STUDY GROUP: Do recent mass struggles like the January 2026 revolt in Minneapolis prove the working class can overcome the debilitating effects of decades of neoliberalism?

You are invited to join us for a two-part online study group organized by the Tempest Collective (Ottawa). It will take place at 7 PM Sunday, on July 12 and July 26.

In the 1980s, neoliberalism became the central ruling class strategy to reverse the gains working class people won and the movements they built during the 1960s and 1970s. Neoliberal policies were rolled out to discipline workers, raise the costs of resistance, destroy left initiatives and organizations, undermine class solidarity, decompose the working class, and reconstruct society as an aggregation of socially isolated individuals.

For decades, socialists and movement activists have fought to reverse the demoralization, atomization, fatalism, and fear that was the product of neoliberalism. The question of how to reconstitute the working class – as a group that once again exhibits the confidence, initiative, organization, and solidarity required to challenge the ruling class – has been the subject of constant debate on the left.

Three things seem vital for socialists and activists. First, we need to understand the neoliberal strategy the ruling class used in the first place. That will be the topic for the first session of this study group. Second, we need to carefully assess recent mass working-class uprisings (like Minneapolis in January) to learn what we can do to strengthen our own movements for future flash points of class struggle. That will be the second topic for this study group. The third thing is that we need to use the lessons of Minneapolis as a basis for making our own efforts more effective.

Join us for this two-part study group. To participate, send an email to socialisminthecapital@gmail.com

First session: What is neoliberalism? – July 12
• What is neoliberalism?
• How did it undermine the organizations, movements, and consciousness of the working class (broadly defined)?
Reading:
• Selections from Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance (2011), by David McNally -> pages 25-49, 114-126, 146-152, 183-194: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://comunizar.com.ar/wp-content/uploads/David-McNally-Global-Slump-The-Economics-and-Politics-of-Crisis-and-Resistance.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi78ZvjgY-VAxXOF1kFHdc9NLQQFnoECCMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0FUGuw4T_H2Vmt0am40vVc
Optional:
• “Review: What was Neoliberalism,” Charles Post, RS21, 2024: https://revsoc21.uk/2024/07/19/the-nature-of-neoliberalism/
Second session: What did the Minneapolis uprising teach us? – July 26
• What happened during the January 2026 uprising in Minneapolis?
• What does it tell us about how the working class can rebuild a sense of class and community adequate to sustaining anti-capitalist struggles?
Reading: one or more of the following
• “Lessons from Minneapolis,” Tempest National Committee, Tempest Magazine: https://tempestmag.org/2026/02/lessons-from-minneapolis/
• “Socialist Strategy: Minneapolis Shows the Way,” Simon Hannah, Socialist Alternative:

Socialist Strategy: Minneapolis shows the way

• “Minneapolis: Notes on a New Chapter of Class Struggle in the United States,” Daniel Kovacs, Left Voice Magazine: https://www.leftvoice.org/minneapolis-notes-on-a-new-chapter-of-class-struggle-in-the-united-states/
• “How to Build a Real General Strike Against ICE: Minnesota Shows What’s Possible,” Eric Blanc, Labor Politics: https://www.laborpolitics.com/p/how-to-organize-a-real-general-strike
Optional:
• “Horizons for a New Left,” Michael Principe, Against the Current, 2015: https://againstthecurrent.org/atc178/p4503/
• “Beyond Electoralism; Mass Action and the Remaking of the Working Class,” David McNally and Charles Post, Spectre, 2021: https://spectrejournal.com/beyond-electoralism/

For more about the Tempest Collective, an American/Canadian socialist group, please go to our webzine page: https://tempestmag.org/