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IAP 2009 Activities by Sponsor

Felix Kreisel

Marxism Today
Felix Kreisel
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

The so-called post-communist "New World Order", dominated by the US, has now erupted into a global recession, and the United States is at the center of this economic and political conflagration. Collapse of the Soviet Union has exacerbated the rivalries between the advanced capitalist countries and the US is trying to reverse its long-term economic decline through frenetic military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Web: http://wsws.org
Contact: 1-134, x3-8625, fjk@mit.ed

World Depression Made in America
Bill van Auken, WSWS editor
XX century was "American century" in the sense that the US was a dominant economic power, it underpinned world capitalism, stabilized and reinforced it. Today, the US acts as the most destabilizing element in the world economy as world capitalism has reached a crucial turning point. Read: wsws.org
Tue Jan 6, 06-08:00pm, 1-135

Capitalist Russia Today
Vladimir Volkov, WSWS reporter, St. Petersburg, Russia
17 years after Soviet 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 13, 06-08:00pm, 1-134

From Tzar to Lenin - 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. How did the revolution come about? What was the outlook and the program of the Bolsheviks? What alternative paths existed for Russia in 1917? Suggested reading: Trotsky's "History of the Russian Revolution" and "Permanent Revolution".
Tue Jan 20, 06-08:00pm, 1-134

Stalinism vs. Socialism
Felix Kreisel
We shall review the history of the Soviet state over its 74-year lifetime, examine its internal contradictions, its strides forward, great victories and bitter defeats, Stalin's regime's crimes against its own people, and ultimately brilliant hopes dashed. We will look at the reasons for the collapse of the USSR and suggest the historic lessons it left us. Suggested reading: Trotsky's "The Revolution Betrayed".
Tue Jan 27, 06-08:00pm, 1-134


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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Last update: 30 September 2004