Radical Interpretations of the Present Crisis

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/

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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

Rethinking Marxism 2013

Karl Marx

RETHINKING MARXISM 2013

CALL FOR PAPERS

Rethinking Marxism 2013: Surplus, Solidarity, Sufficiency

RETHINKING MARXISM: a journal of economics, culture & society is pleased to announce its 8th international conference, to be held at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst on 19-22 September 2013.

RETHINKING MARXISM’s seven previous international conferences have each attracted more than 1000 students, scholars, and activists. They have included keynote addresses and plenary sessions, formal papers, roundtables, workshops, art exhibitions, screenings, performances, and activist discussions.

Among the confirmed keynote events for Rethinking Marxism 2013: SURPLUS, SOLIDARITY, SUFFICIENCY are Katherine Gibson giving the inaugural Julie Graham Memorial Lecture, a series of panels engaging with and celebrating the different aspects of the work of Steve Resnick and Richard Wolff and an installation of the late artist Susan Kleckner’s work at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, along with a series of conversations and film screening organized by Susan Jahoda and Jesal Kapadia.

In 2013, 5 years into the greatest economic and social depression since the Great Depression, and 4 years after the last international conference convened, we want to invite participants to explore and interrogate three keywords: SURPLUS, SOLIDARITY and SUFFICIENCY. We find these keywords to be particularly useful in critically engaging with our historical conjuncture from different perspectives. Needless to say, fellow participants who would like to bring in other concerns, other concepts, other debates and engagements into the mix should definitely feel free to do so. Our international conferences have always functioned as pluralistic and open platforms that represent the vast richness of the Marxian tradition. When we propose these keywords, we only intend them as possible provocations for scrutiny and invitations for engagement.

The keyword SURPLUS, as in surplus labor (whether it takes the capitalist value-form or the various non-capitalist forms in our contemporary economies) and surplus laborers (especially with skyrocketing unemployment), enables us to approach the causes, consequences and solutions to the current economic crisis by deploying Marxian vocabularies and frameworks. The keyword SOLIDARITY, on the other hand, makes possible reflections on how to do things differently—together, collectively, communally, whether it is the organization of a democratically run workplace, a journal, a conference, a neighborhood association, a political party, a social movement, an international solidarity effort, or a revolutionary insurgence. And finally, the keyword SUFFICIENCY opens to investigation the bipolar convulsions of growth (fetishism) and austerity, various logics of invidious (over-)consumption, and the ecological and social destruction unleashed by the acephalous and endless movement of the circuits of capital.

Rather than uncritically endorsing these keywords, we would like them to be both utilized and rethought in investigating the current economic and ecological crises and articulating new revolutionary imaginaries and vocabularies that will enable the work of enacting communism here and now.

For more information on the proposed theme, visit: http://www.rethinkingmarxism.org/sss

We encourage, however, scholars and students in all disciplines, activists and artists working in areas that intersect with Marxism to submit proposals on themes other than those proposed above. Participants can present in areas such as critical race theory, feminism, political economy, anarchist studies, cultural and literary studies, art and art criticism, literature and literary studies, queer theory, working-class and labor studies, postcolonial studies, geography and urban studies, psychoanalysis, social and natural sciences, philosophy, history, and around issues of class, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, and disability. Historical analyses are especially welcome.

In addition to three plenary sessions, an art installation and screenings, there will be concurrent panels, workshops, and cultural events. We invite the submission of organized sessions that follow traditional or non-traditional formats (such as workshops, roundtables, and dialogue among and between presenters and audience) as well as individual presentations. Anyone engaging with Marxism in any discipline or form of activism is encouraged to submit paper and panel proposals. We also welcome video, poetry, performance, and all other modes of presentation and cultural expression.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Proposals for papers, films, or other formats should include:
* Paper title
* Presenter’s name and contact information (mail, email, phone, affiliations)
* Brief abstract (no more than 200 words)
* Technology/spacial requirements for the presentation

Proposals for panels should include:
* Panel title
* Name, contact information, and paper title for each presenter
* Brief abstract (no more than 200 words) explaining the panel’s focus
* Brief abstract for each paper (no more than 200 words)
* Names and contact information for any discussant(s) or respondent(s)
* Technology required by the presenters
* Title, contact, and address for any sponsoring organization or journal

If your paper or panel proposal is intended for the track on the work of Steve Resnick and Rick Wolff, please indicate this in your submission.

The appropriate preregistration fee must be paid with all proposal submissions. Unfortunately, any proposal not accompanied by the appropriate preregistration fee cannot be considered. Proposals that are not accepted will have their preregistration fees returned in full. If you are submitting a proposal for an entire panel, please make sure the preregistration fee for all members of the panel is paid.

The deadline for proposal submission is July 1, 2013.

Submissions should be sent to Vincent Lyon-Callo at Vincent.lyon-callo@wmich.edu.

To submit a proposal and to pay the preregistration fee, follow the instructions on the conference website: http://www.rethinkingmarxism.org/RM2013

REGISTRATION RATES

______ Regular Rate $125

______ Low-Income Rate $60

PUBLICATIONS

Selected papers, poems, art, and other forms of presentation from the conference may be published in RETHINKING MARXISM and/or in separate edited volumes of contributions.

VENDORS AND ADVERTISEMENTS

Literature tables and display areas are available to groups, vendors, and publishers at reasonable rates. Ad space in the conference program is also available at reasonable rates. All ads must be camera-ready.

ORGANIZERS & SPONSORS

This conference is organized by a committee composed of the members of Association for Economic and Social Analysis and the editorial board of Rethinking Marxism and sponsored by Association for Economic and Social Analysis (AESA) and Rethinking Marxism.

For more information, visit the conference website: http://www.rethinkingmarxism.org/RM2013

All inquiries concerning the conference can be addressed to Vincent Lyon-Callo at Vincent.lyon-callo@wmich.edu.

 

Originally published at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/cfp-rethinking-marxism-2013-surplus-solidarity-sufficiency-amherst-ma-19-22-sept-2013

 

**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  

‘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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

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

 

Glenn Rikowski’s paper, Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society has been published at Heathwood Press as a Monthly Guest Article for September 2012, online at:

http://www.heathwoodpress.com/monthly-guest-article-august-critical-pedagogy-and-the-constitution-of-capitalist-society-by-glenn-rikowski/

 

Heathwood Press: http://www.heathwoodpress.com 

 

 

Europe in Crisis

Eurozone Crisis

EUROPE IN CRISIS

PERG Workshop – Europe in Crisis

Thursday, 19 April, 9.30 -17.00

JG 1008 (John Galsworthy building), Kingston University, Penrhyn Road

Europeis in a crisis. An international financial crisis has laid bare the fundamental flaws in the construction of the European economic policy regime. Monetary integration without fiscal and social integration has not only resulted in a mediocre economic performance, falling wage share and persistent imbalances, but has also left the peripheral countries without protection against the crisis. Rather than using fiscal policy to counteract a Great Depression in the European South, fiscal policies are firmly put into austerity mode. If the subprime financial crisis was not sufficient to lead to a new Great Depression, austerity might do so. The workshop will discuss the causes of the crisis in Europe, the present economic policy and strategies to deal with the crisis, and progressive alternatives forEurope.

9.00 Registration and coffee

9.30 Introduction

10.00-12.00 Roots of the crisis

–         E. Stockhammer, Kingston University: Rebalancing the Euro area: inflationary or depressive

–         D. Gabor, University of West England: The Missing Link: European bank funding strategies and ECB’s crisis policies

–         J. Grahl, Middlesex University: The First European Semester: an incoherent strategy.

12.00-13.20 Lunch

13.20 -15.20 EU Economic Policy

–         T van Treeck, IMK: Reducing Economic Imbalances in the Euro Area: Some Remarks on the Current Stability Programs

–         J Weeks, SOAS: Crisis Scams in Italy, Spain and the UK: Triumph of Ideology over Reality

–         T. Evans, Berlin School of Economics and Law: The crisis in the euro area

15.40-17.00 Progressive strategies for Europe

–         D. Sotiropoulos, Kingston University: The fundamental problem of Euro zone and the problem with ‘fundamentals’: an alternative (Marxian) approach to European economic policy context

–         R. Hyman, LSE, and R. Gumbrell-McCormick, Birkbeck: European Trade Unions: Responses to the Crisis

 

Political Economy Research Group (PERG)

The Political Economy approach highlights the role of effective demand, institutions and social conflict in economic analysis and thereby builds on Austrian, Institutionalist, Keynesian and Marxist traditions. Economic processes are perceived to be embedded in social relations that must be analysed in the context of historical considerations, power relations and social norms. As a consequence, a broad range of methodological approaches is employed, and cooperation with other disciplines, including history, law, sociology and other social sciences, is necessary. (http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/research/perg )

MA Economics (Political Economy) at Kingston University

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate/booklets/FASS/political-economy-MA.pdf

MA Politics, Philosophy, Economics at Kingston University

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate/booklets/FASS/PoliticsPhilosophyEconomics.pdf

 

**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

Full Employment

No Future

FULL EMPLOYMENT

Call for Papers, Special Issue of the Review of Radical Political Economics on Full Employment

As we currently face the worst economic collapse since the great depression that has resulted in the loss of million of jobs and the highest levels of long-term unemployment since data have been collected, we invite contributors to submit proposals that address the problems of long-term structural unemployment in the United States and world wide.

We invite submissions that address, but do not need to be limited to, the following topics:

1)      What can we learn from employment outcomes across different countries and political economic regimes?
2)      To what extent can public sector action generate sustainable and high-quality employment?
3)      What kind of policies should the public sector pursue? For example should these be employment of last resort (ELR) or jobs created through some other type of “job guarantee policy,” or “permanent jobs programs” for the generation of a certain number of median wage and not last resort jobs, and how should these be financed and administered?
4)      How does this relate to broader macroeconomic policies, including taxation and industrial policy?
5)      Can “full employment” policies succeed in capitalist countries or are partial, temporary, and inadequate programs the best that can be achieved?
6)      What are the historical lessons of the New Deal employment programs in the United States and similar historic or contemporary programs and policies in other countries?
7)      What has been the role of neoclassical economic theory in undermining ideological support for full employment programs, for example vis-à-vis the “natural rate of unemployment” or “NAIRU” doctrines, and what is a proper theoretical/ideological response to these prevalent macroeconomic views?
8)      More generally, is full employment consistent with low-inflation in the United States or elsewhere?
9)      Practical proposals for increasing employment in the United States now and critiques/discussions of the current Summers/Geithner effort to achieve sustained economic growth in the United States with a massive financial sector bail-out and a temporary and limited fiscal stimulus for the broader economy.

Submissions are due by September 30, 2012, and must follow the Instructions to Contributors listed in each issue of the Review, on the RRPE section of the URPE Website, or available from the Managing Editor.  All submissions are subject to the usual review procedures and they should not be under review with any other publication.  We strongly encourage authors to send a brief title and abstract as soon as possible, so we can coordinate timely publication of the issue.

Send 4 hard copies and an electronic version in Word doc. to Hazel Dayton Gunn, Managing Editor, Review of Radical Political Economics, Dept. of City & Regional Planning, 106 W. Sibley Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA; hg18@cornell.edu.

 

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

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

 

‘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)  

 

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

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

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

Andrew Kliman at Bookmarks Bookshop

Andrew Kliman

ANDREW KLIMAN AT BOOKMARKS BOOKSHOP

PRESENTS

The Failure of Capitalist Production
with Andrew Kliman
5 March, 6.30pm £2* (refreshments inc)

The recent financial crisis and Great Recession have been analysed endlessly but this is the first book to conclude, on the basis of in-depth analyses of official US data, that Marx’s crisis theory can explain these events.

Kliman’s conclusion is simple but shocking: short of socialist transformation, the only way to escape the stagnant, crisis-prone economy is to restore profitability through full-scale destruction of existing wealth, something not seen since the Depression of the 1930s.

Venue: Bookmarks Bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3QE
*£2 redeemable against any purchase on the night

Please contact us to reserve a place, 020 7637 1848: events@bookmarks.uk.com

Liberate Your Mind!
Bookmarks Bookshop
1 Bloomsbury Street
London
WC1B 3QE
020 7637 1848
http://www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk

Follow us on twitter: @bookmarks_books

See our book of the month on the website!

**END**

 

‘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, northWales)  

 

‘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

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

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

Revolutionary Voices: Marxism, Communication, and Social Change

Revolution

REVOLUTIONARY VOICES: MARXISM, COMMUNICATION, AND SOCIAL CHANGE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rebel, Rank and File

Books

REBEL, RANK AND FILE

NEW TITLE FROM VERSO
Edited by AARON BRENNER, ROBERT BRENNER and CAL WINSLOW
—————————–
“Extraordinary reflections….this collection dramatically reasserts the role of rank-and-file revolt in shaping American labor history and offers rich lessons to contemporary rebels.” Mike Davis

“Truly shines … By uncovering the hidden history of the 1970s, REBEL RANK AND FILE reminds us that there is another path to union renewal—a path firmly rooted in the workplace and motivated by visions of transforming society.”
– Joe Burns, IN THESE TIMES
—————————–
From the mid-1960s to 1981, rank-and-file workers in the United States engaged in a level of sustained militancy not seen since the Great Depression and World War II. Millions participated in one of the largest strike waves in US history. There were 5,716 stoppages in 1970 alone, involving more than 3 million workers. Contract rejections, collective insubordination, sabotage, organized slowdowns, and wildcat strikes were the order of the day.
Workers targeted much of their activity at union leaders, forming caucuses to fight for more democratic and combative unions that would forcefully resist the mounting offensive from employers that appeared at the end of the postwar economic boom. It was a remarkable era in the history of US class struggle, one rich in lessons for today’s labor movement.

The labor struggles in this period have been somewhat overlooked by historians, making this the first in-depth and comprehensive account. The period included strikes which had a significant and lasting impact, such as the Memphis sanitation workers strike which broke the back of racial inequality in the workplace, and the West Virginia coal miners strike which forced the passage of Black Lung legislation.

The struggles in this time also blazed a trail for a new radical and grassroots trade unionism which incorporated demands for racial and sexual equality and challenging entrenched bureaucracies within the union movement itself. The challenge to union bureaucracies led to some remarkable episodes, such as the attempt by UAW leaders to break a wildcat strike at Chrysler’s Mack Avenue stamping plant in Detroit by mobilizing one thousand armed officials and loyalists.

The struggles in this period challenge common assumptions about the US working class – that it is naturally conservative, nationalistic and inward looking. It recaptures a time when millions of ordinary working people engaged in militant action against workplace exploitation, racism and sexism. The book also includes a number of remarkable photographs of the those involved in the struggles by the veteran photojournalist Earl Dotter, a sample of which can be viewed at www.earldotter.com .
——————————-
REBEL, RANK AND FILE contains contributions from, in addition to the editors, Judith Stein, Kim Moody, Frank Bardacke, Paul J. Nyden, Dan La Botz, Marjorie Murphy, A. C. Jones, Kieran Taylor, Dorothy Sue Cobble and Steve Early.
——————————-
Praise for REBEL RANK AND FILE:

“An important collection … honest and thoughtful.”
– WORLD WIDE WORK

“This is an unusually high-quality effort, with an all-star cast of authors, which should attract wide interest.”
– Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at University of California Santa Barbara

“Bracing and often electrifying … A primer and a call to arms for a radical rank-and-file politics.”
– Michael Watts, Professor of Geography and Development Studies at UC Berkeley
———————————
Aaron Brenner is President of Rank & File Enterprises, a financial and labor research firm. Robert Brenner is Director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. He is the author of THE BOOM AND THE BUBBLE, MERCHANTS AND REVOLUTION, THE ECONOMICS OF GLOBAL TURBULENCE. Cal Winslow is Director of the Mendocino Institute and Fellow in Environmental Politics, UC Berkeley.
———————————
ISBN: 978 1 84467 174 8 / $29.95 / £19.99 / CAN$37.50 / Paperback / 432 Pages
———————————
For more information and to buy the book visit:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/282-rebel-rank-and-file
———————————
Become a fan of Verso on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Verso-Books-UK/122064538789

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Confronting the Crisis

Capitalist Crisis

CONFRONTING THE CRISIS

Over 400 economists from across Europe signed to express their support for the 2010-11 EuroMemorandum, ‘Confronting the Crisis: Austerity or Solidarity’.

The English text, together with the list of signatories, has now been posted on the EuroMemo Group’s new web site, www.euromemo.eu. 

The long version of the EuroMemorandum is also available in Spanish, as well as translations of the shorter summary into German, Dutch and Danish. 

Translations of the full text into German, French and Greek are in the process of being completed and will be posted as they become available.
Trevor Evans, John Grahl and Diana Wehlau for the Steering Committee of the EuroMemo Group

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Professor John Grahl
Middlesex University Business School
The Burroughs
Hendon
London NW4 4BT

J.Grahl@mdx.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8411 5905

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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David McNally Speaks on the Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance

Capitalist Crisis

DAVID McNALLY SPEAKS ON THE GLOBAL SLUMP: THE ECONOMICS AND POLITICS OF CRISIS AND RESISTANCE

David McNally, author of Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance analyzes the global financial meltdown as a systemic crisis. He argues that – far from having ended – the crisis has ushered in a whole period of worldwide economic and political turbulence.

Analyzing the massive intervention of the world’s central banks to stave off a Great Depression, he shows that, while averting a complete meltdown, this laid the basis for recurring crises for poor and working class people: job loss, increased poverty and inequality, and deep cuts to social programs, as well as the intensification of racism and attacks on migrant workers.

Only real resistance to corporate power and corporate policies can change this. David traces new patterns of social and political resistance – from housing activism and education struggles, to mass strikes and protests.

You can listen to David McNally speak about these issues at ‘Equal Time Radio’: http://equaltimeradio.com/?q=node/312

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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Centre for the Study of Education and Work – Update 11th December 2010

Work, work, work

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK – UPDATE 11th DECEMBER 2010

EVENTS

LATEST APCOL (ANTI-POVERTY COMMUNITY ORGANIZING AND LEARNING – CSEW’S MAJOR PROJECT) NEWSLETTER ONLINE

The latest APCOL newsletter featuring updates on project activities as well as articles focused on community anti-poverty issues and activism can be found at http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/apcol/Newsletter/index.html.

A new feature on the APCOL web site – an interactive Google map showing the neighbourhoods where APCOL is active with links to community sites. Check it out at http://www.apcol.ca/Activity_Map.html.

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WORKERS ASSEMBLY FOURTH COFFEEHOUSE – ANTI-CAPITALISM AND ELECTORAL POLITICS: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Friday, December 17
7:00pm – 10:00pm
Regal Beagle Pub (back room)
335 Bloor St. West, Toronto

Speakers:
– Mary-Jo Nadeau – Coordinating Committee, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid; university teacher and writer
– Ajamu Nangwaya – Labour, community and anti-racist activist
– Elizabeth Rowley – Communist Party electoral candidate in various federal elections, including 2004 and 2006

Join us to consider the politics of elections and the left. Following introductions from diverse perspectives, join us in a free-flowing discussion addressing strategy, points of unity and difference in our movements, and the potential of the GTWA in these discussions and actions.

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VOTE FOR J4MW (JUSTICIA FOR MIGRANT WORKERS) FOR LABOUR PHOTO OF THE YEAR!

Labour Start’s panel of judges comprised of David Bacon, Gretchen Donart and Mac Urata selected 5 photos that best captures workers’ struggles this year. And our Pilgrimage to Freedom is one of them!  Please take a moment to vote for the powerful picture on the left taken by Gerrardo Correa of our migrant brothers and sisters who led this historic action. Please distribute widely on your lists, twitter, Facebook and any online tools to spread the word far and wide.

Deadline for voting: Dec. 31, midnight

http://www.labourstart.org/lpoty/

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INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS DAY

December 18
3pm – 7pm
George Brown College, St. James Campus
290 Adelaide St. East
3rd Floor, Room 303 – Theatre

Join us in celebrating International Migrants Day, organized by a network of various migrant workers groups and allies.  Cultural performances through popular theatre, dance and music, mural painting, and photo exhibits will be the highlight of the celebration.

We will celebrate victories won, affirm the right of migrant workers to self-organize, and strengthen the bonds of solidarity with all workers. There will be a report back, through video, by delegates from the recently-concluded International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees held in Mexico City as well as photo exhibits of the Pilgrimage to Freedom last November.

Food and refreshments will be provided.

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LAUNCHING THE SOCIALIST REGISTER 2011!

Thursday, January 20th
7 PM
Lula Lounge
1585 Dundas St. W., west of Dufferin, Toronto
416 588 0307 http://www.lulalounge.ca

with panel discussion with local contributors:
Greg Albo, Bryan Evans, Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin

Doors open at 6, dinner and drinks available.

Sponsored by: York University Book Store, Fernwood Books, the Socialist Project, and the Socialist Register.

For more information please contact: fpeters@yorku.ca

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WORKSHOP – JANE FINCH ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: RAISING THE RATES & RESTORING THE SPECIAL DIET ALLOWANCE

Tuesday, December 14, 2010
6:30 to 8:30 pm
Black Creek Community Health Centre
2nd Floor, Yorkgate Mall
(Jane Street, north of Finch Ave.)

Childcare and TTC tickets available
Dinner will be served

All community residents, community workers and union members are invited to a workshop on:

Why raising the rate of social assistance should matter to all of us?
What can we do to restore the Special Diet Allowance?

Presentations by CUPE and OCAP

Social assistance rates are way below the poverty line, and it has remained virtually unchanged since 1995 where Mike Harris government slashed assistant rate by almost 22%.  People on social assistance are now about 40% to 50% worse off than those in 1995.  In addition, the McGuinty government has decided to restrict its $250 special diet allowance to social assistance recipients with a medically verified need for extra money for special diet. According to the Toronto Star, those with “ineligible” aliments (such as cardiovascular disease and impaired glucose tolerance) or hungry kids or no cash left when the rent is paid will be cut off.  Thousands of recipients will be affected by these changes.

Jane-Finch community has had one of the highest rates of application as well as denial of special diet allowance.

Social assistance rates need to be increased to the above poverty line and the Special Diet Allowance restored immediately.

Organized by Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP)

In partnership with Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)

For more information, please contact janefinchactionagainstpoverty@gmail.com
or leave us a voicemail at 416-760-2677.

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NEWS & VIEWS

CORPORATE GREED IS ERODING FOUNDATIONS OF A JUST SOCIETY

by John Cartwright, Toronto Star

Not long ago, a wealthy stockbroker drives by nine men who have been locked out of their jobs at the First Canadian Place. He stops his luxury car, gets out, and utters the words that explain his attitude to their plight.

“The watch I’m wearing is worth more than you earn in a year. Get out of my way!”

(John Cartwright is President of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council.)

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/905536–corporate-greed-is-eroding-foundations-of-a-just-society

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NEW BOOK – REBEL RANK AND FILE

Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt from Below During the Long 1970s, edited by Aaron Brenner, Robert Brenner, and Cal Winslow

The hidden story of the 1970s insurgency from below, against employers and bureaucrats.

From the mid-1960s to 1981, rank-and-file workers in the United States engaged in a level of sustained militancy not seen since the Great Depression and World War II. Millions participated in one of the largest strike waves in US history. There were 5,716 stoppages in 1970 alone, involving more than 3 million workers. Contract rejections, collective insubordination, sabotage, organized slowdowns, and wildcat strikes were the order of the day.

Read more: http://www.versobooks.com/books/282-rebel-rank-and-file

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FREE TRANSIT AND MOVEMENT BUILDING

by Rebecca Schein, The Bullet

The demonstrations surrounding the G20 summit in Toronto unfolded more or less as scripted. Demonstrators marched peacefully along a designated route through deserted downtown streets. A few people broke windows and set fire to abandoned police cars. Police made full use of their brand new riot gear and special legal powers. A thousand arrests. Denunciations of police lawlessness and brutality. Calls for a public inquiry. Denunciations of vandalism. Calls for solidarity. And of course, the perennial lament that the voices and messages of labour and civil society were lost in the clamor.

(Rebecca Schein teaches in the Human Rights Program at Carleton University.)

Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/438.php

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ORGANIZING TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS

by Jill Hanley & Eric Shragge, Social Policy

Canada’s immigration system has been shifting towards the use of temporary foreign worker programs to respond to a business demand for a low paid, compliant labor force, a trend that can be observed across OECD countries. This form of migration puts workers at risk of abusive economic conditions and undermines the strength of the workers who are permanent residents. The conditions faced by these workers are at best difficult, with little legal protection in practice.

How can global south-to-north migrant workers defend themselves from abuse and have equal working conditions?

(Jill Hanley is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, McGill University, Montreal. Eric Shragge teaches in the School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University, Montreal.)

Read more: http://www.socialpolicy.org/index.php/component/content/article/4-latest-issue/370-organizing-temporary-foreign-workers

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OUR WORKING LIVES AFFECT OUR HEALTH

by The Wellesley Institute

Our working lives are an essential contributor to what keeps us healthy and what makes us sick. In this recent release, Work and Health: Exploring the impact of employment on health disparities, Sheila Block, the Wellesley Institute’s new Director of Economic Analysis, delves into the linkages between labour market policies, employment conditions, working conditions and health disparities.

Read more: http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/news/our-working-lives-affect-our-health/

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CANADA’S RICHEST 1% TAKING MORE THAN EVER BEFORE

by Canadian Centre on Policy Alternatives

A major report by CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan shows Canada’s richest 1% enjoy more of the gains from economic growth than ever before in recorded history.

The report looks at income trends over the past 90 years, revealing the richest 1% took 32% of all growth in incomes between 1997 and 2007 – the biggest piece of action any generation of Canadians has taken.

You have to go all the way back to the 1920s to find a similar trend, and even then, the richest 1% didn’t take so large a share of income.

Read more: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/updates/canadas-richest-1-taking-more-ever

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ONLINE JOURNAL ARTICLES

ORGANIZED LABOR, NUCLEAR POWER, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE CANADIAN AND U.S. LABOR MOVEMENTS
Larry Savage and Dennis Soron
Labor Studies Journal published 8 December 2010
http://lsj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0160449X10389746v1

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CULTURE AS STRUCTURE IN EMERGING CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS IN RUSSIA
Sarah Busse Spencer
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly published 29 November 2010  
http://nvs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0899764010384140v1

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CANADIAN AUTOWORKERS, THE CLIMATE CRISIS, AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF SOCIAL
UNIONISM
Derek Hrynyshyn and Stephanie Ross
Labor Studies Journal published 29 November 2010
http://lsj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0160449X10389747v1

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FROM AWARENESS TO ACTION ON THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
Spencer Moore
International Journal of Public Health, Vol. 55, Issue 6
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n24kj884563x27q2/fulltext.html

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(END)

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 CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca

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The Global Slump – David McNally

Capitalism in Crisis

THE GLOBAL SLUMP – DAVID McNALLY

Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance

by David McNally

SKU: 9781604863321

https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=271

Global Slump analyzes the global financial meltdown as the first systemic crisis of the neoliberal stage of capitalism. It argues that – far from having ended – the crisis has ushered in a whole period of worldwide economic and political turbulence. In developing an account of the crisis as rooted in fundamental features of capitalism, Global Slump challenges the view that its source lies in financial deregulation.

The book locates the recent meltdown in the intense economic restructuring that marked the recessions of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Through this lens, it highlights the emergence of new patterns of world inequality and new centers of accumulation, particularly in East Asia, and the profound economic instabilities these produced.Global Slump offers an original account of the “financialization” of the world economy during this period, and explores the intricate connections between international financial markets and new forms of debt and dispossession, particularly in the Global South.

Analyzing the massive intervention of the world’s central banks to stave off another Great Depression, Global Slump shows that, while averting a complete meltdown, this intervention also laid the basis for recurring crises for poor and working class people: job loss, increased poverty and inequality, and deep cuts to social programs. The book takes a global view of these processes, exposing the damage inflicted on countries in the Global South, as well as the intensification of racism and attacks on migrant workers. At the same time, Global Slump also traces new patterns of social and political resistance – from housing activism and education struggles, to mass strikes and protests in Martinique, Guadeloupe, France and Puerto Rico – as indicators of the potential for building anti-capitalist opposition to the damage that neoliberal capitalism is inflicting on the lives of millions.

Praise:

“In this book, McNally confirms – once again – his standing as one of the world’s leading Marxist scholars of capitalism. For a scholarly, in depth analysis of our current crisis that never loses sight of its political implications (for them and for us), expressed in a language that leaves no reader behind, there is simply no better place to go.” –Bertell Ollman, Professor, Department of Politics, NYU, and author of Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Method

“David McNally’s tremendously timely book is packed with significant theoretical and practical insights, and offers actually-existing examples of what is to be done. Global Slump urgently details how changes in the capitalist space-economy over the past 25 years, especially in the forms that money takes, have expanded wide-scale vulnerabilities for all kinds of people, and how people fight back. In a word, the problem isn’t neo-liberalism — it’s capitalism.” –Ruth Wilson Gilmore, University of Southern California and author, Golden Gulag

“Standard accounts of the present crisis blame the excesses of the financial sector, promising that all will be well when the proper financial regulations are in place. McNally’s path breaking account goes far deeper. He documents in great detail how the roots of the crisis are found in the systematic failings of capitalism. At this moment in world history the case for a radical alternative to the capitalist global order needs to be made as forcefully as possible. No one has done this better than McNally.” –Tony Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Iowa State University and author of Globalisation: A Systematic Marxian Account

“McNally has developed a powerful interpretation that sheds a mass of new light… This is a superb book.” –Robert Brenner, author of The Economics of Global Turbulence on Political Economy and the Rise of Capitalism.

“By exposing the historical and theoretical roots of ‘market socialism’, David McNally demonstrates in a particularly lucid and powerful way the fundamental flaws and contradictions in that concept.” –Ellen Meiksins Wood, author of Empire of Capital on Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism and the Marxist Critique.

About the Author:

David McNally is Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto. He is the author of five previous books: Political Economy and the Rise of Capitalism (1988); Against the Market: Political Economy Market Socialism and the Marxist Critique (2003); Bodies of Meaning: Studies on Language, Labor and Liberation (2001); Another World is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism (2002; second revised edition 2006); and Monsters of the Market: Body Panics and Global Capitalism (2010). His articles have appeared in many journals, including Historical Materialism, Capital and Class, New Politics, and Review of Radical Political Economics. David McNally is also a long-time activist in socialist, anti-poverty and migrant justice movements.

Product Details:

Author: David McNally
Publisher: PM Press/Spectre
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60486-332-1
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 248 Pages
Dimensions: 8 by 5
Subjects: Politics-Marxism, Economics

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Marxism and the Alternatives to the Crisis

Global Economic Crisis

MARXISM AND THE ALTERNATIVES TO THE CRISIS

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

Marxism and the Alternatives to Crisis

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

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

With:

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

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

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

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

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

Free entry – All welcome

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

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

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