Editor’s note: This article is based off a talk first delivered at the Eco-Socialism Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The corporate-owned media reports frequently about environmental problems in China, from air pollution in Beijing to toxins in the soil and the...
5-part class: From opium wars to trade wars: China’s long path toward socialism
Course description: As China’s global rise rivals U.S. hegemony, the number one priority of U.S. foreign policy is to wage a demonization campaign against China. Since the Obama administration announced the Pivot to Asia, the U.S. has spent countless military dollars...
China class 5: China and the Global South
Class description: The fifth and final class in the course considers China's internationalist orientation and specifically its contemporary relationship with the Global South, and its struggle for territorial integrity. In...
China class 3: Twin tasks of the revolution (1949-1979)
Class description: This week’s class covers the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, the period of the initial construction of socialism and the struggle between two lines. After liberation in 1949, China set about...
China class 2: National liberation and class struggle (1919-1949)
Class description: This second class covers the 30 years from 1919 to 1949, during which the revolution grew from a collection of Marxist reading groups to the establishment of the People’s Republic. We examine the founding...
China class 1: From Imperial China to the Century of Humiliation (1800-1919)
Class description: The first class in the series is devoted to tracing the decline of the ancient imperial order in China under the combined attacks of Western imperialism and domestic rebellion in the course of the 19th and...
Remembering Samir Amin: A Marxist of the south
With the passing of the great anti-imperialist and Marxist intellectual Samir Amin on August 12 of last year, the international communist movement lost a giant. Samir Amin’s life and works exemplify what it means to be a revolutionary and an intellectual in today’s...
Tiananmen: The Massacre that Wasn’t
Twenty-five years ago today, every U.S. media outlet, along with then President Bush and the U.S. Congress were whipping up a full scale frenzied hysteria and attack against the Chinese government for what was described as the cold-blooded massacre of many thousands...
Class struggle intensifies in China
Since mid-May, Japanese automaker Honda has faced a series of strikes in its Chinese operations. These high-profile strikes have started a discussion in the capitalist financial press as to the future of the Chinese economy, the rights of workers, and the attitude of...