Our Political Education work develops and hosts an introductory socialist political education program. We host welcoming, inclusive spaces to learn about socialist history and theory, and the ways these concepts apply to our present. We hope participants will gain confidence and competence for engaging in political education work, communicating and debating ideas, and organizing around socialist goals.

We strive to make all sessions as open and inclusive as possible, so most sessions will have few, if any, required readings or preparation. Participation is open to all. We just ask that you come in good faith and be respectful of the thoughts and opinions of others.

If you want to suggest ideas or topics for future sessions, or if you are a Cville DSA member who would like to be a part of the Political Education team, reach out to us at sns.cvilledsa@gmail.com!

Upcoming Sessions

Check our chapter calendar for Reading Group sessions and reach out to sns.cvilledsa@gmail.com if you’d like to attend!

Past Sessions & Videos

The Commodification of Housing

Why is rent in Charlottesville so damn high? Why is it so hard to find housing that is actually affordable and decent? And do we really need landlords and real estate agents - or, are they part of the problem?

In this third and final session of the Spring semester, we answer these questions by exploring the commodification of housing under capitalism. We start by describing what we mean by “commodification” and the specific ways this affects housing in the United States, and Charlottesville, in particular. Then, we look at alternative housing models from other parts of the world that have proven successful, like Red Vienna and public housing in Sweden.

Resources for Further Study

Radical Labor in Virginia & Appalachia

In this session, we explore the role of militant labor movements in Virginia, West Virginia, and broader Appalachia and the role that organizations like the Socialist Party and the United Mine Workers played in organizing and radicalizing workers.

As part of this exploration, we also discussed important lessons we can learn from our radical past and how we as socialists can appeal to the working class and raise class consciousness.

Resources for Further Study

Radical Labor in Virginia

For this “semester” of Socialist Night School, we look at how radical politics and militant labor movements have shaped Virginia and broader Appalachia. In this first session, we begin way back in early colonial history to look at how radical undercurrents have shaped our understandings of race and class struggle in the United States. We then look at abolitionist movements and Reconstruction-era radical parties in Virginia that sought to unite the working class across racial boundaries.

As part of this exploration, we discussed important topics like how race and class struggle intersect, the role of radical political parties, and the value of direct action versus political reform.

Resources for Further Study

Socialism 101

In this first, introductory session, we covered the basics of socialism, including a brief history, overview of concepts and definitions, intersections with race, gender, and class, as well as contemporary issues and developments.

Premiered: August 24, 2020

Resources for Further Study

Socialism 102

In this follow-up session to Socialism 101, we continue exploring some of the theory and history we introduced in the first session, while looking at some new Marxist terms and concepts.

We also explore different models of socialism and dive deeper into the history of various socialist movements and the obstacles they have faced. As history has shown us, the path to victory over capitalism and the reactionary forces that sustain it will not be easy. By studying theory and history, perhaps we can learn some lessons from those in whose footsteps we follow.

Resources for Further Study

Myths of Capitalism

In our advanced capitalist society, ruling class ideas and beliefs are accepted without question as cultural norms. We are constantly told that all it takes to succeed are hard work, perseverance, and a little grit. And despite all evidence to the contrary, these tired clichés continue to dominate popular culture and discourse. Worse still, they feed reactionary movements and serve as the basis for oppressive policies that intentionally mislead and divide the working class.

Why are such myths about capitalism so prevalent? What can we do to challenge these assumptions? And why is it so hard for people to envision an alternative to our capitalist system?

In this session, we hope to answer these questions and more. We will look at the ways in which the dominant culture of the ruling class shapes the values, norms, expectations, and behavior of the rest of society. The concepts of false consciousness, cultural hegemony, and manufactured consent provide the theoretical basis for this discussion, and we will briefly dive into these before discussing the ways in which ruling class ideology impacts our lives today and what we can do to fight back.

Resources for Further Study

Socialist Resource Library

Articles

Books

Podcasts

  • A World to Win - a new podcast from Grace Blakeley and Tribune bringing you a weekly dose of socialist news, theory and action with guests from around the world.

  • Blowback - a podcast about the American Empire. The first season investigates the Iraq War; the second season looks at the Cuban Revolution; and the third covers the Korean War. Each challenges canned narratives and propaganda about US imperialism.

  • Citations Needed - a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit.

  • Cosmopod - podcast from Cosmonaut, a Marxist magazine for revolutionary strategy, historical analyses and modern critiques.

  • David Harvey’s Anti-Capitalist Chronicles - a bimonthly podcast that looks at capitalism through a Marxist lens.

  • The Dig - podcast that goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political-economy to imperialism and immigration.

  • Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff - a weekly nationally syndicated program that explores complex economic issues with a critical eye on the economic dimensions of everyday life - wages, jobs, taxes, debts, interest rates, prices, and profits

  • Intercepted - weekly podcast that gives a deep analysis of the crucial issues of our time, with artists, writers, and thinkers who challenge our preconceptions about the world we live in.

  • Jacobin Radio - podcast from Jacobin Magazine

  • Reading Capital With Comrades - an interactive, chapter-by-chapter class on Karl Marx's 'Capital' Volume 1 for all skill levels, taught in 12 episodes by socialist educators

  • Red Menace - a podcast that explains and analyzes revolutionary theory and then applies its lessons to our contemporary conditions

  • The Red Nation - features discussions on Indigenous history, politics, and culture from a left perspective.

  • Revolutionary Left Radio - a podcast that explores political philosophy, history, science, religion, culture, art, and struggle through a socialist lens.

  • Revolutions - a podcast exploring the great revolutions of history.

  • Working Class History - a podcast about all of those who have fought for a better world.

Videos

Documentaries

  • 13th (2016) dir. Ava DuVernay - documentary that explores the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States. FREE STREAM

  • The Battle of Chile (1976) dir. Patricio Guzmán - a chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. FREE STREAM

  • Fidel: The Untold Story (2001) dir. Estela Bravo - juxtaposing the personal anecdotal with history of the Cuban revolution and the fight to survive the post-Soviet period, Fidel tells a previously untold story and presents a new view of this compelling figure. FREE STREAM

  • Harlan County, USA (1976) dir. Barbara Kopple - Academy Award–winning doc that unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. FREE STREAM

  • HyperNormalisation (2016) dir. Adam Curtis - documentary that argues that governments, financiers, and technological utopians have, since the 1970s, given up on the complex "real world" and built a simpler "fake world" run by corporations and kept stable by politicians. FREE STREAM

  • I Am Not Your Negro (2016) dir. Raoul Peck - explores the history of racism in the United States through James Baldwin's reminiscences of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his personal observations of American history. FREE STREAM

  • Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992) dirs. Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick - explores the political life and ideas of world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist Noam Chomsky. FREE STREAM

Fictional Films

  • 1900 (1976) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci - an epic (5.5 hours!) tale of class struggle in twentieth century Italy, as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides. Starring a young Robert De Niro and ensemble international cast.

  • The Battle of Algiers (1966) dir. Gillo Pontecorvo - one of the most influential political films in history, The Battle of Algiers, vividly re-creates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s.

  • Born in Flames (1983) dir. Lizzie Borden - this provocative, thrilling classic is a fantasy of female rebellion set in America ten years after a social democratic cultural revolution. When Adelaide Norris, the black radical founder of the Woman’s Army, is mysteriously killed, a diverse coalition of women – across all lines of race, class, and sexual preference – emerges to blow the System apart.

  • Come and See (1985) dir. Elem Klimov - this legendary film is a senses-shattering plunge into the dehumanizing horrors of war. As Nazi forces encroach on his small village in what is now known as Belarus, teenage Flyora (Alexei Kravchenko, in a searing depiction of anguish) eagerly joins the Soviet resistance. FREE STREAM

  • La Grande Illusion (1937) dir. Jean Renoir - influential French film concerning class relationships among a small group of French officers who are prisoners of war during World War I and are plotting an escape.

  • The Killing Floor (1984) dir. Bill Duke - highlights the plights of workers fighting to build an interracial labor union in the meatpacking industry in the years leading up to the Chicago race riot of 1919

  • Land and Freedom (1995) dir. Ken Loach - narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who decides to fight in the Spanish Civil War for the republicans, an anti-rebel coalition of Socialists, Communists and Anarchists. FREE STREAM

  • Malcolm X (1992) dir. Spike Lee - a tribute to the revolutionary black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation.

  • Matewan (1987) dir. John Sayles - this wrenching historical drama recounts the true story of a West Virginia coal town where the local miners’ struggle to form a union rose to the pitch of all-out war in 1920. FREE STREAM

  • October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1928) dir. Sergei Eisenstein - a celebratory dramatization of the 1917 October Revolution commissioned for the tenth anniversary of the event. FREE STREAM

  • Reds (1981) dir. Warren Beatty - epic historical drama film about the life and career of John Reed, the journalist and writer who chronicled the Russian Revolution in his 1919 book Ten Days That Shook the World.

  • Rosa Luxemburg (1986) dir. Margarethe von Trotta - award-winning biopic about the influential Marxist revolutionary and thinker Rosa Luxemburg. FREE STREAM

  • Sorry to Bother You (2018) dir. Boots Riley - an outrageously surreal look at capitalism, corporate greed, and fractured workplace dynamics.

  • The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) dir. Ken Loach - against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.

  • The Young Karl Marx (2017) dir. Raoul Peck - historical drama film about Karl Marx, directed by Haitian filmmaker and political activist Raoul Peck.