[PEN-L:3798] NY Marxist School Summer Intensive

[Bill Koehnlein <nyms1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

The Brecht Forum

The New York Marxist School
122 West 27 Street, 10 floor
New York, New York 10001
(212) 242-4201
(212) 741-4563 (fax)
nyms1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (e-mail)


Beyond the 1996 Elections: Marxist Prospects

The New York Marxist School's
Eighteenth Annual Summer Intensive Study of Marxism

Monday, July 8 to Friday, July 19, 1996
all sessions are from 6:30 to 9:30 pm (except July 13)


In this election year, the presidential aspirants and the
media find it increasingly difficult to conceal or to
account for the contradictions of our current reality.
Swirling around the campaign rhetoric are the graver
undertones of a United States in decline.

By stirring up the issues cooking in the electoral stew,
this summer's Intensive Study of Marxism aims to supply
the analytic tools for a critical, yet realistic,
approach to the problems of the day, and also to develop
a Marxist perspective on prospects for tomorrow--ways to
move beyond racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, and
attacks on labor and poor and working people. The
Intensive will seek to imagine a truly global vision of
the prospects for socialism.

Discussions and presentations include:


Monday, July 8--The State of the Union: Introductions,
Opening Discussion, and Pot Luck Supper (Randy Martin and
Sheila Thimba)

Tuesday, July 9--The Electoral Mystique: Ideology and the
Media (Ellen Braune); The media's portrayal of the
elections proves that their sustained attention to an
issue does not necessarily provide for a deeper
understanding. Quite the contrary. By closely
scrutinizing the media's coverage of campaign issues--
both concealed and revealed--we will gain a clearer
understanding of how dominant ideology operates, and how
we can demystify and combat it.

Wednesday, July 10 and Thursday, July 11--The Regime of
Capital: Jobs and Other Insecurities (David Harvey); From
free trade to downsizing, debt to wage polarization, the
abuses of capital's unbridled reign are difficult to deny
but equally vexing to grasp comprehensively. Marx was
adept at following capital's travails. These two sessions
will connect the dots of capital's machinations and show
what Marx's _Capital_ has to say about the world today.

Friday, July 12--Science, Technology, and the Future of
Work (Sam Anderson and Eli Messinger); Science and
technology are typically taken as the harbingers of
progress. But they can also be the handmaidens of
domination, particularly when jobs of all sorts are
being eliminated and menialized in the name of
"re-engineering," which in the parlance of today's
capitalism is a polite term for increasing profits.

Saturday, July 13--Globalization and Imperialism (Harry
Magdoff); In the midst of an all-day picnic at Harry and
B.D. Magdoff's summer home at Lake Mohegan, we will break
for some lively discussions on imperialism and global
capital.

Monday, July 15--Criminalizing the Other: Racism,
Xenophobia, and Ghettoization (Randy Martin and Yusuf
Nuruddin); Hardpressed to explain society's systematic
woes, crime and "illegal" immigration continue to serve
as national policy obsessions, while conveniently
treating the prosecution and incarceration of those most
displaced by "The Market" as an answer to a generalized
sense of insecurity. Creating this enemy within justifies
the limitless build-up of the repressive capacities of
the state and makes a more constructive response across
lines of race and nationality unthinkable.

Tuesday, July 16--The Political Economy of Identity:
Sexism and Homophobia (speakers TBA); In the U.S.
electoral arena, politics of "identity" are generally
equated with "special interests" rather than with
struggles for basic human rights. Questions of sexism and
homophobia take on a different cast viewed from a
perspective that includes globalization, political
economy, and the multiple forms of domination that
underpin a swiftly polarizing society.

Wednesday, July 17--U.S. Capitalism and Working Class
Formation (Steve Brier); The history of labor struggles
bequeaths a legacy of what can be won and lost that helps
us imagine what is possible. It allows us to see that
things can always turn out differently, even in the face
of enormous opposition. At the same time, these battles
have made the working class what it is and what it can
be. In this, the prospects for socialism itself can be
found, in the society that laboring minds and bodies have
made.

Thursday, July 18--Stories of Radical Culture (Annette
Rubinstein); Part of how we appreciate our pasts, our
diverse present, and the prospects for the future lies in
how well we tell the story. If the media works with
certain colors and techniques, radical culture paints
with a different palette. In the literature and popular
arts of the radical movements in this country, we can
find ways not only for saying what commonly goes unsaid,
but for seeing glimpses of a different world that
typically goes unseen.

Friday, July 19--Values: Against Whom? For What? (panel
discussion and evaluation)


This is the eighteenth annual Summer Intensive Study of
Marxism offered by The Brecht Forum's New York Marxist
School. The School is a tool for activists who want to
participate in conceiving and building a new society that
puts human needs first. We believe that this requires
activists with a deeper and more systematized knowledge
of the social world and its evolution, with the ability
to develop and organize ideas and define clear goals in
the struggle for a democratic and participatory society,
a socialist society.

The Summer Intensive draws participants from a wide range
of backgrounds and experiences. We start from the premise
that everyone is able to think and to have and understand
ideas. This may seem obvious, but it is important to
affirm this in a society that separates those who should
think from those who should produce. By so doing, this
separation sends both clear and hidden messages that the
capacity for thinking and expressing ideas is a privilege
reserved for the dominant minorities.


Tuition for the Summer Intensive is $95. Partial
scholarships are available. Single sessions are $10.

To register, please fill out the form below and mail it
to:

The Brecht Forum
122 West 27 Street, 10 floor
New York, New York 10001-6281

Make checks payable to The Brecht Forum.

Visa or MasterCard is also accepted. Include full account
information and expiration date. Credit card registration
can be made by mail or by fax or e-mail to:

FAX: (212) 741-4563
E-MAIL: nyms1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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