Ecosocialist School 2016

Preliminary program

Module 1. Concepts in Marxism

Friday 18 November Introduction to the school

Saturday 19 November The historical materialist method
- Place of marxism in history
- Historical Materialism
- Marxist critique of political economy
Alex Merlo

Sunday 20 November Class: objective definitions, shifting contours, subjective expressions
- Class as a concept
- Historical changes in labor relations since the end of the 19th cc
- Working class today, precarity
Maral Jefroudi

Monday 21 November Feminism, Marxism and intersectionality
- Origins and different aspects of women's oppression
- The LGBT movement, homophobia and sexual identity
- Intersectionality
- Feminist struggle and its links with marxism
Nadia de Mond

Tuesday 22 November Relationship human society-nature
- Technology & productivism
- The notion of progress
- Ecosocialist answers
Marijke Colle

Wednesday 23 November Mode of (re-)production and women's oppression in capitalism
- The capitalist mode of production and the sexual division of labour
- Social reproduction
- Domestic and unpaid labour
Susan Pashkoff

Thursday 24 November
Long waves and crises
- The marxist analysis of crisis, rate of profit
- The theory of long waves
- The neoliberal answer to the crisis since the 1980's

Friday 25 November
Free day

Module 2. Deepening globalisation and its contradictions

Saturday 26 November
Imperialism, from the highest stage of capitalism to globalization
- The classic theory of imperialism
- Permanent revolution versus stageism and campism
- Imperialisms today

Sunday 27 November
Climate and food crisis
- Mechanisms of the climate crisis
- Food crisis and food sovereignty
- The role of workers, peasants, women and IP's
Marijke Colle

Monday 28 November
The Middle East today
- Socio-economic roots of the Arab uprising and dynamics of the process
- Reactionary counter-offensives and the role of the Left
- Syria and imperialist interventions

Tuesday 29 November
The role of fundamentalism
- Material roots of fundamentalism
- The political role of fundamentalism
- Fundamentalism, women and LGBTIQ

Wednesday 30 November
The anti-racist struggle
- Historical roots of racism in colonialism and imperialism
- Institutional racism and racist ideologies today
- Migration and migrant solidarity

Thursday 1 December
EU imperialism
- History of the EU as a project for the formation of an European bourgeoisie
- The contradictions in the EU leading to the current political and economic crisis
- Greece as a laboratory for the EU's crisis measures
Eric Toussaint

Friday 2 December
Free day

Module 3. Strategic questions in changing the world

Saturday 3 December
Road to power: a transitional approach
- The centrality of self-emancipation
- The role of the capitalist state and bourgeois democracy
- A transitional approach today

Sunday 4 December
China's global role: challenging the US
- The rise of China as a global power
- The changing character of China
- China on the world stage
Pierre Rousset

Monday 5 December
A balance sheet of the progressive cycle in Latin-America
- Experiences in Venezuela, Bolivia,
- Popular power and the state
- The end of a period?

Tuesday 6 December
Climate change and social transformation
- Linking climate change and social struggles
- Sustainability and democracy
- Transitional demands

Wednesday 7 December
The feminist challenge in changing society: feminizing our perspectives and our movements
- The role of the women's movement
- Centrality of women's oppression in liberation struggles
- Feminist policies in revolutionary parties
Penny Duggan

Thursday 8 December
The strategic importance of internationalism and the role of an international
- Historical aspects of the Four internationals
- World capitalism and internationalism
- The FI today

Friday 9 December Evaluation, cleaning

• 9.00-9.40: Lecture. Part 1

• 9.40-9.50: Break

• 9.50-10.30: Lecture. Part 2

• 10.30-10.40: Break

• 10.40-11:20: Lecture. Part 3

• 11.20-11.30: Break

• 11.30-12.00: Questions and answers

• 12.00-15.00: Lunch and time for individual reading

• 15.00-16.30: Discussion in language groups

• 16.30-17.10: Final discussion, starting with reports from the group. Part 1

• 17.10-17.20 Break

• 17.20-18.00 Final discussion. Part 2

• 18.00-20.30: Reading time

• 20.30: Evening meal