Night School

Socialist Night School is a rolling open course that provides opportunities for East Bay DSA members to ground their political work in the rich theoretical and historical traditions of the socialist left.

Classes are down-to-earth, inclusive spaces that give East Bay comrades a chance to grow their politics together, regardless of background knowledge, affiliation, or whether you've attended a class before. You don't even have to be a member of East Bay DSA — everyone is welcome!

Next Class:


🌹MLK In His Own Words

January 17, 2023

In the decades since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination at a sanitation workers strike in Memphis, his legacy has been appropriated by just about every political movement under the sun. From Fox News pundits claiming he would oppose tax increases because he was “for freedom,” to the more typical whitewashing of his radical politics for a broad audience, anyone and everyone claims the sainted image of the good Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as their own.


But in his own time, MLK was viewed as the radical that he was. By cleaving toward an uncompromising politics of racial justice, economic transformation, and peace abroad, MLK won the ire of nearly ¾ of Americans who said they disapproved of him in a 1967 Harris Poll. Today, on our national holiday celebrating his legacy, we invite you to read and listen to his own prophetic words as he wrote and spoke them in his time.

Priority Reading & Viewing:

 

Additional Reading & Viewing:

 

Full Speech & Audio: “Where Do We Go From Here?," Address Delivered at the Eleventh Annual SCLC Convention

 

Details

When: January 18, 2022, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Where: East Bay Community Space 507 55th St, Oakland, CA 94609


Night School on YouTube

Missed a class? Want to revisit a lecture? Check out our YouTube channel, full of insightful socialist analysis from our membership.

Night School on YouTube

Socialist Readings

See other socialist readings our Night School classes have recommended. You don't need to read everything here before joining a class, but we believe these readings will provide a useful foundation for better understanding socialism.

Current Campaigns

Find relevant readings on the political campaigns our chapter is currently fighting for.

Readings on our current campaigns

What Is Democratic Socialism?

Want to know more about democratic socialism? Get to understand the basics of what democratic socialism is and why it's the only hope for the working class.

Readings on democratic socialism

Critique of Capitalism

We all live under the exploitative economic system known as capitalism, but what are its internal contradictions and how can we overcome it?

Readings on critiques of capitalism

Capitalism and the State

How do capitalism and the state interact? What support does the state lend to capitalism, and how does capitalism rely on this support to reproduce itself?

Readings on capitalism and the state

Socialist Strategy

Capitalism is an inherently unsustainable economic system, yet past socialist movements have are always met with fierce resistance from capital. These readings offer a historical and material analysis of how we can learn from these outcomes and persevere.

Readings on socialist strategy

Neoliberalism and Imperialism

What exactly are neoliberalism and imperialism? Are they different from capitalism? What are their origins and effects? These readings provide a definition of neoliberalism and imperialism through historical insight and examples of these ideologies at work.

Readings on neoliberalism and imperialism

Class, Race, and Gender

These readings example how class intersects with racial and gender oppression, how these divisions benefit capital, and how socialists have fought against these oppressions through the years.

Readings on class, race, and gender

Labor History

Any analysis of socialism would be incomplete without a history of labor. Labor struggles in previous years, both successes and failures, provide valuable lessons for future struggles.

Readings on labor history