Pre-registration for the HM Conference will close at midnight
tomorrow: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/

Registration on the door will be possible on a first-come-first-served
basis.

The abstracts for the papers are now online: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/

Registration for HM 2009 Conference Closes at midnight 24/11/09

http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/conference2009.htm

A two-day seminar with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak at CENDEAC (Murcia, South Eastern Spain)  

1st and 2nd December // 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.  The Question of Subalternity

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak will lead an intensive seminar at CENDEAC on the 1st and 2nd December 2009. It will be a unique opportunity to engage with Spivak’s thought, through a detailed analysis of some of her most influential texts. 
The seminar will discuss the history and usefulness of the elusive concept of the subaltern based on questions emerging from three texts by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak available in Spanish translation: "Can the subaltern speak?", "Subaltern Studies: deconstructing historiography" and "Displacement and the Discourse of Woman". The two sessions will be entitled:  “The Subaltern: Use and Abuse” and “Women, Subalternity, and Strategic Essentialism”.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, is University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Toronto and London and Oberlin College.
She has published, Of Grammatology (translation with critical introduction of Jacques Derrida, De la grammatologie, 1976); Thinking Academic Freedom in Gendered Post-Coloniality (1993); In Other Worlds(1987); Outside in the Teaching Machine (1993); A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999); Death of a Discipline(2003), Other Asias (2007). And the forthcoming An Aesthetic Education in an Age of Globalization. She has also translated from Bengali, Mahasweta Devi: Imaginary Maps (1994); Breast Stories (1997), Old Women (1999); Chotti Munda and His Arrow (2002) and Ramproshad Sen’s (eighteenth century Bengali mystic):Song for Kali (2000). The texts “Translation As Culture” (2005), “Translating into English” (2005), and “Rethinking Comparativism” (2009) reflect her concern for the task of the translator.  “Righting Wrongs” (2001), and “Ethics and Politics in Tagore, Coetzee, and Certain Scenes of Teaching” (2004) give a sense of her dedication to supplementing vanguardism. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1983) has become a controversial classic.

Information and enrolment:

Attendance is free unless a certificate is required, in which case fees will be 30€ standard, 15€ for the unemployed, full-time students and OAPs, and free to Friends of CENDEAC. 

Language of the Seminar: English with simultaneous translation into Spanish. 

CENDEAC is accessible for wheelchair users and people with diminished mobility. Whenever possible, we will strive to provide on request a transcript of papers for users with impaired hearing.

Auditorium Capacity: 140 people

For more information, including assistance with travel and accommodation, please visit our websitewww.cendeac.net or contact yhernandez[at]cendeac.net

CENDEAC
Pabellón 5
Antiguo Cuartel de Artillería
C/ Madre Elisea Oliver Molina, s/n
30002-Murcia (España)
Tel.: +34 868 914 769
Fax: +34 868 914 149

www.iippe.org



INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR PROMOTING POLITICAL ECONOMY (IIPPE)



and



GREEK SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY





FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY

RETHYMNON, CRETE, SEPTEMBER 10-12, 2010



   “BEYOND THE CRISIS”


Pre-amble: Following its three previous highly successful
international research workshops for students in Crete, Naples and
Ankara, the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy
(IIPPE) is now holding its FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN POLITICAL
ECONOMY, co-organised with the Greek Scientific Association of
Political Economy, and open to application from all engaged in
political economy. Summaries of papers for consideration for inclusion
(maximum 1000 words) should be submitted by 31st of March 2010 to
iippe@...
   with subject heading IIPPE CONFERENCE 2010. Full papers are required
to be made available by 30 June 2010 for pre-circulation to Conference
participants. It will be possible to attend the Conference without
submitting a paper but numbers will be limited. There will be some
funding available for those who are unable to rely upon institutional
support for participation, with special provision for research students.



Themes: Following the global crisis, the prospects of, and need for,
progressive political economy are stronger than for many decades.
Orthodox economics is in disarray, but with only a smattering of its
own practitioners accepting this, generally by demanding more realism
and the incorporation of a few more or less arbitrary behavioural
principles. After the collapse of the post-war boom, the recession and
slowdown that followed gave birth to extreme forms of monetarism
followed by a mild reaction in terms of reliance upon market and
institutional imperfections and weakened Keynesianism. The prospects
for a radical rethink within orthodoxy and of tolerance to heterodoxy
remain bleak. But it is still crucial to sustain critical commentary
on orthodoxy’s continuing principles and innovations as a new
generation of students and researchers are caught between conforming
to its reduced and flawed content and the economic realities of the
world around them. Political economy has begun to prosper in the wake
of the crisis, not least with the rising popularity of Minsky for
example. It is imperative that the strengths and weaknesses of the
diverse, often insightful, analyses of the nature, causes and
consequences of the financial crisis be debated and fully engaged
across competing paradigms and emphases. Nor is the crisis confined to
economic effects and causes alone. Interdisciplinary approaches are
essential to address the nature of, and prospects for, neo-liberalism,
the shifting character of the “new world order”, US hegemony and the
rise of China, and the economic and the social and cultural
restructuring that have both preceded and will follow upon the crisis.
This offers opportunities to engage with activists in understanding
the impact and incidence of the crisis and in formulating alternatives
and strategies in response to it.


The Conference welcomes proposals for papers that address one or more
of these issues or any other issue within political economy. IIPPE
working groups are entitled to organise a panel. But we also welcome
proposals for panels independently of working groups on well-defined
themes, with three or four contributions and contributors specified in
advance. These must be submitted, ideally with paper summaries by
March 31st, 2010, although earlier submissions have greater chance of
acceptance as the Conference programme is filled out.

If you have colour printing facilities and would like the poster to
advertise around you for HM's conference next week, please write to us
at: historicalmaterialism@...

Beneath the University, the Commons
A conference at the University of Minnesota
April 8-11, 2010

// Antioch 05.08 // Rome 10.08 // Athens 12.08 // New York City
12.08 // Helsinki 03.09 // Zagreb 05.09 // Heidelberg 06.09 // London
06.09 //Santa Cruz 09.09//

Seemingly discrete struggles over the conditions of university life
have erupted around the world within the past year. These struggles
share certain commonalities: outrage over precarious and exploitative
conditions, the occupation of university spaces, and goals of
reclaiming education from state and corporate interests.  It is
becoming increasingly apparent that recent struggles over the
university are not merely discrete events. They express a wider
collective desire for direct control over the means of production and
forms of life; a desire to create relationships of learning,
collaboration, and innovation beyond the university’s attempts to
quantify and discipline them.

Although the modern university has served the interests of the state
and capital since its inception, the past thirty years have witnessed
tightened ties with corporate, financial, and geopolitical interests.
The subsumption of higher education under capital-driven business
models has intensified the expropriation of the products of
cooperative labor.  With the proliferation of student-consumer and
scholar-manager subjectivities, we increasingly find ourselves
uncomfortably and often unwittingly occupying the role of active
participants in these trends.  As the global struggles over the past
year have illustrated, however, opposition to these mechanisms of
capture is mounting, as are creative strategies for alternatives and
exodus.  Struggles against the corporate university are linking up
across borders; the slogan of the International Student Movement, “One
World – One Struggle : Education is Not for Sale,” and the slogan of
the Anomalous Wave, “We Won’t Pay for Your Crisis,” appear in actions
across Europe, the Americas, and South Asia.

“Beneath the University, the Commons” builds on the work accomplished
by activists, organizers, artists, and academics at the “Re-thinking”
and “Re-working” the University Conferences of 2008 and 2009
(www.reworkingtheu.org
), while expanding the scope of our discussions and bringing together
more international scholars in order to address an increasingly
volatile global situation.  Our goal is to aggregate and accelerate
our knowledge of university conditions and our collective acts of
resistance to them, including alternative forms of engaging with each
other and with the world.  To this end, the 2010 conference will draw
together a diverse set of people committed to exploring how we can
understand, create, and experiment with the commons beneath the
university.  Our questions include but are not
limited to:

//How do we enact and sustain occupations of the university in the
exceptional times and spaces of the everyday?

//How do we generate an international “undercommons,” maintaining – as
Stefano Harney and Stevphen Shukaitis have suggested – subversive
positions as actors within, rather than of, the spaces of the
university?

//How can unionization projects and occupation struggles learn from
and collaborate with one another?

//How do we negotiate the line between stability and revolutionary
effectiveness?

//How do we open up sustainable and livable spaces for radical
research, education, and scholarship without being subsumed by the
publish-or-perish disciplinary apparatus?

//How can we collaboratively map and share research, information,
tactics, and cultures?

//In recognition that our conditions are a part of a larger set of
global occupations and injustices, how do we link with social
movements outside of and across the university?

This four-day event will consist of two days of conference sessions
bracketed by two days of workshops, writing collaborations, skill
shares, and plenty of time for sustained conversations among
participants.  We are accepting proposals both for formal papers and
for non-conventional forms of participation.

– If you would like to present a paper, please submit an abstract and
a CV or brief biographical statement.
– If you would like to participate in another way (by leading a
workshop, facilitating a roundtable, presenting media, etc), please
submit a brief (1-2 pages) description of the proposed activity and
include what kind of resources we would need to provide, along with a
CV or brief biographical statement.

All proposals should be addressed to conference@..., and
must be received by January 1, 2010.


--
Stevphen Shukaitis
Autonomedia Editorial Collective
http://www.autonomedia.org
http://info.interactivist.net

CFP: Roundtable on Marx’s Capital
The SSPP is pleased to issue a CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS for a Roundtable
on Marx’s CapitalTexas A&M University, College Station, Texas,
February 24-27, 2011
Our second Roundtable will explore Volume One of Marx’s Capital
(1867).  We chose this text because the resurgence in references to
and mentions of Marx – provoked especially by the financial crisis,
but presaged by the best-seller status of Hardt and Negri’s Empire and
Marx’s surprising victory in the BBC’s “greatest philosopher” poll –
has only served to highlight the fact that there have not been any new
interpretive or theoretical approaches to this book since Althusser’s
in the 1960s.

The question that faces us is this: Does the return of Marx mean that
we have been thrust into the past, such that long “obsolete”
approaches have a newfound currency, or does in mean, on the contrary,
that Marx has something new to say to us, and that new approaches to
his text are called for?

The guiding hypothesis of this Roundtable is that if new readings of
Capital are called for, then it is new readers who will produce them.

Therefore, we are calling for applications from scholars interested in
approaching Marx’s magnum opus with fresh eyes, willing to open it to
the first page and read it through to the end without knowing what
they might find. Applicants need not be experts in Marx or in
Marxism.  Applicants must, however, specialize in some area of social
or political philosophy.  Applicants must also be interested in
teaching and learning from their fellows, and in nurturing wide-
ranging and diverse inquiries into the history of political thought.

If selected for participation, applicants will deliver a written,
roundtable-style presentation on a specific part or theme of the
text.  Your approach to the text might be driven by historical or
contemporary concerns, and it might issue from an interest in a theme
or a figure (be it Aristotle or Foucault).  Whatever your approach,
however, your presentation must centrally investigate some aspect of
the text of Capital.  Spaces are very limited.

Applicants should send the following materials as email attachments
(.doc/.rtf/.pdf) to papers@...  by September 15, 2010:

	 • Curriculum Vitae
	 • One page statement of interest in the Roundtable.  (Please include
a discussion of the topics you would be willing to explore in a
roundtable presentation.  Please also discuss the projected
significance of participation for your research and/or teaching.)
Ben Fowkes’ translation of Capital (Viking/Penguin, 1976) is the
official translation for the Roundtable, and should be used for page
citations. However, applicants are strongly encouraged to review
either the German text of Capital (the 2nd edition of 1873 is the
basis for most widely available texts) or the French translation (J.
Roy, 1872-5), which was the last edition Marx himself oversaw to
publication; both of these are widely available on-line.

All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the selection
process via email on or before October 15, 2010.  Participants will be
asked to send a draft or outline of their presentation to
papers@... by January 15, 2011 so that we can finalize the program.

In order to participate in the Roundtable (but not to apply or to be
selected), you must be a member of the Society in good standing. You
can become a member of the Society by following the membership link
at: www.sspp.us


William S. Lewis
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair,
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA
(518) 580 5402

Board Member and Treasurer
Society for Social and Political Philosophy

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I would like to announce the recent publication of my new book:

Corporate Power and Ownership in Contemporary Capitalism:
The Politics of Resistance and Domination (London:  Routledge, 2009)

For more information see URL:
www.routledge.com/9780415467889

Blurb:
Despite the influence corporations wield over all aspects of everyday
life, there has been a remarkable absence of critical inquiry into the
social constitution of this power. In analysing the complex
relationship between corporate power and the widespread phenomenon of
share ownership, this book seeks to map and define the nature of
resistance and domination in contemporary capitalism.

Drawing on a Marxist-informed framework, this book reconnects the
social constitution of corporate power and changing forms of
shareholder activism. In contrast to other texts that deal with
corporate governance, this study examines a diverse and comprehensive
set of themes, from socially responsible investing to labour-led
shareholder activism and its limitations. Through this ambitious and
critical study, author Susanne Soederberg demonstrates how the
corporate governance doctrine represents an inherent feature of
neoliberal rule, effectively disembedding and depoliticising relations
of domination and resistance from the wider power and paradoxes of
capitalism.

Examining corporate governance and shareholder activism in a number of
different contexts that include the United States and the global
South, this important book will be of interest to students and
scholars of international political economy, international relations
and development studies. It will also be of relevance to a wider range
of disciplines including finance, economics, and business and
management studies.

"Soederberg should be thanked for revealing the elephant in the room -
that corporations, along with their governance, power, ownership and
management, are profoundly political, yet undemocratic. Through
careful analysis, wide-ranging research and elegant writing she
deconstructs comforting myths and shows us the true and unsettling
politics and impacts of corporations in the world today. A must read -
and also a good read - for anyone seeking true understanding of
current economic, social and environmental upheavals."
Joel Bakan, Professor of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada,
and author/filmmaker of The Corporation

"In a capitalism deep into its second major crisis in 75 years,
Soederberg's book is very welcome. It critically examines the real (as
opposed to the ideologically glossed) mechanisms enabling the crisis-
producing decisions of corporate boards of directors. She performs a
valuable deconstruction of the mythologies of mainstream"corporate
governance" literature."
Richard D. Wolff, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts
and the New School University, New York

    "This book presents a much-needed and powerful critique of the
'corporate governance doctrine' that was promoted both by the US state
and by dominant capitalist interests in many societies to underpin the
priority given to 'shareholder value', to take advantage of workers'
pension funds, and to direct labour and social movement challenges to
corporate decisions into what Soederberg appropriately calls the
'marketization of resistance'. As empirically rich as it is
theoretically strong, this is another important contribution by one of
the most creative political economy scholars writing today.'
Leo Panitch, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy
and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science, York
University, Toronto


Cheers,
Susanne
Susanne Soederberg, DPhil
Canada Research Chair (Global Political Economy)
Associate Professor in Global Development Studies and Political Studies
Mackintosh-Corry, Room A-406
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario   K7L 3N6 Canada
Tel:  613.533.6000 x 78391
Fax: 613.533.2986
Email:  soederberg@...
Homepage: www.queensu.ca/devs/faculty/ProfileSoederberg.html

REGISTRATION CLOSES ON NOVEMBER 24th AT MIDNIGHT
ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST PRE-REGISTER

Sixth Historical Materialism Annual Conference
Another World is Necessary: Crisis, Struggle and Political Alternatives

27 - 29 November 2009
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
Thornhaugh Street, London XC1H OXG



REGISTER NOW at: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/conference2009.htm

PROGRAMME NOW ONLINE

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME now available at:
http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/conference2009.htm


Speakers include: Gilbert Achcar * Robert Albritton * Kevin Anderson *
Jairus Banaji * Wendy Brown * Alex Callinicos * Vivek Chibber * Helen
Eisenstein * Ben Fine * Ferruccio Gambino * Lindsey German * Peter
Hallward * John Holloway * Fredric Jameson * Bob Jessop * David
McNally * China Mieville * Kim Moody * Leo Panitch * Moishe Postone *
Sheila Rowbotham * Shlomo Sand * Julian Stallabrass * Hillel Ticktin *
Kees Van Der Pijl * Hilary Wainright

Panels include: APOCALYPSE MARXISM * ART AGAINST CAPITALISM * CLASS
AND POLITICS IN THE 'GLOBAL SOUTH' * COGNITIVE MAPPING, TOTALITY AND
THE REALIST TURN * COMMODIFYING HEALTH CARE IN THE UK * CUBAN
REVOLUTION AND CUBAN SOCIETY * DERIVATIVES * DIMENSIONS OF THE FOOD
CRISIS * ECOLOGICAL CRISIS * EMPIRE AND IMPERIALISM * ENERGY, WASTE
AND CAPITALISM * FINANCE, THE HOUSING QUESTION AND URBAN POLITICS *
GLOBAL LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS * GRAMSCI RELOADED * INTERPRETATIONS OF
THE CRISIS * LABOUR BEYOND THE FACTORY * LATIN AMERICAN WORKING
CLASSES * LINEAGES OF NEOLIBERALISM * MARXISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE *
MIGRATION * PHILOSOPHY AND COMMUNISM IN THE EARLY MARX *
POSTNEOLIBERALISM * RACE, NATION AND ORIENTALISM * RED PLANETS:
MARXISM AND SCIENCE FICTION * REMEMBERING PETER GOWAN AND CHRIS HARMAN
* REVOLUTIONARY THEORY, AUTONOMIST MARXISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF
POLITICAL ECONOMY * SLAVERY AND CAPITALISM IN THE US SOUTH * STUDENT
MOVEMENTS AND YOUTH REVOLTS * THE CRITIQUE OF RELIGION AND THE
CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM * UTOPIAS, DYSTOPIAS AND SOCIALIST BIOPOLITICS

NEW TITLES: SET 4 IN THE RADICAL THINKERS SERIES:

Theodor Adorno: IN SEARCH OF WAGNER
Louis Althusser and Etienne Balibar: READING CAPITAL
Jean Baudrillard: THE TRANSPARENCY OF EVIL
Walter Benjamin: THE ORIGIN OF GERMAN TRAGIC DRAMA
Simon Critchley: ETHICS-POLITICS-SUBJECTIVITY
Guy Debord: PANEGYRIC
Terry Eagleton: WALTER BENJAMIN
Fredric Jameson: THE CULTURAL TURN
Georg Lukács: LENIN
Chantal Mouffe: THE DEMOCRATIC PARADOX
Gillian Rose: HEGEL CONTRA SOCIOLOGY
Paul Virilio: WAR AND CINEMA

ALL BOOKS: PAPERBACK:  ONLY £6.99/$12.95
BUY THE FULL SET FOR THE DISCOUNT PRICE OF £65

OUT NOW

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

LAUNCH EVENT WITH TERRY EAGLETON, SIMON CRITCHLEY, KATE SOPER, EYAL
WEIZMAN AND CHAIR ALBERTO TOSCANO: http://tinyurl.com/ykkljvs

DON’T LOOK BACK:
RADICAL THINKERS AND THE ARTS SINCE 1909

Thursday 26 November 2009, 18.30–20.00

Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG

On the 100th anniversary of the Futurism Manifesto, join critical
thinkers TERRY EAGLETON, SIMON CRITCHLEY, KATE SOPER, EYAL WEIZMAN and
CHAIR ALBERTO TOSCANO  in exploring a century of radical thinking and
the arts - and debating what lies ahead. The recent Futurism
exhibition at Tate Modern reminds us of an age when politics and
aesthetics were densely interwoven in an explosive rejection of the
past. This distinguished panel will assess the legacy of modernism to
ask how today's radical thinkers might understand the role of the arts
at the dawn of the twenty first century and beyond.

Speakers:

TERRY EAGLETON is Professor of English Literature at the University of
Lancaster. His many books include Walter Benjamin: Or, Towards a
Revolutionary Criticism in Set 4 of Radical Thinkers, Reason, Faith,
and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate and the forthcoming The
Task of the Critic: Terry Eagleton in Dialogue
SIMON CRITCHLEY is Professor of Philosophy at the New School for
Social Research in New York and author of  Ethics-Politics-
Subjectivity: Derrida, Levinas and Contemporary French Thought in Set
4 of Radical Thinkers, Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment,
Politics of Resistance, The Book of Dead Philosophers, On Humour and
Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction.
KATE SOPER is a Professor in the Department of Humanities, Arts and
Languages at London Metropolitan University and author of To Relish
the Sublime: Culture and Self-realisation in Postmodern Times and What
Is Nature?: Culture, Politics and the Non-Human.
EYAL WEIZMAN is an architect and Director of the Centre for Research
Architecture at Goldsmiths College, University of London and author of
Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation.
Chair: ALBERTO TOSCANO, editor of Historical Materialism, lecturer in
sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London and author of
The Theatre of Production: Philosophy and Individuation Between Kant
and Deleuze and the forthcoming Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea

Supported by
New Statesman

Tate Britain Auditorium
£8 (£6 concessions)
For tickets book online here
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/talks/20576.htm
or call 020 7887 8888
More information here: http://tinyurl.com/ykkljvs

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

Verso continues the highly popular Radical Thinkers project with Set
4, bringing together the seminal texts of the world’s leading
intellectuals.

These beautifully produced books, with a stunning new design, present
a history of progressive theory from the classic works of Adorno,
Benjamin and Lukács through the famous studies of Althusser and
Debord, to their modern successors.

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

Praise for RADICAL THINKERS:

“An extremely pleasant surprise: a new imprint from Verso called
Radical Thinkers, and a pile of white-covered paperbacks by the likes
of Theodor Adorno, Fredric Jameson, Guy Debord and Walter Benjamin.
Not only do they have nifty cover designs, they are ridiculously
cheap.” Nick Lezard, Guardian

“A compendium of left-wing philosophical and political thought,
inoculating it against the ‘great idea’ of philosophy-as-self-help. As
a way of transforming… formless disgust into educated critique, these
books are a fine, cheap and decidedly elegant starting point.” Owen
Hatherley

“A golden treasury of theory” Eric Banks, Bookforum

“Verso's beautifully designed Radical Thinkers series, which brings
together seminal works by leading left-wing intellectuals, is a
sophisticated blend of theory and thought. The 12 authors whose
writings are included in the series have worked tirelessly to expose
the mechanisms by which culture and knowledge are manufactured,
managed and controlled.” Ziauddin Sardar, New Statesman

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
--------

Highlights from the set include:

·       The reissuing of both Terry Eagleton’s landmark study of
Walter Benjamin, and Benjamin’s own study of German Tragedy. Read
Terry Eagleton’s ‘Waking the Dead’ article in the New Statesman,
reflecting on what Benjamin’s approach to history and memory can tell
us about America in the 21st century:
http://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2009/11/past-benjamin-future-obama

·        Adorno’s study of Wagner, Europe’s most controversial
composer, written during his period in exile from the Third Reich, and
published with a foreword by Slavoj Žižek.

	 • Simon Critchley confronts many key figures in Ethics-Politics-
Subjectivity, including Derrida, Levinas and Lacan.

	 • Gillian Rose’s long unavailable work Hegel Contra Sociology.

	 • Louis Althusser and Etienne Balibar’s groundbreaking study of Marx,
Reading Capital.

	 • Guy Debord’s fascinating autobiography.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
--------


Full details for Radical Thinkers Set 4:



In Search of Wagner, ADORNO 978 1 84467 344 5

Reading Capital, ALTHUSSER AND BALIBAR 978 1 84467 347 6

The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomena, BAUDRILLAR 978
1 84467 345 2

The Origin of German Tragic Drama, BENJAMIN 978 1 84467 3483

Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity, CRITCHLEY 978 1 84467 351 3

Panegyric, DEBORD 978 1 84467 353 7

Walter Benjamin or Towards a Revolutionary Criticism, EAGLETON 978 1
84467 350 6

The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, JAMESON 978 1
84467 349 0

Lenin: A Study on the Unity of His Thought, LUKÁCS 978 1 84467 352 0

The Democratic Paradox, MOUFFE 978 1 84467 355 1

Hegel Contra Sociology, ROSE 978 1 84467 354 4

War and Cinema: The Logics of Perception, VIRILIO 978 1 84467 346 9

Radical Thinkers Set 4 (full set) 978 1 84467 344 5



For more information visit:
http://www.versobooks.com/series/radical_thinkers.shtml

To buy the books:
UK:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781844673926/Radical-Thinkers-Set-4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Radical-Thinkers-Set-4/lm/RCQCBDRWRJAJU/ref=cm_lmt_dtpa_\
f_2_rdssss2

US:
http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Thinkers-Set-12/dp/1844673928

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

Visit Verso’s new blog for information on our upcoming events, new
reviews and publications and special offers.
http://versouk.wordpress.com/

And get updates on Twitter too!
http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK

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

AMBASSADE DE FRANCE EN GRÈCE
SERVICE DE COOPÉRATION ET D’ACTION CULTURELLE

INSTITUT FRANÇAIS D’ATHENES




Alain BADIOU et les conditions de la philosophie
   la politique, l’art, la science, l’amour



Colloque international - 20 et 21 novembre 2009 – Auditorium de
l’Institut Français d’Athènes-


Tous les grands philosophes, ou presque, se sont fait un devoir de
relever les défis du texte platonicien. La pensée du XXe siècle peut
toutefois être perçue comme profondément anti-platonicienne. C’est du
moins le point de vue du philosophe Alain BADIOU, qui propose un
retour de Platon sur la scène philosophique du XXIe siècle.


Durant deux jours, philosophes, chercheurs, journalistes évoqueront en
présence d’Alain BADIOU la dimension platonicienne de son oeuvre.


Colloque organisé par l’Institut français d’Athènes, la revue
Alèthéia, les Éditions Patakis et l’Université d’Athènes.



Vendredi 20 novembre :

17h                              Ouverture du colloque par Catherine
SUARD, conseillère de coopération et d’action  culturelle, directrice
de l’Institut Français d’Athènes, Myrto RIGOU, professeur à
l’université Capodistréion d’Athènes,  Anna PATAKIS, directrice des
Editions Patakis.


17h 10              Présentation du colloque par Dimitris VERGETIS,
psychanalyste, traducteur, directeur de la revue Alèthéia,


17h 20               Dimitra PANOPOULOS, agrégée de philosophie, «
Vers un théâtre Platonicien », Savas MICHAËL, essayiste, traducteur, «
Vivre selon l’idée », Dimitris VERGETIS, « Le statut de la différence
sexuelle chez Badiou et Lacan »


18h50                Andrew GIBSON, professeur à l’Université de
Londres, « Repenser la logique de l’intermittence : Badiou, Platon et
la logique des mondes ».


19h30                Présentation d’Alain Badiou par Aude LANCELIN,
journaliste au Nouvel Observateur, philosophe, co-auteur de « Les
philosophes et l’amour ».

Conférence d’Alain BADIOU, « A quoi sert la philosophie aujourd’hui »,
suivie d’un échange avec Aude LANCELIN.



Samedi 21 novembre

10h                        Aris STYLIANOU, professeur assistant à
l’Université de Salonique, « Le statut du multiple »,  Panagiotis
SOTIRIS, enseignant à l’Université Egéenne, « Ontologie et politique
chez Alain BADIOU ».



10h45                Sandro RUSSO, « Badiou et la révolution
culturelle », Katerina KEY, philosophe, traductrice « Universalisme et
utopie », Vanghélis BITSORIS, écrivain, traducteur, « L’événement chez
BADIOU et DERRIDA ».



12h30                   Vicky SKOUMBI, rédactrice en chef de la revue
alèthéia « L’inexistant», Giorgos VELTSOS, poète, professeur à
l’Université Pantéion d’Athènes, « L’âge des poètes ».


13h30               Clôture du colloque par Alain BADIOU

14h                  Fin du colloque

Entrée libre – traduction simultanée – Les interventions seront
suivies d’un échange avec le public.



Ce pré-programme est susceptible de modifications. Consultez
régulièrement le site www.ifa.gr

Centre for  Socialist Theory and Movements

Wednesday 25th November, 5 pm – 6.30pm (NB A different day from the
normal one)

Prof. Cyrus Bina (University of Minnesota, Morris, USA)
Post Election Iran: When the Left Turned Right.

T315, Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow.

All welcome.

[[ UPPING THE ANTI #9 LAUNCH PARTY ]]

On November 19th, join UPPING THE ANTI

and DJs Saira Chhibber and Nik Red
as we celebrate the launch of

UPPING THE ANTI NUMBER NINE


Thursday November 19, 8pm
The Concord Cafe
(937 Bloor Street West)
Toronto, Ontario

-- DJs Saira Chhibber and Nik Red --
-- Raffle, Dancing, Politics, Fun --

Admission: $10 (includes new issue).
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Subscribers get in free.


-------------------------------------------
UPPING THE ANTI NUMBER NINE includes:

- Interview with Eli Clare on disability and trans activism

- Interview with Sherene Razack on Casting Out: The
Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics

- Chris Hurl and Kevin Walby on the Canadian Union of
Students, 1965-69

- Ben Saifer on campus Palestine solidarity activism and
Israel-advocacy "dialogue" initiatives

- Kate Milley on anti-Native organizing and the "Caledonia
Crisis"

- Roundtable retrospective on the tenth anniversary of
anti-WTO mobilizations in Seattle, 1999

- Roundtable on anti-Olympics organizing

- And More...
-------------------------------------------
Upping the Anti is a radical journal of theory and action which
provides a space to address and discuss unresolved questions and
dynamics within the anti-capitalist, anti-oppression, and anti-
imperialist politics of today’s radical left in Canada.




For more information, email
uppingtheanti@...
or visit
www.uppingtheanti.org

From Critique to Contestation

MARXISM AND EDUCATION: RENEWING DIALOGUES XIIA

Day Seminar 10.30 – 4.30

Saturday November 21st 2009
Institute of Education, University of London
20 Bedford Way, WC1
Committee Room One




10.30 – 11            Arrival and Registration

11 – 11.15            Introduction and Announcements

11.15 – 12.10      Vincent Carpentier (Institute of Education,
University of London)

12. 10 – 1.05        Richard Hatcher (Birmingham City University)

1.05 - 2:00            Lunch

2.00 – 2.55            Ken Jones (Keele University)

2.55 - 3.50            Gurnam Singh (Coventry University)

3:50 – 4:30           Plenary:

I Open Discussion returning to themes from presentations

II Discussion of future MERD activities and events









Convenors: Joyce Canaan, Tony Green, Richard Hatcher, Alpesh Maisuria.




Education and economic crises through the lens of the Kondratiev cycle

Vincent Carpentier

This presentation proposes to offer an historical look at the links
between the current economic crisis and education. The theory of
systemic regulation interprets the expansion of public educational
systems in relation to the 50-year Kondratiev Cycles.  This
interpretation is based on the observation that the fluctuations in
public expenditure on education were opposite to long economic
movements before 1945, and synchronised thereafter.
This suggests that prior to 1945 the rapid growth of public
expenditure on education during periods of economic downturn
(1830s-1850s/1870s-1890s, and 1920s-1940s) may be explained in terms
of an attempt to revive the economy and reduce social unrest. On the
contrary, during periods of relative prosperity, the public
educational effort slowed down as physical capital was preferred to
human capital.
A reversal of this relationship took place after 1945. The growth of
public resources devoted to education during the period of post-war
prosperity marks the recognition of education as a driving force in
the economic system rather than simply a means of correction. This
virtuous circle was interrupted by the neoliberal response to the
economic crisis of 1973. This historical analysis tends to designate
the economic crisis of the mid 1970s as unique. Indeed, for the first
time a long economic downturn was accompanied by a slowdown in the
growth of public funding in education.
This framework suggests alternative interpretations of the current
crisis and its links with education.  Is the current crisis the
beginning of a new depression or the end of a longer one started in
the mid 1970s? The first interpretation encourages government to
activate orthodox austerity policies including cuts in public
expenditure until growth returns. The second interpretation considers
the current crisis as a turning point when countercyclical public
resources on education might be used as key drivers for socio-economic
transformations towards an inclusive and sustainable growth as they
had been during the previous downturns in the 1830s, 1870s and 1930s.



Control and contestation of the local policy process in education: the
case of Academies

Richard Hatcher


My starting point in this paper is the conception of the policy
process in education as a field of contestation in which opposition
and resistance to policy, actual or potential, are constituent
elements. The example of a contested policy process I want to address
is Academies, and specifically the local process of attempting to set
up an Academy. In most cases the process is led by the local
authority, acting in conjunction with the DCFS and the proposed
sponsor, and can be tracked through the quasi-public procedures of
local government. The process includes a statutory element of public
consultation. In that respect it differs from almost all other
government policy initiatives in school education. Many Academy
proposals have provoked local campaigns of opposition. These scenarios
of policy contestation provide an exceptional opportunity to examine
processes of education policy formation and implementation – and
opposition and resistance - at the local level.

The paper draws on a case study of a current Academy proposal and a
local campaign of opposition to it in one local authority, in which I
have been involved as both researcher and participant. It situates its
analysis in two policy and theoretical contexts: social movement
theory, and urban politics. It offers a critical analysis both of
Labour government claims of empowering local communities and of the
dominant pluralist discourse of urban governance theory. I end by
sketching the outline of an alternative vision of local democracy in
education policy-making.


Culture and creativity in post-war British Marxism, in radical
educational practice, and in current policy discourse

Ken Jones

This presentation reviews the place of 'culture' and 'creativity' in
Marxist and radical thinking about education in post-war Britain,
focusing particularly on the work of Williams, Willis and Phil Cohen.
The presentation considers the relationship between such thinking and
educational practice, as represented, for instance, by anti-racist
movements in the 1970s and 1980s. Iit further compares the
configuration of culture and creativity developed through Marxism with
the ways in which culture and creativity have been developed in
current educational discourse - in general terms, that of neo-liberal
educational programmes, and more specifically that of policy
initiatives in England, such as Creative Partnerships.


Reconnecting Diversity, Politics and Pedagogy

Gurnam Singh

This presentation seeks to problematise current approaches to
diversity in Higher Education and also offers a radical alternative.
The basic premise is that the notion of ‘diversity’, as it has been
deployed in educational and other public - and increasingly private
sector - institutions, has singularly failed to address the issue of
institutional and structural discrimination and disadvantage. That, as
a consequence of complex and contradictory forces, associated with,
amongst other things, postmodernist (diversity as ‘inherently good’)
and neo-liberal conceptions (‘diversity as fetish’), struggles for and
over diversity have been stripped of their historical, material and
emancipatory thrust.



Specifically in Education, diversity discourses have been articulated
in terms of ‘widening participation’ and ‘internationalisation’, which
in turn are justified in relation to neo-liberal imperatives of ‘the
market’, ‘economic competitiveness’ and ‘economic globalisation’.
Furthermore, under the hegemonic influence of ‘managerialism’, which
Stuart Hall has recently described as the ‘motor of neo-liberalism’,
the emphasis on diversity at the expense of oppression has undermined
radical education that sought to establish a dialectical relationship
between personal experience, group membership, social movements,
history and politics.



Given the possibility that the neo-liberal project is unravelling
before our very eyes, it is necessary for progressive radical
educators to come up with alternative conceptions of diversity and its
emancipatory potential. As well as offering a critique of dominant
conceptions of diversity, the presentation will outline a way forward
through a ‘radical inclusive critical pedagogy’ built on re-thinking
the role of education as politics and liberation. Such pedagogy will,
at its heart, seek to promote critical dialogue, critical reflexivity
and political awareness whereby learning becomes not a means to an end
but an end in and of its self. In this context, diversity discourses
become re-articulated less in terms of ‘managing difference’ and
‘cultural sensitivity’ but more in terms helping the learner/s to
understand and contest hegemonic social formations and structures of
oppression.

Début du message réexpédié :

> De : c.barker@...
> Date : 16 novembre 2009 18:38:03 HNEC
> À : "funeral fund" <c.barker@...>
> Objet : Chris Harman
>
> Dear comrades,
>
> You will, I am sure, have been shocked and saddened by Chris
> Harman’s death.
>
> As you know, Chris died in Egypt. This has created a difficult
> material problem for his family. In order to get Chris’s body home
> to England for the funeral, and to pay for the funeral costs, the
> family have to raise quite a large sum of money which they simply
> don’t have.
>
> It may be that you have already been approached about this, in which
> case my apologies. But if not, you would probably like to know that
> an emergency fund has been established to help bring Chris’s body
> back to England, and – when the coroner has then released it – to
> enable us all to meet together and hold a funeral for our lost
> comrade.
>
> Mike Simons’s bank account is being used for this purpose. The
> account name is Mr ML Simons  Nat West Sort Code 60 04 24 Account
> Number 22663371. Don't forget to put your name as the payment
> reference. If you have trouble doing an electronic transfer, Mike’s
> address is 23 Powerscroft Road, London E5 0PU.
>
> Money is always embarrassing. I’m told that something like £8,000 is
> needed. Donations to date have ranged from £50 to many times that.
>
> Please show this message to anyone you think might like to
> contribute. The matter is urgent.
>
> In sorrow and comradeship
>
> Colin Barker

>
>        Author events @ Bookmarks
>
>
> Imperialism and Global Political Economy
> With Alex Callinicos
> Can the Marxist theory of imperialism help to explain the conflicts
> and wars of the 21st century? This wide ranging survey of both
> different theories of imperialism and the development of global
> capitalism argues that it can.
> Tuesday 17th November, 6:30pm, Bookmarks bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury
> Street, London, WC1B 3QE
>
> To reserve your free place phone 020 7637 1848
> or email events@...
>
>

CFP: LSHG Conference: The Vote - What Went Wrong?
Conference and Call for Papers:
The Vote — What went wrong?
Saturday 27th February 2010 at 9.30am
Institute of Historical Research

The recent scandal over Parliamentary expenses has
raised major questions about Parliamentary
democracy and its relationship to the labour movement
and the left.
Historically the left has fought for democracy and the
vote from the Chartists to the Suffragettes to those
who campaigned around the disenfranchisement of
black voters in the US and Catholics in the North of
Ireland in the 1960s.
Papers are invited from historians working on struggles
for democracy and the vote but the conference will
also look at wider historical contexts.
There has been since at least the 1960s in the UK a
link between social democracy and corruption, but the
same has also applied elsewhere, for example in Italy.
Has the attempt to democratise Parliamentary
institutions led simply to a replication of the old corrupt
practices of the past?
Finally the conference will examine alternative
strategies for democracy on the left, not least the
Soviets and workers councils that have appeared at
moments in the last 140 years or so from the Paris
Commune onwards.
Proposals of no more than 500 words should be
emailed to keith1917@... by 1 December.

Please note that this is a PROVISIONAL programme and may change over
the next few days.

ALL attendees, speakers and other participants, MUST pre-register at:
http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/conference2009.htm

Abstracts and papers will be online soon.

All participants who are planning to record sessions, audio or film,
please contact us at <historicalmaterialism@...> so that this
can be centralised and put online a.s.a.p.

> http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=317681
>


Rethinking Imperialism: A Study of Capitalist Rule

Palgrave-Macmillan 2009



By John Milios, and

Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos





For over a century “imperialism” has been a key concept in Left theory
and politics, connoting both the aggressiveness and the
characteristics of modern capitalism. This book aims at presenting and
assessing imperialism as a theoretical concept. Since a variety of
different definitions are assigned to the concept of imperialism, it
is necessary to put to the test the rigour of these definitions. The
authors of this volume provide a comprehensive evaluation, focusing
especially on the tension between Marx’s theoretical system of the
Critique of Political Economy and the theories of capitalist expansion
and domination that emerge out of the various discourses on imperialism.

The book critically reviews all major (classical and contemporary)
theories of imperialism. The authors embark on a critical
interrogation of all innovations introduced into theoretical Marxism
by theories of imperialism (for example those concerning the stages of
historical evolution of capitalism, the capitalist state,
internationalization of capital, crises etc.). They show that most of
these theories deviate from the theoretical system formulated by Marx,
especially in Capital and his other mature economic writings.

Furthermore, these theories seem to poorly interpret historical
development. Is there a theory of the capitalist state to justify the
thesis that the collapse of colonialism after World War II is so
insignificant to the periodization of international capitalist
relations (or “global capitalism”) that the “final stage” of
capitalism commencing in the last decades of the 19th century is
arguably still continuing? To pose the same question differently: on
what theoretical grounds can the “early” colonialism, as opposed to
the late colonial era (from the late 19th century to World War II), be
bracketed off as a distinct period in the history of capitalism? On
grounds of Marx’s theory of the CMP this period now has to be
revisited. Why does the second colonial period have more affinities
with the present-day non-colonial post-World War II era than with the
era of early colonialism? Last but not least, is there a tendency
towards expansionism that is innate in every form of capitalist
domination, i.e. also in the less developed capitalist states that are
not to be classified as being in the supposedly “ripe” or “monopoly
capitalist” stage?

The authors propose a conceptualization of the international level
which comes into a striking contrast with the majority of contemporary
approaches of globalization or “new imperialism”. Their interpretation
perceives the international level as a complex interlinkage of
different (national-state) economic and social structures, each of
which evolves at a different and unequal rate as a result primarily of
the different class and political correlation of forces that have
crystallized within it.

The book addresses the contemporary contradictions and trends of
development of the “international capitalist system” and the evolving
global economic crisis, formulating a fundamental reinterpretation of
imperialism. Important in this line of reasoning remains the notion of
imperialist chain, which is formulated in accordance with Marx’s
concept of social capital and his theory of the capitalist mode of
production. It thus defends the thesis that internal-national
relationships and processes always have priority over international
relations.

It is precisely the fundamental discovery of Marxism that the class
struggle (which is at the same time economic, political and
ideological and is thus consummated within each national-state entity)
is the driving force of history. It is through these class
correlations and relations of domination that international relations,
with all the concomitant interdependence on other social formations,
take effect. If imperialism is a permanent possibility emerging out of
the structures of the capitalist mode of production, the historical
form it will ultimately acquire for a particular social formation
depends on the way in which the “external” situation (that is to say
the international correlation of forces) over-determines but also
constrains the practices that emerge out of the evolution of the
internal class correlations.





Contents:

·    Introduction
·    Classical Theories of Imperialism: A New Interpretation of
Capitalist Rule, Expansionism, Capital Export, the Periodization and
the “Decline” of Capitalism.
·    Post World-War II “Metropolis-Periphery” Theories of Imperialism.
·    Theories of Imperialism as Alternatives to Classical and
Metropolis-Periphery Approaches.
·    The State as a Vehicle of both Capitalist Expansionism and
Decolonization: Historical Evidence and Theoretical Questions.
·    Capitalist Mode of Production and Social Formation: Conclusions
Concerning the Organization of Capitalist Power.
·    Capitalist Mode of Production and Monopolies.
·    Is Imperialism the Latest Stage of Capitalism? Reflections on the
Question of Periodization of Capitalism and Stages of Capitalist
Development.
·    Internationalisation of Capital.
·    Financialization: Market Discipline or Capital Discipline?
·    The “Global” Level and the Concept of Imperialist Chain.
·    Epilogue: Rethinking Imperialism and Capitalist Rule.




John Milios, is Professor of Political Economy and the History of
Economic Thought at the National Technical University of Athens
(NTUA), Greece. He has authored more than two hundred (200) papers
published or forthcoming in refereed journals (in Greek, English,
German, French, Spanish, Italian and Turkish), and has participated as
invited speaker in numerous international conferences. He has also
authored or co-authored some eleven scholarly books. He is director of
the quarterly journal of economic theory Thesseis (published since
1982 in Greek) and serves on the Editorial Boards of several scholarly
journals.



Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos is Visiting Lecturer of Political Economy at
the Department of Sociology, University of the Aegean, Greece. He has
published papers in refereed journals (in Greek, English and German).
His research interests include: theories of Political Economy,
theories of Imperialism, theory of Value and Money. He is also a
member of the Editorial Board of the quarterly journal of economic and
political theory Thesseis (published since 1982 in Greek).

‘THE GLOBALISATION LECTURES’

Organised by the Department of Development Studies

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

University of London

Convenor: Prof. Gilbert Achcar

2009-2010

This event is cosponsored by Historical Materialism Conference 2009
(27-29 November)



THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

IN LIGHT OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS



A DEBATE BETWEEN

PROF. ALEX CALLINICOS

AND

PROF. LEO PANITCH



Wednesday 25 November, 6:30pm

SOAS, Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre





Alex Callinicos was born in Zimbabwe. After teaching political
philosophy for many years at the University of York, he is now
Professor of European Studies at King’s College London. His most
recent books are The Resources of Critique and Imperialism and Global
Political Economy. His next book Bonfire of Illusions: The Twin Crises
of the Liberal World will appear early next year.



Leo Panitch is the Senior Canada Research Chair in Comparative
Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political
Science at York University, Toronto, and the co-editor of The
Socialist Register. His most recent books are American Empire and the
Political Economy of Global Finance, and Renewing Socialism:
Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination.

The Gramscian Moment. Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism



Peter D. Thomas





http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=29354



Publication year: 2009

Series: Historical Materialism Book Series, 24

ISBN-13 (i): 978 90 04 16771 1

ISBN-10: 90 04 16771 4

Cover: Hardback

Number of pages: xxv, 477 pp.

List price: € 115.00 / US$ 170.00





Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks are today acknowledged as a classic
of the human and social sciences in the twentieth century. The
influence of his thought in numerous fields of scholarship is only
exceeded by the diverse interpretations and readings to which it has
been subjected, resulting in often contradictory 'images of Gramsci'.
This book draws on the rich recent season of Gramscian philological
studies in order to argue that the true significance of Gramsci's
thought consists in its distinctive position in the development of the
Marxist tradition. Providing a detailed reconsideration of Gramsci's
theory of the state and concept of philosophy, The Gramscian Moment
argues for the urgent necessity of taking up the challenge of
developing a 'philosophy of praxis' as a vital element in the
contemporary revitalisation of Marxism.



Peter D. Thomas (Ph.D, 2008) studied at the University of Queensland,
Freie Universität Berlin, L’Università “Federico II”, Naples, and the
Universiteit van Amsterdam. He has published widely on Marxist
political theory and philosophy. He is a member of the editorial board
of the journal Historical Materialism: research in critical Marxist
theory.







REVIEWS





Peter Thomas' book should become the standard text in English on
Gramsci's thought. Acquainted as he is with the latest wrinkle in the
Italian debate on Gramsci, Thomas combines an unmatched philological
research into the sources and a mastery of the ongoing debates about
the sense we should make of  key ideas like hegemony. He deftly
overturns the received orthodoxy and the various abuses of the ideas
of the marxist militant by theorists of cultural studies, both
restoring Gramsci's work to its true status and opening up fruitful
possibilities for understanding his contribution to political theory
more generally. The best book on Gramsci's political theory for three
decades.



Alastair Davidson, Author of Antonio Gramsci. the Man, his Ideas and
Antonio Gramsci: Towards an Intellectual Biography



Peter Thomas's Gramsci is the one we need in an era of economic and
geopolitical crises that bears some resemblances to Gramsci's own
time. This Gramsci is no embarrassed culturalist, confused strategist,
or incipient post-Marxist. Thomas's Gramsci, developed from rigorous
critical study of the Prison Notebooks and of the now extensive
scholarly literature, is a deeply consequent thinker intent on
reconstructing revolutionary Marxism in opposition to the most
advanced bourgeois thought of his day. This is also a Gramsci for whom
political economy is of central methodological and substantive
significance.  Not content with scholarly interpretation, Thomas draws
his Gramsci into dialogue with contemporary radical thought,
illuminating both sides of the conversation. This is a book that will
recast the understanding of Gramsci, especially but not exclusively in
the Anglophone world.



Alex Callinicos, Professor of European Studies, Social Theory and
International Political Economy, King's College, London



What superlatives can I use to describe this book? Terms like
‘outstanding,’ ‘superb’ and ‘tour-de-force’ suggest themselves, but
even these do not fully capture the extraordinary power of The
Gramscian Moment. Peter Thomas’s erudite, wide-ranging, and
staggeringly sophisticated reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks
completely overturns the dominant interpretations including those of
Louis Althusser and Perry Anderson. Never again will we be able to
read Gramsci solely through their lenses. Henceforth, Thomas’s
magisterial exploration of Gramsci’s thought will become the critical
point of reference for all serious work in the field. But Thomas does
more than meticulous exegesis. He also insists on the actuality of
Gramsci’s work, urging that we approach it in the spirit of “both
continuation and transformation, fidelity and renewal.” He succeeds
brilliantly on all counts.



David McNally, Professor of Political Science, York University, Toronto



Peter Thomas's The Gramscian Moment demonstrates the extent to which
Gramsci’s thought represents a singular synthesis of virtually the
entire tradition of Western political thought. The richness of his
interpretative frameworks allows him both to integrate partial
approaches and contributions and to throw new light on the central
questions inherited by this tradition. This work succeeds in
presenting Gramsci as a "living classic", an author absolutely central
to our understanding of modernity. Given its scope, richness and
originality, I have no doubt that this work will represent a milestone
in Gramscian scholarship and an important contribution to contemporary
debates in political theory and philosophy.



Stathis Kouvelakis, Author of Philosophy and Revolution and Co-editor
of a Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism



The Gramscian Moment is the most thorough and illuminating
philosophical study of Gramsci yet to appear in English. It sets a new
standard for work not only on Gramsci himself but on the whole complex
of issues associated with his legacy – on the mechanics and dimensions
of hegemony, on the role and nature of the subject of political
action, on the relation between theory and practice, and between civil
society and the state. Thomas does more than any previous reader of
Gramsci to demonstrate how his philosophy can fairly claim to meet
Marx's famous prescription – not merely "to interpret the world but to
change it".



Peter Hallward, Professor of Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex
University, London

http://home.earthlink.net/~lrgoldner/

Article on the origins of Turkish communism and of the reactionary
ideology of "anti-imperialism" in the 1917-1925 period (Nov 2009)

"Socialism in One Country" Before Stalin, and the Origins of
Reactionary "Anti-Imperialism": The Case of Turkey, 1917-1925 (2009)

http://home.earthlink.net/~lrgoldner/turkey.html

Ssangyong Motor Strike in South Korea Ends in Defeat and Heavy
Repression (2009)

http://home.earthlink.net/~lrgoldner/ssangyong.html

General Perspectives on the Capitalist Development State and Class
Struggle in East Asia (2009)

http://home.earthlink.net/~lrgoldner/asiamarx.html

Two Talks in the Series ANTHROPOLOGIES OF THE PRESENT
Tate Britain, London SW1

Tuesday, 17 November 2009, 18.30–20.00
Kristin Ross, ‘Democracy for Sale’
Setting out from the controversy over Ireland's ‘no’ vote to the
European constitution, this talk will consider the current global
stakes of the more radical form of democracy associated with the Paris
Commune. Kristin Ross is Professor of Comparative Literature, New York
University. Her books include The Emergence of Social Space (1988) and
May ‘68 and its Afterlives (2002).

Tuesday, 8 December 2009, 18.30–20.00
Kojin Karatani, ‘The End of Capitalism?’
Capitalism may be on the verge of extinction, but it will not end by
itself, because states do everything possible to prolong its life.
This talk will consider the role of the state in this context and the
counter-politics it provokes. Kojin Karatani is the author of
Architecture as Metaphor (1995) and Transcritique: On Kant and Marx
(2003) and a founder of the New Associationist Movement in Japan.

Peter Osborne, an editor of the journal Radical Philosophy, will act
as Chair and Respondent.

The Auditorium, Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1
£8 each talk (£6 concessions) - price includes drink reception
afterwards
Tate.org.uk/tickets or tel. 020-7887-8888

> http://www.isreview.org/
>
> ISSUE 68:
> November-December 2009 TOO MANY PEOPLE?
> Population, hunger, and the environment
>
> EDITORIAL
>
> The business of health care reform
>
> ANALYSIS IN BRIEF
>
> Elizabeth Schulte
> Why won’t they call it racism?
>
> Eric Ruder interviews Gareth Porter
> Obama’s Afghan Disaster
>
> COLUMN
>
> Phil Gasper • Critical Thinking
> What ever happend to “Change we can believe in?”
>
> Shaun Joseph
> The coup in Honduras: Perspectives and prospects
>
> INTERVIEWS
>
> Cleve Jones
> Getting back to our roots
>
> Walden Bello
> The G20 after the crash
>
> FEATURES
>
> John Pilger
> Power, illusion, and American’s last taboo
>
> Chris Williams
> Are there too many people?
>
> Rick Kuhn
> Economic crisis and the responsibility of socialists
>
> HISTORY
>
> Rebekah Ward
> Darwin: the reluctant revolutionary
>
> John Riddell
> Clara Zetkin’s strugggle for the united front
>
> Sharon Smith
> 1934: The strikes that led the way
>
> REVIEWS
>
> Chrisopher Phelps
> The sexual revolution
> A review of Sherry Wolf’s Sexuality and Socialism
>
> Ian Angus
> Two accounts of Engels’ revolutionary life
>
> Phil Aliff on soldier’s resistance; David Florey on racism after
> Katrina; Sara Knopp and Mais Jasser on a teenager’s diary under
> occupation; Marlene Martin on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Jailhouse Lawyers;
> Chris Williams on Monthly Review’s special issue on food
>