Triangle Marxist Forum meeting April 29th

The last meeting, March 25th, went well, though it was not as well organized as it should have been and we are still on the same topic this month. The next meeting will be in the afternoon on Saturday, April 29th, 1:30-3:30 at the Chapel Hill Public Library in the conference room downstairs from the lobby. I announced this earlier by email, but I've been late in posting it here.

I procrastinated and am still busy, so I'm suggesting readings for the meeting only now. The readings are: the Communist Manifesto, Sections I and II; The Teachings of Karl Marx, also called Karl Marx - A Brief Biographical Sketch With an Exposition of Marxism (by Lenin) , in Section I, Marx's Teachings to the section Marx's Economic Doctrine, and Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, chapter 5, especially towards the end where Zinn writes about the US Constitution. I might suggest short articles about the revolutionary politics in Venezuela and Nepal also, so we have three concrete examples, along with theoretical works to look at.

Chapter 4 Section II of A Short History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) goes into more detail, but is basically like the Lenin text. I'll postpone beginning argument about Stalin, if that is necessary, till later. I think we should discuss Stalin, pro and con. I argue that Stalin was a Marxist who has been villified because the Soviet Union under his leadership was so succesful in building and defending an alternative to capitalism.