The Revolutions Study Group
1968 and After
During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital's response to these uprisings?
1968 and After
During 1968, in France, Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and all over the world, there were immense uprisings against the status quo. This fall, we will study this watershed period (1968-1974) considering the achievements and failures of the Left in the 1960s. How ready was the Left to face the imposition of neoliberalism, one aspect of capital's response to these uprisings?
Tout Va Bien: Screening with Discussion
The People's Forum 320 West 37th Street, New York, NY, United States“Tout Va Bien insists on class struggle throughout but is mainly about radicalizing its stars. Their role in the factory is to look and learn. Indeed, Godard and Gorin upped the class-resentment ante by having the striking workers played not by real workers but by unemployed actors.” —J. Hoberman, for Criterion, Tout Va Bien Revisited
Considerations on Bolshevism Before Stalinism
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsQuestions such as these are being discussed: Were the Bolsheviks inherently authoritarian? What was 'democratic centralism'? Is the Bolshevik type organization necessary for revolutionary change? What exactly was the role of the Bolsheviks in the revolution? What were the Soviets? How did the soviets come into being? Did soviets represent a higher form of democracy?
Before Stalinism: The Rise and Fall of Soviet Democracy
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsSam Farber has assembled and synthesized a wealth of historical material so as to assess the extent to which the disappearance of Soviet democracy was due to objective circumstances such as the Civil War and how much of the magnitude of this was the result of Bolshevik politics and ideology.
Heterodox Socialism: Michael Brie, Jean-Numa Ducange, Kieran Durkin
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsAuthor Jean-Numa Ducange, and editors Michael Brie and Kieran Durkin present on editions they have put together on Jules Guesde, Rosa Luxemburg and Raya Dunayevskaya.
The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThe story of the Benin Bronzes — carried off by the British in 1897 — sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonization of museums. In “The Brutish Museums”, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.
Empire’s Endgame: Pluto FireWorks series book + talk special
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsBringing to the fore broad political and economic contexts, the authors trace ways in which empire’s legacies have been reshaped by global capitalism, the digital environment and instability in the nation-state. Engaging with Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall movements, Empire's Endgame offers an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalisation, and a political vision that includes — rather than expels — in the face of crisis.
150th Anniversary of the Paris Commune
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsPlease join us on March 18 –the date the uprising began – as Mitch Abidor, editor and translator of two books on the fighters in the 1871 uprising, Communards and Voices of the Paris Commune, recounts what happened over the 71 days that followed, in all its complexity, both its heroism and its failings, as well as its role as inspiration with lessons for the movements that followed in its footsteps.
Marx and Emancipatory Political Theory
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsThis panel will conside George Comninel’s “Alienation and Emancipation in the Work of Karl Marx”, “Marxism versus Liberalism” by August Nimtz and “Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism” by Igor Shoikhedbrod
Introducing Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg with Drucilla Cornell and Jane Gordon
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsRosa Luxemburg offered reflections that can usefully be taken up and reworked by writers facing continuous and new challenges to undo relations of exploitation through radical economic and social transformation Luxemburg touches on all aspects of what constitutes revolution in her work; the authors of this volume show us that, by creolizing Luxemburg, we can open up new understanding of the complexities of revolution.
Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly with Editor Peter Cole
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsIn the early twentieth century, when many US unions disgracefully excluded black and Asian workers, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) warmly welcomed people of color, in keeping with their emphasis on class solidarity and their bold motto: “An Injury to One Is an Injury to All!” Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a ... Read more
Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg: Session 2—Debating Revolutionary Nationalism
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsAlyssa Adamson, Drucilla Cornell, and Pater Hudis will critically revisit debates over the potential revolutionary value of nationalism through exploring different stages of the Global Southern reception of Rosa’s thoroughgoing internationalism.
Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsWhy is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies?
Towards a Revolution in Labor History: White Supremacism and Bourgeois Social Control
Online: Zoom link will be provided to registered participantsWhy is the US working class unorganized and suffering to a far greater extent than in other advanced capitalist societies?