Join Open University of the Left on Saturday August 17 at 2:30 pm at the Lincoln Park Public Library 1150 W. Fullerton Ave. Chicago (cross street Sheffield), free parking, wheelchair accessible (Red Line: Fullerton, Bus route: 74 Fullerton)

As the U.S. becomes further embroiled in a combination of spy hunt and witch hunt targeting alleged Russian activity a crisis rivaling if not exceeding the depths of the McCarthy period sees a new Cold War between the two nations that is worsening by the day.

The expanding accusations of being “Russian assets” or “agents” against prominent American elected or appointed officials, scholars, former and current presidential candidates and others is occurring as two key missile-control treaties have been scrapped with the remaining ones in real danger of meeting the same fate.

The current situation has been described by Russian Studies scholar Stephen Cohen as being more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis. The title of his most recent book is War with Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate. This is a title well worth reflecting on as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty expired earlier this month and the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), anti-ballistic missile treaty and even the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty may follow suit.

Rick Rozoff has been an anti-war analyst and activist for fifty years. Ran the Stop NATO website and published over 200 articles on international affairs there.
Has appeared regularly on TV and radio programs in the U.S. and abroad, including RT, Press TV, the BBC and Sputnik.
His articles have appeared in several world politics anthologies in the U.S. and Russia.
In 2012 he participated in the only debate held ahead of a NATO summit, that in Chicago in 2012:

https://youtu.be/OSJXkIOr7Sc

All OUL programs are free of charge and open to all

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This past weekend, June 28th through June 30th saw the reconvening of the annual Left Forum. This year the event was held at a new venue, Long Island University Brooklyn (LIU) and St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. Left Forum has been billed as the largest annual gathering in North America of the U.S. and International Left. This years event was titled What Is Left To Be Done? an excellent question given the dystopian reality the world finds itself presently in. Left Forum was founded in 1981 and was originally called the Socialist Scholars Conference. In brief, Left Forum brings together intellectuals, academics and activist whose purpose is, among other things, to share their perspectives, experiences, strategies and visions.

These video’s are but a small sample but represent a broad perspective of current left political thought.

What follows for your consideration are seven sessions conducted at the conference out of a total of 160 scheduled events. These programs have been uploaded to the Open University of the Left YouTube channel.

Anti-Capitalism in the 21st Century, Kimberly Westcott, Kali Akuno, Malaika Jabali, Kate Griffiths, Dr. Richard D. Wolff:

Three Marxist Takes On Climate Change, Dr. Michael Hudson, Dr. David Harvey, Dr. Bertell Ollman:

Double Jeopardy: Crisis in Economic Life and in Relationships in the U.S. Today, Dr. Richard D. Wolff, Kimberly Westcott, Dr. Harriet Fraad, Robert K. Drinan:

The End of the “End of History”: The Left Alternative to Conservative Liberalism. The Failure of Fukuyama’s Forecast, Dr. David Harvey, Dr. Michael Hudson, Dr. David M. Kotz, Dr. Alexander Buzgalin:

Dismantling the U.S. Empire’s Fake News: Lessons from the book “American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror.” Danny Haiphong, Margaret Kimberly, Dan Kovalik, Glen Ford:

Black Liberation Strategies in the Empire of Exceptionalism, Host: Black Agenda Report, Margaret Kimberly, Raymond Nat Turner, Danny Haiphong, Nellie Hester Bailey, Glen Ford, Kali Akuno:

Lenin: His Work’s Pertinence Here and Now, Dr. Richard D. Wolff, Chris Hedges, Laura Flanders, Kali Akuno:

All prior video programs are viewable on our YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft

Visit our Yahoo group for info on upcoming and archived events:
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To join the low traffic list (Yahoo group) send an email to [email protected]

Our Facebook page is located at:
https://www.facebook.com/Open.University.of.the.Left/

All prior video programs are viewable on our YouTube page.

Visit our Yahoo group for info on upcoming and archived events:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/oulchicago/conversations/messages
To join the low traffic announcements list (Yahoo group) send an email to [email protected]

Our Facebook page is located at:

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The Following Alternate Location Has Been Scheduled For This Event:

Join Open University of the Left on Saturday June 22 at 2:30 pm at the Logan Square Branch of the Chicago Public Library 3030 W. Fullerton Ave. (cross street: Sacramento) Chicago, free parking, wheelchair accessible (Bus Route: 74 Fullerton, Blue Line: Logan Square)

Jerry Harris presents: “The Future of Globalization: Neo-Fascism or the Green New Deal”

Political upheavals are surging through global capitalism. Rocked by the severe economic crisis of 2008, the veil of legitimacy has been ripped away as growing inequalities and social contradictions are now visible to everyone. Globalism, achieved hegemony throughout the world in the 1980’s, but the ruling class consensus began to split with the Asian crisis of 1998 and now has been ripped apart. For the transnational capitalist class there are three possible roads forward: 1) continued stagnation with small neo-Keynesian adjustments to neo-liberal dogma; 2) greater authoritarian rule with nationalist rhetoric and policies, mixed with accumulation strategies based in global militarization and the security state; 3) green capitalism and accumulation based in the fourth industrial revolution. This presentation will concentrate on the stark choices of neo-fascism or the Green New Deal essential to understanding the coming 2020 election.

Jerry Harris is the Organizational Secretary of the Global Studies Association of North America

All prior OUL video programs are viewable on our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft/

Visit our Yahoo group for info on upcoming and archived events:
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To join the low traffic list (Yahoo group) send an email to [email protected]

Our Facebook page is located at:
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All Open University of the Left events are free of charge and open to all.

Now Up on YouTube, Danny Postel and Dr. William Mazzarella, “Populism, Trumpism and the Left”

The YouTube video of Saturday, May 25, 2019, is now available for viewing on the YouTube channel of the Open University of the Left.
https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft

All prior video programs are viewable on our YouTube page.

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The following alternate location is scheduled for this event.

Join Open University of the Left on Saturday May 25 at 2:30 pm at the Logan Square Branch of the Chicago Public Library 3030 W. Fullerton Ave. (cross street: Sacramento) Chicago, free parking, wheelchair accessible (Bus Route: 74 Fullerton, Blue Line: Logan Square)

Danny Postel and Dr. William Mazzarella presents: “Populism, Trumpism and the Left”

Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, Modi, Erdogan, Salvini, Duerte, Sisi, how should we make sense of this surge of authoritarian populism across the globe? What are the forces driving this phenomena? Is it more about economic conditions or racial anxieties– or some combination? What does the rise of populist parties and leaders mean for democracy, and for progressive movements in the US and globally? What is needed to combat it? Is “left populism” the solution, as a recent Jacobin essay asked? Or, is populism a decidedly right-wing force at this point, its left-wing history irretrievably lost? What role do emotions play in populist politics? Can we build an effective politics that is not effective?

William Mazzarella and Danny Postel will explore these and other questions in dialogue.

William Mazzarella is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Danny Postel is Assistant Director of the Middle East and North African Studies Program at Northwestern University and Visiting Lecturer in the International Studies Program at University of Illinois Chicago.

All prior OUL video programs are viewable on our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft/

Visit our Yahoo group for info on upcoming and archived events:
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To join the low traffic list (Yahoo group) send an email to [email protected]

Our Facebook page is located at:
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All Open University of the Left events are free of charge and open to all.

Now Up on YouTube: Hugh Iglarsh and Charlotte Adelman — “Barack Obama’s Great Tower of Nothing: Gentrification on a Presidential Level”

The YouTube video of Saturday, April 20, 2019 is now available for viewing on the YouTube channel of the Open University of the Left.                                                        https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft/

Visit our Yahoo group for info on upcoming and archived events:                                                                                https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/oulchicago/conversations/messages
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The Following Alternate Location Has Been Scheduled for this Event:

Join Open University of the Left on Saturday April 20 at 2:30 pm at the Logan Square Branch of the Chicago Public Library 3030 W. Fullerton Ave (cross street: Sacramento). Chicago, free parking, wheelchair accessible (Bus route:74 Fullerton, Blue Line: Logan Square)

Here’s a riddle: What kind of “presidential library” is empty of both documents and artifacts, but chock-full of clout and basic humbug? Answer: The proposed Obama Presidential Center, a billionaire-funded, city subsidized boondoggle that, if built, will pave over a major chunk of Jackson Park and set a dangerous precedent for future lakefront “development” and privatization of the commons. Chicago based writer and critic Hugh Iglarsh examines the non-library from a left perspective, focusing on the major players (gentrification!) and concluding that it’s an all-too-fitting monument to the Obama presidency and the larger neoliberal project. Iglarsh will be joined by Charlotte Adelman, chief plaintiff of the ongoing federal lawsuit against the OPC, who will discuss the prospects of the battle to prevent the de-greening of historic Jackson Park.

Original article URL:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/02/barack-obamas-great-tower-of-nothing-gentrification-on-a-presidential-level/
Short URL: https://is.gd/RIBqwe

All prior OUL video programs are viewable on our YouTube channel:
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Visit our Yahoo group for info on upcoming and previous events:
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Our Facebook page is located at:
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All OUL events are free of charge and open to all.

The Following Alternate Location Has Been Scheduled For This OUL Event:

Join Open University of the Left on Saturday March 23 at 2:30 pm at the Logan Square Branch of the Chicago Public Library 3030 W. Fullerton Ave. Chicago, (Cross Street Sacramento) free parking, wheelchair accessible (Bus route: 74 Fullerton, Blue Line: Logan Square)

The nation is already descending into yet another preposterous, precisely time-staggered quadrennial major party big money candidate-centered electoral extravaganza—one that could very well re-elect an aspiring fascist leader to the imperial presidency. It is an apt moment to reflect on the all-too-rarely noted problem that the United States is authoritarian by constitutional design. U.S. politics and policy are poisoned beyond all democratic recognition by an explicitly anti-egalitarian charter drafted and passed by 18th Century slaveholders and merchant capitalists for whom popular sovereignty was the ultimate nightmare. Street will discuss how U.S. politics and policy are badly distorted by the nation’s exceptionally durable charter and how we might finally and productively stop playing “Simon Says” with militant anti-democrats like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

Paul Street is an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, teacher, journalist, historian, author and speaker
based in Iowa City Iowa and Chicago, Illinois. He has authored seven books to date and essays and commentaries have appeared in a wide variety of media venues such as CounterPunch, Truthdig, Black Agenda Report, the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and CNN to name only a few.

View our past video programs on our YouTube channel:
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Our Facebook page is located at:
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Join the OUL low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) by sending an email to: [email protected]

All OUL programs are free of charge and open to all

The YouTube video of Saturday December 15, 2018 is now available for viewing on the YouTube channel of the Open University of the Left.

This, and prior video programs are viewable on our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft

Our Facebook page is located at:
https://www.facebook.com/Open.University.of.the.Left

Join the OUL low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) by sending an email to: [email protected]