Creating a Humanist Opposition: A Four-Part Online Training Course
Starts Wednesday February 5, 2025 @ 6 p.m. Pacific Time
Runs weekly until Feb. 26
Introduction: Why a Humanist Opposition?
The Trump administration’s first week has been a blitzkrieg: A massive assault on our
hard-fought civil/human rights, labor, anti-discrimination and environmental regulations
and the announcement of plans for imperialist expansion. Trump’s full pardon for over
1500 January 6, 2021 white supremacist insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Congress
and violently injured and killed innocent people, and his pardoning of anti-abortion
activists blocking access to clinics, show what his administration has in store for us.
The fact that 77 million or 49.9% of voting Americans voted for Trump in 2024, will
make it more difficult and dangerous to oppose this administration’s inhuman policies
and actions through classic methods such as strikes and mass protests. Free elections
may be out of the picture soon.
Faced with this reality, we need a Humanist Opposition not only to expose the Trump
administration, its disinformation and brutality, but also to delve into the burning issues
of the day, the roots of problems and offer comprehensive solutions and alternatives.
This four-part training course will address the philosophical foundations, social,
economic and global perspectives as well as practical skills needed to create a humanist
opposition. Each session will include a PowerPoint presentation, suggested readings
and practice assignments.
I. What Is Humanism?
II. What Are the Underlying Causes of Authoritarianism & Fascism in the 21 st
Century?
III. How to Become a Critical Humanist Thinker/Writer/Activist
IV. How to Oppose Warmongering & Practice International Solidarity
Instructor: Frieda Afary, Philosophy M.A., M.L.I.S., Iranian American librarian, translator,
author of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach (Pluto Press, 2022) (Audible, 2025).
Readings:
Class I. What Is Humanism?
Wednesday February 5 at 6:00 pm Pacific Time
*Kant, Immanuel. (1785) Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (OPTIONAL)
https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/kant1785.pdf (read pages 28-30 of the
text)
*Marx, Karl. (1844) “Alienated Labor.”
https://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/368/368marxestranged.html
*Lorde, Audre. (1979) “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.”
https://monoskop.org/images/2/2b/Lorde_Audre_1983_The_Masters_Tools_Will_Neve
r_Dismantle_the_Masters_House.pdf
Class II. What Are the Underlying Causes of Authoritarianism & Fascism in the 21 st
Century?
Wednesday February 12 at 6:00 pm Pacific Time
Afary, Frieda (2025). “Underlying Causes of Authoritarianism & Fascism in the 21 st
Century”
Class III. How to Become a Critical Humanist Thinker/Writer/Activist
Wednesday February 19 at 6:00 pm Pacific Time
Maryanne Wolf. (2018). Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World.
Harper Publishing. (Also available through Audible)
Chapter 3: Deep Reading
Class IV. How to Oppose Warmongering & Practice International Solidarity
Wednesday February 26 at 6:00 pm Pacific Time
Feminist Workshop Video. (2024) “Solidarity with Ukraine: A Feminist Perspective.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0er16ufXQxM
Zoom Registration link
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/UNJk7duZSLClxc49ucupQA
Participants need to log into their own zoom account before registering and entering
the zoom room.
For further details, please contact Frieda Afary, [email protected]
