Category: Events

Webinar: For peace and socialism – celebrating the centenary of the CPC (25 July)

The Communist Party of Britain is holding an online meeting to celebrate the centenary of the Communist Party of China. The event takes place online via Zoom on Sunday 25 July 2021 at 2pm Britain / 9am US Eastern / 9pm China. Register on Zoom.

Speakers

  • Ms. Wang Yingchun (Deputy Director-General, CPC International Department) on the ‘Historic Role of the CPC and Today’s World’
  • Jenny Clegg (Senior Lecturer in International Studies and a China specialist at the University of Central Lancashire)
  • Robert Griffiths (CPB General Secretary)
  • Kenny Coyle (author and international scholar on Asia)
  • Iain Inglis (CPB member resident in China)
  • Chair: Liz Payne (CPB Chair)

Along with the speeches there will be vintage film footage and new productions not previously seen including China’s struggle against COVID and 100 years of the CPC.

Video: book launch event for John Ross’s ‘China’s Great Road’

On 10 July 2021, we co-hosted a book launch for John Ross’s book China’s Great Road; Lessons for Marxist Theory and Socialist Practices, along with the Morning Star, Tricontinental Institute, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, and Learning from China.

China’s Great Road features ten articles by Ross published between the years 2010 and 2021, all of which provide a clear analysis of China’s economic and foreign relations policies over the past decades. More importantly, Ross’ writing cuts through Western propaganda and directly addresses China’s socialist project, its history and growth, and what could be possible for future socialist countries around the world.

Speakers included:

  • John Ross (Senior Fellow, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China)
  • Su Yue (Senior editor, Guancha.cn)
  • Kenny Coyle (Editor, Praxis press)
  • Tings Chak (Lead Designer/Researcher at Tricontinental Institute)
  • Vijay Prashad (Executive Director, Tricontinental Institute)
  • Radhika Desai (Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group)
  • Joshua Jackson (Political activist, Britain)
  • Chair: Carlos Martinez (Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China)

Report: analysts from around the world explore and celebrate China’s poverty alleviation successes

On Saturday 26 June, Friends of Socialist China held its first webinar: China’s Path to Zero Poverty, supported by the Geopolitical Economic Research Group. This event brought together a diverse range of speakers with different perspectives on China’s successes in eradicating poverty. The entire webinar (along with the individual speech videos) can be watched on our YouTube channel. Below we provide a summary of the proceedings.

Introducing the event, Radhika Desai (Professor of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group) commended the extraordinary effort on the part of the Communist Party of China to eradicate extreme poverty. “It’s been a hard slog, as old as the revolution itself.”

Radhika noted that land reform, carried out in the liberated territories in the 1930s and 1940s and then extended throughout the country following the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, was the first step along the road to eradicating poverty, and provided the firm foundation for transforming what was then one of the poorest countries in the world.

Speaking of the targeted anti-poverty campaign of the last few years, Radhika pointed out that the threshold for lifting people out of poverty was not exclusively based on the World Bank daily income figure. This income figure is accompanied by ‘Two Assurances and Three Guarantees’: assuring that people have sufficient access to food and clothing, and providing guaranteed access to compulsory education (nine years), basic medical services and safe housing.

Continue reading Report: analysts from around the world explore and celebrate China’s poverty alleviation successes

Video: A hundred years on the path to socialism – celebrating the centenary of the CPC

This webinar was held on Zoom on 3 July 2021, organised by the Morning Star with the support of Friends of Socialist China.

The speakers were:

  • Li Jingjing, Chinese journalist
  • Robert Griffiths, general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain
  • Ian Goodrum, Senior editor and columnist, China Daily
  • Nixie Lam, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong
  • Lam Chun Sing, chair, Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions
  • Jenny Clegg, author, researcher and China specialist
  • Keith Bennett, Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China
  • Chair: Ben Chacko, editor Morning Star

All the speeches were excellent. You can view the video on YouTube (embedded below).

Reminder: China’s Path to Zero Poverty (Saturday 26 June)

A reminder that our first webinar takes place on Saturday 26 June, 9am US Eastern / 2pm Britain / 9pm China.

You can register for the Zoom event on Eventbrite.

Details

On 1 July 2021, the Communist Party of China celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding. Of all the CPC has accomplished in that period, the elimination of extreme poverty is unquestionably among its most impressive and historically significant achievements.

In this webinar, academics, politicians, journalists and campaigners from around the world will explore how China has been able to carry out the most extensive poverty alleviation program in history, and what lessons there are for humanity.

Speakers

  • Senator Mushahid Hussain (Chairman, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and Pakistan-China Institute, Pakistan)
  • Li Jingjing (Reporter for CGTN, China)
  • Utsa Patnaik (Marxist economist, India)
  • Ovigwe Eguegu (Columnist for the China Africa Project, Nigeria)
  • Camila Escalante (Broadcast journalist, producer, presenter for Kawsachun News, Bolivia)
  • Roland Boer (Professor of Marxist philosophy in the School of Marxism at Dalian University of Technology, China)
  • Mick Dunford (Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex, Visiting Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • John Ross (Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China)
  • Qiao Collective (Collective of diaspora Chinese challenging US aggression on China)
  • Tings Chak (Lead Designer/Researcher at Tricontinental Institute and Dongsheng News)
  • Chair: Radhika Desai (Professor of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group)

About the organisers

Friends of Socialist China is a new platform based on supporting the People’s Republic of China and promoting understanding of Chinese socialism. Its website (edited by Danny Haiphong, Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez) aims to consolidate the best articles and videos related to China and Chinese socialism, along with original analysis.

The Geopolitical Economy Research Group is a policy institute based at the University of Manitoba and run by Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman. It analyses and proposes policy alternatives for managing the interaction of national economies and states to promote human development and mutual benefit in today’s multipolar world.

Online discussion: China and the New Cold War (17 June 2021)

Update: this event is now in the past. You can watch the stream below.

New Hampshire Peace Action is organising an online event on China, US relations with China, and the demonisation of China as a rival to American hegemony. The discussion will be led by Danny Haiphong and Ben Norton.

The event takes place online via Zoom on 17 June 2021 at 7pm US Eastern / 4pm US Pacific / 12am Britain / 7am China. Register on Action Network.

The US is currently engaged in a program to modernize its entire nuclear arsenal. US citizens are told that Russia & China are doing the same. The US foreign policy establishment, through their implementation of the “Great-power competition” doctrine, manifestly situate China to replace the “Global War on Terror” as the next big threat to US national security. Join this discussion to better understand the motives behind US fear-mongering rhetoric towards China and analyze the reality of conditions on the ground.

Danny Haiphong is a Contributing Editor of Black Agenda Report, Co-Host of The Left Lens, and an organizer with No Cold War. He is co-author of American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror and maintains his own blog at patreon.com/dannyhaiphong

Ben Norton is assistant editor of the investigative journalism website The Grayzone. He produces the political podcast and  video show Moderate Rebels, which he co-hosts with The Grayzone editor and founder Max Blumenthal. Ben has reported from numerous countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and more.

Online Lecture: Was Mao a Marxist? (1 July 2021)

To mark the centenary of the Communist Party of China, the Marx Memorial Library is organising an online lecture by Jenny Clegg – former senior lecturer in international studies at the University of Central Lancashire, peace activist, and author of ‘China’s Global Strategy: Towards a Multipolar World‘.

The event will be held on Thursday 1 July, 7pm BST / 2pm US Eastern / 11am US Pacific. Register via Eventbrite.

Was Mao a Marxist? Mao and the Chinese peasant revolution (1925-1949)

One hundred years ago, on July 1st 1921, the Communist Party of China was founded by a handful of people who, for the sake of secrecy, held their first meeting on a boat on a lake to the south of Shanghai. Today, the CPC is a huge organisation with a membership of 91 million people.The CPC came to power with the support of the vast majority of the population: the peasants. The Party had come to understand that agrarian transformation was the main content of the Chinese revolution and the peasants its main force. Many on the Left still to this day under-rate Mao as little more than a peasant leader.This session will on the contrary discuss how Mao, through the sinification of Marxism, came to develop his distinctive policies and ‘mass line’ approach as he figured out ways to address the challenges of the Chinese revolution and social transformation through engaging in the revolutionary process in the countryside. Marking out the differences between Mao, Stalin and Trotsky, it will further consider the relationship between the national and the agrarian revolution.What are the lessons for us to draw on today from the Chinese experience of revolution?

Dr Jenny Clegg is an academic, activist and long term China specialist. Her PhD on China’s peasants in revolution was awarded by the University of Manchester in 1989. A revised version will be published later this year by Praxis Press.

Video: book launch of John Ross ‘China’s Great Road’

On 3 June 2021, the People’s Forum NYC held an online launch for John Ross’s new book, China’s Great Road: Lessons for Marxist Theory and Socialist Practices.

The launch features interesting speeches from John Ross, Radhika Desai, Vijay Prashad and Brian Becker. In addition to recommending the book, the speakers engage with some important and controversial topics: to what extent is Socialism with Chinese Characteristics consistent with Marxism? To what extent was pre-reform Chinese socialism consistent with Marxism? To what extent can the lessons of China’s rise be applied elsewhere in the world? What is the nature of globalisation?

As John Ross points out in his remarks, his book is meant to be a starting point for an extremely important discussion in the socialist movement, particularly in the West, about Chinese socialism. Watching the book launch should help to equip people to participate further in that discussion.

The book can be ordered from 1804 Books (Americas) and Praxis Press (Europe).

No Cold War Britain event: China is not our enemy

The British branch of No Cold War is holding a launch event on Wednesday 16 June, 7pm BST (2pm US Eastern, 11am US Pacific), organised in coordination with the Tricontinental Institute. The theme is China is not our enemy, and there’s an excellent list of speakers:

  • Lowkey, musician and activist
  • Martin Jacques, author of ‘When China Rules the World’
  • Jodie Evans, CODEPINK
  • Kate Hudson, General Secretary of CND
  • Vijay Prashad, Director of the Tricontinental Institute
  • Li Jingjing , Chinese journalist
  • Andrew Murray, Stop the War Coalition
  • Anna Chen, writer, poet and broadcaster
  • Ben Chacko, Editor of the Morning Star
  • Fiona Edwards, No Cold War

You can register for the Zoom event on Eventbrite.

Speakers will address a number of themes and questions including:

  • The role of Britain as a junior partner in the US’ cold war against China
  • How the cold war presents a threat to building world peace
  • The rise of anti-Asian racism that has accompanied the cold war
  • Why the British government’s increasing belligerence towards China will cause economic harm – losing lots of jobs, trade and investment
  • How we build a broad movement to stand up to the cold war

Follow @NCWBritain, @nocoldwar and @tri_continental on Twitter for updates.

Webinar: China’s Path to Zero Poverty (Saturday 26 June)

Our first webinar takes place on Saturday 26 June, 9am US Eastern / 2pm Britain / 9pm China.

You can register for the Zoom event on Eventbrite.

Details

On 1 July 2021, the Communist Party of China celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding. Of all the CPC has accomplished in that period, the elimination of extreme poverty is unquestionably among its most impressive and historically significant achievements.

This webinar will explore how China has been able to carry out the most extensive poverty alleviation program in history, and what lessons there are for humanity.

Speakers

  • Senator Mushahid Hussain (Chairman, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and Pakistan-China Institute, Pakistan)
  • Li Jingjing (Reporter for CGTN, China)
  • Utsa Patnaik (Marxist economist, India)
  • Ovigwe Eguegu (Columnist for the China Africa Project, Nigeria)
  • Camila Escalante (Broadcast journalist, producer, presenter for Kawsachun News, Bolivia)
  • Roland Boer (Professor of Marxist philosophy in the School of Marxism at Dalian University of Technology, China)
  • Mick Dunford (Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex, Visiting Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • John Ross (Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China)
  • Qiao Collective (Collective of diaspora Chinese challenging US aggression on China)
  • Tings Chak (Lead Designer/Researcher at Tricontinental Institute and Dongsheng News)
  • Chair: Radhika Desai (Professor of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group)

About the organisers

Friends of Socialist China is a new platform based on supporting the People’s Republic of China and promoting understanding of Chinese socialism. Its website (edited by Danny Haiphong, Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez) aims to consolidate the best articles and videos related to China and Chinese socialism, along with original analysis.

The Geopolitical Economy Research Group is a policy institute based at the University of Manitoba and run by Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman. It analyses and proposes policy alternatives for managing the interaction of national economies and states to promote human development and mutual benefit in today’s multipolar world.

Pivot to Peace event: Myths & Facts about genocide – what’s happening in Xinjiang

Pivot to Peace are organising this important event on Saturday 12 June 2021, 3pm US Eastern, 12pm US Pacific, 8pm Britain.

The Biden Administration has chosen to echo the same propaganda claims against China that were made by Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Both the Trump & Biden administration are charging the Chinese government with the crime of genocide against a minority people, the Uighurs, in Xinjiang Autonomous Region in western China. This campaign coincides with an economic war with China, which includes tariffs and sanctions. It also comes as the Pentagon has announced a new military doctrine which prioritizes and prepares the United States with a war on China.

What are the facts? Is China actually carrying out a genocide against this minority Muslim population? Or, is this one more demonization campaign waged by the US government against a targeted country in preparation for confrontation? After-all, the US insisted that Saddam Hussein was a threat to world peace because Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, and used that rationale to justify a war against Iraq. There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction. That war that took more than one million lives, was based on lies.

The webinar will feature a Canadian journalist who has been covering the events in Xinjiang, there will also be a historical review of the US government’s involvement in genocide against indigenous people in what is now the United States. And there will be eyewitness reports from legal experts and scholars who have visited Xinjiang.

Speakers include:

  • Canadian Youtuber Daniel Dumbrill
  • Professor of History, Gerald Horne
  • Professor of East Asian and Global History, Kenneth Hammond
  • Superior Court Judge, Julie Tang, Retired
  • Pivot to Peace co-founder, Sheila Xiao

Register for the event here: http://bit.ly/p2p-mythsfacts-rsvp

The event can also be watched here: https://fb.me/e/49mjrnE0a