MARXIST STUDY GROUP
Winter/Spring Program 1999
MARXIST STUDY GROUP
(Calgary)
The MSG is back! BUT WITH SOME DIFFERENCES:
1.. Very Important (please note carefully!):
We have changed location for the Winter/Spring series to
The Unitarian Church of Calgary
Basement Entrance
1703 1st Street NW (two blks W of Centre, just
N of 16th Ave)
2. New Format: After considerable debate, the organizers have
decided to shift from the speaker-driven sessions to guided focused discussions
with resource persons. Those attending are invited to
prepare questions and comments ahead of time and
come to the sessions ready to listen and contribute
thoughtfully in the exploration of the concerns raised
by the topic suggestions listed below.
I. Sunday, January 31, 1999 (7:30pm)
A Marxist Examination of a Potpourri of Issues Critical to Our
Times: (1). Why is Alberta, surrounded by progressive provinces,
so conservative? (2). How has higher education been
transformed in the last 20 years? How can students resist being
turned into debt and career slaves? (3). Marxist predictions
for the Millennium. (4). Are there significant distinctions
among the various brands of Leftism (CP, CP-ML, Anarchist,
Socialist Worker, NDP, and the like)?
II. Sunday, February 28, 1999 (7:30pm)
Can Marxism and the Church Co-exist and Co-operate?
Is the Marxist truism that "religion is the opiate of the masses"
valid today or have other opiates replaced the church? Can
the church be a viable force for social justice? Was Jesus
revolutionary (recently a church in England created a poster
of Jesus looking like Che)? What can we learn from Liberation
Theology? Do new discoveries in cosmology and quantum physics
force us to re-examine the doctrine of materialism? The United
Church will be represented at this session.
III. Sunday, March 28, 1999 (7:30pm)
What Can Popular Culture Tell Us About the Crisis of Capitalism?
This session will be committed to examining examples from film,
popular & alternative music, television, shopping malls, skate-
boarding & paint-ball, pro-wrestling, science fiction, cartoons,
comic books, and breakfast cereals from a Marxist perspective to
see what they tell us about our capitalist culture and what it
professes to value and what it truly values.
IV. Sunday, April 25, 1999 (7:30pm)
Marxism, Feminism, & Sexuality: This session will look at such
matters as defining harassment and consent; affirmative action
in the workplace; the causes and solutions for violence against
women; the "battered wife" defense; power and gender roles and
"gay-bashing"; cross-cultural expressions of female exploitation
and oppression; women and education; the question of male/female
brain configurations; alternative sexualities; birth control &
abortion; the single mother, welfare, & poverty; Dr. Laura &
"family values".
V. Sunday, May 30, 1999 (7:30pm)
Racism as a Modality of Capitalist Exploitation: What are the
origins of racism? How is it connected to imperialism and
colonialism? What similarities exist between the experience
of apartheid in South Africa, slavery in the U.S. and the
reserve/residential school system in Canada? How does racism
continue to manifest itself in relations between the
White power-structure and the First Nations? How are we to
understand the experiences of new immigrants to Canada,
especially those of East Indian and Oriental origin? What role
in all this do White Supremacists and "Holocaust doubters" play?
What is inter-ethnic racism? What are the remedies for racism?
Admission Is Free
For more information on the Study Group call 246-8246
or email -- rcollier@mtroyal.ab.ca
For more information on the sponsoring organization
(The Calgary CPC) call 283-3243 or write Box 61006, Kensington PO,
Calgary, AB T2N 4S6
For more information call 246-8246 or email rcollier@mtroyal.ab.ca