Welcome to our online center for Marxist and progressive learning!
In addition to courses you can take for free in your own time, alone or with a group, we also offer live courses via video conferencing. Contact: carld717@gmail.com.
Top Video Courses
CHAVEZ EXPLAINS GRAMSCI TO THE POOR. Amazing 8-minute video with Chavez explaining crisis politics to everyone.Good discussion starter,- DOROTHY HEALEY: AN AMERICAN RED. Profile of Dorothy Healey, Communist, and labor organizer, friend of the 1960s New Left, and helped to found DSA. Video produced and directed by Eve Goldberg. About 55 minutes.
- ANGELA DAVIS AND NAS DISCUSS THE PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Good discussion starter. Nas discusses his upbringing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and the way drugs and police surveillance effected his community and personal development. Davis talks about her work in prison abolition, recollecting her then disbelief that over 200,00 people were in prison in the US when she was imprisoned in the 1970s. Today, the US prison population exceeds 2 million.
- GAR ALPEROVITZ & DAVID SCHWEICKART Two current theorists of DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM posit contrasting viewS. Alperovitz starts from the ways socialism, or at least it features, already exist within the old order. Schweickart unfolds a plan or socialism as the 'successor system' the can be added to that order in the near future. 1.25 hours
- DAVID HARVEY ON TRUMP AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. Conversation between Evgeny Morozov and David Harvey; Barcelona, Nov 14, 2016. Part of The Barcelona Initiative on Technological Sovereignty (BITS).
- JERRY HARRIS, GLOBAL CAPITALISM AND THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY. 75 minute presentation of the author's new book, with Q&A, covering the history of the interconnected development of democracy with economic systems of the centuries, and the role of democracy in anti-capitalist strategy. Excellent for study groups reading the book.
DR. PETER HUDIS: FRANTZ FANON ON RACE, RECOGNITION, AND REVOLUTION RECONSIDERED A one hour lecture on his new book, with Q&A. Good summary of Fanon- THE PRECARIAT, THE NEW YOUNG & DANGEROUS CLASS An 11 minute discussion starter. Author Guy Standing points in this interview the emergence of a new class structure that starts when neoliberals took control over the economy and politics back in the 80s and it´s consolidated with the actual global crisis. The common element of this new class is its rejection of neo-liberalism and social democracy and is becoming aware that it is a class for itself, favoring the emergence of new political forces like Podemos, SYRIZA and Left Ecology and Freedom in Italy. Guy Standing is an economist, professor at the University of London and founder / co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network.
- THE WORKING CLASS TODAY. David Harvey explain that organizing workers today might better be done by urban neighborhoods than factories. 20 minutes.
- FINANCIALIZATION AND THE WORLD ECONOMY. Jerry Epstein: Great discussion starter on the conflict between enterprise investment and speculation, and how the later is wrecking the economy. 15 minutes, Real News Network
- KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED. A new one-hour documentary from Brave New Films, narrated by Jim Hightower, that goes deep into 'Citizens United' and worse. Got for Sanders campaign discussion groups.
- DEMOCRACY, NATURAL RIGHTS & 21ST CENTURY SOCIALISM. A 20 minute video talk by Carl Davidson at the US Social Forum in Detroit. Good discussion starter.
- THE WORKING UNDERCLASS. A short video, 26 minutes, that exposes the nature of work and low wages in de-industrialized New Jersey, but typical across the U.S. Excellent as a discussion starter for campaigns around the minimum wage and/or a deeper look at capitalism today.
- SELLING CIGARETTES, BACON AND EGGS,AND WARS: Edward Bernays: Part 1 and Part 2, Cigarettes and Sufferettes, and the Selling of Wars. The nephew of Freud, Bernays invented public relations as a tool for capitalism, not only to sell its goods, but also its wars and other policies. The key the all other media studies. Less than 20 minutes. Great discussion starter on how hegemony is manufactured. Download his classic book, 'Propaganda,' HERE
- Discussion Starter: Automated Green Energy Production. This seven-minute video hightlighting Conergy, a fully automated factory producing solar cells in Germany, should open a variety of topics--the new working class, the labor theory of value, the falling rate of profit, the ability to shift to a solar-powered world, and much more.
- Carl Davidson at Berlin's Rosa Luxemburg Foundation on Mondragon's Impact
- Reading Marx's Capital Vol 2 with David Harvey: 4 90-min videos so far...
- Marxian Economics with Richard Wolff and Stephen Resnick.
Top Course Outlines and Materials
SLAVES: THE CAPITAL THAT MADE CAPITALISM. An essay by Julia Ott. Racialized chattel slaves were the capital that made capitalism. While most theories of capitalism set slavery apart, as something utterly distinct, because under slavery, workers do not labor for a wage, new historical research reveals that for centuries, a single economic system encompassed both the plantation and the factory. One article that introduces several new books.- Simone de Beauvoir’s Political Philosophy Resonates Today. Dr. Sky Cleary's essay in Aeon: 'She authored and signed the manifesto of the 343 in 1971, which paved the way for birth control and abortion in France. Her most famous work, the second sex (1949), sparked a new wave of feminism across the world. Today more than ever it’s vital to recognize that freedom can’t be assumed.'
- THE GREAT GOD TRUMP & THE WHITE WORKING CLASS. By Mike Davis. This is a skeptical interrogation of the widely-accepted belief that white working-class voters elected Trump. A careful analysis of Rust Belt counties that voted for Obama in 2012 demonstrates a strong correlation between recent plant closures and the collapse of the Clinton vote, but shows only a limited movement toward Trump. Good research data, excellent discussion starter.
- Aggrieved Whiteness: White Identity Politics and Modern American Racial Formation This article by Mike King sketches how W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of socio-psychological wages of whiteness, Paula Ioanide’s discussion of modern racial affect, and Wendy Brown’s application of ressentiment to modern political conceptions of identity can help provide a contextualized understanding of aggrieved whiteness and the challenges it poses to pursuits for genuine racial justice. Suitable for a study group on politics under Trump on its own.
- HOW SLAVERY SHAPED US CAPITALISM. 8 slide shows covering two important books, 'The Half Has Never Been Told' and 'Slavery by Another Name.' Prepared by Carl Davidson.
- THE SNCC DIGITAL GATEWAY. All sorts of materials for learning about the revolutionary youth movment that spured the 1960s
- THE HARD ROAD TO RENEWAL: Thatcherism And The Crisis Of The Left. Stuart Hall's Downloadable Book On The Political Impact Of Margaret Thatcher Has Established Him As The Most Prescient And Insightful Analyst Of Neoliberalism Through A Gramscian Lens.
- NEOLIBERALISM IS A POLITICAL PROJECT: David Harvey on what neoliberalism actually is — and why the concept matters, 15 page essay for discussion group
- INTERVIEW WITH BILL GALLEGOS. By Ellly Leary and anne Lewis in Monthly Review, the discussion gives a good account of how Marxism Merged with the Latino movement, through the experience of one of its leaders, who today is also making similar connects in Climate Change battles.
- DOMINIONISM RISING: A THEOCRATIC MOVEMENT HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT. A deep current analysis of Senator Ted Cruz, Kellyanne Conway and the movement behind them.
- POLICE VIOLENCE, CAPITAL AND NEOLIBERALISMAn excellent essay, by Gary Potter, introducing the nature of police, recent changes in the nature of policing, and the economy. Good discussion starter.
- FOR MARXISTS DOING ELECTORAL WORK, studying Poulantzas is a big help. We have a free book by him in the books section. But check out 'Calibrating the Capitalist State in the Neoliberal Era' by Colin Jenkins of the Hampton Institute to get you started.
- POLITICS & CLIMATE CHANGE. Results of an import study of the 'Six Americas' as clusters of thinking on climate change, and how they are reflected in the electorate. Key to discussion of a Green Deal Deal. Download as PDF,
- FUSION POLITICS from the Arab Spring to Moral Monday. Discussion starter by CCDS's Harry Targ.
- UNITED FRONT, POPULAR FRONT & ELECTIONS. William Z foster in this 1939 132-page booklet, 'Your Questions Answered,' gives insight of the 1930s CP on Politics, Peace, Economics, Fascism, Anti-Semitism, Race Prejudice, Religion, Trade Unionism, Americanism, Democracy, Socialism, Communism.
- ORGANIC INTELLECTUALS. Slide Show on Teaching and Organizing--Gramsci, Arizmendi and Ella Baker. By Carl Davidson.
- INSTRUMENTS FOR DOING POLITICS. A powerful new pamphlet by Marta Harnecker for studying strategy and tactics, and doing revolutionary work in non-revolutionary conditions to change the correlation of forces.
- THE LAST WHITE ELECTION. Mike Davis in New Left Review does a deep analysis of current U.S. politics. Available as a downloadable PDF,
Karl Marx's ideas are a common touchstone for many people working for change. His historical materialism, his many contributions to political economy and class analysis, all continue to serve his core values--the self-emancipation of the working class and a vision of a classless society. There are naturally many trends in Marxism that have developed over the years, and new ones are on the rise today. All of them and others who want to see this project succeed are welcome here. A PDF flyer file for spreading the word is 
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