Winter 2022 Reading Clubs

In Winter 2022, Metro DC DSA is excited to host 5 short reading clubs from January to February—and we’d love for you to join one! If you are interested in signing up for a club, click here. Reading groups provide an opportunity to share learning and political education in a group setting, allowing members’ organizing and knowledge to develop alongside comrades.
Reading group meetings will be held virtually, though many groups have scheduled in-person social meet ups. All meetings will be held in the evenings. Most groups will meet weekly, with the day based on group availability. No experience or knowledge is necessary before entering any group and all readings will be made available online for free!
Ecosocialism and Public Power: This club will covering the basics of what is ecosocialism, left climate politics, and political economy of US electricity sector, with a focus on readings that attune with the focus of WePower DC. The club plans to continue into the Spring with a broader look at ecosocialism. More information is available here.
Socialism 101: This club aims to introduce participants to the basic concepts of socialism and the DSA’s core campaigns, with the intent of explaining what socialism is and how this moves socialists to action. More information is available here.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed: The club will center on Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, with the purpose of reading and understanding the text and discussing the role of liberatory learning in our own political education work. More information is available here.
Hegemony & Socialist Strategy: This club will critically engage with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s 1985 co-authored book Hegemony & Socialist Strategy (H&SS). A highly influential work, H&SS is considered one of the founding texts of the socialist intellectual tradition of post-Marxism, a term that was first coined by Laclau and Mouffe. More information is available here.
Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: this club will be reading the book Witches, Midwives, and Nurses by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English. Considered a classic, this 103 page book evolved from a pamphlet produced by grassroots organizers in the early 1970s. Barbara Ehrenreich was a founding member of DSA and Deirdre English is a former editor of Mother Jones magazine. The book traces the history of western health care from the perspective of women as healers. It shows how the healthcare system was taken over by capital, laying the structural foundation for the issues we face today.