Signs of Revolt – Creative Resistance and Social Movements since Seattle

 

The Battle in Seattle - by Glenn Rikowski

Signs of Revolt – Creative Resistance and Social Movements since Seattle

EXHIBITION AND TALKS: Space Hijackers/Ultimate Holding Company/Reel News/kennardphillipps/ Cactus Network/Jonathan Barnbrook/Pedro Inhoue/Noel Douglas/David Gentlemen/Guy Smallman/Jody Boehnart/ Jess Hurd/Notes from Nowehere/Movement of the Imagination/Rebel Clown 
Army/ Indymedia London/Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination/ Creative Resistance Research Network/ Turbulence/War Boutique/Josh On

Opening FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER 6pm then SATURDAY 14–SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER
Opening Times: Weekends 10-10pm, Weekdays 12–9pm
Shop 14
The Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane
London
E1 6QL
 

10 years ago, in November 1999 an alliance of direct action activists, environmentalists and trade unionists shut down the meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle, stopping the next trade round of Capitalist Globalisation. In the process they sparked a Movement of Movements right across the globe its slogan became ‘Another World is Possible’.

This November exactly 10 years from that momentous demonstration, and with most of the predictions of the movements rapidly coming true what with the crisis of the economy, a permanent state of war and the collapse of our eco-system wrecking lives across the planet, the rich and powerful meet again in Copenhagen to discuss the next Climate treaty after Kyoto, yet again activists are preparing to challenge the idea that the Market can solve the problems of the world, and take another step toward that possible world after Capitalism.

Signs of Revolt is an exhibition that weaves together the story of the past decades social movements, drawing out the influences and connections between and across the movements against Capitalism, War and Climate Change. Using archive material and documentary photography and video from movement photographers and filmmakers, it reveals the story of how we got from Seattle to Copenhagen.

Interspersed in this narrative are works by artist and designer activists and collectives, produced during, within and for the movements, this is the first time such a collection has been brought together in the UK and it will be a chance to reflect upon and celebrate the new creative impulses that the movements spawned and the possibilities for developing the creative capacity of future movements, these issues will also be discussed in greater depth during a series of talks during the exhibition.

As Capitalism threatens our very existence, Signs of Revolt defiantly maps out possible routes to a future filled with hope… http://www.signsofrevolt.net

Festival of Radical Communication–a weekend of talks as part of Signs of Revolt: http://signsofrevolt.net/?page_id=41

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=152633464034

Contact and to register for the weekend (it’s free but we need to know numbers!): show@signsofrevolt.net

“they can cut all the flowers, but they cannot stop the coming of spring” Pablo Neruda

Noel Douglas
http://www.noeldouglas.net
http://www.movementoftheimagination.org
http://www.myspace.com/freemachine
+44[0]7989 471159

The Battle in Seattle: Its Significance for Education – by Glenn Rikowski: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Seattle-Significance-Education-Hilcole/dp/1872767370 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Soundings Credit Crunch Seminar

Credit Crunch

SOUNDINGS CREDIT CRUNCH SEMINAR

 

We have just put online several of the papers from our May 2009 Soundings seminar (co-organised with the OU) on the credit crunch. Contributors are:

John Clarke, John Harris, Neal Lawson, Gavin Poynter, John Urry, Michael Rustin, Sylvia Walby

To read contributions go to http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/ReadingRoom/public/creditcrunch.html

For information on Soundings 42, The killing fields of inequality, go to http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/soundings/current.html

To subscribe to Soundings for only £20 – by standing order only – download the standing order form at http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/standingorder.html

You can send the form in to the freepost address shown at the bottom of the form – no stamp is needed.

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Northeast Socialist Conference 2009

Socialism

NORTHEAST SOCIALIST CONFERENCE 2009

 

http://www.northeastsocialistconference.net/

Join Us!
Every year hundreds of activists and socialists gather at the Northeast Socialist Conference to debate and discuss the struggles before us. The world faces urgent problems and need a vision for a different future. With the free-market consensus in tatters and an open debate beginning about how best to organize our society, these discussions are more vital than ever. Plan now to join us the weekend of October 23-25!

Special Friday Plenary
A Woman Among Warlords: Eyewitness to Empire
Featuring Malalai Joya, a female Member of the Afghan Parliament and courageous voice against women’s oppression and US occupation. Also feature Saadia Toor and Ashley Smith.

Friday October 23
8pm
Columbia University – International Affairs Building – Altschul Auditorium (417) – entrance at 117th Street and Amsterdam

Malalai Joya rose to fame in December 2003 when, as an elected delegate to the Constitutional Loya Jirga, she spoke out publicly against the domination of warlords. Since then she has survived four assassination attempts, and travels in Afghanistan under a burqa and with armed guards. Her newly published book, A Woman Among Warlords, has been widely praised; Noam Chomsky has written that it “leaves us with hope that the tormented people of Afghanistan can take their fate into their own hands if they are released from the grip of foreign powers”.

There will be a book signing following the event.

WORKSHOPS
Conference discussions will include reports and strategizing from today’s front-line battles. There will also be workshops on Marxism, the history of radical labor and socialist movements, alternatives to capitalism, US imperialism, and solidarity movements around the world.

With nearly 50 workshops to choose from, these are just some of the topics that will be featured:

*The New Movement for LGBT Equality
*The Revolt in Iran
*The Politics of Food
*Roots of the Economic Crisis
*Guantanamo at Home
*Gaza: Eyewitness to Destruction
*Poor People’s Movements
*The Fight for Single-Payer Healthcare
*The Future Socialist Society
*Social Unionism and the Future of the Labor Movement
*Hubert Harrison and Black Radicalism
*The Myth of a Post-Racial America
*Occupation Rebranded: US Imperialism in the Obama Era
*Reform and Revolution
*The Radical History of the American Working-Class
*What a Sustainable Society Could Look Like
*Racism, Sentencing and the Prison System
*The Assault on Abortion Rights
*Radical Pedagogy vs Charter Schools and Testing: The Fight for Public Education
*The Russian Revolution
*Sports and Politics
*Lenin: Myth and Reality
*Student Struggle and the Fight for Socialism
*The Communist Women’s Movement in the Comintern Era
*and dozens more!

UPDATED SPEAKERS LIST:

Anthony Arnove, Michele Bollinger, Sam Farber, Laura Flanders, Robert Gangi, Arun Gupta, Brian Jones, Fred Magdoff, Mahmood Mamdani, Manning Marable, Scott McLemee, Paul LeBlanc, Jeffrey Perry, Frances Fox Piven, John Riddell, Jennifer Roesch, Heather Rogers, Jeremy Scahill, Helen Scott, Liliana Segura, Ashley Smith, Michael Schwartz, Members of the Viva Palestina Convoy to Gaza, Dave Zirin… and more!

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

The Globalisation Lectures at SOAS

Globalisation

THE GLOBALISATION LECTURES AT SOAS

 

THE GLOBALISATION LECTURES, 2009-2010
Organised by the Department of Development Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
University of London
Convenor: Professor Gilbert Achcar

Tuesday 27 October, 6:30pm – Logan Hall, Institute of Education

CRISES AND THE UNIPOLAR MOMENT

PROFESSOR NOAM CHOMSKY
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Co-sponsored by the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (SOAS)
Information at http://www.soas.ac.uk/events/event52739.html

Wednesday 25 November, 6:30pm – Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre

THE AMERICAN EMPIRE IN LIGHT OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS – A DEBATE BETWEEN PROFESSOR ALEX CALLINICOS Director of the Centre for European Studies, King’s College London, and PROFESSOR LEO PANITCH, Distinguished Research Professor, York University, Toronto

Wednesday 27 January, 6:30pm – Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre

FOR A GREEN AND JUST WAY OUT OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS

DR. SUSAN GEORGE
Board Chair of the Transnational Institute (tni.org)

Wednesday 3 March, 6:30pm – Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre

HUMANITARIANISM AT THE RISK OF IMPERIALISM

DR. RONY BRAUMAN
Former President of 1999 Nobel Peace Prize winner Doctors without Borders (MSF, Paris)

–
Gilbert Achcar
Professor of Development Studies & International Relations
University of London – School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Phone +44 (0)20 7898 4557
Fax     +44 (0)20 7898 4759
http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff30529.php

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Robert Brenner on the Origins of the Current Crisis

Capitalist Crisis

ROBERT BRENNER ON THE ORIGINS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS

 

A paper by Robert Brenner (Center for Social Theory and Comparative History, UCLA) on What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America: The Origins of the Current Crisis (18^th April 2009) is now available at: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/issr/cstch/papers/BrennerCrisisTodayOctober2009.pdf

 

It’s 74 pages long – so stock up with ink and paper.

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Two London Meetings with John Holloway

The Labour Debate

TWO LONDON MEETINGS WITH JOHN HOLLOWAY

 

1. ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR/MUTE MAGAZINE DISCUSSION, 4-6pm, Saturday 24th October, London 

Capitalism’s Present Crisis – How Will It End? 

The capitalist system is facing years of crisis and social instability. This raises two questions: 

1) What caused the crisis? Was it ‘greedy bankers’, the natural tendencies of the capitalist system, or the resistance of the working class? 

2) How will the crisis end? Will it be with more state regulation, more cuts in living standards or with working class revolution? 

The London Anarchist Bookfair and Mute Magazine have invited three speakers to debate these issues: 

Paul Mason, a presenter on BBC’s Newsnight, and author of Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed

John Holloway, author of Change The World Without Taking Power <http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway> and Crack Capitalism (forthcoming). 

William Dixon, Mute Magazine contributor. 

The discussion will take place at the Skeel Lecture Theatre, Anarchist Bookfair, Queen Mary & Westfield college, Mile End Road, London E1, Mile End tube. 

For further information on the Anarchist Bookfair, including a roster of many other talks, go to: http://www.anarchistbookfair.org 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

2. CRACK CAPITALISM – A DISCUSSION WITH JOHN HOLLOWAY 

7-9pm, Monday 26th October, London 

At the height of the anti-capitalist movement, John Holloway’s book Change The World without Taking Power<http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway>provoked an international debate*. Eight years later, after the failure of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with the failure of the capitalist economy, anti-capitalism is back on the agenda. 

John Holloway will introduce his forthcoming book, Crack Capitalism, followed by a discussion on how we can change the world without repeating the tragedies of twentieth century socialism. 

Come and join the debate. 

*To read the debate around the book Change The World Without Taking Power, go to: http://www.herramienta.com.ar/debate-sobre-cambiar-el-mundo/presentacion-e-indice-de-articulos 

VENUE: The Octagon Room*, Queen’s Building, Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Road, London E1, Mile End Tube. (The event will be followed by a social at the Half Moon pub, 213-233 Mile End Road, London E1) 

*NB There is a small chance that the room in which the event is held may be altered. Check metamute.org for up to date information closer to the date. 

Supported by Mute Magazine (mute AT metamute.org) and the Queen Mary & Westfield School of Business and Management

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

London Anarchist Bookfair 2009

Anarchist Bookfair 2009

LONDON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR 2009

 

Saturday, 24th October 2009, from 10am to 7pm

Books – Meetings – Workshops – Food – Films – Creche … and More!

As capitalism collapses around us in the market of ideas the anarchist pound is bouyant and the 28th London Anarchist Bookfair is back at Queen Mary College in London’s East End. A big thank you to everyone who helped make last year’s bookfair run smoothly and to you all for respecting the space.  Last year we have 38 meetings, 90 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 2009.

Stalls will again be split between the Great Hall and the Octagon room, which means that there will be more space and the whole bookfair will be wheelchair accessible. Please contact the info stall for wheelchair lift passes if you need one. 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: mail@anarchistbookfair.org. At the bookfair please go to the info stall for further details.

Next to the Octagon room will be an all day tea, coffee and snack stall (until 6pm).

The creche will be signposted, and the ‘older kids room’ is also in the basement below the Octagon Room.

We have loads going on – see the rest of the website, for a run down of the meetings and other events. More will be added as we get nearer to October.

Please don’t forget this is all organised by a small collective – so any help would be very much appreciated. This year, more than ever, we need your donations to break even – the room and table hire have gone up and we may be over a grand down again. So, any donations or funds from benefit gigs would come in very handy.

Getting to the venue: The venue for this year’s London Anarchist Bookfair, for the 3rd year running, is Queen Mary & Westfield College, 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.

Further details: http://www.anarchistbookfair.org

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Victor Rikowski, The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

International Socialism Journal 124

Capitalism in Crisis

International Socialism Journal 124 

The new issue of International Socialism journal (issue 124) is out now. This issue includes:

• Peyman Jafari on Rupture and revolt in Iran.
• Special collection on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, featuring Gareth Dale on the East German Revolution and Adam Fabry on the fate of Eastern Europe since 1989.
• Oliver Nachtwey on the rise of the German left party Die Linke.
• Interview with Michael Bradley and Charlie Kimber on the latest phase of class struggle in Britain.
• Andrew Kliman reviews Chris Harman’s latest book, Zombie Capitalism.
• John Molyneux gives his views on democracy and Leninist organisation.
• Neil Davidson examines Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine.
• David Renton on the rise of the industrial tribunal system.

• Joseph Choonara on Goldman Sachs’s estimates of profit rates.
• Plus: reviews, analysis and pick of the quarter.

To browse through the full content, go to http://www.isj.org.uk
To order copies, email isj@swp.org.uk or phone 020 7819 1177. 
Individual copies are £5 plus p&p.

–
International Socialism
http://www.isj.org.uk
+44 (0)20 7819 1177

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Financialisation

High Finance

FINANCIALISATION

 

Upcoming Events

RMF Roundtable: FINANCIALISATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
5 November 2009, 5 – 7 pm, SOAS, London

Labour and the Curious Case of Mexican Bank Resilience
Thomas Marois, SOAS

Global Integration of the Turkish Economy in the Era of Financialisation
Nuray Ergunes, Maltepe University, Turkey

Emerging Economy Central Banks and the Crisis of 2007-09
Juan Pablo Painceira, SOAS

Financialisation and Regulation: The Fate of Basle II
Sedat Aybar, Kadir Has University, Turkey

For more information contact rmf@soas.ac.uk or see http://www.soas.ac.uk/rmf

 *****

International Conference
One Year on from the Panic of 2008: WHITHER FINANCIALISED CAPITALISM?
7 November 2009, 9 am to 6 pm, SOAS, London

09.00-09.45     Registration and Coffee

09.45-12.15     Welcome Addresses and Opening Plenary
Financialised Capitalism and the International Crisis
Gérard Duménil, National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris
Gary Dymski, University of California Center, Sacramento
Costas Lapavitsas, SOAS, London

12.15-13.15 Lunch

13.15-15.30 Parallel Sessions
Contemporary Finance, Regulation and the Real Economy
Malcolm Sawyer, Leeds University Business School
Jan Toporowski, SOAS, London
Paulo L dos Santos, SOAS, London
Varieties of Financialisation
Engelbert Stockhammer, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Trevor Evans, Berlin School of Economics
Claude Serfati, University of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

15.30-15.45 Coffee

15.45-18.00 Plenary
The Social Costs and Implications of Financialisation
Karel Williams and Ismail Erturk, CRESC, Manchester
Andrew Leyshon, University of Nottingham
Robin Blackburn, University of Essex

For more information, contact rmf@soas.ac.uk, or visit http://www.soas.ac.uk/rmf

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Events in London around Capital and the Future of Capitalism

 

Capitalism

EVENTS IN LONDON AROUND CAPITAL AND THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM

 

 

King’s College London Reading Capital Society
 
September 29th 2009
http://www.kclreadingcapital.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49539959005

What are the origins of the current economic crisis? What is the future for capitalism? Mainstream neo-liberal economics presents us with very few satisfactory answers to these questions. For this reason many people are now looking again at the works of Karl Marx and his critique of capitalism.

The Reading Capital Movement is a fortnightly seminar organised by students discussing the main issues & themes raised in Karl Marx’s work Das Kapital.

It brings together students from across a range of disciplines and intellectual backgrounds to introduce and debate ideas about the work.

The group is open to anyone with an interest in finding out more about Marx’s work.

So welcome to all those who’ve just joined us and welcome back to those who were involved last year. We had a very successful launch last January of over 60 people and a group of about 20 of us began reading and discussing throughout the second semester.

- - -

1) Re-launch with Ben Fine:

This year the group is very lucky to be re-launching with a talk by Professor Ben Fine from SOAS (co-author of “Marx’s ‘Capital’”) on:

Why read Capital? Marx in the 21st Century

Tuesday October 13th 2009, 6pm, Room 2.42, F-WB Building, Waterloo Campus, King’s College London

All welcome - no matter whether you are simply interested in Marx or have some tough questions about Marxist economics.

- – -

2) Join Reading Capital @ KCLSU:

Also please join the society officially at:
http://www.kclsu.org/society.asp?itemid=964&itemTitle=Reading+Capital&section=295&sectionTitle=Societies+List

This will enable us to keep booking meetings, getting great speakers and to develop a lending library that will be a fantastic resource for the group.

- – -

3) The Future of Capitalism:

We are very pleased to be able to announce that Reading Capital will be co-hosting a debate on the Future of Capitalism with the KCL Business Club.

Martin Wolf (chief economic commentator, Financial Times) will be debating Alex Callinicos (author of ‘Revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx’ & Professor of European Studies at KCL) about the roots of the current economic crisis and the prospects for capitalism as a whole.

Put the details in your diary now:
The Future of Capitalism
A Public Debate
Alex Callinicos & Martin Wolf

Monday 2nd November, 6:30pm, Great Hall, King’s College, London

We will send out more details closer to the event.

- – -

And finally …

The KCL Reading Capital group was inspired by a Reading Group initiated by the Marxist geographer David Harvey at CUNY (New York) – videos of these seminars can be seen online at: http://www.davidharvey.org

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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