Sub-themes

1 – Critiques of Capitalism

1.1. Understanding the political economy of capitalism

Introduction:
– Critical approaches of capitalist economies
– Consumption, debt and savings : the integration of workers in capital cycles
– History of capitalism : from its beginning to today
– Business : from property to corporation
In-depth:
– Towards the uberisation of work ? The ner forms of work today
– Social classes today
– The restructuration of neoliberalism since the 2008 crisis

1.2. Capitalism and contemporary forms of oppression

Introduction:
– Feminism today
– Intersectionnality : gender, race and class issues
– Racism and antiracism today
In-depth:
– Are materialism and feminism compatible ?
– Is anticapitalism a good common point for emancipatory struggles ?
– Reclaiming the economy : the challenges of intersectionnality

1.3. Imperialism and colonialism

Introduction:
– Colonialism’s new clothes
– Who’s behind the Empire ? An introduction to American imperialism
In-depth:
– Quebec, colonizer and colonized : the national and indigenous question
– Globalization and free trade
– Capitalism against indigenous forms of life
– Anticolonial struggles then and now

1.4. The ecological crisis

Introduction:
– Welcome to the Antropocene. Introduction to ecological economy
– What every ecologist should know about capitalism : the limits of green capitalism
– Environmentalism for the dispossed
In-depth:
– Is capitalism a fossil model ? Politcal economy of hydrocarburants
– Racism and ecology
– Beyond growth or beyond capitalism ?
– Eco-territorial struggles

1.5. Critical and anti-capitalist philosophies

Introduction:
– Is Marx still alive ? Marxisms then and now
– Thinking about power and counter-power today
In-depth:
– Links between theory and practice : academics and social struggles
– What is revolution ?

2 – Transition strategies

2.1. Fighting the Right

Introduction:
– Facing neoliberal governements
– The far-right then and now : what has changed, what has not ?
– How to counter the rise of the far-right
– Conservative nationalism and right-wing economics
In-depth:
– Trump, between protectionism and xenophobia
– Evolution of the far-right in Europe
– Populism, a relevant category for the Left ?
– Rise of the Right, weakness of the Left ? Strategic perspectives

2.2. State, political parties and elections

Introduction:
– What is the State ?
– Are elections for dummies ? The place of political parties in social change
– The renewal of European left-wing parties (Syriza, Podemos, etc.)
– The Pink Tide and Latin America’s Left
– Political strategies for parties in the parliamentary opposition
In-depth:
– The city level as a space of political transformation
– Banks and currency : monetary strategies for an emancipated economy
– Links between parties and social movements

2.3. Social movements and grassroots resistance

Introduction:
– Social movements and social transformation strategies
– Community action and emancipatory strategies
– Feminist movements
– Towards a social transformation unionism
– The convergence of social, economic and political fronts
In-depth:
– Ecosocialist strategies and movements
– Black Lives Matter and antiracist movements
– The organizational forms of resistance : from the Indignados to the Maple Spring

2.4. Economic alternatives and emancipation

Introduction:
– Social economy then and now : socialist and anarchist perspectives
– Feminist perspectives on economic alternatives : an intergenerational dialogue
– From then to now : economic alternatives for who ? With who ? Why ?
– Economic justice by and for racialized communities
– Economic resurgence in indigenous communities
In-depth:
– Reframing and reclaiming economic practices
– Profoundly democratic businesses and organizations
– Economic initiatives, politics and revolution

2.5. Building a counter-hegemony: Critical discourses, culture of resistance and popular pedagogy

Introduction:
– Understanding and facing hegemony
– Popular education
– The Purpose of Culture – Exploring the Popular Avant Garde.
– Medias, critical discourses and public space
In-depth:
– Counterculture and Social Reproduction
– Emancipatory imaginary
– Queer Counter-Hegemonic Cultural Production
– Cognitive Mapping, Affect and the Aesthetic Experience

3- Post-capitalist models

3.1. The future of the past : Socialist experience and prefigurative initiatives

Introduction:
– May 1968 and the will to self-manage
– “Real existing socialism” : Appraisal and critique
In-depth:
– Appraisal of utopian socialism
– From Moscow to Berlin : the experience of worker councils
– Self-management and occupation of factories
– The experience of Worker Internationals
– Third World strategies

3.2. Creative utopias for the 21st century

Introduction:
– The meaning of utopias today
– Decentralization and participatory budgets : forms of direct democracy
In-depth:
– Defining an ecosocialist society
– The question of commons today
– From Burlington to Rojava : libertarian municipalism today
– The ecofeminist critique and the renewal of the anticapitalist project
– Economic planification, markets and their role in a post-capitalist society
– The role of new technologies in an emancipated society
– International relations in an emancipated world