Age of monsters, age of slayers: the late stage of Capitalism

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July 19 - Slaying imperialism

For those who seek to explain and stop Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, the bloody civil war we are witnessing in Sudan, the 'meat-grinder' war  in Ukraine that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, the US/Israeli war on Iran that killed more than 160 children on its very first day and the brazen attacks on Venezuela and Cuba, Marxist theory of imperialism is an indispensable tool. In this first session, we will apply the Marxist toolkit developed by Lenin, Bukharin and Luxemburg to the world around us today. We will discuss how the classical Marxist theory of imperialism stands the test of time as global capitalism rapidly sinks into inter-imperialist rivalry, AI-driven militarization, and the imminent threat of a large-scale war. Join us to equip yourself with the revolutionary ideas needed to slay the horrors of imperialism and to get rid of capitalism.

 

Suggested readings

• Bukharin, Imperialism and World Economy
• Lenin, Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism
• Fighting oppression: the Comintern and the US Communist Party 
• Imperialism today 

Zoom link

 

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July 26 - Slayers of Fascism

 

Suggested readings

• Trotsky’s United Front 
• Aimé Césaire - Discourse on Colonialism
• Hannah Arendt - The Origins of Totalitarianism
• Leon Trotsky -  Fascism: What it is and how to fight it
• Learn about the history and politics of fascism 
• "We are the counter-revolution": Tommy Robinson and the remaking of British fascism

Zoom link

 

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Aug 9 – Trumpist monsters of late capitalism

In late capitalism, the line between actual fascism and the increasing authoritarianism required to maintain the system has become increasingly difficult to locate. As the political centre collapses, the right continues to reinvent itself to pull that centre in its direction, creating oxygen for the far right and fascism. Those opposed to far-right hate now struggle with how to define where the line falls between the right of the electoral spectrum that does not yet target a complete destruction of democratic and progressive institutions, and the forces that do, which must be shut down at all costs. 

Some have called it “alt-right” some have called it “fascisation”.  From Trump to Poilievre, from Modi in India to Marine Le Pen in France: where does the line fall? Is it now a moving target? The answers have implications for how we organize.

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Aug 23 – Monstrous capitalist conspiracy theories

• Great Replacement theory: from the fringes to the mainstream by Judith Orr
• A Marxist History of Conspiracy Theories talk by Richard Donnelly

Register here for the zoom link

 

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Aug 30 – The capitalist war on science

Trump has launched unprecedented attacks on science and academic institutions, terminating or freezing over 7,000 research grants and firing over 25,000 scientists and researchers from government positions. Many were targeted purely because their proposals contained keywords offensive to the government’s far-right ideology, regardless of whether they were even studying social disparities. Medical science was also slashed under anti-vaccine conspiracist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Is this assault really unique to Trump? From 2007-2014 similar tactics abounded under the Harper government, who ended large swaths of funding and muzzled scientists from discussing their research. Under Carney, too, funding is shifting away from areas like climate change and sustainability, and towards militarism, resource extraction, and private-sector technologies. 

Since the Industrial Revolution science has been shackled to capitalism’s demands for ever-increasing production—resulting in innovation but also a narrowing of inquiry to subjects likely to yield profits. What could science look like if freed from these bonds? And how do we fight both far-right anti-intellectualism and the entrenched bourgeois system?

Suggested readings

• Explaining Trump’s anti-science moves By Undercover Scientist
• Who Owns Knowledge? - Science Under Capitalism and Socialism  by Alice Malone
• Defunding Science, Stifling Dissent: Lessons from Aotearoa By Max Soar and Courtney Addison
• Engels and natural science by Paul McGarr

Register here for the zoom link

 

 

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Sept 13 – Can the planet still be saved?

Climate disasters are increasingly impacting people worldwide. Wildfires, heat domes, droughts, famines, floods and extreme storms are more common and deadly: they drive increasing movement of people seeking relief from increasingly unbearable conditions. Melting glaciers are undermining major river systems and causing sea level rises that threaten low lying island nations and coastal cities worldwide. These conditions are worse for people in the global south and Indigenous people everywhere who are least responsible for the climate crisis. But they are threatening people everywhere.
The ecological crisis being driven by industrial, mining and agricultural pollution, as well as the expansion of urban land, is driving the sixth mass extinction in earth's history. 
Even as these interlinked environmental crises become more and more clear, business and political leaders are the monsters who are accelerating the practices that are driving them. These monsters have made sure that UN climate and biodiversity conferences fail.
How can we stop the assault on life as we know it on earth?
Is it too late for the slayers alliance of the revolutionary working class and Indigenous land defenders to turn the tide? 

 

Suggested readings

 

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Sept 27 – Gravediggers of the capitalist apocalypse

New time: 4pm edt | 3pm cdt | 1pm pdt

The revolutionary socialist Antonio Gramsci wrote in the 1920-30s from inside a fascist jail about late capitalism and how to challenge it. He described late capitalism as a twilight time when “morbid symptoms appear.” This didn’t mean that capitalism would collapse on its own, but that it was showing the signs of worsening crises.

Recently, the quote has been widely picked up and slightly misquoted as: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” The misquote seems to fit our current times well. In the early 20th century capitalism was still a very new economic and political system, held up as the ultimate achievement of human potential. But it faced almost immediate uprisings against its fundamental inequities. 

Gramsci’s observation that the system had already well outlived its promise and was showing signs of a death-struggle has struck a nerve today. The rulers of capitalism have always been monstrous, but the impacts of the system have become increasingly deathly, not only for the worlds’ poor and oppressed, but for our species and the planet. However, the key part of the Gramsci misquote is: “the new world struggles to be born.” What new world is possible and what kind of struggle makes it possible? Who are the slayers of capitalist monsters, and who can be the final gravediggers of capitalism?

The morbid capitalist system has produced a way out, because it relies on the collective labour of the vast majority to continue. But activating that power relies on how the vast majority comes to understand how to overthrow capitalism ourselves, in our own name.

Suggested readings

Do Gramsci’s ideas make good sense? - by Jude Mckechnie

How workers can become revolutionary - By Camilla Royle

Tackling our rulers’ ideas makes good sense 

Do we need revolutionary leadership? - By Judy Cox

No Gods. No Masters. And no leaders? - by Tomáš Tengely-Evans,

 

Zoom  link 

 

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