Centennial: Round Table with all speakers. Sun, Nov 26, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Open – TBA (THANKSGIVING WEEKEND) Sun, Dec 3, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Open – TBA Sun, Dec 10, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Open – TBA Sun, Dec 17, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Open – TBA Sun, Dec 24, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Open – TBA (HOLIDAY BREAK) Sun, Dec 31, 2017: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Open – TBA (HOLIDAY BREAK) Sun, Jan 7, 2018: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Open – TBA Sun, Jan 14, 2018: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacifism and Christopher Caudwell On this 72nd anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, ICSS member Gary Hicks will discuss pacifism and the work of British Marxist writer, thinker and poet, Christopher Caudwell (1907-37). Caudwell, a member of the British Communist Party, was killed in the Battle of Jarama Valley in the anti-fascist struggle against Franco in Spain. His major works, including Studies in a Dying Culture, were published posthumously. Still hoped for in 2017: North Korea: The Land of the Soft Spoken Women Mehmet Bayram made his bucket list come true when he visited the mysterious land of North Korea. His visit coincided with the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, an event not held since 1980. He will share his experience and photographs during the time he was in the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea. Daily lives, human faces, personal interactions with North Koreans will be the topic of the presentation. Exploitation and the Social Metabolism of Class Societies (POSTPONE UNTIL LATER) This will be a continuation of a previous talk, “Labor and Human Social Metabolism: An Anthropological Perspective” (Sunday, November 16, 2014). Our global ecological crisis has created an increasing interest in Marx’s ecology. To appreciate fully how capitalism creates a metabolic rift with nature, it is important to examine the human metabolic relation with nature in general and theoretical terms. ICSS researcher Eugene E Ruyle will explore the implications of Marx’s insight that labor is “the universal condition for the metabolic interaction between man and nature, the everlasting nature-imposed condition of human existence, and it is therefore independent of every form of that existence, or rather it is common to all forms of society in which human beings live.” (Capital, Vol I, Penguin Ed., p. 291) Gene’s talk is based on two recent papers, which can be downloaded at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3oe0oi2orn0hvqj/Labor-Metabolism.pdf?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9oblgcs2ibgh3c/Exploitation-Class.pdf?dl=0l;o .
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