Saturday, Nov. 12
12pm – 8pm
Columbia University
116th and Broadway
1 train to 116th St.
There are 400 billionaires in this country. They are the reason why there are 47 million poor people. You cannot have untold, obscene wealth unless you have untold, obscene poverty. That is the law of capitalism. The alternative—socialism—was put at the center of U.S. politics by the campaign of Bernie Sanders, confirming again what people who protest for a living wage or stand up against police racism have been saying for years: The capitalist system isn’t working, and we need an alternative. Whether or not the bigot Trump or the warmonger Clinton win the presidential election we are going to have to fight for a better world. Join the International Socialist Organization at our regional day schools to discuss and debate how we can win that world.
Registration
You can register in advance here.
Schedule
12pm: Registration, Hamilton Hall
12:30: Opening Welcome Rally, Steps/Lawn of Hamilton Hall
1pm: Session 1
Reform or Revolution: How Can We Win Socialism?
The Politics of Socialism From Below
Race, Class, and Capitalism
Marxist Economics: How Capitalism Works, and How it Doesn’t
Can the Working Class Unite – and Change the World?
Strategies and Tactics for Socialists: the United Front
3:15pm: Session 2
Imperialism and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination
Neoliberalism, Austerity and the Rise of the Far Right
What Kind of Party Do We Need?
Marxism and Women’s Liberation
The Enduring Legacy of the Russian Revolution
Capitalism, Democracy and Socialism
5pm: Intro to the ISO Pizza Dinner
6:30pm: Evening Plenary on After the Trump Election – Where Do We Go From Here?
Evening Plenary
What Next After the Clinton/Trump Election?
Suggested readings:
Lance Selfa and Alan Maass, “Is Their Party Over?”
Josh On, “The Party Platform they Won’t Stand On”
“Can You Vote for What You Want in 2016?”
Lance Selfa, The Democrats: A Critical History
Workshops
Reform or Revolution: Can Capitalism Evolve Toward Socialism?
Suggested readings:
Sharon Smith, “Can Capitalism Evolve Toward Socialism?”
Paul D’Amato, “Reform struggles and the Road to Revolution”
Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution (Haymarket books), or at Marxists.org
Why the Working Class Can Change the World
Suggested readings:
Hal Draper, “Why the working class”
Lenin, “On Strikes”
Kyle Brown, “Can the working class still change the world?”
Kim Moody, “Why the industrial working class still matters,”
Kim Moody, “The State of American Labor”
Sharon Smith, Subterranean Fire: A History of Working Class Radicalism in the United States
The Enduring Legacy of the Russian Revolution
Suggested readings:
Socialist Worker series on the Russian Revolution
Leon Trotsky, “In Defense of October”
Chris Harman, “How the Revolution was Lost”
Russia: From Workers’ State to State Capitalism
The Politics of Socialism from Below
Suggested readings:
Dan Swain, “Socialism Still Comes from Below”
Hal Draper, “The Two Souls of Socialism”
Hal Draper, “The Principal of Self-Emancipation in Marx and Engels”
Hal Draper, Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, Vol. 2: The Politics of Social Classes
Lenin: Myth and Reality
Suggested readings:
Paul Le Blanc, “Introduction to Lenin and Leninism”
Phil Gasper, “What do we mean by Leninism?
Paul D’Amato, “The Myth of Lenin’s Elitism”
Trotsky, “Stalinism and Bolshevism”
Paul Le Blanc, Unfinished Leninism
Towards a Revolutionary Socialist Party
Suggested readings:
Ahmed Shawki, “What Kind of Party Do We Need?”
Duncan Hallas, “Towards a Revolutionary Socialist Party”
Chris Harman, Party and Class
Race, Class, and Capitalism
Socialist Worker series: Socialism and Black Liberation
Ahmed Shawki, Black Liberation and Socialism
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation
Manning Marable, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America
Bailing Out the System: The Rise and Decline of Social Democracy
Suggested readings:
Carl Schorske, German Social Democracy: 1905-1917, chapter 1 (pdf available upon request)
Pierre Broué, The German Revolution, chapter two
Marcel Leibman, “Reformism Yesterday and Social Democracy Today”
Phil Gasper and Tyler Zimmer, “Socialism: You Mean Like Sweden?”
Ian Birchall, Bailing out the System
Marxism and Women’s Liberation
Suggested readings:
Sharon Smith, “Women’s liberation: The Marxist Tradition”
Sharon Smith, “Theorizing women’s Oppression”
Sharon Smith, Women and Socialism: Class, Race, and Capital (Haymarket books)
Imperialism and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination
Suggested readings:
Tom Lewis, ‘Marxism and Nationalism,’ part 1 and part 2
Phil Gasper, ‘Lenin and Bukharin on Imperialism’
Marxist Economics: How Capitalism Works, and How It Doesn’t
Suggested readings:
The Meaning of Marxism, chapter 4, ‘How Capitalism Works’
The Meaning of Marxism, chapter 5, ‘How Capitalism Fails’.
Intro to the ISO (pizza dinner)
Check back at nycsocialist.org for more information on location, registration, and further details.