States of Feminism / Matters of State – Conference

STATES OF FEMINISM / MATTERS OF STATE – CONFERENCE

Conference: States of Feminism / Matters of State: Gender and the Politics of Exclusion

2nd and 3rd December

Jan van Eyck Academy

Maastricht

Holland

See: http://www.janvaneyck.nl/

For more info: http://www.janvaneyck.nl/0_2_3_events_info/eve_1012_states_of_feminism.html

Two day conference organised by Sara Farris, Avigail Moss, Kerstin Stakemeier, Rebecka Thor

This two-day conference on contemporary feminism will investigate how feminist thought has developed in relation to the rise of populist politics in Europe, and correspondingly how it relates to questions of nationalism and identity. In the recent resurgence of nationalistic and xenophobic ideologies across Europe, policy makers and the media have increasingly instrumentalised discourses about female emancipation. Paraphrasing Gayatri Spivak’s effective metaphor, contemporary nationalism and xenophobia increasingly take the form of a wide-spread discourse in which “white men claim to be saving brown women from brown men.” Why is the ideal, albeit misleading, approach of female emancipation increasingly used by contemporary nationalism? What kinds of feminism do such nationalistic agendas employ? How can we articulate a feminist perspective that resists such misuses?

In addition to addressing these issues from sociological and philosophical perspectives, States of feminism/matters of state will also consider how aesthetic practices incorporate feminist strategies, and how art can be used as a means of conducting feminist politics. How is this (state of being?) depicted in narratives questioning authorship, polyphonic time, geopolitical space? The conference will include artists working with queer subjectivities in order to be able to discuss the term from multiple positions. As artists and critics, Sara Farris, Avigail Moss, Kerstin Stakemeier and Rebecka Thor ask how feminist thinking pertaining to questions of statehood operates today in politics, art and theory, and how these fields intersect and diverge.

PROGRAMME

Thursday, 2nd December

14.00 – 14.30: Rada Ivekovic, (University Jean-Monnet St. Etienne), “Women at stake in matters of state, nation and society”

Discussant: Chiara Bonfiglioli

15.00 – 15.30: Michaela Mélian, TBA
Discussant: Avigail Moss

16.00 – 16.15: Break

16.15 – 16.45: Vincenza Perilli (Online Journal Marginalia, Bologna), “The colonial inheritance of sexo-racism in Fortress Europe.”

Discussant: Sara Farris

18.00: Dinner at the JvE Academy.

20.00: Screening: “Comrades of Time. Zeitgenössinen.” (Andrea Geyer 2010): Q&A with Andrea Geyer via Skype (Artist, New York)

Discussant: Rebecka Thor

Friday, 3rd December

11.00 – 11.30: Neferti Tadiar (Professor and Chair Women’s Studies in Barnard College, New York), “The Remainders of Feminism and  Nationalism: Lifetimes in Becoming Human”

Discussant: Katja Diefenbach

12.00-13.00: Lunch

13.00 – 13.30: Performance by Johannes Paul Raether (Berlin)

Feminism

Discussant: Kerstin Stakemeier

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Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lacan (But were afraid to ask Hitchcock)

 

 

Zizek

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT LACAN (BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK HITCHCOCK)

NEW EDITION

Edited by SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK

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Radical philosopher, polymath, film star, cult icon, and author of over 30 books: Slavoj Žižek is one of the most controversial and leading contemporary public intellectuals, simultaneously acclaimed as the ‘Elvis of cultural theory’ and denounced as ‘the most dangerous philosopher in the West’. He regularly features on lists of the top public intellectuals and remains a thorn in the side of both the right and the liberal left.

Hitchcock gets onto the analyst’s couch in this extraordinary volume of cinematographic case studies. The wide range of contributors bring to bear an unrivalled enthusiasm and theoretical sweep to the entire Hitchcock oeuvre, analyzing movies such as REAR WINDOW and PSYCHO.

An extraordinary landmark in Hitchcock studies, this new edition features a brand-new essay by Slavoj Žižek, psychoanalyst, philosopher and presenter of THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA. The contributors include Fredric Jameson, the leading American literary critic and Marxist political theorist.

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION

INTRODUCTION

Alfred Hitchcock, or, The Form and its Historical Mediation – Slavoj Žižek

PART ONE – The Universal: Themes

Hitchcockian Suspense – Pascal Bonitzer

Hitchcock’s Objects – Mladen Dolar

Spatial Systems in NORTH BY NORTHWEST – Fredric Jameson

A Perfect Place to Die: Theatre in Hitchcock’s Films – Alenka Zupaničič

PUNCTUM CAECUM, or, Of Insight and Blindness – Stojan Pelko

PART TWO – The Particular: Films

Hitchcockian SINTHOMS – Slavoj Žižek

The Spectator Who Knew Too Much – Mladen Dolar

The Cipher of Destiny – Michel Chion

A Father Who Is Not Quite Dead – Mladen Dolar

NOTORIOUS – Pascal Bonitzer

The Fourth Side – Michel Chion

The Man Behind His Own Retina – Miran Božovič

The Skin and the Straw – Pascal Bonitzer

The Right Man and the Wrong Woman – Renata Salecl

The Impossible Embodiment – Michel Chion

PART THREE – The Individual – Hitchcock’s Universe

‘In His Bold Gaze My Ruin Is Writ Large’ – Slavoj Žižek

What’s wrong with THE WRONG MAN? – The Hitchcockian Allegory – From I to A – PSYCHO’S Moebius band – Aristophanes reversed – ‘A triumph of the gaze over the  eye’ – The narrative closure and its vortex – The gaze of the Thing – ‘Subjective destitution – The collapse of intersubjectivity

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Praise for SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK

“The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades.” Terry Eagleton

“The most dangerous philosopher in the West.” Adam Kirsch, NEW REPUBLIC

“Slavoj Žižek has put the Soul back into philosophy.” TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“He is the closest thing philosophy currently has to a superstar.” Hermione Eyre, INDEPENDENT

“Žižek is the undisputed spritz master of international cinema studies.” VILLAGE VOICE

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SLAVOJ ZIZEK is a professor at the European Graduate School , Intern ational Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College , University of London , and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana , Slovenia . His other books from Verso include LIVING IN THE END TIMES, FIRST AS TRAGEDY, THEN AS FARCE, IN DEFENSE OF LOST CAUSES, THE SUBLIME OBJECT OF IDEOLOGY, WELCOME TO THE DESERT OF THE REAL, THE PLAGUE OF FANTASIES and DID SOMEBODY SAY TOTALITARIANISM? He has also appeared in the films ZIZEK! and THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA.

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ISBN: 978 1 84467 621 7 / $26.95 / £16.99 / CAN$33.50 / Paperback / 304 pages

ISBN: 978-1-84467-622-4 / $100.00 / £55.00 / $125.00 / Hardback / 304 pages

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For more information and to buy the book visit:

http://www.versobooks.com/books/466-466-everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-lacan-%28but-were-afraid-to-ask-hitchcock%29

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ACADEMICS BASED OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA MAY REQUEST AN INSPECTION COPY – PLEASE CONTACT tamar@verso.co.uk

ACADEMICS BASED WITHIN NORTH AMERICA MAY REQUEST AN EXAMINATION COPY – PLEASE CONTACT clara@versobooks.com

———————————

Visit Verso’s new website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com

Become a fan of Verso on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Verso-Books-UK/122064538789

And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK

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The ConDemned

Ben Linus

THE CONDEMNED

By Paul Bowman 

Jacques Rancière once lamented the loss of the word “proletarian” from common political language. Without the use of this term, a really important conceptual and political category is lost, and with it, an ability to mobilize and act politically is lost too.

This term has never really worked in the UK anyway. But clearly, the UK needs a new political term that can act as a banner to unite all of those who will bear the brunt of the political violence being wreaked by the pantomime-villain coalition government. The people that need to be united include social services (from all areas of social services, and that is A LOT), teachers, lecturers, students, Northerners, etc.

The term needs to ‘work’ in the way that Stuart Hall argued the word “black” came to *work* at a certain point in history: namely, to connect diverse ethnic identities in terms of their shared experience of racism in the UK. It needs to be a rallying point, a point of and for identification and the establishment of political identity.

We can’t have anything ‘left-wing-sounding’, as this is clearly too partisan. It isn’t going to work in Britain. It just isn’t. So we need to be creative and discursive and not obviously party political. No one wants to be obviously party political. But remaining single-interest is a dead end.

So may I suggest that the term we adopt to name (and rally) all who suffer under the obscene acts of this shocking government is “The ConDemned”.

And may I suggest that we use this term to try to forge links and alliances and chains of equivalence with all areas of UK society, rather than singling out “the students” as if they are some single interest exception to the norm. We need to show that The ConDemned are the norm – are becoming the norm.

But – and this is the crucial thing – we need to be clear that this is not a group or an entity who even want to exist. We certainly don’t want to continue to exist as a group. We desire not to exist. We want to be dissolved. We are being created by the negative political energies of the Coalition government. We have been ConDemned. We will go away when they do. When their actions are stopped and reversed, redressed, rectified.

Paul Bowman at: http://ranciere.blogspot.com/2010/11/condemned.html

Just a thought:

Maybe the Coalition Government should be known as ‘The ConDemned’, rather than us. They are ConDemned (and will be consigned to history) by us.

Do we want to take on this label?

Glenn Rikowski

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Left Forum Conference: Towards a Politics of Solidarity

Socialism and Hope

LEFT FORUM CONFERENCE: TOWARDS A POLITICS OF SOLIDARITY

Left Forum Conference

Pace University

March 18-20 2011
Towards a Politics of Solidarity

See: http://leftforum.org/content/announcing-2011-conference-theme-towards-politics-solidarity

This year’s Left Forum will focus on the age-old theme of solidarity: the moral act of imagination underpinning working class victories everywhere. It will undertake to examine the new forms of far-reaching solidarity that are both necessary and possible in an increasingly global world.

The spread and intensification of capitalism across the globe binds people together in complex interdependencies – as producers, consumers, victims, and insurgents. And as this process continues, the connections between people become more evident. The rebel Zapatistas in the Lacandon jungle understood clearly that the North American Free Trade Agreement forged in Washington was a direct threat to their traditional way of life and their aspirations for the future.

The potential for transformative struggles in the 21st century depends on new chains of solidarity—between workers in the rich world and workers in the global south, indigenous peasants and more affluent consumers, students and pensioners, villagers in the Niger Delta and environmental campaigners in the Gulf of Mexico, marchers and rioters in Greece and Spain, and unionists in the United States and China.

This year’s Left Forum will contribute to the intellectual underpinnings of new and tighter forms of world-wide solidarity upon which all successful emancipatory struggles of the future will depend.

Please join us once again in building upon the successes of last year’s conference – 200+ panels, 600+ speakers, 3000+ attendees, art shows and theater performances, and plenaries that included Arundhati Roy, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Noam Chomsky.

The conference will be held from March 18-20, 2011, at Pace University in NYC. Early registration discounts are available for a limited time – register now!

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New Perspectives on Anarchism, Labour and Syndicalism

Anarchism

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON ANARCHISM, LABOUR AND SYNDICALISM

Cambridge Scholars Publishing (CSP):

New Perspectives on Anarchism, Labour and Syndicalism: The Individual, the National and the Transnational

Editors: David Berry and Constance Bantman
Date Of Publication: Oct 2010
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-2393-7
Isbn: 1-4438-2393-7

This collection presents exciting new research on the history of anarchist movements and their relation to organised labour, notably revolutionary syndicalism. Bringing together internationally acknowledged authorities as well as younger researchers, all specialists in their field, it ranges across Europe and from the late nineteenth century to the beginnings of the Cold War. National histories are revisited through transnational perspectives—on Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland or Europe as a whole—evidencing a great wealth of cross-border interactions and reciprocal influences between regions and countries. Emphasis is also placed on individual activist itineraries—whether of renowned figures such as Errico Malatesta or of lesser-known yet equally fascinating characters, whose trajectories offer fresh perspectives on the complex interplay of regional and national political cultures, evolving political ideologies, activist networks and the individual.

The volume will be of interest to specialists working on the history of anarchism and/or trade unionism as well as the political or social history of the countries concerned; but it will also be useful to students and the general reader looking for discussion of the most recent thinking on the historiography of labour and anarchist movements or those wanting a comprehensive overview of the history of syndicalism. 

“This promises to become a very significant contribution to the ongoing debate. The book clearly breaks new ground by considering revolutionary syndicalism as a group of different movements (indeed, a “family”) and by discussing not only West European, but also East European experiences. All in all, this is an excellent collection.” —Marcel van der Linden, IISH, Amsterdam.

“This book is both a timely and authoritative reappraisal of anarchism and syndicalism in Europe, breaking new ground in its analysis of these movements from a transnational and comparative perspective. Through its focus on international networks and personal connections, it represents a major contribution to our understanding of labour history. New Perspectives on Anarchism, Labour and Syndicalism will be enjoyed by anyone interested in the history of working-class internationalism.” —Jeremy Jennings, Professor of Political Theory, Queen Mary, University of London

See: http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/New-Perspectives-on-Anarchism–Labour-and-Syndicalism–The-Individual–the-National-and-the-Transnat1-4438-2393-7.htm
CONTENTS

Introduction: New Perspectives on Anarchism, Labour and Syndicalism: The Individual, the National and the Transnational
Constance Bantman and David Berry

Part I. The Syndicalist Family

Chapter One
Uneasy Family: Revolutionary Syndicalism in Europe from the Charte d’Amiens to World War I
Wayne Thorpe

Part II. Militants

Chapter Two 
From Gustav Schmidt to Gus Smith: A Tale of Labour Integration (Hull, 1878-1913)
Yann Béliard

Chapter Three:  The Rooted Cosmopolitan: Errico Malatesta, Syndicalism, Transnationalism and the International Labour Movement
Carl Levy

Chapter Four 
Internationalism in the Border Triangle: Alfons Pilarski and Upper Silesian Anarcho-syndicalism during the Interwar Years
Dieter Nelles

Chapter Five 
Mission Impossible: Ángel Pestaña’s Encounter as CNT Delegate with the Bolshevik Revolution in 1920
Reiner Tosstorff

Part III. Movements

Chapter Six The 1896 London Congress: Epilogue or Prologue?
Davide Turcato

Chapter Seven
From Trade Unionism to Syndicalisme Révolutionnaire to Syndicalism: The British Origins of French Syndicalism
Constance Bantman

Chapter Eight
Polish Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism in the Twentieth Century
Rafał Chwedoruk

Chapter Nine
How and Why the French Anarchists Rallied to the CGT-FO (1947–1950)
Guillaume Davranche

Part IV. Interpretations
Chapter Ten 
Analysing Revolutionary Syndicalism: The Importance of Community
Bert Altena

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National Critical Lawyers’ Group Conference 2011

Awkward Digressions

NATIONAL CRITICAL LAWYERS’ GROUP CONFERENCE 2011

“The State We’re In”

University of Kent, Canterbury
5th – 6th March 2011

http://www.nclg.org.uk/Conference%202010/Conference%202011%20index.htm

The National Critical Lawyers’ Group is proud to present the National Critical Lawyers Conference 2011, hosted in Woolf College at the University of Kent at Canterbury by the UKC Critical Lawyers’ Group.

The conference is sponsored by Kent Law School, Social & Legal Studies.and the Haldane Society This year’s conference, entitled ‘The State We’re In’, will provide space for critical discussion of a wide range of issues including the Financial Crisis and Funding Cuts; Israel and Palestine; the war in Iraq; Disability Rights; Equality Issues; Law, Gender and Sexuality; EU & Sovereignty; Environmental Issues; Justice within Asylum and Immigration Law; Ethics of Medical Law; Corporate Governance and Capitalism; Comparative Law; Critical Legal Education; Privacy & Censorship; Housing Law and many others.

Plenary speakers include:

Courtenay Griffiths QC;

Michael Mansfield QC; 

Liz Davies;

Vera Baird MP;

Phil Shiner;

Roger Smith;

Professor Bill Bowring;

Professor Alex Callinicos;

Sir Burton Hall; and

Professor Paddy Ireland 

We encourage students, academic, practitioners, activists and anyone else with an interest in the law to attend as a means of stimulating critical legal thought and action.

We hope to provide Continuing Professional Development hours accredited by both the Bar Council and the Law Society for both speakers and attendees.

There will also be subsidised accommodation available to students. As this accommodation is limited in number, it will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

Provisional Timetable

Saturday 5th March 2011

0900-1045: Arrivals & Registration (Woolf College, University of Kent)

1045-1100: Welcome address

1100-1300: Plenary Session

11300-1400pm: Lunch

1400-1530pm: Panel Session 1

1530-1600: Coffee Break

1600-1800pm: Plenary Session 2

There will be a Drinks Reception kindly sponsored by the Vice-Chancellor of The University of Kent during the evening.

Sunday 6th March 2011

0930-1100: Panel Session 2

1100-1130: Coffee Break

1130-1300: Panel Session 3

1300-1400: Lunch

1400-1600: Plenary Session 3

Panel Sessions

This year’s panel sessions include:

   · The War on Terror

   · Inequality and Property

   · EU and Sovereignty

   · Access to Justice

   · Piracy

   · Can law protect the planet ‘Aarhus Convention’

   · Ethics of Medical Law

   · International War and Law

   · Human Rights

   · Justice within Asylum and Immigration Law

   · Criminal Justice

   · Corporate Governance/Capitalism

   · Critical Look at Comparative Law

   · Legal Education/Pro-Bono

   · Equality Bill

   · Disability Rights

   · Privacy/Censorship – ‘Where are we with Article 10’

   · Housing

   · Surveillance

   · Law, Gender and Sexuality

   · Race and the Law

   · The Financial and Economic Crisis

   · World Trade and Finance

   · Israel and Palestine

   · Critical Legal Education

The National Critical Lawyers’ Group local organising committee: nclg2011@kent.ac.uk

Ian Grigg-Spall
Academic Chair
National Critical Lawyers Group
Kent Law School
University
Canterbury
CT2 7NS
Tele 01227 766233

Website http://www.nclg.org.uk ||| to subscribe go to site

‘the point is not merely to interpret the world but to change it’

‘for injustice to prevail all it takes is for good persons to do nothing’

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Marxism and the Alternatives to the Crisis

Global Economic Crisis

MARXISM AND THE ALTERNATIVES TO THE CRISIS

International Socialism
A seminar hosted by the quarterly journal of socialist theory

Marxism and the Alternatives to Crisis

It has been three years since the economic crisis first manifested. The credit crunch has given way to financial crash and the Great Recession. The ruling classes of Europe, faced with a growing crisis in the Eurozone, have embraced austerity and cuts in order to shift the cost of the crisis to workers, students and the unemployed.

In response, we have seen movements of resistance right across Europe. In countries like Greece, France and Ireland, strikes and protests have been complemented by alternative programmes and debates about the way forward for the movement. In Britain, the student revolt has marked a turning point in the struggle. This seminar will bring together academics and activists to discuss the current situation and what lies ahead.

With:

Alex Callinicos: (Editor of International Socialism and Professor of European Studies at Kings College London)

Jane Hardy: (Author of Poland’s New Capitalism and Professor of Political Economy at the University of Hertfordshire)

Stathis Kouvelakis: (Author of Philosophy and Revolution and lecturer at Kings College, London)

Costas Lapavitsas: (Member of Research on Money and Finance and Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies)

Tuesday 7 December, 6.30pm
Brunei Lecture Theatre,
School of Oriental and African Studies,
Russell Square campus,
London, WC1H 0XG

Free entry – All welcome

http://www.isj.org.uk * isj@swp.org.uk * (020) 7819 1177

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

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Marx – Dialectical Studies

Karl Marx

MARX – DIALECTICAL STUDIES

Marx – Dialectical Studies is a cultural institute with two main goals.

Our association is conceived as a reference point for those who mean to inquiry into Marx’s thought with solid philological background (MEGA2) and critical methodology (dialectics).

In a first period, our acticity will mainly be on the internet and will focus on book and article reviews.

Later, classes and seminars dedicated to Marx, Hegel and the historical debate will be organized.

Marx – Dialectical Studies is at: http://marxdialecticalstudies.blogspot.com  

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New Political Science

Global Economic Crisis

NEW POLITICAL SCIENCE

Dear Colleagues

We would like to announce a Call For Papers (CFP) for a special issue of New Political Science: A Journal of Politics and Culture entitled “The Great Recession: Causes, Consequences, and Responses.” The special issue will be published in December 2011. The deadline for submitting a proposal is January 1, 2011. Please see below for the Call for Papers.

New Political Science (NPS) focuses on developing analyses which reflect a commitment to progressive social change as well as those which are within exploratory phases of development in political science. NPS is the journal of the Caucus for a New Political Science (CNPS). CNPS was founded in 1967 to make the study of politics relevant to the struggle for a better world. The Caucus is organized around the position that a commitment to social justice, a sustainable democratic society, and human rights is central to the study of politics. Members of the Caucus are progressive scholars, activists, and practitioners. For more information about CNPS or the journal, please visit: http://www.apsanet.org/~new/.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Our emails are attached to the CFP.

Sincerely,
Nancy S. Love, Mark Mattern: Co-Editors, New Political Science: A Journal of Politics and Culture

Call For Papers: NPS Special Issue 33.4 (December 2011)

The Great Recession: Causes, Consequences, and Responses

Systemic and structural contradictions, combined with specific public policies, culminated in the so-called “Great Recession” that began in 2008 and continues into the present. While most policy makers are committed to strategies of muddling through without addressing systemic and structural problems, it behoves progressives to offer deeper, critical analyses that address root causes and shortcomings of mainstream policy prescriptions, on both national and global stages. The 33.4 (December 2011) issue of New Political Science will be devoted to those analyses. The special issue will address three main areas. First, what were, and are, the causes of the crisis? To what degree can the crisis be attributed to long term underlying systemic and structural forces characteristic of advanced capitalism, and to what degree can the crisis be attributed to specific policies of specific administrations? Would the collapse have occurred without the war on terror? Without the corporate fraud and speculative trading made possible by neoliberal policy choices? Second, what are the consequences of the crisis that offer both opportunities and challenges? These might include, for example, a critical turning point in the ascendancy of neoliberalism, fiscal meltdown in state and local governments, and increasing commitment to military Keynesianism. Has the crisis opened or closed opportunities for progressive reform in education, sustainable development, health care, immigration, and others? Third, what are the appropriate responses by progressives? What particular policy responses appear most likely to solve the problems, both in the short term and long term? What responses are likely to offer palliatives and which offer real, long term reform and transformation? In the U.S., what, if anything, can Democrats and Republicans offer in the way of effective policy responses? In other countries, what, if anything, can dominant policy makers offer?

Submission Guidelines: Preliminary proposals of 250-500 words should be sent to both editors by January 1, 2011. After reviewing those proposals, the editors will invite contributors to submit full articles by April 15, 2011. The co-editors may be contacted at: lovens@appstate.edu<mailto:lovens@appstate.edu> and mmattern@bw.edu<mailto:mmattern@bw.edu>.

END

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

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

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Marxist Critique of the Australian Labor Party

Marx was Right

MARXIST CRITIQUE OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Labor’s Conflict: Big Business, Workers and the Politics of Class by Tom Bramble and Rick Kuhn has just been issued by Cambridge University Press. The book is a history of the Australian Labor Party from its formation through to the formation of the minority Gillard Government after this year’s federal election. The focus is on the ALP’s changing relationship with business and the working class and unions.

More details can be found at: http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521138048 

If you’d like a copy you can order online and receive a 20% discount:
1. Go to http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521138048 
2. Add to your basket
3. Enter discount code LABOR10 at the checkout

The following launches are taking place, please RSVP as indicated if you would like to attend.

Perth
to be launched by Rob Lambert, Winthrop Professor of Labour Studies, UWA
Business School
at the Co-op Bookshop, University of Western Australia
Thursday 18 November 5:00pm for 5:30pm start
RSVP to (08) 6488 2069 or uwa@coop-bookshop.com.au by 17 November

Canberra
to be launched by David Pope, the political cartoonist of the Canberra Times
at the Co-op Bookshop, Australian National University
Tuesday 23 November 5:00 for 5:30 pm start
RSVP essential by 19 November to anu@coop-bookshop.com.au or (02) 6249-6244.

Melbourne
to be launched by Dean Mighell, Victorian state secretary and National President of the Electrical Trades Union
at Readings Bookshop, 309 Lygon Street, Carlton
Wednesday 24 November, 6pm for 6.30pm start
RSVP to Readings on (03) 9347 6633

Sydney
to be launched by Frank Stilwell, Professor of Political Economy at Sydney University
at Abbey’s Bookshop, 131 York Street, Sydney.
Wednesday 1 December, 5:30 for 6:00 pm start
RSVP by 26 November to (02) 9264 3111 or davidh@abbeys.com.au.

Brisbane
to be launched by Raymond Evans, Adjunct Professor at the School of Humanities, Griffith University
at Avid Reader, 193 Boundary Street, West End
Thursday 2 December, 6:00 for 6:30pm start
RSVP (07) 3846 3422 or events@avidreader.com.au

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Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa

ROSA LUXEMBURG

New from Haymarket Books
Rosa Luxemburg

By Paul Frölich

Written by a contemporary of (and sometime collaborator with) Rosa Luxemburg with an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the German Social Democratic Party, this biography strikes the right balance between personal insight and political analysis. Tracing Rosa Luxemburg’s development from a humble Polish girl with a keen interest in herding geese to the most important leader of the German Communist Party, the image that emerges from Frölich’s narrative is that of arguably the most remarkable woman ever produced by the international socialist movement.

PAUL FRÖLICH (1884—1953) was a member of the German Social Democratic Party from 1902 until 1918, when he, along with Rosa Luxemburg, became a founding member of the German Communist Party.

Trade paper | 320 pages | $18
Available from Haymarketbooks.org

With questions or for a review copy, contact Jim Plank (jim@haymarketbooks.org)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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World Communal Heritage Manifesto

Utopia

WORLD COMMUNAL HERITAGE MANIFESTO

Since the so called victory of western neo-liberal capitalism, communal services and public space are being predatory privatized. It’s our task to stop the destructive appropriation of communal heritage by the tycoons! Before the words public and communal fade away from our vocabulary we want to remind of one great achievement of the 20^th century: equally accessible public space. Here we are not referring to the public space as the place of representation for the state and its elites, such as public squares or state cultural institutions.
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We think of the non-proprietary communal space created around the Modernist apartment-blocks often – though not always – built at the periphery of urban centers.
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From France to the Soviet Union, Modernist town planning and public housing was driven by the idea of securing equal access to urban infrastructure, to light, air and green space. The solution were high-rise apartment-blocks that left a lot of open space for communal facilities such as schools, kindergartens, community houses with playgrounds, sports fields, pathways, and meadows in between the developments. These park-like spaces, immediately outside the dwelling, are available to all in equal measure and open for everybody’s use.

Let us constitute those open spaces as political space! There are no safeguards or fences that could slow down your pace! You can gather together without paying a fortune for the gentrified lifestyle in the inner-city! The openness, porosity and communicability of Modernist social architecture and landscaping that takes shape in a wealth of free space, pedestrian pathways, bridges, passages, niches, little woods and bushes is giving possibility of direct action, so let’s take it:
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Between the blocks, social movements are born! Obviously some part of society perceives this potential as a security risk that is hard to control. In former welfare-states, Modernist multi-storey apartment-blocks are being violently condemned and – like the Heygate Estate in London – are being torn down to make room for new buildings for wealthier clients. According to the same profit-driven logics, the city authorities in former socialist states sell open communal spaces to private investors that use them for the purposes of individual exploitation.
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The World Communal Heritage campaign supports communities and individuals that want to organize and take action to prevent the destruction of communal space in their neighbourhoods.
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We affirm the idea of common goods that are managed by the community and we acknowledge the communal as heritage that must be further developed by the community – and not by individualistic interests.
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Therefore we call to organize and to take over the future of the communal spaces in our hands!

Join in the World Communal Heritage Campaign!
Any communal, open space can be nominated by citizens, individuals, groups or communities as World Communal Heritage.

We initially present several spaces that bear the attributes of World Communal Heritage. These are communal spaces in the following micro-raions, housing estates or satellite towns: Botanica, Rîºcani and Buiucani in Chiºinãu (Moldavia), Heygate Estate in London (United Kingdom), Block 70 and Block 63 in New Belgrade (Serbia), Gropiusstadt in Berlin and Langwasser in Nürnberg (Germany).

We invite everyone interested to nominate and affirm their additional suggestions!

You can use the stickers, the logo and material for the initiation of a new campaign anywhere in the world.

You are invited to self-organize and to install a panel indicating that a space is acknowledged as World Communal Heritage Site as shown on the pictures from New Belgrade and Chiºinãu.

World Communal Heritage is an initiative by Rena Rädle & Vladan Jeremiæ to affirm the open spaces of Modernist urbanism as non-proprietary communal heritage.

WCH: http://communalheritage.wordpress.com/

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