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Edward Said

Edward Said

2012 EDWARD W. SAID MEMORIAL LECTURE

The lecture, entitled ‘What’s Left in Postcolonial Studies?’ will be delivered by Professor Benita Parry.

6pm, Tuesday, 29th May

Mathematics Institute (Room MS 0.3), University of Warwick 

Sponsored by the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick, the Memorial Lecture series has been set up to honour the life and work of Edward W. Said, who died in 2003. Said, who was Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, was an internationally renowned literary and cultural critic and one of the foremost public intellectuals of our time. Besides his work as a cultural critic, Edward Said was very well known as an impassioned spokesperson for the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice, freedom and autonomy, and as a commentator on Middle Eastern politics more generally. His commitment to secular humanism and his engaged style of intellectual practice has served as a model and inspiration for many of his readers, both within and outside the academy.

Benita Parry is Professor Emerita of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. She has published widely in postcolonial studies and the literatures of colonialism and imperialism. Her many publications include the monographs, Delusions and Discoveries:India in the British Imagination, 1880-1930(1972, rev. 1998) and Conrad and Imperialism: Ideological Boundaries and Visionary Frontiers (1984); the collection, Postcolonial Studies: A Materialist Critique (2004); and the edited volumes, Cultural Representations of Imperialism: Edward Said and the Gravity of History (1998) and Postcolonial Criticism and Theory (1999).

Useful links:

Getting to Warwick: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/directions

The Mathematics Institute is located in the Zeeman Building: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/maps/interactive/

 

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‘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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Books

Books

THE POLITICS OF POSTCOLONIALISM

The Politics of Postcolonialism: Empire, Nation and Resistance
Rumina Sethi

Paperback | 9780745323633 | £17.99 / $28
Hardback | 9780745323640 | £60 / $90

To buy the book visit: http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745323633

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ADOPTED ON 20 UNIVERSITY COURSES

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‘This book develops an argument that is both even-handed and radical. Rumina Sethi explores the history and the difficulties of post-colonial theory and without jettisoning its value she urges quite fresh thinking about its political and social implications.’ — Dame Gillian Beer, King Edward VII Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge

‘Rumina Sethi challenges postcolonial critics to put their feet back on the ground and to link the postcolonial once again to the political activism by which it has always been inspired.’ — Robert J.C. Young, Julius Silver Professor of English & Comparative Literature at New York University

‘”If postcolonial studies is to be relevant today,” Rumina Sethi argues, “it must become the voice of the people and theorize about movements against globalization, not become part of its grand design.” Her critical analysis of the “politics of postcolonialism” and the lack of constructive dialogue with the Marxist perspective, interweaving with analysis of globalization and the state of “postcoloniality,” seeks to overcome the academic ossification of concepts that should be integrated with social change and activism.’ — Noam Chomsky

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In a period of global restructuring, unrestricted capital has eroded the traditional distinctions between nations and nationhood. In ‘The Politics of Postcolonialism’, Rumina Sethi devises a new form of postcolonial studies that makes sense of these dramatic changes.

Returning to the origins of the discipline, Sethi identifies it as a tool for political protest and activism among people of the third world. Using a sophisticated mix of spatial theory and local politics, she examines the uneven terrain of contemporary anti-capitalism and political upsurges in Africa, Asia and Latin America, emphasising postcolonial politics, dissent and resistance. Her analysis shows that as the traditional means of direct political control have largely lost their hold, postcolonial cultures, now dominated by neoliberalism, need to seek fresh ways to express their discontent.

This original and persuasive work frees the discipline from its current preoccupation with hybridity and multiculturalism, giving students of politics, cultural studies and international relations a new perspective on postcolonialism.

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RUMINA SETHI is a Professor in the department of English and Cultural Studies at Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. She is the author of ‘Myths of the Nation: National Identity and Literary Representation’ (1999). She wrote her doctoral thesis atTrinityCollege,Cambridge, and was a British Academy Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. She was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 2006.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

1. Postcolonialism and its Discontents: An introduction
2. The End of the Nation?
3. Globalization and Protest
4. The United States and Postcolonialism
5. Conclusion: New Directions

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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INSPECTION COPIES

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EBOOKS

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REVIEW COPIES

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ORDERS

To place an order, visit our website at www.plutobooks.com.

Best regards,
Jonathan Maunder
Academic Marketing
Pluto Press
Email: jonm@plutobooks.com
Tel: 020 8348 2724
www.plutobooks.com

 

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THE POST-COLONIAL STATE – TARIQ AMIN-KHAN

Global Capitalism

 

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415891592/

New book on the Post-Colonial State:

Tariq Amin-Khan, The Post-Colonial State in the Era of Capitalist Globalization: Historical, Political and Theoretical Approaches to State Formation. New York: Routledge, 2012.

ISBN 978-0-415-89159-2.

 State formation in post-colonial societies differed greatly from the formation of the Western capitalist state. The latter has been extensively studied, while a coherent grasp of the post-colonial state – despite the recent ethnographical explorations – has remained elusive. Amin-Khan provides a critical, historical and contemporary understanding of post-colonial state formations in Asia andAfrica, and articulates how this process differed for Latin American states.

 A common signifier of the post-colonial state is the retention of the unitary colonial state structure by its ruling classes. This legacy has reinscribed the colonial-era social relations in post-colonial societies, and consolidated the power of the ‘overdeveloped’ civil and military bureaucracy. At the same time, the US was able to remove ‘nationalist’ leadership in Africa and Asia to create client post-colonial states that have remained beholden to Western states, transnational corporations and international financial institutions.

The analysis of these developments shows that the vast majority of post-colonial states have remained proto-capitalist – with feudal landholders and bureaucratic elite having a stranglehold on state power. In contrast, those few countries (India, South Africa and others) that have emerged as capitalist post-colonial states have been able to partly shake off the colonial legacy and loosen the noose of imperialist domination. The final two chapters ground theory by concretely analyzing the nature and development trajectories of the states of India and Pakistan as two distinct examples respectively of capitalist and proto-capitalist states – which can be generalized as the two state forms prevalent in post-colonial societies.

Original source: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/now-out-tariq-amin-khan-the-post-colonial-state-in-the-era-of-capitalist-globalization

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‘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

Karl Marx

MARXISM 2012: REVOLUTION IN THE AIR

Thursday 5 – Sunday 8 April (Easter) in Melbourne, Australia
Details at: http://marxismconference.org/

The conference features over 70 sessions on a huge range of topics – from radical history to women’s and LGBTI liberation, imperialism and the Middle East, socialist theory, the global economic crisis and workers’ struggles today.

Speakers include:
Malalai Joya. Outspoken Afghan critic of the American war and occupation. 
John Pilger. Multi award winning left-wing film maker 
Leia Pettey. New York unionist and socialist involved in Occupy Wall Street 
Gary Foley. Legendary Aboriginal activist
Chie Matsumoto. Tokyo based journalist, trade unionist and political activist 
David Meienreis. Activist in the German left party Die Linke 
John Tully. Author of The Devil’s Milk: A Social History of Rubber

Plus radical music and poetry
http://marxismconference.org/

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‘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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Work

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 24th OCTOBER 2011

EVENTS

STEPHEN LEWIS AND MICHELE LANDSBERG: TORONTO LECTURE

November 3, 2011
Lecture: 7:00 pm
Fundraising Wine & Cheese Social: 8:30 pm
Trinity St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor Street West, Toronto

The CCPA (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) is proud to present Stephen Lewis and Michele Landsberg—two of Canada’s leading thinkers and recipients of the Order of Canada—as this year’s featured guests for the David Lewis Lecture.

Join us for an intimate conversation about their lives, their passions, and the future of this country.

Following the lecture, there will be a fundraising social in an adjoining room with members of the Lewis family and CCPA research associates.

Copies of Michele’s new book, “Writing the Revolution”, will be available for sale and Michele will be on hand to sign them.

Purchase tickets online at: http://policyalternatives.ca/david-lewis-lecture. Lecture tickets: $20 (upper level) or $40 (main level). Fundraising Wine & Cheese: $40 (includes complementary drink).

All proceeds are dedicated to future CCPA David Lewis Lectures.

Generously sponsored by the Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

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POST-ELECTION UPDATE – DIVERSITY IN POLITICS: WHERE DO WE STAND?

Tuesday, November 8, 2011
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen’s Park, Toronto

Register online at: http://diversecitypostelectionupdate.eventbrite.com/ (Space is limited.)

With the three recent elections – provincial, federal and municipal – still fresh in our minds, let’s step back and take this opportunity to look at diversity in elected office.

- To what extent do those who ran for office – and those who were elected – reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of the Toronto region?
- Have parties run diverse candidates in winnable ridings?
-  What more can be done to change the face of political leadership in the country’s most diverse city region?

Join us on November 8 when Myer Siemiatycki, Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University, presents newly released findings on the state of diversity in elected office.

Hear from our panel of political insiders on what worked, what didn’t, and what parties can do to ensure that their representatives better reflect their constituents.

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LECTURE: MICHAEL PARENTI ON “IMPERIALISM AND THE 99% SOLUTION”

Tuesday, November 1, 2011
7 p.m.
MacLeod Auditorium (formerly the Medical Sciences Auditorium)
1 King’s College Circle
University of Toronto

Admission is $10 at the door. There are no advance sales and seating is limited so plan to be there on time.

This event is sponsored by People’s Voice newspaper (http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/). For more information please visit the website or telephone (416) 469-2481.

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CDI (CO-OPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE) CONFERENCE TO BE WEBCAST OCTOBER 28-29   

Co-operators who aren’t attending the Co-operative Development Initiative’s (http://cccm.coopscanada.coop/en) “From Idea to Reality” conference on October 28 and 29 will still have an opportunity to participate in some of the sessions. The on-site conference is by invitation and only for recipients of funding under the Innovative Co-operative Projects component of CDI.

CDI is partnering with a co-operative from Montreal, http://Webtv.coop, to broadcast selected panels live.  The presentations will be available in both official languages: viewers will get either the voice of the speaker or the voice of an interpreter, depending on the speaker’s language. People will also have web access to the PowerPoint presentations used by the speakers, and a chat room will be open so that people can ask the panelists questions from home.

To access the conference online: 
- Go to http://webtv.coop (note that the site’s layout is in French only)
- Click on the first tab at the top left:  “En direct”
- Click on the CDI Conference banner “From Idea to Reality” (canal 8)
- In the pop-up window, you will be asked for a username (utilisateur) and password (mot de passe). Type in the username: 2011conference and the password: cdi2011. 

Download the conference program (PDF): http://bit.ly/nPoVvV

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COMPARATIVE, INTERNATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION CENTRE (CIDEC) SEMINAR – GROWING UP FEMALE IN POSTCOLONIAL MALAYSIA: GENDER, ETHNICITY AND EDUCATION

Wednesday, November 2, 2011
5:30pm
Smart Room 7-105, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
252 Bloor St. West (St. George subway station), Toronto

With Dr. Cynthia Joseph of Monash University, Australia

Chair: Dr. Reva Joshee

Cynthia Joseph is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Monash University in Australia.  Cynthia’s research and teaching draw on Postcolonial Studies, Sociology of Education, Comparative Education and Asian Studies to understand identity, cultural differences and equality issues in education. She examines the ways in which ethnicity/race and gender are (re)configured in these globalising and transnational times. Her recent work explores transnational identities, education and work within the context of migration and the global economy. This seminar will be based on six years of a longitudinal ethnography with a group of young Malaysian women from the three major ethnic groups of Malay-Muslim, Chinese, and Indian.

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NEWS & VIEWS

OCCUPY WALL STREET: BEYOND THE RHETORIC

by Matthew Flisfeder, The Bullet

One of the distinguishing features of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is its apparent lack of central leadership. Not only does the movement seem leaderless; it does not appear to be organized around any clearly defined ‘demands.’ This has been perceived as something quite positive for participants and supporters of the movement, while being the primary point of criticism from opponents, particularly the mainstream media. Clearly, OWS stands against the unfair balance of wealth distribution in the United States (and around the world, for that matter), the unfair neoliberal
politics that have swept the globe over the last four decades, corporate greed (especially in the financial sector), and various forms of systemic violence resulting from structural inequalities built into the capitalist system of exploitation. But what media pundits are looking for is something that they can represent: something, that is, with a timeline, that defines when the protestors will be ‘satisfied’.

Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/553.php

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I WANT REAL FOOD AND REAL JOBS. DO YOU?

From UNITE HERE

My name is Anabela Pappas, and I’m a kitchen worker at Harvard University. I want to share my story of how we improved the food and our jobs at Harvard, and how we can do it across North America.

Several months ago, my co-workers and I (members of UNITE HERE Local 26) started negotiations for a new contract with the university. Many of us in the dining halls and kitchens were upset that our cooking skills weren’t being used enough, and that the university was relying too much on processed and frozen food instead of real cooking by us. On top of that, during summer and holiday breaks, we had to look for other jobs until school started again. Those aren’t sustainable jobs.

Students were also concerned about the quality of the campus food, and felt the university could do a better job in getting local and sustainable food. At the bargaining table, students sat with us and demanded more information from the university about where the food comes from, and how it is made.

As a result of our alliance with Harvard students, the administration agreed to a new contract that created a joint committee with the union to adopt best practices for environmentally responsible food sourcing and preparation. Harvard also agreed to give Local 26 members priority hiring for jobs during the summer and winter recess. We made a major step forward to creating sustainable jobs and sustainable food!

We still have more work to do, but I am proud of what we achieved. I think it’s time that we improve food and jobs at all campuses across the country.

Please visit our new website: http://www.RealFoodRealJobs.org to learn more
about our campaign, and check out our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/RealFoodRealJobs.

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SPT REPORT RELEASED: “PUBLIC SYSTEM, PRIVATE MONEY: FEES, FUNDRAISING AND EQUITY IN THE TORONTO DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD”

A report released by Social Planning Toronto entitled “Public System, Private Money: Fees, Fundraising and Equity in the Toronto District School Board” explores how school fees and fundraising activities create an unequal playing field by offering different opportunities for students in schools and between schools, depending on their ability to pay.

Inspired by the Ministry of Education’s review of the Fees for Learning Materials and Activities Guideline and Fundraising Guideline, this report explores the growing opportunity gap between students from wealthier families and those who attend schools in wealthier areas of the city compared with students whose families are lower income and/or live in poorer areas of the city.

Download the full report (PDF): http://bit.ly/mUx7PC

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THE GREEKS ARE BEING UNFAIRLY MALIGNED BY GLOBAL FINANCIERS: THE TRUTH IS VERY DIFFERENT

from Alternet

Beyond the anti-Greek media campaign lies the story of a weary people caught between a corrupt political system and rapacious financiers. Sound familiar?

Greece is a land of ancient myth. But more recent myths have made Greeks cringe when foreigners start asking questions.

Greeks are lazy. They don’t work. They’re profligates who are taking down Europe. The caricature has become so common that a recent TV commercial in Slovakia used it to sell beer, drawing a contrast between the virtuous Slovak and the paunchy Greek indulging himself on a beach.

Read more: http://bit.ly/nLXQoi

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ABOUT CSEW (CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION & WORK, OISE/UT):

Head: Peter Sawchuk
Co-ordinator: D’Arcy Martin

The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.

Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca.

For more information about CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca.

 

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‘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)  

 

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

Abraham Lincoln

AN UNFINISHED REVOLUTION: KARL MARX AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN

NEW TITLE:
AN UNFINISHED REVOLUTION: KARL MARX AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN

BY ROBIN BLACKBURN
OUT NOW
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EVENT:
October 12, 2011
Bishopsgate Institute
Empire and Resistance: A special meeting with two leading socialist historians of imperialism, Robin Blackburn & Richard Gott

Socialist History Society Public Meeting, supported by the London Socialist Historians Group

For more information and to book: http://www.versobooks.com/events/201-empire-and-resistance-a-special-meeting-with-two-leading-socialist-historians-of-imperialism-robin-blackburn-amp-richard-gott
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“A meditation on a world that could have been.”—GREG GRANDIN, GUARDIAN,http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/08/american-crucible-robin-blackburn-review
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Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln exchanged letters at the end of the Civil War. Although they were divided by far more than the Atlantic Ocean, they agreed on the cause of “free labor” and the urgent need to end slavery. In his introduction, Robin Blackburn argues that Lincoln’s response signaled the importance of the German American community and the role of the international communists in opposing European recognition of the Confederacy.

The ideals of communism, voiced through the International Working Men’s Association, attracted many thousands of supporters throughout the US, and helped spread the demand for an eight-hour day. Blackburn shows how the IWA in America—born out of the Civil War—sought to radicalize Lincoln’s unfinished revolution and to advance the rights of labor, uniting black and white, men and women, native and foreign-born. The International contributed to a profound critique of the capitalist robber barons who enriched themselves during and after the war, and it inspired an extraordinary series of strikes and class struggles in the postwar decades.

In addition to a range of key texts and letters by both Lincoln and Marx, this book includes articles from the radical New York-based journal WOODHULL AND CLAFLIN’S WEEKLY, an extract from Thomas Fortune’s classic work on racism BLACK AND WHITE, Frederick Engels on the progress of US labor in the 1880s, and Lucy Parson’s speech at the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World.
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ALSO OUT NOW, a landmark history of the rise, abolition, and legacy of slavery in the New World:

THE AMERICAN CRUCIBLE: SLAVERY, EMANCIPATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS

This book furnishes a panoramic view of slavery and emancipation in the Americas from the conquests and colonization of the sixteenth century to the ‘century of abolition’ that stretched from 1780 to 1888. Tracing the diverse responses of African captives, THE AMERICAN CRUCIBLE argues that while slave rebels and abolitionists made real gains, they also suffered cruel setbacks and disappointments, leading to a momentous radicalization of the discourse of human rights.   In it, Robin Blackburn explains the emergence of ferocious systems of racial exploitation while rejecting the comforting myths that portray emancipation as somehow already inscribed in the institutions and ideas that allowed for, or even fostered, racial slavery in the first place, whether the logic of the market, the teachings of religion, or the spirit of nationalism. Rather, Blackburn stresses, American slavery was novel—and so too were the originality and achievement of the anti-slavery alliances which eventually destroyed it.

The Americas became the crucible for a succession of fateful experiments in colonization, silver mining, plantation agriculture, racial enslavement and emancipation. The exotic commodities produced by the slave plantations helped to transform Europe and North America, raising up empires and stimulating industrial revolution and ‘market revolution’ to bring about the pervasive commodification of polite society, work and everyday life in parts of Europe and North America. Fees, salaries and wages fostered consuming habits so that capitalism, based on free wage labor in the metropolis, became intimately dependent on racial slavery in the New World.

But by the late eighteenth century the Atlantic boom had sown far and wide the seeds of subversion, provoking colonial rebellion, slave conspiracy and popular revolt, the aspirations of a new black peasantry and ‘picaresque proletariat’, and the emergence of a revolutionary doctrine: the ‘rights of man’. The result was a radicalization of the principles of the Enlightenment, with the Haitian Revolution rescuing and reshaping the ideals memorably proclaimed by the American and French revolutions.

Blackburn charts the gradual emergence of an ability and willingness to see the human cost of the heedless consumerism and to challenge it. The anti-slavery idea, he argues, brought together diverse impulses—the ‘free air’ doctrine maintained by the common people of Europe, the critique of the philosophes and the urgency of slave resistance and black witness. The anti-slavery idea made gains thanks to a succession of historic upheavals. But the remaining slave systems—in the US South, Cuba and Brazil—were in many ways as strong as ever.
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AN UNFINISHED REVOLUTION

ISBN: 978 1 84467 722 1 / $19.95 / £12.99 / $25.00CAN / Paperback / 272 pages

For more information about AN UNFINISHED REVOLUTION or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/954-an-unfinished-revolution
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THE AMERICAN CRUCIBLE:

ISBN: 978 1 84467 569 2 / $34.95 / £20.00/ Hardcover / 512 pages

For more information about THE AMERICAN CRUCIBLE or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/126-the-american-crucible
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Praise for THE AMERICAN CRUCIBLE:

“It leaves a string of other academics licking their scholarly wounds.”—JAMES WALVIN

“The American Crucible poses a challenge for the political future as well as a bold reappraisal of the historical past.”—STEPHEN HOWE, INDEPENDENT:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-american-crucible-slavery-emancipation-and-human-rights-by-robin-blackburn-2301659.html

Praise for THE MAKING OF NEW WORLD SLAVERY:

“A magnificent work of contemporary scholarship.”—ERIC FONER, NATION

“Blackburn’s book has finally drawn the veil which concealed or made mysterious the history and development of modern society.” —DARCUS HOWE, GUARDIAN

“Sombre, dark and masterly.” —LINDA COLLEY, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

“An exhaustive, powerfully written and compelling book.” —ANTHONY PAGDEN, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“Fascinating … Blackburn has brought together diverse strands of historical research and woven them into a compelling story.” —LOS ANGELES TIMES

Praise for THE OVERTHROW OF COLONIAL SLAVERY:

“An incisive synthesis of developments in North America, the Caribbean and Latin America. Blackburn’s book is bold and original.” —RICHARD DUNN, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“A challenge to those who fondly suppose that slavery declined as ideas of Western ‘enlightenment’ spread. Blackburn deserves praise for undermining complacency about the past — and the present.” —CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, NEW YORK NEWSDAY

“The first historian since Eric Williams to present a comprehensive interpretation.” —NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

“One of the finest studies of slavery and abolition.” —ERIC FONER, DISSENT

“Blackburn’s highly intelligent and well-written book is a substantial contribution.” —VICTOR KIERNEN, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

Praise for AGE SHOCK

“Blackburn’s book is a serious and finely argued attack on contemporary market fundamentalism in a vivid phrasemaking style.” STEVEN POOLE, GUARDIAN

Praise for BANKING ON DEATH

“One of the best books I have read on pension funds.” INDEPENDENT

“Blackburn is particularly good at disentangling the different dynamics that make the pension’s problem so intractable for mature, ageing economies.” SIR HOWARD DAVIS, DIRECTOR, FSA, GUARDIAN

“Blackburn’s views seem to me refreshing … [He] acknowledges that there are real strains on the old welfare state and proposes interesting ways to handle them that do not resort to simplistic formulas of privatization.” JEFF MADRICK, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
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ROBIN BLACKBURN teaches at the New School in New York and the University of Essex in the UK. He is the author of many books, including THE MAKING OF NEW WORLD SLAVERY, THE OVERTHROW OF COLONIAL SLAVERY, AGE SHOCK, BANKING ON DEATH, and THE AMERICAN CRUCIBLE.
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Academics can request an inspection copy. For further information please go to: http://www.versobooks.com/pg/desk-copies
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Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers:http://www.versobooks.com

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Hydra

THE MANY HEADED HYDRA 10 YEARS ON

Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker’s The Many Headed Hydra (2000) argued that during the colonial and commercial expansion in the Atlantic Ocean between c. 1640 and 1830 a revolutionary proletariat emerged. Waves of commodification in the Atlantic system – of land, goods and people – created a mobile, multi-ethnic workforce. Authorities attempted to control them, only to provoke new forms of resistance. Atlantic proletarians played their own distinct part in the Age of Revolutions and the abolition of slavery; they created their own forms of equality and freedom. A decade after the publication of that highly suggestive study, how does the thesis stand up?

At this conference to be held at Birkbeck, University of London in Thursday 12 April 2012, we will hope to explore the book’s central themes in the light of new research, as well as taking it into new areas. The book concentrated on the English-speaking Atlantic and we would particularly encourage papers dealing with the non-English Atlantic or similar developments in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Pacific. We would hope papers pay attention to the intersections between class, gender and race. All sub-disciplinary perspectives – economic, social, cultural, political – are welcome.

Themes for papers could include:

·         The politics and ideology of the proletariat: abolitionism, revolutions and revolts, popular egalitarianism and democracy, radical religion.
·         Types of work and workers; changing work processes; migration and labour markets; industrial relations; work cultures.
·         Sites of struggle: the commons, the plantation, ships, factories. How did they structure workers’ experiences? Are particular types of resistance associated with them? Were there others?
·         Material and economic pathways: the role of oceanic trade routes, commodities, natural resources, technologies etc
·         Role of institutions (e.g. trading companies, guilds), States and Empires in creating and regulating the workforce; criminal justice and law; army and naval recruitment; taxation.
·         Comparative perspectives between different Atlantic Empires or with the Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans.
·         Long-term perspectives; sources & methodology; theory.

 
Call for papers deadline: January 1st 2012
Email: manyheadedhydra.2012@gmail.com

Organisers:

William Farrell, Schoolof History, Birkbeck, Universityof London: Email: wjb.farrell@gmail.com

Stephen Duane Dean Jr, Department of History, Kings College London: Email: stephen.d.dean@gmail.com

 

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Imperialism

ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLES IN LATIN AMERICA

Dear All

I am inviting you to the first seminar of the new academic year of Queen Mary’s Centre for the Study of Global Security and Development which will take place at 4.15pm in room 3.16 in Arts (2), Queen Mary, Mile End Campus, on Wednesday October 5th.

My colleague, Jeff Webber (http://www.politics.qmul.ac.uk/staff/drjefferywebber.html)  will present on ‘ Dispatches from Latin America: A Commentary on Recent and Ongoing Anti-Imperialist Struggles in Bolivia, Honduras and Ecuador’.

This will be an informal session where Jeff will report back from his recent field work on local popular anti-imperialist mobilizations and struggles in the region.

 

 

Regards,

Rick Saull,

Director

Queen Mary, Centre for the Study of Global Security & Development

http://www.cgsd.org.uk/

 

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Imperialism

EMPIRE AND RESISTANCE

Socialist History Society Public Meeting
Empire and Resistance
A special meeting with two leading socialist historians of imperialism, Robin Blackburn and Richard Gott, who will be speaking about their new books

Hosted in co-operation with publisher Verso and supported by the London Socialist Historians Group

7pm, 12th October 2011
Venue: Bishopsgate Institute, Liverpool Street
The event is free.

Richard Gott, former editor and journalist, is the author of numerous books mainly on Latin America, including a history of Cuba and the new Venezuela of Hugo Chavez. His latest book is “Britain’s Empire: Resistance, Repression and Revolt”, which will be published in September.

Robin Blackburn, former editor of New Left Review, and author of a trilogy of books on the history of slavery in the New World, the latest of which is “The American Crucible: Slavery, Emancipation and Human Rights”, as well as “An Unfinished Revolution: Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln”.

Contact:
Stefan Dickers (Chair, SHS): stefan.dickers@bishopsgate.org.uk
David Morgan (Secretary, SHS): morganshs@hotmail.com

Further information on the website: http://www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/news.htm

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Revolution

REVOLUTIONARY VOICES: MARXISM, COMMUNICATION, AND SOCIAL CHANGE

National Communication Association (NCA) Preconvention Seminar
“Revolutionary Voices: Marxism, Communication, and Social Change”
10:30 am-5:00 PM, Wednesday, November 16th.
New Orleans, LA

In the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, and the subsequent worldwide retreat of the communist and socialist Left, the very concept of “revolution” was deemed by many theorists to be outdated and passé. Liberal, poststructuralist and conservative intellectuals jointly proclaimed Marxist project -with its emphasis on class struggle, anti-imperialism and a totalizing critique of capitalism– no longer relevant to an understanding of our “postmodern” world. Today, with the popular uprisings associated with the “Arab Spring” roiling dictatorships in countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Yemen and with the global capitalist economy just barely emerging from the throes of its worst crisis since the Great Depression, Marxism is not so easily dismissed. The recent popularity of thinkers like Giovanni Arrighi, Alain Badiou, Antonio Negri, David Harvey and Slavoj Zizek suggests a renewal of scholarly interest in Marxist and post-Marxist theory. The fact that Karl Marx himself was featured on the cover of the February 2, 2009 TIME Magazine suggests that this revival of interest is not confined to the academy.

This pre-convention conference aims to explore the continued relevance of Marxism and Marxist theoretical concepts (i.e. ideology, hegemony, class, dialectics, reification, commodification ) to the study of communication, focusing on communication’s instrumental role in maintaining, perpetuating and contesting capitalism’s structures of domination. Unlike other theoretical orientations within the social sciences and the humanities, Marxism has long insisted that theory be informed by and inform social and political praxis. Thus, one special emphasis of our discussions will be on the way that Marxist work in field of communication can help to advance and clarify current struggles for progressive social change in the US and around the world. Moreover, at a time when even the mainstream corporate press speaks openly of the revolutionary currents spreading across North Africa and the Middle East, we will devote special attention to the concept of “revolution” and the way that it can refine and enhance our understanding of communication, political conflict and social change.

We hope that by bringing together a critical mass of scholars whose work is informed by Marxist theory, our seminar will “make a difference” both in our discipline and in the larger fight for social justice. Ultimately, we plan to publish an edited volume or a special issue of an academic journal as a way of bringing the scholarship produced by seminar participants to an even larger audience.

This mini-conference builds on a series of NCA panels, pre-conference seminars and publications about Marxism and communication that began with a well-attended panel at the 2003 NCA convention in Miami. Last year’s mini-conference “Bridging Theory and Practice” drew dozens of participants to a series of three inter-related panels at the national conference in San Francisco. The year before that, in Chicago, our panel “The 2009 Crisis of Neoliberalism: Marxist Scholars on Rhetorics of Stability and Change,” drew a standing-room-only crowd. And in 2006, three of the co-organizers of this seminar (Artz, Cloud and Macek) published an anthology — Marxism and Communication Studies: The Point is to Change It (Peter Lang)-composed almost entirely of conference papers delivered at our NCA panels and seminars. This seems to us an opportune moment for yet another pre-convention seminar and yet another publication devoted to this topic.

The organizers invite potential participants to submit complete papers or extended abstracts (350-500 words) relevant to the subject of Marxism, communication and social change for inclusion in this pre-convention seminar. Work in political economy of the media, cultural studies, rhetoric, critical theory, social movement studies and political communication is especially welcome. Send your submissions along with complete contact information (mailing address, e-mail and phone #) to both Steve Macek (at shmacek@noctrl.edu) and Dana Cloud (at dcloud@mail.utexas.edu) no later than August 8th, 2011.

Steve Macek
Associate Professor
Speech Communication
Program Coordinator, Urban and Suburban Studies
North Central College
30 N. Brainard
Naperville, IL 60540-4690
Phone: 630-637-5369
Fax: 630-637-5140
Webpage: http://shmacek.faculty.noctrl.edu/

Out now from U of MN Press:
Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right, and the Moral Panic over the City. Winner of the 2006 Urban Communication Foundation Publication Award.
ISBN: ISBN 0-8166-4361-X
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/M/macek_urban.html

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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/

 

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Egypt

THE MYTH OF HUMANITARIAN WAR

International Socialist Review: http://isreview.org/
Issue 77: May–June

The Myth of Humanitarian War

Lance Selfa 
Libya’s revolution, U.S. intervention, and the left

Michael Corcoran and Stephen Maher 
Hypocrisy, ideology, and imperialism 
The myth of humanitarian intervention inLibya

Lee Wengraf 
Somalia’s Operation Restore Hope, 1992-1994 
How an ostensible “humanitarian” operation made things worse

Roger Annis and Kim Ives 
Haiti’s humanitarian crisis 
Haiti’s crisis is rooted in a history of military coups andU.S. occupations

Learning from Wisconsin

Phil Gasper • Critical Thinking 
Class Struggle in Wisconsin 
Signs of the end of a one-sided class war?

Lee Sustar 
Lessons of Wisconsin’s labor revolt

Other features

Mostafa Omar 
Egypt’s unfinished revolution 
The dictator is gone‹and the battle begins over how far the revolution will go

Chris Williams 
The case against nuclear power 
In the shadow of a still-unfolding nuclear crisis inJapan, an argument for why nuclear power should be dismantled everywhere

Arundhati Roy, interviewed by David Barsamian 
Rebellion and revolt in India

Duncan Hallas 
The nature of revolutions 
Speech to a socialist conference in 1998

Reviews

Lee Sustar 
What are the roots of capitalist crisis? 
Review of Chris Harman’s Zombie Capitalism

Hadas Thier 
Roots of Egypt’s revolution 
Review of Egypt: The Moment of Change

PLUS: Sharon Smith on voices of U.S. labor, Jason Farbman review’s From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia; Natalia Tylim reviews The Millenium trilogy; Elizabeth Schulte reviews The Triangle Fire; Gary Lapon reviews The History of White People

 

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