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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/

Join the Facebook event page.

Download an image file of the event flier.

Download the PDF version of the event flier.

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

**END**

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

David Harvey

‘A People’s History of London’ – by Lindsey German and John Rees

Wat Tyler

‘A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF LONDON’ – A NEW BOOK BY LINDSEY GERMAN AND JOHN REES

NEW TITLE: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OFLONDON

By LINDSEY GERMAN and JOHN REES

——————————–

‘This invaluable book is the history of London we have been waiting for …London has a strong radical tradition and this is its story, told with elegance and precision.’ – Ken Loach

——————————–

A forgotten history ofLondon: world capital of revolution

A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF LONDON takes us into an unofficial, half-hidden and often undocumented world, a city rarely glimpsed: of pamphleteers, agitators, exiles, demonstrations and riots; the city of Wat Tyler, Marx and Engels, Garibaldi and Gandhi; and the countless pubs, theatres, coffee-houses and meeting-places in which radical ideas have been nurtured and revolutions planned.

Hub of empire, world port and seat of government: the things that makeLondona centre of wealth and power have also made it a centre of dissent and radicalism. As the home of national government, London is the focal point for protest and its political history is entwined with the lives of its people, a multitude often dismissed throughout the centuries as a ‘mob’.

As the government clamps down on protest ahead of the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF LONDON reconnects Londoners to a vibrant and tumultuous political heritage: from the twelfth century rebellion of William Longbeard and the Peasants’ Revolt, to modern fights against fascism and racism in Cable Street and Notting Hill, the Brixton Riots, all the way to the smashed windows of Millbank and the protest camp at Occupy LSX.

Published to coincide with the mayoral elections, this counter-history reveals howLondon’s poor and its immigrant population have shaped the city’s history and identity over the ages – and why this is unlikely to change. Politicians and journalists rushed to blame the 2011 riots that began in Tottenham and spread across the country on ‘sheer criminality’. Lindsey German and John Rees show how the same cry from the defenders of the status quo has echoed down the centuries after every riot in London.

A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF LONDON tells the story ofLondonas a theatre of political activism, with a focus on the lives, actions and words of the actors themselves. Asking why London has such a history of radicalism, German and Rees trace the source to many of the same elements which contribute to the alienation of so many from the city – staggering inequality and the size and impersonality of the fast- paced metropolis – and look at how the Olympic city of the twenty-first century is reproducing the conditions that gave rise to radical and socialist ideas in the past.

———————————

JOHN REES is a writer, broadcaster and activist. His books include THE ALGEBRA OF REVOLUTION and IMPERIALISM AND RESISTANCE and he is co-founder of the Stop the War Coalition.

LINDSEY GERMAN is a socialist writer and activist who has lived inLondon all her life. She is convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, stood as candidate for Mayor of London and has written books on women’s liberation, class, and war.

———————————

 ISBN: 978 1 84467 855 6 / $19.95/£12.99 Paperback / 320 pages

 ———————————–

 For more information about A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF LONDON, or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/1102-a-peoples-history-of-london

 

**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

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Studies in Social and Political Thought Annual Conference – Power and Resistance

Werner Bonefeld

STUDIES IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT ANNUAL CONFERENCE – POWER AND RESISTANCE

June 15-16, 2012
University of Sussex, Brighton

Keynote Speakers:
Werner Bonefeld (York)
Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths)

While governments around the world have initiated austerity measures on a grand scale and have even been ousted in favour of technocratic administrations, pockets of sustained resistance continue to manifest themselves. Whether it is the populist Occupy movement, ultra-left theorists of Communisation, anti-cuts protesters, or even the rioters who took to the streets of London and beyond, the struggle against the apparent status quo continues. When taken in the light of the Arab Spring, questions must be asked in regards to the relationship between resistance and revolution. These movements managed to turn a tide of resistance into a force for revolution. Is this a paradigm-shift in the way this relationship must be thought?

Alongside these movements and despite the optimism generated by them, the power of the governments to crush, de-legitimise, and ignore opposition appears to remain. Some critics blame a lack of coherent message and agenda; others say that the forces of opposition are not dealing with the reality of the situation. This critique, however, does not have the last word. These forms of resistance, in their many guises, challenge the state’s belief that it has a monopoly on reality. They challenge the very legitimacy of the state to disseminate the status quo and, therefore, represent a radical alternative even if they do not, or cannot, dictate what the alternative may be. What role do the concepts of power and resistance play in our analysis of the current situation? Do they require a reassessment or does the contemporary conjuncture simply represent a reassertion of the same old forces in a different guise?

Power is one of the core concepts of social and political thought. Yet there is plenty of disagreement about what is, how it functions and how it should be contested. Our present conjuncture is witnessing many different manifestations of power and resistance. However, there is a lack of serious theoretical engagement with the current situation. We are seeking papers that engage theoretically with the current situation, and which emphasise the central roles of the concepts of power and resistance. Possible theoretical frameworks include, but are not limited to, theories of biopolitics, instrumental reason, critical theory, post-colonialism, discourse and democratic theory, structuralism and post-structuralism, recognition, soft-power, hegemony, world-systems, sovereignty, legality, and legitimacy.

Programme:

Day 1: June 15, 2012 (All talks unless otherwise noted will be held in Fulton 107)

9-10 – Registration

10-1045 – Gianandrea Manfredi (Sussex), Understanding the structural form of resistance and the processes by which resistant social spaces are negated

1045-1130 – Jeffery Nicholas (Providence College/CASEP London Metropolitan University), Reason, Resistance and Revolution: Occupy’s Nascent Democratic Practice

1130-1215 – Svenja Bromberg (Goldsmiths), A critique of Badiou’s and Ranciere’s notion of emancipation

1215-1315 – Lunch

1315-1400 – Khafiz Tapdygovich Kerimov (American University in Bulgaria), From Epistemic Violence to Respecting the Differend: The Fate of Eurocentrism in the Discourse of Human Sciences

1400-1445 – Marta Resmini (KU Leuven), Participation as Surveillance? Counter-democracy versus Governmentality

1445-1515 – Coffee Break

1515-1600 – Alastair Gray (Sussex), Activity Without Purpose: Parrhesia, The Unsayable and The Riots

1600-1645 – Zoe Sutherland (Sussex) & Rob Lucas (Independent Researcher) – A Theory of Current Struggles

1645-1700 – Coffee Break

1700-1900 – Keynote: Werner Bonefeld (York) (Fulton Lecture Theatre A)

Day 2: June 16, 2012 (All talks unless otherwise noted will be held in Fulton 102)

1045-1145 – Registration

1145-1230 – Sarit Larry (Boston College), The Status of Vagueness: Mythical Events and the Israeli Social Justice Movement

1230-1315 – Mehmet Erol (York), Bringing Class Back In: The case of Tekel Resistance in Turkey

1315-1430 – Lunch

1430-1515 – Torsten Menge (Georgetown Univesity), A deflationary conception of social power

1515-1600 – Sarah Burton (University of Cambridge), Reimagining Resistance: misrule and the place of the fantastic in John Holloway’s anti-power

1600-1645 – Jorge Ollero Perán & Fernando Garcia-Quero (University of Granada), Can ethics be conceived as an economic institution? An interdisciplinary approach to the critique of neoliberal ethics

1645-1700 – Coffee Break

1700-1900 – Keynote: Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths) (Arts A1)

Please email ssptconference2012@gmail.com to register and check http://ssptjournal.wordpress.com for more information. There will be a £15 conference fee (£7.50 for one-day) payable in cash on the day to help cover expenses.

 

*****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

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

 

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

Recession, Racism and Riots

Riots

RECESSION, RACISM AND RIOTS

Wednesday 14th March 6-8pm
Fogg Lecture Theatre, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London

A roundtable discussion, with audience participation, between:

·         Stafford Scott (Tottenham Defence Campaign)
·         Denise Ferreira da Silva (Queen Mary)
·         Devon Thomas (Brixton ’81 Retrospective Group)
·         Mark Thompson (Cultural Chameleon Press)

Other speakers TBA

The shooting of unarmed Mark Duggan by police and their subsequent conduct towards the affected family and wider community in Tottenham were the flashpoints that sparked the August unrests of 2011. Join us for a discussion on the links between the recession, racism and the riots. Questions discussed will include:

·         How are austerity measures impacting upon Black communities in particular?

·         Are these measures exacerbating institutional racism?

·         What has changed and what has stayed the same between 1981 and 2011?

·         What positive visions are available to an increasingly embattled and excluded youth? And how might art serve social justice?

This event is being organised by the Centre for the Study of Global Development in association with the Centre for Ethics and Politics (CfEP).

Date: Wednesday 14 March
Time: 6-8pm
Venue: G.E. Fogg Lecture Theatre, G.E. Fogg Building, Queen Mary, Mile 
End Road, London
To book: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3048186207

**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

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

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

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

Taking Up Space

Space

TAKING UP SPACE

Call for Papers

Here are the details: Taking up Space Cultural Studies Postgraduate Event 25th – 26th June 2012, Goldsmiths College, University of London 

This is a one / two day conference exploring the meaning and understanding of space in its physical manifestations as well as in its discursive forms; through which identity, meaning, value and authority can be mapped in particular ways.

We cannot avoid space. It is inevitable. The ways in which we understand ourselves, others and the world around us implies some notion of space. Our sense of self and society is worked through and is contained in space: culture does not only take place, but also creates it “making symbolic use of its objects” (Lefebvre).

To what degree does our conception of space change when we understand ourselves as self-enclosed or permeable beings? Can art and performance therefore mediate the relationship between the self, objects and environment? “The activities of travel, journey and navigation fabricate the social world as well as reveal it” (Caroline Knowles).

The space of the streets has become the site of dis-order and territory has become a prime issue for understanding contemporary social tensions. The recent riots in the UK brought into the forefront questions such as who owns space, how we can use this as a place for resistance and what notions of space are currently active in shaping and operating the socially constructed body. The possession of a categorized space can be considered in line with homelessness as a dislocation of the public and private, attesting to the multi-dimensionality of space and both the potentials and restrictions embodied in it.

The upcoming Olympics also signify the difficulties facing spaces contesting belonging and struggle. Questions of locality and identity are important, inciting questions of nationalism and tourism, paramount to the formation of cultural identity. In turn, the Occupy movement and one year anniversary ofTahrir Squarereinstates the need to define sacred and everyday space and the potentials in multiple usages of place. This conference will ask how can we negotiate the historicisation of memory? The aim of this conference is to rethink how space is interacted with and reconfigured in different mediums as a site for action as well as containment. If we cannot avoid space how can this be used to further an understanding of self or curtail ideas of autonomy? How are we embodied by space and embodying it at the same time? In what ways can space be used as a site for artistic and political development and how does the contemporary world and being become through the spatial? We welcome proposals for papers, discussions, short film, dance, performances, workshops and other engagements and activities engaging among others with the different ways of being in space.

Topics, experiences, understandings and possibilities might include but are not restricted to: • Temporality and embodiment • Knowledge and materiality • Interaction between objects and self • Memory/ history/ time • Bodies and public and private • Restrictions and exclusions • Performance / realm of aesthetics • Identity/ territory / alienation • Subversive potential – resistance / containment 

Abstracts/ proposals of 300-500 words should be sent to takingupspace2012@gmail.com by 15th March 2012. 

Program will be confirmed mid-April. 

**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

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

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

A History of Riots Conference

Riot

A HISTORY OF RIOTS CONFERENCE

London Socialist Historians Group conference
A HISTORY OF RIOTS
Saturday 25th February 2012
Midday-5pm, Room 350
Institute of Historical Research
Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1

The British riots of summer 2011 were a powerful reminder that rioting is still on the agenda even in one of the centres of market capitalism. Rioting has a long history and historical context. While authorities have tended to use the language of criminality historians have often taken a different view.

The papers at this conference – the first to look at the history of riots since the events of 2011, and the broader sweep from the Arab Spring to the Occupy movements of that year – are based on original research into a range of aspects of the riot in history.
SPEAKERS INCLUDE

SEAN CREIGHTON:
From Revolution to New Unionism; the impact of Bloody Sunday on the development of John Burns’s politics
NEIL DAVIDSON:
Riots around the Scottish Union negotiations in 1706 and the Global South today
JOHN NEWSINGER:
Memorial Day Massacre, a Chicago Police Riot

Entry is £10 [£5 unwaged] We ask people to donate in advance, if possible, to speed registration on the day.

Cheques, payable to ‘ Keith Flett’, to 38 Mitchley Rd London N17 9HG
Inquiries to: keith1917@btinternet.com or call 07803 167266
http://londonsocialisthistorians.blogspot.com

**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, north Wales)  

 

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a new 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

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

Midwest Marxism Conference

Capitalism is Crisis

MIDWEST MARXISM CONFERENCE

The Working Class, Black Liberation & Revolution

See: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=252441574798260&ref=ts

And: http://www.chicagosocialists.org

Saturday, October 29th

Chicago, DePaul University

Sponsors: www.internationalsocialist.org & Socialistworker.org

$5-$20 sliding scale (no one will be turned away for lack of funds)

Childcare available – contact us by Oct. 22th

2011 is a year of revolution and revolt — from Egypt, to Madison; from London Riots, to the fight to save Troy Davis; from teachers, longshoremen taking a stand to the growing US-wide ‘Occupy’ movement — and with every growth in struggle socialist politics become more and more relevant. The Midwest Marxism Conference will present activists from across the region with an opportunity to learn what Marxists say about race, class, and revolution, and to exchange experiences with others similarly engaged in the struggle for a better world.

Folks traveling to Chicago from out of town can touch base with our host committee to request housing for Friday and Saturday night by calling 773 236-1848, or by emailing chicagosocialists@gmail.com

More information, a downloadable poster & readings are available here: http://www.chicagosocialists.org/content/midwest-marxism-conference  

 

Schedule:

11:30AM-Noon Registration

Noon-12:30PM

            • Why Marx was Right

12:45PM-2:15PM

            • No Power Greater: Marxism and the centrality of class

            • Where does racism come from?

2:15PM-3:15PM Lunch

3:15PM-4:45PM

            • The 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike: a case study in working-class power

            • The Black Freedom Struggle: from Martin to the Black Panthers

5PM-6:30PM

            • The changing working class and the future of the labor movement

            • Black Liberation and Socialism

6:30-7PM

            • Building a Revolutionary Socialist Alternative Today

7PM Dinner & Party

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

New Articles and Features from U.S. Marxist-Humanists – Update 28th August 2011

Raya Dunayevskaya

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES FROM U.S. MARXIST-HUMANISTS – UPDATE 28th AUGUST 2011

http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org/
AUGUST 2011

1.  DAVID BLACK, “‘NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE’ AND BLOOD AND FLAMES ON ENGLAND’S STREETS: 1981, 1985 AND 2011” — The explosion of rage and revolt on the streets of British cities, recalls the dramatic “uprisings” of the 1980s. The author, a resident of the riot-hit London Borough of Haringey, looks at what has changed and why it matters.

2. BA KARANG, “OSLO MASSACRE AND THE ‘REASONING’ OF THE FAR RIGHT” — In the aftermath of the Massacre in Norway, Norwegian-African Ba Karang examines the ideological strands of the Far Right in the thinking of Anders Breivik.

3. PETER HUDIS, “COMMENTS ON ‘WHAT MORE COULD WE WANT OF OURSELVES!’, JACQUELINE ROSE’S REVIEW OF THE LETTERS OF ROSA LUXEMBURG” — In responding to Rose’s review in London Review of Books: http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org/books/the-letters-of-rosa-luxemburg/ Hudis discusses Luxemburg’s differences with Lenin, her writings on imperialism and indigenous communal social forms, and her worldview as both “open” and “single-minded.” Originally appeared on the Verso Books authors’ blog, June 21, 2011.

4. DALE PARSONS, “LABOR AT THE CROSSROADS” — The capitulation on the part of Obama and the Democrats to the far-Right agenda of the Republicans in the latest battle over raising the deficit ceiling raises the issue of whether capitalism is undermining its own conditions of existence.

5. KELLY GREEN, “TECHNOLOGY, LABOR, AND THE TRANSCENDENCE OF CAPITAL: REVISITING THE MARCUSE-DUNAYEVSKAYA DEBATE” — In the 1960s and 1970s, Herbert Marcuse and Raya Dunayevskaya developed differing responses to the new stage of capitalist production represented by automation.

6. ELI MESSINGER, “REVIEW OF RICHARD GREEMAN’S BEWARE OF VEGETARIAN SHARKS” –Veteran socialist Greeman’s book collects his essays on the radical movement, as well as biographical and theoretical reflections.

7. ELI MESSINGER, “REVIEW OF SLAVOJ ZIZEK ET AL., LENIN RELOADED” — This review of one of the few recent books devoted to Lenin’s thought – with much discussion of dialectics — is particularly timely now that Lenin Reloaded is appearing in Spanish, Turkish, and other languages.

8. KHALFANI MALIK KHALDUN, “BURIED ALIVE INSIDE INDIANA SCU UNIT: A LOOK AT SUGGESTIONS TO MODIFY CURRENT CONDITIONS AND CREATE A MORE CONDUCIVE ENVIRONMENT” — This piece by political prisoner Khalfani Malik Khaldun, speaks to the issues that have helped foment the hunger strike of prisoners in Pelican Bay, California, as well as elsewhere in California. Now is the time to demonstrate support for those wrongly incarcerated and suffering the terrible abuses of the U.S. criminal injustice system.

9. RINITA MAZUMDAR AND HEATHER TOMANOVSKY, “DIALOGUE ON MARX, GENDER, KINSHIP, AND HUMAN EMANCIPATION” — Dialogue on Tomanovsky’s essay, “Marx, Gender, and Human Emancipation,” which originally appeared on this website: http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org/articles/marx-gender-and-human-emancipation-%E2%80%93-by-heather-tomanovsky/

10. STEVEN COLATRELLA AND PETER HUDIS, DIALOGUE ON MARX’S CRITIQUE OF THE GOTHA PROGRAM – Dialogue over Hudis’s essay on “Directly and Indirectly Social Labor: What Kind of Human Relations Can Transcend Capitalism?” which appears on this website: http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org/articles/directly-and-indirectly-social-labor-what-kind-of-human-relations-can-transcend-capitalism-by-peter-hudis/

11. DAVID BLACK, “ADORNO FOR REVOLUTIONARIES?” — In Adorno for Revolutionaries Ben Watson attempts to show how Theodore Adorno, starting with the commodity form, outlined a revolutionary musicology, a passageway between subjective feeling and objective conditions. In extending the analysis beyond the confines of ‘highbrow’ classical music Watson aims to ‘detonate the explosive core of Adorno’s method’.

12. PETER HUDIS, “READING ROSA” – Interview with Hudis on The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg with Red Pepper (London)

13. THE LETTERS OF ROSA LUXEMBURG, EDITED BY ANNELIES LASCHITZA, GEORG ADLER AND PETER HUDIS, TRANSLATED BY GEORGE SHRIVER (VERSO 2011) — Links to reviews in New Politics and elsewhere

14. MARX AT THE MARGINS: ON NATIONALISM, ETHNICITY, AND NON-WESTERN SOCIETIES, BY KEVIN ANDERSON

Links to reviews in Le Monde Diplomatique, Counterfire, Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch, and elsewhere.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

1. KEVIN ANDERSON, “ARAB REVOLUTIONS AT THE CROSSROADS” – The revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and the uprising in Libyahave exhibited a post-Islamist and post-nationalist character.  After challenging both the political and the economic order, they face dangers from old forces like the military and the Islamists (Egypt) or of violent repression (Libya).

2. PETER HUDIS, “THE LIFE, LETTERS, & LEGACY OF ROSA LUXEMBURG – Video of a presentation at a symposium marking the publication on the Letters of Rosa Luxemburg, New York University Law School, March 14, 2011

THE SITE ALSO INCLUDES OTHER ARTICLES FROM THE PAST DECADE BY U. S. MARXIST-HUMANISTS AND THEIR INTERNATIONAL COLLEAGUES.
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LINKS Update – 22nd August 2011

Debt

LINKS UPDATE – 22nd AUGUST 2011

What’s new at Links: Marqusee on London riots, economy, Bolivia debate, Cuba, Agent Orange, Marxism, Venezuela CP, Palestine, Syria, Comintern, Baltics

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Mike Marqusee: Riots, reason and resistance

By Mike Marqusee

August 16, 2011 — “Criminality pure and simple” was British Prime Minister David Cameron’s initial verdict on the rioting. From the right came the mantra, “Down with sociology! Up with water cannon!” Don’t think but do act – harshly, punitively, peremptorily. In the wake of the riots, a powerful vested interest has been at work – a vested interest in people not making links, not searching for causes, not weighing contexts. Above all, an interest in derailing the growing resistance to the government’s austerity programme.

Read more

 

Martin Hart-Landsberg: The troubled US economy means a shaky world economy

By Martin Hart-Landsberg

August 15, 2011 — The US economy is in trouble and that means trouble for the world economy. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s Trade and Development Report, 2010, “Buoyant consumer demand in the United States was the main driver of global economic growth for many years in the run-up to the current global economic crisis.”

Read more

 

Bolivia: How Jeffrey Webber’s ‘From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia’ turns reality on its head

Review by Federico Fuentes

August 19, 2011 — The Evo Morales government recently celebrated its 2000th day in power inBolivia– a feat in its own right for a country that has had around 180 coups since 1825 – any serious attempt to explain the underlying dynamics of this decade long political process should be welcomed. Combining his academic research and extensive fieldwork inBolivia, Jeffrey Webber sets out to do exactly that in From Rebellion to Reform inBolivia. Unfortunately, the end result leaves a lot to be desired.

Read more

 

Cuba: Changes go deep — democratic reforms

By José Alejandro Rodríguez, Havana

August 17, 2011 — Apart from some exceptions, the powerful international media has ignored a recent Cuban parliamentary bill that would deepen democracy on the island. The reason is obvious: the news is not convenient. The initiative is made within socialist institutionalism, not in terms of the “transition” whose staging is highly anticipated and promoted by certain hegemonic interests in this world.

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Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin: ‘Agent Orange in Vietnam was a crime against humanity’

Appeal of the Second International Conference of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam

August 9, 2011 — The Second International Conference of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, held in Hanoi from August 8 to 9, 2011, included participants from around the world: Agent Orange victims, victims of other toxic chemicals, scientists, lawyers and social activists. The conference is a significant and important historic event, marking the 50th anniversary of the first spraying of the toxic chemical Agent Orange (1961-1971) by the US forces inVietnam and Indochina.

Read more

 

Marxism has an ecological heart

By Ash Pemberton

August 13, 2011 — We all know there’s a big problem with the environment and it needs drastic action to fix it. So does a Marxist analysis of the problem bring anything new to the table?

Read more

 

Venezuela: Communist Party backs Hugo Chavez, builds workers’ control movement

By Rachael Boothroyd,Coro

August 10, 2011  – On August 7, the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) concluded its 14th congress in Caracas following three days of discussions. More than 526 national delegates and 43 international representatives attended the conference, which was convened in conjunction with the PCV’s 74th anniversary.

Read more

 

Does Palestinian Authority’s UN ‘statehood’ bid endanger Palestinian rights?

By Ali Abunimah

August 8, 2011 — The Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC), the steering group of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, has issued further guidance in the run up to the Palestinian Authority’s effort to gain UN membership for a “State of Palestine” in September.

Read more

 

The Syrian ‘common’: an uprising of the working society

By  Yassin Al Haj Saleh

August 14, 2011 — There is a Promethean dimension to the struggle ofSyria’s protesters to wrench politics away from the self-deifying cabal [who rule] and to attempt to extend politics to all Syrians. The young Marx, who loved grandiose expressions, described Prometheus as “the most noble martyr in the philosophical almanac”, because he stole the fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to humans. The gods punished him by sending the eagles of the Caucuses to tear at his liver forever. Like Prometheus, the uprising represents the most noble rebellionSyriahas known since its independence 65 years ago. Like Prometheus, the wrath of the divine cabal is directed against the rebelling multitude. It is murdered, defamed, called names and insulted by the lowliest forces and motives inSyria.

Read more

 

The Comintern’s unknown decision on workers’ governments

By John Riddell

August 14, 2011 — English-language discussion of the Communist International’s 1922 call for workers’ governments has been based on a preliminary draft that was significantly altered before its adoption. Below, probably for the first time in English, is the amended text that the 1922 congress actually adopted.

Read more

 

Baltic far right attempts to rewrite history

By Rupen Savoulian

August 12, 2011 — Early in August, a major World War II anniversary was marked in Europe; August 1 was the 67th anniversary of the heroicWarsawuprising by the Polish underground resistance movement against Nazi German occupation forces. I raise this anniversary to highlight the importance of commemorating the courageous struggles by the peoples oppressed by the Nazi regime, and to underscore the importance of historical debate for comprehending the tremendous social forces that have shaped the world today.

Read more

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Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of “actually existing socialism” in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

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Urban Disorder and Policing

Urban Disorder

URBAN DISORDER AND POLICING

Recent events in London and elsewhere have brought a renewed focus on urban disorder, revolt and policing. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space has grouped seven previously published papers – six from this journal, and one from Environment and Planning A – into a virtual theme issue. The papers will be freely available without subscription for two months until October 2011. We think that these papers offer a range of historical, political, theoretical and geographical perspectives on contemporary events.

You can find links to the papers and a brief explanation here: http://societyandspace.com/2011/08/12/urban-disorder-and-policing/

Stuart
Professor Stuart Elden, Geography Department, Durham University

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