The Extreme Centre: How the Neoliberal Project has Reshaped the World

Fat Cat Food

THE EXTREME CENTRE: HOW THE NEOLIBERAL PROJECT HAS RESHAPED THE WORLD

Tuesday, 16 February 2016, 5-7PM

Tariq Ali (writer, filmmaker and editor of New Left Review)

The Extreme Centre: How the Neoliberal Project Has Reshaped the World  

BGLT (SOAS, Brunei Gallery), Bloomsbury, London

Discussant: Dr Feyzi Ismail (SOAS)

Abstract: Since 1989, politics has become a contest to see which politicians can best serve the needs of the market. The result is always the same: a victory for the Extreme Centre. The same catastrophe has taken place in the US, Britain, Continental Europe and Australia. In this urgent and wide-ranging case for the prosecution, Tariq Ali looks at the people and the events that have informed this moment of political suicide: corruption in Westminster; the failures of the EU and NATO; the soft power of the American Empire that dominates the world stage uncontested. Despite this inertia, Ali goes in search of alternative futures, finding promise in the Bolivarian revolutions of Latin America and the edges of Europe. Emerging parties in Scotland, Greece and Spain, formed out of the 2008 crisis, as well as Corbynism in Britain, are offering new hope for democracy.

Tariq Ali has been a leading figure on the international left since the 60s, having engaged in debates against the Vietnam War with leading politicians of the time. He has written extensively on world history and politics; his works include The Obama Syndrome, The Clash of Fundamentalisms and his most recent publication, The Extreme Centre: A Warning. Described by the Observer as an ‘intellectual bomb thrower’ his contributions extend to film and theatre scripts, novels and published conversations, such as with Edward Said. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio and contributes to magazines and newspapers including The Guardian and the London Review of Books.

All welcome, no need to book. Seating is available on a first come, first served, basis so please arrive early to be sure of a seat.

On behalf of the seminar organising committee: Alfredo Saad-Filho, Feyzi Ismail, Jo Tomkinson, Carolina Alves, Lorenza Monaco and Jai Bhatia

Further details of all the seminars are available on the SOAS Development Studies Department website: https://www.soas.ac.uk/development/events/devstudseminars/

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/soas-ds-seminar-tariq-ali-on-the-extreme-centre-how-the-neoliberal-project-has-reshaped-the-world

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

An Alternative to Neo-Liberal Education – Venue Change

AN ALTERNATIVE TO NEO-LIBERAL EDUCATION – VENUE CHANGE

NOW AT THE MAYDAY ROOMS

Apologies for the short notice but unfortunately it has been necessary to change the venue for the meeting on Saturday 28 November.  This will now be held in the MAYDAY ROOMS, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH, 2.00pm – 4.30pm. 

NEW ANARCHIST RESEARCH GROUP

JOINT MEETING WITH THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CENTRE (LINCOLN)

Saturday 28 November 2015

Mayday Rooms

88 Fleet Street

London, EC4Y 1DH

2.00pm – 4.30pm

The Social Science Centre (SSC) in Lincoln is a self-organised co-operative higher learning provider that is democratic at all levels of its organisation. The scholars who are members of the Centre work and study together whether they are traditionally students or teachers. One of the aims of the Centre is to analyse and dissolve the tensions in the relationships between research and teaching, and students and academics. Set up by academics from the University of Lincoln, the Centre has no relationship with the University, although it is a critique of the formal institution as a dysfunctional neoliberal arrangement in many ways. The SSC aims to ‘reinvent’ the University and transform the scholars’ relationship to knowledge in order to insert their own experiences into theoretical knowledges that aim to emancipate them as active change agents. The SSC engenders provocations, conversations and discussions that enliven the notion that all those who are involved in active knowledge work should become (co-) producers of knowledge. Two of the (student) scholars and an academic from Lincoln will be visiting the Anarchist Research Group to talk about the centre and their experiences studying there.

In this session, we would like to tell you a little about our experiences with the SSC and then invite a discussion on the SSC, self-organised education and the relationships between education, learning, and social change.
The Social Science Centre provides free public higher education in the city of Lincoln and emphasises the collective and collaborative nature of education. The Centre was opened in 2011 by academics and students and Lincoln residents who feel passionately that those wishing to study higher education should not have to take on the burden of debt. There is no fee to pay when joining the Centre, only what you can afford. Free also means freedom to study outside of the current disciplinary structures of higher education around topics and issues that are of direct concern to you and your local community.

Anarchist Research Group Website: http://torrianomeetinghouse.wordpress.com/where-we-are/ 

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

 

Crises, Commodities and Education: Disruptions, Eruptions, Interruptions and Ruptions

Dr. Glenn Rikowski

CRISES, COMMODITIES AND EDUCATION: DISRUPTIONS, ERUPTIONS, INTERRUPTIONS AND RUPTIONS

 

Glenn Rikowski

This is my first writing in over a year.

It is paper prepared for the ‘Research in Critical Education Studies’ (RiCES) Seminar that I will be speaking to tomorrow in the School of Education, University of Lincoln.

It is on Academia, at: http://www.academia.edu/18511424/Crises_Commodities_and_Education_Disruptions_Eruptions_Interruptions_and_Ruptions

 

CONTENTS:

Introduction

 

PART I

 

Preliminary Investigations

Marxism, Fragility and Crisis – John Holloway

Crisis

Crisis – and Janet Roitman

 

Two Theories of Education Crisis

The Classical Theory of Education Crisis – Crises in Education

Critique of the Classical Theory of Education Crisis

The Autogenous Theory of Education Crisis

 

 PART II

 

Social Forms, Commodities and Capitalist Education

Social Forms

Commodity Forms and Education

       

Crises in Labour Power Production

Primitive Socialisation

Crises of Labour-Power Production in Education As Crises for Capital

 

Crises in the Production of General Commodities in Education

Another Bundle of Commodities

 Crises in the Production of General Commodities in Education

 

Interlude: Four Forms of Crisis Recognition

Disruption

Eruption

Interruption

Ruption (Rupture)

Mergation

       

Crises of Labour-power Production and Education

Disruption

Eruption

Interruption

Ruption (Rupture)

 

Crises of Production of General Commodities in Education

Disruption

Eruption

Interruption

Ruption (Rupture)

 

Comparative and Relative Moments

Comparative Moments

The Relative Moment

 

Conclusion

 

References

 

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Historical Materialism London Conference 2015 – Pre-Registration

I must work harder!

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM LONDON CONFERENCE 2015 – PRE-REGISTRATION

Reminder: Only 4 days left to pre-register for the HM 2015 London Conference*

* NB: remember please that this year’s conference is at the SOAS Russell Square site, not Vernon Square as last year!
The Old is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born: States, Strategies, Socialisms

Twelfth Annual Historical Materialism Conference

School of Oriental and African Studies, Central London, 5-8 November 2015
As austerity tightens its grip around the throats of the peoples of Europe, but also rears its ugly head in Brazil and elsewhere, we are forced to recognize that it is not the mere by-product of the ‘economic crisis’ but a political project in its own right, one whose aim is to deepen and consolidate the most uncompromising forms of neoliberal capitalism. It cannot be said that this project has hitherto been met with passivity, even if social movements of resistance have been mostly far from strong enough to halt its advance. Yet something is perhaps beginning to change, namely the emergence of counter-austerity projects that have pitched themselves at a political – even electoral or governmental – level. With all their weaknesses, hesitations and contradictions, the chinks of light in Southern Europe, amongst others, should compel Marxists to pose a whole series of ‘old’ strategic and theoretical problems in new garbs and new configurations, ​but perhaps also to retire some of our dear fetishes and shibboleths, and to experiment with forms and strategies adequate to our present. Among the themes that have returned to the agenda are: the relationship of movements and parties of the radical Left to states and governments; the need for a political response to how class power is enmeshed with forms of domination that have gender, race, imperialism or sexuality as their axes; possible « socialist » futures and the ‘transitional’ mediations implied by them; the guiding dichotomies of left thought: reform and revolution, revolution and revolt, state and movement, parties classes and masses; the link between the limits to capital and the limits of politics.

Over a hundred panels on a wide variety of topics and plenary sessions on: Race, Mobility and the State; Austerity and Socialist Strategy in Southern Europe; Social Reproduction Theory; Marxism and Religion; Workers’ Struggles in South Africa.

Provisional Programme: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/annual12/ProvProgramme.pdf/view
Conference Poster for download: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/annual12/conference-poster

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

How Class Works 2016 Conference

Social Class

HOW CLASS WORKS 2016 CONFERENCE

A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook

June 9-11, 2016

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce the How Class Works – 2016 Conference, to be held at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, June 9-11, 2016.

Proposals for papers, presentations, and sessions are welcome until December 9, 2015, according to the guidelines below.  For more information, visit our Web site at <www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass>.

Purpose and orientation: This conference explores ways in which an explicit recognition of class helps to understand the social world in which we live, and the variety of ways in which analysis of societies can deepen our understanding of class as a social relationship across the globe.  Theoretical and historical presentations should take as their point of reference the lived experience of class in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, within nations and internationally.  Presentations are welcome from people outside academic life when they sum up and reflect upon social experience in ways that contribute to conference themes and discussion.  Formal papers are welcome but are not required.  All presentations should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.

Conference themes: The conference welcomes proposals for sessions and presentations that advance our understanding of any of the following themes:

* The mosaic of class, race, and gender: To explore how class shapes racial, gender, and ethnic experience, and how different racial, gender, and ethnic experiences within various classes shape the meaning of class.

*  Class, power, and social structure: To explore how the social lives of working, middle, and capitalist classes are structured by various forms of power; to explore ways in which class dynamics shape power structures in workplaces and across broader societies.

*  Class in an age of income inequality:  To explore the implications and consequences of the growing income gap between top earners and the rest for the lived experience in class in different corners of the world.

*  Class, Community, and the Environment: To explore ways in which class informs communities and environmental conditions where people work as well as where they live; also to consider questions of “home,” community formation and sustenance, and environmental justice.

*  Class in a global economy: To explore how class identity and class dynamics are influenced by globalization, including the transnational movements of industry, capital, and capitalist elites; the experience of cross-border labor migration and organizing; and international labor and environmental standards.

*  Middle class? Working class? What’s the difference and why does it matter? To explore the claim that the U.S. and other developed nations have become middle class societies, contrasting with the notion that the working class is the majority; to unpack the relationships between the middle class and capitalist, working and other subordinate classes both in the developed and the developing world.

*  Class, public policy, and electoral politics: To explore how class affects public deliberations and policy in a variety of nations around the world, with special attention to health care, the criminal justice system, labor law, poverty, tax and other economic policy, housing, and education; to explore the place of electoral politics in the arrangement of class forces on policy matters.

*  Class and culture: To explore ways in which cultures and subcultures transmit, sustain, and transform class dynamics around the world.

*  Pedagogy of class: To explore techniques and materials useful for teaching about class, at K-12 levels, in college and university courses, and in labor studies and adult education courses.

How to submit proposals for How Class Works – 2016 Conference:  We encourage proposals for panel sessions (three or four papers) and roundtables that bring diverse perspectives and experiences into dialogue: scholars with activists; those working on similar themes in different disciplines; as well as those working on similar issues in different parts of the world. Proposals for individual presentations are also welcome. Proposals for presentations must include the following information [for session proposals this information must be included for all proposed presentations, as well as indication of presenters’ willingness to participate]: a) short descriptive title; b) which of the conference themes will be addressed; c) a maximum 250 word summary of the main subject matter, points, and methodology; d) relevant personal information indicating institutional affiliation (if an y) and what training or experience the presenter brings to the proposal; e) presenter’s name, address, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. A person may present in at most two conference sessions. To allow time for discussion, sessions will be limited to three twenty-minute or four fifteen-minute principal presentations. Sessions will not include official discussants.

Submit proposals as an e-mail attachment to michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu or as hard copy by mail to: The How Class Works – 2016 Conference, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of Economics, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384.

Timetable:  Proposals must be received by December 9, 2015. After review by the program committee, notifications will be mailed by the end of January 2016. The conference will be at SUNY Stony Brook June 9-11, 2016.  Conference registration and housing reservations will be possible after March 7, 2016.

Details and updates will be posted at: http://www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass

See flyer: http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/workingclass/images/HCW-2016%20call.pdf

Conference coordinator:

Michael Zweig

Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life

Department of Economics

State University of New York

Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384

631.632.7536

michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu                   ##

 

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/how-class-works-2016-conference-proposals-due-december-9-2015

 

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Persistent Unemployment, Automation, and the Transcendence of Capitalism

PERSISTENT UNEMPLOYMENT, AUTOMATION, AND THE TRANSCENDENCE OF CAPITALISM

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2015

6:30-9:30 PM

Westside Peace Center

3916 Sepulveda Blvd., near Venice Blvd. (free parking in rear)

Suite 101-102, press #22 at door to get into building

Culver City (LA area)

 

SPEAKERS:

Sarah Mason, former Occupy LA activist

Ali Kiani, Iranian Marxist activist and translator

 

Capitalism today is marked by persistent unemployment, particularly of youth, as well as low-wage labor.  This is not only a local but also a global problem. Although the displacement of human labor by machines is as old as industrial capitalism, it has accelerated and moved into new sectors in recent years.  These issues have been debated widely from Marx’s time, to the Critical Theorists and Marxist-Humanists of the 1950s and 1960s, to today.  Is persistent unemployment due to technological change a further oppression of the working people, or does it offer possibilities for human liberation?  How can both of these issues be connected, in dialectical fashion?  We will explore these issues by examining some pages from Marx’s GRUNDRISSE and CAPITAL, from Herbert Marcuse and Raya Dunayevskaya on automation, and from Paul Mason today.

 

Suggested readings:

Paul Mason, “The End of Capitalism Has Begun,” GUARDIAN, July 17, 2015: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/17/postcapitalism-end-of-capitalism-begun

Raya Dunayevskaya, “The ‘Automaton’ and the Worker,” PHILOSOPHY AND REVOLUTION, pp. 68-77

Herbert Marcuse, on automation, ONE-DIMENSIONAL MAN, pp. 28-37 http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/64onedim/odm2.html

Karl Marx, Section 5: “The Struggle between Worker and Machine,” in Ch. 15: “Machinery and Large-Scale Industry,” in CAPITAL, Vol. I https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm#S5

Karl Marx, on machinery in GRUNDRISSE, Nicolaus translation, pp. 699-713, online here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch13.htm and here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch14.htm

Sponsored by the West Coast Chapter, International Marxist-Humanist Organization

More information: arise@internationalmarxisthumanist.org and http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/

Here is URL for meeting for Facebook, Twitter, etc.: http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/events/los-angeles-persistent-unemployment-automation-and-the-transcendence-of-capitalism

Join our Facebook page: “International Marxist-Humanist Organization” https://www.facebook.com/groups/imhorg/

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Working to Death: Alienated Labor Under Capitalism

Working to Death

WORKING US TO DEATH: ALIENATED LABOR UNDER CAPITALISM

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

6:30-9:30 PM

Westside Peace Center

3916 Sepulveda Blvd., near Venice Blvd. (free parking in rear)

Suite 101-102, press #22 at door to get into building

Culver City (LA area)

 

SPEAKERS:

Stephan Hammel, Marxist musicologist

Kevin Anderson, author of Marx at the Margins

Mansoor M., Iranian computer engineer and cultural worker

 

Since the 19th century, capitalism has radically transformed work, making the worker, in Marx’s language, a mere “appendage to the machine.”  This deepened under 20th century assembly lines and has been extended globally today, as seen in places like China or Bangladesh.  In recent years, alienated labor has begun to spread from the factory floor into white collar and professional work in the U.S. and other developed countries. All of this is fueled by fear in a system wherein ever-larger sectors of the population face permanent unemployment and precarity.

Suggested readings:

Recent New York Times article on Amazon (white collar and professional workers) http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0

New York Times article on suicides of Apple workers in China from 2012 (factory workers) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html

Marx: Alienated (Estranged) Labor essay from 1844: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm

Marx: Fetishism section from Capital https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm#S4

Sponsored by the West Coast Chapter, International Marxist-Humanist Organization

More information: arise@internationalmarxisthumanist.org

http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/

Here is URL for meeting for Facebook, Twitter, etc.: http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/events/los-angeles-working-us-to-death-alienated-labor-under-capitalism

Join our Facebook page: “International Marxist-Humanist Organization” https://www.facebook.com/groups/imhorg/

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Will We Crash Again? Why Capitalism Needs Debt Write-offs to Survive

WILL WE CRASH AGAIN? WHY CAPITALISM NEEDS DEBT WRITE-OFFS TO SURVIVE

Conway Hall Ethical Society & London Futurists presents:

London Thinks – Will We Crash Again? Why Capitalism Needs Debt Write-offs to Survive

With STEVE KEEN

Tuesday 1st September @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm | £5 – £10

CONWAY HALL

25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL United Kingdom

Website: http://conwayhall.org.uk/

Booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/will-we-crash-again-why-capitalism-needs-debt-write-offs-to-survive-tickets-17879762852

Mainstream economists failed to anticipate the great financial crash of 2007-8. In this talk, Professor Steve Keen will share his view on the bigger picture – including recent financial developments around the world. He will review options for the future of economics, highlight the little-understood importance of debt, and argue that significant debt write-downs are needed in order to limit future financial crashes.

Steve Keen is a Professor of Economics & Head of the School of Economics, History & Politics at Kingston University. He was one of the handful of economists to realise that a serious economic crisis was imminent, and to publicly warn of it, from as early as December 2005.

A staunch critic of mainstream economics, his book Debunking Economics is now in its 2nd edition and has been translated into Chinese, French and Spanish.

The event will be moderated by David Wood, Chair of London Futurists. The talk will be followed by audience Q&A.

A cash bar will be available at the event. Afterwards, there will be the chance to continue the discussion at a nearby pub.

Organised in partnership with the London Futurists

London Futurists hold regular speaker events to explore radical scenarios for the next 3-40 years.

For more details, see http://londonfuturists.com/.

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Lessons from Greece: Crisis of the Economy and the Left Response

Fat Cat Food

LESSONS FROM GREECE: CRISIS OF THE ECONOMY AND THE LEFT RESPONSE

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

6:30-9:30 PM

Westside Peace Center

3916 Sepulveda Blvd., near Venice Blvd. (free parking in rear)

Suite 101-102, press #22 at door to get into building

Culver City (LA area)

 

SPEAKERS:

Ali Kiani, Iranian Marxist activist and translator

With a comment by Hamid A., environmental and anti-racist activist

 

Having experienced the harshest type of capitalist austerity, which has featured depression level unemployment, the Greek people voted first for the anti-austerity leftist Syriza Party, which includes several Marxists among its leaders.  Then, in July, they voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to support Syriza in its determination not to bow to further austerity measures from the country’s international creditors.  In response, the creditors, led by Germany, seemed to want to make an example of this small country that had dared to challenge austerity from the left.  The creditor nations doubled down, threatening Greece with banishment from the Eurozone and even worse economic privation.  In response to these threats, which even the US seemed to consider excessive, Syriza’s leadership agreed to the very austerity measures the referendum vote had opposed a few days before. Syriza is splitting, but its majority has now voted to support austerity. What is the meaning of these events for Greece, for global capitalism, for the struggle to abolish it, and for the left?

Suggested readings (all from IMHO site):

“Two Strands in Syriza, the Euro, and the Dictatorship Of Capital” — by Karel Ludenhoff

“Syriza’s Stormy Greek Spring” — by David Black

“Further Reflections on Yanis Varoufakis’s ‘Erratic Marxism'” — by Karel Ludenhoff

“From the Economic Crisis to the Transcendence of Capital” — by Peter Hudis

 

Sponsored by the West Coast Chapter, International Marxist-Humanist Organization

More information: arise@internationalmarxisthumanist.org and http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/

Here is URL for meeting for Facebook, Twitter, etc.: http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/events/los-angeles-lessons-from-greece-crisis-of-the-economy-and-the-left-response

Join our Facebook page: “International Marxist-Humanist Organization” https://www.facebook.com/groups/imhorg/

***END***

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

European Labour History Network Conference

Labour History

EUROPEAN LABOUR HISTORY NETWORK CONFERENCE

First ELHN Conference – Turin, 14-16 December 2015

“Factory Level Analysis: A Methodological Exploration”

ELHN website: http://socialhistory.org/en/news/european-labour-history-network

Although among different types of work, industrial work has received the utmost attention by labour historians, studies focusing on a single factory are very few. Factory as a site of both industrial production and social relations of production is often taken as given and treated as the backdrop for the real action. The ELHN Factory History Working Group (FHWG) calls for a reconsideration of this particular workplace as the site of one of the most important relationships in society that between worker and employer with the insights gained from the new social history.

This reconsideration could be carried out on a number of lines some of which are as follows. To begin with, the study of a single factory is based on a complex weave of history, economics, culture, labour, industry, production, and ideology. As such, the history of a single factory lies at the intersection of different disciplines, sub-disciplines and methodological approaches: social history, economic history, business history, urban history, Marxist social theory, sociological inquiry, discourse analysis and micro-level analysis. A complete study of factory history would have to look at a number of social phenomena related to its actual physical existence (such as its relation to urban space, to ecology etc.), as well as its economic, political and social functions. Thus, factory level analysis could put labour history in a dialogue with other historical fields of study resulting in a rich array of details on the experience of industrial work.

The study of the relations in production at the factory level allows the historian to depict the connections between the labour process and the changes in workers’ consciousness and their individual and collective political behaviour could be depicted. Also, factory level analysis makes the divisions within the labour force most visible. Documenting this heterogeneity could also be helpful in understanding different types and levels of militancy, shop loyalty, alienation, and competition among workers. Moreover, a systematic study of factory files could bring the hidden, and isolated instances of resistance to surface. Focusing our attention on the level of factory not only enriches the historical details of that process, it also allows the historian to depict the dense and non-deterministic web of interrelationships at the point of production. Studying a single factory requires that the management is also given special attention. The analysis of the shaping and reshaping of the form and content of the managerial practices in relation to workers’ resistance practices paves the way for a more dynamic depiction of the relations between management ideologies and practices and workers’ reactions to these. Similarly, analysing the changes in the ownership patterns could shed light on their effects on labour relations.

The FHWG invites scholars to explore the methodological possibilities of factory level analysis. Both individual paper proposals and session proposals are welcome.

Please send your proposal (200 words max. for single papers, 8000 words in total max. for sessions) to both coordinators until June 30th 2015.

Görkem Akgöz, Hacettepe University, gorkemakgoz@yahoo.com

Nicola Pizzolato, Middlesex University, N.Pizzolato@mdx.ac.uk

 

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/european-labour-history-conference-factory-history-cfp

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

 

IIPPE Training Workshops (London, Aberdeen and Leeds)

Bonuses for Some

IIPPE TRAINING WORKSHOPS (LONDON, ABERDEEN and LEEDS)

International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy

Website: http://iippe.org/wp/

The IIPPE announces three Training Workshops (in London, Aberdeen and Leeds)

 

London: Monday June 22, SOAS (Vernon Square campus)
Simon Mohun and Photis Lysandrou, on The Marxist theory of finance, contemporary accounts of financialization and the causes of the financial crisis of 2007-8
Details at http://iippe.org/wp/?cat=19
Register with Simon Mohun < s.mohun@qmul.ac.uk >

 

Aberdeen: Thursday 25 June and Friday 26 June, University of Aberdeen (Fraser Noble Building), jointly with Aberdeen Political Economy Group (APEG) and IIPPE Financialisation Working Group
Simon Mohun, John Weeks, Joseph Choonara, James Foley, James Meadway and Neil Davidson on Neoliberalism and the political economy of money and finance in Scotland and the UK
Details from and registration with Keith Paterson < keithpaterson@abdn.ac.uk >

 

Leeds: Tuesday 8 September, University of Leeds (room tba)
Simon Mohun, John Weeks and Alfredo Saad-Filho, on Rate of Profit and Crisis
Details at http://iippe.org/wp/?cat=19
Register on the IIPPE Conference Registration Form http://iippe.org/wp/?page_id=2655 or with Simon Mohun < s.mohun@qmul.ac.uk >

 

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/iippe-announces-three-training-workshops-london-aberdeen-and-leeds

 

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Cyber-Proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex

The Failure of Capitalism

CYBER-PROLETARIAT: GLOBAL LABOUR IN THE DIGITAL VORTEX

NEW FROM PLUTO PRESS:

Cyber-Proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex

By Nick Dyer-Witheford

http://bit.ly/1AeNq5z

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Praise for CYBER-PROLETARIAT:

‘Cyber-Proletariat tracks the eddies and flows of the perfect storm that is contemporary capitalism. This panoramic work reveals the relentless force of material destruction and brutal violence concealed by the sleek surfaces of digital culture’ – Benjamin Noys, Professor of Critical Theory, University of Chichester and author of Malign Velocities: Accelerationism and Capitalism

—————–

Coltan mines in the Congo; electronics factories in China; devastated neighbourhoods in Detroit. Cyber-Proletariat shows us the dark-side of the information revolution; an unsparing analysis of class power and computerisation.

Nick Dyer-Witheford reveals how technology facilitates growing polarisation between wealthy elites and precarious workers. He reveals the class domination behind everything from expanding online surveillance to intensifying robotisation. At the same time he looks at possibilities for information technology within radical movements; contemporary struggles are cast in the blue glow of the computer screen.

Cyber-Proletariat brings heterodox Marxist analysis to bear on modern technological developments. The result will be indispensable to social theorists and hacktivists alike and essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how Silicon Valley shapes the way we live today.

—————–

ON THE PLUTO BLOG: http://bit.ly/1HsH55Z

READ THE BOOK ONLINE: http://bit.ly/1K0fr0B

—————–

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Paperback | 9780745334738 | £18.99 / $30 / €23
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PDF | 9781783712816 | £60 / $99

Even Bigger Data

 

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/