Marxism Today
Felix Kreisel
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Prereq: Read the World Socialist Web Site at http://www.wsws.org/
We live in interesting times. The so-called "New World Order" is characterized by instability and successive crises. Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and waterboarding have become the image of America. US imperialist drive for domination is stuck in the Iraqi quagmire, old alliances shatter and re-form, advanced capitalist countries suffer economic stagnation and social polarization, the Third World reels from famine and wars, the former "socialist" states show social and cultural regression. Despite its scientific and technological progress humanity is suffering from a fatal disease - capitalism.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/fjk/Public/iap/
Contact: Felix Kreisel, x3-8625, fjk@mit.edu
90 years since the Russian Revolution
Felix Kreisel
We shall look at the Russian Revolution of 1917 within the context of the international situation in the early 20th century and world history in general. What was the outlook of the Russian revolutionaries? What did they hope to achieve? What alternative paths existed for Russia in 1917? Suggested reading: Trotsky's "History of the Russian Revolution" and "Permanent Revolution".
Tue Jan 8, 06-08:00pm, 1-132
What Was Soviet "Communism?" What Kind of Socialism Do We Need?
Felix Kreisel
We shall review the history of the Soviet state. Its 74-year life witnessed strides forward, great victories and bitter defeats, Stalin's regime's crimes against its own people, and ultimately brilliant hopes dashed. We shall examine its internal contradictions, look at the reasons for its collapse and suggest the historic lessons it teaches us. Suggested reading: Trotsky's "The Revolution Betrayed".
Tue Jan 15, 06-08:00pm, 1-132
Decline of American Capitalism and its Wars for Domination
Peter Daniels, frequent writer for wsws.org
American society is riven by unprecedented inequality, the economy is in crisis yet the Bush-Cheney camarilla threatens Iran and presents the world with the spectre of World War III. And yet this mad regime enjoys bipartisan support as Democrats continue to finance military aggression, enable the attacks on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, vote for tax breaks for the rich and cuts of any remaining social programs.
Tue Jan 22, 06-08:00pm, 1-132
Capitalist Russia Today
Vladimir Volkov, WSWS reporter, St. Petersburg, Russia
16 years after its demise, what is the balance sheet of capitalist restoration in the former Soviet Union? While high oil and gas prices have propped up the Putin regime and the energy export-oriented Russian economy, its overall health is fragile. We shall look at the trends in the economy and society, the ethnic wars and a drift to dictatorship in Russia and other successor states.
Tue Jan 29, 06-08:00pm, 1-132
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Russian Literature after the fall of Soviet Totalitarianism
Katia Kapovich
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Katia Kapovich is a well-known Russian-American poet. Her last two collections are “Gogol in Rome” (2005) and “Cossacks and Bandits” (2008).
Her poems address a coherent range of cultural, aesthetic, psychological, philosophical, social and political issues relevant to the complexities of modern life.
Suggested readings:
V. Makanin “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”
http://www.penrussia.org/makanin/makanin.htm
V. Pelevin. “Yellow Arrow” (available on Amazon and in the libraries);
“Omon Ra” http://a7sharp9.com/Omon.html
Contact: Felix Kreisel, NW21-109, x3-8625, fjk@mit.edu
Katia Kapovich
Jan 28th: Katia Kapovich will read a few of her poems and discuss poetic response to cultural and geographical displacement, alienation and marginality. What resources of strength must we rely on in a society that is ideologically and economically fluid and at times cynical and indifferent, where mass culture, institutional religion and national belonging have only weak and doubtful remedies to offer?
Mon Jan 28, 07-08:30pm, 4-251
Katia Kapovich
Jan 31st: Russian literature after 1991. Discussing several texts, Katia will raise problems of re-assessing history, gender, family, national identity, war and emigration. In general, the goal of the conversation is to deepen the participants’ understanding of the complex processes that define disintegration of a totalitarian society and literature’s liberation from the social institutions, and stereotypes shaped by it.
Thu Jan 31, 07-08:30pm, 4-251
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