Social and Labour History News

CfP: III Workshop de la Red Iberoamericana de Estudios sobre Comunismo

2 days 1 hour ago

El Departamento de Historia de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile invita al III Workshop de la Red Iberoamericana de Estudios sobre Comunismo: El comunismo como cultura política. Aproximaciones desde la historia intelectual y sociocultural

Fecha y lugar: Santiago de Chile, 24-25 de mayo de 2023

Organiza: Departamento de Historia de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile

+info y envío de resúmenes ampliados: hasta el 16 de abril de 2023 escribiendo a redriecom@gmail.com.

Comité académico: Rolando Álvarez (Chile), Hernán Camarero (Argentina), Elvira Concheiro (México); Francisco Erice (España), Luciano Nicolás García (Argentina), Carlos Illades (México), Gerardo Leibner (Uruguay), Ana Amelia Mello (Brasil), Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta (Brasil), Adriana Petra (Argentina), Marcelo Ridenti (Brasil) y Mercedes Saborido (Argentina).

El comunismo en Iberoamérica durante el siglo XX fue una experiencia política que adquirió distintos niveles de importancia según el caso de cada país. Participó en la organización del movimiento obrero, en alianzas políticas que corrieron diversas suertes, fue objeto de la represión en distintas etapas y sufrió desgajamientos que dieron origen a disidencias que tuvieron variados grados de protagonismo. Estos acontecimientos han sido materias preferentes en las que se ha centrado la historiografía de los comunismos en Iberoamericana. Pero esta experiencia no se remitió solo a estos aspectos. Se desarrolló en todo tipo de organizaciones sociales populares con expresiones en el mundo de la cultura, juvenil, mujeres y étnico. También lo hizo en sectores intelectuales, ya sea a través de militantes o de “compañeros de viaje”, quienes jugaron un papel relevante en la difusión del comunismo. De esta forma, los comunismos dieron vida a una cultura política en la que se combinaron las características transnacionales del proyecto comunista, con las modalidades de recepción política, social y cultural de cada país. Universalidad y particularidad fueron partes no contradictorias de la experiencia comunista iberoamericana.
 

El tercer encuentro de la Riecom. Red Iberoamericana de Estudios sobre Comunismo invita a especialistas a reunirse en torno a la temática de la construcción de las culturas políticas de los comunismos en América Latina y la península ibérica. En este sentido, la convocatoria invita a explorar la experiencia comunista desde un punto de vista que no se limite a sus aspectos institucionales y político-partidarios, sino que atienda a la dimensión de sus prácticas, lenguajes, simbologías, activismos sociales, intelectuales y culturales, las formas múltiples y complejas en que se articularon lo local y lo transnacional, los centros y periferias y los momentos de intersección entre las agendas de clase, género y raza.

El III Workshop de la Riecom. Red Iberoamericana de Estudios sobre Comunismo busca profundizar los debates de los encuentros anteriores, ampliando las temáticas y enfoques sobre la historia de los comunismos iberoamericanos. Para ello invitamos a historiadores e investigadores sociales, a reunirnos de manera presencial los días 24 y 25 de mayo de 2023 en la Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Los interesados deben hacer llegar una resumen ampliado de sus respectivas ponencias al Comité.
 

La actividad se realizará bajo el formato taller, ponderando la discusión exhaustiva de los trabajos presentados, por esta razón se realizará una selección que atienda a la pertinencia de las propuestas recibidas con un cupo máximo de 20.

Las líneas de propuestas son las siguientes:
- El comunismo como cultura política: lenguajes, representaciones, simbología,
sociabilidades, identidades
- Intelectuales y cultura: trayectorias, figuras mediadoras, mundo impreso,
organizaciones culturales
- Raza, género y clase: el comunismo como espacio de intersección

Entrega de resúmenes:
El resumen deberá tener un máximo de dos páginas en formato A4, Times New Roman, tamaño 12, interlineado 1,5
-Título de la ponencia (centrado).
-Nombre autor/a, afiliación institucional, correo electrónico.
-Cuatro palabras claves

Las propuestas serán evaluadas por el comité organizador y la aceptación de las mismas será comunicada el 28 de abril.

CfP: 1922: In the Wake of the Death of an Empire: The archival journey of entrenched post-Ottoman minorities

4 days 2 hours ago

How does one apprehend the lives of Eastern Mediterranean minorities who managed, or were allowed to stay where they resided despite the upheavals brought by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire? On the face of it the task might appear easier than the one facing scholars of actively persecuted populations. Traumatic events like the massacres and expulsions of Muslim and Christian populations from the Balkans and Anatolia that have marked the abolition of the Sultanate never say their name -often given to them subsequently by historians or activists- in the written record. The latter’s destruction was often indeed planned, an integral part of the nationalistic demographic engineering at work in these events. By contrast “minorities,” as were sometimes designated after the Great War ethnically distinct groups allowed to remain in the successor-states of the Ottoman empire, are much more visible in the archive. Indeed, official concerns regarding their size, wealth, activities and indeed loyalty, meant that they were constantly surveilled. In this sense, the written record contributed very much to fabricating minorities, namely discrete, legible and ultimately controllable groups. This was not a uniquely top-down process however. Minority groups themselves, using the official channels of communication available to them, and performing -sometimes tactically- the social function they had been ascribed as a strategy of survival in their interactions with state authorities or official and unofficial third parties, participated in the entrenchment of their identity. How does one apprehend the lives of Eastern Mediterranean minorities who managed, or were allowed to stay where they resided despite the upheavals brought by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire? On the face of it the task might appear easier than the one facing scholars of actively persecuted populations. Traumatic events like the massacres and expulsions of Muslim and Christian populations from the Balkans and Anatolia that have marked the abolition of the Sultanate never say their name -often given to them subsequently by historians or activists- in the written record. The latter’s destruction was often indeed planned, an integral part of the nationalistic demographic engineering at work in these events. By contrast “minorities,” as were sometimes designated after the Great War ethnically distinct groups allowed to remain in the successor-states of the Ottoman empire, are much more visible in the archive. Indeed, official concerns regarding their size, wealth, activities and indeed loyalty, meant that they were constantly surveilled. In this sense, the written record contributed very much to fabricating minorities, namely discrete, legible and ultimately controllable groups. This was not a uniquely top-down process however. Minority groups themselves, using the official channels of communication available to them, and performing -sometimes tactically- the social function they had been ascribed as a strategy of survival in their interactions with state authorities or official and unofficial third parties, participated in the entrenchment of their identity.

This one-day workshop invites contributions from scholars and archivists interested in exploring the archival lives of Eastern Mediterranean minorities who became entrenched in the successor-states of the Ottoman Empire, from Southeast Europe to North Africa, through Anatolia and the Near East. Its focus is not so much on the minorities as such. Rather it seeks to engage an epistemological discussion on the records, official and unofficial, public and private, written, oral and built, that can be used to document state methods of surveillance of minority groups, but also the strategies of entrenchment devised by minorities themselves. We are therefore interested in “archives,” in the broadest sense of the word, produced by post-Ottoman successor states, minority groups themselves and their institutions -secular, religious, economic- or even third-party observers. Our goal is two-fold. Empirical first, as we seek to map out archival repositories relevant to the trajectories of post-Ottoman, Eastern Mediterranean minorities. Epistemological, second, as we aim to tackle the linguistic, but also conceptual and methodological challenges raised by a study of these groups through the existing records.

Themes of interest for this workshop include, but are not limited to:

- The transformation of the archival identity of Eastern Mediterranean minorities at the time of imperial transitions
- Accessibility and archival policy of private and public institutions of archives
- Reading strategies -ethnographic/extractive- in apprehending the lives of minorities in written records: against or along the archival grain
- The role of state records in fabricating minorities
- The congruence and incongruence between the written records and oral testimonies emanating from minorities and minority institutions
- Apprehending minorities in third-party repositories (League of Nations, Red Cross, Red Crescent, Permanent Mandates Commission, etc.), namely outside of the dual relationship between states and minorities
- Linguistic challenges in the exploitation of minority-related archives

This workshop, with its driving theme, is the second major event of a five-year project entitled 1922: In the Wake of the Death of an Empire: Political Transitions and Minority Strategies of Entrenchment in the Eastern Mediterranean which is funded by the Ecole française d’Athènes, the CNRS-IHMC and Koç University and run by Angelos Dalachanis (CNRS-IHMC) and Alexis Rappas (Koç University).

Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the organizers.

Deadline for sending abstract: 30 March 2023 to angelos.dalachanis@cnrs.fr or arappas@ku.edu.tr

Response to participants: by end of April 2023

Supporting institutions: Ecole française d’Athènes (EfA), Koç University, Institut d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine (IHMC), Swedish Research Institute-Istanbul (SRII), Institut français d’études anatoliennes (IFEA).

Work, Class, and Social Democracy in the Global Age of August Bebel (1840-1913)

4 days 5 hours ago

Conference at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto | Conveners: James Retallack (University of Toronto), Simone Lässig (GHI Washington) and Swen Steinberg (GHI Washington) | Partners: Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Bonn); Institute for Social Movements (Bochum)

Register for all sessions

Register for keynote address

All events on the program are free of charge and open to the public.

The 1960s and 1970s were the heyday of labour history, and not only for historians of Germany. There was a marked turning-away from both labour history and workers' history after 1980, due in part to new interest in the German and European bourgeoisies, in part to the "cultural turn" and other scholarly trends. Then came the collapse of the Soviet Union after 1991 and the decline of Marxist historiographies. In 2010, a forum of scholars acknowledged that "class," as an analytical category, had largely lost its appeal. But now we are more than ten years further on, and scholars have recently been telling us that histories of work, of labour movements, and of capitalism are all back "in." Are they really?

Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that work and the concept of work are central to our existence and self-worth. And scholarship has not stood still since 1980. Histories of work have embraced the history of capitalism, class, race, ethnicity, religion, language, migration, and locality; of gender construction, the body, and emotions; of education, life-cycles, and generations. The study of labour movements has also revealed important connections between cultures of commemoration, memory studies, and the role of "citizen workers" in civil society. The time seems ripe for another stocktaking on these interrelated themes, bringing history into conversation with other disciplines.

Including the iconic figure of August Bebel provides focus in another way. Was the leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) a worker, a craftsman, a manufacturer, a merchant, an entrepreneur, even perhaps a Bürger? Was he the embodiment of Social Democracy, as Lenin once claimed? Either way, the collapse of capitalist society that Bebel foresaw as early as the 1880s never occurred, and within a year of his death his legions were marching faithfully to the front for Kaiser and Fatherland. Karl Kautsky's assessment of Social Democracy was closer to the mark: the SPD was a revolutionary but not a revolution-making party.

While the focus of this conference falls on the pre-1914 period and on Central Europe, this conference presents contributions that consider transnational or global comparisons and suggest how historians of nineteenth-century social movements can speak to those studying or participating in more modern ones.

 Program (pdf)

YMHC Issue 11: Working-Class Ecopolitics in French Northern Mining District (Late 19th-Early 20th Century) - by B. Cabot

1 week ago

The Young Mining Historians Corner is a blog post series edited by the Labour In Mining WG dedicated to early career researchers in mining history broadly constructed.

The Issue 11 has been just published:

Working-Class Ecopolitics in French Northern Mining District (Late 19th-Early 20th Century)   – by Bastien Cabot (Associate Researcher at CESPRA / EHESS))
(https://lim.hypotheses.org/2716)

Find all the previous issues here: https://lim.hypotheses.org/category/ymhc
Contact LiM WG for more information at labourinmining@gmail.com

YMHC editors: Francesca Sanna, Gabriele Marcon, Nikolaos Olma

Jornadas Internacionales Museo, Trauma y Transmisión de la Memoria

1 week ago

Proyecto Territorios de la Memoria- Otras culturas, otros espacios en Iberoamérica, Siglos XX y XXI (Referencia: PID2020-113492RB-I00) /

Máster universitario La España contemporánea en el contexto internacional (UNED)

 

El encuentro será abierto y gratuito y tendrá una modalidad híbrida, con dinámica presencial en el Salón de Actos de la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología de la UNED (calle Obispo Trejo nº 2, Madrid, España), con posibilidad de conexión virtual previa inscripción.

Más información en: https://losterritoriosdelamemoria.es/actividad/jornadas-internacionales-museo-trauma-y-transmision-de-la-memoria/

 

El desarrollo y la universalización de ese dispositivo visual que es el museo data de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, pero desde fines del siglo XX y entrado el siglo XXI ha conocido una expansión extraordinaria. Casi todo es museable hoy desde el patrimonio arqueológico a las muñecas, desde el arte a los coches. Por eso parece pertinente hacerse una pregunta por este éxito sin precedentes. ¿Qué convierte al museo en ese espacio emblemático hoy? Para ello es necesario apelar a estudios de caso, analizar qué dicen y qué hacen los museos al decir, cuál es la estructura narrativa de los diferentes tipos de museo: los coloniales en Europa, pero también los de historia nacional o de antropología, los museos étnicos en América Latina o esos nuevos espacios que son testigos de acontecimientos históricos traumáticos y que también llevan el rótulo de museo.
Los museos investigan, coleccionan, conservan, interpretan y exhiben el patrimonio de una cultura ¿No hubo a lo largo de la historia formas diferentes de investigar, conservar,interpretar y exhibir el patrimonio material e inmaterial? ¿Conocemos o podemos dar cuenta de esas otras maneras? Y en esta fricción entre mundos diferentes, ¿imaginar otras formas de conservar y transmitir ese legado por fuera de las paredes del museo?
Estas Jornadas Internacionales, Museos, Trauma y Transmisión de Memoria, intentan abrir espacios tanto en lo geográfico, en lo temporal, en lo cultural, como también en los diferentes tipos de museos u otros dispositivos, pensados y por venir.

3ra Conferencia de la Red Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre la Organización Internacional del Trabajo

1 week 1 day ago

FLACSO
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, sede Argentina
Tucumán 1966, CABA,
Martes 28 de marzo de 2023 de 9 a 17.30 hs.

El encuentro será abierto y gratuito y tendrá una modalidad híbrida, con dinámica presencial en el aula 3 de FLACSO y posibilidad de conexión virtual inscribiéndose en: https://forms.gle/RkKXNadbUgD17PUu5

 

Programa

9 a 9.15 hs.: Bienvenida y apertura

9.15 a 12.30 hs.

Mesa 1: América Latina, OIT y sindicatos: libertad sindical, medición sindical, delegaciones, vinculaciones y experiencias.

Coordinan: Laura Caruso y Norberto Ferreras

Patricio Herrera González (Universidad de Valparaíso, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas), “La IV Conferencia Americana del Trabajo (1949). El debate social y laboral en un contexto de atomización obrera”

Andrés Stagnaro (IdIHCS- CONICET-UNLP), “Globalizando el modelo de relaciones laborales: la justicia del trabajo en la IV Conferencia de los estados de América miembros de la OIT (1949)”.

Victoria Basualdo (CONICET - AEyT de FLACSO), “Las relaciones sindicales internacionales en América Latina durante la Guerra Fría y el papel de la OIT: reflexiones preliminares a partir de investigaciones sobre el caso argentino”

Gabriela Scodeller (INCIHUSA-Conicet; FCPyS-UNCuyo), “La difusión del modelo yugoslavo de autogestión por parte de la OIT en los largos sesenta mirada desde un caso argentino”.

Álvaro Orsatti (RELATS), “Desarrollos latinoamericanos sobre indicadores de densidad sindical”.

12.30 a 14.00 hs: Almuerzo (Cervantes, Juan D. Perón 1883)

14.00 a 17.00 hs.

Mesa 2: Ampliando el debate sobre las definiciones de trabajo

Coordinan: Andrés Stagnaro y Victoria Basualdo

Fabián Herrera León (Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo), “El estudio en México del trabajo informal de menores y sus condiciones de vida: la incursión problemática de Marguerite Thibert (1939-1942)”.

Norberto O. Ferreras (UFF- Brasil), “¿Cuántos “Trabajos Forzados” existen? Un diálogo sobre el contexto de las Convenciones 29 (1930) y 105 (1957)”.

Paula Lucía Aguilar (CONICET/UBA/IIGG), “Hogar, saberes expertos y trabajo: La OIT y el estudio de la “actividad económica doméstica””.

Óscar Gallo (Departamento de Historia Universidad de Antioquia (Medellín-Colombia), “La OIT y la salud de los trabajadores campesinos en América Latina”.

Patricia Lepratti Souza (Conicet-UNSAM), “Las normas internacionales de trabajo y su aplicación en América Latina. El caso del Convenio sobre el Trabajo Marítimo en Argentina (2015-2021)”.

Laura Caruso (CONICET- Escuela IDAES-UNSAM), “Navegando el mundo: el trabajo marítimo, sindicatos y representaciones argentinas en la OIT en el corto siglo XX”

17.00 a 17.30 hs. - Comentarios finales y cierre del encuentro

Presentación RIOITAL (2020)
http://www.relats.org/documentos/HIST.NORM.OIT.RED.Presentacion.abr.pdf

CfP: The gig economy and platform workers in the Middle East and North Africa

1 week 1 day ago

WORKSHOP 

The University of Liverpool, 1-2 June 2023

 

 

This interdisciplinary workshop investigates how the gig economy has transformed labour relations in the Middle East and North Africa. It focuses on the challenges and opportunities that digital platforms offer to labour markets in the region while precarity and informality jeopardise workers. 

 

The workshop calls for papers that broaden the analysis of the so-called “gig economy” beyond a mere economic lens, by bringing together multi-disciplinary insights and approaches from politics, sociology, political economy, digital anthropology, and development studies.

 

Topics of interest may include:

 

1. Governing digital markets: laws and regulations on “gig labour”

2. Artificial intelligence and surveillance over gig workers

3. Gig workers’ struggles and trade unions 

4. Feminist perspectives on platform labour 

5. Migrant workers and the gig economy

 

 

Proposals from PhD candidates and Early Career Researchers are especially encouraged. 

 

In order to foster inclusivity and allow access to scholars from the MENA region and local academic institutions, the workshop will be hybrid.

 

 Limited financial support is available for PhDs and ECRs travelling from the UK.

 

Please submit an abstracts (300 words) and a short bio (50 words) by March 30, 2023

 

The workshop is organised by dr. Stella MorganaBritish Academy Post-doctoral Fellow

Email contact for submissions and inquiriess.morgana@liverpool.ac.uk

CfP: The intellectual history of Marxism in and about the Global South during the early twentieth century

1 week 2 days ago

Workshop  - University College London
Friday 22 September 2023

Thinkers in what is now ‘the Global South’ – and what was then the ‘colonial and semi-colonial world’ – began a sustained and transformative engagement with the Marxist
intellectual tradition during the first half of the twentieth century. Especially after the Russian Revolution of 1917, Marxism was appropriated, reinvented, and popularised in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The tradition was at once globalised geographically and transformed theoretically. The agents of this process were, then, among the most important intellectual actors of modern history (albeit still little-known in the English-speaking world). Many, such as the Peruvian, José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930), and the Indian revolutionary M.N. Roy (1887-1954), engaged Marxism in a mutually transformative encounter. Subsequent efforts to ‘translate’ Marxist thought and practice into new national and continental settings in the wider world have been key to the global intellectual history of the past hundred years. Moreover, these Global South thinkers were not only synthesisers of ‘European’ Marxism  and a given national culture. While many were enthused precisely by the internationalism which they found in the Marxist tradition, it was not without its limitations. It was in grappling with the tradition’s potential- and its contradictions- that they comprehended, transformed, and ‘stretched’ it.

This workshop aims to provide a forum in which postgraduate and early career scholars working on the intellectual history of Marxism in the Global South during  approximately) the first half of the twentieth century can share and discuss their work. We also hope that it will be the beginning of a more lasting academic network in this area of historical research. The workshop will primarily be in-person in London but virtual attendance from elsewhere will be facilitated if needs must.

 

Suggested topics

● Intellectual histories or biographies
● Organisational histories
● ‘Vernacularization’ of Marxism
● The encounters between Marxism and religion
● Marxism and the ‘National Question’
● Migration, diaspora, exile
● Revolutionary temporality and stages of ‘development
● Tradition and ‘modernity’

Application

Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words. Please send them by email to t.sandhu@qmul.ac.uk. The deadline for applications is Friday 24 March.

CfP: A Historical Casebook of Wage Formation: Wage determination and wage bargains of the pre industrial world

1 week 2 days ago

CfP for an edited collection

Editors
Luca Mocarelli (University of Milan – Bicocca)
Giulio Ongaro (University of Milan – Bicocca)
Judy Stephenson (UCL)

We welcome paper proposals for above edited collection to be (provisionally) published by Palgrave in late 2024.

The analysis of wages and wages’ series has been at the basis of economic and social history debates at least since the late nineteenth century. Recent literature (Mocarelli 2018; Stephenson 2018; Hatcher and Stephenson 2019; Humphries & Weisdorf 2019; Drelichman and González Agudo 2020); etc.) has revived an established interest in the economic history of wage formation (See Scholliers & Schwarz 2003)

After organizing a successful session at WEHC Paris 2022 (https://www.wehc2022.org/program-details/wages-formation-and-determinat…) the editors seek to put the important cases of historical wage formation presented there into a scholarly format, edited into a collection which will be of interest and support to students of pre industrial labour markets and labour history. We call for papers to augment this collection which will examine historical cases of the determination of wages in early modern wage systems and bargains. We are particularly interested to include cases form the South American continent, east Asia and Africa, and in all locations beyond large institutional employers.

We expect and seek that submissions will include cases where the following are features or can be analyzed.

The role of in-kind and monetary payments, bonuses and supplements in the formation of remuneration.

The relationship between work contracts (annual, piece work, time work or task work) and the determination of wage rates.

The determinants of differentials between skilled and unskilled workers. The variety of wages in pre-industrial societies in relation with the characteristics of the workers.

Wages in a diachronic and comparative perspective: how wages’ structure and composition changes across times and spaces (both in terms of geographical areas and urban-rural environments).

Please send your proposal as an abstract of 200 words and a short CV (1 page) to the editors (luca.mocarelli@unimib.it; giulio.ongaro@unimib.it; j.stephenson@ucl.ac.uk) by April 17th 2023.

CfP: Precarious Constitutionalism: The Ambiguities of Liberal Orders and the Rise of Illiberalism in Central Europe and Latin America

1 week 4 days ago

Latin America and Central Europe are regions that share the experience of dictatorships, authoritarianism, strong modernizing states, rebellious civil societies and transitions to and from democracy. Both regions were also part of the so-called third wave of democratization, which represented a time of hope for democracy and constitutionalism as a means of overcoming dictatorship and difficult history.

 

Mission Statement

Yet this period of democratizing constitutionalism, often through transplantations and adaptions from other constitutional models found elsewhere in the world, took place during the global rise of neoliberal economics and the Washington consensus with new political orders designed to increase the role of the market in the economy. The constitutional orders in these regions have undergone many upheavals in recent years, and the mob attack on the seats of the central constitutional institutions in Brazil in January this year is just one striking example.

In both regions, the promises regarding economic, social, and cultural rights as well as participative and deliberative democratic models collided with economic models and political agendas placing their bets on the market as the key driver of growth and redistribution. Both regions have also experienced the return of right-wing politics in the last decade or more, accompanied in many cases by the rise of illiberal constitutionalism. But there are also crucial differences: the role and ambition of the so-called “social constitutionalism” thriving in Latin America whereas almost non-existent in Central Europe.

The conference seeks to explore these histories, while rejecting a black-and-white dichotomous perspective that portrays countries simply divided between liberal democrats and illiberal anti-democrats. In contrast we encourage papers that examine how the rise of illiberal concepts and practices emerged from the ambiguities of liberal orders including the interlinkages of liberal economic reform programs with illiberal political practices and the non-democratic features inherent in liberal constitutional systems.

We very strongly encourage contributions from scholars focusing on Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe exploring the following questions, including:

- How have democratic historical narratives regarding the authoritarian and dictatorial pasts been put to use towards illiberal ends?
- What are the legacies of authoritarian and illiberal constitutionalist projects of the 20th century?
- What has been the role of the legal professions in authoritarian, transitional, and post-authoritarian orders? What can this tell us about the role of legal professions in illiberal projects of the present?
- What role has secularism, religion and clericalism in liberal and post-liberal orders?
- How have certain actors associated with “Third Wave” civil rights and democratization become part of illiberal movements after transition?
- How have illiberal movements transnationalized to link Eastern Europe and Latin America? Has this process been informed by earlier transnational human rights movements?

We encourage actor-oriented enquiry and welcome contributions combining systemic analysis with perspectives from below.

We welcome comparative papers, but are not concerned primarily with a detailed and elaborated comparative analysis of Latin America and Central Europe. Nor do we wish to merely point out the many analogies and similarities, which, on closer examination, usually reveal more differences than commonalities. Rather, we are concerned with parallel evolutions, narratives, and observations of the complicated developments in both regions, comparing the main research problems and questions as well as the ways of solving them. We are interested in using the parallel narrative of "the other region" to open ourselves up to themes, problems and perspectives that have remained hidden or obscured in our own research field of vision. As such, papers focusing on one region or the other are very welcome with the goal of using the event as an opportunity to compare and collaborate across geographical and cultural specializations.

The conference is a part of the Volkswagen-Stiftung funded project “Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism in East Central Europe: Historical Analysis in Comparative and Transnational Frame/Perspective”. The project aims to enhance historical, interdisciplinary, and comparative perspectives in scholarly engagement with illiberal and authoritarian challenges to constitutional democracy in ECE situating the present-day conflicts in the longer history of the ebb and flow of constitutionalism, democracy, legality and pluralism in the region. Focusing primarily on the era of late state socialism, the post-communist liberal transformation, and into the current illiberal challenge to constitutional democracy, the project situates these regional developments within broader European and global transnational perspectives.

Date: October 12–13, 2023
Location: Villa Lanna, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

Conference Committee:

- Michal Kopeček (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)
- Marta Bucholc (University of Warsaw)
- Joachim von Puttkamer (University of Jena)
- Ned Richardson-Little (University of Erfurt)
- Renáta Uitz (Central European University, Vienna-Budapest)

Sponsor: Volkswagen-Stiftung funded project “Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism in East Central Europe: Historical Analysis in Comparative and Transnational Frame/Perspective”

Hosted by the Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Centre for Ibero-American Studies (SIAS), Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague

Deadline: the deadline to submit abstracts is 20 March, 2023, to Matěj Slavík (slavik@usd.cas.cz).

Questions regarding the conference are to be sent to the email contact above and/or to Michal Kopeček (kopecek@usd.cas.cz).

Contact (announcement)

Matěj Slavík
E-Mail: slavik@usd.cas.cz

Michal Kopeček
E-Mail: kopecek@usd.cas.cz

https://il-liberal.uni-jena.de/

CfP: 71th Annual Conference of the Japan Society of Political Economy (JSPE)

1 week 4 days ago

 

 

General Theme of the Annual Conference: “How to Understand Contemporary Price Fluctuations: Their Structure, Reality, and Impact”

 

Date: November 4-5, 2023

Venue: Tohoku Gakuin University, 1-3-1 Tsuchitoi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8511, Japan

 

The Japan Society of Political Economy celebrated its 60th anniversary four years ago. Over the six decades, the JSPE has endeavored to expand the scope of explorations, from the basic theory of capitalism to the analysis of contemporary capitalism. The JSPE has committed to a critical standpoint against capitalism and mainstream economics and directed its theoretical investigations toward elucidating various issues of capitalism. Nowadays, Marxian economics and the other schools in the heterodox political economy attempt to exert ever more influence in building analytical frameworks to address real-world issues of contemporary capitalism, such as the financial crisis, globalization, and the analysis of class and inequality. 

 

  After the outbreaking of the pandemic COVID-19 and in particular, since 2021, a general increase in prices has been observed around the world: the revival of a high inflation problem after a long period of progressed economic globalization and the low inflation prevailed in the advanced countries since the 1990s. Even Japan cannot be exceptional, though it has been recognized as being suffered from long stagnation and deflation during the recent 30 years. Indeed, the consumer price index grew by 4.0% in December 2022, which is the highest growth since the 2nd oil crisis. As these trends in prices are significant and had never been observed before in nearly half a century, they have attracted great attention from both mainstream and heterodox economists.

  It was also over the half-century that the great transformation of the capitalist economy has been observed, such as the regime shift from Keynesianism to neoliberalism; globalization; and informatization and financialization of capitalism. Nowadays, the worldwide supply chain conducted and operated by multinational corporations becomes dominant in major sectors of production, which has been supported by the significant development of information and communication technologies, including the Internet. Moreover, the economic transactions in financial sectors are much more significant and expand faster than those in the real economy, which leads to economic crises frequently occurring due to financial shocks. Correspondingly, new idiosyncratic policy schemes, such as Quantitative Easing and expansionary physical policy, have been regularly applied to rescue such crises and even the recent shocks of the global pandemic of COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

  Given this recent transformation of the capitalist economy, one of our goals in the 71st Annual Conference of JSPE is to promote the analysis of the present worldwide high inflation from the perspective of political economy, which would encourage a comprehensive understanding of the present regime of the capitalist economy. We aim to deepen discussions about the price fluctuations in the contemporary capitalist economy, in particular, regarding the real features as well as the structural mechanism of these price movements, and theirimpacts on citizens' lives, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.

 

Proposals  

JSPE invites proposals for its international sessions -- topics relating to the general theme for the plenary session and reflecting the tradition and analytical perspective of JSPE which includes: 

 

(a) Critical accounts of the current situations of “deadlocks” of capitalism:  neoliberal globalization, the global financial crisis, economic development, inequality, socialism, gender, environment, and global climate change; 

 

(b) The future of the capitalist system and alternatives to capitalism: major conceptual challenges for critical political economy 

 

(c) Critical analysis of current political-economic problems and policy challenges,  

 

(d) Basic theories of political economy 

 

*Proposals of other topics are also welcome 

 

 

The international session(s) will be held in a hybrid of face-to-face and online.  

 

Language  

International sessions will be held mainly in English.  

 

* If you hope other languages, please let us know for advice. 

 

Submission Procedures and the Deadline 

Proposals should reach the JSPE International Committee at the latest by May 8, 2023, by e-mail to: jspeintl(at)googlegroups.com 

 

 

When submitting your proposal, please include: 

 

(a) The title of the proposed paper; 

 

(b) Your name and academic affiliation; 

 

(c) Your e-mail and postal address; 

 

(d) An abstract (up to 500 words). 

 

(e) Desired language other than English, if any.  

 

(f) Desired style of participation: online or face-to-face. 

 

* Notification of acceptance will be sent by 30 June.  

 

Deadline for the full paper  

The full paper and the extended abstract (A4, 1 page) must be submitted by September 19, 2023 via e-mail to: jspeintl(at)googlegroups.com 

 

Participation Fee 

The way to pay a fee for participation will be announced later on our website: 

https://en.jspe.gr.jp/annual-conference 

CfP: Racial Capitalism: Marxism meets Postcolonial Studies

1 week 4 days ago

5./6. Oktober 2023, University of Kassel, Germany

In recent years, racial capitalism has become a much-debated concept. The Black Lives Matter movement has provided a context to discuss the relationship between racism and capitalism anew. Racial capitalism now shapes discussions in numerous social fields and disciplines of critical social science. However, the frequent reference to the term is often overshadowed by unclear to contradictory argumentation: Is the entanglement of racism and capitalism contingent or logically necessary? How are racism and capitalism respectively defined and historically classified? How does the relationship between racism and capitalism differ in different world regions and time periods? And how can the relationship of domination between racism and capitalism be overcome?

These questions are not new, of course, and connect to intense debates of the 1980s as well as earlier debates within and between anti-colonial movements. Against this background, it is hardly surprising that classic works of the so-called Black Radical Tradition (WEB Du Bois, CLR James, Claudia Jones, Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Angela Davis, and others) are being re-read and re-interpreted to understand, critique, and overcome contemporary forms of domination. Starting from Marxist categories and as a critique of a Eurocentric Marxism, these authors have elaborated the relevance of racism and (post-)colonialism for capitalist development. Moreover, beyond the concept of racial capitalism, these debates are of utmost relevance for a critical social theory and practice.

At least since the 1990s, the tension between Marxism and Postcolonial Studies has overshadowed corresponding discussions in academia and social movements. At times, the fronts have hardened to such an extent that the two critical perspectives see the other as an antagonist. In such a context, theoretical, methodological, and political differences appear insurmountable. Most recently, this has been evident in the heated debate that Vivek Chibber's Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital has provoked. In contrast, current discussions on racial capitalism provide promising starting points for research that does justice to both perspectives.

Against this background, the Department of Development Policy and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kassel would like to offer a space to intensify these debates together with (activist) scholars from different contexts. In addition to keynote speeches by Gargi Bhattarchayya (University of East London) and Kolja Lindner (Université Paris 8, Vincennes-Saint-Denis), a panel discussion and the presentation of contributions, there will be opportunities for peer-discussions in smaller groups, in which, for example, conceptual controversies, methodological challenges, or strategic questions can be debated in depth.

We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions that examine the relationship between racism, (post-)colonialism, and capitalism. Ideally, these should attempt to fill current research gaps and present innovative syntheses of different research programs. PhD scholars are especially asked to present their research projects.

Contributions can be submitted on the following topics and questions:

•    Marxism and Postcolonialism
o    Is a Marxist postcolonialism or a postcolonial Marxism possible and necessary?
o    How do postcolonial and Marxist approaches explain the entanglement of racism and capitalism?
o    What ontological, epistemological, and politico-strategic tensions arise from historical materialist and poststructuralist explanatory approaches and how can these be overcome?
•    Racism and Capital Accumulation
o    How is the relationship between racism and capitalism articulated in contemporary societal relations?
o    What role do state apparatuses (e.g. the police, border and migration regimes, authoritarian-racist governments) play in securing the racist-capitalist modes of (re)production?
o    What role does racist oppression play in processes of capital accumulation and vice versa (using historically and geographically specific analyses)?
o    How do trends of financialization and digitalization change patterns of racist oppression and exploitation?
•    Neo-Colonialism and Imperialism in International Relations
o    To what extent are geopolitics, imperialism and neo-colonialism shaped by and through racism today?
o    How does this interconnectedness manifest itself in international cooperation/development policy?
o    What is the significance of counter-hegemonic forums of international political economy (e.g. in the tradition of Bandung, Tricontinental, New International Economic Order)?
•    Global Value Chains and International Divsion of Labour
o    What is the significance of racism in global value chains?
o    How does the international division of labor reproduce both economic (super-)exploitation and racist oppression?
o    What contradictions arise from this for the organizing labour and how do class struggles become anti-racist?
•    Race, Class and Gender
o    To what extent are regimes and crises of social reproduction as well as gendered division of labor and patriarchal domination permeated by racism?
o    How is racism experienced in everyday life and what role do class and gender play in this experience?
o    What perspectives do feminist political economy approaches offer for thinking Marxist and postcolonial research perspectives together intersectionally?
•    Climate Justice
o    How are the escalating climate crisis, fossil infrastructures, strategies of a green economy, and struggles for climate justice shaped by and through (anti-)racism and (anti-)capitalism, respectively?
•    Political Strategies of Social Movements
o    Which questions and insights does political practice/organizing of emancipatory social forces have for the questions above?
o    What practical consequences results from a synthesis of historical-materialist and postcolonial research?
o    Which contradictions and possibilities result from this for international solidarity, labor struggles and strategies of social movements (identity politics, inclusive class politics, etc.)?

Abstracts (max. 400 words) can be submitted to racialcapitalism@uni-kassel.de until May 21, 2023. Feedback on submissions will be sent in mid-June.

https://www.uni-kassel.de/fb05/en/1000000/divisions-and-institutes/politikwissenschaft/fachgebiete/department-for-development-and-postcolonial-studies/startpage

CfP: Colonialism, Slavery and Local Histories in Early Modern Asia

1 week 4 days ago

 

15 – 16 September 2023

Teleborg Castle, Växjö, Sweden (and online)

 

This conference aims to bring together scholars working on early modern (local) histories of colonialism, slavery, and slave trade, including related forms of forced labour and relocation in Asia and the wider Indian Ocean region, from Cape Town to Tokyo. We invite contributions that address these themes from a (structured) data perspective, or as new and starting research projects, or from a broader theoretical and connective angle.

The conference is partitioned in three sessions that centre around these perspectives:

(Historical) Data:

This session focuses on new data initiatives that aim to generate and / or link historical data relating to (local) histories of colonialism and / or slavery, and slave trade in early modern Asia. We invite contributions that address, for example:

- Data extraction methods for historical documents

- Structuring, modelling and / or linking historical data

- Entity linking in historical data

New research:

This session aims to stimulate discussion and connections between new research (projects) in the field of early modern colonialism, slavery and slave trade in Asia. We invite starting research projects to present their research approach, preliminary results, as well as a key issue for feedback, to foster dialogue and draw upon the expertise of other specialists. Contributions to this session could address, for example:

- Historical source criticisms and dealing with bias, selection and gaps.

- New analyses of historical data and / or sources.

- New micro, meso- or macrolevel histories of slavery and slave trade in Asia.

New connections & perspectives:

This session aims to forge new connections and perspectives on early modern colonial interactions, forced labour, and forced relocations in Asia from a broader, theoretical angle. We invite contributions that address these points through, for example:

- New theoretical or conceptual embeddings.

- New approaches to research and writing about colonial-local histories.

- New connections between historical processes or academic disciplines. 2

 

Deadline for paper abstracts: 3 April 2023

The conference is organized by Hans Hägerdal (Linnaeus University) in collaboration with Merve Tosun (International Institute of Social History), Ulbe Bosma (International Institute of Social History), Matthias van Rossum (International Institute of Social History), and Claude Chevaleyre (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon). Attendance to the conference is free of charge. We can provide (limited) lodging at the conference venue for three nights and aim to reimburse travel costs as much as possible. In case of overspill, priority will be given to participants with no or limited institutional support.

Abstracts (±300 words) should describe the proposed paper and can be sent to Hans Hägerdal (hans.hagerdal@lnu.se). Please include a short biographical note and your current institutional affiliation in your submission. The deadline for paper abstracts is Monday 3 April 2023. Accepted contributors will be notified by 24 April 2023. Full papers (6.000 - 8.000 words) are due on 3 July 2023.

New ELHN Working Group on Precarious Labour

2 weeks 2 days ago

European Labour History Network (ELHN)
Working Group Precarious Labour

A new ELHN Working Group has been launched: The Working Group Precarious Labour brings together scholars that are interested in the history of precarious labour all over the world. The Working Group’s objective is to study precarity in all its manifestations and effects as well as to animate discussions about conceptual issues, workers’ responses and making global comparisons and connections. More information can be found on the webpage of the working group.

If you are interested in joining, i.e. be included in our mailing list and receive information about our planned activities, please write to one of the coordinators: Nina Trige Andersen, María Fernanda Arellanes, Rosa Kösters or Sibylle Marti. Find contact information on the working group's webpage.

YMHC Issue 10: Labour in the Antique Mines of Laurion – by E. Favier

2 weeks 3 days ago

The Young Mining Historians Corner is a blog post series edited by the Labour In Mining WG dedicated to early career researchers in mining history broadly constructed.

The Issue 10 has been just published:
Labour in the Antique Mines of Laurion – by Eleonore Favier (Teaching Assistant at Université Paris 8 – Associate researcher at the laboratory HiSoMA)
(https://lim.hypotheses.org/2686)

Find all the previous issues here: https://lim.hypotheses.org/category/ymhc
Contact LiM WG for more information at labourinmining@gmail.com

YMHC editors: Francesca Sanna, Gabriele Marcon, Nikolaos Olma

 

CfP: After the Economic Miracle (Radical History Review)

2 weeks 3 days ago
 

A Call for Proposals from the Radical History Review
Issue number 151
Abstract Deadline: 
Co-Edited by Ravinder Kaur and Barbara Weinstein

To witness the world through the many unfolding “economic miracles” is to behold dreamworlds and catastrophes all at once. Initially tied to the post-war phenomenon of wirtschaftswunder – the dramatic pace of economic recovery in West Germany – the seductive idea of “economic miracle” captured the imagination of policymakers especially across the old third world. From the “miracle on the Han river” in South Korea, the “East Asian miracle,” the South East Asian “tiger economies” to the “Chilean miracle” and the “Singapore model,” the many iterations of the capitalist growth story have appeared in the post-war world. The idea was replayed once again at the turn of the millennium, this time as the attention-grabbing ascendance of the Asian giants – China and India – the promise of a rising Africa or the formation of the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – as players in the theater of the world economy.  What is common to this phenomenon across time and space is the faith the elite policymakers and the middle class put in the miraculous power of free-market capitalism to bring progress and prosperity, a chance to harness the futures. Yet, what has been revealed too in the past decades is the underbelly of the economic miracle, the slow devastation that coheres growth and greater inequality, accumulation and dispossession, populist sweep of authoritarianism, and violent suppression of democratic dissent.  

 

This special issue invites contributions that critically trace the utopias/dystopias of economic miracles. To this end, we seek to unpack the kind of work the idea of “miracle” performs in the domain of economy. To believe in a miracle is to be in awe, to witness something happen that is conceptually deemed impossible—for example, the incredibly high rates of growth and low rates of inflation of the economic miracle orchestrated by Brazil’s military dictatorship. This sense of the miraculous is what is invoked to denote the wonder of economic growth, to reassign nations and world areas that were once deemed to be “lagging behind” as emerging markets filled with promise and possibilities. The term “economic miracle” is, then, intricately tied with manifold crises of poverty and destruction in times of peace and war. This historical dialectic between ruins and reconstruction, decline and emergence remains at the heart of this phenomenon.

 

The suggested themes include the following but are not limited to:

  • Politics of promise/optimism
  • Transition to economic liberalization: shock strategies or gradual shifts
  • Rise of authoritarianism; violent suppression of rights 
  • Inequality

 

The RHR publishes material in a variety of forms. Potential contributors are encouraged to look at recent issues for examples of both conventional and non-conventional forms of scholarship. We encourage contributions with strong visual content. In addition to monographic articles based on archival research, we encourage submissions to our various departments, including:

 

  • Historians at Work (reflective essays by practitioners in academic and non-academic settings that engage with questions of professional practice)
  • Teaching Radical History (syllabi and commentary on teaching)
  • Public History (essays on historical commemoration and the politics of the past)
  • Interviews (proposals for interviews with scholars, activists, and others)
  • (Re)Views (review essays on history in all media—print, film, and digital)

Procedures for submission of articles:

 

By May 1, 2023 please submit a 1-2 page abstract summarizing the article you wish to submit as an attachment to contactrhr@gmail.com with “Issue 151 Abstract Submission” in the subject line. Please send any images as low-resolution digital files embedded in a Word document along with the text. If chosen for publication, you will need to send high-resolution image files and secure permission to reprint all images.

 

By June 15, 2023, authors will be notified whether they should submit a full version of their article for peer review. The due date for completed articles will be October 1, 2023. Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 151of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in January, 2025.

 

 

Abstract Deadline: May 1, 2023

 

Contact: contactrhr@gmail.com

CfP: Former des archivistes en France aujourd’hui

2 weeks 3 days ago

Journée d’étude à l’occasion du dixième anniversaire du master Archives de Paris 8

 

À l’occasion du dixième anniversaire du master Archives de l’université Paris 8, le département d’histoire de l’université Paris 8 (Saint-Denis), les Archives nationales et l’association Archiv-8 organisent une journée d’étude sur la formation en archivistique en France aujourd’hui. L’offre de formation initiale correspond-elle aux besoins de la fonction « archives » dans les organisations, publiques et privées ? Quelles sont les attentes en matière de formation continue et pour quel public ? Les formations en archivistique ont-elles toujours leur place face aux autres formations en sciences de l’information et en sciences du patrimoine ?

Argumentaire

En 2010, la Gazette des archives a célébré le 25e anniversaire du Centre de formation de l’Association des archivistes de France en consacrant son numéro 218 à la « La formation professionnelle : enjeux d’hier et d’aujourd’hui ». Sujet important pour la profession des archivistes depuis le XIXe siècle, l’offre de formation s’est développée dans deux directions à partir des années 1970 : la formation continue ; les formations universitaires (DU, masters, doctorat), afin de répondre aux besoins des services publics d’archives et des entreprises.

Nous souhaitons continuer cette réflexion à l’occasion du 10e anniversaire de la création du master Archives de l’université Paris 8 (Saint-Denis). Quels sont les enjeux de la formation en archivistique en France aujourd’hui ? Le panorama décrit dans la Gazette des archives en 2010 a-t-il évolué ? L’offre de formation initiale correspond elle aux besoins de la fonction « archives » dans les organisations ? Quelles sont les attentes en matière de formation continue et pour quel public ? Les formations en archivistique ont-elles toujours leur place face aux autres formations en sciences de l’information et en sciences du patrimoine ?

Nous traiterons de la formation au sens le plus large – à l’exclusion de la formation des usagers. Nous souhaitons donner la parole à tous les acteurs impliqués dans les formations, qu’il s’agisse de formation initiale ou continue, quel que soit le niveau. Les intervenants sont invités à ne pas se limiter au traditionnel exercice du retour d’expérience, et à présenter une approche problématisée et réflexive.

Thèmes proposés :

  • La place des archivistes dans les métiers des sciences de l’informations (documentaliste, bibliothécaire)
  • Référentiel et formation
  • Les diplômes (licence professionnelle, master, doctorat, ….)
  • Formation et marché du travail
  • La formation initiale
  • La formation continue
  • La formation en alternance
  • Validation de l’expérience (VAE, VAPP, diplôme sur travaux…)
  • Les formateurs en archivistique
  • La littérature professionnelle
  • Formation et recherche
  • Les institutions formatrices : SIAF, Archives nationales, collectivités territoriales, Grandes Ecoles, universités, entreprises, associations.
  • La place des archivistes dans l’économie des nouvelles technologies, dans les métiers du patrimoine, dans celui de la médiation….
Modalités de contribution

Les propositions de contribution sont à envoyer à marie-cecile.bouju02 [at] univ-paris8.fr

jusqu’au 20 mars 2023.

Elles devront comporter :

  • Les nom et prénom
  • L’adresse électronique
  • Une notice bio-bibliographique de 1 000 signes maximum
  • Un titre
  • Un résumé de la proposition de 2500 signes maximum

Date de la journée d’étude : mardi 27 juin 2023

Lieu : AN, Auditorium, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine.

Comité d’organisation

Marie-Cécile Bouju (Paris 8, IDHE.S.) et Catherine Saliou (Paris 8, ArScAn)

Comité scientifique

Marie-Cécile Bouju (Paris 8, IDHE.S.), Joël Chandelier (Paris 8, MeMo), Martin Gravel (Paris 8, ArScAn), Christian Hottin (CY Cergy Paris Université, Héritages), Françoise Lemaire (Archives nationales), Remi Nguyen Dang (Association Archiv-8), Catherine Saliou (Paris 8, ArScAn), Catherine Verna (Paris 8, ArScAn)

Newsletter of the Marx Memorial Library

2 weeks 3 days ago

e-Newsletter

 

Library news

 

 

 

 

900 by 90

 

For our 90th anniversary this year we are trying to reach 900 members to help support the library to grow and celebrate this special milestone. 

Writing in the Morning Star this week, Ralph Gibson has given some of the benefits of becoming a member and the exciting history you can be part of. 

If you haven't already, please do think about joining the library, or pass on to anyone you know that might be interested!

Read More

 

 

 

 

 

New donation

 

Last week we were very pleased to accept a new donation with a personal connection to the libraries history.

The daughter of one of our previous lecturers, Kirstine Uren, donated her lecture notes and an inscribed volume of Capital from her students. Kirstine taught economics courses here in the '50s so it is great to be able to add these items to our collections.

 

 

 

Events

 

 

 

 

 

New programme of events

 

We're excited to annouce our programme of events for the upcoming term with discussions on imperialism, language and mobilisation, Tony Benn, the peace movement and a historical-materialist interpretation of Jesus.

 

In  May we'll also be starting 2 new 8 week courses on Trade Unions, Class and Power, and Women, Work and Trade Unions.

Read More

 

 

 

Section Heading Here

 

 

Marx Oration

 

We will be marking the anniversary of Marx's death with our annual oration at his grave in Highgate Cemetary on Sunday, 12th March. This years speakers will be Fran Heathcote, National President of PCS, and Rob Griffiths, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain.

 

Gather at the Swain's Lane entrance at 13.30, for a 14.00 start.

Read More

 

 

 

 

 

Book Sale

 

Get your hands on Marxist classics, socialist histories and rare pamphlets!  The next library book sale is coming up on Satruday, 18th March with doors open 11-3.

 

We will need volunteers on 17th and 18th March to help set up and run the booksale, if you are interested in helping please email library@marx-memorial-library.org.uk for more details. Volunteers get a chance to buy books before doors open! 

Read More

 

 

 

 

 

Recordings

 

So far this year we've had some amazing events in the library including discussions on Engels and the housing crisis, the rise of a right-wing Israeli government, and trade unionists and community activists on the energy crisis.

 

If you've missed any you can still catch up on these and all our events by viewing the recordings on our website. 

Read More

 

Culture politiche delle democrazie dopo il 1989. Le nuove sfide.

2 weeks 3 days ago

La Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna, la Fondazione Istituto piemontese Antonio Gramsci e la Fondazione Gramsci Onlus di Roma presentano un ciclo di 5 incontri a partire da martedì 7 marzo 2023 dal titolo Culture politiche delle democrazie dopo il 1989. Le nuove sfide. 

L’epoca che ci separa dalla fine della Guerra Fredda si è caratterizzata per una serie di trasformazioni profonde delle principali culture politiche europee e statunitensi (liberalismo, conservatorismo, socialismo democratico, comunismo), spesso interpretate nella chiave di un declino a fronte dell’emergere di fenomeni di contestazione degli istituti stessi della politica. Il ciclo di seminari si propone di mettere in luce caratteri e traiettorie di tali trasformazioni senza iscriverle necessariamente in una sequenza di tipo deterministico o in una visione normativa. Nello stesso tempo, si intende mettere a fuoco le scansioni degli ultimi tre decenni, che hanno chiaramente conosciuto forme di globalizzazione diverse tra loro.

Queste ultime hanno prodotto ripercussioni e risposte critiche negli Stati-nazione democratici non sempre adeguatamente interpretate sul piano intellettuale. Una motivazione specifica dell’iniziativa ci appare oggi la comprensione in chiave storico-politica dell’emergere e del consolidarsi di forze di destra radicalizzate che costituiscono una sfida per la democrazia liberale.

Gli istituti di cultura di Torino, Bologna e Roma che hanno Antonio Gramsci come eponimo propongono uno sforzo collettivo di analisi comparativa nel tentativo di contribuire a fornire strumenti concettuali che contrastino i limiti e la frammentazione del dibattito pubblico.

Nomi e date degli ultimi incontri sono in fase di definizione.

Tutti gli incontri si terranno In presenza e in diretta streaming sui rispettivi canali Youtube.

 

Primo incontro
Martedì 7 marzo 2023 – ore 17.30
Sala Convegni | Via Mentana, 2 – BOLOGNA

Dal neoliberalismo alla sua crisi dopo il 2008

Raffaella Baritono | Università di Bologna
Federico Romero | European University Institute

 

Secondo incontro
Mercoledì 15 marzo 2023 – ore 18.00
Polo del ‘900 | Via del Carmine, 14 – TORINO

Destre e sovranismi

Giovanni Borgognone | Università di Torino
Loris Zanatta | Università di Bologna

 

Terzo incontro
Mercoledì 12 aprile 2023 – ore 18.00
Polo del ‘900 | Via del Carmine, 14 – TORINO

Socialdemocrazie e terza via in Europa

Alfio Mastropaolo | Università di Torino
Alberto Gherardini | Università di Torino

 

Quarto incontro
Sala Convegni | Via Mentana, 2 – BOLOGNA

Femminismo, ecologismo, critica del capitalismo

 

Sesto incontro
Sala Biblioteca | Via Sebino 43a – ROMA

Culture politiche e progetto europeo

Newsletter of the Working Class Movement Library

2 weeks 3 days ago
 

Labour Revolt in Britain 1910-1914 
Book Launch - Thursday 30th March 7:30PM

Join us for the launch of Ralph Darlington's new book and fundraiser for striking workers. The talk will be co-hosted by Paul Kelly, president of Salford Trades Union Council who are sponsoring the talk along with Manchester Trades Council and Salford City Unison. You can reserve your ticket here
 

 

Shirley Baker Exhibition

Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd April 10AM - 4PM
 

The Capturing the Modern Backdrop exhibition (developed by Salford University) has garnered a lot of interest and we'd like to thank everyone who has paid us a visit over the last few weeks! In order to offer more people the chance to see the exhibition, the library will be extending its opening hours for the first weekend of April. We hope to see you then! 


 
 

Our International Women's Day discussion is sold out but keep an eye on our socials for info on how to live stream the event!

Find out more about our archive materials on radical motherhood and get involved in digitizing the collection. Click on the image above to read more and reserve your spot. 

The Working Class Movement
Library Recommends

 

Communities Resisting Borders  Saturday 4th March 3PM - 9PM

The good folks at No Borders Manchester have teamed up with the Building Bridges crew to welcome a range of local groups to Partisan Collective in Salford to build upon and strengthen existing networks of community solidarity. Click on the image to find out more. 

 

Energy in History (online) 

Ewan Gibbs, a historian of energy, industry, work and protest has launched a new exhibition Energy in History which explores work, community, politics and protest related to the coal mining, nuclear power, oil and gas and renewables industries. 


 

Raise the Alarm - Wednesday 8th March 5:30PM 

An action has been announced for International Women's Day as organisers look to make noise for trans feminist, abolitionist and internationalist liberation. All genders welcome to attend, with women and those who identify with womanhood to the front! Keep an eye on the socials for more info. 

Organise Now 6 Months On - Monday 20th March 6:30PM (online)

Organise Now are coming up to their 6-month anniversary and have called a meeting to reflect on what they've achieved so far. The meeting will feature Sarah Woolley (BFAWU) and include a contribution from Mick Whelan (ASLEF). 

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