Join Open University of the Left on Saturday July 15 at         2:30 pm at the Lincoln Park Public Library 1150 W. Fullerton Ave. (at Damen) Chicago, free parking, Wheelchair accessible, (Red Line: Fullerton)

Dr. Anthony DiMaggio presents Does Capitalism Have a Future?

In the U.S., political-economic institutions are defined by an emerging crisis. Stagnant to weak economic growth characterizes the modern economy. Wall Street’s rise to power has meant the financialization and destabilization of the economy, along with the attendance of mass distrust of corporate America. Ecological crisis threatens corporate capitalism more than any other force. Mass distrust also extends to business dominated political institutions. And yet, despite the rising distrust of societal institutions, numerous hurdles have prevented the articulation and development of viable alternatives to the status quo. In this presentation, Dr. Anthony DiMaggio will examine sources of the growing crisis of confidence toward US institutions, and explore why a serious discussion of revolutionary politics has failed to materialize. He will discuss the major forces impeding social transformation, including the decline of public education and organized labor, which have been responsible for the deterioration of leftist politics and left public intellectualism.

Join the low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

Watch previous OUL presentations at our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft

All OUL presentations are free of charge and open to all.

June 2nd through June 4th saw the annual reconvening of the Left Forum. This years event was titled “The Resistance: Strategy, Tactics, Struggles, Solidarity, and Utopia.” The event was held at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York in New York City. This event is the largest annual gathering in North America of the US and internationalist left. Between four and five thousand persons were in attendance. The attendees represented a broad perspective of experiences including but not limited to academics, activists and intellectuals.

Open University of the Left filmed eight sessions, presented on YouTube, below.

https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft

Short URL: https://goo.gl/rrMCwP
——————-

Individual presentations:

Peggy Terry and the Original Rainbow Coalition, Jakobi Williams, Indiana University, Hy Thurman, Young Patriots Organization, Melody James, Actor, Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture, Global Women’s Strike, James Tracy, City College of San Francisco
——————

Gramsci’s Importance for the Left Today, Laura Flanders, Chair, The Laura Flanders Show, Chris Hedges, Truthdig, On Contact RT, Richard D. Wolff, Democracy at Work; Left Forum, Kate Crehan, College of Staten Island, Graduate Center, CUNY
—————————

Understanding Our Resistance, Nellie Bailey, Chair, Black Agenda Report, Anthony Montiero, Black Agenda Report, Glen Ford, Executive Editor Black Agenda Report
—————

Rethinking Revolution, Greg Albo, Chair, York University, Leo Panitch, Socialist Register, August Nimtz, University of Minnesota, David Schwartzman, Howard University, Pierre Beaudet, University of Ottawa
——————————–

J is for JUNK ECONOMICS: and it’s Worst Sin is… Three Answers, Michael Perelman, Chair, California State University, Chino, Michael Hudson, President, Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends, Bertell Ollman, NYU
—————–

The Continuing Relevance of Marx’s Capital after 150 Years, Immanuel Ness, Chair, Brooklyn College, CUNY, Abhinav Sinha, Mazdoor Bigul, Michael Hudson, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Juliet Ucelli, Marxist Education Project, Ben Becker, Party for Socialism and Liberation
——————-

The Long Depression – a critique of a book by Michael Roberts, Michael Roberts, Chair, not affiliated, Jose Tapia, Drexel University, Paul Mattick, not affiliated
———-

Join the low traffic OUL email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

This past weekend, June 2nd through June 4th saw the annual reconvening of the Left Forum. This years event was titled “The Resistance: Strategy, Tactics, Struggles, Solidarity, and Utopia.” As it has been for the past four years, the event was held again at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York in New York City. This event is billed and rightfully so, as the largest annual gathering in North America of the US and internationalist left. As in past years, somewhere between probably four and five thousand persons were in attendance. As always the attendees represented a broad perspective of experiences including but not limited to academics, activists and intellectuals.

Already posted on our YouTube channel for your consideration you will find seven separate session events plus an opening program from this years Left Forum.

https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft?&ytbChannel=OpenUnivoftheLeft

Short URL: https://goo.gl/rrMCwP

These sessions cover a broad range of topics. Of particular historic interest for many Chicagoans is a program titled “Bob Lee, Peggy Terry, and the Original Rainbow Coalition” which covers organizing efforts conducted in the late sixties through the early seventies in Chicago in Uptown, that lead to the creation of a unique multi-racial organization that was (the Original Rainbow Coalition). While it did not last, it included at the time the Black Panthers Party, the Young Lords and the Young Patriots. The militant newspaper Rising Up Angry was also a product of this radical political ferment. As has been said many times before, you can always learn things from the past.

Join the LOW traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

The YouTube video of Saturday, May 13, 2017 is now available for viewing on the YouTube channel of the Open University of the Left.

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

Join the low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

All OUL live events are free of charge and open to all.

Join Open University of the Left on Saturday May 13 at 2:30 pm at the Lincoln Park Public Library at 1150 W. Fullerton Ave. Chicago, (at Damen) free parking, Wheelchair accessible, (Red Line: Fullerton)

For much of the 20th century East Chicago, Indiana was known as Steeltown. It was a bustling city on the southern shores of Lake Michigan that boasted of being the most industrial city in the world. Now, after 40-years of globalization with the flight of capital the legacy of East Chicago’s industrial economy has left behind massive amounts of toxic and contaminated land, water, air, populations and politics. The Toxic Tour is a story of East Chicago’s existing circumstances.

Thomas Frank is an Artist/Activist working for environmental and climate justice in the Calumet region. He is committed to addressing the environmental legacy of a hundred-plus years of industrial activities on the southern shores of Lake Michigan and fighting for community focused development and a “Just Transition” to a low-carbon economy. He has served on as well as directed numerous environmental advocacy organizations including 350 Indiana, Southeast Chicago Coalition to Ban Petcoke and the Wolf Lake Initiative to name just a few.

All OUL videos can be viewed at our you tube page:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft

Join the LOW traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

All OUL programs are free of charge and open to all.

The YouTube video of Saturday, April 15, 2017 is now available for viewing on the YouTube channel of the Open University of the Left.

Join the low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

Join Open University of the Left on Saturday April 15 at 2:30 pm at the Lincoln Park Public Library 1150 W. Fullerton Ave. (at Damen) Chicago, free parking, Wheelchair accessible, (Red Line: Fullerton)

Dr. Lauren Langman presents: God, Guns, Gold and Glory

Ever since De Toqueville, the first observer of American character, traveled across early America, the nations exceptional nature was evident. A ragtag group of religiously devout Puritans voyaged to a faraway place to freely practice their religion. However, a number of factors came together between their Protestant religion, natural resources, and their relative isolation from the political conflicts of Europe such that within a few generations the colonies became relatively affluent. When we look at American character we can observe four distinctive qualities, the persistence of religion, the value of guns and male toughness, the fervent pursuit of wealth and riches, and the belief that America is an exceptional nation. These qualities led the colonies to found a nation that would become the most prosperous and powerful nation in the history of the world. Today, these same qualities undermine it’s wealth and degrade it’s power. This decline has set the stage for the ascent of Donald Trump. Nevertheless, given the consequences of it’s economic stagnation if not decline, The country is riven with a growing inequality. However, a liberalization of it’s social values as well as a new social character has been emerging that portends the possibility of a socialist economy with democratic governance and American’s living in potential harmony with each other in nature.

Lauren Langman is a professor of sociology at Loyola University. He is concerned with the relationship between culture and character. That is the relationships of identity and political attitudes, practices, and values. His latest book is the basis of the current presentation.

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

Join the low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

Now Up on YouTube, Dr. Kim Scipes, Climate Change: Understanding and then Going “Outside the Box” for a Solution

The YouTube video of Saturday, March 18, 2017 is now available for viewing on the YouTube channel of the Open University of the Left.

(or click above)

https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft

All prior video programs are viewable on our YouTube page.

Join the low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

Join Open University of the Left
Saturday, March 18. 2:30 pm
Lincoln Park Public Library, 1150 W. Fullerton Ave, Chicago
free parking, wheelchair accessible, (Red Line: Fullerton)

Dr. Kim Scipes presents:
Climate Change: Understanding and then Going “Outside the Box” for a Solution
Climate change is a real thing, caused by human beings. Humans have thrown more carbon dioxide and related chemicals into the atmosphere than at any time in the last 800,000 years. Dr. Scipes asserts that failure to significantly reduce these “greenhouse gas” will result in the beginning of extinction of humans, animals and many plants by the year 2100. He will discuss this and related issues, and will propose a plan for addressing these problems that goes far beyond any developed program to date.

Open University of the Left welcomes back Kim Scipes former Chair of the National Writers Union, UAW local #1981 and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Purdue University Northwest in Westville, Indiana. Kim is a long-time labor and social justice activist. He has been teaching an upper-division academic course on “The Environment and Social Justice” for over 10 years.

All OUL events are free of charge and open to the public.

Join the low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at:
[email protected]

Previous OUL video presentations are available for viewing on the YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft

The YouTube video of Saturday, December 17, 2016, Dr. Paul Street “The Resistance: Why Trump Triumphed and What We Can and Now Must Do”, is now available for viewing below, and also on the YouTube channel of the Open University of the Left.

All prior video programs are viewable on our YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com results?search_query=open+university+of+the+left

Join the low traffic email announcement list (yahoo group) at: http://[email protected]