Borough of Manhattan Community College, a taxpayer-supported institution, is preparing to host a “Radical Assembly” featuring socialist discussions on topics ranging from “imperial hubris” and China’s growing influence to “trans futures.”
The college, which belongs to the City University of New York system, is co-sponsoring the three-day conference next spring. Its program includes a series of panels focused on anti-capitalist ideas and socialist politics.
“Radical Assembly is an annual conference dedicated to the development of critical Marxist theory and socialist strategy,” states an invitation obtained by The Post.
According to the electronic invitation, the conference is scheduled for April 22 through April 24 at BMCC.
BMCC’s Political Science Program is organizing the gathering with Historical Materialism, an organization that describes itself as an “international intellectual and political project dedicated to advancing critical Marxist theory.” The Institute for the Radical Imagination is also listed as a co-sponsor. The group says it seeks to develop critical analysis and democratic socialist strategy while bringing together academics, organizers, artists and social movements.
Organizers are inviting researchers to submit papers and panel proposals under the conference theme, “Facing Despair, Fighting Despair.”
The invitation argues that capitalism’s expanding systems of “coercion and command,” along with ongoing wars and the spread of authoritarian governments, have left dominated groups—particularly younger people—looking toward a future that seems increasingly harsh and uncertain.
The event is presented as a forum for wide-ranging “comradely discussion” about critical Marxist theory and research across countries and academic fields, including philosophy, political economy, sociology, literature and cultural studies, history and political theory.
Topics for discussion, according to the invitation, include:
Critics slammed the pro-Marxist conference as further evidence of higher education run amok by caving in Marxist ideologues who hate America and want to overthrow it..
“This is an absolute disgrace. It’s downright scary,” said New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar.
“BMCC is a taxpayer-financed institution. They’re forcing taxpayers to pay to promote Marxism, whose goal is the violent overthrow of the US government. It’s a threat to our society,” he said.
BMCC is CUNY’s largest community college with about 21,000 students and an $187 million budget.
The school receives city and state operating and capital funding, and many of its students attend BMCC tuition-free or with substantial tuition subsidies from the state and federal governments.
