Labor and Equity
Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence
Wednesday, February 12, 2020, 6:30pm When our loved ones are taken away from us at the hands of Police there is little to NO support for the families (unlike other crimes committed in the community.) There is No financial support to help bury our love ones. There is No mental or emotional support to get […]
Reading “Capital”
East Side Freedom Library 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul, MN, United StatesThe East Side Freedom Library and the East Side Study Collective invite you to participate in reading Capital, a reading and discussion process over four months. February – May 2020 In a rapidly heating world beset with resurgent ethno-nationalisms and right-wing authoritarianism, ever-continuing settler colonial projects of elimination, and the “bad infinity” of endless capital expansion where […]
Screening and Discussion: “Gaza Fights for Freedom”
East Side Freedom Library 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul, MN, United StatesSunday, February 16, 2020, 2pm "Gaza Fights for Freedom” documents the Gaza protest movement, known as the Great March of Return, which began in 2018 and continued through last year, during which the Israeli Defense Forces killed more than 200 unarmed Palestinian civilians and injured tens of thousands more. Through her collaboration with videographers and […]
The Saint Paul Recovery Act Reparations Book Group
East Side Freedom Library 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul, MN, United StatesThis will be an organizational meeting. Thereafter, we will meet on the third Tuesday evenings of each month, 6:30-8PM We will start with the classic text The Debt. Copies of the book will be available at Subtext Bookstore, 6 West Fifth Street, downtown St. Paul. The St. Paul City Council is considering a "Recovery Act," […]
How Not to Save the Planet: A Conversation with Michael Goodhart
East Side Freedom Library 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul, MN, United StatesFriday, February 28, 2020, 7PM With the ‘dire predictions’ of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report last October, the introduction of the Green New Deal in the new Congress, and the recent suggestion by author David Wallace-Wells that we have reached the ‘Time to Panic’, Michael Goodhart will discuss why efforts to combat […]
History Revealed: She Voted
Thursday, March 5, 2020, 7pm Help us celebrate Women’s History Month with a preview of the in-progress Minnesota History Center exhibit. Learn what is in the works and have an opportunity to voice your own thoughts. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution—upholding women's right to vote—was signed into law. A […]
Reading “Capital”
East Side Freedom Library 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul, MN, United StatesThe East Side Freedom Library and the East Side Study Collective invite you to participate in reading Capital, a reading and discussion process over four months. February – May 2020 In a rapidly heating world beset with resurgent ethno-nationalisms and right-wing authoritarianism, ever-continuing settler colonial projects of elimination, and the “bad infinity” of endless capital expansion where […]
The Saint Paul Recovery Act Reparations Book Group
We will meet on the third Tuesday evenings of each month, 6:30-8PM We will start with the classic text The Debt. Copies of the book will be available at Subtext Bookstore, 6 West Fifth Street, downtown St. Paul. The St. Paul City Council is considering a "Recovery Act," to promote equity and racial justice. Grassroots […]
Zoom: Reading Marx’s Capital
ZoomWe will resume our Capital reading group on Saturday, April 11 from 10-12ish via online meeting. This would serve as our second meeting (given that we cancelled our March session), and we would cover chapters 10-15 (sections 1-5; i.e., the first half of ch. 15) as we had planned. Newcomers are welcome! Please email [email protected] […]
Zoom: The Saint Paul Recovery Act Reparations Book Group
We will meet on the third Tuesday evenings of each month, 6:30-8PM. Please email [email protected] for Zoom information. We will start with the classic text The Debt. Copies of the book will be available at Subtext Bookstore, 6 West Fifth Street, downtown St. Paul. The St. Paul City Council is considering a "Recovery Act," to […]
Human Rights Discourse in the Post-9/11 Age
This event will be posted on our Facebook page! Kanishka Chowdhury is Professor of English and Director of the American Culture & Difference Program at the University of St. Thomas. His new book, HUMAN RIGHTS DISCOURSE IN THE POST 9/11 AGE, offers a critique of mainstream human rights discourse in the period following […]
Zoom: Marx’s “Capital” Reading Group
MN, United StatesFor the May 9th meeting, we will cover Chapters 15 (second half) through 24. Here Marx further develops his discussion of collective labor and class formation begun in the previous few chapters and fleshes out his thinking on wages and the production of surplus value. These chapters, which engage with how capital distinguishes "productive" and […]
Afropessimism: A Conversation Between Frank Wilderson III and Bill Hart
Thursday, May 14, 2020, 7pm Frank Wilderson's new book, AFROPESSMISM fuses innovative philosophy with trenchant memoir to argue that we are still living in the legacy of slavery's historical social position. Khalil Muhammad, Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy, at Harvard, writes: " is one of the boldest and most unflinching theorists […]
Slavery and the Development of American Capitalism
MN, United StatesThe East Side Freedom Library and the Saint Paul Recovery Act Reparations Reading Group invite you to our monthly conversation: Slavery and the Development of American Capitalism. We will be reading and discussing an interview with historian Edward Baptist, "How Slavery Became America's First Big Business." In this 2019 interview, Baptist connects his brilliant book, […]
How Slavery Became America’s First Big Business
Tuesday, June 16, 2020, 6:30-8:00pm via Zoom Protests and activism have put a spotlight on racism in the United States. An historical perspective can help us understand how things got to be the way are, and it can help us inform our visions of social change.This month, join us in discussing this interview with historian Edward […]
“Learning from the Past, Fighting for the Future” Tom O’Connell in Conversation with Ricardo Levins-Morales
How have crises created opportunities for progressive social change? What kinds of opportunities are being created by the crises we are experiencing now? What work is being done, on the ground, to develop transformative solutions to deep-seated economic, social, and political problems? Join Tom O’Connell, former Metro State University professor and KFAI radio talk-show host, […]
The Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Movement: An Introduction
This event will premiere on ESFL's Facebook page and YouTube channel on July 1st, 2020 at 7pm Most Americans are unaware or uninformed about the persistent public dissent of Hong Kong protesters over the past year. Much is at stake, for the residents of Hong Kong, their neighbors in Taiwan and China, and, ultimately, for […]
History Revealed: Exploring the Historical Roots of Racism in Minnesota
A conversation with Bill Green, Christopher Lehman, and Marty Case Thursday, July 9, 2020, 7pm In the past year, local historians have published three eye-opening books, each of which, grounded in careful research, explore the roles played by racism in the development of Minnesota. Marty Case's The Relentless Business of Treaties explores how the U.S., territorial, and […]
Watch & Discuss “1877: The Grand Army of Starvation”
ESFL is excited to introduce a monthly Labor History Film Series, on the second Friday night of each month. We will begin by premiering the films on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, although we look forward to hosting in person film viewings and discussions when it becomes safe to do so. Our first film […]
“Policing, Public Policy, and Racial Justice: Stories and Analysis from Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.” Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop Online Teach-In
The Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop on Democracy under Threat: Public Scholarship and Teaching is organizing two online teach-ins in July “Policing, Public Policy, and Racial Justice: Stories and Analysis from Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.” Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop Online Teach-In Tuesday, July 14, 2020, 12:00-3:00 p.m. (CST), 1:00-4:00 p.m. (EST) Recent protests across our nation and around […]