New From Haymarket Books

Education and Capitalism
Struggles for Learning and Liberation

Edited by Jeff Bale and Sarah Knopp

http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Education-and-Capitalism
http://www.facebook.com/educationandcapitalism

With contributions from:

Rose Aguilar
Megan Behrent
Bill Bigelow
Michele Bollinger
John T. Green
Jesse Hagopian
Adrienne Johnstone
Brian Jones
Jessie Muldoon
Gillian Russom
Adam Sanchez
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Elizabeth Terzakis
Dan Trocolli

"This book is a breath of fresh air! The chapters take on central issues in education with a clear vision of what could be. Class, race, language and culture become not just educational 'problems,' but tools with which to rethink the future. A stellar addition to books in our field."
--Jean Anyon, author of Marx and Education

"At a time when the capitalist class and their corporate allies in the media have waged an all-out assault on teachers, students, and public education, Education and Capitalism responds by speaking truth to power....Drawing from the lived experiences of the editors and their students, and informed by cutting edge sociopolitical critique, Education and Capitalism clears the path for new understanding of the current assault on public schooling and points towards important directions if we are to save it."
--Peter McLaren, author of Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution

"Education and Capitalism is a timely and decisive book that provides a framework for those of us engaged in the fight for better schools, stronger unions, and increased standard of living for all."
--Jesse Sharkey, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union

"A must-read for anyone interested in understanding the fundamental injustice of the corporate reform of public education in the U.S."
--Wayne Au, editor of Rethinking Schools

A CONSERVATIVE, BIPARTISAN CONSENSUS dominates the discussion about what's wrong with our schools and how to fix them. It offers "solutions" that scapegoat teachers, vilify unions, and impose a market mentality. But in each case, students lose. This book, written by teacher-activists, speaks back to that elite consensus and offers an alternative vision of learning for liberation. Inside are essays that trace Marxist theories of education under capitalism; outline the historical educational experiences of emergent bilingual and African American students; recap the history of teachers' unions; analyze the neoliberal attack on public schools under Obama; critically appraise Paolo Freire's legacy; and make the historical link between social revolution and struggles for literacy.

SARAH KNOPP is a public high school teacher in Los Angeles and an activist with United Teachers Los Angeles.

JEFF BALE is assistant professor of second language education at Michigan State University. Their work has appeared in Rethinking Schools, International Socialist Review, and CounterPunch.

Haymarket Books
Available March 2012
Trade paper $17.00
312 pages
ISBN: 9781608461646
For review or desk copies, contact Sarah Macaraeg, sarah@...

For more information, visit:
http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Education-and-Capitalism

or link to the book's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/educationandcapitalism

The Crisis and the Left: Dispatches from the Socialist Register with Frances Fox Piven

Sunday May 6, 4 PM at LeftWords Festival

Ryerson Student Centre, 55 Gould Street, Toronto

Frances Fox Piven, author of Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven? The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate, and David McNally author of Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance join Leo Panitch and Greg Albo to launch the latest issue of the Socialist Register.

Reception to follow at the Ryerson Student Centre.

Consider attending the LeftWords Festival all day:
http://mayworks.ca/calendar.html#6

for more information: frederick.peters1968@...
+1.416.580.4630

The How Class Works - 2012 conference schedule, registration, housing, and other information are all up on the Center for Study of Working Class Life Website:

http://www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass/conference/2012/

The conference opens the evening of Wednesday June 6 with poetry and music.  The sessions begin Thursday morning and go through Saturday afternoon, June 9.  There are over 50 sessions with almost 200 presentations by participants from 15 countries on all continents but Antarctica - graduate students and senior scholars, artists, union and social movement activists.

Discount registration rates are available through April 30.  Registration rates rise by about ten percent thereafter.

THE LEFT IN LATIN AMERICA

History, Present, Perspectives

International Symposium

                                                      University of Sao Paulo - FFLCH - History Department               

September 11, 12 and 13, 2012 (from 9am to 10pm)

Schedule

Tuesday, September 11

OPENING: Emília Viotti da Costa

09:00 h. (AH): FROM PETISM TO LULISM: THE PT YESTERDAY AND TODAY: André Singer - Lincoln Secco - Tales Ab’Sáber - Cyro Garcia

09:00 h. (AG): LEFT, DICTATORSHIPS AND HUMAN RIGHTS Pedro Pomar - Jorge Souto Maior - Olgária Matos - Sergio Adorno

09:00 h. (CPJ): INTELECTUALS AND MARXISM IN LATIN AMERICA: Bernardo Ricupero - Lidiane Soares Rodrigues - Marcos Napolitano - Maurício Cardoso

14:00 h. (AH): COMMUNISM IN THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL: Milton Pinheiro - Apoena Cosenza - Frederico Falcão - Marly Vianna

14:00 h. (AG): CHINA AND LATIN AMERICA: Wilson N. Barbosa - Marcos Cordeiro Pires - Luis Antonio Paulino - Vladimir Milton Pomar

14:00 h. (CPJ): CUBA: PAST AND PRESENT OF THE REVOLUTION: Luiz E. Simões de Souza - Joana Salém - Silvia Miskulin - José R. Máo Jr.

17:00 h. (AH): NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY AND CONTINENTAL INTEGRATION: Ildo Sauer - Ariovaldo U. de Oliveira - Mónica Arroyo - Raimundo Rodrigues Pereira

17:00 h. (AG): COMPENSATORY SOCIAL PROGRAMS: THE WAY OUT OF POVERTY?: Ruy Braga - Eduardo Januario - Maria Cristina Cacciamali - Fúlvia Rosenberg

17:00 h. (CPJ):  PERU, ECUADOR, BOLIVIA: INDIANISM AND ANDINE COSMOVISION: Vivian Urquidi - Enrique Amayo - Tadeu Breda - Mónica Bruckmann

17:00 h. (RXCP): LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE: RESISTENCE DISCOURSES: Elvira Narvaja de Arnoux - Graciela Foglia - Adrián Fanjul - Pablo Gasparini

19:30 h. (AH): THE STUDENTS STRUGGLE IN LATIN AMERICA: Clara Saraiva - Alejandro Lipcovich - Lucia Sioli - Mario Costa

19:30 h. (AG): LATIN AMERICA IN INTERNATIONAL GEOPOLITICS: André Martin - Leonel Itaussu A. Mello - Rodrigo Medina Zagni - Manoel Fernandes

19:30 h. (CPJ): COMMUNISM IN LATIN AMERICA: Antonio C. Mazzeo - Marcos Del Roio - Victor Vigneron - Kennedy Ferreira

Wednesday, September 12

09:00 h. (AH): VENEZUELA AND THE BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION: Rafael Duarte Villa - Gilberto Maringoni - Flavio Benedito - Flavio Mendes

09:00 h. (AG): SOCIAL NETWORKS, DIGITAL ACTION AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM: Sergio Amadeu - Raphael Tsavkko - Rodrigo Vianna - Luiz Carlos Azenha

09:00 h. (CPJ): BOLIVIA: FROM THE POPULAR ASSEMBLY TO EVO MORALES: Everaldo Andrade - Diego Siqueira - Cristian Henkel - Igor Ojeda

14:00 h. (AH): MARXISM IN LATIN AMERICA: Michael Lowy - Osvaldo Coggiola - Luiz Bernardo Pericás - Carlos Guilherme Mota

14:00 h. (AG): MEXICO: FROM ZAPATA TO ZAPATISM: Waldo Lao Sánchez - Igor Fuser - Jorge Grespan - Azucena Jaso

14:00 h. (CPJ): LEFT BOOK PUBLISHERS IN LATIN AMERICA: Marisa Midori - Flamarion Maués - Rogerio Chaves  - Sandra Reimão

14:00 h. (RXCP): SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: A LEFT WING APPROACH: Renato Dagnino - Carlos Sanches - Ciro T. Correa - Marcos B. de Oliveira

17:00 h. (AH): ANARCHISM IN LATIN AMERICA: Edson Passetti - Marcos A. Silva - Ricardo Rugai - Margareth Rago

17:00 h. (AG): THE LEFT AND THE POPULISM: Maria Helena Capelato - Maria Ligia Prado - Antonio Rago - Fernando Sarti Ferreira

17:00 h. (CPJ): COLOMBIA: FROM ‘VIOLENCE’ TO THE ENDLESS WAR: Antonio Carlos R. de Moraes - Yuri Martins Fontes - Ana Carolina Ramos - Pietro Lora Alarcón

17:00 h. (RXCP): SOCIALISM AND ANTIIMPERIALISM IN LATIN AMERICA: Vitor Schincariol - Carlos César Almendra - Fabio Luis - Alexandre Hecker

19:30 h. (AH): MARXISM IN BRAZIL: Paulo Arantes - Dainis Karepovs - Armando Boito - Ricardo Musse

19:30 h. (AG): ARMED STRUGGLE IN BRAZIL: A BALANCE SHEET: Carlos Eugénio Clemente - João Quartim de Moraes - Ivan Seixas - Antonio R. Espinosa

19:30 h. (CPJ): FEMINISM AND SOCIALISM IN LATIN AMERICA: Fernanda Estima - Cecília Toledo - Sara Albieri - Janete Luzia Leite

Thursday, September 13

09:00 h. (AH): PICKETS, OCCUPIED FACTORIES, SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Néstor Pitrola - Josiane Lombardi - Atenágoras Teixeira Lopes - Rodrigo Ricupero

09:00 h. (AG):  THE LEFT AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Francisco del Moral Hernández - Mauricio Waldman - Ana Paula Salviatti - Gilson Dantas

09:00 h. (CPJ): SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY IN LATIN AMERICA: Adalberto Coutinho - Gonzalo Rojas - Lucio Flavio de Almeida - Claudio Batalha

14:00 h. (AH): THE STRUGGLE FOR LAND IN LATIN AMERICA: Gilmar Mauro - Zilda Iokoi - Horacio Martins de Carvalho - Valeria De Marcos

14:00 h. (AG): THE LEFT FRONT IN ARGENTINA (AND BRAZIL): Luis Mauro S. Magalhães - Pablo Rieznik - Valério Arcary - João Batista Araújo ‘Babá’

14:00 h. (CPJ): LATIN AMERICA: IMMUNE TO THE CRISIS?: José Menezes Gomes - Plínio de Arruda Sampaio Jr. - Leda Paulani -Ramón Peña Castro

17:00 h. (AH): THE WORKING CLASS IN LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY: Ricardo Antunes - Agnaldo dos Santos - Sean Purdy - Mauro Iasi

17:00 h. (AG): LEFT, CHURCHES, SEXUAL DIVERSITY AND HOMOPHOBIA: Laerte - Horacio Gutiérrez - Jean Wyllys - Maria Fernanda Pinto

17:00 h. (CPJ): UNIVERSITY DILEMMAS IN LATIN AMERICA: Gladys Beatriz Barreyro - Afrânio Catani - César Minto - João Flavio Moreira

17:00 h. (RXCP): PARAGUAY: FROM THE WAR TO ITAIPU: Cristiana Vasconcelos - Dorival Goncalves - Brás Batista Vaz - Filipe Canavese

19:30 h. (AH): LATIN AMERICA, THE WORLD CRISIS AND THE LEFT: Plínio de Arruda Sampaio - Jorge Altamira - Ricardo Canese - Valter Pomar

19:30 h. (AG): DRUGS, DRUG TRAFICKING  AND CAPITALISM IN LATIN AMERICA: Henrique Carneiro - Julio Delmanto - Rosana Schwartz - José Arbex

19:30 h. (CPJ): LIBERATION THEOLOGY IN THE 21^st CENTURY: Fernando Torres Londoño - Lucelmo Lacerda – Valéria Melki Busin - Jung Mo Sung

AH: History Amphitheater / AG: Geography Amphitheater/ CPJ: Caio Prado Junior/ RXCP: Reinaldo Carneiro Pessoa

On-Line Inscriptions: www.esquerdaamlatina.fflch.usp.br     

Support: GMarx - NEPHE - CEMOP - Mouro      

Free Entrance   Frequency certificates will be provided

Organization: Lincoln Secco - Osvaldo Coggiola - Rodrigo Ricupero - Jorge Grespan - Marcos A. Silva - Francisco Alambert

Co-Organization: PROLAM (Post Graduation Program in Integration of Latin America) - USP

The Longue Durée of the Far Right: Ideology, Organization, State Formation and International Relations

October 2012 (Queen Mary, University of London)

Call for Papers

The (re)emergence of far-right parties and social movements in various parts of the world - and particularly in Europe - in recent years has been widely discussed in the press and in academic commentary. In contrast to their 'revolutionary' bedfellows on the communist left, since the end of the Cold War far-right parties have come to form a significant and disturbing part of the political geography in a number of countries. Whilst their influence has been uneven - from participating in governing coalitions in Western Europe (the Austrian Freedom Party and the Italian Lega Nord) and in India (the Bharatiya Janata Party) to spawning a violent Islamophobic street movement (the English Defence League in the UK), to forming a major component of anti-imperialist movements across much of the Islamic world - their general appearance across time and space suggests that the current era is comparable to the earlier historical conjunctures of far-right mobilization in the late nineteenth century and inter-war periods. The varied forms of far-right have combined with their contrasting ideological dimensions, which has made the taxonomy of far-right something of an academic industry in itself. In particular, the far-right has come to be divided over its 'post-fascist' rhetorical commitment to (liberal) democracy as opposed to an authoritarian and demagogic populism and also between a neo-fascist commitment to a statist and protectionist model of capitalism and an embrace of much of the policy formulas of neo-liberalism by some strands of the contemporary far-right.

These developments raise a number of analytical and political questions. How distinct are these contemporary manifestations of the far-right compared to the previous historical forms of the far-right? How analytically useful is the concept of fascism in describing the generic far-right? What are the social bases of the far-right - past and present? Which methodological framework provides the most useful analytical tool to examine and understand the far-right? What of the relationship between the evolving dynamics of uneven capitalist development and geopolitical order on the determination of far-right movements - historical and contemporary?

The aim of this workshop is to promote an inter-disciplinary engagement with these issues through bringing together scholars from a range of different subject areas (IR, IPE, Geography, History, Sociology, Comparative Politics and Political Theory) to re-think the linkages between the historical, sociological and international dimensions of the far-right - as ideology, movement and state - over the longue durée from its emergence as a distinct and modern form of politics in the late nineteenth century to its more recent re-emergence in their intertwining local, national and international contexts.

Possible themes for consideration, but not limited to:

• Comparative historical case studies of far-right movements and states
• Analytical issues of comparisons and comparative methodologies
• International relations of fascist state formation processes
• Far-right movements in colonial and post-colonial contexts
• Evolving class and social compositions of the far-right
• Political economies of fascist states
• Distinctions and relations between ideologies, movements and states
• Geopolitical ordering and far-right movements and states - imperial, Cold War and post-Cold War eras
• Capitalist development, uneven, combined or  otherwise and conjunctures of crisis on processes of far-right emergence, evolution and transformation
• Geographical and spatial variations in the far-right - urban/rural, local/national, north/south
• Aesthetic representations in architecture, art and culture
• Racialized conceptions of space and territoriality in ideologies and state practices

Please send proposals (of no more than 500 words), along with biographical and institutional information to Rick Saull (r.g.saull@...) or Alex Anievas

(alexander.anievas@...) by June 4, 2012.

Call for Papers

1st INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON 'LABOR THEORY OF VALUE AND SOCIAL SCIENCES'

Thursday 18 - Friday 19 October 2012

Universidade de Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil

We invite submissions that raise (or answer) questions on Marxian Labor Theory of Value and its role in Social Sciences.

Papers are invited on the following topics:

- Labor Theory of Value and Crisis;

- Labor Theory of Value: actuality, problems, limits and outcomes.

Submission deadline of proposals: July 31, 2012.

Applicants will be informed about acceptance by August 30, 2012.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS

Please email paper in English, Portuguese or Spanish, MS Word format, of no more than 3.000 words,

to unb.gept@.... Speakers will be asked to make short 10-15 minute presentations addressing the main topics of their papers.

Papers should include the following elements: i) Paper's title; ii) Author(s)' name and affiliation; iii) Three key-words; iv) 150-word abstract; v) Contact information: mail address, country of residence, telephones and email.

Registration for accepted communications: US$ 50 to be paid at the registration desk.

For general questions and further information, please contact

Daniel Bin (Danielbin@...)

http://unbgept.blogspot.com.br/

Please submit proposals via email to unb.gept@...

1st International Conference on 'Labor Theory of Value and Social Sciences' is a two-day conference collectively organized by the Group for Study and Research on Labour (Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa sobre o Trabalho - GEPT/UnB)

MARXISM IN CULTURE

PROGRAMME FOR SUMMER TERM 2012

NEW IN PAPERBACK FROM VERSO:

POLEMICS

'Scarcely any other moral thinker of our day is as politically clear-sighted and courageously polemical, so prepared to put notions of truth and universality back on the agenda.' - TERRY EAGLETON

--------------------------------

Since ETHICS first appeared in 2001 BADIOU has come to be regarded as the most important continental philosopher alive. Polemics showcases BADIOU at his radical and often controversial best. This rich collection of essays sees the French thinker approaching such wide-ranging topics as the Balkans conflict and art history to proscriptions on the Islamic veil.

As the Eurozone debt crisis threatens many of the cultural and existential underpinnings of the French state, BADIOU, whose previous books include THE MEANING OF SARKOZY, offers a ruthless critique of the 'democratic fetish' of the parliamentary system. With MARINE LE PEN becoming an increasingly influential force in domestic politics, he also confronts the role of racial antagonism within French electoral politics.

Polemics is a series of brilliant political reflections, demolishing established opinion and dominant propaganda, and reorienting our understanding of events from the Kosovo and Iraq wars to the Paris Commune and the Cultural Revolution. With critical insight and polemical skill BADIOU presents a series of radical philosophical engagements with politics, and questions what constitutes political truth.

---------------------------------

Praise for POLEMICS

'In POLEMICS, there are withering critiques and witty demolitions of the so-called war on terror, the invasion of Iraq, the bombardment of Serbia and the pantomime of parliamentary democracy ... There is a delightful Swiftian satire on the Islamic headscarf affair and a denunciation of the racism that led to the riots in the banlieues late in 2005.'

- SIMON CRITCHLEY, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n18/simon-critchley/a-heroism-of-the-decision-a-politics-of-the-event 

'[BADIOU'S] argumentative vigour is undeniable. There is a terrific excoriation of the French burka ban as symptomatic of the enforced display of women, a trenchant series of investigations into "Uses of the Word 'Jew'", and a "Manifesto of Affirmationist Art" that is a welcome anecdote to lazy anti-modernism.'

 - STEVEN POOLE, GUARDIAN

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/dec/09/featuresreviews.guardianreview8 

 'Shaking the foundations of Western liberal democracy.'

 - TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT

---------------------------------

Alain Badiou is the author of a number of books including THE COMMUNIST HYPOTHESIS, THE MEANING OF SARKOZY, BEING AND EVENT, THEORY OF THE SUBJECT, THE LOGIC OF WORLDS and ETHICS.

---------------------------------

ISBN: 978 1 84467 763 4 $19.95 / £12.99 / $25.00CAN/ Paperback / 364 pages

-----------------------------------

For more information about POLEMICS, or to buy the book visit:

http://www.versobooks.com/books/1047-polemics

---------------------------------

Academics can request an inspection copy. For further information please go to: http://www.versobooks.com/pg/desk-copies

---------------------------------

Visit Verso's website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers:http://www.versobooks.com 

Become a fan of Verso on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verso-Books/205847279448577

 And get updates on Twitter too!

http://twitter.com/VersoBooks

April Haymarket Newsletter!

April 2012 

Happy Spring from Haymarket Books! There are a slew of exciting titles, updates, and discounts in the April newsletter.  Don't forget to browse our new Spring and Fall 2012 catalog

The Haymarket Martyrs, Our Namesake 

We take inspiration and courage from our namesakes, the Haymarket Martyrs, who gave their lives fighting for a better world. Their 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day, which gave us May Day, the international workers' holiday, reminds workers around the world that ordinary people can organize and struggle for their own liberation. Read More:

May Day Specials

Historical Materialism Toronto
York University
11-13 May

The 2012 Historical Materialism Toronto Conference programme is now available. Follow the link below for a PDF. No further changes to the dates and times of sessions will be possible. Please note that room numbers have not yet been assigned. All sessions will happen in the Accolade West building at York.

http://www.yorku.ca/hmyork/program/HMToronto2012Schedule.pdf
http://www.yorku.ca/hmyork/index.html

Antipode Foundation Scholar-Activist Project Awards

See http://antipodefoundation.org/regional-workshop-awards/ for more.

***

Applications for this first round of awards must be in by 30 June 2012. Forms are available from and should be returned to  Andy Kent (antipode@...), who is more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

1839:  The Chartist Insurrection
David  Black and Chris Ford
(Unkant Publishing)

ISBN:  978-0-9568176-6-2
Published:  April 2012, 268pp

'This book assists us greatly in understanding  the potential for future challenges to the system' -- John McDonnell  MP

'In  retrieving the suppressed history of the Chartist Insurrection, David Black and  Chris Ford have produced a revolutionary handbook' -- Ben Watson

1839,  the year after Queen Victoria's coronation, saw a chain of events which brought Britain closer to revolution than at any time since the English Civil War - or  any time since. The issue was the unjust and corrupt electoral system, in which  only seven hundred thousand people were entitled to vote in a country of  twenty-five million. Drawing on the accounts of the participants themselves -  agitators, conspirators, idealists, journalists, informers, soldiers and  politicians - 1839 shows how Parliament's rejection of the first Chartist  petition for Universal Suffrage led to mass rioting, a failed general strike and insurrections in south Wales and northern England.

The events of 1839 are  presented not just as a battle of wills between the Chartists and the  Government, but also as a battle of ideas between the radicals themselves on  questions of democracy, social justice, and the 'limits' of peaceful protest.

Foreword  by John McDonnell MP. Appendices include Julian Harney's 'The Tremendous Uprising' and Edward  Aveling's memoir, 'George Julian  Harney: A Straggler of 1848'. Illustrated throughout.

David  Black  is author of 'Acid: A New Secret  History of LSD' and 'Helen Macfarlane: A Feminist, Revolutionary Journalist and Philosopher in Mid-Nineteenth Century England'.

Chris  Ford's works  include 'The  Crossroads of the European Revolution: Ukrainian Social-Democrats and Communists  1917-1920' (Critique, 2010), and Introduction to 'Borotbism: A Chapter in the History of the  Ukrainian Revolution' by Ivan Maistrenko.
http://www.unkant.com/2012/04/dave-black-chris-ford-1839-chartist.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/1839-Chartist-Insurrection-John-McDonnell/dp/095681767X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335198243&sr=8-1

Malinowski Memorial Lecture 2012
Dr Alpa Shah

'The Muck of the Past': Revolution, Social Transformation and the Maoists in India

Date: Thursday 17 May 2012, 6.00-7.00pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building, London School of Economics
 

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. Dr Alpa Shah teaches anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is the author of 'In the Shadows of the State: Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism and Insurgency in Jharkhand, India' and co-editor of 'Windows into a Revolution: Ethnographies of Maoism in India and Nepal.' 

For more information please see:

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/events/events.aspx

The deadline for registrations of abstracts for the Call for Papers 'Feminisms and Marxisms', in the framework of the 2012 London HM conference, has been extended to Friday 1 June 2012. 

This will be a final deadline, so please do submit your proposed paper or panel in time at:< http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences>

FEMINISMS AND MARXISMS

Call for Papers in the context of:

9th Historical Materialism Conference 'Weighs Like a Nightmare', SOAS London, 8-11 November 2012

A new generation of anti-capitalist feminists has emerged in the last years across the world. Though not without tensions and disagreements, these new feminist currents have been in constant dialogue with different traditions of Marxism and the Marxist critique of political economy in areas ranging from social science, philosophy to art history. With the aim of providing a space for this dialogue, the 9th Historical Materialism conference in London welcomes presentations exploring the synergies between the feminist and the Marxist critiques of capitalism in their various articulations.

Paper proposals (between 200 and 300 words) should be submitted by registering at <http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/annual9>  BEFORE 1 June 2012. Submissions will be peer reviewed. Please be aware that the conference is self-funded therefore we are unable to help with travel and accommodation costs.

Themes of particular interest for the conference include:

• Marxist and Socialist feminism in the 21st century
• The critique of the political economy of sex work/prostitution and trafficking 
  
• Autonomia and Feminism: A legacy?
• Intersectionality theory and Marxism
• Feminist and Marxist critiques of liberal feminism
• Queer studies, LGBTQ and Marxism
• Feminist and Marxist critiques of gendered labour exploitation
• Feminist and Marxist critiques of racism and Islamophobia
• The political economy of gender and carceral detention
• Feminism, Marxism and art theory
• Women's collectives and the contemporary art world
• Feminist, Marxism and the visual cultures of globalisation
• Gendered international migrations
• Commodification of care
• Social reproduction

The critique of the political economy of sex work/trafficking/prostitution

Please note that the following donations are requested in support of conference costs:

£50 waged/15 unwaged on pre-registration

£75 waged/25 unwaged at the door

Follow our wordpress blog at: <http://feminismsandmarxisms.wordpress.com/>

SYMPOSIUM

Critical theories of 'social representation and reality'

http://educationaldevelopment.liverpool.ac.uk/2012/04/07/symposium-critical-theories-of-social-representation-and-reality/

Organised in affiliation with the International Herbert Marcuse Society

University of Liverpool, Monday 18 June 2012 (1pm-5pm)

A symposium that will be of interest to researchers, students and professional practitioners who are engaged with or use critical approaches in their work.

The multiple and proliferating streams of Critical Theory continue to enrich scholarly and research fields in the humanities and political sciences. In the fields of education theory to media analysis, from cultural theory to theories of 'the city', from aesthetics to theories of the law critical theorists continue to employ perspectives and approaches that challenge, provoke and subvert the standard clichés and tropes of empirical sociology and positivism in the humanities and political sciences.

At this symposium we will hear papers presented by four scholars whose work questions and exposes the power dynamics and hidden conflicts that underlie and structure our social realities. Each in their different ways explore the myriad meanings of 'representation' in our culture. Douglas Kellner (UCLA) considers the role that critical educators can play in the context of the Arab Spring revolutions; Penny Burke (Paulo Friere Institue, Roehampton) interrogates the British widening participation agenda with a 'critical eye'; Catalina Montoya (Javeriana University, Bogota) explores the changing role of the media in Colombian civil society using Chomsky's 'propaganda model'; and Mark O'Brien (Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Liverpool) considers the deceptions of language in the policy rhetoric of the UK Coalition Government.

All critically-inclined researchers, students and professional practitioners are invited to this symposium. A collaboration between the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Liverpool and the Paulo Friere Institute at the University of Roehampton and organised in association with the International Herbert Marcuse Society, the event takes place at the University of Liverpool on Monday 18 June.

To book your free place from within the University of Liverpool, go to (click on date): http://www.liv.ac.uk/cll/booking/

To book your free place from outside the University (or if you are a student) go to: eddev@... (please provide your institution, if relevant, your email and a contact number).

For more information contact Mark O'Brien at mtobrien@...

No registration is required. Please email william.davies@... for any further details about this event.

If you'd like to attend, please email isj@swp.org.uk to reserve your space now!

Crisis, Class and Resistance

A one-day conference on political economy hosted by International Socialism journal

Saturday 12 May

School of African and Oriental Studies (Vernon Square Campus)

Timetable:                                                            

Registration (10.30am-11am)

Session one (11am-1pm):

THE POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF CRISIS

Alex Callinicos (author of Imperialism and Global Political Economy)

Jane Hardy (author of Poland's New Capitalism)

Paul Mason (author of Why it's Kicking Off Everywhere)

Other speakers TBC

Lunch (1pm-145pm)

Session two (1.45pm-3.45pm):

THE DYNAMICS OF THE CRISIS

Robin Blackburn (author of Age Shock: How Finance is Failing Us)

Guglielmo Carchedi (author of Behind the Crisis: Marx's Dialectics of Value and Knowledge)

Joseph Choonara (author of Unraveling Capitalism: A Guide to Marxist Political Economy)

Break (3.45pm-4pm)

Session three (4pm-6pm):

CLASS UNDER NEOLIBERALISM

Esme Choonara (author of A Rebel's Guide to Trotsky)

Kevin Doogan (author of New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work)

Price: £10 waged / £3 students & unwaged

To book, call             020 7819 1177       or email isj@swp.org.uk

International Socialism

www.isj.org.uk

isj@swp.org.uk

Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP)
Kingston University London
www.kingston.ac.uk/crmep

Workshop: Transdisciplinary Problematics
Anti-Humanism and Gender Studies
17-18 May 2012, London

This two-day workshop will examine the notion of a transdisciplinary problematic, via the cases of anti-humanism and gender studies. The first day will approach theoretical anti-humanism from the standpoint of its destructive effect upon disciplinary fields in the humanities and as a radical problematisation of the discipline of philosophy in particular. The second day will focus on gender studies as a transdisciplinary problematic and on the transdisciplinary nature of the concept of gender itself. Topics will include the historical reconstruction of 'gender' as a boundary-crossing concept; the relation of its conceptual content to its functioning as a general concept across disciplines; the transformation of the disciplines in the humanities by 'gender' and gender studies; and the current productivity of 'gender'.

Day 1: Anti-humanism
17 May 2012, 10.00-18.00
Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London WC1

Introduction: Peter Osborne & Eric Alliez (CRMEP, Kingston University)
Etienne Balibar (Philosophy, University of Paris X/Irvine)
       'Anti-Humanism, and the Question of Philosophical Anthropology'
       Respondent: Patrice Maniglier (University of Essex)
Nina Power (Philosophy, Roehampton University/Royal College of Art)
       'Is Antihumanism Transdisciplinary?'
David Cunningham (English, University of Westminster)
       'Intersciences, Philosophy and Writing'
       Respondent: Simon Morgan Wortham (English, Kingston University)

Day 2: Gender Studies
18 May 2012, 10.00-18.00
Large Common Room, Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N

Introduction: Stella Sandford (CRMEP, Kingston University)
Tuija Pulkkinen (Women's Studies, University of Helsinki)
       'Disciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity in Gender Studies'
Sara Heinamaa (Philosophy, University of Helsinki)
       'Sex, Gender and Embodiment: A Critique of Concepts'
Elsa Dorlin (Political Science, University of Paris VIII)
       title tba
Ken Corbett (Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis, New York University)
       'The Transforming Nexus: Psychoanalysis, Social Theory and Queer Childhood'
Respondent: Lynne Segal (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, London)

The event is free, but registration is essential @:
http://workshopthree.eventbrite.com/

Further information and background texts, go to:
http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum=1962

Other enquiries: S.Sandford@...

This is the third public workshop of the AHRC-funded project 'Transdisciplinarity and the Humanities: Problems, Methods, Histories, Concepts'
2011-2013 (AHRC 914469)

Registration is now open for 'Situationist Aesthetics: The SI, Now' at the University of Sussex on Friday 8th June. 

Keynote: McKenzie Wark (The New School, NY), author of The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International (2011), Gamer Theory (2006) and Hacker Manifesto (2004).

---

Is it oxymoronic, heretical or just plain wrong to talk about Situationist aesthetics? The Situationist International (SI) condemned attempts to discuss its work in terms of aesthetics, but perhaps it is now time to brush the SI against the grain.

When it first announced its programme, the SI insisted that 'There is no such thing as Situationism'. A few years later, before expelling its members deemed to be too invested in artistic production, the SI declared that in an age of spectacle any work of art produced by a Situationist must necessarily be 'antisituationist'. The SI's tactical intransigence regarding the political value of the aesthetic, and its refusal of the possibility of a specifically Situationist aesthetic, threw up problems that remained unresolved by the time of the SI's dissolution. Since 1972, particularly in Anglophone contexts, Situationist practices have penetrated an array of cultural spheres, and much cultural production which the SI would have dismissed as spectacular has claimed some Situationist influence.

THE LEAST OF ALL POSSIBLE EVILS:

Volume four, issue one (May 2012): The season of revolution: the Arab Spring and European mobilizations 

is now out (free and open access as always)

Issue editors: Magid Shihade, Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Laurence Cox
http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/

Volume four, issue one of Interface, a peer-reviewed e-journal produced and refereed by social movement practitioners and engaged movement researchers, is now out, on the special theme "The season of revolution: the Arab Spring" with a special section 'A new wave of European mobilizations?'

Interface is open-access (free), global and multilingual. Our overall aim is to "learn from each other's struggles": to develop a dialogue between practitioners and researchers, but also between different social movements, intellectual traditions and national or regional contexts. Like all issues of Interface, this issue is free and open-access.
 
This issue of Interface includes 403 pages and 31 pieces in English, Catalan and Spanish, by authors writing from / about Australia, Canada, Catalunya, Dubai, Egypt, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestine, Poland, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE, the UK and the US among other countries.

Articles in this issue include:

-  Magid Shihade, Cristina Flesher Fominaya and Laurence Cox, The season of revolution: the Arab Spring and European mobilizations 

The Arab Spring:

-  Cassie Findlay,Witness and trace: January 25 graffiti and public art as archive (practice note)

Special section: a new wave of European mobilizations?

-  Joan Subirats, Algunas ideas sobre política y políticas en el cambio de época: Retos asociados a la nueva sociedad y a los movimientos sociales emergentes (event analysis)

Other articles:

-  Jim Gladwin and Rose Hollins, The Water Pressure Group: lessons learned (action note)

This issue's reviews include the following titles:

-  Rebecca MacKinnon, Consent of the networked: the worldwide struggle for internet freedom. Reviewed by Piotr Konieczny

A call for papers for volume 5 issue 1 of Interface is now open, on the theme of "Struggles, strategies and analysis of anticolonial and postcolonial social movements " (submissions deadline November 1 2012). We can review and publish articles in Afrikaans, Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Maltese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Zulu. The website has the full CFP and details on how to submit articles for this issue at http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Interface-4-1-CFP-vol-5-no-1.pdf

  
The next issue of Interface (November 2012) will be under the title 'For the global emancipation of labour: new movements and struggles around work, workers and precarity'.     

Interface is always open to new collaborators. More details can be found on our website:http://interfacejournal.net.
 
Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested.

Bill Weinberg speaks on ecological campesino resistance in Peru

The Libertarian Book Club,* New York City's oldest continuously active
anarchist institution (founded 1946), kicks off a new season of its
Anarchist Forum series as World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg, just
returned from Peru where he was on assignment for The Progressive, speaks
about the Quechua indigenous struggle against US-backed mining projects
and in defense of land, water and autonomy in the Andes.

The high Andean region of Cajamarca has been repeatedly paralyzed by
general strikes and angry protests in recent months by Quechua peasants
opposed to the US-owned Conga gold mining project, which would mean the
destruction of mountain lakes that protect the watersheds that local
communities depend on for agriculture. Cajamarca's regional government,
with the support of the peasant movement, has declared against the
project - but the central government in Lima remains intransigent, and is
militarizing the region. The lines are drawn for a protracted struggle.

This is a sequel to the strikes and uprisings in Peru in 2009 over oil and
mineral development plans tied to the new Free Trade Agreement with
Washington - itself an echo of the Zapatista revolt in Mexico that followed
the enactment of NAFTA. Peru is now Latin America's second country to be
pushed to crisis by an FTA with the US - and South America's second largest
recipient of US military aid after Colombia. Bill Weinberg will discuss
the new peasant struggle in Peru, how US corporate interests are pushing
President Ollanta Humala towards a hard line, and the prospects for
building solidarity.

Tuesday May 15
7:30 PM sharp
at the Brecht Forum, 451 West Street
(between Bank & Bethune in the West Village)

*The Anarchist Forum is a project of the Libertarian Book Club, New York's
oldest active anarchist institution, founded by Jewish and Italian exiles
from fascist Europe in 1946. We are not right-wing, capital-L
Libertarians. We are left-wing anarchists. When LBC was founded, the word
"libertarian" had not yet been co-opted by the free-market right, and was
basically a synonym for "anti-authoritarian" or "anarchist." We stubbornly
refuse to surrender the name.

http://ww4report.com/node/11050

'Daniel Singer was an author, lecturer and The Nation's longtime Europe correspondent whose unique voice for democratic socialism lives on through the Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation. Essays developing ideas relevant to Daniel's themes are judged by an international panel of distinguished scholars and activists and the winning paper is discussed at the annual Left Forum conference. Daniel's voice continues to resound. It mustn't die.'

Call for Submissions to the 2012 Daniel Singer Millennium Prize

The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation congratulates Richard Swift, author of Preparing the Ground: Left Strategy Beyond the Apocalypse, which won the 2011 Singer Prize. The $2,500 annual prize is a tribute to the outstanding writer, lecturer and thinker, who died in December 2000.

The Singer Foundation invites submissions to its 2012 competition. The prize will be awarded for an original essay of not more than 5,000 words, which explores the question:

'From Tahrir and Syntagma Squares to the Indignados and the 99% movement, 2011 saw people in the streets challenging the monopoly of political, economic and financial power by elite minorities. What, if anything, is new about these movements and can they fundamentally change the status quo?'

Essays may be submitted in English, Spanish or French, and will be judged by an international panel of distinguished scholars and activists. The winner will be announced in December 2012.

Essays can be sent either by post or e-mail to

The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation

PO Box 2371, El Cerrito, CA 94530 USA

DanielSingerFdn@...

Submissions must be received by August 1, 2012