The Socialism and Capitalism course is offered in-person in downtown Fredericton under the auspices of the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education.
Start date for the course was Monday, March 16, 2026. Registration is now closed. The course is capped at 15 students and will be offered again in September 2026. The course is free or by voluntary donation.
The course is taught by Thom Workman. See Thom’s bio HERE.
Overview
Our 8-week course examines the historical development of socialism as a response to the continual evolution of capitalism. We ask: “What is socialism now and how did we get here?” And we ask: “What is capitalism now and how has it changed?” All the while we trace the evolution of socialism as an analytical and political paradigm responding to the harmful and often violent effects of capitalism. Throughout our journey we will stress that the essence of socialism involves the desire to get beyond the horrors, misery, and trauma caused by capitalism.
Week 1: Socialism as a Footnote to the French Revolution
After introductions, we will begin our exploration of socialism by looking at three contemporary labour struggles—one in New Brunswick, one in the US, and one in the majority world. From these struggles we will begin to outline the essentials of socialism with respect to economic, social, and political questions. After surveying socialism in its broadest sense, we’ll explore the rise of socialism as a response to the limited achievements of the French Revolution, focusing on the drift towards the scientific socialism of Marx and Engels.
Week 2: The Nuts and Bolts of Capitalism
To better understand socialism we must grasp the essentials of capitalism. We will explore the basic elements of capitalism including private property, wage labour, and the continual extension of the commodity form into all facets of life. We will highlight capitalism’s crisis-prone character (including its four major historical crises — late 1890s, 1930s, 1970s, and late 2000s). And we will survey the relevant aspects of capitalism’s past leading to the post-WWII accumulation regime and the eventual rise and consolidation of the neoliberal order (our world today with a dab of austerity!).
Week 3: Socialism as a Footnote to the Russian Revolution
With a better sense of the essentials of both socialism and capitalism in mind, this session explores socialism as a 20th-century footnote to the Russian Revolution, especially the development of socialism through the inter-war period from 1918 to 1945. We’ll then chart the post-WWII evolution of socialism through capitalism’s so-called Golden Age and into the neoliberal era. We conclude with a snapshot of socialism as broadly understood today.
Week 4: The Capitalist State
Drawing upon generations of socialist analysis this session examines the state – comprising the police and military, the bureaucracy, the legislature, and the judicial system – as the primary institution overseeing capitalist consolidation and expansion. We explore its two primary functions: i) optimizing the conditions of capital accumulation which takes innumerable forms and ii) the management of the class struggle at home and abroad. We will also highlight the brutally repressive nature of the capitalist state, especially in the aftermath of the Russian revolution.
Week 5: Imperialism
This session looks at imperialism, especially how it has evolved in the post-WWII era, the unique role of the US as the custodian of the post-WWII order, and recent trends in the global capitalist economy that have called the continuation of US hegemony into question.
Week 6: Capitalism, Canada, and Class
With our understanding of socialism, capitalism, the state, and imperialism under our belts, this session explores Canada’s capitalist history a little more closely. We look at the consolidation of capitalism in the 19th century, the historic formation of unions, the formation of socialist parties in the early 20th century, the post-war economic boom, the consolidation of the neoliberal framework, and the present challenges facing socialists, unions, and the working class.
Week 7: Unions and the Labour Regime
Building on session 6, we’ll survey the consolidation of the post-WWII labour regime with a focus on Canada. We examine the development and nature of labour laws, labour militancy, union density in the private and public sectors, the gutting of labour laws, gender issues in the workplace, the neoliberal assault on the working class and their unions over the last few decades, and the challenges facing unions at this foreboding political juncture.
Week 8: Socialism today
As we near Mayday (May 1st) we will highlight workplace resistance and working class struggle today in all of its forms. Socialists are optimists – and socialists are not ‘social democrats’! As we will reiterate, socialists remain fundamentally committed to supplanting the ‘profit oriented’ capitalist system with a society built around the production of goods and services to meet genuine human needs. To conclude our course we will re-cap and evaluate the evolution of socialist ideals as manifested in the four internationals, the major 20th-century socialist parties, the Russian revolution, communist parties, social movements tinged with socialist ideals in the majority world, producer cooperatives in Spain and Italy, and the character of the socialist feminist and eco-socialist traditions.