[Marxism] Some Chicago events: Ernest Mandel, etc.

[mlause at cinci.rr.com]

> 
> 
> ERNEST MANDEL: A LIFE FOR THE REVOLUTION
> 
> Dec 6, Thursday, 7 PM
> Open University of the Left
> 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, second floor
> at the In These Times building
> 847-677-5474
> www.openuniversityoftheleft.org/
> 
> Chicago premier of the new documentary on the economist and author
> Ernest Mandel (1923-1995).
> 
> Covering 60 years of struggles from the Civil War in Spain to the fall
> of the Berlin
> Wall, A Life for the Revolution (Chris Den Hond, 2005; English/French
> with
> English subtitles) features interviews with distinguished academics
> and activists
> Tariq Ali, Michael Warschawski, Alain Krivine, Catherine Samary and
> others who
> detail Mandel's political legacy and outline his considerable
> contributions to
> economic and political theory.
> 
> The film contains segments on Algeria, Che Guevara, Vietnam, May 1968
> in France,
> the 1961 Belgian general strike, Portugal, Chile, feminism, ecology,
> workers' control,
> the Sandinistas, and stirring footage of  battles that Mandel
> participated in and responded
> to internationally during his remarkable career. Noted are accounts of
> Mandel's
> invitation to Cuba by admirer Che Guevara and that Sandinista leader
> Henry
> Ruiz kept one of Mandel's books in his knapsack while in the Nicaraguan
> mountains.
> 
> Mandel escaped twice from Nazi prisons, once by persuading his
> German guards—former SPD members—that it was their internationalist
> duty as
> socialists to facilitate his freedom. Mandel's 1969 U.S. visa
> application was
> denied by attorney general John Mitchell, a decision that was upheld
> by the
> Supreme Court in 1972.
> 
> Tonight's screening will be followed by discussion with activists who
> worked with
> Ernest Mandel.
> 
> "I never understood how Ernest Mandel maintained his inveterate
> optimism in the
> face of all the evidence; and yet, the more the evidence comes in, the
> more do
> we need his optimism and humanism—as well as his analysis
"
> -Andre Gunder Frank
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> FORTHCOMING AT OPEN UNIVERSITY OF THE LEFT
> 
> Dec 17, Monday, 7 PM
> Book Release Party: The Eugene V. Debs Reader
> Open University explores the life of the legendary union leader and
> America's foremost socialist with a release party for the Eugene V.
> Debs Reader (AK Press, Second Edition). Join labor historian William
> Adelman for a discussion and screening of the documentary video
> "Eugene Debs and the Labor Movement."
> 
> Trade unionist, socialist, presidential candidate, jailed anti-war
> activist, co-founder of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and
> the Socialist Party, Eugene Debs' career spanned two centuries and
> countless strikes. His colleagues included everyone from Jane Addams
> to Big Bill Haywood. "The issue is socialism versus capitalism," wrote
> Debs 100 years ago. "I am for socialism because I am for humanity."
> 
> Introduced by Howard Zinn and edited by William A. Pelz, The Eugene V.
> Debs Reader will be available at tonight's event. Join us for snacks
> and beverages as we welcome the new edition of this classic collection.
> 
> UIC professor emeritus William Adelman is author of Haymarket
> Revisited and numerous books and articles on Chicago labor history.
> 
> Debs Reader editor Bill Pelz is the author of The Spartkusbund and the
> German Working Class Movement (1988), Wilhelm Liebknecht and German
> Social Democracy (1994), and Against Capitalism: The European Left on
> the March (2007). His articles and book reviews have appeared in the
> American Historical Review, International Labor and Working Class
> History, German History, Sozialismus, JahrBuch für Forschungen zur
> Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, and International Labor History
> Yearbook among others.
> 
> "...reminds us of the powerful appeal of the socialist idea to people
> alienated from the political system and aware of the growing stark
> disparities in income and wealth—as so many Americans are today."
> –Howard Zinn