Calendar

The dramatic shift in the Trump led U.S. foreign policies, as seen recently in the bombing in Iran, has created enormous confusion and consternation within establishment centers of power. These changes are manifested in the abandonment of both the liberal international order constructed under U.S. hegemony after the Second World War and the long-term strategy of NATO enlargement and proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. Imposition of high tariffs and shifting military priorities have put the United States in conflict with even its long-term allies, while the New Cold War on China and the Global South is accelerating.

Guest Speaker: John Bellamy Foster is a professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of the Monthly Review. He writes about political economy of capitalism and economic crisis, ecology and ecological crisis, and Marxist theory.  Among his published works: The Vulnerable Planet: A Short Economic History of the Environment; Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature.[8][9] His reinterpretation of Marx on ecology introduced the concept of “metabolic rift” and was widely influential; another is Ecology Against Capitalism, which focused on the critique of capitalist economics from the standpoint of the environment. His 2006 book Naked Imperialism, along with frequent editorials in the pages of Monthly Review, attempted to account for the growing U.S. military role in the world and the shift toward a more visible, aggressive global projection.

Critique of Intelligent Design, Foster’s book co-authored with Brett Clark and Richard York, is a continuation of his research on materialist philosophy and the relationship between ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and Karl Marx. Drawing on his ecological work, particularly Marx’s Ecology, Foster defends historical materialism as fundamental to a rational, scientific worldview, against proponents of intelligent design and other non-materialist ideologies. Also in his 2020 book The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology (2020), John showed how socialist analysts and materialist scientists in Britain, the United States, from William Morris and Friedrich Engels to Joseph Needham, Rachel Carson, and Stephen Jay Gould, sought to develop a dialectical naturalism, rooted in a critique of capitalism.

FOR  OUR FULL SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING PROGRAMS,

AS WELL AS PAST PROGRAMS, GO TO ICSSMARX.ORG

NOTE: Our past programs have been recorded, and placed on YouTube. For a listing of our past programs, see the “IcssmMarxist” channel on YouTube, and at icssmarx.org.

Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.  All are welcome!

For our July, 2025 meeting we will be reading the first two sections (approximately 115 pages) of Stellar, A World Beyond Limits and How to Get There (Amazon), (Goodreads) For our August meeting, we will finish the book.

A bold re-examination of the past, present, and future of humanity, Stellar challenges conventional thinking and offers a vision of hope and optimism – a necessary antidote to the fear and despair that define our times.

Stellar uncovers the root causes of today’s biggest challenges, from war and economic instability to inequality and environmental collapse. It reveals why solutions to these issues are little more than band-aids, why our political and economic structures are failing, and how to unlock humanity’s full potential.

Stellar reimagines what’s possible – a world that gives rather than takes from both people and planet. A Stellar World where today’s pressing issues simply dissolve, where humanity can thrive, free from fear, scarcity, and despair.

This book will transform how you see the world, and your place in it.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included (in chronological order) Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth,  Revenge Capitalism, the Edge of Chaos blog symposium , Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, The Optimist’s Telescope, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything  A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Beyond Money, Less is More,  Cannibal Capitalism,  Debt, the First 5000 Years , Poverty, By America, End Times, Jackson Rising Redux , The Feminist Subversion of the Economy, How Infrastructure Works, Inside the Systems that Shape our World, Wealth Supremacy, The Persuaders,  The Path to a Livable Future, Solidarity,  Mutual Aid, Breaking Together, Making Sense of Chaos and TechnoFeudalism.