the 8 a.m. course in American Government that everyone tried to avoid, but when you are a first-year student at a small university there aren't many options available at registration. The course was taught by an instructor who had his master's degree from UT-Austin and he usually showed up in class with his tattered denim jacket and jeans. The course focused more on issues of social justice and equality than what any of the other political science professors emphasized in their classes.

I wasn't that active in social sciences since my strongest courses were math and chemistry, but the following semester I remember joining in discussions with two older students that were taking the course in Marxism that was taught by the same instructor. I've always been influenced by that one American Government class and tried to blend the beliefs from it into my professional career which was dominated by capitalism and corporatism.

I'm in the process of applying for SSDI and if it is approved I would like to move back to my college town (Georgetown, Texas). In a year from now I will be eligible to take some short 6-week courses in the "Senior University" so I would enjoy making up on the courses that I missed during my first round of college. While I will always enjoy my time as a stat analyst and programmer, I believe that my next passion will be in the social sciences and as an advocate for social causes.

Thanks for posting this thread, I've seen the socialism conference advertised on socialistworker.org and know that it begins on June 26. I envy you if you get the chance to attend.

The next phase of your life sounds like a wonderful path! There's plenty of work to do in this country for social causes, glad to have you in the fight too.

Next week, I'm actually going to be at a union "boot camp" summer school class, but hopefully some others will report back from the SW conference.

If you'd like to see some of the panels from our CPUSA convention, there are videos at this link here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQPPvpSCGKNeoTQZUCnOgng

We covered a lot of ground! We are an early-rising bunch too.

The commies are supposed to be lazy, sleep all day, and lead people to not be ambitious according to their folk tales lies.

Thank you for the link. I'll try to catch up on some of the discussions.

If you have 90 minutes, I completely recommend watching this panel from the convention: "Working for a living", featuring activists from the Fight for 15 campaign, including NaQuasia Legrand, who was on The Colbert Report in January.

Good news

Or wish that will happen here.

You have no idea what Communism is.

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Our rules:

Welcome to the Socialist Progressives Group. Posts in this group should generally be supportive of socialism and socialists. We are largely anti-capitalist and will not tolerate red-baiting. We welcome leftists of all persuasion as allowed per the admin's TOS. Democratic (ballot box) socialism, revolutionary socialism, Syndicalists and autonomists are all ok. Pure black flag (as opposed to red/black) anarchists who would rather organize with any anarchist than socialists, including anarcho-capitalists and libertarians, will not be welcome. If you don't know what kind of anarchist you are, cool, so long as you don't hijack and red-bait. This includes no "you're a dictator-lover" if you support the Russian Revolution. CPUSA members, please chime in.

Social Democrats are welcome with the explanation that if someone believes in "regulated" capitalism and social programs, they're a Keynesian, not a socialist. We welcome your questions as long as you're pleasant and don't red bait or shift the discussion away from socialism. You'll find many of us support Obama and his re-election given our two-party system, but this is not the forum to talk about the intricacies of elections - see Politics 2012 for those conversations. We are more concerned with safe-guarding the working class gains we've made in this country thus far and encouraging the peaceful transition to socialism. Please no Trotsky or Stalin baiting, we've all seen it fracture groups and do not want to fight that battle again.

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