[act-ma] Part I -- [Sunday, July 8, 2018 at 8 PM eastern] Placing the collapse of the Soviet Union in a global class and historical context.

[Center for Marxist Education]

You are invited to join us for a small short online class series concerning
problems in the development of socialism. Please feel free to invite others.
Please register here now:  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/
6791011914598365441

*Learning from the Worst Defeats in Working Class History*

Almost 75 years after the greatest step forward in human history, the
Soviet Union collapsed as if termites had silently eaten its foundations.
Twelve states in all fell to counter-revolution in the 1980s and early
1990s, from Albania to Yugoslavia, Poland to Mongolia. How could this
happen? This two-part series tries to place the defeats in a global class
and historical context, and to draw lessons so the international working
class movement can emerge stronger, as it did from the lessons of the
defeat of the Paris Commune. These presentations draw from efforts over the
past 18 years in China to identify and address the weaknesses that made
these defeats possible.

*Part I -- [Sunday, July 8, 2018 at 8 PM eastern] Placing the collapse of
the Soviet Union in a global class and historical context. *

The fall of the Soviet Union did not occur in isolation. It was stressed by
a mighty "typhoon" emerging from world capitalism's deepening
contradictions and failures. This presentation places the Soviet collapse
in a world and historical context, a world where two social systems have
been interacting and conflicting since the creation of the Soviet state in
1917. The collapse of the Socialist International in 1914 provides a useful
analogy. Three diagrams are used to help provide context.

*Part II -- [Sunday, August 5, 2018 at 8 PM eastern] What allowed little
Cuba to survive the typhoon that brought down the mighty Soviet Union*?

When a typhoon hits a region, afterwards we find that some buildings have
collapsed, while others remained standing. Why did any building collapse? A
typhoon hit it! But what allowed some buildings to survive? We first look
at the building's foundations, but we also know a weak roof can compromise
the building, and that we cannot ignore seemingly-tertiary factors, such as
flood control measures many miles away. This approach can help develop
comprehensive insights into a seemingly-baffling catastrophe, and the many
challenges in establishing a new social system founded to end exploitation.
Two diagrams -- and a question -- are used in this part.

*Facilitator: Wadi'h Halabi*

*Suggested (but not required to participate) Reading:  Lenin's  State and
Revolution*