Capitalism, Crisis and Alternatives

Capitalist Crisis

CAPITALISM, CRISIS AND ALTERNATIVES

Book Launch with Ozlem Onaran, Sean Thompson and Susan Pashkoff

Meet and hear some of the authors of the new title from Resistance Books:

Ozlem Onaran, Sean Thompson and Susan Pashkoff

WEDNESDAY 2 MAY, 7:30pm

Community Centre, 62 Marchmont Street, WC1N 1AB

(Kings Cross and Russell Square tubes)

 

Four years on from the start of the crisis, there is no recovery in sight. The Cameron-Clegg government may claim thatBritainis on the mend, but for the 99% of us the prospect for years to come is falling real incomes and insecurity. Meanwhile the Eurozone crisis rumbles on, with no strategy except deep austerity for countries like Italy and Spain, let alone Greece and Portugal.

This new book analyses the crisis in different regions and is a contribution to the debates about alternatives. In addition to a general analysis of the crisis including how it affects women, contributions coverBritain, the European Union, there are also contributions on the eco-socialist alternatives to capitalism.

 

CAPITALISM – CRISIS AND ALTERNATIVES 280 pages, £9 (inc p&p)

Available from Resistance Books, PO Box 62732, London, SW2 9GQ

 

Contents:

WHERE IS THE CRISIS GOING? Michel Husson

THE CRISIS IN BRITAIN, Andy Kilmister

AUSTERITY AND THE LIES THAT IMPOVERISH, Susan Pashkoff

A GREEN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, Sean Thompson

MARXISM AND THE CRISIS, John Rees

A FISCAL CRISIS OR A CRISIS OF DISTRIBUTION? Ozlem Onaran

THE DEBT IN THE NORTH: SOME ALTERNATIVE PATHS, Eric Toussaint

WOMEN’S CRISES, Sandra Ezquerra

EASTERN EUROPEFACED WITH THE CRISIS OF THE SYSTEM, Catherine Samary

CHINA’S RISE AMIDST THE CRISIS, Jean Sanuk

LATIN AMERICA’S CRISIS, Claudio Katz

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM: THE DEBT CRISIS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION, Eric Toussaint

 

**END**

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

‘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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

‘Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism’ – by Peter Hudis

Peter Hudis

‘MARX’S CONCEPT OF THE ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM’ – BY PETER HUDIS

Peter Hudis, Oakton Community College and Loyola University

In contrast to the traditional view that Marx’s work is restricted to a critique of capitalism and does not contain a detailed or coherent conception of its alternative, this book shows, through an analysis of his published and unpublished writings, that Marx was committed to a specific concept of a post-capitalist society that informed his critique of value production, alienated labor and capitalist accumulation. Instead of focusing on the present with only a passing reference to the future, Marx’s emphasis on capitalism’s tendency towards dissolution is rooted in a specific conception of what should replace it. In critically re-examining that conception, this book addresses the quest for an alternative to capitalism that has taken on increased importance today.

ISSN: 1570-1522

ISBN13: 9789004221970

Planned Publication Date: June 2012

Version: Hardback 

Pages, Illustrations: approx. 272 pp.

Historical Materialism 36

Imprint: BRILL

 

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Why Explore Marx’s Concept of the Transcendence of Value Production? Why Now?
The object and purpose of this study
Objectivist and subjectivist approaches to Marx’s philosophical contribution

1. The Transcendence of Alienation in the Writings of the Young Marx
Marx’s beginnings, 1837–41
Marx’s critique of politics and philosophy, 1842–3
Marx’s critique of economics and philosophy, 1843–4
Discerning the ideal within the real, 1845–8
Evaluating the young Marx’s concept of a postcapitalist society

2. The Conception of a Postcapitalist Society in the Drafts of Capital
The ‘first draft’ of Capital: The Poverty of Philosophy (1847)
The ‘second draft’ of Capital: the Grundrisse (1858)
The ‘third draft’ of Capital: the manuscript of 1861–3

3. The Vision of the New Society in Marx’s Capital
Volume I of Capital
Volumes II and III of Capital

4. Marx’s Late Writings on Postcapitalist Society
The impact of the Paris Commune on Marx
The Critique of the Gotha Programme and ‘Notes on Wagner’

Conclusion: Evaluating Marx’s Concept of a Postcapitalist Society

Appendix: Translation of Marx’s Excerpt-Notes on the Chapter ‘Absolute Knowledge’ in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit

Bibliography
Index

 

Biographical note:

Peter Hudis, Ph.D. (2011) in Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, is Lecturer in Philosophy and the Humanities at OaktonCommunity Collegeand LoyolaUniversity. He has published extensively on Marxist theory and is General Editor of The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg.

Book details and ordering at: http://www.brill.nl/marxs-concept-alternative-capitalism

I am really looking forward to reading this book: Glenn Rikowski

**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

A Crisis of Capitalism – Andrew Kliman

Capitalist Crisis

A CRISIS OF CAPITALISM – ANDREW KLIMAN

Andrew Kliman will speak on “A Crisis of Capitalism (Not Neoliberalism, Financialization, or Stagnant Wages)” for the Student  Action Initiative of  The New School on Wed. Feb. 22 at 8:00 p.m. The  talk will take place at 80 Fifth Avenue (SW corner of 14th St.), Room 529, and it is open to the public. Kliman will investigate the causes of the Great Recession and discuss the surprising results of data analysis which shows that the rate of profit has fallen ever since the end of the post-World War II boom.

Information: student-action-initiative@gmail.com

Andrew Kliman is Professor of Economics at Pace University. He is author of the just-published book, The Failure of Capitalist Production: Underlying Causes of the Great Recession, and of Reclaiming Marx’s “Capital”: A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency.

N.Y.U. Professor Bertell Ollman wrote about the new book, “One of the very best of the rapidly growing series of works seeking to explain our economic crisis. … The scholarship is exemplary and the writing is crystal clear. Highly recommended!”

**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

‘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

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

Capital Study Group – New York City

Mute Magazine

CAPITAL STUDY GROUP – NEW YORK CITY

A new study group on Marx’s Capital is forming in the New York City area, starting in mid-January.

We will meet on Thursday nights, every other week, starting either January 12^th or January 19^th.

The location to be determined.

We will begin with some of Marx’s pre-Capital writings from the 1840′s and 1850′s as essential background. There will be about 100 pages of reading per session.

The group will be highly participatory, with all members expected to do 15-20 minute presentations on aspects of the reading.

The group will have optimally 10-12 members. All are welcome, but priority will be given to those already engaged in practical political activity.

If this project interests you, contact me off list at: lrgoldner@yahoo.com

Loren Goldner

**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)

 

‘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

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

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.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

Capital, Culture, Communism

Bonuses for Some

CAPITAL, CULTURE, COMMUNISM

Call for Papers: 2012 Marxist Literary Group Institute on Culture and Society, 06/25-29/2012, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver BC, Canada
Special Topic: “Capital, Culture, Communism“
Deadline for Proposals: March 1, 2012.

The Marxist Literary Group’s 2012 Institute on Culture and Society (2012 MGF-ICS) will convene this summer on theVancouver, BC campus of Simon Fraser Universityon June 25-29. This year’s special topic will be “Capital, Culture, Communism.” How do these three “Cs” relate to a range of issues in contemporary politics and aesthetics, including:

* The recent uprisings in the Arab world, the assault on the welfare state in Europe and North America, the Occupy movement, etc. and how they are to be understood in today’s global economy
* The resurgence of religion and other cultural/national affiliations within world politics
* The ongoing necessity to develop adequate analyses of the economy
* The return to the language of “communism” in contemporary social theory and aesthetics
* And the ways in which past and present conditions and struggles are represented and, in turn, shaped by various cultural practices and modes of communication?
* Is there a distinctively capitalist culture? Is there a distinctively communist culture? Can one imagine a communist culture emerging from a capitalist one? How central is culture to capital and communism? Capital to culture? Can we perceive now the outlines of a future communism?
* What will remain of capitalist culture in a communist one? Do recent political events–Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, the global financial crisis—anticipate a future communism?
* Current politics, struggles and theories are of course wedded to older histories and theoretical models. How do Marx and other theorists define and represent capital, culture and communism? What is the value of these terms, on their own and/or in relationship to one another? How has the organization and functioning of capital changed? Stayed the same? What are the best strategies for representing capital? Communism?

Papers on these topics, as well as others, are welcome.
As always, submissions on other topics related to Marxism, including, but not limited to, Marxist considerations of literature or literary considerations of Marxism will be considered. Please also note that the reading groups this year will focus on primary (i.e. Marx/Engels) texts.

The Institute on Culture and Society is run in consecutive sessions, and the discussion is most fruitful when participants stay for the entire Institute. Housing is available on campus, and every effort is made to keep the cost of attendance low. Graduate student participation is subsidized by the Marxist Literary Group.

Proposals are welcome for:

Traditional panels
Individual presentations
Roundtables
Film Screenings
Performances
Reading Groups (on primary Marxist texts)

All proposals except panel proposals should be a maximum of 250 words in length, and should include title, author, and author’s affiliation. Panel proposals should include for each proposed paper a 250-word abstract, including title and affiliation, as well as a title and 100-word rationale for the session itself. Please send submissions (plain text or commonly used file format) by March 1, 2012 to: mlgics2012@hotmail.com

**END**

‘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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Kosmoprolet Issue 3

Aesthetics

KOSMOPROLET ISSUE 3

Kosmoprolet #3  is now available in print. 

The Editorial can be found in English here: http://www.kosmoprolet.org/english

Contents:

• Editorial
• Arabischer Frühling im Herbst des Kapitals
• Jenseits der Agrarrevolution
• Schranken proletarischer Emanzipation. Zur Kritik der Gewerkschaften
• Fragebogen zur Leiharbeit
• Der Existenzialismus als Zerfallsprodukt revolutionärer Theorie
• Zwischen Arbeiterautonomie und Kommunisierung.
• Eine Kritik an den “28 Thesen zur Klassengesellschaft”
• Über die Kommunisierung und ihre Theoretiker
• Proletarische Bewegung und Produktivkraftkritik

 

Addendum, 13.50 GMT, 28th December 2011: There is a translation app on this journal’s site which allows you to read the content in English. It works really well. … Glenn

**END**

‘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

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

An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s ‘Capital’

 

Karl Marx and Cinema

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE VOLUMES OF KARL MARX’S CAPITAL

By Michael Heinrich translated by Alex Locascio

http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb2884/

The global economic crisis and recession that began in 2008 had at least one unexpected outcome: a surge in sales of Karl Marx’s Capital. Although mainstream economists and commentators once dismissed Marx’s work as outmoded and flawed, some are begrudgingly acknowledging an analysis that sees capitalism as inherently unstable. And of course, there are those, like Michael Heinrich, who have seen the value of Marx all along, and are in a unique position to explain the intricacies of Marx’s thought.

Heinrich’s modern interpretation of Capital is now available to English-speaking readers for the first time. It has gone through nine editions in Germany, is the standard work for Marxist study groups, and is used widely in German universities. The author systematically covers all three volumes of Capital and explains all the basic aspects of Marx’s critique of capitalism in a way that is clear and concise.  He provides background information on the intellectual and political milieu in which Marx worked, and looks at crucial issues beyond the scope of Capital, such as class struggle, the relationship between capital and the state, accusations of historical determinism, and Marx’s understanding of communism. Uniquely, Heinrich emphasizes the monetary character of Marx’s work, in addition to the traditional emphasis on the labor theory of value, thus highlighting the relevance of Capital to the age of financial explosions and implosions.

Michael Heinrich teaches economics in Berlin and is managing editor of PROKLA: Journal for Critical Social Science. He is the author of The Science of Value: Marx’s Critique of Political Economy between Scientific Revolution and Classical Tradition, and editor, with Werner Bonefeld, of Capital and Critique: After the “New Reading” of Marx. 

 Translator Alexander Locascio was previously active in theU.S. labor movement and now lives inBerlin, where he is a member of the party Die Linke and of ver.di, the German service workers union.

**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

There is No Escape

The Island

THERE IS NO ESCAPE [1]

 

 We cannot escape capital;

 We must turn and confront our common enemy.

 For wherever we may roam,

 Be it to the furthest galaxies,

 There it remains:

 Our foe, our enigmatic adversary.

 Insidious within us,

 Our demon seed,

 Requiring expulsion.

 

 

 NOTES:

 [1] Inspired by For the University: Democracy and the Future of the Institution, by Thomas Docherty, Bloomsbury Academic, 2011, especially pp.70-73.

 [2] A reading of the following may aid comprehension of this poem:

Rikowski, G. (2011) Capitorg: Education and the Constitution of the Human in Contemporary Society, A paper prepared for the Praxis & Pedagogy Research Seminar, The Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCAM), Dublin, Ireland, 25^th May 2011, available online at ‘The Flow of Ideas’: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Capitorg   

 

Glenn Rikowski, London, 20^th September 2011.

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

Representing Capital

Capitalism

REPRESENTING CAPITAL

REPRESENTING CAPITAL: A READING OF VOLUME ONE
BY FREDRIC JAMESON
PUBLISHED 14TH AUGUST 2011
———————————–
“Jameson’s [is an] almost impossibly sophisticated variety of Marxist cultural criticism… the best of Jameson’s work has felt mind-blowing in the way of LSD or mushrooms: here before you is the world you’d always known you were living in, but apprehended as if for the first time in the freshness of its beauty and horror” — LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

“One of the great writers of our time, not just one of the most formidably gifted critics and cultural theorists.” — Terry Eagleton
———————————–
The recent financial crisis, which traumatised the world’s economies, inspired a resurgence of interest in the grandfather of all left-wing critiques, Karl Marx’s DAS KAPITAL (CAPITAL). Many have been returning to or discovering Capital through thinkers such as David Harvey whose video lectures on Capital have been viewed over a million times online. The book itself became a bestseller in several countries in late 2008, after the crash.

The many new readings and interpretations of CAPITAL following the financial crisis had in common a focus on globalisation, and it is in terms of globalisation that CAPITAL reveals its increasingly urgent relevance to modern structures of labour. But as well as being a timeless work of economic analysis, Capital is also an audacious attempt to solve a philosophical and representational problem.

Now, in REPRESENTING CAPITAL, renowned theorist and cultural critic Fredric Jameson looks at Marx’s magnum opus as the attempt to capture and express the concept of global capital – an entity so complex that it is beyond the imaginative grasp of even the financiers who pretend to be its masters.

In the face of this overwhelming complexity, Marx’s ingenious response to this challenge is to create a text that is in constant conceptual motion. As Jameson puts it, “Marx remains as inexhaustible as capital itself…with every adaptation or mutation of the latter his texts and thought resonate in new ways”.

Thus, both capital and CAPITAL are not merely static things to be explained and understood, but fluid and infinitely adaptable processes. Jameson guides the reader through Capital, transforming its dilemmas and contradictions into new points of departure. In doing so he captures the secret of capitalism’s power: it’s endless ability to self-correct to sustain itself.

Capitalism is an infernal mechanism, characterised most dramatically by the waste and damage it leaves behind; and in our time that damage is realised most powerfully in endemic unemployment. In REPRESENTING CAPITAL, Jameson shows that CAPITAL is essentially a book about unemployment, and thus a book for our times.
———————————–
FREDRIC JAMESON, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University and Director of the Graduate Programme in Literature and the Centre for Critical Theory, was a recipient of the 2008 Holberg International Memorial Prize. His books include POSTMODERNISM, OR, THE CULTURAL LOGIC OF LATE CAPITALISM, A SINGULAR MODERNITY: ESSAYS ON THE ONTOLOGY OF THE PRESENT, THE IDEOLOGIES OF THEORY, ARCHAEOLOGIES OF THE FUTURE: SCIENCE FICTION AND OTHER UTOPIAS and THE HEGEL VARIATIONS all from Verso.
———————————–
ISBN: 978 1 84467 454 1 / $24.95 / £14.99 / $31.00 CAN / Hardback / 168 pages
———————————–
For more information about REPRESENTING CAPITAL or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/551-representing-capital
———————————–
Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com

Become a fan of Verso on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verso-Books/205847279448577

And get updates on Twitter –  @VersoBooks http://twitter.com/VersoBooks

 

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

Capitalism in Crisis

A Crisis of Capital

CAPITALISM IN CRISIS

MARXISM 21

Discussion Forum

Capitalism in Crisis: Causes, Consequences and Cure?

 

Speaker: Gerry Gold

Author of: A House of Cards: From fantasy finance to global crash

 

SATURDAY 30 JULY 1PM
INCA (General Confederation of Labour), Italian Advice Centre, 124 Canonbury Road, London, N1 2UT

Nearest Station: Highbury and Islington

 

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

David Harvey Lecture in Bristol

David Harvey

DAVID HARVEY LECTURE IN BRISTOL

David Harvey Lecture, Bristol, 19th July: Crises, Urbanization and the City as a Terrain for Anti-Capitalist Struggle

PUBLIC LECTURE

Bristol Institute of Public Affairs

Crises, Urbanization and the City as a Terrain for Anti-Capitalist Struggle

Professor David Harvey, Graduate Centre, City University of New York

 

David Harvey is one of the world’s most influential social scientists.  His many books include The New Imperialism; Paris, Capital of Modernity; Social Justice and the City; Limits to Capital; The Urbanization of Capital; The Condition of Postmodernity; Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference; Spaces of Hope; Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography, A Brief History of Neoliberalism and The Enigma of Capital.  His work also contributes to broader social and political debate; he is a leading proponent of the idea of ‘The Right to the City’, and in recent years he has become an internationally recognised ‘public intellectual’ in part due to the success of his very popular online lectures on Marx’s Capital  and superb public lectures.  We are delighted to welcome you all to this very special event.

Tuesday, 19 July 2011, 5:30pm

Peel Lecture Theatre, Reception to Follow

School of Geographical Sciences, University Road, University of Bristol

 

Details: http://socofed.com/2011/06/15/david-harvey-lecture-bristol-19th-july-crises-urbanization-and-the-city-as-a-terrain-for-anti-capitalist-struggle/

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Marx’s ‘Capital’ For Today

Karl Marx

MARX’S ‘CAPITAL’ FOR TODAY

Announcing a new series on
Marx’s Capital for Today:  A Reading of Volume One of Capital

Second & Fourth Mondays
June, July & August
6:30-9.00 pm
@ Chicago Public Library
Harold Washington Library Center
400 South State St. Chicago IL
Room 3N-6

Join us for a re-examination of Marx’s analysis of the logic of capital in light of today’s economic and social crises. The focus will be Volume One of Marx’s Capital, in which Marx developed some of his most creative philosophic conceptions. The suggested readings from Marx will be supplemented by selections from Marxism and Freedom, by Raya Dunayevskaya, founder of Marxist-Humanism in the U.S.

Capital is online at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1

Marxism and Freedom is available from U.S. Marxist-Humanists.

Sponsored by the U.S. Marxist-Humanists
Email: arise@usmarxisthumanists.org
http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org
Phone: 773-561-3454
eg/2011/labor donated
*********

Schedule and Readings

June 13th   — The Commodity Form and the Dual Character of Labor

Marx called his analysis of the dual character of labor at the start of Capital his “unique contribution” to the critique of political economy. This meeting will discuss the difference between concrete labor and abstract labor and how it defines the nature of the social relations of modern capitalism.

Suggested readings:
Capital, chapter 1, sections 1 and 2 (pp. 125-137)
Marxism and Freedom, chapter 5 (pp. 81-91)

Leading the discussion: Peter Hudis, General Editor, The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg

*********

June 27th — The Forms of Value and the Function of Money

The discussion of the forms of value in section 3 of chapter 1 of Capital, which is the subject of this meeting, is of pivotal importance in disclosing capitalism’s drive to commodify human relations as well as the function of money in the modern world.

Suggesting reading:
Capital, chapter 1, section 3 (pp. 138-163).
Leading the discussion: Anton Evelynov, student activist

*********

July 11th — The Adventures of Commodity Fetishism

The section on “The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret” has been widely considered the philosophic core of Capital, in which Marx both pinpoints the reason for capitalism’s persistence and points to its possible transcendence. This meeting will focus on this famous section in light of ongoing debates in radical theory.

Suggesting readings:
Capital, chapter 1, section 4 (pp. 163-177)
Marxism and Freedom, chapter 6 (pp. 92-102).

Leading the discussion: Marilyn Nissim-Sabat, author, Neither Victim nor Survivor: Thinking Toward a New Humanity

*********

July 25th — What is Capital? Why is it the Defining Feature of Modern Society?

Part 2 of Capital, “The Transformation of Money into Capital,” which is the subject of this meeting, discloses the peculiar nature of capital as a social form and how it becomes the universal medium of  social relations in capitalist society.

Suggested readings:
Capital, chapters 4-6, (pp. 247-282)
Marxism and Freedom, chapter 7, section 1 (pp. 103-111).

Leading the discussion: Miguel A. Rodriguez, student at Loyola University; and Ali Reza, Committee in Solidarity with the People of Iran

*********

August 8th — The Domination of “Dead” over “Living Labor”

The subject of this meeting is Marx’s discussion of the relation between the labor process and the valorization process, on the one hand, and constant capital and variable capital, on the other. This relation discloses the law of motion inherent in all forms of capitalism—whether in its “free market” or statist variants.

Suggested readings:
Capital, chapters 7-8, (pp. 283-319)
Marxism and Freedom, chapter 7, section 2 (pp. 112-119).

Leading the discussion: J Turk, U. S. Marxist-Humanists

*********

August 22nd — The Working Day and the Quest for a New Society

Why have automated and computerized forms of labor, which at one time were heralded as leading to a dramatic shortening of the working day, led instead to an increase in the amount of time that many spend at work? To what extent do efforts to shorten the working day and transform conditions of labor point to a possible alternative to the capitalist mode of production? We will explore Marx’s discussion of these issues in the section of Capital on “The Working Day.”

Suggested Readings:
Capital, chapter 10, (pp. 340-416)
Marxism and Freedom, chapter 7, section 3 (pp. 120-125).

Leading the discussion: Eileen Grace, Hobgoblin Collective

 

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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