Oppositions

Bonuses for Some

OPPOSITIONS

Oppositions: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference

28th and 29th September 2012 

University of Salford 

This conference seeks to explore ideas of opposition through the full range of disciplines in the arts, media, and social sciences. In the context of the current crisis of capitalism, there are many examples of the forms ‘opposition’ can take: the Tea Party in the United States, the rise of fascist groups, campaigns run via new technologies and social media, religious fundamentalisms, and general strikes in Greece. Though it carries radical overtones, ‘opposition’ in itself is not tied to any particular dogma, left or right. 

We invite papers that explore the value and values of opposition as a position to be adopted by individuals or groups. We welcome proposals for papers from postgraduates that engage with any aspect of opposition. 

These could include, but are by no means limited to: the ‘culture industry’ and alternative youth cultures; opposition parties within parliamentary politics; grass-roots activism; the history and future of the labour movement; hegemony; Foucauldian ‘resistance’ and its limits; radical pedagogies and the role of the University; community and class; the aesthetic value of non-mainstream or outsider art; aesthetic oppositions such as contrapuntal music or bricolage; and the formation of creole or pidgin languages. 

Papers are welcome from fields such as politics, literature, philosophy, anthropology, religions and theology, geography, sociology, history, classics, translation studies, linguistics and social linguistics, visual and screen studies, new media and communication studies, and the performing arts. Interdisciplinary papers are very welcome. Keynote speakers TBC. 

Abstracts of 250 words are invited for presentations of 20 minutes. Proposals for performances, screenings etc. are also accepted. The conference intends to publish an edited volume of the best papers presented.

Send abstracts to oppositionsconference[at]gmail.com by 6 July 2012.

Oppositions: http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/46251

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Antipode Foundation Scholar-Activist Project Awards

ANTIPODE FOUNDATION SCHOLAR-ACTIVIST PROJECT AWARDS

The Foundation expects to allocate each successful application up to £10,000 (or equivalent) to support collaborations between academics, non-academics and activists (from NGOs, think tanks, social movements, or community grassroots organisations, for example) which further radical analyses of geographical issues and engender the development of a new and better society. The Awards are aimed at promoting programmes of action-research, participation and engagement, cooperation and co-enquiry, and more publicly-focused forms of geographical investigation.

See http://antipodefoundation.org/scholar-activist-project-awards/ for more.

Antipode Foundation Regional Workshop Awards

The Foundation expects to allocate each successful application up to £10,000 (or equivalent) to fund events (including conferences, workshops, seminar series, summer schools and action research meetings) which further radical analyses of geographical issues and engender the development of a new and better society.

See: http://antipodefoundation.org/regional-workshop-awards/ for more.

***

Applications for this first round of awards must be in by 30 June 2012. Forms are available from and should be returned to Andy Kent (antipode@live.co.uk), who is more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

Antipode Foundation: http://antipodefoundation.org/

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Trade Unions, Free Trade and the Problem of Transnational Solidarity

Glenn Rikowski

TRADE UNIONS, FREE TRADE AND THE PROBLEM OF TRANSNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

Workshop at Nottingham 2/3 December 2011 – Papers now Available!

Resistance against free trade agreements has increased since the demonstrations at the WTO ministerial conference inSeattlein 1999. Positions by trade unions on free trade agreements are, however, ambiguous. While trade unions in the North especially in manufacturing have supported free trade agreements to secure export markets for ‘their’ companies, trade unions in the Global South oppose these agreements, since they often imply deindustrialisation.

Academics, trade union researchers and social movement activists met in a two-day workshop, hosted by the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) at the School of Politics and International Relations/University of Nottingham, on 2 and 3 December 2011 to discuss these issues in detail. The purpose of the workshop was to understand better the dynamics underlying free trade as well as explore possibilities for transnational solidarity between labour movements in the North and South. The papers of the workshop can be downloaded below:

Panel 1 – Conceptual and methodological considerations
Panel 2 – Free trade and particular sectors
Panel 3 – European trade unions and free trade
Panel 4 – Free trade negotiations
Panel 5 – Free trade and the Global South
Panel 6 – Resistance to free trade agreements and the quest for alternatives

Original source: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/now-available-contributions-from-decembers-trade-unions-free-trade-and-the-problem-of-transnational-solidarity-workshop-at-nottingham

The Battle in Seattle: Its Significance for Education, by Glenn Rikowski (London, Tufnell Press, 2001)

From the publishers: http://www.tpress.free-online.co.uk/seattle.html

“It’s a wonderful outline of the new anti-capitalist activity It pulls together all aspects of changes to all levels of education, as it is drawn into the profit business ­ and ever further away from wider concepts of education.” — Caroline Benn, Hillcole Group of Radical Left Educators, and President of the Socialist Education Association

“This is essential reading for all those the world over who have been driven to the margins of existence by forces of the current phase of capitalism – globalisation. It helps to understand the forces hiding behind bodies such as the World Trade Organisation that drive us relentlessly towards giving up control over our minds and bodies. This booklet looks particularly at the dangers facing education systems from the global search for mega profits. It also shows that people’s resistance can make a difference in snatching control over their lives.” — Shiraz Durrani, Information for Social Change

“Glenn Rikowski vividly demonstrates the centrality of education in capitalist globalisation. With precision and utmost clarity, he also details the historical background to ‘The Battle in Seattle’ as well as the other mass demonstrations against global capitalism and its agents of destruction. Rikowski’s seminal text is destined to become essential reading for critical/radical educators and political activists, but it should be read by everyone who is concerned with, and about, the future of education indeed, the future of humanity.” — Paula Allman, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Nottingham, and author of Critical Education Against Global Capital: Karl Marx and Revolutionary Critical Education

“Glenn Rikowski has produced a brilliant and I believe historical landmark in Left education.” — Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution

“I felt compelled to grab the red flag and take to the streets as I worked through Glenn Rikowski’s well documented exposé of what the World Trade Organisation is up to and its plans for education. But Glenn’s analysis is much more than a clarion call. It anchor’s that call in solid theory and critique so that my immediate response can now be matched by informed and focused action. An activist’s true handbook.” — Helen Raduntz, University of South Australia

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Battle-Seattle-Significance-Education/dp/1872767370/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333617350&sr=1-3

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Insurgency and Resistance

We Are The Crisis

INSURGENCY AND RESISTANCE

Call for Papers

Theme: Insurgency and Resistance
Type: 34th Annual North American Labor History Conference
Institution: Wayne State University
Location: Detroit, MI (USA)
Date: 18.–20.10.2012
Deadline: 23.3.2012
________________

The Program Committee of the North American Labor History Conference invites proposals for sessions, papers, and roundtables on “Insurgency and Resistance” for our thirty-fourth annual meeting.

Throughout history, workers have engaged in insurgency and resistance from factories to fields, from plantations to plants, from mines to mills, and in cities and in the countryside. Power and authority have been contested on a variety of terrains, both inside and outside of traditional labor structures. More recently, conflicts have erupted in Latin America, the Arab world, southern Europe, China, and across North America.

The program committee encourages submissions from international, comparative, and interdisciplinary perspectives. We welcome the integration of public historians with community and labor activists, using a variety of formats (workshops, roundtable discussions, book talks, and multimedia presentations). We encourage thematic sessions that cross borders, both disciplinary and geographical, especially those dealing with race, gender, class, and empire.

Please submit papers and panel proposals (including a 1 paragraph abstract and a brief vita or biographical statement for all participants) by March 23, 2012 to: nalhc@wayne.edu.

Contact:
Professor Francis Shor, Coordinator
North American Labor History Conference
Department of History
Wayne State University
3094 Faculty Administration Building
Detroit, MI 48202
USA
Phone: +1 313 577-2525
Fax: +1 313 577-6987
Email: nalhc@wayne.edu
Web: http://nalhc.wayne.edu

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Fighting Neo-liberalism with Education and Activism

Neoliberalism at Bedtime

FIGHTING NEO-LIBERALISM WITH EDUCATION AND ACTIVISM

By DAVE HILL

This is a revolutionary period in world history. The collapse of finance capitalism, the bankers’ bailouts across the globe, the continuing bankers’ bonuses, and the intrinsic problems of finance capitalism have, under current `bourgeois’ parliamentarist rule, resulted in ordinary families, workers and communities,`paying for the crisis’. All this, while the national and international capitalist classes and organisations impose austerity capitalism on a reeling public and public educational, social, health and welfare systems. This `austerity capitalism’ has led to an eruption of discontent-against political, economic and financial dictatorship, through the Arab Spring, the indignados in Spain, the Occupy movements throughout the world, and the million strong protests against the 13 Feb 2012 austerity programme enforced by the international capitalist `troika’ (European Central bank, International Monetary Fund, and the European Commission) on the Greek people.

These developments raise questions about the nature of bourgeois capitalist parliamentarist democracy as much as they do about the nature and morality and cruel impacts of capitalist economy — of life under/within capitalism. They also raise questions about social and economic inequality, meritocracy, equality and egalitarianism, and the role of education and of political activism. 

A question that must be asked is how does the socio-economic and political system of a country work in complicity with the corporate media and how does this impact the school system? There is no automatic mechanistic and deterministic relationship between an economic structure, such as the capitalist economic structure and resulting social relationships on the one hand, and society’s social and political structures on the other. But there is a relationship, even if not mechanistic and unproblematic. There is resistance, at various levels, by individuals, by groups, in what is a permanent `culture war’ between the ideas of the ruling capitalist class and their mouthpieces, and resistant, counter-hegemonic individuals and groups, such as students, critical intellectuals, and organizations such as workers’ organizations (though many have been `incorporated’ into the system).

It is fair to say, drawing on Althusser’s (1971) and Gramsci’s (1971) Marxist conceptual framework, that the apparatuses of the state do not brook much dissent for long: if it starts to threaten either the riches of the rich, or the capitalist system itself, which is essentially the same thing, then the state steps in, using either the wagging finger warning of repercussions, the iron fist in a velvet glove, or, ultimately the hammer of tear gas, bullets and prison cells.

Schools and universities, echoing Althusser (1971) are ideological state apparatuses whose purpose, for the capitalist class, is to preach and instill pro-capitalist and anti-socialist beliefs and, as Rikowski (for example, 2001, 2004) argues, to re-produce tiered hierarchicalised and socialized / quiescent labour power for the workplace

 

The full article can be read at: http://philosophers.posterous.com/fighting-neo-liberalism-with-education-and-ac

 

Reference as:

Hill, D. (2012) Fighting Neo-liberalism with Education and Activism, Posted at Philosophers for Change, 1^st March, online at: http://philosophers.posterous.com/fighting-neo-liberalism-with-education-and-ac

This article first appeared in Philosophers for Change, which can be viewed at: http://philosophers.posterous.com  

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Preoccupied 2012

Occupy London

PREOCCUPIED 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS (please feel free to circulate widely!)

PREOCCUPIED: The Words, Wounds and Workings of Occupations, Past and Present
Kulturpark Berlin, June 28-29 2012

Submit Proposals to: emjdconference@gmail.com
Due: March 16, 2012

Pairing the interdisciplinary nature of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programs with the innovation of multimedia storytelling, the PREOCCUPIED 2012 conference offers a platform for academics, activists and artists to challenge the confines of their disciplines: provoking thought, debate, and action on issues that have accelerated to global predominance in light of the recent occupations.

The conference invites papers that consider the various meanings of the word occupy and occupation. The disparate meanings of the increasingly-loaded word will be assembled in panels and a series of talks, interspersed with forays into art and activism, inviting participants to explore the roots of the current occupation movement, and its implications throughout time and place ­ in the realms of work, conquest, and protest.

Hosted by the Kulturpark Berlin, an abandoned DDR theme park, the conference will embody occupation in many ways: from its location, to its catering ­which will feature locally foraged greens and ‘recycled’ foods, courtesy of The Dinner Exchange. In collaboration with the Kulturpark and the 7th annual Berlin Biennale, international visual artists will coexist with the conference participants in the uncanny spaces of the Kulturpark. PREOCCUPIED is an unlikely conference, bringing together a diversity of people and opinions in two stimulating days of art, academics, action and interaction.

We welcome papers that address issues related to Occupation, in the broadest sense of the word. These might consider, but should by no means be limited to:

OCCUPATION OF SPACE
�    Occupation as colonization / decolonization
�    Occupied territories
�    Occupation of online spaces ­ social media and virtual action
�    The city as political space

OCCUPATION OF TIME
�    Occupation as employment, as a calling
�    Occupation in the humanities
�    Preoccupations and professions

THE OCCUPATIONS
�    Occupation as protest
�    Occupation as strategy
�    Occupation as change
�    Occupations worldwide
�    Art as occupation/resistance

Some of the presentations of papers will be video-recorded, and thus a certain use of interactivity, audiovisual materials and storytelling is encouraged. While not all of the talks need be filmed, the goal of creating engaged, concise talks should apply to all. Those that opt to have their talks filmed may see them featured on the conference’s website.

Paper Proposals

Scholars from all areas of the Humanities are invited to submit proposals for contributions. The conference languages are English, French, and German. Proposals may be written in any of the above languages.

We ask prospective participants to submit a short (1-2 page) CV and an abstract (between 250-500 words) that outlines the paper’s topic, methodology and argument, as well as how the prospective participant’s research interests relate to the theme of the conference.

Please note that individuals may submit only one paper proposal, either to the open call or as a part of a pre-constituted panel. Panels should number no more than three people, need not be limited to academics, and must include a single proposal of 500 words and separate CVs for all of the proposed panel members.

Please submit all CVs and proposals before March 16, 2012 to: emjdconference@gmail.com

Find more information about the conference online at: http://emjdconferences.wordpress.com

Thank you,
Samara Chadwick
Organizing Committee
PREOCCUPIED 2012

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Insurgency and Resistance

Capitalism IS Crisis

INSURGENCY AND RESISTANCE

CALL FOR PAPERS

INSURGENCY AND RESISTANCE

The 34th Annual North American Labor History Conference

October 18-20, 2012

Wayne State University

Detroit, Michigan

The Program Committee of the North American Labor History Conference invites proposals for sessions, papers, and roundtables on “Insurgency and Resistance” for our thirty-fourth annual meeting.

Throughout history, workers have engaged in insurgency and resistance from factories to fields, from plantations to plants, from mines to mills, and in cities and in the countryside.  Power and authority have been contested on a variety of terrains, both inside and outside of traditional labor structures. More recently, conflicts have erupted in Latin America, the Arab world, southern Europe, China, and across North America.

The program committee encourages submissions from international, comparative, and interdisciplinary perspectives.  We welcome the integration of public historians with community and labor activists, using a variety of formats (workshops, roundtable discussions, book talks, and multimedia presentations).  We encourage thematic sessions that cross borders, both disciplinary and geographical, especially those dealing with race, gender, class, and empire.

Please submit papers and panel proposals (including a 1 paragraph abstract and a brief vita or biographical statement for all participants) by March 23, 2012, to:

Professor Francis Shor, Coordinator, North American Labor History Conference, Department of History, Wayne State University, 3094 Faculty Administration Building, Detroit, MI 48202

Phone: 313-577-2525; Fax: 313-577-6987, Email: nalhc@wayne.edu

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Fellowships at the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice

Sara Motta

FELLOWSHIPS AT THE CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL AND GLOBAL JUSTICE

Announcement:

Dear colleagues and friends,

The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ), University of Nottingham, is excited to announce two one month visiting fellowships between February-March 2011 and May-June 2011.

This opportunity is available to academics, activists, community educators and others who believe that they could benefit from a stay with us at the Centre and believe they could fruitfully help us to continue to develop our work.

See the link below for further information: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cssgj/centre-members/research-fellows.aspx

Our best wishes
Sara Motta and Tony Burns
CSSGJ Co-Directors

 

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

 

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a new song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rage Against the Rule of Money

John Holloway

RAGE AGAINST THE RULE OF MONEY

Three Public Lectures by John Holloway

 

Rage Against the Rule of Money: http://johnhollowayinleeds.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/holloway-leeds-15-11-2010-45.jpg

Three public lectures by John Holloway, Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the MA in Activism and Social Change, School of Geography, University of Leeds: http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/study/masters/courses/maasc

28th November: Rage
6pm, Business School Western Lecture Theatre. Business School. University of Leeds

29th November: The Rule of Money
6pm, Business School Western Lecture Theatre. Business School. University of Leeds

30th November: Break the Power of Money! Communise!
6pm, The Space Project,  37-38 Mabgate Green Leeds.

Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Professor John Holloway is spending some time as a visiting professor at the School of Geography, University of Leeds in 2011 and is teaching at the MA in Activism and Social Change: http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/study/masters/courses/maasc

The lectures are free and open to the public and there is no need to book.

About the venues:
Business School Western Lecture Theatre, G01, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT: http://www.teachingspace.leeds.ac.uk/room_details.asp?ID=1-01-087-2570-GR+-G01

Information about how to get to the Business School (LUBS) in a map here: http://business.leeds.ac.uk/fileadmin/webfiles/General/lubs_map.pdf

Space project: http://www.spaceproject.org.uk/, 37-38 Mabgate Green, LS9 7DS.  It’s a non commercial space in Leeds facilitated by the Really Open University http://reallyopenuniversity.wordpress.com/.

See a map here: http://pedallers.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/p1030288.jpg.

For more information about these lectures contact: s.gonzalez@leeds.ac.uk or 0113 343 6639

Source: http://johnhollowayinleeds.wordpress.com/

 

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

 

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a new song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

London Anarchist Book Fair 2011

Anarchist Bookfair

LONDON ANARCHIST BOOK FAIR 2011

We have now booked the venue for the 2011 Book Fair. We will, for the fifth year running, be holding the event at Queen Mary College, University of London, on the Mile End Road.

The date for the 2011 Book Fair will be SATURDAY 22nd OCTOBER from 10am to 7pm.

If you or your group are involved in anything connected with anarchist theory or practice and want to book a stall or meeting we will be taking bookings from about June/July onwards. Please visit us again then for a booking form. 

This year, apart from the wide variety of anarchist groups and individuals having meetings, we are hoping to have a few surprises. 

We need help publicising the Bookfair far and wide this year. We want to get more people along to find out what we all do and say. We want to aim at those who may not have heard much about anarchism, apart from the rubbish on the TV.

We want to continue to make anarchism a threat again. So, if you can help by taking leaflets or posters to distribute (especially in London) please email us at mail@anarchistbookfair.org.uk letting us know how many you want and we will get them to you.

A big thank you to everyone who helped make last year’s bookfair run smoothly.  Last year we have nearly 60 meetings, over 100 stalls, an all day cabaret starring assorted ranters, poets, singers and comics; all day film showings and, two kids spaces. We are planning more of the same in 2011.

Due to building works at the university we will be holding the bookfair in a different part of the venue – but still on the same site in Mile End Road. All the activities will now be in one building rather than spread out over a number of building. This will be much better especially for parents and kids as the crèche and older kids space have been quite a way from the rest of us before.

It will also mean all the meeting rooms are now totally accessible for wheelchair users. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know in advance if possible so we can meet your needs. If you are Deaf and require BSL interpreting and/or speech-to-text provision, please give us as much notice as possible and we will do our best to organise these. To discuss any specific access needs, please contact us at access@anarchistbookfair.org.uk.
We will be having loads going on – so check the website, for a run down of the meetings and other events nearer the time. More will be added the nearer we get to October. 

This is all organised by a small collective – so any help before or on the day is very much appreciated. We always need your help to break even – so, any donations or funds from benefit gigs would come in very handy.

If you missed last years Bookfair, listen to the audio clips below to get a flavour of how things went. The first clip is a pre-Bookfair interview by Robert Elms with one of the organisers. The second is an interview during the Bookfair between another organiser and the journalist John Pilger.

Finally there is a link to the London Indymedia site where there are a number of audio links to talks and meetings as well as some video interviews with some of the 2010 bookfair speakers:

Robert Elms interviewing Tony Wood

Jane Ferrie interviewing John Pilger

2010 Anarchist Bookfair talks and interviews

Please note, our new email address is now mail [@] anarchistbookfair.org.uk

Getting to the venue: The venue is Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS.

If you are coming by public transport the following buses stop near the college on Mile End Road: 25; 205; 339.

If you are coming by tube the two nearest stations are Mile End (central line / Hammersmith & City line or District line) or Stepney Green (Hammersmith & City line or District line). From Mile End tube come out of station and turn left. Walk along Mile End Road until you get to Harford Street and entrance to venue is opposite Harford Road. From Stepney Green tube come out of station and turn left. Walk along Mile End Road and venue entrance is on your left opposite Harford Road.

See: map of the venue and surrounding area. 

Last Word

Anarchists all over the UK are putting on successful events – bookfairs in Bristol, Manchester, Bradford, Norwich, Oxford, Sheffield and Durham as well as Newcastle’s Projectile festival. No-one can say that anarchists can’t organise. These are great social events and a real opportunity to spread anarchist ideas as well as debating them. 

We know anarchist politics aren’t only about organising a bookfair. All of us in the Bookfair collective would choose a big, effective, militant anarchist movement over a successful bookfair. Let’s use these events to take things forward.

Anarchist Book Fair: http://anarchistbookfair.org.uk/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Marxism and Cultural Studies

Cultural Marxism

MARXISM AND CULTURAL STUDIES

Call for Essays: Culture, Theory and Critique special themed issue on Marxism and Cultural Studies (special thanks to Indiana University’s Cultural Studies Program)

Many accounts of the emergence and development of Cultural Studies accord a central place to Marxism, both as a body of knowledge and as an important ideological component of the New Left. The rediscovery of the writings of Antonio Gramsci, George Luckacs, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor Adorno, among others, along with the formation of the Birmingham Centre for Cultural Studies, led to a general renaissance of Marxist theory and cultural analysis, which in turn resulted in ground-breaking studies of working class culture, the political role of new social movements that were not class based, the power of ideology and mass culture in sustaining existing social relations, and critical analyses of state-authoritarianism. As Cultural Studies crossed the Atlantic and gained an institutional foothold in the United States, some have feared that its engagement with Marxism has been diluted through an over emphasis on the subversive potentialities of mass media and consumer capitalism.

Some possible questions to consider:

 * How do we understand the relationship between the base and superstructure today?

* Does ideology critique still have an ongoing usefulness?

* Do globalization and the world recession require new objects of study?

* To what extent does Marxism provide a utopian impulse for existing social movements?

* Do iterations of Cultural Studies in South Asia, Africa, Central and Latin America, the Middle East, and
Eastern Europe retain a commitment to Marxism and how is this work revitalizing the field more broadly?

* Does the Marxist imperative to historicize challenge current paradigms of cultural analysis such as
the “New Formalism”?

* What exactly does a historical materialist methodology enable?

* How do we articulate media analyses with questions of political economy, geo-politics, and activism?

* What is the role of the intellectual in Cultural Studies?

We welcome essays that address any of these issues. The questions are not meant to be proscriptive, however, and we welcome queries about possible article content.

Abstracts (250-500 words) due September 15, 2011; final essays need to be submitted for peer review by October 31, 2011. Length 5,000-7,000 words including notes.

Send proposals and essays to Joan Hawkins, editor and Jen Heusel, editorial assistant ctcjourn@indiana.edu

Culture, Theory and Critique is a refereed, interdisciplinary journal for the transformation and development of critical theories in the humanities and social sciences. It aims to critique and reconstruct theories by interfacing them with one another and by relocating them in new sites and conjunctures. Culture, Theory and Critique’s approach to theoretical refinement and innovation is one of interaction and hybridisation via recontextualisation and transculturation.

 

‘Culture, Theory and Critique’: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/routledge/14735784.html

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Marx in Soho

Howard Zinn

MARX IN SOHO

“It was smart, it was funny, and it was the perfect thing for the times in which we live.” —Michael Moore 

Coming to Chicago for two shows only:

Howard Zinn’s ‘Marx in SoHo‘ 

Marx is back! In this witty and insightful “play on history,” Karl Marx has agitated with the authorities of the afterlife for a chance to clear his name. Through a bureaucratic error, though, Marx is sent to Soho inNew York, rather than his old stomping ground in London, to make his case.

Howard Zinn, best known for his book, ‘A People’s History of the United States’, introduces us to Marx’s wife, Jenny, his children, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, and a host of other characters.

Brian Jones, an African American actor and activist, has been performing this engaging one-man show across the country since 1999.

Marx in Soho is a brilliant introduction to Marx’s life, his analysis of society, and his passion for radical change. Zinn also shows how Marx’s ideas are relevant in today’s world.

Saturday, June 25th @ 7pm

Experimental Station

6100 S. Blackstone Ave

in Hyde Park

Get tickets

Sunday, June 26th @ 1pm

Lifeline Theatre

6912 N. Glenwood Ave

in Rogers Park

Get tickets

$20 adults / $10 students (Suggested minimum donation)

For more information, visit http://marxinsohochicago2011.wordpress.com/

Sponsored by Haymarket Books and the International Socialist Organization – Chicago

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk