Centre for the Study of Education and Work: Update 2nd September 2013

Global Economic Crisis

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 2nd SEPTEMBER 2013

EVENTS

TORONTO SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE LAUNCH PARTY
Monday, September 2
8pm
The 460, 460 Spadina Ave, Toronto

Join the Toronto IWW in celebrating the launch of our Solidarity Committee, which will be supporting workers fighting back against bad bosses, stolen wages and other workplace issues that affect precarious workers.

The event will feature music, a brief discussion of the Solidarity Committee and its organizing model, and guest speakers.

For more info: http://torontoiww.org/

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BOOK LAUNCH – THE NEW COMMUNE-IST MANIFESTO: WORKERS OF THE WORLD, IT REALLY IS TIME TO UNITE

Monday Sept. 2 — 7 pm
Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St., Toronto

By Ernesto (Ernie) Raj Peshkov-Chow; Published by RED/Fernwood, September 2013

The union movement and the Left have lost their vision of the way forward. Some key questions are asked, but no answers are forthcoming that resonate with the billions of people who comprise today’s working class. What is the alternative to capitalism? How do we get there, wherever there is?

For more info: http://www.newcommuneist.com
Or http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca

Sponsored by: Beit Zatoun, International Socialists, Socialist Action and Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly

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DISABLED PEOPLE AGAINST CUTS: SOLIDARITY ACTION IN TORONTO WITH DISABLED PEOPLE AGAINST CUTS (DPAC) WEEK OF ACTION IN THE UK

Tuesday, September 3
12pm
777 Bay Street, Toronto

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) is holding a week of action to challenge austerity and brutal attacks on disabled people being carried out by the Cameron Government. We are rallying outside the British Consulate to show our support and build for our own struggles in Ontario as ODSP comes under attack.

For more info: http://update.ocap.ca/node/1093

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OCCUPY ECONOMICS TORONTO WORKSHOP: THE CORPORATE SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS

Tuesday, Sep. 3
6:00 – 9:00 pm.
Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St., Toronto
Event is free

At the height of the Colonial Period, the Western powers  in a number of trading enclaves around the world enjoyed what was called ‘extraterritorial power’: their citizens and commercial enterprises were governed by the colonial powers own legal systems and not the host nations.

At the moment the sisterhood of multinational corporations (today including state-owned Chinese multinationals) are replicating such a system, established under the guise of a set of international trade agreements with so-called ‘investor protection’ clauses. Modelled on NAFTA’s chapter 11, they will triumph corporate profit over environment protection, human rights, fight for gender equality, for labour rights, etc. National and local legislation will be superseded by board of arbitrators.

We must wake up the Canadian people up to the implications of this sacrifice on the altar of corporate profit maximization.

For more info: http://occupyeconomics.ca/

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NEWS & VIEWS

THE RADICAL TRADITION OF AUTOWORKERS: AN INTERVIEW WITH GREG SHOTWELL

By Andy Piascik, Z Magazine

The sit-down strike by General Motors workers in the winter of 1936-37 was one of the galvanizing events in U.S. labor history. Similarly, the efforts of the primarily African-American autoworkers of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) sparked the resurgence of rank and file militancy in the late 1960s and 1970s. In more recent years, the New Directions caucus and Soldiers of Solidarity carried on the radical tradition in the United Automobile Workers.

Gregg Shotwell was active in both New Directions and SOS for much of his 30 years working at General Motors, during which time the UAW’s rolls fell from 1.5 million members to 382,513. He published “Live Bait and Ammo,” a boisterous newsletter that regularly skewered management as well as official union passivity.

In this interview, Shotwell talks about the onslaught of auto management, the decline of the UAW, and the efforts of autoworkers to resist both.

Read more: http://www.zcommunications.org/the-radical-tradition-of-autoworkers-by-andy-piascik.html

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UNION WAGE ADVANTAGE GROWS BY $1.71 PER HOUR

By Doug Allan, Leftwords

The gap between union and non-union wages in Ontario has grown significantly since the start of the recession in 2008, increasing by $1.71 per hour, Statistics Canada data indicates.

The hourly union advantage grew by 34 cents per hour each year on average. For a full time worker, that means the advantage for having union coverage in your workplace is growing by about $663 per year.

Compared to five years ago, that means the union wage advantage for an employee working full time hours has grown by $3,334 per year.

Read more: http://ochuleftwords.blogspot.ca/2013/08/union-wage-advantage-grows-by-171-per.html

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SCHOOL4CIVICS – PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN ON POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

By Alejandra Bravo, The Maytree Foundation

When we put out a call in April to be part of our upcoming series of School4Civics boot camps, workshops and networking events, we were pleased to see the broad interest in getting involved in political life. People who get involved in politics are some of our most engaged, committed and civic-minded neighbours. Most of them have already been active in their communities, volunteering, sitting on boards, and contributing in other ways. When they get involved in politics, they are really putting themselves and their families out there in a way that most people can’t imagine.

Read more: http://diversecitytoronto.ca/blog/school4civics-pulling-back-the-curtain-on-political-engagement/

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CALL FOR PAPERS/PROPOSALS – IDEA JOURNAL 2014

Design Activism: Developing Models, Modes and Methodologies of Practice

Academics, research students and practitioners are invited to submit design research papers and critical project works that engage interior design/interior architecture theory and practice with the topic of Design Activism: Developing Models, Modes and Methodologies of Practice for the Idea Journal 2014.

The living conditions of First Nations communities, food-security concerns, access to clean safe water, domestic violence – seemingly disparate subjects can be, and are being, connected to interior design teaching and practice. Such issues are particularly linked to the ongoing discussions of designers working within the new global design paradigm. There is evidence that a range of worthwhile initiatives have been undertaken by design professionals who choose to pursue socially responsible practices, and by educators and practitioners who are intentionally shifting away from a focus on pure
aesthetics and market-driven practices.

Dissatisfied with what they perceive as an over-emphasis by the design community on aesthetics, and its failure to meaningfully address the design needs of at-risk and low-income communities, several academics and practitioners have started to incorporate social-justice issues into their design research and teaching – while a number of independent design practitioners are involving themselves in activism.

The Idea Journal accepts: design research papers, refereed studios, project reviews, visual essays, book & exhibition reviews.

Authors are invited to register their interest in submitting a paper on the form following and forward by email to the Executive Editor, Suzie Attiwill by 21 October 2013. Registration of interest is not refereed. The acknowledgement of registration facilitates development of a proposal to full research paper, refereed studio, visual essay or project review by providing formatting guidelines and publication standards to registrants.

Email: IDEAJournal2014@gmail.com
Website: http://idea-edu.com/journal/2014-idea-journal/

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CALL FOR PAPERS: 2014 CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR WORK AND LABOUR STUDIES (CAWLS) INAUGURAL CONFERENCE

Hosted at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, during the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. May 2014.

The conference organizing committee invites submissions for participation in the inaugural conference of the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies. The committee welcomes proposals for single papers, multiple paper panels, roundtables and/or workshops. In keeping with the Congress theme, “Borders without Boundaries”, the participation of researchers in academic, union and community settings is encouraged.

Please send electronic copies of 250-word proposals to the conference organizing committee c/o Dr. Larry Savage, Conference Chair and Director, Centre for Labour Studies, Brock University Labour.Studies@brocku.ca. All proposals are due by December 1, 2013.

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THOUSANDS STRIKE FAST FOOD, PICKETING AND OCCUPYING

By Jenny Brown, Labor Notes

Thousands of fast food workers walked off their jobs in 58 U.S. cities [on Thursday], an indictment of an economy that’s producing little more than McJobs. Some picket lines turned into temporary occupations, and several stores closed.

From a McDonald’s in Peoria, Illinois, to a Burger King in Durham, North Carolina, the one-day strikes hit businesses in dozens of new cities and towns. Organizers estimated a thousand restaurants were affected.

Read more: http://www.labornotes.org/2013/08/thousands-strike-fast-food-picketing-and-occupying

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THE MOVEMENT AND THE MESSAGE: BRIDGING THE DIVIDE BETWEEN UNIONS AND THE PUBLIC

By Sima Sahar Zerehi, Our Times

We’ve typecast ourselves. The defenders of labour rights, the champions of working people, have become a relic of the past. At times we’re almost a parody of ourselves, a walking/talking vintage edition of class struggle: same t-shirts, same placards, same songs and chants.

Read more: http://ourtimes.ca/Featured_Story/article_286.php

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JOB POSTINGS

NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE, EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: CANADIAN LABOUR CONGRESS (CLC)

The Canadian Labour Congress is seeking a National Representative responsible for online, hybrid and/or blended education and learning. The Representative will also contribute to the development and delivery of in-class learning.  This position is based in Ottawa.

The successful candidate will report to the National Director, Education.

Responsibilities include:
– develop course material on a range of issues related to labour education;
– oversee and create a range of media for online learning initiatives, in order to engage learners online and foster learning and social change;
– develop educational strategies using social media;
– plan, develop and deliver train-the-trainer courses;
– evaluate the success of individual learning and media techniques;
– provide technical support to affiliated unions, federations of labour and labour councils with respect to their education development and delivery needs;
– maintain a strong working knowledge of current and emerging online and in-class learning techniques and best practices;
– work closely with staff in other CLC departments in the development of educational materials;
– assist in piloting new course material.

For more details and to apply: https://charityvillage.com/jobs/search-results/job-detail.aspx?id=279417&l=2

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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=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

 

The History of the Paris Commune of 1871

Paris Commune

THE HISTORY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871

NEW TITLE:

VERSO’S WORLD HISTORY SERIES:

THE HISTORY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871

by Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray

Preface by Eric Hazan

OUT NOW

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The classic history of the Paris Commune, part of Verso’s highly praised and affordable World History Series.

In 1871, the working class of Paris, incensed by their lack of political power and tired of being exploited, seized control of the capital. This book is the outstanding history of the Commune, the heroic battles fought in its defence, and the bloody massacre that ended the uprising. Its author,LISSAGARAY, was a young journalist who not only saw the events recounted here first-hand, but fought for the Commune on the barricades. He spent the next twenty-five years researching and writing this history, which refutes the slanders levelled at the Communards by the ruling classes and is a vivid and valuable study in urban political revolution, one that retains its power to inspire to this day.

This revised edition includes a foreword by the writer and publisher ERIC HAZAN.

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PROSPER-OLIVIER LISSAGARAY (1838–1901) was a socialist, duelist, republican journalist and sometime lover of Eleanor Marx.

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“Lissagaray relives the Commune with all the bitterness of a man who could see the tragedy unfold, even as he played his part, dutifully, to the end.”

– PAUL MASON, economics editor of the BBC’s Newsnight and author of WHY IT’S KICKING OFF EVERYWHERE

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464 pages       /         $26.95 / £14.99 / $28.50CAN      /      ISBN: 9781844677764

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For more information about THE HISTORY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871, or to buy this or any other part of the series, visit:

http://www.versobooks.com/books/1055-the-history-of-the-paris-commune-of-1871

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

Sign up for the Verso mailing list:

https://www.versobooks.com/users/sign_up

Become a fan of Verso on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verso-Books/205847279448577

And get updates on Twitter too!

http://twitter.com/VersoBooks

 

First published: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/new-title-from-verso-the-history-of-the-paris-commune-of-1871-by-prosper-olivier-lissagaray

 

**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

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

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

Crisis and Mobilization Since 1789

Revolution

CRISIS AND MOBILIZATION SINCE 1789

Call for Papers

International Conference “Crisis and Mobilization since 1789” International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, February 22-24, 2013

Organized by the International Scholars’ Network “History of Societies and Socialisms” (HOSAS)/H-Socialisms Organizers of the 2nd HOSAS conference, to be held in Amsterdam in February of 2013, welcome proposals from all fields of the social sciences and humanities from around the world that consider socialism and its relation to the conference theme –Crisis and Mobilization since 1789.

The political Left—mainstream socialists above all, but also anarchists, communists, feminists, and others—has played a central role throughout modern history in giving access to democracy and its benefits to ever widening portions of society. Socialists—especially those organized in Marxist-oriented European social democratic parties—proved adept at mobilizing popular support during political, economic, and other crises to push forward agendas aiming to combat the social inequalities created by industrial capitalism, to broaden citizenly enfranchisement in order to include formerly excluded groups (for example, wage-earning workers and women), and to pursue many other reformist or revolutionary goals. Geoff Eley’s landmark study Forging Democracy (2002), is among the strongest recent arguments for the importance of the socialist Left in shaping and democratizing modern European history, particularly through its capacity for mobilizing in response to crisis. We are pleased that Eley will be present at the conference to give a key-note address and engage in a discussion of his theses.

Alongside impressive successes, resounding defeats and setbacks have characterized socialism’s record in modern Europe and around the world. But until the late 1960s, conventional socialist or social democratic parties stood at the center of this drama and self-consciously led the European Left, while more revolutionary variants held sway in the “developing” world. Since the late 1960s, however, the socialist Left has declined in influence due to the rise of identity and one-issue movements (for example, feminist and environmentalist movements), the changing geographies and modalities of the global economy and labor, the concomitant weakening of trade unions that had constituted socialism’s traditional base of support in many countries, the final discrediting and collapse of Soviet-style “real existing socialism” in Eastern Europe, the growing power of neo-liberalism as the ideology of the political mainstream, and other structural and contingent changes. These developments have challenged conventional socialist politics’ claims to leadership of the political Left and have led many to question socialism’s very relevance.

Since the 2008 onset of the current economic crisis, critiques of capitalism—many of them invoking Marx and/or the socialist mobilizations of previous eras—have re-entered mainstream political debates in Europe and around the world. Scholarly discussions about this legacy and its contemporary relevance have also profited from a surge in interest. Not least, socialist parties have won some significant electoral contests, as they recently did in France. Yet in many places, conventional socialist or Leftist political parties still remain on the defensive and some of the most recent popular mobilizations that challenge the political and economic status quo (for instance, the Occupy Movement) generally reject alliances or identification with established socialist politics.

In this climate, we think it timely to consider the historical trajectory of socialism—in all its diverse forms—through crisis and mobilization. We understand crisis in the broadest sense of the word, encompassing not just economic downturns, but also political, social, cultural, and environmental crises as well as war, famine, natural disasters, and other disruptions. Crises vary in scale too, from the global or continental level down to the local. By bringing together scholars from multiple disciplines who specialize in various time periods and places across the globe, and by opening broad temporal, comparative, and transnational vistas, we hope to update and enrich the scholarly conversation about socialism(s).

Among the core questions that we aim to address are:

– How have socialist politics developed historically as a response to crisis, broadly defined, and through mobilization?

– Why have certain people and movements in history self-identified as “socialist,” and which theories and concepts have they drawn on?

– How and what did these people and movements learn from their activist experiences, and what are the memories and legacies of mass mobilization in times of crisis?

– What lessons – if any – do present-day activists and movements draw from the past, and how are various memories and myths appropriate to current debates and actions?

– To what extent have socialist mobilizations that respond to crisis displayed unique characteristics in the non-European/western or developing world?

– What have socialist mobilizations accomplished (or not accomplished) in attempting to redefine the relationships between the state and society and between society and capitalism?

– How has the recent economic crisis contributed to, or changed, socialist politics as well as our understanding of socialism as an aspect of European or global modernity?

– How have socialists (of any sort) stood in relation to other Leftist political groupings and/or non-Leftists in responding to crisis, both historically and today?

– To what extent does “socialism” remain a useful category for animating/galvanizing or studying mobilizations of a certain kind?

In addition to papers that address one or more of these questions, we invite papers or panels dealing with any of the following broad thematic areas in any part of the world that have relevance to the central conference theme:

I. Capitalism in Crisis: Experiences, diagnoses and solutions, past and present

II. Riots, Revolts & Revolutions: Violent reactions, street activisms, and their outcomes

III. Parties & Movements: Organisations, networks, and institutions

IV. Ideas & Programs: Analyses, ideologies, and remedies

V. Rebels & Leaders: Who is in charge, why and how?

VI. Elites & Masses: Interests, alliances, and encounters

We invite both junior and senior scholars to present results of research, works-in-progress, or polished papers concerning these issues and others related to the general workshop theme. We are interested in receiving individual paper proposals and proposals for panel sessions. The organizers will consider publishing some of the contributions following the conference. Conference presentations will be 15 minutes in length.

Please email your proposal (250-300 words) along with a brief (100 words max.) academic bio,

to H-SOCIALISMS@H-NET.MSU.EDU by September 30, 2012.

Keynote speaker:

Geoff Eley (University of Michigan): Forging Democracy: On the history of the “Left”, 1850-2000

The organizers are:

Giovanni Bernardini, German-Italian Historical Institute – FBK, Trento, Italy

Christina Morina, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany

Jakub S. Beneš, University of California, Davis, USA

Kasper Braskén, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

For more information on HOSAS/H-Socialisms, visit: http:// www.h-net.org/~socialisms/

First published at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/cfp-201ccrisis-and-mobilization-since-1789201d-international-institute-of-social-history-amsterdam-february-22-24-2013

**END**

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

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

An Evening on Communisation

Communisation SIC

AN EVENING ON COMMUNISATION

An Evening on Communisation: Presentations and Release of Sic Volume 1: International Journal for Communisation

Friday April 20th – 7pm

16 Beaver Street
4th Floor
New York, NY10004

We invite you to join us for an evening of presentations and discussion on the theme of communisation with the release of Sic: International Journal for Communisation (http://communisation.net). Topics include:

–         The periodization of the capital-labor relation

–         The restructuring and crisis of the 1970s

–         The loss of the worker identity

–         The characterizing tendencies of contemporary struggles

–         The relation of communist theory to practice

–         The Sic project itself

Train: 4, 5 to Bowling Green / R to Whitehall / 1, 2 to Wall Street / J to Broad Street

Wine and beer to be served

From the Editorial:

The present journal aims to be the locus for an unfolding of the problematic of communisation. It comes from the encounter of individuals involved in various projects in different countries: among these are the journals Endnotes, published in the UK and in the US, Blaumachen in Greece, Théorie Communiste inFrance, Riff-Raff inSweden, and certain more or less informal theoretical groups in the US (New York and San Francisco). Each of these projects continues its own existence. Also participating are various individuals in France, Germany, and elsewhere, who are involved in other activities and who locate themselves broadly within the theoretical approach taken here.

Communisation

In the course of the revolutionary struggle, the abolition of the division of labour, of the State, of exchange, of any kind of property; the extension of a situation in which everything is freely available as the unification of human activity, that is to say the abolition of classes, of both public and private spheres – these are all ‘measures’ for the abolition of capital, imposed by the very needs of the struggle against the capitalist class. The revolution is communisation; communism is not its project or result.

One does not abolish capital for communism but by communism, or more specifically, by its production. Indeed communist measures must be differentiated from communism; they are not embryos of communism, rather they are its production. Communisation is not a period of transition, but rather, it is revolution itself which is the communist production of communism. The struggle against capital is what differentiates communist measures and communism. The content of the revolutionary activity is always the mediation of the abolition of capital by the proletariat in its relation to capital: this activity is not one branch of an alternative in competition with the reproduction of the capitalist mode of production, but its internal contradiction and its overcoming.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a whole historical period entered into crisis and came to an end – i.e. the period in which the revolution was conceived in different ways, both theoretically and practically, as the affirmation of the proletariat, its elevation to the position of ruling class, the liberation of labour, and the institution of a period of transition. The concept of communisation appeared in the midst of this crisis.

During the crisis, the critique of all the mediations of the existence of the proletariat within the capitalist mode of production (mass party, union, parliamentarism), of organisational forms such as the party-form or the vanguard, of ideologies such as Leninism, of practices such as militantism along with all its variations – all this appeared irrelevant if revolution was no longer to be affirmation of the class – whether it be the workers’ autonomy or the generalisation of workers’ councils. It is the proletariat’s struggle as a class which has become the problem within itself, i.e. which is its own limit. That is the way the class struggle signals and produces the revolution as communisation in the form of its overcoming.

Since then, within the contradictory course of the capitalist mode of production, the affirmation of the proletariat and the liberation of labour have lost all meaning and content. There is no longer a worker’s identity facing capital and confirmed by it. This is the revolutionary dynamic of the present struggles which display the active denial of the proletarian condition against capital, even within ephemeral, limited bursts of self-management or self-organisation. The proletariat’s struggle against capital contains its contradiction with its own nature as class of capital.

The abolition of capital, i.e. the revolution and the production of communism, is immediately the abolition of all classes and therefore of the proletariat. This occurs through the communisation of society, which is abolished as a community separated from its elements. Proletarians abolish capital by the production of a community immediate to its elements; they transform their relations into immediate relations between individuals. These are relations between singular individuals that are no longer the embodiment of a social category, including the supposedly natural categories of the social sexes of woman and man. Revolutionary practice is the coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-transformation.

A Problematic

This minimal approach of communisation constitutes neither a definition, nor a platform, but exposes a problematic:

* The problematic of a theory – here the theory of revolution as communisation – does not limit itself to a list of themes or objects conceived by theory; neither is it the synthesis of all the elements which are thought. It is the content of theory, its way of thinking, with regards to all possible productions of this theory

* The analysis of the current crisis and of the class struggles intrinsic to it

* The historicity of revolution and communism

* The periodisation of the capitalist mode of production and the question of the restructuring of the mode of production after the crisis at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s

* The analysis of the gender relation within the problematic of the present class struggle and communisation

* The definition of communism as goal but also as movement abolishing the present state of things

* A theory of the abolition of capital as a theory of the production of communism

* The reworking of the theory of value-form (to the extent that the revolution is not the affirmation of the proletariat and the liberation of labour)

* The illegitimacy of wage-demands and others in the present class struggle

By definition no list of subjects coming under a problematic can be exhaustive.

**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)

 

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

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Self Organising III: Community

Antonio Negri

SELF ORGANISING III: COMMUNITY

Friday May 6th  2011
Venue: Lock Keepers Cottage, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, E1 4NS
Nearest Station: Mile End
Time: 5-7pm
Self-Organising: http://www.self-org.blogspot.com/

An encounter to muse and think together about external dynamics, political discourse and outreach; the role of the organizer when working with constituencies; issues of politicization, outreach, involvement and negotiation.

Conversations will be triggered by:

Doina Petrescu (Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée, Paris)

Doina Petrescu is an architect, co-founder together with Constantin Petcou of atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa) in Paris and Professor of Architecture and Design Activism at the University of Sheffield. Her publications include Trans – Local – Act: cultural practices within and across (2010), Agency: Working with Uncertain Architectures (2009), Altering Practices: Feminist Politics and Poetics of Space (2007), Urban Act: a handbook for alternative practice (2007), Architecture and Participation (2005). During our session, Doina will speak about metropolitan commons and self-organised spaces.

Jane Wills (QMUL, London)

Jane Wills has research interests in low paid employment, migration, trade unionism and new forms of labour organisation, the living wage, community organising and political-economy. Her new co-authored book on low paid migrant labour in London entitled Global Cities at Work: new migrant divisions of labour was published by Pluto in 2010. Jane is convenor of the MA Community Organising and an active member of London Citizens.

RESOURCES:

C. Petcou, D.Petrescu, Acting Space
Published in Multitudes 3/ 2007, Urban/Act and included in the disobedience archive
http://www.disobediencearchive.com/texts/index.html

D. Petrescu, Jardinieres du commun
published in Multitudes 44/2010
http://multitudes.samizdat.net/Jardinieres-du-commun

and Trans-Local-Act.
C. Petcou, D.Petrescu, At the Ground Level of the City
Published in Multitudes 20/2005
http://multitudes.samizdat.net/Au-rez-de-chaussee-de-la-ville

and The Right to the City (Sydney, 2011)
What makes a biopolitical place?
A Discussion with Toni Negri, Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Anne Querrien, Paris – September 17, 2007
Published in Multitudes 3/ 2007 – In English: http://www.peprav.net/tool/spip.php?article59

***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)

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

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Is An Emancipatory Communism Possible?

Marxist-Humanist Initiative

IS AN EMANCIPATORY COMMUNISM POSSIBLE?

A talk by Allan Armstrong

Wednesday, April 13th at 7:00 PM
@ TRS, Inc, 44 East 32nd Street, 11th Floor
Manhattan (between Madison & Park Avenues)

Presented by Marxist-Humanist Initiative (http://marxist-humanist-initiative.org) & The New SPACE (http://new-space-nyc.org)

===========

Mention of the word “Communism” today conjures up visions of tyrants. Young people, even when they clash violently with the representatives of global capitalism in Seattle or London, call their protests “anti-capitalist,” not communist. However, anti-capitalism is not enough. Revolutions can lead to immediate feelings of intense liberation, but they are usually followed by much longer periods of defense, setbacks, and painful reconstruction. The 20th century was the “Century of Revolutions,” but it eventually produced so little for humanity at such a high cost, that it is not surprising that many are very cautious, despite growing barbarism.

Allan Armstrong will argue that it is vital that we outline a genuine new human emancipatory communism, which takes full stock of the failings of both “official” and “dissident Communism,” and which can persuasively show that human liberation can still be achieved. He will explore Marx’s vision, particularly as detailed in his “Critique of the Gotha Program,” which emphasizes the need to break with capitalist production relations rather than expecting a new society to come about through political changes.

Allan Armstrong, a republican, Scottish internationalist, and communist, is currently co-editor of Emancipation & Liberation, the journal of the Republican Communist Network. He is also involved with The Commune, a collective dedicated to outlining a new communism for the 21st century. Armstrong is the author of “Why We Need a New Emancipatory Communism” (http://thecommune.co.uk/2009/06/02/why-we-need-a-new-human-emancipatory-communism) and “The Communist Case for ‘Internationalism from Below'”  (http://thecommune.co.uk/2010/06/06/the-communist-case-for-internationalism-from-below

 —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)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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Marxism 21 – A Forum for Discussion

Capitalism IS Crisis

MARXISM 21 – A FORUM FOR DISCUSSION

Saturday 2nd April 2011, 1.00 pm till 4.00 pm.

After the TUC March – Next Steps for the anti-cuts movement

Speakers
•   Jerry Hicks, UNITE rank and file General secretary candidate
•   Gabi Quevedo, Latin American Workers Association
•   George Binette Branch Secretary, Camden UNISON

INCA- Italian General Confederation of Labour
Italian Advice Centre
124 Canonbury Road
London
N1 2UT

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Reform Communism

Karl Marx

REFORM COMMUNISM

Call for Papers:

One-day seminar/workshop on: “Reform communism” since 1945 in comparative historical perspective.

Saturday 22 October 2011.

Organised by UEA School of History in conjunction with the journal Socialist History
Venue: School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ.

The collapse of the USSR and the Eastern bloc in the wake of Gorbachev’s perestroika seemed to show that communism was essentially unreformable. It could be preserved, dismantled, or overthrown, but it could not be reconstructed as a viable alternative to capitalism, free from the defects of its Leninist-Stalinist prototype.

Prior to 1989-91, however, reform communism was a live political issue in many countries. At different times in countries as diverse as Yugoslavia, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Western Europe, Japan, and China, the leaderships of communist parties themselves sought to change direction, re-evaluate their own past, correct mistakes and so on with the aim of cleansing, strengthening and improving communism, rather than undermining or dismantling it. In countries ruled by communist parties this process usually involved political relaxation and an easing of repression, and was often accompanied by an upsurge of intellectual and cultural ferment.

The aim of this seminar is to consider reform communism as a distinct phenomenon, which can usefully be distinguished from, on the one hand, mere changes of line or leader without any engagement with a party’s own past and the assumptions which underpinned it, and on the other, dissenting and oppositional activity within and outside parties which failed to change the party’s direction.

This seminar will explore different experiences of reform communism around the world after 1945 in a comparative context. 

Examples might include:
·        Tito and Titoism
·        Khrushchev and “de-Stalinisation”
·        Kadarism and the “Hungarian model”
·        Eurocommunism and ideas of socialist democracy
·        The Prague Spring
·        The Deng Xiaoping reforms in China
·        Gorbachev’s perestroika

We are seeking papers of 5000 to 10000 words on various experiences or aspects of reform communism in history, to be presented at the seminar. Selected papers will be published in 2012 in a special issue of Socialist History (http://www.socialist-history-journal.org.uk) devoted to the subject.

Proposals for papers should be submitted by 1 July 2011 to Francis King (f.king@uea.ac.uk) and Matthias Neumann (m.neumann@uea.ac.uk) at School of History, UEA, Norwich NR4 7TJ.

Attendance at the seminar is free of charge, but space is limited. Please e-mail us if you are interested in attending.

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Chinese Revolution

The Commune – Issue 21

Uprising

THE COMMUNE – ISSUE 21

The Commune, March 2011

Issue 21 of The Commune is now available. It features reports on local anti-cuts committees, discussion of the next steps for the movement in Egypt, Sheila Cohen on the implosion of the National Shop Stewards’ Network, and much more…

And the best thing is, you can read the PDF free online, click here

Risk of infection: class struggle in China. London public forum, LARC, 7pm on Thursday 7th April

In mid-2010 a strike wave rolled through China’s factories, the most widespread and militant expression of China’s internal migrant workers so far. Their struggle shook the Chinese regime and provoked a world-wide debate about the end of the low-wage-model that stands behind China’s rise to the “factory of the world” and provides Europe and other regions with cheap consumer products.

We will look at the social conditions that stand behind the militant outbreak – the situation and struggles of different groups of migrant workers, such as construction, factory, domestic and sex workers, before examining the strike wave and its implications and discussing the formation of a new working class movement in China.

The discussion will also focus on new forms of reference, exchange and support that take into account the current phase of crisis and the increasing number of social struggles in different parts of the world.

The presentation will be held by someone who has lived in China and worked on publications on China’s migrant workers, including “Dagongmei – Women workers From China’s World Market-Factories Tell Their Story” and “The Take-off of the Second Generation – Migrant Work, Gender and Class Composition in China” (see:www.gongchao.org).

All welcome.

From 7pm on Thursday 7th April at London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, London, E1 1ES

From reform to rebellion in Bolivia: Monday 18th April

Jeffery Webber has written a new book on Bolivia and the interaction between the social movements from below 2000-2005 and the post-2006 Evo Morales government. He was interviewed in the new issue of The Commune and next month he will be addressing a public meeting on the topic.

All welcome.

From 7pm on Monday 18th April at the Lucas Arms, near King’s Cross on Gray’s Inn Road.

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International Conference on the Paris Commune 1871

Karl Marx

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE PARIS COMMUNE 1871

International Conference. Views on the Commune of 1871 in France. New approaches and prospects.

Narbonne (Aude, France), City Hall – former Archbishop’s Palace
March 24-26, 2011

International Conference co-organised by the Centre de Recherche Espaces, Sociétés, Culture (CRESC, EA 2356, Université Paris 13 / PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité), the Commission Archéologique et Littéraire de Narbonne (CALN) and the Institut d’Histoire Sociale (IHS) – CGT of Aude

For the 140th anniversary of the Commune of 1871, an important conference will be held from 24 to 26 March 2011. Entitled “Views on the Commune of 1871 in France –. New approaches and prospects”, it means to bring forward the new works and original paths of research relating to The Commune of Paris, the Communes of the Province and the movements around The Commune which developed in France in 1871. This international symposium is the result of a unique collaboration between Paris 13-  PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, a university of Ile-de-France (Paris area) and the research laboratory CRESC, the CALN, a learned institute created in 1833 and ISH-CGT, a militant institute of social history. It will be held in the town of Narbonne, which, in March 1871, witnessed the proclamation of a Commune.

This international symposium intends to focus on new approaches to the event and to open new prospects. Beyond questioning the contribution of modern research on the Communes of the province, it’s aim is to work at the margins of the global event so as to open new paths of research and to renew the national interpretation of the communalist movement inside an expanded geographical and temporal framework.

The choice of Narbonne meets the required objective: 40 years after the international Symposium organized in 1971 for the centenary of The Commune, researchers’ views on the Commune have changed. Holding this conference in Narbonne instead of Paris is also a symbolic way to insist on those changes: a greater attention will be given to provincial France, to the legacy left between 1848 and 1871, to the national dimension of the different “Communes”. This symposium will be an opportunity to highlight new research carried out on the anonymous actors of the Commune, the life in the different town districts, law and order, violence and the army, the cultural representations, the links between individual stories and collective history and eventually, the tensions between history and memory.

The members of the Scientific Committee of the conference and the speakers’ national as well as international fame turns this event into a powerful moment in this 140th anniversary; not only will speeches be delivered by renowned historians, but also by outstanding young researchers.

Lectures will be held in the two magnificent Synods’ Room and Consuls’ Rooms in the Archbishop’s Palace, now the City Hall, where the “Commune of Narbonne” was proclaimed on 24 March 1871.

Program and practical information are available on http://www.colloque-commune1871.fr/en/  or on the CRESC website: http://www.univ-paris13.fr/cresc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=82&Itemid=28     

Free entrance, but registration required at inscription@colloque-commune1871.fr

Steering Committee :
·         Marc César (CRESC, Université Paris 13)
·         Laure Godineau (CRESC, Université Paris 13)
·         Jacques Michaud (President of the Archaeological and Literary Commission of Narbonne)
·         Xavier Verdejo (Institute for Social History of the Aude)

Scientific Committee
·         Sylvie Aprile (Université de Lille 3)
·         Sylvie Caucanas (Departemental archives of the Aude)
·         Quentin Deluermoz (CRESC, Université Paris 13)
·         Laura Frader (Northeastern University – Boston, associate at the CES, Harvard University)
·         Jacques Girault (CRESC, Université Paris 13)
·         Christopher Guthrie (Tarleton State University)
·         Raymond Huard (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3)
·         Laurent Mc Falls (Université de Montréal)
·         Rémy Pech (Université de Toulouse 2 – Le Mirail)
·         Alceo Riosa (Université de Milan)
·         Jean-Louis Robert (Université Paris 1)
·         Jacques Rougerie (Université Paris 1)
·         Jean Sagnes (Université de Perpignan)
·         Benjamin Stora (CRESC, Université Paris 13)
·         Robert Tombs (St John’s College, University of Cambridge)
·         Paul-Henri Viala (Archives of Narbonne)

Partnerships
·         City of Narbonne
·         Languedoc-Roussillon Region
·         General Council of the Aude
·         Agglomeration community of Grand Narbonne
·         Local and regional organizations of the CGT (represented by Mr. Patric Grèze)

Scientific partnerships
·         Archives of Narbonne
·         Departmental archives of the Aude
·         Université de Perpignan- Via Domitia
·         Université Montpellier 1
·         UMR FRAMESPA (Université de Toulouse 2 – Le Mirail / CNRS)
·         Research centre on intercultural relations in English and French speaking areas (CRIDAF), Université Paris 13 – PRES (Research and Upper Education Pole) Sorbonne Paris Cité
·         Association Maitron Languedoc-Roussillon (represented by Mr. Raymond Huard)

Contact:
Marc César marc.cesar@univ-paris13.fr or Laure Godineau laure.godineau@univ-paris13.fr

Postal adress : CRESC / UFR LSHS / 99 av. J-B. Clément 93380 Villetaneuse / FRANCE
        
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Diminishing Returns? Feminist Engagements with the Return to ‘The Commons’

Feminism

DIMINISHING RETURNS? FEMINIST ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE RETURN TO ‘THE COMMONS’

_____________________

An international workshop hosted by the Kent Centre for Law, Gender, and Sexuality and Kent Law School

Wednesday 23 March 2011
Kent Law School
Canterbury, UK*
12-6pm

With presentations by:

Rosemary Coombe (York University, Canada)
Radhika Desai (University of Manitoba, Canada)
Denise Ferreira da Silva (Queen Mary, UK)
Nina Power (Roehampton, UK)

Discussed by:

Donatella Alessandrini (Kent, UK)
Brenna Bhandar (Kent, UK)

The day will consist of two sessions, broken up with a light lunch (provided) and followed by dinner (not provided). Please join us for part or all of the day. More information about the theme of the workshop can be found below.

The event is free but spaces are limited. To book a spot please register by emailing Stacy Douglas at: S.M.Douglas@kent.ac.uk before 1 March 2011.

*There are some funds available for postgraduate students who wish to travel to Kent for the workshop. If you are interested please email Stacy Douglas at S.M.Douglas@kent.ac.uk with a brief case for support as well as an estimated cost for your train travel. Information about traveling to Kent can be found here.

_____________________

Background:

Garrett Hardin’s now infamous essay “Tragedy of the Commons” (1968) stands as a Hobbesian analogy for what he claims are the inherent destructive capacities of human beings that perpetually stand in the way of realizing a free community of individuals with shared resources. Hardin’s essay suggests that, when faced with the responsibility of sharing the commons, individual human self-interest – or fear of it – will win out over practices of collectivity, sharing, and mutual aid.

More recently, there has been a resurgence in political theory and political philosophy in addressing the concept of “the commons”. Some of the most popularly cited references to the idea can be found in the work of Slavoj Žižek (2009) and Hardt and Negri (2009). This work has further been expounded upon in international conferences devoted to the “Idea of Communism” in London (2009) and Berlin (2010).  Steeped in the philosophy of Spinoza, Hardt and Negri use a notion of the common that “…does not position humanity separate from nature, as either its exploiter or its custodian, but focuses rather on the practices of interaction, care, and cohabitation in a common world, promoting the beneficial and limiting and detrimental forms of the common” (2009). For Žižek, the commons is comprised of culture (“primarily language, our means of communication and education, but also shared infrastructure such as public transport, electricity, post, etc…”), external nature (“from oil to forests and the natural habitat itself”), and internal nature (“the biogenetic inheritance of humanity”), and are all increasingly enclosed by the forces of global capital. It is the process of our exclusion from these commons (“our own substance”) that Žižek argues should effectively proletarianize us into fighting for something more than capitalist liberal democracy – a system whose laissez-faire violence is justified through the empty gesture of “universal inclusion” without any material bite. Žižek’s answer to this political conundrum is a call for communism.

And yet, the past century has seen vast and varied critical feminist engagements with historically changing concepts of communism and “the commons”. Struggles for universal suffrage, critiques of universality, denouncements of the hollowing out of the welfare state as a result of neoliberalisation, and challenges to the concept of the human, are all examples of a rich and diverse feminist tradition of engagement with the concept of “the commons”. Given the popular return to the idea of the commons, what more does feminist analysis have to give to this conversation? Does the concept still have potential for future feminist projects? If so, what is this potential and what do these projects look like? How do they resonate – or not – with those of the past? Further, given the broader theme of the workshop series, what role – if any – does the “the state” play in these imaginings?

The Kent Centre for Law, Gender, and Sexuality (KCLGS) and Kent Law School invite you to participate in a workshop exploring the contemporary feminist work of Rosemary Coombe, Radhika Desai, Denise Ferreira da Silva, and Nina Power as it resonates or clashes with these questions. For more information or to register, email S.M.Douglas@kent.ac.uk or visit www.kent.ac.uk/law/kentclgs/. 

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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.
*
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.
*
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:
*

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.
*

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.
*

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.
*

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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