Wednesday 25 November 2009


Una scheda bibliografica per La Straniera (...our booklet on racism and sexism is out!)



La straniera. Informazioni, sito-bibliografie e ragionamenti su razzismo e sessismo, (a cura di C. Bonfiglioli, L. Corradi, L. Cirillo, B. De Vivo, S. R. Farris, V. Perilli).


Come il primo, anche il secondo numero dei Quaderni Viola si propone di fornire dati elementari di conoscenza, bibliografie e sitografie per chi desideri poi approfondire, spiegazioni brevi ma capaci di orientare un lavoro politico. Il tema del razzismo è esaminato nelle sue intersezioni con il genere e la classe, così come nel primo numero il tema del lavoro è stato analizzato nelle intersezioni con il genere e con la condizione migrante. Le intersezioni tra vari rapporti di oppressione hanno assunto un’importanza crescente nella ricerca femminista internazionale. In questo quaderno vengono offerti esempi concreti di come genere-classe-razza/etnia/cultura-generazione contribuiscano a determinare posizioni di oppressione nella gerarchia sociale, ma anche nuove possibilità di presa di parola. Allo scopo di indagare alcune delle forme storiche in cui il concetto di razza è stato creato e impiegato, la prima parte del quaderno ne analizza alcuni momenti centrali: l’antisemitismo e la scientizzazione della categoria di razza, il razzismo anti-Rom, il colonialismo e, in particolare, il periodo coloniale italiano e il razzismo anti-meridionale. Il dibattito sul concetto di intersezionalità, sul ruolo da attribuire a ciascuna componente della triade “razza- genere-classe” si è arricchito negli anni di contributi e riflessioni sempre più numerose. La seconda parte perciò offre le coordinate teoriche e bibliografiche per orientarsi in tale dibattito e per affrontare, con una prospettiva più avveduta, l’intera trama problematica che è oggetto del quaderno. La terza e ultima parte infine si concentra sulle forme assunte dal razzismo contemporaneo in Italia, in particolare nelle loro declinazioni di genere. Gli immigrati e le immigrate sono divenuti/e il bersaglio principale di retoriche e pratiche xenofobe. Tuttavia, oltre che discorso esplicito, il razzismo contemporaneo si camuffa principalmente dietro narrative “difensive” che sempre più per affermarsi strumentalizzano le donne, italiane e non. Sono soprattutto tali narrative oggi ad insidiarsi nelle coscienze ed è, pertanto, dalla decostruzione di esse che dobbiamo partire per smascherare la propaganda razzista e misogina.


Per l'indice del numero e brevi schede sulle autrici rinviamo al sito delle Edizioni Alegre. Sui Quaderni Viola e La straniera si veda anche: Quaderni Viola sito e blog, marginalia, femminismo a sud, zeroviolenzadonne, incidenze, diserzioni sensibili, controstorie

Monday 23 November 2009


Sixth Historical Materialism Annual Conference
‘Another World is Necessary: Crisis, Struggle and Political Alternatives’
27–29 November 2009




The annual Historical Materialism conference is organised by the editorial board of Historical Materialism in association with the Deutscher Memorial Prize committee and the Socialist Register. The conference has become an important event on the Left, providing an annual forum to discuss recent developments on the agenda of historical-materialist research and has attracted an increasingly high attendance over the past four years. The Editorial Board of Historical Materialism welcomes attendance and active engagement in discussion with panellists from new as well as prior participants with an interest in critical-Marxist thought.

One of the principal objectives of the conference has been to build bridges among the various Marxist communities, including the breaking down some of the linguistic and intellectual barriers which continue to hamper the circulation and expansion of critical-Marxist thought. The sixth annual Historical Materialism Conference, under the banner of ‘Crisis, Struggle and Political Alternatives’, promises to continue and take forward this objective.

The conference is organised around three plenary sessions (the Deutscher lecture, the launch of the Socialist Register 2010, and Historical Materialism’s plenary) and a host of workshops dedicated to specific themes.

THE FULL TIMETABLE IS NOW AVAILABLE AND YOU CAN BOOK/ REGISTER ONLINE NOW

For more details, please contact: historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.uk

Attendance is free, but participants must register in advance online (if this is not possible, please contact historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.uk). However, the conference is largely self-funded and we will depend on voluntary donations by attendants and participants to support the organisation and running of the event. The suggested advanced online donation is £40 for waged and £15 for unwaged, and the suggested donation on the door is £50 for waged and £20 for unwaged.

For logistical and other support, Historical Materialism would like to thank the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Centre for International Security and Diplomacy. For sponsorship, thanks to the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at SOAS, SOAS Student Union, Brill Academic Publishers, the Deutscher Memorial Prize committee, Socialist Register, Journal of Agrarian Change, the International Initiative for the Promotion of Political Economy and Bookmarks.

THEMES FOR THIS YEAR’S CONFERENCE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

A LEFT PROJECT: TRANSFORMING THE STATE? * AGENCY * AGRARIAN CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM: TECHNICAL DYNAMICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRAJECTORIES * ALTHUSSER AND PHILOSOPHY * APOCALYPSE MARXISM * ART AGAINST CAPITALISM * ART AND CRITIQUE IN GERMANY BETWEEN THE WARS * BOOK LAUNCH: ALEX CALLINICOS'S IMPERIALISM AND GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY * BOOK LAUNCH: KARL MARX AND CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY * CAPITALISM, CITIZENSHIP AND CRISIS * CLASS AND CONFLICT IN ANCIENT GREECE * CLASS AND POLITICS IN THE ‘GLOBAL SOUTH’ * CLASS, CRISIS, DISTRIBUTION * COGNITIVE MAPPING, TOTALITY AND THE REALIST TURN * COMMODIFYING HEALTH CARE IN THE UK * CUBAN REVOLUTION AND CUBAN SOCIETY * DERIVATIVES * DEVELOPMENTALISM, THE STATE AND CLASS FORMATION * DIMENSIONS OF THE FOOD CRISIS * EASTERN CENTRAL EUROPE FROM TRANSITION TO EU ENLARGEMENT: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY * ECOLOGICAL CRISIS * EMPIRE AND IMPERIALISM * ENERGY AND GEOPOLITICS * ENERGY, WASTE AND CAPITALISM * EPISTEMOLOGY, DIALECTICS AND HISTORICAL MATERIALISM * EXTENDING THE MINERALS-ENERGY-COMPLEX * FEMINISM AND SOCIALIST STRATEGY * FINANCE, THE HOUSING QUESTION AND URBAN POLITICS * GLOBAL LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS: MARXIST REFLECTIONS * GRAMSCI RELOADED * GREEN CAPITALISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS * HISTORICAL MATERIALISM AND LATE CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT * HISTORICAL MATERIALISM AND SOCIAL RESEARCH * HISTORICISING HISTORICAL MATERIALISM * HM BOOK SERIES LAUNCH: MIKKO LAHTINEN ON ALTHUSSER AND MACHIAVELLI * HM BOOK SERIES LAUNCH: PETER THOMAS’S THE GRAMSCIAN MOMENT * IN MEMORY OF PETER GOWAN * INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE CRISIS * INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CRISIS * ISAAC AND TAMARA DEUTSCHER MEMORIAL PRIZE LECTURE: KEES VAN DER PIJL, NOMADS, EMPIRES, STATES * KNOWLEDGE, NATURE, PROPERTY * LABOUR * LABOUR AND THE ECONOMIC SUBJECT IN CONTEMPORARY ART * LABOUR BEYOND THE FACTORY * LATIN AMERICAN WORKING CLASSES * LEARNING FROM PAST CRISES * LINEAGES OF NEOLIBERALISM * LISTEN TO VENEZUELA SCREENING AND DISCUSSION * MARXISM AND LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY * MARXISM AND NATIONALISM TODAY * MARXISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE * MARXISM AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS * MARXISM AND TIME * MARXISM BETWEEN ETHICS AND UTOPIA * MARXISM, DEMOCRACY AND CLASSICAL POLITICAL THEORY * MIGRATION * MONEY * MORBID SYMPTOMS: HEALTH UNDER CAPITALISM * NEOLIBERALISM, AESTHETICS AND THE RECUPERATION OF DISSENT * ON THE OBJECTS OF COMMUNISM: A HACKING PANEL * PHILOSOPHY AND COMMUNISM IN THE EARLY MARX * PLANNING, LOCALISM AND THE LEFT * POSTNEOLIBERALISM * PRESENTATION OF THE JOURNAL CHTO DELAT/WHAT IS TO BE DONE? * RACE, NATION AND ORIENTALISM * RED PLANETS: MARXISM AND SCIENCE FICTION * RE-EMBEDDING MARXISM: COERCION AND POLITICAL ECONOMY * REGISTERING THE CRISIS: A SOCIALIST REGISTER ROUNDTABLE * RESEARCH ON MARX * RESTRUCTURING, OUTSOURCING, DISTRIBUTION: DIMENSIONS OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS * REVOLUTIONARY THEORY, AUTONOMIST MARXISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY * SLAVERY AND CAPITALISM IN THE US SOUTH * SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA: THE CURRENT CONJUNCTURE * STUDENT MOVEMENTS AND YOUTH REVOLTS * THE ARTS AND CAPITALIST CRISIS: THE NEW DEAL EXPERIENCE * THE CRITIQUE OF RELIGION AND THE CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM * THE POLITICAL AESTHETICS OF REALISM * THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WORK * THE POLITICS OF FINANCE * THE POLITICS OF THE WILL * THE POLITICS OF VALUE * THE RIGHT: RACE, NATION, IDENTITY * THE TURN TO ETHICS AND THE CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM * 'TURBULENCE: IDEAS FOR MOVEMENT', NEW ISSUE LAUNCH * UNION STRUGGLES * UNOISM, ECOLOGY AND CRISIS * UTOPIAS, DYSTOPIAS AND SOCIALIST BIOPOLITICS * WEBLOGS AND THE OPPOSITIONAL PUBLIC SPHERE: A DISCUSSION * WHAT IS ABSTRACTION? * WORKERS AND STRUGGLE TODAY * ZIONISM, ANTISEMITISM AND THE LEFT - A DEBATE

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Gilbert Achcar * Ozgun Akduran * Gregory Albo * Robert Albritton * Peter Alexander * Noaman Ali * Kevin B. Anderson * Ricardo Antunes * Caroline Arscott * Sam Ashman * John Ashworth * Ilker Atac * Jairus Banaji * Fletcher Baragar * Banu Bargu * Colin Barker * Tom Barnes * Luca Basso * Matthew Beaumont * Pinar Bedirhanoglu * Dimitris Belantis * John Bell * Aaron Benanav * Halil Berktay * Alain Bihr * Robin Blackburn * Paul Blackledge * Max Blechman * Derek Boothman * Giacomo Borbone * Mark Bould * Stephen Bouquin * Bill Bowring * Ulrich Brand * Craig Brandist * Michael Brie * Simon Bromley * Wendy Brown * Dick Bryan * Adrian Budd * Verity Burgmann * Damien Cahill * Alex Callinicos * Ricardo Camargo * Mauro Farnesi Camellone * Bob Cannon * Thomas Carmichael * Warren Carter * Giorgio Cesarale * Maria Elisa Cevasco * Dae-op Chang * François Chesnais * Vivek Chibber * Andrew Chitty * Christopher Chitty * Joseph Choonara * Sheila Cohen * Alex Colas * Tim Cooper * Stipe Curkovic * Steve Cushion * Gareth Dale * Neil Davidson * Gail Day * Tim Dayton * Kathryn Dean * Alex Demirovic * Angela Dimitrakaki * Demet Dinler * Kevin Doogan * Elizabeth Dore * Nick Dyer-Witheford * Juliane Edler * Aram Eisenschitz * Hester Eisenstein * Fuat Ercan * Adam Fabry * Daniel Fairfax * Mariano Feliz * Ben Fine * Robert Fine * Peter Fleming * Gregory C. Flemming * Keith Flett * John Foran * Vassillis Fouskas * Carl Freedman * James Furner * Alexander Gallas * Andreia Galvao * Ferruccio Gambino * Earl Gammon * Lindsey German * Frantz Gheller * Lesley Gill * John Glenn * Jesse Goldstein * Maya Gonzalez * Jeff Goodwin * Jamie Gough * Nick Gray * Juan Grigera * Laam Hae * Peter Hallward * Ayeesha Hameed * Carrie Hamilton * Bue Hansen * Jane Hardy * Chris Harman * David Harvie * Owen Hatherley * Mike Haynes * Andrew Hemingway * Lesley Henderson * Christoph Henning * Rob Heynen * Andy Higginbottom * Sarah Hines * John Holloway * Patricia Howard * Peter Hudis * Liz Humphries * Robert Jackson * Dhruv Jain * Fredric Jameson * Elinor Jean * Seongjin Jeong * Bob Jessop * Bonn Juego * Anush Kapadia * Brian Kelly * Sami Khatib * Jeff Kinkle * Kelvin Knight * Meri Koivusalo * Ahmet Hasim Kose * Conor Kostick * Primoz Krasovec * Maria Kyriakidou * Xavier Lafrance * Mikko Lahtinen * Alex Levant * Les Levidow * Iren Levina * William Lewis * Nicola Livingstone * Jean-Guy Loranger * Monica Clua Losada * David Mabb * Andreas Malm * Gonzo Poso Martin * Randy Martin * Jonathan Martineau * Meade McCloughan * David McNally * Andrew Milner * Simon Mohun * Peter P. Mollinga * Kim Moody * Colin Mooers * Jason W. Moore * Adam Morton * Sara Motta * Tadzio Müller * Munoz-Martinez * Ozgur Narin * Jonathan Neale * Mike Newman * Susan Newman * Benjamin Noys * Blair Ogden * Koichi Ohara * Ozlem Onaran * Deidre O'Neill * Ebru Deniz Ozan * Melda Ozturk * Leo Panitch * Giorgos Papafragkou * David Parker * Jaime Pastor * Jody Patterson * Knox Peden * Alexei Penzin * Nicole Pepperell * Simon Pirani * Iain Pirie * Amedeo Policante * Nicolas Pons-Vignon * Charles Post * Moishe Postone * Nina Power * Lucia Pradella * Toni Prug * Ozren Pupovac * Thomas Purcell * Hugo Radice * Ravi Raman * Akbar Rasulov * Gene Ray * John Rees * Tobias Reichardt * Paul Reynolds * Sébastien Rioux * John Roberts * Ed Rooksby * Ellen Rosen * Christina Rousseau * Sheila Rowbotham * Sally Ruane * Frank Ruda * Alfredo Saad-Filho * Spyros Sakellaropoulos * Birgit Sauer * Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt * Alan Sears * Thomas Sekine * Ben Selwyn * Greg Sharzer * Stuart Shields * Subir Sinha * Gary Slater * John Smith * Johan Soderberg * Clare Solomon * Panagiotis Sotiris * Dimitris Sotiropoulos * Susan Spronk * Kerstin Stakemeier * Julian Stallbrass * Engelbert Stockhammer * Erik Swyngedouw * Lotta Takala-Greenish * Daniel Tanuro * Jean Baptiste Thomas * Peter Thomas * Vidar Thorsteinsson * Hillel Ticktin * Bruno Tinel * Massimiliano Tomba * Jonathon Tomlinson * Alberto Toscano * Enzo Traverso * Ben Trott * Julian Tudor-Hart * Mehmet Ufuk Tutan * Nilay Tutan Tutan * Emily van der Meulen * Marco Vanzulli * Leandro Vergara-Camus * Zaira Rodrigues Vieira * Dmitry Vilensky * Marina Vishmidt * Andriana Vlachou * Hilary Wainright * Mike Wayne * Xiaoping Wei * Duncan Wigan * Evan Williams * Michaek Wood * Phil Woodhouse * Galip Yalman * Karel Yon * Christian Zeller * Alexander Zevin * Mislav Žitko

Saturday 14 November 2009


Peter's book is out!!!


The Gramscian Moment. Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism

Peter D. Thomas








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

Tuesday 10 November 2009


E' uscito il secondo numero dei Quaderni Viola!

C. Bonfiglioli, L. Cirillo, L. Corradi, B.D. Vivo, S. R. Farris, V. Perilli (a c. di), La Straniera: informazioni, sito-bibliografie e ragionamenti su razzismo e sessismo, Alegre, 2009



Habemus QV!!





Thursday 17 September 2009

Conference: Encountering Althusser


Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht, 9-11 October 2009

International Conference organised by Katja Diefenbach, Sara Farris, Gal Kirn and Peter Thomas



The work of Louis Althusser and his associates constituted an important attempt to rethink the political and philosophical potential of Marx’s thought, in tension with its ‘orthodox’ reading in Stalinism. In his work in the 1960s and 1970s, Althusser proposed to negate the metaphysical categories of subject, substance, telos, and end. He further explored these themes in the late 1970s and 1980s in terms of the event, the encounter and contingency. The late Althusser’s “materialism of the encounter” both provides many points of contact for a productive dialogue with thinkers associated with post-structuralism, while at the same time seeming to maintain a stronger connection to the Marxist tradition, particularly in terms of his continuing affirmation of the dictatorship of the proletariat. One of the purposes of this conference will be to attempt to gain an overview of the development of Althusser’s thought and to pose the question of its legacy for contemporary debates in radical political thought.

It is not only the legacy of Louis Althusser that will be of our interest here, however, but rather how to encounter and deal with the more unrecognised or suppressed points in his thought that remain enigmatic, and at the same time productive for further research in politics, economy, philosophy (and ideology). Many contemporary discussions ranging from Badiou and Zizek to Balibar, Laclau and Butler revolve around some topics that were traced or started by Louis Althusser, mainly on ideology, linking Althusser to Lacan or politics. In this conference, we would like to focus on some points that have not yet been discussed or have not yet been given the attention they deserve.

In the Althusserian spirit of philosophy working by attacking established positions on an occupied Kampfplatz, we outline four different fields of investigation to which panels will be dedicated: ruptures in philosophy, politics, political economy and politics and philosophy in the late Althusser. In each field, we intend to subject established interpretations of Althusser’s thought to critique and to attempt to determine productive areas for future research. Beyond such scholarly and philological debates, however, our guiding concern will be to pose the question of the extent to which an encounter with Althusser today has the potential to promote critical energies and perspectives that are capable of intervening effectively in the contemporary conjuncture.


Friday 9|10 Ruptures in philosophy: dis/continuities in Althusser's thought – Chair: Peter Thomas

16:00 – 16:15 Introduction
16:15 – 17:15 G. Michael Goshgarian | The early "late Althusser"

Break

17:30 – 18:30 Caroline Williams | Althusser and Spinoza
18:30 – 19.30 Giorgos Fourtounis | The "absolute beginning" and its duration: the continuity of rupture in Althusser
19:30 Discussion

Saturday 10|10 The primacy of politics: singularity, dictatorship of proletariat, class struggle – Chair: Gal Kirn

10:00 – 10:15 Introduction
10:15 – 11:15 Rastko Močnik

Break

11:30 – 12:30 Ozren Pupovac | At this side of interpellation: Althusser’s critique of the subject
12:30 – 13:30 Slobodan Karamanić | Three uses of topography: theory, politics, state

Lunch

14:30 – 15:30 Mikko Lahtinen | Althusser, Machiavelli and us: from Marxist philosophy to materialist politics
15:30 – 16:00 Discussion

Break

The critique of political economy and the legacy of Louis Althusser – Chair: Sara Farris

16:30 - 16:45 Introduction
16:45 – 17:45 Maria Turchetto
17:45 – 18:45 Marko Kržan | Should there be a Marxian perspective on contemporary capitalism

Break

19:00 – 20:00 Frieder Otto Wolf | Dialectic and contingency in thinking reproduction: looking back at a line of Althusser’s theoretical initiatives
20:00 Discussion

Sunday 11|10 Politics and philosophy in the late Althusser: the philosophy of the encounter and aleatory materialism – Chair: Katja Diefenbach

10:00 – 10:15 Introduction
10:15 – 11.15 Vittorio Morfino | History as the "permanent revocation of the accomplished fact": on Machiavelli in the late Althusser.
11:15 – 12.15 Katja Kolšek | Some reflections on the conception of reading of Althusser's aleatory materialism

Break

12:45 – 13:45 Panagiotis Sotiris | Rethinking aleatory materialism
13:45 - 14:45 Jason Read | Primitive accumulation: between contingency and constitution
14.45 - 15:15 Discussion

Monday 24 August 2009

I VERI COLPEVOLI

di Annamaria Rivera


Abbiamo provato a gridarlo in ogni modo che il mostruoso reato d'immigrazione clandestina avrebbe generato crimini «umanitari». Così è stato, purtroppo. L'abbandono e poi la morte dei settantatre profughi eritrei è la prima strage prodotta dal «pacchetto-sicurezza». È, certo, il frutto maturo del trattato con la Libia, siglato dal ministro Amato, rafforzato e reso operativo, cioè criminale, dall'attuale governo. È il frutto, più largamente, dell'Europa-fortezza e dell'adeguamento alla sua politica anche da parte del governo maltese.
Ma inedito è il cinismo di Stato per cui una tale strage non trovi come risposta né l'indignazione corale, né l'incriminazione per strage, appunto, bensì per favoreggiamento dell'immigrazione clandestina. «Senza escludere un'eventuale ipotesi di omissione di soccorso», dicono gli inquirenti. Immigrazione clandestina di cui potrebbero essere imputati i cinque poveri spettri che il fato - lui solo compassionevole - ha voluto sottrarre alla morte. Questo «dettaglio», con l'annuncio della parata che Berlusconi sta per fare il 30 agosto con Gheddafi per festeggiare a Tripoli l'anniversario del trattato, restituisce in modo perfetto il senso del crollo dell'elementarmente umano consumato con le politiche di questo governo.



Politiche disumane generano comportamenti disumani: se nessuno ha sentito il dovere morale di soccorrerli è anche perché leggi criminali producono condotte sociali criminali. Ma non tutto è inedito in questo dramma. Non è vero che con esso «abbiamo toccato il fondo», come si è scritto. Se così fosse, si potrebbe coltivare la fragile speranza che un futuro governo non reazionario e non razzista potrebbe ripristinare forme di rispetto per l'elementarmente umano. Purtroppo non è così. Ce lo dice la strage di 108 profughi albanesi della Kater I Rades, provocata nel 1997 dalla pretesa di un governo di centrosinistra di bloccare manu militari l'esodo albanese. Ce lo ricorda un'altra strage del proibizionismo, quella del 25 dicembre 1996, in cui annegarono 233 migranti: a lungo ignorata dai media - il manifesto fu l'unico giornale ad aprire subito con la tragedia -, sempre negata dal governo di centrosinistra e occultata da una parte dei pescatori di Portopalo. Alla fine fu grazie all'ostinazione di qualche giornalista e di antirazzisti come Dino Frisullo, che il silenzio fu spezzato. Non vogliamo sostenere che il trattamento crudele riservato ai de-umanizzati - coloro che anche da cadaveri sono detti clandestini - sia una lunga notte oscura in cui tutte le vacche sono nere. Ma che per produrre i frutti marci che coltiva il governo in carica, di fatto guidato dall'ideologia post-nazionalsocialista della Lega nord, altri hanno provveduto a spargere i semi avvelenati: quelli del proibizionismo crudele e ad ogni costo. La condizione per tornare a coltivare la speranza sta nella costruzione di una volontà collettiva di superamento del paradigma proibizionista.

da Il Manifesto, 23 Agosto 2009

Thursday 30 July 2009

On Italian Marxisms by Peter Thomas in the last number of 'New Left Review'

As this blog happens to be particularly sensitive to the Anglo-Italian dialogue and to Marxist and leftist issues more in general, I recommend the reading of the first review essay on Italian Marxisms in the last number of New Left Review. The entire number is worth reading by the way!

New Left Review 58, July-August 2009

Kenneth Pomeranz: The Great Himalayan Watershed

From Asia’s mountainous heart flow rivers on which half the world’s population depends. Pomeranz examines the complex interaction between human water needs, fragile ecology and vast infrastructural projects—and the far-reaching consequences of their conjugation.

Miroslav Hroch: Learning from Small Nations

Leading scholar of national questions discusses his personal trajectory and theoretical development, against the backdrop of the Czech experience. Sociological and historical roots of national feeling, and comparative perspectives on their European destinies.

R. W. Johnson: False Start in South Africa

Disappointments of post-apartheid rule, marred by mass unemployment and corruption, amid the enrichment of a new black elite. Does the arrival of Zuma, and new salience of the SACP within the ruling alliance, portend a lurch to ethnic conflict and capital flight?

Patrick Bond: In Power in Pretoria?

Responding to Johnson, Patrick Bond locates the origins of the ANC’s neoliberal record since 1994 in the compromises of the transition era. Rhetoric versus reality, and the subordination of trade unions and SACP alike to capital’s prerogatives.

Etienne Balibar: Althusser and the Rue d'Ulm

Retrospective look at the life and work of Althusser, seen within the structures—personal, political, institutional—of the École Normale Supérieure. Teaching, thinking and writing at the intersection of private and public realms.

Fredric Jameson: Marx and Montage

The author of Archaeologies of the Future unearths fragments from ‘ideological antiquity’ in Alexander Kluge’s recent film on Capital. Encounters with Eisenstein’s unrealized equivalent, seeking a cinematic transposition of the commodity fetish.


BOOK REVIEWS


Peter Thomas on Cristina Corradi, Storia dei marxismi in Italia. Multiple inheritances of Labriola, Gramsci, operaismo and other currents. Can a pluralized theoretical tradition aspire to outrun reverses in praxis?.

Tony Wood on Michael Reid, Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul. A revised neoliberal gospel for the region, courtesy of the Economist.

Max Gasner on Robert Kagan, The Return of History and the End of Dreams. The 21st century as re-run of the 19th, shaped by the ambitions of ascendant autocratic powers.