Readings, discussion questions, and outlines from general meeting discussions
We could spend hours talking about Venezuela, so we outlined the relevant points in order of importance. We’ll talk about as many as time permits. The US is already at war with Venzuela In war, the objective is to kill as many people as possible to force the enemy to submit. Before storming an area, […]
Readings: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/opinion/nocera-greed-and-the-wright-brothers.html?_r=0 http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/12/sewing_machine_patent_wars_of_the_1850s_what_they_tell_us_about_the_patent.single.html http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/31/local/me-hall31 https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/julyaugust-2013/estates-of-mind/ Capitalism is an economic system where the owner of capital is entitled to all profits derived from its use. We don’t often think of ideas as capital, but ideas become capital in the form of patents. Capitalists argue that patents are absolutely necessary. Without the ability to profit off of […]
Readings: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/11/log-off-facebook-twitter-social-media-addiction https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/12/log-off-social-media-twitter-organizing-facebook https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/12/dear-lobsters-there-is-a-better-way Today, we heard from the Mutual Aid Working Group about their efforts to build community trust by meeting people where they are at. Mutual Aid WG doesn’t just say they care about public education; they demonstrate it by organizing supply drives. By proving they earnestly care about their community, they […]
Readings: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/06/how-amazon-helped-kill-a-seattle-tax-on-business/562736/ https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/10/being-held-hostage-by-rich-people https://www.npr.org/2018/06/13/619444956/seattle-repeals-tax-on-big-business-after-opposition-from-amazon-starbucks The capital strike is so powerful that it’s rare that we actually get to see it in action. Normally, the threat of a capital strike is enough to stop progressive movements dead in their tracks. A capital strike occurs when owners of large companies threaten to move their businesses elsewhere […]
Readings: https://socialistproject.ca/2017/10/b1496/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/01/05/costa-rica-celebrate-70-years-no-army/977107001/ Costa Rican Socialism: Universal public healthcare system (“Caja”) The military has been abolished The police are kept to a minimum About 7,500 officers for the entire country For comparison: Chicago has over 11,000, MKE has about 6,800 Universal public education, k-college/trade school If you graduate from trade school, the government offers […]
Readings: https://blogs.findlaw.com/supreme_court/2015/10/13-worst-supreme-court-decisions-of-all-time.html https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/06/waiting-for-scotus/ https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/10/court-packing-is-necessary There has rightly been enormous outcry over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. He was been credibly accused of sexual assault and lied about it repeatedly under oath. His right wing views will allow conservatives on the bench to inflict incredible suffering on ordinary people, unchecked for decades. While […]
Readings: http://peoplespolicyproject.org/2017/09/12/who-was-in-poverty-in-2016/ http://www.demos.org/blog/12/2/15/why-education-does-not-fix-poverty Today’s topic is on poverty. Poverty is actually an extremely simple issue. In the reading for today, this was shown very compellingly in graphs. If you have a smartphone handy, you can take a look. First, nearly half of all Americans had no income whatsoever. This might seem to be impossible–how can […]
Readings: https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2017/09/08/models-for-worker-codetermination-in-europe/ https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/08/some-illuminating-reactions-to-elizabeth-warrens-worker-rights-plan This topic had been on the schedule for today for some time, and, coincidentally Elizabeth Warren released a codetermination bill last week. Codetermination laws are very common in the developed world. A corporation is a creation of law; there’s nothing special or sacred about any of it. For example, American corporate law specifies […]
Readings: http://www.mainelobsterfestival.com/blog/2016/09/02/maines-rules-keep-lobster-industry-sustainable/ Only the section “Management of the Maine Lobster Fishery”: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19425120.2014.984086 https://www.pressherald.com/2011/08/14/so-you-want-to-be-a-lobsterman_2011-08-14/ Our topic today is lobster fishing in Maine. Fundamentally, socialism is about democracy and workers being in control of their own working conditions. Small businesses give workers control over their own working conditions because they are both the worker and the owner […]
Readings: https://www.vox.com/2014/6/27/5845484/prisons-are-terrible-and-there-is-finally-a-way-to-get-rid-of-them https://www.ttbook.org/interview/norways-unusual-approach-imprisonment https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/mass-incarceration-war-on-drugs/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/the-leader-of-the-unfree-world/374348/ Today’s topic is prison abolition Prisons are totally inhumane, full of terror, assault, sexual assault, and even murder. They are torture. We believe in universal human rights, and it is barbaric for us to put anyone in prison. Our first reading for today argued that our technology is sufficiently advanced […]