Report Live From Socialism2017 Conference In Chicago

In this episode, we provide an analysis of current domestic and international news events from a left perspective. Items for this week's focus may include, what's happening in Venezuela, the crisis between United States and North Korea, and the White supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

Under the storm clouds of P45, Attorney General Jeff Session and other rich white men in the Administration are attacking the human rights of people of color, immigrants and women. It’s time for socialists to rebuild a broad mass social movement not only to defend the basic human rights but also for social transformation. 

In this episode, we discuss the Leap Manifesto, a document written by "60 representatives from Canada’s Indigenous rights, social and food justice, environmental, faith-based and labour movements." We discuss how and where the manisfesto reflects the objectives of modern socialism and why we should support and build on this manisfesto. 

Carl, the co-host of Socialist Visions will be attending the Socialism2017 conference taking place July 6-9. I'll be talking to Carl on Friday about the workshops attended, the people he's connected with, and what's some the dominate issues being discused. We all can't be at the conference, but it's great to have my co-host there to provide some first hand feedback. Feel free to call in with your quesitons. 347-857-1319

If you want to get a clear current example of how capitalism works, simply follow the reporting about the Trump family and property holdings and investiments. Property ownership is at the art of capitalism. Capitalist know that people need a place to live. They know people will pay almost any price for shelter. So like fictional vampires, capitalist prey on people who depend on some form of housing. In this epsiode, we'll discuss the current reporting on property holdings and situate it within the capitalist economic system. We'll discuss also how it could be different under a socialist ecomony. 

There's so much going on with the neo-facisit WH admistratation that we want to devote a show to talking about what should be learned from the election of Trump, the state democracy in this country, and how capitalsim is a motivating factor in where we are and are headed. We haven't done a show in two weeks so there's much to talk about. Hope you can tune in. 347-857-1319 

In this episode we speak with Brian Bean, a writer and activist for SoicalistWorker.org, about this summer's Socialist 2017 conference in Chicago. The conference will feature noted speakers and performers including actor John Cusack, Democracy Now host, Amy Goodman, Keeanga-Yamahatta Taylor, author of #BLM to Black Liberation, Palesine solidarity acitvist, Rami Kanazi, and many more. We'll be asking about the some of the planned topics and debates of conference  and the hidden history of working-class and socialist struggles.   

In this episode we disucss the popular myths about Marxism and why Marx was right. We'll use Terry Eagleton's Why Marx Was Right, a very readable book about the critical and most criticized concepts and theories of Karl Marx and socialism. Some of the myths include that Marxism is a form of determinism, that Marxism reduces everything to economics, that Marx was a solely a materialist, that class is outdated, that Marist advocate violent political action, and that Marxism advocates an all power state. 

This is episode will focus on the John Bellemy Foster's article, "Neofacism in the White House", published in the April 2017 editon of Monthly Review. Charting the rise of neofascism in this country is crucial to understanding and responding to the futher undermining of democratic institutions, the rise and consolidation of oligarchy, and how the market system of capitalism influences the neofacist direction. 

As a follow-up to the international March for Science day, we discuss why the development of modern socialism must have at its core the use of the scientific methodology and wide range democratic decision making in order to make for a true revolution in how we manage resources and govern our lives beyond capitalism. We'll examine why the traditional models of bourgeois capitalism and democracy are not serving the needs of most of the people on the planet. Feel free call in: 347-857-1319