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Challenges to Social Transformation

– A series of discussions on today’s freedom struggles

Session 2: Monday, May 10, at 6:30 pm (CST):

Honduras, Immigration, and the Decline of the U.S. Empire

What explains the rising number of Central American refugees seeking asylum in the U.S., how is the Biden administration responding, and what does it tell us about the crisis facing U.S. capitalism? What explains the power of the anti-immigrant, racist Right before and after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, and what can reverse it?

Opening the discussion: Hector Salazar, Chicago activist

Suggested readings: Sonia Nazario, “​‘Someone is Always Trying to Kill You’: The U.S. Cannot Erect a Wall and Expect Women to Resign Themselves to Being Slaughtered​,” and Justin Akers Chacón, “A Path to Nowhere.”

Session 3: Monday, May 31, at 6:30 pm (CST):

Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism Versus Counter-Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism

What does it mean to engage in anti-imperialist and decolonial politics today? Why do some on the Left confuse anti-imperialism with supporting reactionary regimes in such places as Syria, China, or Latin America, and what are its consequences?

Opening the discussion: Ali Reza, Iranian Marxist-Humanist

Suggested readings: Jasmin Mujanovic, “The Balkan Roots of the Far Right’s ‘Great Replacement’ Theory,” “Erasing People through Disinformation: Syria and the ‘Anti-Imperialism’ of Fools,” and Jonathan Ellis & Brian Bean, “Rebuilding the anti-Imperialist Movement in a New Era”

Session 4: Monday, June 21, at 6:30 pm (CST):

The Debate Over Mutual Aid: Revolutionary Solidarity or “Social Work?

Is mutual aid, which has become integral today’s anti-racist movements, inseparable from abolishing police, militarism and capitalism, or is to a form of “social work” that does not challenge the state and capital?

Opening the discussion: Rehmah Sufi

Suggested readings: Alyssa Adamson, “Mutual Aid Beyond the Welfare State from a Decolonial Perspective”: and Gus Breslauer, “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Liberalism?”

Session 5: Monday, July 12, at 6:30 pm (CST):

Rojava: A Progress Report

The liberated zone of Rojava in northern Syria was hailed by many in recent years as a unique expression of grassroots democracy and self-determination. How is this experiment injected social transformation now faring?

Opening the discussion: Kristopher Gardner

Sponsored by the International Marxist-Humanist Organization

Email: [email protected]