The DSA Los Angeles Political Education Committee is proud to present The Class on Class! This study series examines a selection of foundational concepts and inquiries, with the goal of more deeply grounding our collective struggle in rigorous socialist analysis. The Class is comprised of four individual yet interconnected modules  — each featuring a selection of readings and discussion questions, as well as a presentation followed by opportunity to discuss, dissect & debate these concepts.

The final Class takes up critical questions facing the movement, and a discussion of these readings is meant to help us develop strategy and organizational methods that respond to the capitalism of our time. Neoliberalism is a conscious political project of the capitalist class to eliminate legal, political, cultural, and physical barriers to expansion. Deregulation, privatization, and austerity are more than just bad ideas; they are key pillars of the modern social order. Social Reproduction Theory helps us understand the oppressions and alienation we experience and their relationship to capitalism. The perpetuation of capitalism requires a daily and generational renewal of a subordinate class; this is a burden offloaded onto particular sections of that class in the sphere of reproduction (the home). Lastly, the Right to The City allows us to theorize methods of resistance to the developers and financiers to whom the urban landscape – our gentrifying neighborhoods and disappearing common spaces – is a laboratory for commodifying every aspect of life; their neoliberal dream and our everyday nightmare.

All attendees are encouraged, but not required, to read the associated module texts in our class reader which can be found here.

If this is your first time reading Marx, Luxemburg, Bhattacharya & others—join us! And if you’re already well-acquainted—welcome back. The potential for socialism is greater than it has been in decades & this is part of our work together.