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Marxist School of Sacramento

Online Author Night! Missed it? Watch it now.


Marxist School of Sacramento presents:


Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020, 7pm Pacific Daylight Time

Couldn't make it? Want to see it again? Click here for the video.

Cynthia Kaufman introduces her new book, Challenging Power: Democracy and Accountability in a Fractured World (Bloomsbury, 2020).

A close up of author Cynthia KaufmanArguing that we only have democracy when systems of power are held to account, Kaufman examines the real work being done to challenge the operations of power that underlie four unruly social problems: climate change, sweatshop labor, police abuse, and economic deprivation.

In Challenging Power, Kaufman pairs each of these issues with an operation of power—the large scale influence of multinational corporations; the power of governments; the authority of financial markets; and the control inherent in systems of meaning—and using case studies like the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh and the killing of Eric Garner, forcefully demonstrates what is involved in challenging these operations of power.

Advancing a positive message, Kaufman maintains that these networks are not omnipotent and can be challenged if we develop “mechanisms of accountability” which allow us to conceptualize the nature of these problems and the actions required to resist them. Kaufman provides then, a model for ethical action that allows us to investigate and appreciate our own connections to the powerful forces that control our world.

Cynthia Kaufman is the Director of the Vasconcellos Institute for Democracy in Action at De Anza College, USA, where she also teaches Philosophy. She is the author of two books on social change Getting Past Capitalism: History, Vision, Hope (2012) and Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change (2003). She is a lifelong activist for social change and has worked on issues such as tenants' rights, police abuse, union organizing, international politics, and most recently climate change. She has spoken for the Marxist School in April, 2004, May, 2013, and April 2017.


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