[act-ma] @7:00 p.m. - Socialist Hopes versus American Realities? Balagun/Featherstone/Hawkins

Suren Moodliar suren at fairjobs.org
Thu Jan 28 15:03:53 PST 2021


Socialist Hopes versus American Realities?
Featuring the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's Kazembe Balagun, *The Nation*'s
Liza Featherstone, and Socialist Alternative's L. Eljeer Hawkins.



*Thursday, January 28, 2021, 7:00 p.m. on Zoom and FacebookCLICK HERE TO
JOIN ON ZOOM
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=cbafeb73fd&e=197ff7c2ec>*

In the yawning gap between the crises of economy, environment, and survival
on the one hand, and ruling class responses, on the other hand, is there
space for socialist solutions and the movements that can deliver them? If
so, how will it be filled? We answer these questions with a thoughtful and
diverse group of activist intellectuals including Eljeer Hawkins (Socialist
Alternative*), Liza Featherstone (The Nation*), and Kazembe Balagun (Rosa
Luxemburg Stiftung*).

**Organizations listed for identification purposes only and do not
represent an endorsement). *

*Kazembe Balagun *is a cultural historian, activist, writer, youngest son
of Ben and Millie, and originally from Harlem, New York. From 2008 to 2013,
he served as Director of Outreach and Education at the Brecht Forum
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=6935dfcd55&e=197ff7c2ec>
in
New York, where he helped bring together performance art, LGBT history,
film, and jazz with Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition. He is a
frequent contributor to the *Indypendent*, where he published the last
interview of Octavia Butler (included in Consuela Francis’ *Conversations
with Octavia Butler
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=363fdc171c&e=197ff7c2ec>*,
University Press of Mississippi). Most recently, *Finally Got the News: The
Printed Legacy of the Radical Left
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=848051dd71&e=197ff7c2ec>*
(Common
Notions) published Balagun’s essay on art and people of color communist
collectives. He was a member of the Red Channels Film Collective and has
presented at Metrograph, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Public
Library, Woodbine, and Maysles Cinema. He serves as a project manager with
the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=1f3006f47c&e=197ff7c2ec>
and
is working on a project looking at uncovering the history of the Black
Commune.

*Liza Featherstone* is a journalist based in New York City and a
contributing writer to *The Nation*. She is the co-author of *Students
Against Sweatshops: The Making of a Movement*
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=6285c34b97&e=197ff7c2ec>
(Verso,
2002) and the author of *Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for
Worker’s Rights at Wal-Mart*
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=7f3608fea8&e=197ff7c2ec>
(Basic,
2004) and *Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of Consultation
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=0b12b065df&e=197ff7c2ec>
*(OR
Books, 2017). She is the editor of *False Choices: The Faux Feminism of
Hillary Clinton*
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=ef71409a86&e=197ff7c2ec>
(Verso,
2016).

*L. Eljeer Hawkins *is a community and anti-war activist, born and raised
in Harlem, New York, member of Socialist Alternative/CWI for 21 years. He
has toured internationally, invited to address audiences from South Africa
to Ireland, Brazil to Belgium on the black struggle in the U.S. He has been
involved in the recent Black Lives Matter movement and the fight for $15
movement. Currently, Eljeer is a non-union healthcare worker in New York
City. *Truthout! *published an interview with Hawkins, “Inspiring a
Socialist Alternative
<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=849d83bb51&e=197ff7c2ec>
.”
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<https://encuentro5.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=53fe7b10944568ab8724330ae&id=0bdea8ca57&e=197ff7c2ec>ORGANIZER:
SHELTER & SOLIDARITY - SPONSORS: ENCUENTRO5, SOCIALISM & DEMOCRACY, THE
COMMUNITY CHURCH OF BOSTON, HARDBALL PRESS


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