The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism

THE ENIGMA OF CAPITAL AND THE CRISES OF CAPITALISM
By David Harvey

Book launch and panel discussion with author David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY Graduate Center and Director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics.

Discussants:

Leo Panitch is Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University (Canada) and editor of the Socialist Register.

Frances Fox Piven is Professor in the faculties of political science and sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Professor Piven is the author of, among other books, Poor People's Movements and The New Class War. She is currently at work on a book on American labor union strategies in response to globalization and the new economy.

William Tabb is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Political Science and Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of numerous books including The Amoral Elephant: Globalization and Capitalist Development in the Early 21st Century (Monthly Review Press, 2001).

Melissa Wright is an Associate Professor in Geography and in the Program on Women's Studies, Pennsylvania State University. Author of Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism. New York and London: Routledge, 2006.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH, 2010
PROSHANSKY AUDITORIUM
7 PM – 9 PM
CUNY GRADUATE CENTER, 365 FIFTH AVE @ 34TH STREET

Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale.

'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)

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Meeting on 'Marx at the Margins' with Kevin B. Anderson

MEETING ON ‘MARX AT THE MARGINS’ – WITH KEVIN B. ANDERSON

Location: Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA 94609

Saturday September 25th, 20102:00 PM

Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies
Author event Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies by Kevin B. Anderson

Marx’s critique of capital was far broader than is usually supposed. To be sure, he concentrated on the labor-capital relation within Western Europe and North America. But at the same time, he expended considerable time and energy on the analysis of non-Western societies, as well as race, ethnicity, and nationalism. While some of these writings show a problematically unilinear perspective and, on occasion, traces of ethnocentrism, the overall trajectory of Marx’s writings was toward a critique of national, ethnic, and colonial oppression and toward an appreciation of resistance movements in these spheres. In 1848, in the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels espoused an implicitly and problematically unilinear concept of social progress. Precapitalist societies, especially China, which they characterized in ethnocentric terms as a “most barbarian” society, were destined to be forcibly penetrated and modernized by this new and dynamic social system. In his 1853 articles for the New York Tribune, Marx extended these perspectives to India, while viewing the communal social relations and communal property of the Indian village as a solid foundation for “Oriental despotism.” Postcolonial and postmodern thinkers, most notably Edward Said, have criticized the Communist Manifesto and the 1853 India writings as a form of Orientalist knowledge fundamentally similar to the colonialist mindset.

END

I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Discourse, Power and Resistance in Education Conference 2011

DISCOURSE, POWER AND RESISTANCE IN EDUCATION CONFERENCE 2011

DPR10: Discourse, Power, Resistance Conference 2011

Theme: CHANGING EDUCATION
University of Plymouth, United Kingdom, 13-15 April 2011Sponsored by the School of Secondary and Further Education Studies

Official DPR Conference Website: http://www.dprconference.com

The DPR conference returns to Plymouth in its tenth year, bringing together learners, teachers, researchers and policy-makers from the international education community to look at the crises in contemporary education, not just at post-compulsory level but across the board from pre-school to post-graduate. The need for change in education has never been more urgent. The conference will bring colleagues from around the world to think radically about education changing, and needing to change.

The conference will be divided into 7 streams:
- What is the point of education?- Anticipative education: policy and practice- Education in a funding crisis- Widening participation: for real- Education across the boundaries of faith: challenging fear and hatred- The future of post-compulsory education: the internet and the role of the university- DPR: open

The DPR conference is a site for the radical critique of discourse, power and resistance within and beyond the discipline of education, looking at concerns which are currently troubling learners, teachers and researchers engaged at all stages from pre-school to postgraduate. The conference looks more widely at the impact on education of powerful interests in and behind the policy-making apparatus as they exert their influence to reshape the goals and ethos of learning, teaching and research. DPR transgresses inter-disciplinary boundaries, attracting scholars from across the humanities and social sciences. A continuing concern of the conference is the contested issue of research methodology and the related issues of the problem of knowledge.

The conference has an international reputation, drawing delegates from a wide range of the developed and developing nations and attracting world-class keynote speakers.

The DPR journal, Power and Education (www.wwwords.co.uk/POWER), was launched in 2009.

For full information, including a Call for Papers and registration details, please visit the conference website: http://www.dprconference.com

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All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com
Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Save Wanstead Flats! Mass Community Picnic!

SAVE WANTSEAD FLATS! MASS COMMUNITY PICNIC!

Sunday 5th September

All welcome at 1.00pm on the spot to the west of Centre Road where the police want to site their Olympic operations base in 2012

Ever since over 250 attended a packed public meeting in July, residents living near Wanstead Flats have been demanding answers about plans by the City of London Corporation to allow the Metropolitan Police to base its Olympic operational centre on the Flats in 2012. In order to push this proposal through, the Corporation would need to amend an Act of Parliament that has protected Wanstead Flats for community use for well over a century.

Local people want to know why the proposed site for this police base, west of Centre Road, has been chosen, how that decision was made and why the Olympic stadium site itself cannot be used. There has been no consultation, even though the plans involve locating a fenced, high-security compound – with building, parking areas, stables and apparently even police holding cells – for at least 120 days and so close to residential neighbourhoods.

The Save Wanstead Flats Campaign is organised by local people and on Sunday 5th September, we would like to invite you to show your opposition to the City of London Corporation’s plans by joining us for a picnic – occupying the very spot where the police operations base would be constructed.

Bring Food! Picnic blankets, your children, and your friends! Meet all your neighbours who also want to save Wanstead Flats!

Please copy this and pass on to friends and neighbours and those concerned with the environment and wildlife in London

Don’t give the property developers, banks and corporate lawyers a chance and a legal loophole to ruin Wanstead Flats!

C/o Community Involvement Unit, Durning Hall, Earlham Grove, London E7 9AB

Email: savewanstedflats@gmail.com

Save Wanstead Flats Campaign: http://www.savewansteadflats.org.uk/

SWFC on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protect-Wanstead-Flats-and-Epping-Forest/142307172448681

Article in The Socialist, ‘Save Wanstead Flats’, 4th August 2010: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/10074/04-08-2010/save-wanstead-flats

‘Does Wanstead Flats Really Need Saving?’ by Flash Bristow, in the Epping Forest, Waltham Forest and Wanstead and Woodford Guardian, 24th August 2010, online at: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/blogs/8350467.Does_Wanstead_Flats_really_need_saving_/?ref=rss

‘Plan to sell off nature reserves risks ‘austerity countryside’, by Juliette Jowitt, Severin Carrell and John Vidal, The Guardian, Friday 13th August 2010, at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/13/plan-sell-nature-reserves-austerity-countryside

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

Marxsite is Back!

MARXSITE IS BACK!

After months of technical problems and staffing difficulties, Marxsite returns. Expect a cascade of postings as we struggle to catch up with the momentous events which the current phase of the capitalist crisis has unleashed.

Please let other people know. During our absence the site continued getting more than 1000 hits a day, despite not updating. This can only be because of the range of accumulated materials and links that the site now deploys.

Marxsite is at: http://www.marxsite.com/

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

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies - Vol.8 No.1 (August 2010)

JOURNAL FOR CRITICAL EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES – VOLUME 8 NUMBER 1 (August 2010)

JCEPS 8(1), AUGUST 2010

Table of Contents

1. Re-thinking normative democracy and the political economy of education. Paul R. Carr, Lakehead University (Orillia), Ontario, Canada

2. Neoliberal Ideology and Public Higher Education in the United States. Daniel B. Saunders, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

3. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? a reply to Dave Hill’s ‘Race and Class in Britain: a critique of the statistical basis for critical race theory in Britain’. David Gillborn, Institute of Education, University of London, England

4. The New Assimilationism: The Push for Patriotic Education in the United States Since September 11. Liz Jackson, Educational Policies Consultant, Republic of South Africa

5. Neo-Liberalism and the evolvement of China’s education policies on migrant children’s schooling. Jie Dong, Tilburg University, the Netherlands

6. Freire: Informal Education as Protest. Susanne Butte, Walden University, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

7. Some Social Consequences of Faith-based Schooling: A Comparative Study of Denominational Secondary Education in Thanet and Lille. Paul J. Welsh, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, Kent, UK

8. Access for Whom, Access to What? The Role of the “Disadvantaged Student” Market in the Rise of For-profit Higher Education in the United States. Bonnie K. Fox Garrity, Mark J. Garrison, and Roger C. Fiedler, D’Youville College, Buffalo, New York, USA

9. “Why Does Wearing A Yellow Bib Make Us Different”?: A Case Study of Explaining Discrimination in a West of Scotland Secondary (High) School. Henry Maitles, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland and Erin McKelvie, Classroom teacher, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow, Scotland

10. Manufacturing (il)literacy in Alberta’s classrooms: The case of an oil-dependent state. Albert Hodgkins, University of Alberta, Canada

11. ‘Media Mediators’: Advocating an Alternate Paradigm for Critical Adult Education ICT Policy. Karim A. Remtulla, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

12. Schooling Ugandan Girls: a policy historiography. Mary Kabesiime, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

13. Transformation of the Turkish Vocational Training System: Capitalization, Modularization and Learning Unto Death. Ergin Bulut, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Illinois, USA

14. Alternative State Formation in Colonial Hong Kong: Patriotic Schools, 1946-1976. Lau Chui Shan, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China

15. American Education Discourse: Language, Values, and U.S. Federal Policy. Chad Becker, Indiana State University, Indiana, USA

16. Book Review Symposium: Peters, Michael, Lankshear, Colin, and Olssen, Mark. (2003). Critical Theory and the Human Condition: Founders and Praxis. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Gabriela Walker, Alexander Rakochy, Margaret Fitzpatrick, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA; Colegio Roosevelt - The American School of Lima, Peru

17. Book Review Symposium: Kahn, Richard (2010). Critical Literacy, Ecopedagogy, and Planetary Crisis. New York: Peter Lang. Samuel Day Fassbinder, Greg William Misiaszek, Jorunn Thordarson, DeVry University, Illinois, USA; University of California, Los Angeles, USA; University of North

JCEPS: http://www.jceps.com

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
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International Conferene on Critical Education

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT (13 August 2010)

The Department of Education, University of Athens, Greece is hosting the

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION
12-16 July 2011, Athens, Greece

Organized by the journals:

JOURNAL OF CRITICAL POLICY EDUCATIONAL STUDIES (UK)
CULTURAL LOGIC (USA/CANADA)
KRITIKI (GREECE)
RADICAL NOTES (INDIA)

The venue of the Conference will be the city of Athens and possibly the surrounding areas.

Conference and Local Organizing Committee Coordinators:
Dave Hill, (Middlesex University, UK)
Peter McLaren, (UCLA, USA)
Kostas Skordoulis, (University of Athens, Greece)

Keynote Speakers:
To be announced, to include Dave Hill, (Middlesex University, UK), Peter McLaren, (UCLA, USA), Ravi Kumar (Jamia Milia Islamia University, Delhi, India). There will also be keynote speakers from Greece. Key women Marxist writers are being invited as Plenary speakers.

Important Dates

Participants should submit an abstract of 300 words by: 15 December 2010.
Notification of acceptance of paper presentation by: 15 January 2011.
Full papers should be submitted by: 30 May 2011.

The papers will be peer reviewed and published in the Conference Proceedings.

Selected papers will be published in Special Issues of JCEPS, Cultural Logic and KRITIKI.

Presentations
There will be 6 plenary presentations (two per day), each plenary session lasting one hour. Other papers will have 30 minutes (inclusive of the paper presentation plus discussion)


Conference Fee

The Conference fee is 300 Euros. (approx $380, or £245). The fee covers participation in the conference, the book of abstracts, coffee/tea/refreshments during conference breaks and participation in the conference dinner in a traditional taverna.

Participation of unemployed, and of colleagues from the third world is free/ no fees.

Further Information about the Invited speakers will be announced in the second circular. As will the contact address and registration details for the conference. Though in the meantime it would be interesting to see who might intend to offer papers… send me a provisional (non-binding) indication of interest if you like? (dave.hill35@btopenworld.com and dave6@mdx.ac.uk ) (It’s not mandatory to let me know in advance… … paper abstracts can be submitted until 15 Dec 2010.

Many thanks

Dave Hill, Kostas Skordoulis and Peter McLaren

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All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Victor Rikowski Playing at Forest Roots

VICTOR RIKOWSKI PLAYING AT FOREST ROOTS

Victor Rikowski will be playing at the Forest Roots on Friday 23rd July. He will be performing some country music and one of his own compositions.

Victor plays in Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at Bangor University, north Wales. You can find out more about this band and listen to their music by going to: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/ and the Cold Hands & Quarter Moon profile on MySpace: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/

Victor’s PowerPoint story (in 6 parts), The Ockress, can be found at: http://www.theockress.com

Acoustica are the headline band at Forest Roots. They play a varied selection of Irish folk and modern acoustic music. There will also be The Flats Family band, and guest and surprise musicians.

So come along to Forest Roots on Friday, 23rd July!

It starts 8.30pm at the usual venue: The Forest Gate Hotel function room, Godwin Road, Forest Gate.

Free entry (with a whip-round)

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

Historical Materialism Conference 2010: Extended Abstract Deadline

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM CONFERENCE 2010

Extended Abstract Deadline

Due to high demand, the deadline for submitting abstracts for the 2010 Historical Materialism Conference in London has now been extended to 1 JULY 2010. This will be the last extension.

'Crisis and Critique': Historical Materialism Annual London Conference 2010,

Central London, Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th November*

Call for Papers

Notwithstanding repeated invocations of the ‘green shoots of recovery’, the effects of the economic crisis that began in 2008 continue to be felt around the world. While some central tenets of the neoliberal project have been called into question, bank bailouts, cuts to public services and attacks on working people's lives demonstrate that the ruling order remains capable of imposing its agenda. Many significant Marxist analyses have already been produced of the origins, forms and prospects of the crisis, and we look forward to furthering these debates at HM London 2010. We also aim to encourage dialogue between the critique of political economy and other modes of criticism – ideological, political, aesthetic, philosophical – central to the Marxist tradition.

In the 1930s, Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht projected a journal to be called ‘Crisis and Critique’. In very different times, but in a similar spirit, HM London 2010 aims to serve as a forum for dialogue, interaction and debate between different strands of critical-Marxist theory. Whether their focus is the study of the capitalist mode of production's theoretical and practical foundations, the unmasking of its ideological forms of legitimation or its political negation, we are convinced that a renewed and politically effective Marxism will need to rely on all the resources of critique in the years ahead. Crises produce periods of ideological and political uncertainty. They are moments that put into question established cognitive and disciplinary compartmentalisations, and require a recomposition at the level of both theory and practice. HM London 2010 hopes to contribute to a broader dialogue on the Left aimed at such a recomposition, one of whose prerequisites remains the young Marx’s call for the ‘ruthless criticism of all that exists’.

We are seeking papers that respond to the current crisis from a range of Marxist perspectives, but also submissions that try to think about crisis and critique in their widest ramifications. HM will also consider proposals on themes and topics of interest to critical-Marxist theory not directly linked to the call for papers (we particularly welcome contributions on non-Western Marxism and on empirical enquiries employing Marxist methods).

While Historical Materialism is happy to receive proposals for panels, the editorial board reserves the right to change the composition of panels or to reject individual papers from panel proposals. We also expect all participants to attend the whole conference and not simply make ‘cameo’ appearances. We cannot accommodate special requests for specific slots or days, except in highly exceptional circumstances.

*Please note that, in order to allow for expected demand, this year the conference will be three and a half days’ long, starting on the Thursday afternoon.

Please submit a title and abstract of between 200 and 300 words by registering at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/annual7/submit by 1 JULY 2010

Possible themes include:

• Crisis and left recomposition

• Critique and crisis in the global south

• Anti-racist critique

• Marxist and non-Marxist theories of crisis

• Capitalist and anti-capitalist uses of the crisis

• Global dimensions of the crisis

• Comparative and historical accounts of capitalist crisis

• Ecological and economic crisis

• Critical theory today

• Finance and the crisis

• Neoliberalism and legitimation crisis

• Negation and negativity

• Feminism and critique

• Political imaginaries of crisis and catastrophe

• The critique of everyday life (Lefebvre, the Situationists etc.)

• The idea of critique in Marx, his predecessors and contemporaries

• Art criticism, political critique and the critique of political economy

• Geography and crisis, geography and the critique of political economy

• Right-wing movements and crisis

• Critiques of the concept of crisis

• New forms of critique in the social and human sciences

• Aesthetic critique

• Marxist literary and cultural criticism

• Reports on recent evolution of former USSR countries and China

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
“Daystar” by Will Roberts, at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6f_pA5XUPk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Middlesex University Philosophy Campaign - Update 26 May 2010

MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY PHILOSOPHY CAMPAIGN – UPDATE 26th MAY 2010

Campaign update Wednesday 26 May 2010 (http://savemdxphil.com/)

1. John Protevi and Todd May have posted a petition calling for an international academic boycott of Middlesex University, http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/academic-boycott-of-middlesex-university.html. Several hundred well-placed people have already signed it, in the space of a few hours. Please spread the word about this, far & wide.

2. The poet Michael Rosen renounced his visiting professor at Middlesex today. He explained that "On account of the action of Middlesex University over the Philosophy Department, I would like to inform Professor Ahmad that I would like to renounce my visiting professorship. I do not wish to be a visiting professor at Middlesex University. Best wishes, Michael Rosen."

3. This morning, professors Osborne and Hallward were denied managerial permission to attend an emergency meeting of their union, the UCU, scheduled for Friday 28 May. They were also denied permission to attend the UCU annual general meeting scheduled for next Wednesday, and a meeting of the University's self-constituted Professors Group.

4. Collective pressure to greylist i.e. boycott Middlesex University is growing rapidly. The external examiners for the Middlesex Philosophy department have already announced their refusal to collaborate with next month's assessment boards, and colleagues in other departments may soon follow suit. A boycott by external examiners will have a significant and immediate impact on the University.

5. Last Friday Middlesex management told the four suspended students that their hearings would take place this Friday 28 May at the Hendon campus. Fiona Fall, who will preside over the hearings, suddenly decided this morning that it would be 'better for the students' to hold the meeting at Trent Park instead, since it is their 'home campus.' The four students explained that they would nonetheless prefer for the hearing to go ahead at Hendon as originally planned. But Fiona Fall has made up her mind. 'As my understanding is that a rally of support is being organised at Hendon,' she told one of the students, 'I have decided that Trent Park continues to be the best most calm place to hold the hearings for both students and the panel.'

6. Confirmed speakers for the rally at Hendon on Thursday 27 May from 4pm include Alex Callinicos (KCL), Richard George (Campaign for Better Transport; Plane Stupid), Paul Gilroy (LSE), Nina Power (Roehampton), Jim Wolfreys (UCU), among others. Please circulate the rally announcement and flyer (http://savemdxphil.com/) to everyone who might be sympathetic.

The Campaign
26 May 2010.

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
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic
Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski