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Class Struggle

Class Struggle

WHERE ARE WE? THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN THE WORLD TODAY

XI Congress of Historical and Social Research of CEICS – Center for Study and Research in Social Sciences
International Meeting of the Revolutionary Left
– Call for Papers –
Where are we? The Revolutionary Left and the class struggle in the world today
Buenos Aires, from September 1 to 3 of 2016

The world burns: Africa is affected by the violence product of a growing social decay that deepens from the crisis of the Arab Spring to Boko Haram.  In the extremely pauperized Asia new conflicts arise from the economic slowdown; Europe moves from recession to mass mobilizations and struggles against the capitalist adjustment. USA swings between post-Obama political apathy and the radicalization of the Republican right; Middle East is, today, a seething cauldron; Latin America undergoes the crisis of the Bonapartist regimes that formerly appeased the almost revolutionary crisis of the end of last century.
Everywhere are to be seen these multifaceted expressions of a general crisis of global political relations. However, nowhere are to be seen the formation and development of revolutionary parties, let alone international coordination. Why doesn’t the crisis beget its own gravedigger? Furthermore, how is the class struggle today? What’s the role of the revolutionary vanguard? Is it carrying out the political task of building a revolutionary party? Those are the questions that we want to pose on the eve of the anniversary of the Russian Revolution:
For this purpose, we call, in the frame of the XI Congress of Historical and Social Research, the International Meeting of the Revolutionary Left. Its aim is to foster the scientific study of reality to further advance in the construction of the strategy and development of the organizations necessary to change that reality.  As in previous editions we invite researchers and activists of all tendencies to forge the necessary unity between reason and revolution.

The conference will be organized around four themes:

1. The global crisis
a. The economy
b. The society
c. The politics

2. The political alternatives
a. The religious fundamentalism
b. The nationalist movements
c. The crisis of Latin American populism
d. The emergence of alternatives in Europe
e. The anti-systemic movements

3. The current situation of the revolutionary left
a. What remains of Maoism and Guevarism?
b. Trotskyism today
c. The non-marxist left
d. Many strategies or no strategies?
e. Do we need a new international?

4. Marxism in the XXI century
a. Is the crisis of Marxism gone?
b. Marxism and modern science
c. Balance and prospects

Closure meeting:  Debate and discussion with revolutionary organizations

The themes are suggested as a guide for participants. However, this list is not exhaustive. Proposals are expected to be focused on these issues, either in current or historical perspective; empirical analysis and theoretical reflections are both welcome.

Timetable and format:
1. Deadline proposals for symposiums, Panel discussions and book presentations:  30th April 2016 proposals.
2. Deadline Abstracts: 30th, June 30 abstracts.
3. Deadline for presentations: 20th August.
4. Papers should not exceed 20,000 characters with spaces.

For more information please contact   <mailto:jornadas@razonyrevolucion.orgjornadas@razonyrevolucion.org
Website: http://jornadasceics.com.ar

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/xi-congress-of-historical-and-social-research-of-ceics-.-i-international-meeting-of-the-revolutionary-left

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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/

images

download (1)HISTORY AND CLASS STRUGGLES

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS INFORMATION IN YOUR NETWORKS

Dear friends, dear colleagues,

We are pleased to inform you of the publication of the new issue of Actuel Marx review, whose main dossier is devoted to “History and class struggles.” It is available in bookstores since yesterday. You will find below the summary of this volume.

The magazine will participate in a series of initiatives in 2016, we will keep you informed.

Remember that the journal only lives thanks to its subscribers. Find in this address newsletter subscriptions, thank you in advance for your support: http://www.puf.com/puf_wiki/images/b/ba/TARIF_ABONNEMENT2015.pdf

Among the themes of upcoming issues: Psychoanalysis and Marxism, Around the global ruling class, green Marxism, Russian Revolution …

Best regards,
Jean-Numa Ducange and Guillaume Sibertin-Blanc
Actuel Marx co-di rectors

http://www.puf.com/Revues:Actuel_Marx_2015_-_n%C2%B0_58

 
Dossier : histoire et lutte de classes

Jean-Numa DUCANGE
Marx, le marxisme et le « père de la lutte des classes », Augustin Thierry
Bryan D. PALMER
La lutte de classe et les dépossédés
Eugénia PALIERAKI
Le MIR, la révolution et ses classes sociales dans le Chili des années 1960
Geoff ELEY
Réflexions sur la formation de la classe ouvrière, le passé et le présent
Jacques GUILHAUMOU
Révolution française et grammaire de la lutte de classe. Marx, Gramsci, Wittgenstein
Un entretien de Déborah COHEN avec Michèle RIOT-SARCEY
Le « mouvement ouvrier » en questions

INTERVENTIONS
Lilian TRUCHON
Retour sur le marxisme et le darwinisme
Claire DODEMAN
Marx et l’élaboration du concept de nature dans la philosophie de Merleau-Ponty
Julien PALLOTTA
Bourdieu face au marxisme althussérien : la question de l’État
Christophe DARMANGEAT Certains étaient-ils plus égaux que d’autres ?
II – Formes d’exploitation sous le communisme primitif
Florent GABARRON-GARCIA
Pour une histoire populaire de la psychanalyse. De quoi Ernest Jones est-il le nom ?
EN DÉBAT
Catherine COLLIOT-THELENE et Franck FISCHBACH
Pourquoi la philosophie sociale ?
COMPTE-RENDUS
Marxismes, théorie critique, histoire…

 

Bonjour à toutes et tous,

Nous avons le plaisir de vous informer de la parution du nouveau numéro de la revue Actuel Marx dont le dossier central est consacré à « Histoire et luttes de classes ». Il est disponible en librairie depuis hier. Vous trouverez ci-dessous le sommaire du nouveau numéro.

La revue participera à une série d’initiatives en 2016, nous vous tiendrons informés.

N’oubliez pas que la revue ne vit que grâce à ses abonnés. Retrouvez à cette adresse le bulletin d’abonnements, merci d’avance de votre soutien :

http://www.puf.com/puf_wiki/images/b/ba/TARIF_ABONNEMENT2015.pdf

Parmi les thématiques des numéros à venir : Psychanalyse et marxisme, autour de la classe dominante mondiale, marxisme vert, révolution russe…

Bien cordialement,

Jean-Numa Ducange et Guillaume Sibertin-Blanc
Co-directeurs d’Actuel Marx

http://www.puf.com/Revues:Actuel_Marx_2015_-_n%C2%B0_58

 

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/actuel-marx-nouvelle-parution

Political Economy

Political Economy

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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/

Situationism

Situationism

THE GAME OF WAR

Class Wargames Presents “The Game of War” @ Essex

2:00 PM, June 10th @ the Waiting Room, St Botolphs (http://st-botolphs.org)
The Street with No Name (off Queen Street) Colchester, Essex CO1 2PQ

Class Wargames (http://www.classwargames.net) will come to Essex on June 10th to present “The Game of War,” staging a participatory playing of Guy Debord’s board military-strategy board game.

Class Wargames is playing Guy Debord’s The Game of War using a replica of his original 1977 design for the board game. Guy Debord is celebrated as the chief strategist of the Situationist International and author of the searing critique of the media-saturated society of consumer capitalism: The Society of the Spectacle. What is less well known is that after the French May ’68 Revolution, Debord devoted much of the rest of his life to inventing, refining and promoting what he came to regard as his most important project: The Game of War.

The Game of War is a Clausewitz simulator: a Napoleonic era military strategy game where armies must maintain their communications structure to survive – and where victory is achieved by smashing your opponent’s supply network rather than by taking their pieces. For Debord, The Game of War wasn’t just a game – it was a guide to how people should live their lives within Fordist society. By playing this Clausewitz simulator, revolutionary activists could learn how to fight and win against the oppressors of spectacular society.

Politics is a continuation of war by other means. Wargames are a continuation of politics by other means.

Requisite Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/681989125188070

Guy Debord

Guy Debord

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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

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

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

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism

THE FUTURE OF NGOs – CALL FOR PAPERS

Call for Papers: The Future of NGOs: incorporation, reinvention, critique?

Special issue of Critical Sociology

 

Special Issue Editors:

Sangeeta Kamat, Associate Professor, International Education, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Feyzi Ismail, Teaching Fellow, Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK

The last three decades have seen a range of critical studies on NGOs, and in particular a growing body of theoretical work on the links between NGOs, the neoliberal state and social movements (Kamat 2004; Hearn 2007; Fernando 2011; Choudry and Kapoor 2013; Dauvergne and LeBaron 2014). These studies have contributed to our understanding of ‘NGOisation’ as a vital aspect of global capitalism and its crucial function in stabilising the neoliberal order. In this special issue we seek to build upon these critiques towards a theorisation that illuminates the present conjuncture of the new aid architecture – now unfolding in the context of the global financial crisis – that has further subordinated NGOs to global capital but which is also confronted by a deepening crisis of the neoliberal state (Harvey 2010; Duménil and Lévy 2011; Saad Filho 2011).

Critical Sociology (http://crs.sagepub.com/ ) invites contributions analysing the role of NGOs at this conjuncture, how they are responding to critiques and struggles against neoliberalism and whether they seek to articulate a new politics.

Since the late 1990s visible and widespread challenges to neoliberalism have taken the form of the anti-globalisation and anti-war movements, including the popular movements in Latin America and the World Social Forums, the vast mobilisations against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Occupy movement, the Arab uprisings and demonstrations against austerity. In some cases the movements have led to mass strikes in workplaces and the mobilisation of trade unions. NGOs have often had an ambivalent relation to these oppositional movements, either participating on the fringes of these movements or seeking new kinds of alliances with Left or progressive politics. At the same time, the aid regime of the new millennium has undergone significant changes, with corporate entities playing a leading role in the development sector and partnering with states to enforce new rules of compliance for NGOs. In other words, NGOs today straddle both the imperialist and neoliberal ambitions of the aid regime and the popular mobilisations, which at times dominate the political landscape.

In this special issue we seek to analyse how NGOs mediate these struggles toward particular ends. How are NGOs being repositioned within contemporary capitalism, and how is the relationship between NGOs, the state and the private sector evolving? In what ways are NGOs being further co-opted by corporate power? As the neoliberal state becomes increasingly privatised on the one hand – and challenged on the other – how have NGOs analysed these times of crisis and flux? Is the general critique of neoliberalism that many NGOs also espouse leading to a new kind of politics and new political understandings within the sector? What are the factors that determine the political direction that NGOs take? Are there examples of NGOs reinventing themselves to maintain or pursue radical politics, and are they adopting new ideas and new ideologies? What kinds of new organisational alliances or strategic partnerships are being made, for example, with the political Left?

Our contention is that the existence of an organised Left makes a difference, shaping both political history and the political space that is occupied by NGOs. Where left-wing political parties have had a strong legacy, we wish to investigate the historical relationship between NGOs and the Left in order to understand the politics of NGOs in that particular context. Where NGOs have taken on traditional roles, and have been funded and professionalised, we seek to understand not only the political compulsions that influence NGOs but what kind of political alternatives are possible. The focus here is on the factors that influence one tendency or the other, with the aim of drawing general conclusions on how the work of NGOs is being reshaped both at national and global levels.

We are seeking manuscripts (8,000 words maximum) on the following themes (though not limited to these), and encourage interdisciplinary approaches:

Neoliberalism and the co-option of NGOs;

The relationship between NGOs and left-wing political parties in power;

Conflict and collaboration between NGOs and social movements;

Class, class struggle and the role of NGOs;

Questions of strategy and democracy amongst NGOs and within the sector;

Ways that NGOs are reinventing themselves and envisioning new forms of political engagement;

The role of NGOs and the global financial crisis;

Labour NGOs and trade union organising;

Development NGOs in the present aid architecture and the implications for Left politics.

 

Within this broad thematic we are interested in case studies from Latin America (e.g. Venezuela and Bolivia), where left-wing governments have been in power; South Asia (e.g. India, Nepal and Bangladesh), where Left parties and social movements have a strong presence inside and outside of government; Eastern Europe (e.g. Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo), where previous democratic transitions meant compromise between communist parties and NGOs; South East Asia (e.g. Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines), where there have been significant and sustained popular movements and workers’ strikes; and the Middle East (e.g. Egypt, Syria and Palestine), which has experienced colossal political upheaval and polarisation during and since the uprisings in 2011. In addition, we are interested in case studies documenting the work of labour NGOs and their relationship with trade union activity (e.g. China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia), and the role of NGOs in the Arab uprisings.

To submit your proposal, email the title, abstract (300 words maximum), and contact information for the primary author to Sangeeta Kamat <skamat@educ.umass.edu> and Feyzi Ismail <fi2@soas.ac.uk>, with the subject line “ATTN: SPECIAL ISSUE PROPOSAL”. All papers are subject to the standard review process at Critical Sociology.

 

Submission of abstracts: 31 May

Solicitation of full papers: 15 June

Draft paper submissions due to editors: 31 August

 

First published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/cfp-the-future-of-ngos-incorporation-reinvention-critique-special-issue-of-critical-sociology

 

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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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Communisation

Communisation

SIC, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR COMMUNISATION – ISSUE 2

The 2nd issue of Sic (International Journal for Communisation) is out, with texts that attempt to develop new concepts and analyse recent struggles (2011-13): including Occupy Oakland, the riots in the UK and events in Greece and France.

Copies can be ordered here: http://sicjournal.org/en/order-online

 

Contents:

Not an Editorial

Woland, The Uneven Dynamics of the Era of Riots

Leon de Mattis, Communist Measures

R.S., The Conjuncture

Woland, Rise of the (Non-)Subject

R.S., The Movement Against the French Pension Reform

Rocamadur, The Feral Underclass Hits the Streets

Rust Bunny Collective, Under the Riot Gear

Research & Destroy, Limit Analysis and its Limits

Agents of Chaos, Without You, Not a Single Cog Turns

 

Excerpts from the non-editorial:

‘Communisation is no longer being perceived as an exotic beast, and it even tends at times to become a fashionable word. Present-day struggles highlight the end of the classical workers’ movement, together with its ambition to take the supposedly good-by-nature core of the economy away from voracious capitalist predators and run it itself. It is almost obvious that the world of our days, matter and soul alike, is the world actually produced by and for capital; that, therefore, workers and their products would have never existed as such if capital had not called them into existence in the first place; that working people’s demands have nowadays become asystemic or, in other words, a scandal akin to high treason; that proletarians are forced to defend their condition against capital but, in this struggle, actions that hurt capital are also actions that tend to call into question the proletarian condition; that communism cannot possibly be conceived as a program to be realised, but only as the historical product of proletariat’s struggle against capital and, at the same token, against its own class belonging; etc., etc. All this is reassuringly easy to show, almost worryingly so in fact.’

‘There is no linear development from present struggles to revolution, but present struggles, even through their limits and impossibilities, are the only anchor of the theory of communisation. The second issue of Sic is decisively focused on a critical appraisal of struggles of varying geographical locations and content; a discussion of communist measures may serve as a theoretical counterpoint; looking into the concept of conjuncture will deal with the necessary leap away from the internal causality chain of capital’s reproduction.’

‘Sic is an international theoretical project, not a homogeneous group. Differences of opinion are welcome and eagerly put to discussion: they should come as no surprise. However, a common ground does exist, and it does differentiate Sic from other currents. For example, a transhistorical and teleological understanding of class struggle, which turns its back on any periodisation of its content, will not be at home here; the conception of ever recurring proletarian assaults, identical to each other and with no actual history in between, belongs to those ready to interpret the possibly good one just like the others, with the only difference that it was successful instead of unsuccessful; the ‘proposal’ (whom to?) of models of society which would be ‘better’ than the existing one is none of our preoccupations; the faith in the demarcation and extension of a communist terrain, in a communist rodent diving into the capitalist cheese and gradually eating it away, is not ours.’

New web address: http://sicjournal.org/ (with texts also available in French)

First published in: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/sic-international-journal-for-communisation-issue-2

Click to enlarge

 

 

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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.academic.edu/GlennRikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Social Movements

Social Movements

CLASS: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM!

The modern labourer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the process of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth” K. Marx and F. Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1848

How to conceptualise class in the face of expanded impoverishment, commodification of social rights, increased social and spatial segregation, criminalised poor, austerity, global wars and ecological crisis? Under the contemporary conditions of capitalism, as class based inequalities have become sharper, the ways in which class is conceptualised matter more with respect to its political consequences.

With the discussion of class re-emerging in the social sciences, we hope to both foregrounds its centrality and search for critical perspectives. Perspectives which might shift the direction of class struggle from attacks on the ‘undeserving poor’ to the potentialities of the revolutionary class.

“A Sense of Inequality: 5 approaches, 3 themes and a variation”

Dr Wendy Bottero, The University of Manchester

“Class: Don’t Mention the War”

Professor Andrew Sayer, Lancaster University

“Sociology and Its Poor: Rethinking Social Class”

Dr Imogen Tyler, Lancaster University

Organised by: Department of Sociology, Lancaster University

Date: Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Time: 16:15 – 18:30

Location: Cavendish Colloquium Room (Faraday Building LB02), Lancaster University

See: https://twitter.com/SociologyLancs/status/435382047591260160

**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 at Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Spyros Themelis

Spyros Themelis

SOCIAL CHANGE AND EDUCATION IN GREECE

BOOK LAUNCH EVENT

Social Change and Education in Greece: A Study in Class Struggle Dynamics

Dr Spyros Themelis, Senior Lecturer in Education, Middlesex University

MONDAY, 22 April, 2013

5:00pm to 7:30pm

Middlesex University, Hendon Campus, College Building, C219/C220, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BT

 

Event highlights:

Opening/closing chaired by Waqar Ahmad, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, MiddlesexUniversity

Guest Speakers

Confirmed Speakers:

Tony Green, Palgrave Macmillan Marxism and Education Series Editor, University of London, Institute of Education

Professor Joyce Canaan, Professor of Sociology, Birmingham City University  

Dr Eva Gamarnikow, Department of Policy Studies, University of London, Institute of Education

Dr Stathis Kouvelakis, Reader in Political Theory, King’s College London

 

Who should attend: Research active staff, readers and professors from all Schools and Institutes at Middlesex University and other universities, educationalists, research students, media and policy makers.

This event is free to attend, but participants must confirm their attendance by email by 15th April. RSVP by 15th April to Daniela Pantica on D.Pantica@mdx.ac.uk  

 

About the Book

Social Change and Education in Greece: A Study in Class Struggle Dynamics (2013, Palgrave

Macmillan, New York). A New Book by Spyros Themelis, Middlesex University

The post-war orthodoxy postulated that education is both a mechanism for upward social mobility and an engine for economic growth. This book takes a challenging and refreshingly novel approach to the way education and social mobility are researched and theorised. The key message it delivers goes against the dominant post-war orthodoxy, which has postulated that education is both a mechanism for upward social mobility and an engine for economic growth in liberal capitalist countries. The conclusion the author reaches flies in the face of mainstream political consensus that perceives social mobility as panacea for the provision of occupational opportunities and an instrument for the levelling of the playing field. Much of what lays beneath social mobility, Spyros Themelis argues (apart from a great deal of sophisticated number-crunching) is a celebration and acceptance of an unequal system of allocation of opportunities.

This is one among very few studies that explore social mobility and attendant processes with the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The author views social mobility not merely as the outcome of the movements of individuals from one income or occupational group into another, detached from their societal, community and family context, as in conventional mobility studies. Instead, he examines social mobility as a complex process, where socio-economic (e.g. migration), cultural (e.g. marital practices and community values) and political (e.g. political patronage) forces, experiences, arrangements and strategies interact and interconnect in impeding or enhancing individuals’ and families’ social mobility movements.

The book makes some contribution to the ongoing debate about the economic crisis that has hit Greece since 2009. It suggests that the failure of education to promote equality of opportunities is symptomatic of the failure of the wider system to prioritise fair and equitable arrangements. If Greece’s current situation is to teach us a lesson, this is to urgently rethink about the whole system, not only in Greece but in the rest of the Western world too. The myth of education-based meritocracy and unfettered social mobility has anaesthetised Western societies to the multitude of social inequalities with which they are permeated. These might be hard times, but all the more appropriate to urge us to think about positive social change.

Dr Spyros Themelis is a Senior Lecturer in Education, Department of Education, Middlesex University, UK.

The book can be ordered from this link: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=537469 

It is published in the Palgrave Macmillan Marxism and Education Series: http://www.palgrave.com/products/SearchResults.aspx?s=ME&fid=3658 and http://us.macmillan.com/series/MarxismandEducation

Details on the book were originally provided at: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/social-change-and-education-in-greece-a-study-in-class-struggle-dynamics-a-new-book-by-spyros-themelis/

 

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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: https://rikowski.wordpress.com

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

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

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Spyros Themelis

Spyros Themelis

 

Educating from Marx

Educating from Marx

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 18th FEBRUARY 2013

EVENTS

COLLABORACTION: BUILDING BLOCKS LEARNING EXCHANGE

Wednesday, March 20, 2013
12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St.

Promote civic engagement and participation of diverse, low income communities in the Greater Toronto Area.

Participatory workshops will focus on:

– Imperative of engagement in diverse low income communities
– Building civic movements and leaders
– Web-based methodologies for community organizing
– Models for mobilizing diverse low income communities
     
This will be a lively learning exchange. We’ll showcase local leadership success stories and give you plenty of opportunities to connect with and learn from others. You’ll leave with ideas and practical information to build civic literacy and promote engagement and participation in your community.

Register online: http://colaboractionmarch202013.eventbrite.com/#

Sponsored by The Maytree Foundation.

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SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND BRITISH COLUMBIA’S WORKING CLASS

A Community Workshop organized by the Canadian Committee on Labour History

Sunday, June 2, 1-5pm
Legacy Art Gallery
630 Yates Street, Victoria, BC
Coffee house/social to follow @ 5pm

Fresh on the heels of the BC provincial election, this workshop brings together activists and academics to consider the past, present and future of social democracy and BC’s working class. It seeks to provide context to current debates and strategies over labour laws, social programs and the balance of power in the workplace and communities.

Featuring:
– Jim Sinclair, British Columbia Federation of Labour
– Tara Ehrcke, Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association
– Ingo Schmidt, author of Social Democracy after the Cold War

Sponsored by the Canadian Committee on Labour History, University of Victoria Social Justice Studies Program and the Society for Socialist Studies.

To register, contact CCLH secretary Ben Isitt: isitt@uvic.ca  Registration fee $20, waived for students and the unwaged.

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LEADERSHIP, HIGHER AND ADULT EDUCATION (OISE-UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO) RESEARCH SMORGASBORD + SOCIAL

February 27
12-2pm
OISE, Room 12-199
252 Bloor St. West, Toronto

Come hear faculty from Adult Ed/Community Development, Ed Admin and Higher Ed programs present the findings from research in which they are engaged and have published, or are in the process of publishing. Social to follow. Light refreshments will be served.

– Peter Dietsche: “A perfect storm: public policy, access and student success in ontario colleges”
– Glen Jones: “Academic careers and national systems of higher education”
– Linda Muzzin: “Mapping curriculum and equity in Canada’s community colleges”
– Shahrzad Mojab: “Re-organization of educational services and social services in response to policy mandates emphasizing the security and securitization of youth”
– Jean-Paul Restoule: “Deepening knowledge and enhancing instruction through incorporation of indigenous worldviews in initial teacher education program at OISE”
– Kiran Mirchandani: “Phone clones: Identity, learning and work in the international call centre system with special attention to India”
– Jim Ryan: “The micropolitics of social justice leadership in organizations”
– Joe Flessa: “Streaming in Ontario schools”
– Carol Campbell: “Leading with evidence for educational improvement through education system change, professional capacity and student learning”

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FORUM: CLASS STRUGGLES IN CRISIS: FROM WALMART TO THE STATE

Friday February 22, 7 pm
Oakham House
Ryerson University Student Centre
63 Gould St, Toronto, at Church St.
Dundas St Subway.

A Socialist Register event

Please join for a panel discussion introduced and moderated by SR editors, Greg Albo, Vivek Chibber and Leo Panitch

“Class Struggles in Crisis: from Walmart to the State”
with Kevin Doogan, Arun Gupta, Jane Hardy, and Charles Post.

– Kevin Doogan is professor in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol.
– Arun Gupta is a co-founder of The Indypendent and The Occupied Wall Street Journal.
– Jane Hardy is a professor in the Business School at the University of Hertfordshire
– Charles Post is a professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York (CUNY).

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BOOK LAUNCH: BOOM, BUST AND CRISIS
Labour, Corporate Power and Politics in Canada

Edited by John Peters

Wednesday, February 27, 2013
7:30 pm
Centre for Social Innovation, Main Floor Café, 720 Bathurst Street (South of Bloor), Toronto

This is a free event. Everyone is welcome.

Published by Fernwood Publishing. Co-sponsored by the Centre for Social Justice.

For more information: http://www.socialjustice.org/community/#e836 or call Nancy Malek 902-857-1388

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GREATER TORONTO WORKERS’ ASSEMBLY (GTWA) GENERAL MEMBERS MEETING

Sunday, February 24
2 – 4 PM
Steelworkers’ Hall, 25 Cecil St.
Toronto

We will be having a discussion with Gautam Mody, General Secretary of the New Trade Union Initiative (http://ntui.org.in/), an exciting union in India which in two decades has built a democratic organization that now represents around 1.5 million workers with a special emphasis on informal workers.

You can read a delegates’ report on their founding convention here: http://labornotes.org/print/214

An interview with Mody can be read at: http://www.amrc.org.hk/alu_article/interview_with_gautam_mody_secretary_new_trade_union_initiative

Join the Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly and please bring friends.

We will also be discussing the GTWA’s Public Sector Committee and its project to develop workplace and community power right here in Toronto.

Visit the GTWA website: http://www.workersassembly.ca

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NEWS & VIEWS

CAMPUS FIGHTBACKS IN THE AGE OF AUSTERITY: LEARNING FROM QUEBEC STUDENTS

by Xavier Lafrance and Alan Sears, The Bullet

The 2012 Quebec student strikes delivered one of the few victories we have seen in anti-austerity struggles in the Canadian state. The mobilization, which at its high point saw over 300,000 students on limited or unlimited strike, and demonstrations of hundreds of thousands, was a crucial highpoint
that has a great deal to teach radicals. The attempted clampdown by the Jean Charest government through Bill 78 that attempted to outlaw the movement, unleashed a new and innovative round of resistance including the casseroles night marches.

Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/771.php

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“WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS!”: REFLECTIONS ON THE WORLD’S LARGEST DEMONSTRATION, TEN YEARS LATER

by Sarah Grey and Leo Zeilig, MRzine

February 15, 2003, Sarah, New York:

The wind that whips down the avenues is bitterly cold, but that doesn’t stop us from protesting the drive to war in Iraq.  People from all over the city and the Northeast — young and old, hardened activists and first-time protestors — have converged on Manhattan, where the wounds of 9/11 are
still gaping, to tell our unelected president NO to war on Iraq. 

Read more: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2013/gz150213.html

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VIDEO – BOOK LAUNCH: TOWARD THE UNITED FRONT
Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922

Toronto — 3 February 2013.

Moderated by Abbie Bakan. Panel discussion with:

– John Riddell is the translator and editor of this book. He maintains a blog at http://www.johnriddell.wordpress.com
– David McNally teaches Political Science at York University, Toronto, and is the author of “Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism”
– Greg Albo teaches Political Economy at the Department of Political Science, York University. He is the co-editor of “Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan”
– Suzanne Weiss is a Toronto writer, active in Palestinian, Latin American solidarity and work for climate justice
– Paul Kellogg teaches Political Economy at Athabasca University

The book is published by Haymarket Books and can be ordered here: http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Toward-the-United-Front

Watch the video: http://www.socialistproject.ca/leftstreamed/ls161.php

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SUBMIT TO UPPING THE ANTI (UTA) ISSUE 15!

Upping The Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action is a radical journal published twice a year by a pan-Canadian collective of activists and organizers. We are dedicated to publishing radical theory and analysis about struggles against capitalism, imperialism, and all forms of oppression.

Upping The Anti believes that praxis – the dialectical combination of theory and practice – is integral to the building of strong revolutionary movements. We work with activists and thinkers in these movements to distil the lessons learned from struggle. We prioritize reflection which leads to political clarification, summation, and synthesis.

We are currently looking for story ideas for ISSUE FIFTEEN, which will be released in June 2013. If you have an idea for a story you would like to see published in our journal, please send us a one-page pitch by Thursday, February 28, 2013. In addition to the pitch, please submit a short writing sample (max 1,000 words).

In your pitch, please provide a brief description of the topic of your proposed investigation, your main questions, an account of how you will address these questions, as well as a brief biographical note.

Before submitting a pitch, we encourage you to read back issues in order to familiarize yourself with the kind of writing that we publish. We also encourage you to have a look at the Upping The Anti submission guide, which can be downloaded at http://uppingtheanti.org.

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ONTARIO WORKERS NEED URGENT PROTECTION FROM THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR

from the Workers’ Action Centre

New Minister of Labour, Yasir Naqvi, has an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of thousands of Ontario workers by taking immediate action to address wage theft.

In December 2012, people from across Ontario responded to our call for action for better conditions for workers.  Over 12 days, more than 500 messages were sent to the Minister of Labour calling for stronger protections for workers in Ontario.

We’ve already outlined 5 priorities for action:

1. Increase the minimum wage
2. Target employers that violate employment standards
3. Ensure adequate resources for proactive enforcement of employment standards
4. Update the ESA to create good jobs
5. Equal protections for temporary foreign workers

Read more: http://www.workersactioncentre.org/updates/ontario-workers-need-urgent-protection-from-the-ministry-of-labour/

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WORKING WITHOUT A CONTRACT: A STRATEGY WHOSE TIME HAS COME?

by Robert M. Schwartz, Labor Notes
   
Some unions have changed their policy from “no contract, no work” to “no contract, no peace,” and are using the advantages of working without a contract in order to get a contract.

Read more: http://www.labornotes.org/2013/02/working-without-contract-strategy-whose-time-has-come

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JOBS/INTERNSHIPS

CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK (CUNY) NEW YORK UNION SEMESTER

NY Union Semester offers a mentored internship for graduates and undergraduates at a labor union or worker organization, in addition to 4 outstanding classes.

Interns receive:

– A weekly stipend and unlimited Metro Card
– In-state tuition rates and a scholarship for 4 labor studies courses
– 12 graduate or 16 undergraduate credits

Interested students in the New York area can attend Open Houses March 18, April 17.

Others can contact laurie.kellogg@mail.cuny.edu, call 212-642-2055, or visit The Murphy Institute website:  http://www.sps.cuny.edu/institutes/jsmi

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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

 

**END**

 

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

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

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Spyros Themelis

Spyros Themelis

SOCIAL CHANGE AND EDUCATION IN GREECE: A STUDY IN CLASS STRUGGLE DYNAMICS – A NEW BOOK BY SPYROS THEMELIS

A New Book by Spyros Themelis, MiddlesexUniversity

Social Change and Education in Greece: A Study in Class Struggle Dynamics (2013, Palgrave

Macmillan, New York)

This book takes a challenging and refreshingly novel approach to the way education and social mobility are researched and theorised. The key message it delivers goes against the dominant post-war orthodoxy, which has postulated that education is both a mechanism for upward social mobility and an engine for economic growth in liberal capitalist countries. The conclusion the author reaches flies in the face of mainstream political consensus that perceives social mobility as panacea for the provision of occupational opportunities and an instrument for the levelling of the playing field. Much of what lays beneath social mobility, Spyros Themelis argues (apart from a great deal of sophisticated number-crunching) is a celebration and acceptance of an unequal system of allocation of opportunities.

This is one among very few studies that explore social mobility and attendant processes with the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The author views social mobility not merely as the outcome of the movements of individuals from one income or occupational group into another, detached from their societal, community and family context, as in conventional mobility studies. Instead, he examines social mobility as a complex process, where socio-economic (e.g. migration), cultural (e.g. marital practices and community values) and political (e.g. political patronage) forces, experiences, arrangements and strategies interact and interconnect in impeding or enhancing individuals’ and families’ social mobility movements.

The book makes some contribution to the ongoing debate about the economic crisis that has hit Greece since 2009. It suggests that the failure of education to promote equality of opportunities is symptomatic of the failure of the wider system to prioritise fair and equitable arrangements. If Greece’s current situation is to teach us a lesson, this is to urgently rethink about the whole system, not only in Greece but in the rest of the Western world too. The myth of education-based meritocracy and unfettered social mobility has anaesthetised Western societies to the multitude of social inequalities with which they are permeated. These might be hard times, but all the more appropriate to urge us to think about positive social change.

Dr Spyros Themelis is a Senior Lecturer in Education, Department of Education, Middlesex University, UK.

The book can be ordered from this link: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=537469

It is published in the Palgrave Macmillan Marxism and Education Series: http://www.palgrave.com/products/SearchResults.aspx?s=ME&fid=3658 and http://us.macmillan.com/series/MarxismandEducation

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

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

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Rouge Forum

Rouge Forum

ROUGE FORUM DISPATCH – 20 JANUARY 2013: REASON Vs OPPORTUNISM

Dear Friends, The Dispatch is updated here http://www.richgibson.com/blog/

Please remember: Rouge Forum 2013, Winning the Class Struggle Against Corporate Education Reform, May 16-19, 2013, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Rouge Forum 2013 Call for Proposals

The core issue of our time is the clash of the real promise for perpetual war and booming inequality met by the potential of connecting reason to power with organized mass class conscious resistance in schools, on the job, in communities, and in the military… and what you do counts!

The Rouge Forum brings together academic presentations and panel discussions, performances, community building, and cultural events. This conference will center on such questions as:

* Overall, what do we need to know and what do we need to do to win against corporate education reform in our classrooms?

* In what ways are our classrooms, schools, universities, unions, etc. occupied by capitalism, the military, racism, inequality?

* And what do these occupations demand from us pedagogically?

* What are the obstacles that must be overcome to achieve democratic education?

* What can we learn from Wisconsin 2011, the Occupy Movement, and the Chicago Teacher’s Strike to make us smarter and stronger in our struggle against corporate education reform?

* How do we educate to liberate ourselves from the impact of empire?

* How  do we push back against the imperializing of our classrooms and communities?

* How do we occupy our classrooms, schools universities, and unions and communities in an effort to create education that is in the public interests?

Calling on artists … Pop up radical art gallery would be for artists to submit 2-3 D pieces that they can bring with them to the conference to display as part of an opening or Friday/Saturday night reception activity.

SUBMISSIONS: Papers, Panels, and Performances. Proposals for papers, panels, or performances should include title(s), no more than a 500 world description, and names and contact information for the presenter(s).
http://rougeforumconference.wordpress.com/rouge-forum-2013/call-for-proposals-rf-2013/
Email proposals to Greg Queen: rumbagarden@ameritech.net by February 15, 2013

Good luck to our side,
RICH GIBSON

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

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

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

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

THE ROUGE FORUM – DISPATCH & CONFERENCE 2013

Dear Friends,

The Rouge Forum Dispatch is updated here http://www.richgibson.com/blog/

Please remember:
Rouge Forum 2013 Conference
Winning the Class Struggle Against Corporate Education Reform

Call for Proposals
http://rougeforumconference.wordpress.com/rouge-forum-2013/call-for-proposals-rf-2013/

May 16-19, 2012
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan

Good luck to our side

RICH GIBSON

 

**END**

 

‘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  

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: https://rikowski.wordpress.com

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Andrew Kliman

RADICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE PRESENT CRISIS

November 14th, 2012

8-10:30PM

WollmanHall
Eugene Lang Building, 6th floor
65 W 11th St
New York, NY10011

WITH: LOREN GOLDNER | DAVID HARVEY | ANDREW KLIMAN | PAUL MATTICK

The Present Crisis

The present moment is arguably one of unprecedented confusion on the Left.  The emergence of many new theoretical perspectives on Marxism, anarchism, and the left generally seem rather than signs of a newfound vitality, the intellectual reflux of its final disintegration in history.  As for the politics that still bothers to describe itself as leftist today, it seems no great merit that it is largely disconnected from the academic left’s disputations over everything from imperialism to ecology. Perhaps nowhere are these symptoms more pronounced than around the subject of the economy.

As Marxist economics has witnessed of late a flurry of recent works, many quite involved in their depth and complexity, recent activism around austerity, joblessness, and non-transparency while quite creative in some respects seems hesitant to oppose with anything but nostalgia for the past the status quo mantra, “There is no Alternative.”  At a time when the United States has entered the most prolonged slump since the Great Depression, the European project founders on the shoals of debt and nationalism.  If the once triumphant neoliberal project of free markets for free people seems utterly exhausted, the “strange non-death of neo-liberalism,” as a recent book title has it, seems poised to carry on indefinitely.  The need for a Marxist politics adequate to the crisis is as great as such a politics is lacking.

And 2011 now seems to be fading into the past.  In Greece today as elsewhere in Europe existing Left parties remain largely passive in the face of the crisis, eschewing radical solutions (if they even imagine such solutions to exist).  In the United States, Occupy has vanished from the parks and streets, leaving only bitter grumbling where there once seemed to be creativity and open-ended potential. In Britain, the 2011 London Riots, rather than political protest, was trumpeted as the shafted generation’s response to the crisis, overshadowing the police brutality that actually occasioned it.  Finally, in the Arab world where, we are told the 2011 revolution is still afoot, it seems inconceivable that the revolution, even as it bears within it the hopes of millions, could alter the economic fate of any but a handful.

While joblessness haunts billions worldwide, politicization of the issue seems chiefly the prerogative of the right.  Meanwhile, the poor worldwide face relentless price rises in fuel and essential foodstuffs. The prospects for world revolution seem remote at best, even as bankers and fund managers seem to lament democracy’s failure in confronting the crisis. In this sense, it seems plausible to argue that there is no crisis at all, but simply the latest stage in an ongoing social regression. What does it mean to say that we face a crisis, after all, when there is no real prospect that anything particularly is likely to change, at least not for the better?

In this opaque historical moment, Platypus wants to raise some basic questions:

* Do we live in a crisis of capitalism today and, if so, of what sort — political? Economic? Social?

* Why do seemingly sophisticated leftist understandings of the world appear unable to assist in the task of changing it?

* Conversely, can the world be thought intelligible without our capacity to self-consciously transform it through practice?

* Can Marxism survive as an economics or social theory without politics?

* Is there capitalism after socialism?

From: Radical Interpretations of the Present Crisis: http://newyork.platypus1917.org/11-14-2012-radical-interpretations-of-the-present-crisis/

Join the Facebook event page.

Download an image file of the event flier.

Download the PDF version of the event flier.

Thanks to Ross Wolfe for alerting me to this important event: Glenn Rikowski

**END**

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

David Harvey