The Question of Subalternity

Spivak

THE QUESTION OF SUBALTERNITY

 

A two-day seminar with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak at CENDEAC (Murcia, South Eastern Spain)  

1st and 2nd December // 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: The Question of Subalternity

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak will lead an intensive seminar at CENDEAC on the 1st and 2nd December 2009. It will be a unique opportunity to engage with Spivak’s thought, through a detailed analysis of some of her most influential texts. 

The seminar will discuss the history and usefulness of the elusive concept of the subaltern based on questions emerging from three texts by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak available in Spanish translation: “Can the subaltern speak?”, “Subaltern Studies: deconstructing historiography” and “Displacement and the Discourse of Woman”. The two sessions will be entitled: “The Subaltern: Use and Abuse” and “Women, Subalternity, and Strategic Essentialism”.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, is University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Toronto and London and Oberlin College. She has published, Of Grammatology (translation with critical introduction of Jacques Derrida, De la grammatologie, 1976); Thinking Academic Freedom in Gendered Post-Coloniality (1993); In Other Worlds (1987); Outside in the Teaching Machine (1993); A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999); Death of a Discipline(2003), Other Asias (2007). And the forthcoming An Aesthetic Education in an Age of Globalization. She has also translated from Bengali, Mahasweta Devi: Imaginary Maps (1994); Breast Stories (1997), Old Women (1999); Chotti Munda and His Arrow (2002) and Ramproshad Sen’s (eighteenth century Bengali mystic): Song for Kali (2000). The texts “Translation As Culture” (2005), “Translating into English” (2005), and “Rethinking Comparativism” (2009) reflect her concern for the task of the translator.  “Righting Wrongs” (2001), and “Ethics and Politics in Tagore, Coetzee, and Certain Scenes of Teaching” (2004) give a sense of her dedication to supplementing vanguardism. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1983) has become a controversial classic.

Information and enrolment:

Attendance is free unless a certificate is required, in which case fees will be 30€ standard, 15€ for the unemployed, full-time students and OAPs, and free to Friends of CENDEAC. 

Language of the Seminar: English with simultaneous translation into Spanish. 

CENDEAC is accessible for wheelchair users and people with diminished mobility. Whenever possible, we will strive to provide on request a transcript of papers for users with impaired hearing. Auditorium Capacity: 140 people

For more information, including assistance with travel and accommodation, please visit our website: http://www.cendeac.net or contact yhernandez[at]cendeac.net

CENDEAC
Pabellón 5
Antiguo Cuartel de Artillería
C/ Madre Elisea Oliver Molina, s/n
30002-Murcia (España)
Tel.: +34 868 914 769
Fax: +34 868 914 149

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Rethinking Imperialism

Rethinking Imperialism

RETHINKING IMPERIALISM: A STUDY OF CAPITALIST RULE

 

Rethinking Imperialism: A Study of Capitalist RulePalgrave-Macmillan 2009

 

By John Milios, and Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos

For over a century, “imperialism” has been a key concept in Left theory and politics, connoting both the aggressiveness and the characteristics of modern capitalism. This book aims at presenting and assessing imperialism as a theoretical concept. Since a variety of different definitions are assigned to the concept of imperialism, it is necessary to put to the test the rigour of these definitions. The authors of this volume provide a comprehensive evaluation, focusing especially on the tension between Marx’s theoretical system of the Critique of Political Economy and the theories of capitalist expansion and domination that emerge out of the various discourses on imperialism.

The book critically reviews all major (classical and contemporary) theories of imperialism. The authors embark on a critical interrogation of all innovations introduced into theoretical Marxism by theories of imperialism (for example those concerning the stages of historical evolution of capitalism, the capitalist state, internationalization of capital, crises etc.). They show that most of these theories deviate from the theoretical system formulated by Marx, especially in Capital and his other mature economic writings.

Furthermore, these theories seem to poorly interpret historical development. Is there a theory of the capitalist state to justify the thesis that the collapse of colonialism after World War II is so insignificant to the periodization of international capitalist relations (or “global capitalism”) that the “final stage” of capitalism commencing in the last decades of the 19th century is arguably still continuing? To pose the same question differently: on what theoretical grounds can the “early” colonialism, as opposed to the late colonial era (from the late 19th century to World War II), be bracketed off as a distinct period in the history of capitalism? On grounds of Marx’s theory of the CMP this period now has to be revisited. Why does the second colonial period have more affinities with the present-day non-colonial post-World War II era than with the era of early colonialism? Last but not least, is there a tendency towards expansionism that is innate in every form of capitalist domination, i.e. also in the less developed capitalist states that are not to be classified as being in the supposedly “ripe” or “monopoly capitalist” stage?

The authors propose a conceptualization of the international level which comes into a striking contrast with the majority of contemporary approaches of globalization or “new imperialism”. Their interpretation perceives the international level as a complex interlinkage of different (national-state) economic and social structures, each of which evolves at a different and unequal rate as a result primarily of the different class and political correlation of forces that have crystallized within it.

The book addresses the contemporary contradictions and trends of development of the “international capitalist system” and the evolving global economic crisis, formulating a fundamental reinterpretation of imperialism. Important in this line of reasoning remains the notion of imperialist chain, which is formulated in accordance with Marx’s concept of social capital and his theory of the capitalist mode of production. It thus defends the thesis that internal-national relationships and processes always have priority over international relations.

It is precisely the fundamental discovery of Marxism that the class struggle (which is at the same time economic, political and ideological and is thus consummated within each national-state entity) is the driving force of history. It is through these class correlations and relations of domination that international relations, with all the concomitant interdependence on other social formations, take effect. If imperialism is a permanent possibility emerging out of the structures of the capitalist mode of production, the historical form it will ultimately acquire for a particular social formation depends on the way in which the “external” situation (that is to say the international correlation of forces) over-determines but also constrains the practices that emerge out of the evolution of the internal class correlations.

Contents:
Introduction
* Classical Theories of Imperialism: A New Interpretation of Capitalist Rule, Expansionism, Capital Export, the Periodization and the “Decline” of Capitalism.
* Post World-War II “Metropolis-Periphery” Theories of Imperialism.
* Theories of Imperialism as Alternatives to Classical and Metropolis-Periphery Approaches.
* The State as a Vehicle of both Capitalist Expansionism and Decolonization: Historical Evidence and Theoretical Questions.
*Capitalist Mode of Production and Social Formation: Conclusions Concerning the Organization of Capitalist Power.
* Capitalist Mode of Production and Monopolies.
* Is Imperialism the Latest Stage of Capitalism? Reflections on the Question of Periodization of Capitalism and Stages of Capitalist Development.
* Internationalisation of Capital.
* Financialization: Market Discipline or Capital Discipline?
* The “Global” Level and the Concept of Imperialist Chain.
Epilogue: Rethinking Imperialism and Capitalist Rule.

John Milios, is Professor of Political Economy and the History of Economic Thought at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. He has authored more than two hundred (200) papers published or forthcoming in refereed journals (in Greek, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Turkish), and has participated as invited speaker in numerous international conferences. He has also authored or co-authored some eleven scholarly books. He is director of the quarterly journal of economic theory Thesseis (published since 1982 in Greek) and serves on the Editorial Boards of several scholarly journals.

Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos is Visiting Lecturer of Political Economy at the Department of Sociology, University of the Aegean, Greece. He has published papers in refereed journals (in Greek, English and German). His research interests include: theories of Political Economy, theories of Imperialism, theory of Value and Money. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the quarterly journal of economic and political theory Thesseis (published since 1982 in Greek).

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

The American Empire in Light of the Global Crisis

American Empire

THE AMERICAN EMPIRE IN LIGHT OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS
‘THE GLOBALISATION LECTURES’

Organised by the Department of Development Studies

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

University of London

Convenor: Professor Gilbert Achcar

2009-2010

This event is co-sponsored by Historical Materialism Conference 2009 (27-29 November)

A DEBATE BETWEEN PROFESSOR ALEX CALLINICOS AND PROFESSOR LEO PANITCH

Wednesday 25 November, 6:30pm, SOAS, Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, London WC1

Alex Callinicos was born in Zimbabwe. After teaching political philosophy for many years at the University of York, he is now Professor of European Studies at King’s College London. His most recent books are The Resources of Critique and Imperialism and Global Political Economy. His next book Bonfire of Illusions: The Twin Crises of the Liberal World will appear early next year.

Leo Panitch is the Senior Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, and the co-editor of The Socialist Register. His most recent books are American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance, and Renewing Socialism: Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination.

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Valences of the Dialectic – Fredric Jameson

Porcupine Tree - The Incident

VALANCES OF THE DIALECTIC – FREDRIC JAMESON

 

NEW FROM VERSO

VALENCES OF THE DIALECTIC

BY FREDRIC JAMESON

After half a century exploring dialectical thought, renowned cultural critic Fredric Jameson presents a comprehensive study of a misunderstood yet vital strain in Western philosophy.

The dialectic, the concept of the evolution of an idea through conflicts arising from its inherent contradictions, transformed two centuries of Western philosophy. To Hegel, who dominated nineteenth-century thought, it was a metaphysical system. In the work of Marx, the dialectic became a tool for materialist historical analysis. More recently, the dialectic has come under attack from poststructuralist thinkers such as Deleuze or Laclau and Mouffe.

Jameson brings a theoretical scrutiny to bear on the questions that have arisen in the history of this philosophical tradition, contextualizing the debate in terms of commodification and globalization, and with reference to thinkers such as Rousseau, Lukács, Heidegger, Sartre, Derrida, and Althusser.

Through rigorous examination, Valences of the Dialectic charts a movement toward the innovation of a “spatial” dialectic. Jameson presents a new synthesis of thought that revitalizes dialectical thinking for the twenty-first century.

http://www.amazon.com/Valences-Dialectic-Fredric-Jameson/dp/185984877X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257803840&sr=1-1

Hardback • $49.95 • ISBN 978-1-84467-877-7 • 640 pages
November 2009
Available now in good bookstores and online
Distributed by W.W. Norton: tel. 1800 233 4830
Please submit desk copy requests to clara@versobooks.com

“Fredric Jameson is America’s leading Marxist critic. A prodigiously energetic thinker whose writings sweep majestically from Sophocles to science fiction … One of the great writers of our times, not just one of the most formidably gifted critics and cultural theorists” – Terry Eagleton
“Probably the most important cultural critic writing in English today … It can truly be said that nothing cultural is alien to him.” – Colin MacCabe

FREDRIC JAMESON is the Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University. His many books include Postmodernism, Brecht and Method, Late Marxism, The Cultural Turn, A Singular Modernity, The Modernist
Papers, Archaeologies of the Future, and The Ideologies of Theory. He was a recipient of the 2008 Holberg International Memorial Prize.

 Links:
   1. http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Papers-Fredric-Jameson/dp/1844670961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257800242&sr=1-1
   2. http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Papers-Fredric-Jameson/dp/1844670961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257800242&sr=1-1
   3. http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Papers-Fredric-Jameson/dp/1844670961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257800242&sr=1-1
   4. http://www.amazon.com/Archaeologies-Future-Desire-Science-Fictions/dp/1844675386/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257805858&sr=1-2

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Historical Materialism Sixth Annual Conference – Registration

Historical Materialism 6

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE – REGISTRATION

 

Sixth Historical Materialism Annual Conference
Another World is Necessary: Crisis, Struggle and Political Alternatives
27–29 November 2008
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Birkbeck College, London, WC1
In association with Socialist Register and the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize Committee

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/conference2009.htm

The annual Historical Materialism conference is organised by the editorial board of Historical Materialism in association with the Deutscher Memorial Prize committee and the Socialist Register. The conference has become an important event on the Left, providing an annual forum to discuss recent developments on the agenda of historical-materialist research and has attracted an increasingly high attendance over the past four years. The Editorial Board of Historical Materialism welcomes attendance and active engagement in discussion with panellists from new as well as prior participants with an interest in critical-Marxist thought.

One of the principal objectives of the conference has been to build bridges among the various Marxist communities, including the breaking down some of the linguistic and intellectual barriers which continue to hamper the circulation and expansion of critical-Marxist thought. The sixth annual Historical Materialism Conference, under the banner of ‘Crisis, Struggle and Political Alternatives’, promises to continue and take forward this objective.

The conference is organised around three plenary sessions (the Deutscher lecture, the launch of the Socialist Register 2010, and Historical Materialism’s plenary) and a host of workshops dedicated to specific themes.

THE FULL TIMETABLE WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON

For more details, please contact: historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.uk

Attendance is free, but participants must register in advance online (if this is not possible, please contact historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.uk). However, the conference is largely self-funded and we will depend on voluntary donations by attendants and participants to support the organisation and running of the event. The suggested advanced online donation is £40 for waged and £15 for unwaged: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/conference2009.htm, , and the suggested donation on the door is £50 for waged and £20 for unwaged.

For logistical and other support, Historical Materialism would like to thank the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Centre for International Security and Diplomacy. For sponsorship, thanks to the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at SOAS, SOAS Student Union, Brill Academic Publishers, the Deutscher Memorial Prize committee, Socialist Register, Journal of Agrarian Change, the International Initiative for the Promotion of Political Economy and Bookmarks.

The Editorial Board of Historical Materialism

THEMES FOR THIS YEAR’S CONFERENCE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: A LEFT PROJECT: TRANSFORMING THE STATE? * AGENCY * AGRARIAN CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM: TECHNICAL DYNAMICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL * TRAJECTORIES * ALTHUSSER AND PHILOSOPHY * APOCALYPSE MARXISM * ART AGAINST CAPITALISM * ART AND CRITIQUE IN GERMANY BETWEEN THE WARS * BOOK LAUNCH: ALEX CALLINICOS’S IMPERIALISM AND GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY * BOOK LAUNCH: KARL MARX AND CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY * CAPITALISM, CITIZENSHIP AND CRISIS * CLASS AND CONFLICT IN ANCIENT GREECE * CLASS AND POLITICS IN THE ‘GLOBAL SOUTH’ * CLASS, CRISIS, DISTRIBUTION * COGNITIVE MAPPING, TOTALITY AND THE REALIST TURN * COMMODIFYING HEALTH CARE IN THE UK * CUBAN REVOLUTION AND CUBAN SOCIETY * DERIVATIVES * DEVELOPMENTALISM, THE STATE AND CLASS FORMATION * DIMENSIONS OF THE FOOD CRISIS * EASTERN CENTRAL EUROPE FROM TRANSITION TO EU ENLARGEMENT: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY * ECOLOGICAL CRISIS * EMPIRE AND IMPERIALISM * ENERGY AND GEOPOLITICS * ENERGY, WASTE AND CAPITALISM * EPISTEMOLOGY, DIALECTICS AND HISTORICAL MATERIALISM * EXTENDING THE MINERALS-ENERGY-COMPLEX * FEMINISM AND SOCIALIST STRATEGY * FINANCE, THE HOUSING QUESTION AND URBAN POLITICS * GLOBAL LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS: MARXIST REFLECTIONS * GRAMSCI RELOADED * GREEN CAPITALISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS * HISTORICAL MATERIALISM AND LATE CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT * HISTORICAL MATERIALISM AND SOCIAL RESEARCH * HISTORICISING HISTORICAL MATERIALISM * HM BOOK SERIES LAUNCH:  MIKKO LAHTINEN ON ALTHUSSER AND MACHIAVELLI * HM BOOK SERIES LAUNCH: PETER THOMAS’S THE GRAMSCIAN MOMENT * IN MEMORY OF PETER GOWAN * INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE CRISIS * INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CRISIS * ISAAC AND TAMARA DEUTSCHER MEMORIAL PRIZE LECTURE: KEES VAN DER PIJL, NOMADS, EMPIRES, STATES * KNOWLEDGE, NATURE, PROPERTY * LABOUR * LABOUR AND THE ECONOMIC SUBJECT IN CONTEMPORARY ART * LABOUR BEYOND THE FACTORY * LATIN AMERICAN WORKING CLASSES * LEARNING FROM PAST CRISES * LINEAGES OF NEOLIBERALISM * LISTEN TO VENEZUELA SCREENING AND DISCUSSION * MARXISM AND LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY * MARXISM AND NATIONALISM TODAY * MARXISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE * MARXISM AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS * MARXISM AND TIME * MARXISM BETWEEN ETHICS AND UTOPIA * MARXISM, DEMOCRACY AND CLASSICAL POLITICAL THEORY * MIGRATION * MONEY * MORBID SYMPTOMS: HEALTH UNDER CAPITALISM * NEOLIBERALISM, AESTHETICS AND THE RECUPERATION OF DISSENT * ON THE OBJECTS OF COMMUNISM: A HACKING PANEL * PHILOSOPHY AND COMMUNISM IN THE EARLY MARX * PLANNING, LOCALISM AND THE LEFT * POSTNEOLIBERALISM * PRESENTATION OF THE JOURNAL CHTO DELAT/WHAT IS TO BE DONE? * RACE, NATION AND ORIENTALISM * RED PLANETS: MARXISM AND SCIENCE FICTION * RE-EMBEDDING MARXISM: COERCION AND POLITICAL ECONOMY * REGISTERING THE CRISIS: A SOCIALIST REGISTER ROUNDTABLE * RESEARCH ON MARX * RESTRUCTURING, OUTSOURCING, DISTRIBUTION: DIMENSIONS OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS * REVOLUTIONARY THEORY, AUTONOMIST MARXISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY * SLAVERY AND CAPITALISM IN THE US SOUTH * SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA: THE CURRENT CONJUNCTURE * STUDENT MOVEMENTS AND YOUTH REVOLTS * THE ARTS AND CAPITALIST CRISIS: THE NEW DEAL EXPERIENCE * THE CRITIQUE OF RELIGION AND THE CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM * THE POLITICAL AESTHETICS OF REALISM * THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WORK * THE POLITICS OF FINANCE * THE POLITICS OF THE WILL * THE POLITICS OF VALUE * THE RIGHT: RACE, NATION, IDENTITY * THE TURN TO ETHICS AND THE CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM * ‘TURBULENCE: IDEAS FOR MOVEMENT’, NEW ISSUE LAUNCH * UNION STRUGGLES * UNOISM, ECOLOGY AND CRISIS * UTOPIAS, DYSTOPIAS AND SOCIALIST BIOPOLITICS * WEBLOGS AND THE OPPOSITIONAL PUBLIC SPHERE: A DISCUSSION * WHAT IS ABSTRACTION? * WORKERS AND STRUGGLE TODAY * ZIONISM, 
ANTISEMITISM AND THE LEFT – A DEBATE

SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Gilbert Achcar * Gregory Albo * Robert Albritton * Peter Alexander * Noaman Ali * Kevin B. Anderson * Ricardo Antunes * Caroline Arscott * Sam Ashman * John Ashworth * Ilker Atac * Jairus Banaji * Fletcher Baragar * Banu Bargu * Colin Barker * Tom Barnes * Luca Basso * Matthew Beaumont * Pinar Bedirhanoglu * John Bell * Aaron Benanav * Halil Berktay * Armin Beverungen * Robin Blackburn * Paul Blackledge * Max Blechman * Derek Boothman * Mark Bould * Bill Bowring * Ulrich Brand * Craig Brandist * Michael Brie * Wendy Brown * Dick Bryan * Adrian Budd * Verity Burgmann * Alex Callinicos * Mauro Farnesi Camellone * Bob Cannon * Thomas Carmichael * Warren Carter * Giorgio Cesarale * Maria Elisa Cevasco * Dae-op Chang * Vivek Chibber * Andrew 
Chitty * Christopher Chitty * Joseph Choonara * Sheila Cohen * Alex Colas * Tim Cooper * Stipe Curkovic * Steve Cushion * Gareth Dale * Neil Davidson * Gail Day * Tim Dayton * Kathryn Dean * Angela Dimitrakaki * Demet Dinler * Kevin Doogan * Elizabeth Dore * Nick Dyer-Witheford * Juliane Edler * Aram Eisenschitz * Hester Eisenstein * Fuat Ercan * Adam Fabry * Daniel Fairfax * Mariano Feliz * Ben Fine * Robert Fine * Mark Fisher * Peter Fleming * Gregory C. Flemming * Keith Flett * John Foran * Vassillis Fouskas * Carl Freedman * James Furner * Alexander Gallas * Andreia Galvao * Ferruccio Gambino * Earl Gammon * Mike Geddes * Lindsey German * Frantz Gheller * Lesley Gill * John Glenn * Jesse Goldstein * Maya Gonzalez * Jeff Goodwin * Jamie Gough * Nick Gray * Juan Grigera * Peter Hallward * Ayeesha Hameed * Carrie Hamilton * Bue Hansen * Jane Hardy * Chris Harman * Stefano Harney * Barnaby Harran * David Harvie * Owen Hatherley * Mike Haynes * Lesley Henderson * Christoph Henning * Rob Heynen * Andy Higginbottom * Sarah Hines * John Holloway *  John Holst * Patricia Howard * Peter Hudis * Liz Humphries * Robert Jackson * Dhruv Jain * Fredric Jameson * Elinor Jean * Seongjin Jeong * Bob Jessop * Bonn Juego * Anush Kapadia * Brian Kelly * Sami Khatib * Jeff Kinkle * Kelvin Knight * Meri Koivusalo * Ahmet Hasim Kose * Conor Kostick * Primoz Krasovec * Maria Kyriakidou * Xavier Lafrance * Mikko Lahtinen * Alex Levant * Les Levidow * Iren Levina * William Lewis * Nicola Livingstone * Jean-Guy Loranger * Monica Clua Losada * David Mabb * Andreas Malm * Gonzo Poso Martin * Randy Martin * Jonathan Martineau * Meade McCloughan * David McNally * Angela McRobbie * Simon Mohun * Peter P. Mollinga * Kim Moody * Colin Mooers * Jason W. Moore * Adam Morton * Sara Motta * Tadzio Müller * Vlad Mykhnenko * Ozgur Narin * Jonathan Neale * Mike Newman * Susan Newman * Benjamin Noys * Blair Ogden * Ozlem Onaran * Deidre O’Neill * Ebru Deniz Ozan * Melda Ozturk * Leo Panitch * Giorgos Papafragkou * David Parker * Jaime Pastor * Jody Patterson * Knox Peden * Alexei Penzin * Simon Pirani * Iain Pirie * Amedeo Policante * Nicolas Pons-Vignon * Charles Post * Moishe Postone * Nina Power * Gonzalo Pozo-Martin * Lucia Pradella * Toni Prug * Ozren Pupovac * Thomas Purcell * Hugo Radice * Ravi Raman * Akbar Rasulov * Gene Ray * John Rees * Tobias Reichardt * Paul Reynolds * Sébastien Rioux * John Roberts * Ed Rooksby * Ellen Rosen * Christina Rousseau * Sheila Rowbotham * Sally Ruane * Frank Ruda * Alfredo Saad-Filho * Spyros Sakellaropoulos * Birgit Sauer * Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt * Alan Sears * Thomas Sekine * Ben Selwyn * Greg Sharzer * Stuart Shields * Subir Sinha * Gary Slater * John Smith * Johan Soderberg * Clare Solomon * Panagiotis Sotiris * Dimitris Sotiropoulos * Susan Spronk * Kerstin Stakemeier * Julian Stallabrass * Engelbert Stockhammer * Adam Swain * Erik Swyngedouw * Lotta Takala-Greenish * Daniel Tanuro * Jean Baptiste Thomas * Peter Thomas * Hillel Ticktin * John Timberlake * Bruno Tinel * Massimiliano Tomba * Jonathon Tomlinson * Alberto Toscano * Ben Trott * Julian Tudor-Hart * Emily van der Meulen * Marco Vanzulli * Leandro Vergara-Camus * Zaira Rodrigues Vieira * Dmitry Vilensky * Marina Vishmidt * Andriana Vlachou * Hilary Wainwright * Mike Wayne * Xiaoping Wei * Duncan Wigan * Evan Calder Williams * Michael Wood * Phil Woodhouse * Galip Yalman * Karel Yon * Christian Zeller * Alexander Zevin * Mislav Zitko *

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Marx and the Global Economic Crisis

MARX AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS

New articles and videos on the ‘Radical Perspectives on the Crisis’ web site:

Anwar Shaikh: http://radicalnotes.com/journal/2009/06/13/anwar-shaikh-on-marx-and-the-global-economic-crisis/

David McNally talk (video): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9hrct_david-mcnally-on-marx-and-the-globa_news

Radical Perspectives on the Crisis: http://sites.google.com/site/radicalperspectivesonthecrisis/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Richard Wolff: Capitalism Hits the Fan

Capitalist Crisis

RICHARD WOLFF – CAPITALISM HITS THE FAN

 

A message from Rick Wolff

Dear Friends

You might find interesting and useful (and especially for teaching purposes) an inexpensive ($18 or less if ordered via http://www.rdwolff.com) new book of short, 1000-word essays on the history and dimensions of the current economic crisis as well as government responses and political implications. The essays were published from 2005 through mid-2009 on the Monthly Review webzine and are here edited with new introductions for maximum clarity, brevity, and accessibility to many audiences. The book can already be ordered and will begin shipment Sept 30, 2009.

Rick Wolff

http://www.rdwolff.com
*********************************

Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It

Richard Wolff

Published 2009 • 6” x 9” • 256 pages • charts ISBN 9781566567848 • paperback • $18.00

A breathtakingly clear analysis that breaks down the root causes of today’s economic crisis

 “With unerring coherence and unequaled breadth of knowledge, Rick Wolff offers a rich and much needed corrective to the views of mainstream economists and pundits. It would be difficult to come away from this… with anything but an acute appreciation of what is needed to get us out of this mess.” —Stanley Aronowitz, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Urban Education, City University of New York

Capitalism Hits the Fan chronicles one economist’s growing alarm and insights as he watched, from 2005 onwards, the economic crisis build, burst, and then dominate world events. The argument here differs sharply from most other explanations offered by politicians, media commentators, and other academics. Step by step, Professor Wolff shows that deep economic structures—the relationship of wages to profits, of workers to boards of directors, and of debts to income—account for the crisis. The great change in the US economy since the 1970s, as employers stopped the historic rise in US workers’ real wages, set in motion the events that eventually broke the world economy. The crisis resulted from the post-1970s profit explosion, the debt-driven finance-industry expansion, and the sequential stock market and real estate booms and busts. Bailout interventions by the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury have thrown too little money too late at a problem that requires more than money to solve.

As this book shows, we must now ask basic questions about capitalism as a system that has now convulsed the world economy into two great depressions in 75 years (and countless lesser crises, recessions, and cycles in between). The book’s essays engage the long-overdue public discussion about basic structural changes and systemic alternatives  needed not only to fix today’s broken economy but to prevent future crises.

Richard Wolff has been a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst since 1981. He has been a visiting professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs, at the New School in New York since 2007. Wolff’s major recent interests and publications include studies of US economic history to ascertain the basic structural causes of the current economic crisis and the examination of how alternative economic theories (neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian) understand and respond to the crisis in very different ways. His past work involves application of advanced class analysis to contemporary global capitalism. He has written, co-authored, and co-edited many books and dozens of scholarly and popular journal articles. His recent analyses of current economic events appear regularly in the webzine of the Monthly Review. In 2009, Capitalism Hits the Fan, the documentary on the current economic crisis, was released by Media Education Foundation (http://www.mediaed.org). Visit http://www.rdwolff.com for more information.

Olive Branch Press
http://www.interlinkbooks.com

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Roots of a System’s Crisis
The Political Pendulum Swings, the Alienation Deepens
Dividing the Conservative Coalition
Economic Inequality and US Politics
Reform vs. Revolution: Settling Accounts
Exit-Poll Revelations
Real Costs of Executives’ Money Grabs
The Decline of Public Higher Education
Reversing the American Dream   
Old Distributions, New Economy (co-author Max Fraad-Wolff)
Today’s Haunting Specter, or What Needs Doing
Twenty Years of Widening Inequality
Neoliberalism in Globalized Trouble
Evading Taxes, Legally
Consumerism: Curses and Causes
Nominating Palin Makes Sense

Part II: The Economics of Crisis
1    Capitalism as a Crisis-Prone System
Capitalism’s Three Oscillations and the US Today
Financial Panics, Then and Now
Neoliberal Globalization Is Not the Problem
Economic Blues
Capitalist Crisis, Marx’s Shadow
Wall Street vs. Main Street: Finger Pointing vs. System Change
Capitalism’s Crisis through a Marxian Lens
It’s the System, Stupid
GM’s Tragedy: The System Strikes Back
Crises in vs. of Capitalism
2    The Role of Economic Theory
Evangelical Economics
Flip-Flops of Economics
3    Markets and Efficiency
Oil and Efficiency Myths
The Rating Horrors and Capitalist “Efficiency”
Market Terrorism
4    Wages, Productivity, and Exploitation
US Pensions: Capitalist Disaster
The Fallout from Falling Wages
Reaping the Economic Whirlwind
Our Sub-Prime Economy
5    Housing and Debt
Personal Debts and US Capitalism
US Housing Boom Goes Bust
What Dream? Americans All Renters Now!
6    Government Intervention in the Economy
 Bernanke Expectations: New Fed Chairman, Same Old, Same Old
Federal Reserve Twists and Turns
As Rome Burned, the Emperor Fiddled
Policies to “Avoid” Economic Crises
Lotteries: Disguised Tax Injustice
7    International Dimensions of the Crisis
Immigration and Class
Global Oil Market Dangers
China Shapes/Shakes World’s Economies
Globalization’s Risks and Costs
Foreign Threat to American Business?
US Economic Slide Threatens Mexico

Part III: Politics of the Crisis
1    Reforms and Regulations as Crisis Solutions
Economic Reforms: Been There, Done That
Regulations Do Not Prevent Capitalist Crises
2    Debates over “Socialist” Solutions
Economic Crisis, Ideological Debates
Socialism’s New American Opportunity
Those Alternative Socialist “Stimulus” Plans
Wanted: Red-Green Alliance for Radically Democratic Reorganization of Production
Capitalist Crisis, Socialist Renewal
3    Anti-Capitalist Politics
Europe: Capitalism and Socialism
The Urban Renewal Scam for New Orleans
France’s Student-Worker Alliance
Lessons of a Left Victory in France
The Minimum Wage, Labor, and Politics
French Elections’ Deeper Meaning
Mass Political Withdrawal
Capitalism Crashes, Politics Changes

Index

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Ruth Rikowski News Update 31

Ruth Rikowski

RUTH RIKOWKSI NEWS UPDATE 31

 

This is the latest of Ruth Rikowski’s News Updates. These were previously on  her now defunct AOL blog but have been continued and can now be found on a Blogspot blog: Ruth Rikowski News Updates Progression.

Ruth Rikowski’s latest News Update (no.31) can be found at: http://ruthrikowskiupdates.blogspot.com/

Glenn Rikowski