The Political Education working group ran a reading group series on volume 1 of Capital. We read the first six chapters over a series of biweekly meetings.
Join us September 12 at 6:30pm at the Sandbox (70 Audubon Street, New Haven) for a screening of Ousmane Sembène’s classic rise-and-fall tale dissecting colonialism and poverty from an angle not many films show. The film will be proceeded by a 30-minute discussion about its themes!
All are welcome to join us for this free public event. Snacks will be provided!
Film synopsis: A money order from a relative in Paris throws the life of a Senegalese family man out of order. He deals with corruption, greed, problematic family members, the locals and the changing from his traditional way of living to a more modern one.
Foraging is, for many, an increasingly popular hobby done with friends, family, and local foraging clubs. For many others, foraging has long been a cultural tradition, a strategy for survival, and even a method of resistance.
In October 2025, we in Science for the People – New Haven ran a teach-in event focusing on the political landscape of foraging, combining a foraging walk with discussions on the ways in which the practice of foraging has always been political.
We are pleased to present the sequel event, which will focus on how food is used as a weapon in the context of imperialist ambitions. While we go on another foraging walk in our local New Haven neighbourhoods, we will ask questions like: What were the foraging and farming practices of the Indigenous peoples of CT, and how were they affected by the inherent settler-colonialism in the founding of the United States? How is starvation used as a deliberate tactic in wars and imperialist aggression, from Cuba to Palestine? What were the intentional, human-made causes of the Bengal famine? How are monoculture and seed cultivation practices used to exert economic and agricultural control over the Global South?
Join us for this combined discussion and guided walk event to explore these topics and our local environments!
In preparation for this event, we ask that all attendees review the resources linked below and engage in-depth with the first resource [#1] * and * at least two of the remaining six resources [#2 – #7]. The written resources relate to our topic of food being used as a weapon of war and imperialism, and our discussion will be guided by these.
We will be meeting at the Duck Pond (also called Edgewood Park Pond) in Edgewood Park and ending at the gazebo (where the CitySeed farmer’s market is held). The event will involve about an hour of walking over a one-mile trail. Please dress in appropriate walking shoes, bring water and a cap for the Sun if you need, and be mindful of the weather!
Resources
[1] From Indigenous Foodways to the “Trail of Tears” Reconnecting with Mother Earth: Foraging with Indigenous Values – NATIFS Some initial questions: a) What is your approach to foraging – do you have or take the time to observe and study nature? b) Are you using identification apps? Are they helpful for you? Do you think they bring you closer to nature or keep you connected to technology?
[2] Hunger on the Trail of Tears https://www.nobelpeacecenter.org/en/news/hunger-on-the-trail-of-tears Summary: The Trail of Tears, in the 1830s, was a significant event in United States governments’ policy of extermination and starvation of the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island. Forced starvation and controlling food resources played a central part in this policy. Destruction of crops and food stores was used by European settlers to drive Indigenous tribes in the East to newly allocated areas in the West. U.S. leaders also found it easier to kill bison, an important food source for numerous tribes, than wage all-out war against Indigenous Peoples. In this manner, control of food and starvation were important aspects of the settler-colonial practices carried out during and after the founding of the U.S. that were aimed at the genocide of Native Americans.
[3] Cuba: sanctions to punish the population Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom) https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 Summary: This memo, officially declassified in 1991, was written in 1960 by then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Lester Mallory, imploring that “every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba”, including inducing starvation among the population, in order to undermine the revolutionary communist government. The United States instituted an embargo on Cuba the following year, which continues to this day.
[4] How British colonizers caused the Bengal famine https://newint.org/features/2021/12/07/feature-how-british-colonizers-caused-bengal-famine Summary: Britain for a long time claimed that the 1943 famine in Bengal was an unavoidable natural disaster, but researchers today agree that it was human-made, and war-time inflation made food inaccessible to millions of people in Bengal — leading to 3million+ deaths and many more being pushed deeper into poverty. Utsa Patnaik (Indian marxist economist) has suggested that the war-time inflation was a deliberate policy designed by John Maynard Keynes and Winston Churchill, to deprive Bengalis living in poverty of resources and transfer them to British/US troops and support WWII activities.
[5] The New “Green Revolution” for Africa: A Revolution for Farmers, or for Corporate Profits? https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/vol25-1-the-soil-and-worker/the-new-green-revolution-for-africa/ Summary: This article discusses the impact of the Gates Foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a non-profit founded by the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations, on food sovereignty, agricultural systems, and small farmers and in Africa. AGRA claims to seek a “transformation” of African agriculture through a “green revolution”, but in reality, the article argues, this takes the form of nothing more than a forced industrialization of African agriculture in order to “open up new markets for industrial and chemical-intensive agriculture in Africa.” Meanwhile the Gates Foundation and other philanthropic institutions ensure that decision making and sovereignty remain out of the hands of African farmers and guided by corporate and imperial desires instead. This article includes an interview with Daniel Maingi, Programs Manager at Growth Partners Africa and Coordinator of the Kenya Food Rights Alliance.
[6] Gaza: evidence points to Israel’s continued use of starvation to inflict genocide against Palestinians https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/gaza-evidence-points-to-israels-continued-use-of-starvation-to-inflict-genocide-against-palestinians/ Summary: By continuing to prevent UN and other key humanitarian organizations from distributing certain essential items, like food parcels, fuel and shelter, within Gaza and by maintaining a deadly, dehumanizing and ineffective militarized ‘aid’ scheme, Israeli authorities have turned aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians. They have also deliberately fueled chaos and compounded suffering instead of alleviating it. The aid delivered is also way below the humanitarian needs of a population that has been experiencing almost daily bombings.
[7] Excerpts from After Hunger: In Conversation with Sean Sherman Link to excerpts from the article Summary: Sean Sherman, “The Sioux Chef,” describes how colonization devalued complex local knowledge systems and destroyed complex local food systems and connects educational sovereignty to food sovereignty. Sherman observes that hunger and ill health are endemic features of colonialism and the globalized, commodified food systems that have emerged out of Western imperialism. For Sherman, learning from the past and building on foundations of local indigenous knowledge systems, and the food traditions of peoples who “held a strong sense of the wild plants where they lived, utilizing nature’s botanical components—trees, roots, flowers, fruits, seaweeds,” offers a pathway forward to a vision of better individual, societal, and planetary health.
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Additional recommended reading (optional) for context local to New England: [1] Indians 201: Aboriginal farming in New England – Daily Kos Summary: Foraging was an important part of the indigenous diet, in addition a lot of agriculture was done that often evaded the eyes of the European settlers [2] The Pilgrims Had No Idea How to Farm Here. Luckily, They Had the Native Americans – Modern Farmer Summary: The “Pilgrims” would not have survived if the local indigenous people of the Wampanoag wouldn’t have helped them by introducing them to local foods that grow in the coastal soil. Indigenous techniques of using plants that support each other and ash and fish as fertilizer was the basis for the survival of people in this region.
The Political Education working group will be running a reading group this spring. The reading group format will be focused on taking turns facilitating and picking readings; any who join will be welcome to facilitate a session (but are not required to). The session will run for an hour and a half and be accessible on Zoom. Anyone local to the New Haven chapter area is welcome to join us!
If you are interested in joining this or future sessions, please email nhv@scienceforthepeople.org for the location details and/or zoom link!
Past Sessions and Readings
Session 1: The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, Introduction
Join us on a walking tour as we learn about and encounter the way that the building of the biotech sector in New Haven in link to the destruction of the lives and livelihood of many people in the the city. Just us as we witness how local real estate interests, finance capital, and Yale university have come together to shape the making of the city.
We will start walking at 1:10, so please arrive on time!
Join us to critically engage with the history and current reality of the displacement and transformation of the lives that working class and racialized peoples have and are experiencing due to the rising biotechnology and medical industrial complex in New Haven. As political and economic coalitions on the state and local level are fortifying around this form of development, it is urgent that we know what has happened, what is happening, and what could potentially happen if we do not create the conditions for different forms of life. Please join us during this walking tour to investigate this history and present! Please RSVP for exact meetup location. Note that we plan to start walking at 11:10, so please be on time!
Guided foraging walks and similar events are now commonplace in Connecticut and beyond, especially as foraging explodes in popularity across social media platforms. But while we explore the landscape of edible plants and fungi in our communities, we must also work to learn and understand the complex political landscape of foraging as well. Who is allowed or denied access to foraging? How have no-trespassing and private property laws historically been employed to dispossess Indigenous and Black communities in the so-called United States? How are anti-foraging laws disguised as environmental protection regulations currently being used by the zionist regime in Occupied Palestine to criminalize Indigenous Palestinian food practices and facilitate land grabbing? What does this say about capitalist and colonial control of our food systems? From Turtle Island to Palestine, foraging has always been political. Join us for this joint discussion and guided walk event to explore these topics and our local environments!
In preparation for this event, we ask that all attendees review the resources linked below and engage in-depth with at least one of these resources.
Last April, we ran a teach-in at Possible Futures in New Haven about the weapons manufacturing industry in Connecticut and one of its biggest players: Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of RTX (Raytheon) that manufactures jet engines. Now, with the Power Down Pratt campaign, we’re bringing this teach-in to Hartford on October 4th at Semilla Cafe! Bring a friend, see you there, and come ready to learn about how Connecticut runs on weapons.
Join us at Possible Futures on Saturday, July 12th, from 2:30 to 4:30 for a release event for the latest Palestine issue of the Science for the People magazine! Together, we will read and discuss articles from the magazine, which include topics ranging from birthwork under occupation to the ongoing scholasticide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine. Refreshments and masks will be provided and copies of the magazine will be for sale. See you there!
