Current Courses

Joe Allen tells a true story of race, housing, and resistance in his book, "People Wasn't Made to Burn."
 
From the publisher, Haymarket Books:
"In 1947, James Hickman shot and killed the landlord he believed was responsible for a tragic fire that took the lives of four of his children on Chicago’s West Side. Prosecutors hung the death sentence over Hickman’s head, but a vibrant defense campaign exposed how working poverty and racism led to his crime and helped win Hickman’s freedom.
 
With a true-crime writer’s eye for suspense and the historian’s depth of knowledge, Joe Allen unearths the compelling story of a campaign that was willing to stand up to Jim Crow well before the modern civil rights movement had even begun.
 
As deteriorating housing conditions and an accelerating foreclosure crisis combine to form a hauntingly similar set of factors as those that led to the tragic fire that claimed the lives of James Hickman’s children, Allen’s book restores to prominence a previously unknown individual whose story has profound relevance today."
 
This book discussion will be held in two sessions:
 
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 7:00 pm: Introduction through Chapter 7
 
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 at 7:00 pm: Chapter 8 through Epilogue.

The Baltimore Free School's Spring Dance is HAPPENING!
With the Bellevederes and Ben Frock's Love Unit - dance your socks off with these great bands
 
$5-$10 Sliding scale door, bar available once you're inside
 
May 5th, in the evening til the late hours of dancing, at the H&H building, 5th Floor, aka the 5th Dimension
Located at 405 W Franklin 

Each class will include an educational portion, pranayama, asana, and meditations all corresponding with the highlighted chakra of that week. Beginning at the Root Chakra and working up through the Crown Chakra. Everyone will need to bring their own yoga mat, some props will be provided. 

Everyone is talking about privilege. What can we do with it? How can we be sure that our efforts in groups with a social justice lens do not recreate racism and racial disparities that we recognize as a problem in U.S. society? 
 If you are interested in racial equity:
 
-       But are afraid to explore it for fear of being misunderstood or "called out;"
-       Or if you are struggling with your own baggage around race and racism
-       Or if you want to increase your understanding of and effectiveness in diverse environments;
-       Or if you're working on grass-roots organizing, working with community organizations;
-       Or want to organize in an anti-racism community,
 
Come join us for a frank discussion of contemporary race-related issues, focusing on privilege. In this workshop we will view Shakti Butler’s video, Mirrors of Privilege, and continue that conversation. The workshop will provide an opportunity to explore the first steps you can take to begin the process of creating equity in our organizations.
For women and trans people only.

Another BDC Is Possible is organizing a Community Development Forum on the steps of the Baltimore Development Corporation's office, taking place on May 5th.  As part of the lead to that action, we're hosting two public development workshops at the Baltimore Free School, to share ideas and stories from our neighborhoods---how has the broken economic development status quo failed your part of the city?  What kinds of alternatives to endless subsidies to downtown developers can be put in play here?  And how can we build a coalition of communities for the 5th of May action?

 Session 1.  May 6.  Introductions / Distribution and Explanation of syllabus / What is expected of   participants / Distribution of books .
Presentation:  Communist Manifesto and the Birth of the Communist Manifesto
Assignment*:    An Introduction to Marxism, by Emile Burns, Chapters 1 & 2,   Introduction and Laws of Social Development

Session 2.  May 20.  Burns, Chapter 2,  Laws of Social Development  
Historical materialism -  “the struggle between contending classes as the principal driving force in the development of human society.” – “ideas can only arise from material conditions” – the whole process by which new productive   forces develop out of the old system
Collateral reading:  
A.  Reader in Marxist Philosophy , Selsam and Martel – Part 2 Materialism vs. Idealism,  pp. 47-94;    Part 5 - The Materialist Interpretation of History, pp. 182- 224.
B.  Daniel Rubin, Can Capitalism Last?  Chpt. 3  Historical Materialism
Assignment:  Chapter 3.  Emile Burns, Capitalist Society

Session 3. Jun. 3.  Burns,  Chapter 3 - Capitalist Society  
   Mode of production;  source of profit;  exchange value;  What is capital?  Rate of profit.   
Collateral reading:    
A.  Daniel Rubin, chpt 2  The Political Economy of Capitalism pp. 30-55.
 Assignment:  Burns,  Chapter 4.  Imperialist stage of capitalism,  p. 39

Session 4. Jun. 17.    Burns,  Chapter 4.  Imperialist stage of capitalism  
Merging of the banks with industry – export of capital – territorial division of the world – colonial struggles

Collateral reading:    
A.  Lenin,  Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism
B.  Fidel Castro, Kwame Nkruma
C.  Sam Webb on Financialization
Assignment:  Burns, Chapter 5.  Class Struggles and the State.,  p. 54.

Session 5.  Jul. 1.  Burns,   Chapter 5.  Class Struggles and the State  
  General features or laws evident in revolutions -  core forces – “all forms of working-class organizations”  - State machine – democratic institutions .

Collateral reading:  
A.  Daniel Rubin:  chpt. 5,  Getting there from here, p. 117
B.    Yermakova and Ratnikiov : What are classes and the class struggle?  (abc of Social and Political Knowledge)
Assignment:  Burns, Chapter 6.  Socialist Society.

Session 6. Jul 15.   Burns,  Chapter 6.  Socialist Society.  
  “It is the actual development within capitalist  society which prepares the way for socialism,”  …the first step in building up a socialist society …the main stages in this process; winning the battle for democracy - - planned production – changes which take place in the development and outlook of men and women – world system of socialist society

Collateral reading:  
A.   Sam Webb, The Road to Socialism
B.  Rubin,  Chpt.4   Socialism and Communism, P. 84
 Assignment:  Burns,  Chapter 7.  Marxist View of Nature

Session 7. Jul. 29.  Chapter 7.  Marxist View of Nature  
  Materialism vs. idealism;  dialectical approach;  dialectical laws.

Collateral reading:  
A.  Selsam and Martel, Part 3  Dialectics and the Dialectical Method, p. 94
B.  Daniel Rubin, Chpt 6.  Marxist Methodology
C.  Politizer,  Elementary Principles of Philosophy
Assignment:  Burns, Chapter 8.  A Guide to Action

Session 8. Aug. 12.    Chapter  8.  A Guide to Action  
Lenin and the need for a party of a new type.  Alliance between works and other sections against the main enemy of social advance.  Guided  by a revolutionary party.   Opposition.  People’s Front.  Monopoly capital’s drive to war and to ever higher profits.

Collateral reading:  
A.  Pronin and Stepichev, Leninist Standards of Party Life;
B.  Rubin, Organizations  Necessary for Winning, p. 170

This will be an opportunity to learn about the Palestinian Boycotts Divestments and Sanctions strategy, its place in history, and how it interacts with the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Capitalism and the US Empire.
It will include text study, excersises, activities and discussion.  We won't try to reach any agreement as a group.  Instead, we will help each other formulate our own opinions and relationships to the BDS call.
 
A tentative outline of the workshop is as follows:
* Introduction (maybe a spectrum exercise)
* Reading the call for BDS (incorporate some education about aspects
of the Palestinian experience: in Israel, in the territories, in the
diaspora)
* Exploring boycotts throughout history (would you do it? why? also
separating the different aspects of BDS: boycott, divestment,
sanctions, cultural, academic)
* "Power mapping" activity (exploring where US support for Israel and
opposition to BDS comes from)
* Conclude -- what does this mean for Baltimore?  (Veolia, others.)