The Marxist School of Sacramento
Classes and Discussions
Winter-Spring 2012
Our classes are held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays (as shown) at the SMUD Customer Service Center, 6301 “S” St. 7-9pm
This is on S Street just west of 65th. Handicapped parking right in front of the building. Plenty of additional parking immediately across S Street. The 65th Street light rail station is just on the other side of 65th.
You must sign in with the Security Guard before going to the discussion. The guard can direct you to whatever room we are in for the evening. (They have it under “Marxist School.”)
Tuesday, January 10. Use Value vs Exchange Value as written by philosopher Istvan Mezaros. István Mészáros (born 1930) is a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Sussex. He can be linked to the so-called "Budapest school", a group of Hungarian philosophers who were taught or influenced by Georg Lukacs, including Ágnes Heller and György Márkus. He left his native Hungary in 1956 after the Soviet invasion and worked for a time in Turin, Italy before settling in the UK.
Mike Monasky will lead the discussion. You can read the article, The Only Viable Economy, at
http://monthlyreview.org/2007/04/01/the-only-viable-economy .
Tuesday, January 24. The Health Care Crisis in the United States. Join a discussion on health care crisis, with an article by David Singer in the February, 2008 Monthly Review. David Singer is a New York-based psychologist. He also has a master’s degree in economics and teaches sociology. Mike Monasky will lead the discussion. You can read the article, The Health Care Crisis in the United States, at http://monthlyreview.org/2008/02/01/the-health-care-crisis-in-the-united-states .
Tuesday, February 14, 2012. An Ecological Discussion: Capitalism and the Accumulation of Catastrophe, by John Bellamy Foster, from Monthly Review, December, 2011. Bellamy Foster is the editor of the Monthly Review, an environmental sociologist, and teaches at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Ellen Schwartz will lead the discussion. The article is available at
http://monthlyreview.org/2011/12/01/capitalism-and-the-accumulation-of-catastrophe
Tuesday, February 28. Another Ecological Discussion: Capitalism vs the Climate, by Naomi Klein, in the November 2011 Nation. Naomi Klein is a journalist, syndicated columnist, a fellow at The Nation Institute and author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Roy Dahlberg will lead the discussion. Read the article at: http://www.thenation.com/article/164497/capitalism-vs-climate?page=0,0
Tuesday, March 13. How can Social Security support an influx of retirees while lowering the retirement age? Read and discuss economist Richard Wolff's review of the book by Dean Baker & Alan Weisbrot, Social Security: the Phony Crisis. The discussion will be led by Ellen Schwartz. Wolff's book review and another article on Social Security are available at http://monthlyreview.org/2000/12/01/saving-social-security and
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/wolff151010.html
Tuesday, March 27. The Global Reserve Army of Labor and the New Imperialism. Our conversation will cover the global nature of Capitalism, based on an article in the November, 2011, Monthly Review written by: John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon; Robert W. McChesney, Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; R. Jamil Jonna, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Oregon. Ellen Schwartz will lead the discussion. Read the article at
http://monthlyreview.org/2011/11/01/the-global-reserve-army-of-labor-and-the-new-imperialism
Tuesday, April 10 and Tuesday, April 24. Reading the Grundrisse. We will read the Introduction to the Grundrisse, pages 81-111 of the published version. Read it online at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch01.htm#4
As a supplement, you may read these articles, written for a symposium organized by Science & Society: http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1521/siso.2011.75.1.38http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1521/siso.2011.75.1.42
http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1521/siso.2011.75.1.42
Tuesday, May 8. The Democratic Fraud and the Universalist Alternative, from the October, 2011, Monthly Review. Samir Amin is an Egyptian economist living in Dakar, Senegal. He mentions five growing and destructive monopolies: technology, supported by military expenditures of the dominant nations; control over global finances and a strong position in the hierarchy of current account balances; access to natural resources; international communication and the media, and; military means of mass destruction. Seth Sandronsky will lead the discussion. Read the article at
http://monthlyreview.org/2011/10/01/the-democratic-fraud-and-the-universalist-alternative .
Tuesday, May 22, The Fall of the Rate of Profit. Although the Ohio Players sang about the Love Roller Coaster in 1976, it could apply to the current business cycles in Capitalism. Marx's idea that the rate of profit tended to fall was (and still is) controversial. Join us in a discussion about how Capitalism is doomed to overproduce and create its own demise on a regular basis. Mike Monasky will lead the discussion. Read the article, "The Fall of the Rate of Profit," at
http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdf/10.1521/siso.2011.75.1.74
(we may provide other readings later).
(Please email us if you have trouble accessing any of the discussion materials.)
All events at the Marxist School of Sacramento are free and open to the public. We rely entirely on voluntary donations to pay for our room rentals, copying, and mailing costs. Donations to The Marxist School of Sacramento are tax-deductible.
Checks may be made to The Marxist School of Sacramento and mailed to P.O. Box 160564, Sacramento, CA 95816, or donate on this site using PayPal..