24th annual Marxist Intensive Study July11-14

Dear WSN members, some of you may be interested in this.
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date forwarded:         Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:15:15 -0400
From:                   "Liz Roberts" <lroberts@brechtforum.org>
To:                     <reminders@brechtforum.org>
Subject:                24th annual Marxist Intensive Study July11-14
Date sent:              Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:29:54 -0400
Forwarded by:           reminders@www.brechtforum.org


Upcoming 4 Day Marxist Intensive
@ The Brecht Forum
122 West 27th St. 10th Fl.
NYC (Betw. 6th & 7th Aves.)
1,9,N,R to 28th St.
F to 23rd
St., PATH to 23rd St, C/E to 23rd St.
212.242.4201
info@brechtforum.
www.brechtforum.org


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The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point
is to change it."
Karl Marx, from the Theses on Feuerbach.

That the world is in need of change is itself not a Marxist discovery.
Injustice and oppression, usually by the few over the many, have
historically combined to ensure the emergence of a perspective rooted in the
vision of a better, more just world.
Indeed, the violent social dislocations that accompanied the triumph of
capitalism over feudal tradition in Europe produced many theories and
movements seeking a way to a better world. From its 15th century beginnings,
capitalism has spread to become a global system of wealth generation.

Yet, at the beginning of the 21st century, more than two billion inhabitants
of the planet exist on less than $2 per day, while the assets of the three
wealthiest capitalists in the world surpasses the GDP of the 48 poorest
nations. Capitalism has enmeshed the world's population in relationships of
extreme exploitation and degradation, and has managed this state of affairs
through wars, the threat of war, even to the point of nuclear annihilation.

So, what are our dreams of a better world? If another world is possible, how
shall we achieve it? What do we need to know about this world if we want to
create a different one? These are the kind of questions that prompted Karl
Marx and Fredrick Engels to undertake their pathbreaking study of capitalist
society. They began their work from a very down-to-earth investigation of
“real individuals, their activity and the material conditions under which
they live, both those which they find already existing and those produced by
their activity.”

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many activists equate the defeat of
that attempt at socialism with the inadequacy of marxism as a theory of
sustainable revolutionary change. We think that they are missing out on
invaluable tools for understanding today’s world and how we can change it.
Participants in this 4-day Intensive will explore ways that marxism can help
us to grapple with the roots and branches of today’s problems and the
grounds for a political response that can confront the interdependence of
capital with racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia.


WHAT:
A 4-DAY INTENSIVE STUDY OF MARXISM that will explore marxism, how it can
help us understand today's world, and how understanding our reality can help
us to change it.
With today's global economy as our starting point, we will examine some of
the ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels as well as the contributions of
some of the more recent theorists of social change and the strategies of
current movements for social change.

WHEN:
July 11-14, 2002, from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm
Registration: Thursday, July 11th at 8:30 am (Preregistration is advised.)

WHERE:
At the Brecht Forum's New York Marxist School, 122 West 27th Street, New
York City.

HOW MUCH:
Sliding scale: $75-$125 for the 4-day seminar.Limited scholarships
available.

FOR OUT-OF-TOWNERS:
If you are planning to attend from out of town and need a place to stay,
please let us know as we have a very limited ability to place you in
someone's home in the New York City area for the four days of the intensive.
As this kind of housing is scarce, we will post a list of low-cost lodgings
and hostels on our website. To insure low-cost housing it is important to
make your reservations early.
For more information and program updates: Check our website at
www.brechtforum.org or call, (212) 242-4201.


TEACHERS & ORGANIZERS
Carlos R. Alicea Negrón is an Environmental Science Planner for the South
Bronx Clean Air Coalition and a teacher of Advanced Spanish at the
Alternative Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School.

Steve Brier is Associate Provost for Instructional Technology and External
Programs and co-director of the New Media Lab at the CUNY Graduate Center.
He is also a founder of the American Social History Project, and co-author
of Who Built America?

Horace Campbell, who teaches at Syracuse University, is chairperson of the
International Caucus of the Black Radical Congress and author of The
Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation: Lessons from Zimbabwe.

Sangeeta Kamat teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is
the author of Development Hegemony: NGOs and the State in India.

Nan Rubin, has been involved with community broadcasting, technology
planning, policy analysis and media advocacy for more than twenty years. She
is currently organizing a national gathering of media and technology
activists to plan strategies for new local and international policy
initiatives relative to the Information Society.

Annette T. Rubinstein, a member of the Brecht Forum Advisory Board, is the
author of American Literature: Root and Flower and The Great Tradition in
English Literature from Shakespeare to Shaw.

Neil Smith teaches anthropology and geography at the Center for Place,
Culture and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author of The
New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City.

Brenda Stokely serves as chair of the New York Labor Party and is president
of DC1701/ AFSCME .
Bill Tabb teaches economics at Queens College. He is a member of the Brecht
Forum’s Advisory Board and author of, among other books, The Amoral
Elephant: Globalization and the Struggle for Social Justice in the
Twenty-First Century.

Lincoln Van Sluytman, Education Coordinator at the Brecht Forum, has been a
political activist for more than 25 years. While always an internationalist,
his main area of work has been the Caribbean and especially Guyana. He has
been a member of the Committee of Conference, and the Executive Committee of
the Working People's Alliance since 1990.
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