MARX NOW: Karl Marx @ 200 – A Reading & Discussion

Opening Statement by Jale Yoldas (Goethe Institut San Francisco) with guest appearances by  Alan Black, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, and Richard Walker. Moderator Frederick Young

On the occasion of the 200th Anniversary of Karl Marx’ birthday Goethe-Institut San Francisco and City Lights Booksellers and Publishers will pick up on the tradition of small group study focused on specific texts like Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto. We will concentrate on a few brief passages, interpret and critically analyze them together with guest speakers well versed in the work of Karl Marx and the audience. The event will begin with readings followed by a moderated round table discussion and open up to the audience after.

Karl Marx would have celebrated his 200th birthday in 2018. His criticism of capitalism appears even more pertinent today amidst climate crisis, chronical unemployment and global inequality. A reason to look back and re-read. Marx’s idea that tools and the mode of production of a society determine its political and social structure, and that human thought is formed by the use of tools and moral positions by interests – insights which Marx and Engels encapsulated in the concept of “historical materialism” – have found their way into many individual sciences, into sociology, educational theory, psychology, the study of religion, law, literary theory, engineering and the cognitive sciences, to name only a few. Join us in an evening of discussion examining where we stand in relation to marx and his ideas in contemporary times.