The 2023 Marxist School, organized by a group called International Marxist Tendency (IMT), is coming to Minneapolis at the end of September.
“Join the communists!” a website for the event says.
The event will include discussion of Marxist theories and “revolutionary strategy” with multiple sessions over a two-day period. Tickets for the communist event range from $20, for those who are students or unemployed, to $60, for those who want to partner in “solidarity.”
“World capitalism is in crisis. Millions of people are looking toward communist ideas to find a way out of the impasse. Revolution is on the agenda in country after country,” the event description reads.
Other Marxist Schools are being held in New York City, Phoenix, Ariz., and Bellingham, Wash.
Sessions include one on the German Revolution of 1923, imperialism, and one titled “Introduction to the Theory of Permanent Revolution.”
Socialist Revolution is the “official publication” of the U.S. branch of IMT, which one former member has deemed a “Trotskyist cult.” The website for IMT is called In Defence of Marxism, which was founded in 1998 by Ted Grant, and is currently run by Marxist Alan Woods.
Interestingly, no individuals are listed on the Socialist Revolution website as organizers of the upcoming Marxist School. IMT supports a universal 20-hour work week and a base minimum pay of $1,250 weekly. The group also wants rent to be fixed at 10% of a person’s income, a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, universal health care, an end to all border security measures, “genuine reparations” through “expropriating the capitalists,” and a “socialist planned economy” to “combat the climate crisis.”
“Abolish all capitalist trade and bankers’ agreements and write off the debts imposed by imperialism. Slash the military budget and invest in social needs,” Socialist Revolution says of the IMT agenda.
Members of IMT are expected to pay monthly dues since the organization receives “no money from the capitalists or their foundations.” Members also sell subscriptions to the Socialist Revolution magazine.
“Based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky, we are actively building a national organization of trained Marxist cadres to fight in the broader movement for a revolutionary socialist program,” the Socialist Revolution website says.
Posters advertising the Marxist School are plastered throughout the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus, asking, “Are you a communist? Then get organized.”
Marxist and Communist propaganda posters found throughout the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.@AlphaNewsMN @action_liberty @GLpodcast @JonJustice @jdtcnt @nathanmhansen @lizcollin @HayleyFeland @mngop pic.twitter.com/B3ynPhJTCK
— LeftistsofMN (@LeftistsofMN) September 22, 2023
Communism has killed over 100 million people worldwide since the Bolshevik Revolution. “They committed this evil as part of the communist system,” Dr. Elizabeth Spalding said in a presentation on communism for the Victims of Communism (VOC) Memorial Foundation.
VOC exists to commemorate the lives lost to communism and help those still living under totalitarian regimes gain freedom. Through online content, a museum, and more, they educate the public on the horrors of communism.
Spalding said that over 1.5 billion people live under communist regimes today, including in the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba. “Communism is antithetical to human freedom and human flourishing,” Spalding said.
Spalding said that while the words communism and socialism are often used interchangeably, they are not the same but are linked together. Socialism, an authoritarian system of government, leads to communism, a totalitarian form of government, she explained.
A growing number of Minnesota Democrats are explicitly embracing the “socialist” label while candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America are winning elections throughout the state and country.
Hayley Feland
Hayley Feland previously worked as a journalist with The Minnesota Sun, The Wisconsin Daily Star, and The College Fix. She is a Minnesota native with a passion for politics and journalism.
