The East Side Freedom Library invites you to our Labor History Discussion Group, “Socialism: A Conversation Between the Past and the Present,” featuring JoAnn Wypijewski, former Managing Editor of The Nation magazine.

Register here to join this event on Zoom.

At the East Side Freedom Library, we do not see history as “a dead body on an examining table,” as E.H. Carr wrote in his essay, “What Is History?”. Rather, we seek to provoke conversations between the past and the present, recognizing both as fluid, living entities which change shape and meaning when brought into relationship with each other. This perspective has informed our conversations about the presence of indigenous people on the East Side, the range of immigrant experiences over three eras, the challenges facing working people and the labor movement, the ups and downs of Minnesota political movements, and more.

This fall, the campaign of India Walton, a self-described “democratic socialist,” for mayor of Buffalo, New York, drew considerable attention across the country. While Walton defeated incumbent Byron Brown in the Democratic Party primary, he launched a write-in campaign and defeated her in the general election. JoAnn Wypijewski, who grew up in Buffalo and has been a close observer of her city, wrote a brilliant essay placing contemporary Buffalo in conversation with the city’s past political history, particularly the presence of socialist ideas and movements in the early 20th century. This conversation reverberates far beyond Buffalo, and can offer us a lens through which to consider such “local” issues as $15 an hour minimum wages, rent stabilization, reform of police, and more. This month, the ESFL Labor History Discussion Group invites you to not only read JoAnn’s essay but to join in conversation, on Zoom, with her.

JoAnn Wypijewski is an independent journalist and columnist for Mother Jones magazine. For eighteen years, from 1982 to 2000, she was an editor at The Nation magazine. She has written for that magazine, as well as for Harper’s, CounterPunch, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian of London and other publications. In October 2020, a panel of ESFL readers discussed with Wypijewski her latest book, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About #MeToo, which had been published earlier that year. A native of Buffalo, she lives in New York City, where she has been active for tenants’ rights and preservation of the Lower East Side since 1980. She is one of the founders and president of Kopkind, a summer project for radical journalists and organizers based in Guilford, Vermont, and dedicated to the memory of Andrew Kopkind.

Please read JoAnn’s essay and join us on Zoom for this conversation.

Free and open to all

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