Portside

Converging Storms 2015
The Crises of Energy, Capitalism, and the Environment

CLASS SERIES: Every other Sunday, June 21 – Sept 27
9:30 am – 1:00 pm (with time for refreshments)

WHERE: 675 S. Park View, UCLA Downtown Labor Center, between Wilshire and 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA

Study Series Description

Sun, June 21: Energy as a Critical Environmental Problem
Sun, July 5: Climate Change and the Urgency of Now
Sun, July 19: Impact of Fossil-Fuels: Peak Oil, Climate Change, Resource Depletion, Global Toxification
Sun, Aug 2: Problematics of Capitalism and Environment Facing Activists Today
Sun, Aug 16 Limits to Alternative Sources of Energy
Sun, Aug 30: Current Responses to Ecological Crises from Within the System
Sun, Sept 13: If This Changes Everything, Does That Include Capitalism? Exploring “System Change”
Sun: Sept 27: Possible Future Scenarios and Strategies for Progressive Change
A systemic, historic, class analysis will be integrated throughout the series.

Converging Storms 2015:  The Crises of Energy, Capitalism, and the Environment

Converging Storms is a study series on the intersection of peak oil, global capitalism, and ecological crises.  We will examine issues associated with a troubled global system whose petroleum dependency and imperative to expand is precipitating, and colliding with, the ecological realities of diminishing fossil fuels, climate change, resource depletion and contamination (eg. food, water, land), species extinction, and population pressure. What is the nature of the environmental crises now challenging the global system as we know it, and what is its systemic relationship to capitalism? Why do we think this issue should influence our analysis of everything from the ongoing economic downturn to the War in Afghanistan to Hurricane Katrina to global migration to the struggle of working people for a decent life?  And what should activists be doing about it?  While many environmental reforms never fully address the global and systemic dimensions of our ecological problems, too many systemic, anti-capitalist analyses never fully address the centrality -- or urgency -- of the energy and environmental crises. Can lifestyle politics and incremental policy reforms adequately deal with the scope and power of such vast, deeply-rooted challenges as peak oil and climate change?  Can socialists afford to wait for the end of capitalism to "fix" things, and how would that system's demise solve the immediate and scientific realities of finite resources in a finite (and life-threatened) global habitat?  SGJ/CSAN invite you to join us in considering whether, and how, we should centrally position the earth's ecological crises in our overall assessment of global capitalism today, and in the development and application of our strategies for progressive social change.

Studies for Global Justice is a Los Angeles-based group of socialist-minded activists that has coordinated study sessions on the history, nature, problems, and complexities of 21st-century capitalism.  Our mission:
-- To provide an inclusive and respectful space for the discussion, debate, and systemic and multidisciplinary analysis of capitalism that uses popular, participatory, and collective learning.
-- To create an educational atmosphere that bridges activism and study.
-- To encourage participants to use this learning not only for their own intellectual development, but also as a means for generating power for political and social change in their communities, and for creating viable democratic socialist alternatives to the capitalist system.

Converging Storms Action Network Our mission:

We are a network of activists from diverse arenas whose shared analysis, activities, and actions for progressive social change centrally address the intersecting crises of energy, capitalism, and the environment.  Our principles of unity include:  We understand the crises of energy, capitalism, and environment to be systemically interconnected, and feel they must be addressed as such. We find capitalism (given its defining commitment to a competitive market economy, private property, profit maximization, perpetual economic growth, and unequal power relations) generates harmful, unsustainable, and unequal consumption of earth resources. Some of us believe capitalism can’t resolve these crises. Others believe it can. But we all agree that to remedy these problems, capitalism must be challenged.  Our objectives, therefore, are to contribute to a systemic analysis of the crises, to educate and mobilize people, promote activities, and build alliances consistent with this analysis, to illuminate the role and limits of capitalism and pressure that system towards fundamental change, and to advocate for sustainable alternative approaches (healthy, humane, just, and economically and politically democratic) that will allow us all to live together in a finite world.

Ways to Register for Converging Storms 2015:
* We suggest advance registration, as space and materials may be limited
1) Mail Registration Form and Fee to: 3910 Melrose Ave #4, L.A., CA 90029, OR
2) Email information from Registration Form to: margordon@sbcglobal.net, and mail Registration Fee to address above, or bring to first Session June 21, 2015, OR
3) Come to first Session June 21, 2015, submit Registration Form and Fee