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Tag Archives: Occupy Movement

Sustaining Alternative Universities

Alternative & Sustainable Universities

SUSTAINING ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSITIES

UK Free University Network (FUN)

Sustaining Alternative Universities

Collaborative Research Conference

1–2 December 2012

Oxford, UK

 

They will admit that little is to be expected from present-day governments, since these live and act according to a murderous code. Hope remains only in the most difficult task of all: to reconsider everything from the ground up, so as to shape a living society inside a dying society. [People] must therefore, as individuals, draw up among themselves, within frontiers and across them, a new social contract which will unite them according to more reasonable principles.’ (Albert Camus, ‘Neither victim nor executioner’, 1946)

Following on from the inaugural meeting of the UK Free University Network held in early 2012, we are calling out to representatives of all free universities and to all those who wish to participate in a conference with a more focused objective.

In recent years, we have witnessed the accelerated neoliberal capitalist colonisation of the university. In the UK (and far beyond) many students are now priced out of higher education and the academic finds him/herself subservient to the logic and interests of capital. In response to this intolerable reality, many groups of scholars, students, and others have come together independently to create alternative, ‘free’ universities.

The ‘Sustaining Alternative Universities’ conference, as a space for coordinating research and sharing knowledge and experience, seeks to support these projects in taking further decisive steps towards the creation of a national movement of individuals and organisations dedicated to the construction and development of alternative democratic, critical, and ultimately sustainable higher education communities.

 

Sustainability: history, dialogue, and practice

The successes of this movement hinge on its sustainability. ‘How can we build, develop, and maintain truly sustainable educational communities outside the existing institutional frameworks?’ is the question upon which our collective investigations and discussions should be founded. Therefore, our collective task is to conceptualise, research, imagine, and, ultimately, cultivate a sustainable movement based on a network of locally-based, sustainable, free universities. We believe that this conference can help us to successfully undertake this task through a three-step process.

Step one: history. An intrinsic element of building sustainability today must surely be to learn from the history of previous projects of popular, democratic and radical education here in the UK, and beyond. Therefore, we invite representatives of each free university to conduct and present research into the history of these traditions in their specific locality, drawing on their own particular influences. Researchers should keep in mind the practical purpose driving this research and consider issues such as: Who participated in these efforts? How were they structured, organised, and sustained? What was the significance of their historical and spatial context? What lessons can be derived from these efforts for our own endeavours today?

We hope that this shared research effort will allow us to both map out a history of popular / democratic / radical higher education in the UK, and to identify ways these can inform our own current projects. Ultimately, this collaborative research endeavour could also help us trace the roots of our network.

Step two: dialogue. The next step is to engage in dialogue with one another, and with our histories. We need to both imagine our ideals and talk freely and openly about the challenges and obstacles that impede our ambitions and objectives today. We need to name the material, social and subjective conditions that constrain the actualisation of our imagination and hopes. At the conference, we aim to draw on our collective experiences in democratic education to create a supportive, democratic space in which participants feel able to share their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in these areas.

Step three: practice. Finally, we need to take the lessons and ideas derived from our historical research and dialogue and put them into practice. The conference will culminate in a session in which we all make plans for practical action to take things forward on a local and national level.

 

Affinities and collaborations

We invite collaboration and co-operation with all. Beyond the Free University Network itself, we particularly welcome collaboration from members of the following groups:

Academic members of the ‘For a Public University’ working group and Campaign for the Public University. We at FUN have not forsaken the mainstream university, and many of our members are not only academics or students, but also active in defending the public university. We recognise the rich traditions of critical pedagogy within the university and the enduring possibilities of its democratic promise. We welcome contributions from all academics.

Members of the Co-operative Movement. Clearly, the co-operative model of organisation offers much for free universities today to draw on, and at least one in the UK is explicitly organised upon co-operative principles. We welcome members of the Co-operative Movement who might contribute to our historical and contemporary understanding of co-operative education, and/or who would like to build bridges between these two movements.

University workers who are not academics. All too often, non-academic staff working in universities are marginalised within or excluded from these discussions. Their contributions, knowledges, experiences and possibilities are overlooked. We seek to redress this situation and invite all those making invaluable contributions to higher education in ways that are not specifically ‘academic’ to participate in this conference.

Students and all those desiring to learn. Critical pedagogy aspires to break down hierarchical boundaries between students and teachers, and to expand the right of learning to everyone whether they occupy the role of ‘student’ or not. In the democratic universities we envisage, students shape their own learning experiences. We welcome contributions from students, past, present, and future.

All others who share our principles, and who are active in creating alternative institutions in other areas of social life, particularly in education. There is much we can learn from each other.

 

An open, democratic, egalitarian, anti-elitist intellectuality

This is a critical pedagogical and political project. This conference is not intended to be a typical academic conference based exclusively on theoretically dense papers and presentations. There is validity, truth, importance, and profound insight in many other methods and ways of expressing knowledge, and we open our conference and minds to these. We believe that narrative – telling stories – is a particularly important means for reaching the personal and social heart of the obstacles and challenges that confront us in our ambitions to create democratic and sustainable learning communities.

 

Where and when

In the spirit of the Occupy movement, we have decided to host this conference on higher education in Oxford for obvious historical reasons.

We propose that the conference will be held on the weekend of 1–2 December 2012.

We recognise the high cost of transport and accommodation and ask those in a position to do so to offer contributions to help unwaged participants to attend. A system will be created to make this transparent and possible.

 

Impact and output

Only joking!

We want this conference to be the turning point at which we really begin to cultivate a sustainable and flourishing free university movement. We hope you can join us for this conference.

If you are interested in participating in the conference and/or in its planning of and preparation, please contact either Sarah Amsler (samsler@lincoln.ac.uk) or Joel Lazarus (joel_lazarus@hotmail.com). 

We aim to have a coordinating committee established by 13 August.

 

Venue

The location of the conference venue will depend on final numbers. However, what is certain is that this conference’s organisation will be guided by fully inclusive principles. This means a family friendly venue with park/playground nearby and a safe indoor space for children of all ages to play. Childcare duties will not preclude participation at this conference. Equally, we will ensure that the venue is fully accessible and that all dietary requirements are catered for. Please contact us if you have any concerns, ideas, or requests.

 

**END**

 

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Seminar on Political Organization

Turbulence

SEMINAR ON POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

University of Essex March 12th

Essex Centre for Work, Organization and Society Seminar

Lessons of 2011: Three Theses on Political Organization
Rodrigo Nunes, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande Do Sul
March 12th, 4PM-6PM @ University of Essex Room 5N.7.23

With the Arab Spring, the Spanish indignados, Occupy and so much more, 2011 is likely to go down in history as a very special year – perhaps even the beginning of something. But what would that something be? This presentation attempts to draw some conclusions about the present state and future of politics and organization by examining the practices of the movements that erupted in the last year. Thinking beyond their usual representation by the media, trying to avoid either describing them as something entirely new and unheard of or as manifestations of an ultimately non-political culture, what can be the lessons of 2011?

Bio: Rodrigo Nunes is a post-doctoral fellow at (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil), with a PNPD/CAPES grant. He has a PhD in philosophy from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and is a member of the editorial collective of Turbulence (http://www.turbulence.org.uk). His writing, on philosophy, art and politics, has appeared in such publications as Radical Philosophy, Deleuze Studies, Transform, Mute, ephemera, The Guardian, Z and others.

Stevphen Shukaitis
Autonomedia Editorial Collective
http://www.autonomedia.org
http://www.minorcompositions.info

“Autonomy is not a fixed, essential state. Like gender, autonomy is created through its performance, by doing/becoming; it is a political practice. To become autonomous is to refuse authoritarian and compulsory cultures of separation and hierarchy through embodied practices of welcoming difference… Becoming autonomous is a political position for it thwarts the exclusions of proprietary knowledge and jealous hoarding of resources, and replaces the social and economic hierarchies on which these depend with a politics of skill exchange, welcome, and collaboration. Freely sharing these with others creates a common wealth of knowledge and power that subverts the domination and hegemony of the master’s rule.” – subRosa Collective

**END**

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

‘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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Get Political Campaign

Bonuses for Some

GET POLITICAL CAMPAIGN

Fifty key figures on the left, including China Miéville, Lindsey German, Ken Loach, Suzi Weissman, Michael Yates and Immanuel Ness, have backed a Pluto Press campaign urging activists fighting for the 99% to draw inspiration from the lives and writings of three giants of 20th century political change: Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg and VI Lenin. The Get Political campaign statement (www.getpoliticalnow.com) contends that ‘It will not be a simple thing to win the battle of democracy … Luxemburg, Trotsky and Lenin were among the most perceptive and compelling revolutionaries of the 20th century. The body of analysis, strategy and tactics to which they contributed was inseparable from the mass struggles of their time. Critically engaging with their ideas can enrich the thinking and practical activity of those involved in today’s and tomorrow’s struggles for a better world.’

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‘The Occupy movement and the anti-cuts movement have made a huge impact in a short space of time, but we must build on these successes in order to advance struggles of the future. By engaging with the lives and ideas of Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky, activists will find vital analyses and organisational strategies which can help us overcome setbacks and cause a leftward shift of the political mainstream.’ – PAUL LE BLANC, author and co-ordinator

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NEW ‘GET POLITICAL’ CAMPAIGN WEBSITE

FEATURES STUDY GUIDES, READING LISTS AND SLIDE SHOWS ON THE IDEAS OF TROTSKY, LENIN AND LUXEMBURG AND AN INTRODUCTION TO MARXISM

VISIT: www.getpoliticalnow.com

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Leon Trotsky

Writings in Exile
Leon Trotsky, edited by Kunal Chattopadhyay and Paul Le Blanc
Paperback | 9780745331485 | £14.99 / $25
Hardback | 9780745331447 | £50 / $80

To browse contents or buy the book visit: http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745331485

‘This bracing book provides theoretical nourishment for our times, just as millions take to the streets worldwide demanding a just economic system. Leon Trotsky hit the world stage as President of the St. Petersburg Soviet in the 1905 Russian Revolution and he continues to educate and inspire. His flame refuses to be extinguished.’ – Suzi Weissman, Professor of Politics, Saint Mary’s College of California

‘Leon Trotsky’s ideas inspired Minnesota teamsters and Bolivian miners, Filipino peasants from Mindanao and rebel students in the Latin Quarter, New York intellectuals and French Surrealist poets. Thanks to the initiative of Kunal Chattopadhyay and Paul Le Blanc, some of the most important writings from this period are now available in one volume; considered with an open and critical mind, they will certainly provide precious tools for a Socialism of the 21st Century.’ – Michael Löwy, Emeritus Research Director in Social Sciences at the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris
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V.I. Lenin

Revolution, Democracy, Socialism: Selected Writings

V.I. Lenin, edited by Paul Le Blanc

Paperback | 9780745327600 | £14.99 / $25
Hardback | 9780745331447 | £55 / $89

To browse contents or buy the book visit: http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745327600& 

‘We desperately need the resurrection and revival of the kind of strategic thinking and principled commitment that Lenin epitomised in the era of 1917, and all that it promised.  For those interested in this rebirth of the politics of alternative to capitalism, Paul Le Blanc’s account of the democratic, socialist, and revolutionary Lenin will prove indispensable.  Reading it is a reminder that what is, need not be, and that what has, seemingly, failed, can be reconstituted anew.’ – Professor Bryan Palmer,TrentUniversity

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Rosa Luxemburg

Socialism or Barbarism: Selected Writings
Rosa Luxemburg, edited by Paul Le Blanc and Helen C. Scott
Paperback | 9780745329888 | £12.99 / $19.99
Hardback | 9780745329895 | £40 / $65

To browse contents or buy the book visit: http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745329888& 

‘Rosa Luxemburg has never been more relevant!  Here, at last, in a single volume is an accessible introduction to one of the most important radical political thinkers of the 20th century with analysis and insight for a new generation of activist.’ – Elaine Bernard, Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
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INSPECTION COPIES
To request an inspection copy please send the following details to jonm@plutobooks.com:

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We need all these details to be able to be able to process a request. Inspection copies are provided with an invoice that is cancelled if the book is adopted for a course, or returned in a resalable condition.

You can also request inspection copies using our online form at www.plutobooks.com/lecturers.asp.

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If you would like to request a copy of a book to review for a journal or other publication, please email our publicity manger Jon Wheatley atjonw@plutobooks.com, providing your contact details and the name of the publication you intend to review the book for.

EBOOKS
Many Pluto books are available electronically. Libraries can subscribe to the Pluto eBook list via The Academic Library (www.theacademiclibrary.com). Individual titles can be ordered from many vendors, including Dawson (www.dawsonera.com) in the UK and Ingram (www.myilibrary.com) in the UK, US and worldwide.

ORDERS
To place an order, visit our website at www.plutobooks.com.

Best regards,
Jonathan Maunder

Academic Marketing
Pluto Press
Email: jonm@plutobooks.com
Tel: 020 8348 2724
www.plutobooks.com

**END**

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Fighting Neo-liberalism with Education and Activism

Neoliberalism at Bedtime

FIGHTING NEO-LIBERALISM WITH EDUCATION AND ACTIVISM

By DAVE HILL

This is a revolutionary period in world history. The collapse of finance capitalism, the bankers’ bailouts across the globe, the continuing bankers’ bonuses, and the intrinsic problems of finance capitalism have, under current `bourgeois’ parliamentarist rule, resulted in ordinary families, workers and communities,`paying for the crisis’. All this, while the national and international capitalist classes and organisations impose austerity capitalism on a reeling public and public educational, social, health and welfare systems. This `austerity capitalism’ has led to an eruption of discontent-against political, economic and financial dictatorship, through the Arab Spring, the indignados in Spain, the Occupy movements throughout the world, and the million strong protests against the 13 Feb 2012 austerity programme enforced by the international capitalist `troika’ (European Central bank, International Monetary Fund, and the European Commission) on the Greek people.

These developments raise questions about the nature of bourgeois capitalist parliamentarist democracy as much as they do about the nature and morality and cruel impacts of capitalist economy — of life under/within capitalism. They also raise questions about social and economic inequality, meritocracy, equality and egalitarianism, and the role of education and of political activism. 

A question that must be asked is how does the socio-economic and political system of a country work in complicity with the corporate media and how does this impact the school system? There is no automatic mechanistic and deterministic relationship between an economic structure, such as the capitalist economic structure and resulting social relationships on the one hand, and society’s social and political structures on the other. But there is a relationship, even if not mechanistic and unproblematic. There is resistance, at various levels, by individuals, by groups, in what is a permanent `culture war’ between the ideas of the ruling capitalist class and their mouthpieces, and resistant, counter-hegemonic individuals and groups, such as students, critical intellectuals, and organizations such as workers’ organizations (though many have been `incorporated’ into the system).

It is fair to say, drawing on Althusser’s (1971) and Gramsci’s (1971) Marxist conceptual framework, that the apparatuses of the state do not brook much dissent for long: if it starts to threaten either the riches of the rich, or the capitalist system itself, which is essentially the same thing, then the state steps in, using either the wagging finger warning of repercussions, the iron fist in a velvet glove, or, ultimately the hammer of tear gas, bullets and prison cells.

Schools and universities, echoing Althusser (1971) are ideological state apparatuses whose purpose, for the capitalist class, is to preach and instill pro-capitalist and anti-socialist beliefs and, as Rikowski (for example, 2001, 2004) argues, to re-produce tiered hierarchicalised and socialized / quiescent labour power for the workplace

 

The full article can be read at: http://philosophers.posterous.com/fighting-neo-liberalism-with-education-and-ac

 

Reference as:

Hill, D. (2012) Fighting Neo-liberalism with Education and Activism, Posted at Philosophers for Change, 1st March, online at: http://philosophers.posterous.com/fighting-neo-liberalism-with-education-and-ac

This article first appeared in Philosophers for Change, which can be viewed at: http://philosophers.posterous.com  

**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  

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

The Global Uprisings of 2011 and the Anthropology of Direct Democracy

Deadwing

THE GLOBAL UPRISINGS OF 2011 AND THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY

CALL FOR PAPERS

Session at the AAA Annual Meeting
San Francisco, November 14-18, 2012

The Global Uprisings of 2011 and the Anthropology of Direct Democracy

Critical theorists, including Slavoj Zizek (2011), Judith Butler (2011), and Michael Hardt and Toni Negri (2011), have framed the protest movements of 2011 as a response to a fundamental crisis of representative politics. The response—from Northern Africa, through Southern Europe to North America—has, in many cases, centered on a radicalization of democracy, especially an embrace of direct democracy. Our knowledge of these directly democratic experiments remains, however, inchoate. Little description and analysis is available on the specific forms of directly democratic practice enacted in settings as distinct as the Casbah in Tunis, Tahrir Square in Cairo, Syntagma Square in Athens, Puerto del sol in Madrid, Tel Aviv’s tent city, the Wisconsin statehouse as well as the hundreds of encampments associated with the Occupy Movement.

The need for ethnographic accounts of direct democracy is especially urgent because many movements have refused official representatives of their practices and because democracy has been extended beyond formal institutions into new spheres of life. By inviting initial ethnographic accounts of direct democracy, this panel hopes to contribute to the growing anthropology of democracy (Appadurai 2001, 2007; Brown 2006; Paley 2002, 2008; Shore 2000). The focus on direct democracy, which has been relatively neglected within anthropology, responds to David Nugent’s (2002, 2008) call for an unsettling of “normative democracy”—i.e. the dominance of a certain liberal variant of democracy—through a description of “alternative democracies,” especially those unique conceptions of democracy emerging among subaltern movements, groups, and peoples that allow us to think outside dominant assumptions. Proposed papers can address any of the movements that emerged in the wake of the 2011 uprisings around the globe, including but not restricted to the Occupy Movements or other recent struggles that have adopted directly democratic forms and practices. Please feel to contact me with any questions.

Practicalities

Please send a title and abstract of no more than 250 words to Maple Razsa mjrazsa@colby.edu by March 10, 2012.

**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

Deleuze and Guattari and Occupy

Gilles Deleuze

DELEUZE AND GUATTARI AND OCCUPY

Saturday 25th Feb 2-5pm

Occupy LSX / School of Ideas
Featherstone Rd
Islington
EC1Y 8RX

An afternoon of talks, about the relevance of Deleuze and Guattari’s ideas to Occupy. 

Deleuze and Guattari’s writings are considered, by political activists, philosophers, artists and writers to provide the most insightful analysis of the crisis we face today.  It is claimed that the rhizomic, nomadic and creative nature of Occupy is inherently DeleuzeoGuattarian. This afternoon of talks tests these claims and asks; does Deleuze and Guattari’s conceptual apparatus scythe right through to the heart of capitalist production: do they provide vitalist, non-paranoid, (entirely pragmatic) systems of thought around which both a world can be torn down and a new one built? 

How it feels to be free: becoming-together with Deleuze & Guattari  
Jeremy Gilbert, Reader at the University of East London.

Minor Politics, Activism, and Occupy 
Nick Thoburn, Lecturer in Sociology: University of Manchester.

Worldwide, Occupy will not publish a solidified list of aims or a manifesto, preferring to speak of a thousand struggles, a thousand acts of resistance spoken though thousands of voices. Is this the same as Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus? 
Andrew Conio, Senior Lecturer University of Wolverhampton, Associate Lecturer Chelsea School of Art.

Further information contact A.Conio@wlv.ac.uk 

The School of Ideas: http://schoolofideas.org.uk/ 

**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)  

‘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

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

International Socialism Journal – Issue 133

 

Revolt

INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM JOURNAL – ISSUE 133

http://isj.org.uk/index.php4?s=contents&issue=133

International Socialism Journal
Issue 133

Analysis

The crisis wears on
Alex Callinicos

The rebirth of our power? After the 30 November mass strike
Charlie Kimber

The Occupy movement and class politics in the US
Megan Trudell

Interview: Working people have no interest in saving the euro
Costas Lapavitsas

China’s capitalism and the crisis
Jane Hardy and Adrian Budd

The Egyptian workers’ movement and the 25 January Revolution
Anne Alexander

Libya at the crossroads
Simon Assaf

Revolution against “progress”: the TIPNIS struggle and class contradictions in Bolivia
Jeffery R Webber

“Take that, Maynard G Krebs!”: the Beat Generation.
Adam Marks

Engels’s contradictions: a reply to Tristram Hunt
Roland Boer

Book reviews

Information is not knowledge
Andy Wilson

Philosophical arabesques
Ross Speer

What’s past is prologue
Sally Kincaid

Hegelianation?
Dan Swain

Working class theory is something to read
Jamie Woodcock

“How many ways to get what you want?”
Robin Burrett

A trade union whodunit
Julian Alford

Pick of the quarter
This quarter’s selection

**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

‘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

Occupy Everything!

Occupy

OCCUPY EVERYTHING!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day… a new collection of essays on the composition of current struggles…

Occupy Everything! Reflections on why it’s kicking off everywhere
Edited by Alessio Lunghi & Seth Wheeler

Penned after the 2010 European student unrest and before what is now commonly referred to as the “Arab spring” began to escalate, BBC Newsnight economist Paul Mason’s “20 Reasons Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere” sought to establish an understanding of the motivations behind these globally disparate, yet somehow connected struggles.

What roles do the “graduate with no future,” the “digital native” or the “remainder of capital” play in the current wave of unrest? What are the ideas, ideologies, motivations or demands driving these movements? How is struggle organized and coordinated in the age of memetic politics and viral ad campaigns?

This collection of essays seeks to further explore Paul Mason’s original 20 Reasons in an attempt to better understand our turbulent present.

“A startling insight into the aims, dreams and ideologies of a generation of radicalized youth.” –Paul Mason, author of Meltdown and Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere

“…an encomium to still, as yet, unfocused possibilities. Each fragment is provocative and possessed of the same energies as the movements it seeks to describe.” – Aaron Peters, Open Democracy

“…this book has the inside track on how we can keep ‘kicking off’  for an end to capitalism and for the establishment of a global commons. Read, discuss and take action.”– Ewa Jasiewicz, Trade Union Organizer / Journalist

Contributors: 500 Hammers – Thomas Gillespie & Victoria Habermehl – The Free Association – Deterritorial Support Group – Ben Lear & Raph Schlembach – Camille Barbagallo & Nicholas Beuret – David Robertshaw, Rohan Orton & Will Barker – Antonis Vradis – Tabitha Bast & Hannah McClure – Andre Pusey & Bertie Russell – Federico Campagna – Emma Dowling

PDF available freely online (http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=372).

Released by Minor Compositions, Wivenhoe / New York / Port Watson
Minor Compositions is a series of interventions & provocations drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life.

Minor Compositions is an imprint of Autonomedia
www.minorcompositions.info |info@minorcompositions.info

**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  

‘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

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

The Rouge Forum: Update 12th February 2012

Red

THE ROUGE FORUM: UPDATE 12th FEBRUARY 2012

Dear Friends

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

Remember the Call For Proposals for the Rouge Forum Conference

Rouge Forum 2012
OCCUPY EDUCATION! Class Conscious Pedagogies for Social Change
June 22-24, 2012
Miami University
Oxford, OH
Proposals Due April 15, 2012

The Rouge Forum 2012 will be held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
The University’s picturesque campus is located 50 minutes northwest of Cincinnati. The conference will be held June 22-24, 2012.

Proposals for papers, panels, performances, workshops, and other multimedia presentations should include title(s) and names and contact information for presenter(s). The deadline for sending proposals is April 15. The Steering Committee will email acceptance notices by May 1.
(details at: http://rougeforum2012.wordpress.com/rf-2012-call-for-proposals/)

Greece: General Strike vs Class War from Above Greek workers walked off the job on Tuesday to protest a new barrage of austerity measures being demanded by the country’s foreign creditors in exchange for a second bailout of $170 billion without which Greece faces a potentially catastrophic default within weeks.

Coppers Sweep Occupy DC Dozens of U.S. Park Police officers in riot gear and on horseback converged before dawn Saturday on one of the nation’s last remaining Occupy sites, with police clearing away tents they said were banned under park rules. At least seven people were arrested.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/05/tp-police-clear-occupy-dc-site-7-held/

Good luck to our side,
RICH GIBSON

**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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Preoccupied 2012

Occupy London

PREOCCUPIED 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS (please feel free to circulate widely!)

PREOCCUPIED: The Words, Wounds and Workings of Occupations, Past and Present
Kulturpark Berlin, June 28-29 2012

Submit Proposals to: emjdconference@gmail.com
Due: March 16, 2012

Pairing the interdisciplinary nature of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programs with the innovation of multimedia storytelling, the PREOCCUPIED 2012 conference offers a platform for academics, activists and artists to challenge the confines of their disciplines: provoking thought, debate, and action on issues that have accelerated to global predominance in light of the recent occupations.

The conference invites papers that consider the various meanings of the word occupy and occupation. The disparate meanings of the increasingly-loaded word will be assembled in panels and a series of talks, interspersed with forays into art and activism, inviting participants to explore the roots of the current occupation movement, and its implications throughout time and place ­ in the realms of work, conquest, and protest.

Hosted by the Kulturpark Berlin, an abandoned DDR theme park, the conference will embody occupation in many ways: from its location, to its catering ­which will feature locally foraged greens and ‘recycled’ foods, courtesy of The Dinner Exchange. In collaboration with the Kulturpark and the 7th annual Berlin Biennale, international visual artists will coexist with the conference participants in the uncanny spaces of the Kulturpark. PREOCCUPIED is an unlikely conference, bringing together a diversity of people and opinions in two stimulating days of art, academics, action and interaction.

We welcome papers that address issues related to Occupation, in the broadest sense of the word. These might consider, but should by no means be limited to:

OCCUPATION OF SPACE
�    Occupation as colonization / decolonization
�    Occupied territories
�    Occupation of online spaces ­ social media and virtual action
�    The city as political space

OCCUPATION OF TIME
�    Occupation as employment, as a calling
�    Occupation in the humanities
�    Preoccupations and professions

THE OCCUPATIONS
�    Occupation as protest
�    Occupation as strategy
�    Occupation as change
�    Occupations worldwide
�    Art as occupation/resistance

Some of the presentations of papers will be video-recorded, and thus a certain use of interactivity, audiovisual materials and storytelling is encouraged. While not all of the talks need be filmed, the goal of creating engaged, concise talks should apply to all. Those that opt to have their talks filmed may see them featured on the conference’s website.

Paper Proposals

Scholars from all areas of the Humanities are invited to submit proposals for contributions. The conference languages are English, French, and German. Proposals may be written in any of the above languages.

We ask prospective participants to submit a short (1-2 page) CV and an abstract (between 250-500 words) that outlines the paper’s topic, methodology and argument, as well as how the prospective participant’s research interests relate to the theme of the conference.

Please note that individuals may submit only one paper proposal, either to the open call or as a part of a pre-constituted panel. Panels should number no more than three people, need not be limited to academics, and must include a single proposal of 500 words and separate CVs for all of the proposed panel members.

Please submit all CVs and proposals before March 16, 2012 to: emjdconference@gmail.com

Find more information about the conference online at: http://emjdconferences.wordpress.com

Thank you,
Samara Chadwick
Organizing Committee
PREOCCUPIED 2012

**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  

‘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

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

Fault Lines of Revolution

Revolution

FAULT LINES OF REVOLUTION

CALL FOR PAPERS

Fault Lines of Revolution!
The Fourth Annual Conference in Critical Social Research

Friday, May 4th, 2012
Carleton University
Ottawa, ON

In the last year the world has witnessed many destabilizing movements against neoliberalism, austerity, and authoritarian regimes: Popular movements from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall Street have revitalized the belief in the organizational capacities of peoples to challenge authority and transform relations of power. Postcolonial struggles from those of the Athivasis to the Tamils have echoed the subaltern voices of the world. Imperial wars from Afghanistan to the Somali territories have stimulated discussions on popular armed struggle and renewed criticisms of imperialism. 

Neoliberal challenges to organized labour, from the continued neglect of precarious working conditions to policies of austerity, have in some instances united workers in defiance and solidarity. These movements are clearly challenging the status quo in different forms and diverse spaces. Yet it remains to be seen how these destabilizing forces will unfold, and whether they will provoke the fault lines of a much broader revolutionary shake-up.

In light of present global political economic context, we intend to re-visit theoretical and practical issues concerning these ‘revolutionary’ moments and spaces by asking critical questions:

    • What can be learned from (un)finished revolutions of the past?
    • How should the revolutionary moments of the present be unpacked theoretically?
    • What are the ideological inspirations (if any) of these revolutionary attempts?
    • What do today’s social movements have to say about relations of race, class, and gender?
    • How do feminist approaches to politics respond to these movements?
    • What are the implications of contemporary revolutionary movements?
    • Where does revolutionary philosophy stand with regard to the present moment of dissent?
    • What does the future hold in store given present environmental and ecological crises?

The Critical Social Research Collaborative (CSRC) is inviting academics, researchers, graduate students and activists to submit proposals for panels and individual presentations that explore the fault lines of revolution’ from diverse theoretical and methodological orientations in historical and/or contemporary contexts.

Please send your proposal, including an abstract of no more than 250 words, title, your name and a brief biography to the conference organizing committee at csrcproject@live.ca by February 20, 2012. 
Decisions on proposals will be communicated in mid-March. Accepted submissions may be solicited for publication.

The CSRC is dedicated to organizing inclusive events; there will be no registration fee.

Keynote Address by Professor Emeritus Michael Lebowitz, Simon Fraser University

The Critical Social Research Collaborative (http://www.csrcproject.ca) is an interdisciplinary research collective consisting of students, faculty, trade union and community activists based atCarletonUniversity. We aim to promote, support and create a platform for the sharing and dissemination of critical perspectives and research conducted on the defining social issues of our time.

**END**

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

Revolution

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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