Monday, December 31, 2012

Remembering the Impossible Tomorrow: Italian Thought and the Recent Crisis in Capitalism



REMEMBERING THE IMPOSSIBLE TOMORROW: ITALIAN THOUGHT AND THE RECENT CRISIS IN CAPITALISM

A Conference organised by Keith Crome, Lars Iyer, William Large, Andrea Mura and Stevphen Shukaitis

The British Society for Phenomenology 2013 Annual Conference
5th- 7th April, 2013
St. Hilda’s College, Oxford

During Marx’s time radical thought was formed from a convergence of three sources: German philosophy, English economics, and French politics. In the introduction to Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics (1996) Michael Hardt argued that these tides had shifted, with radical movements drawing from French philosophy, US economics, and Italian politics. More recently, Matteo Pasquinelli has argued that ‘Italian theory’ has attained an academic hegemony comparable to that held by French philosophy in the 1980s.

But despite the proliferation of analysis and organizing drawing from and inspired by the history of autonomous politics in Italy, where are these voices today? In 2012, if you listened to the mainstream politicians and economic experts and no-one else, you would hardly know that there was any financial crisis in 2008. You might have a faint recollection that for a brief moment alternative voices were heard in the media, but now it as if nothing at all had happened.  The waters that once had parted have now engulfed us again. It is the same voices articulating the same tired ideas as the whole of Europe slides into the nightmare of austerity, despite the fact they do not appear to have any relation to reality, and even those who speak them seem exhausted and worn out.

For some time now, many of us have noticed that there have been different voices, and they began speaking many years before 2008 warning us of an impending disaster. These voices were coming from Italy. Perhaps because of their own experience, the radical Italian thinkers never believed the logic of the market could solve its own problems or that life and capital were one and the same.  Our hope is to draw from this history as well as listen to some of the new generation of Italian political thinkers, to share their ideas, offer an alternative diagnosis of the present, and perhaps even a suggestion of what different future might look like.

Confirmed Speakers:
Dario Gentili
Paolo Do
Federico Chicchi
Christian Marazzi
Anna Simone
Franco Berardi
Tony O’Connor
Sinead Murphy

British Society for Phenomenology and Conference Details: http://britishphenomenology.org.uk/

***END***

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com  

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Thursday, December 20, 2012

The Institute of Art and Ideas


THE INSTITUTE OF ART AND IDEAS

Watch / Think / Share – Philosophy for Our Times

Cutting edge debate and talks from the world's leading thinkers, free for everyone

Includes Why Marx was Right – a video by Terry Eagleton: http://iai.tv/video/why-marx-was-right

“Once the darling of the intelligentsia, Marxism has been out of fashion for at least a couple of decades. Philosopher and critic Terry Eagleton makes the case for Marx's resurrection, challenging objections and explaining why his thought remains as relevant as ever” (IAI website).

IAI website: http://iai.tv/

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

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:

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

University for Strategic Optimism


UNIVERSITY FOR STRATEGIC OPTIMISM

A university based on the principle of free and open education, a return of politics to the public, and the politicisation of public space.

About

Our basic public services, we are told, are simply too expensive. They must be thrown under the wheels of the megalithic debt that bears down upon us. They must be privatised, corporatised and commodified. All this so we can ensure the continuation of a system that funnels wealth into the hands of a privileged few. This failed and flailing market system, we are told, is the only one that is possible, drastic cuts the only alternative, the fairest thing to do. Any deviation from the path laid out for us will unleash the worst imaginable, a media-imagined Worst that threatens from our darkened skies.

The UfSO offers an emphatic No! to this description of our current situation, and sees instead a magnificent opportunity, a multiplication of possibilities, the opening of a space in which we might think about, and bring about, a fairer and and more fulfilling society for all. In short: Many good reasons for strategic optimism! We urge a rampant questioning of the ideological basis for the relentless privatisation and privation of our lives: Are these cuts incoherent, as some have said? Or is this a specific move/set of moves on the part of neoliberal capital? Are labour, education, healthcare, and the environment, mere commodities, to be consumed by those who will redeem them as more capital? Can the opposition to cuts begin moving towards a society ‘fit for purpose’? Is it still easier to imagine The End-of-the-World than The End-of-Capitalism?

University for Strategic Optimism: http://universityforstrategicoptimism.wordpress.com/

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski
Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Monday, December 17, 2012

Rouge Forum Dispatch - 16th December 2012


ROUGE FORUM DISPATCH – 16th DECEMBER 2012

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

The Dispatch goes on hiatus until the new year.

Please remember the Rouge Forum Conference 2013.

Winning the Class Struggle Against Corporate Education Reform

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

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

Rouge Forum 2013 Call for Proposals
The core issue of our time is the clash of the real promise for perpetual war and booming inequality met by the potential of connecting reason to power with organized mass class conscious resistance in
schools, on the job, in communities, and in the military … and what you do counts!

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

* Overall, what do we need to know and what do we need to do to win against corporate education reform in our classrooms?
* In what ways are our classrooms, schools, universities, unions, etc. occupied by capitalism, the military, racism, inequality?
* And what do these occupations demand from us pedagogically? What are the obstacles that must be overcome to achieve democratic education?
* What can we learn from Wisconsin 2011, the Occupy Movement, and the Chicago Teacher’s Strike to make us smarter and stronger in our struggle against corporate education reform?
* How do we educate to liberate ourselves from the impact of empire? How do we push back against the imperializing of our classrooms and communities?
* How do we occupy our classrooms, schools universities, and unions and communities in an effort to create education that is in the public interests?

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

Good luck to our side,
Rich Gibson

*****END*****

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

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:

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


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

New Articles and Features in the International Marxist-Humanist


NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES IN THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-HUMANIST (December 2012)

***FEATURED ARTICLES:
U.S. Voters Repudiate Far Right, But Still Face Austerity Capitalism under Obama -- by Kevin Anderson

Helen Macfarlane - The Radical Feminist Admired by Karl Marx -- by Louise Yeoman (audio and print, originally from BBC radio)

Marxism and Religion: A Complete and Annotated Bibliography –- by Roland Boer

The On-Going Relevance of Marxist-Humanism –- by Sandra Rein

**** OTHER ARTICLES
Review of Peter Hudis, Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism –- by Dan Swain (originally published in Marx and Philosophy Review of Books)

***OTHER LANGUAGES
[Spanish] Los votantes estadounidenses repudian la extrema derecha, pero aún se enfrentan al capitalismo de austeridad bajo Obama -- Kevin Anderson

[Croatian] Od globaln krize do prevladavanja kapitala –- Peter Hudis

***RECENT BOOKS OF INTEREST:
MARX’S CONCEPT OF THE ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM – by Peter Hudis 
Historical Materialism Series, Brill Academic Publishers, hardcover 2012, paperback 2013
[This is one of the best books I have read in the last 20 years. It is of paramount importance for the struggles ahead and humanity’s quest for release from the value-form of labour and our break-out into realms of freedomGlenn Rikowski]

MARX ON GENDER AND THE FAMILY: A CRITICAL STUDY – by Heather Brown
Historical Materialism Series, Brill Academic Publishers, hardcover 2012, paperback 2013

THE DUNAYEVSKAYA-MARCUSE-FROMM CORRESPONDENCE, 1954-1978: DIALOGUES ON HEGEL, MARX, AND CRITICAL THEORY -- Edited by Kevin B. Anderson and Russell Rockwell, Lexington Books, paperback 2012

1839: THE CHARTIST INSURRECTION – By David Black and Chris Ford, Unkant Publishers, paperback 2012
[This is an exciting and well-crafted account of Chartism at its glorious peak. I have used the book and the related video it in my teaching. For more on here see: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/promotional-film-for-1839-the-chartist-insurrection-by-david-black-and-chris-ford/ and http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/1839-the-chartist-insurrection/ -- Glenn Rikowski]

The International Marxist-Humanist is the web publication of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization (IMHO). The IMHO aims to develop and project a viable vision of a truly new, human society that can give direction to today’s many liberation struggles, whether of labor, women, youth, or racial/ethnic and sexual minorities. It seeks to work out a unity of theory and practice, worker and intellectual, and philosophy and organization. We ground our ideas in the totality of Marx’s Marxism and Raya Dunayevskaya’s body of ideas and upon the unique philosophic contributions that have guided Marxist-Humanism since its founding in the 1950s. 

Also contact the above address or more information about our publication or our organization, or to learn about events in your geographical area (if available).

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale



TAX THE RICH: AN ANIMATED FAIRY TALE

Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale is narrated by Ed Asner, with animation by Mike Konopacki. Written and directed by Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers. An 8- minute video about how we arrived at this moment of poorly funded public services and widening economic inequality.
Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don't want to pay taxes anymore. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren't so sure. This land bears a startling resemblance to our land.

For more info, go to http://www.cft.org


There is a critique of this video: Tax the Rich: A Critiquehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA21fu9Y4uA  



**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
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:

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