Post Modern Marxist Critiiques of Capitalism

קריאה פוסט-מרקסיסטית בסיפור הקצר "שימוש יומיומי" מאת אליס ווקר. המאמר מציג שני עולמות מתחרים, הפועלים במקביל בתוך הסיפור וברמה הפואטית-חיצונית שלו: עולם קדם תעשייתי שעיקרון הייצוג המוביל שלו הוא הסיפור שבעל-פה (על פי המסה "מספר" מאת ולטר בנימין), ועולם פוסט-תעשייתי  רווי בייצוגי מדיה המאיים לבלוע את אותו עולם קדם תעשייתי אותנטי על ידי שכפולו. קונפליקט זה מגיע לנקודת משבר סביב פריט  מריבה המייצג עבור שני הסדרים, הקדם- והפוסט-מודרני, את המורשת הנשית השחורה  - שמיכת טלאים פרי מלאכתן של בנות המשפחה העומדת במרכז הסיפור. שמיכת הטלאים - דימוי תרבותי מרכזי וטעון בפוליטיקת הזהויות האמריקנית - מייצרת שוב את הקונפליקט המתרחש בסיפור ברמת התקבלותו הביקורתית, באופן המזהה את ביקורת הספרות האמריקנית האתנית כמשתייכת לאותו סדר פוסטמודרני מחפצן נגדו יוצאת ווקר.

This is the Draft Table of Contents for my forthcoming book (Lexington--hopefully December 2016): Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse.

I post it here to give my readers--for whom I'm tremendously grateful--a preview of the book's themes and argument.

In the novels, Never Let Me Go, and Frankenstein the authors utilize the concepts developed in Marxist theories to make readers aware of the systematic oppression to the working-class. The idea of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat comes from The Communist Manifesto as the bourgeoisie is the owners of the means of production, while the proletariat represents the working-class (Marx). In Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro utilizes the clones as a symbolic representation of the limitations on the working-class in society. While the plot and characters differ widely from Frankenstein the overall message regarding social inequality is similar. However, one crucial distinction is the results of the oppressed characters when realizing their limitations in social mobility. For Kathy and Tommy, their reaction was to continue along the path of donation and completion. Ishiguro attempts to critique that society is complacent in allowing for social inequality to persevere and strengthen the disparities in wealth between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley utilizes the relationship between the monster and Victor Frankenstein to demonstrate the separation between the working-class and the bourgeoisie. By having the monster react with physical violence after his rejection from human society, Shelley is claiming the necessity of a working-class revolt if required for social mobility.

An analysis and critique of the well known Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto, and a discussion of its applicability today on corporatist democratic America, and the possibility of this serving as a blueprint toward post-democratic/post-capitalist America.

Instructor: E. H. Dority
Institution: Eastern Michigan University

F*ck May 68, Fight Now: Exploring the Uses of the Radical Past from 1968 to Today

Session 1: History is a Weapon

June 8, 2018

Department of History, University of Liverpool

https://archive.discoversociety.org/2018/09/04/circumnavigating-the-past-foreclosing-the-future-commemoration-of-the-radical-past-in-the-amnesiac-present/

La crisis alimentaria mundial más reciente ha puesto de manifiesto la incapacidad del derecho a la alimentación para atender y prevenir este tipo de situaciones. Ahora es el momento hacer más fuerte y eficaz este derecho, pasando de directrices de cumplimiento voluntario a leyes vinculantes. Como todos sabemos, no hace mucho tiempo, la FAO patrocinó la creación de directrices para el cumplimiento del derecho a la alimentación. Su publicación fue ampliamente celebrada, y se consideró que era el texto más detallado y completo que hubiera existido para hacer que este derecho sea una realidad para millones de personas que padecen hambre. No hay duda de que estas directrices proporcionan un marco exhaustivo para la acción y ofrecen una cobertura detallada de los temas importantes. Sin embargo, las nuevas realidades que han surgido en los últimos años, tal vez con demasiada rapidez y de forma inesperada, han puesto de manifiesto la necesidad de una regulación más completa del derecho a la alimentación que la proporcionada por las directrices. Idealmente, por tanto, su texto debería ser modificado y actualizado.

El propósito de este libro es indicar algunas áreas y temas que tendrán un gran impacto en los próximos años en relación con la aplicación del derecho a la seguridad alimentaria y a los alimentos y que actualmente disponen de escasa o nula regulación. Estos son los nuevos retos a los que va a enfrentarse el derecho a la alimentación en el siglo XXI...

In the new global economy, automation has become a central issue for workers. There is increasing concern that workers are becoming disadvantaged in the face of technological change. What is not clear yet is the impact of automation on the future of the world of work. This paper firstly offers a historical overview of automation, before considering the role of automation in the world economy, with particular attention to its capitalist tenets. We explore how it has induced social, economic and political challenges for workers in the world economy. We shall consider these challenges through a Marxist lens to consider elements of power in governing labour flows. Geographically, automation is a global change; its challenges are felt worldwide. “Machines themselves are turning into workers, and the line between the capability of labour and capital is blurring as never before” (Ford, 2016, pp.4). In 1930, Keynes famously predicted that 100 years hence, revolutionary technical change would solve “the economic problem”, (Keynes, 1930) that there are limited resources, but infinite wants.

El objetivo de este artículo es tratar de comprender uno de los aspectos fundamentales de la obra de Agustín García Calvo, su crítica a la Realidad, a través del pensamiento de Marx y Nietzsche. El autor sostiene que la obra de García Calvo realiza un original aprovechamiento de las críticas de Marx y Nietzsche y puede servir como herramienta de interpretación del presente. Esto es, en definitiva, lo que este artículo trata de mostrar, afirmando que, tal como Marx teorizó sobre el fetichismo de la mercancía y Nietzsche utilizó también el término 'fetichismo' para referirse a los procesos lingüísticos, García Calvo expuso, en su ataque a la Realidad, algo que podríamos describir como fetichismo de la Realidad.

REALITY FETISHISM. AN INTERPRETATION OF AGUSTÍN GARCÍA CALVO THROUGH MARX AND NIETZSCHE

The aim of this article is to try to understand one of the fundamental aspects of the work of Agustín García Calvo, his criticism of Reality, through the thought of Marx and Nietzsche. The author asserts that the work of García Calvo makes an original use of the criticisms of Marx and Nietzsche and can be used as a tool of interpretation of the present. This is, in short, what this article tries to show, claiming that, as Marx theorized about the commodity fetishism and Nietzsche used also the term 'fetishism' to refer to linguistic processes, García Calvo stated, in his attack to Reality, something that we can describe as Reality fetishism.

Our body compulsory demands food, water and air to keep its vital functions and yet their economic nature is rather diverse
with food mostly considered a private good, water suffering an accelerated privatization process and air so far considered a
global common good. Food has evolved from a common good and local resource to a national asset and then to a
transnational commodity as the commodification process is rather completed nowadays. Cultivated food is fully privatized
and this consideration means that human beings can eat food as long as they have money to but it or means to produce it.
With the dominant no money-no food rationality, hunger still prevails in a world of abundance. In order to provide a sound
foundation for the transition towards sustainable food systems, the very nature of food as a pure private good is contested and
subsequently reversed in this paper, proposing a re-conceptualisation of food as a common good, a necessary narrative for the
redesign of the dominating agro-industrial food system that merely sees food as a tradable commodity. This aspirational
transition shall lead us to a more sustainable, fairer and farmer-centred food system. The idea of the commons is applied to
food, deconstructing food as a pure private good and reconstructing it as an impure commons that can be better produced and
distributed by a hybrid tri-centric governance system compounded by market rules, public regulations and collective actions.
Several food-related elements are already considered as common goods (i.e. fish stocks, wild fruits, cuisine recipes,
agricultural knowledge, food safety regulations and unpatented genetic resources) as well as food’s implications (hunger
eradication) and benefits (public health and good nutrition). Should food and be consider as a commons, the implications for
the governance of the global food system would be enormous, with examples ranging from placing food outside the
framework agreements dealing with pure private goods, banning financial speculation on food commodities or preparing
international binding agreements to govern the production, distribution and access of food to every human being.

Article based on paper presented as part of Panel 24: ‘Looting, Refusing, Negating, Embodying’ ‘Critical Refusals’ Fourth Biennal Conference of the International Herbert Marcuse Society, University of Pennsylvania, 27-29th October 2011

http://www.pdcnet.org/radphilrev/content/radphilrev_2013_0016_0001_0375_0385

http://web.asc.upenn.edu/news/Critical_Refusals_Conference.pdf

CICP Entrevista realizada por Oscar Martinez de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Perú, en Buenos Aires el 11 de diciembre del 2017. Publicada bajo el título de "Entrevista a Juan Iñigo Carrera: crítica de la economía política, sujeto histórico y destrucción del capital" en Martinez, Oscar (coordinador), Karl Marx desde América Latina. Dialéctica, política y teoría del valor, Editorial Ande/Gislat Editores, Lima, 2019, pp. 443-463.

One of the tell-tale signs of internal inconsistency in a text is that even if one removes a contradiction, i.e., an internal inconsistency, in an attempt to make the text cohere, one runs smack dab into another internal inconsistency, which arises as a result of the suspension or removal of the initial inconsistency. When this occurs, the underlying rules or premises themselves of a text are incongruent with each other, thus, a new internal inconsistency arises as soon as one overcomes the initial contradiction or inconsistency, due to the fact that the set of undergirding premises do not fit together into a cohesive whole. In short, one cannot fix any internal inconsistency without manifesting another or others, such is an indication that a text is internally inconsistent. And this is the case with Kliman's Reclaiming Marx's Capital, in the sense that it is a feeble attempt to rectify the long-standing transformation problem found in Marx's Capital volumes, but, in the process, only manifests a whole new set of internal inconsistencies as a result, thus, disproving his own frail ideologically-driven myth of consistency.

"Developmentalism is still the dominant perspective in managing natural resources. Nature is strategic economic assets that sparked the exploration and exploitation of natural wealth. The
implication is massive environmental damage in many places. Political Ecology emerged as alternative perspective in managing natural resources to build synergy between nature and human
relationships through local wisdom. This paper will review briefly the prospects and challenges of political ecology as alternative paradigm in the natural resource management"

La profunda reflexión que nos presenta Alfredo Macías Vázquez es a la vez un toque de atención a las ciencias sociales y un revulsivo ante la propagación de tendencias reformistas y populistas en la teoría social y el pensamiento político de izquierdas. No trata exclusivamente de problemas económicos, sino de la naturaleza de las relaciones sociales existentes en el capitalismo y sus diferencias con las sociedades que lo han precedido. Esta reseña pretende entablar un diálogo entre el manuscrito de Macías y la teoría antropológica, lo cual se lleva a cabo a través de la crítica a algunos aspectos del trabajo de autores como David Graeber, Pierre Bourdieu o Bruno Latour, en particular alrededor de sus conceptos de capital simbólico, dinero, fetichismo, valor y trabajo.

Klaus Platzgummer met Pier Vittorio Aureli to discuss the contemporary condition in the production of architecture. Aurelis writings are often related to political and economic theories and conditions. One mode of life and its relation to architecture Pier Vittorio Aureli recently addressed in his writings is "Asceticism", a possible counter term for "Lust". What is the relevance of "Asceticism" and "Lust" in our contemporary architectural production?

Questo libro è un viaggio alla scoperta di un continente antico, eppure nuovo. Da Google ad Amazon, passando per Baudelaire e Machiavelli, Spinoza e Marx, Ivanhoe, i gladiatori, racconta la genealogia dei lavori autonomi e dipendenti. Roberto Ciccarelli ci guida in una storia unica e sorprendente e mostra cosa hanno in comune il freelance, l’imprenditore di se stesso o lo startupper nell’economia della condivisione e nella gig economy. La domanda non è che cos’è il lavoro, ma la più concreta, e potente: cosa può oggi una forza lavoro?”

This chapter examines the theoretical contributions of Marx and Engels as a framework for analysing the historical evolution of the idea of inequality within the domestic and international legal frameworks in capitalist societies. It discusses what can be referred to as a triple inequality in the legal frameworks that emerged at the end of the eighteenth century in a historical context dominated by bourgeois revolutions. The new ruling class relied on a legal-philosophical discourse to promote a drastic legal transformation: the equal treatment for all citizens under the law. This marked the beginning of a period of ‘idyllic justice’ grounded in consensual social values that gave the appearance, at least formally, of non-selectivity. Despite these promises, the emergent formal treatment under the law contrasted with the inequality of the law in practice. The continuity of the vulnerable sectors' dispossession – an inherent element of the development of capitalism – was then masked behind three modes of inequality: the denial of unequal material conditions through the imposition of an ahistorical and abstract characterisation of the law; inequality of the formal law; and inequality in the application of the law. Today, in an age of global governance, this chapter proposes that a similar process of global triple inequality is taking place through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Reflections on possible paths to overcome this trend can be found at the end of the chapter.

To cite this work/Para citar este trabajo: Weis, V.V. and White, R. (2020), "A Marxist Perspective on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", Blaustein, J., Fitz-Gibbon, K., Pino, N.W. and White, R. (Ed.) The Emerald Handbook of Crime, Justice and Sustainable Development, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 63-83.

This paper attempts a historiography of the study of the Roman economy over the last forty years. It is argued that a new paradigm, used in the sense of a broad set of values, assumptions and concepts shared by those within the field, began to emerge during the 1980s, reaching its most concrete form in the middle of the last decade with the publication of the Cambridge Economic History of the Graeco-Roman World (Scheidel et al. 2007a). The new paradigm manifests itself most clearly in the adoption of the ideological outlook of development economics, a body of economic theory which first came into being in the immediate post-war period with the ostensible motive of removing poverty from the ‘underdeveloped’ parts of the globe (Escobar 1995: 3–12, 21–54). This adoption has resulted in a shared terminological and conceptual framework between institutions such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, on the one hand (Chomsky 1999; Goldman 2005; Harvey 2005), and historians and archaeologists dealing specifically with questions of Roman economic history on the other (Garnsey and Saller 1987; Jongman 2007b; Saller 2002; Scheidel et al. 2007a).

Se hace un recuento de los alimentos que se desperdicia en diversos paises de America Latina y Europa, y se propone soluciones para reducir ese desperdicio. Recientes estudios de FAO indican que a nivel mundial este desperdicio llegaa un tercio del volumen total de alimentos producidos. Con ellos se podria alimentar a toda la poblacion hambrienta del planeta.

Il presente file, titolo: Republicanismvs Geopoliticvs Fontes Origenes et Via, contiene testi e link di Massimo Morigi sull’estetizzazione della politica e sul ‘Repubblicanesimo geopolitico’. Il ‘Repubblicanesimo Geopolitico’ è una dottrina politologica e filosofico-politica elaborata negli ultimi anni dall’ autore  in cui i sette paper copia-incollati nelle  pagine di questo file costituiscono l’elaborazione storico-filosofica che ha portato all’elaborazione finale del ‘Repubblicanesimo Geopolitico’,  di cui si potrà prendere visione cliccando nei link posti nella parte finale del file al termine dei sette paper copia-incollati nel file. In questi precedenti paper era stato messo a fuoco, fra le altre cose,  un nuovo tipo di repubblicanesimo profondamente debitore delle suggestioni dell’estetizzazione della politica, con le sue luci delle avanguardie artistiche e con le sue terribili ombre dei regimi totalitari, così come si era manifestata nel corso del Novecento (il numero della nota a piè di pagina che all’inizio di ogni nuovo paper non riparte da 1 ma aggiunge 1 all’ultimo numero di nota del precedente paper pur essendo dovuto ad un automatismo del copia-incolla è, se vogliamo, anche un accidente altamente simbolico del filo rosso, fra riflessioni sul repubblicanesimo e sulla estetizzazione della politica, che attraversa tutti questi interventi). Il ‘Repubblicanesimo Geopolitico’ raccoglie queste suggestioni ed intende innestarle nel tronco della tradizione realista della Geopolitica. Un realismo politico quello del ‘Repubblicanesimo geopolitico’ che però, rinnovato dalla scuola costruttivista delle relazioni internazionali (Alexander Wendt), pone in primo piano una spazialità non solo geografica  ma anche di natura mentale, rappresentativa e culturale (in fondo la moderna noopolitik non è che una riscrittura postmoderna dell’estetizzazione della politica novecentesca)  e che, proprio perché strettamente vincolato in senso machiavelliano all’effettualità, rifiuta con irrisione tutte le ingenue, quando non interessate, visioni  liberal-neopositivistiche alla Popper e si riallaccia direttamente ai grandi pensatori dialettici Hegel e Marx (da questo punto di vista, il ‘Repubblicanesimo geopolitico’ si distacca drasticamente da tutte le vulgate neomarxiste: in primo luogo perché integralmente dialettico, in secondo luogo perché non cerca surrogati salvifici alla classe operaia ma individua, sulla scia di Gianfranco La Grassa, negli agenti strategici interni ed internazionali gli autentici operatori dell’evoluzione delle società capitalistiche – ma a differenza della versione lagrassiana del marxismo, il ‘Repubblicanesimo geopolitico’ si tiene ben stretta, ed intende sviluppare, la visione dialettica hegelo-marxiana della realtà). Possiamo così affermare che generare una profonda dialettica fra realismo politico e le mai sopite pulsioni verso l’estetizzazione della politica (impresa alla quale fu dedicata la vita del più grande rappresentante della filosofia politica del Novecento, Hannah Arendt, alla quale però fece sempre velo la sua formazione kantiana) sia il compito che si prefigge il ‘Repubblicanesimo Geopolitico’. Un repubblicanesimo, quello geopolitico, che ha pertanto definitivamente abbandonato una visione della libertà intesa come non dominio che ha segnato – ed estenuato – le ormai  vecchie ed attardate  vulgate del neorepubblicaneismo e che è invece fermamente indirizzato alla realizzazione di una autentica, profonda ed intima Vita Activa.

Massimo Morigi – Ravenna, 8 ottobre 2014

Questo lavoro vuole essere una ricognizione delle aggettivazioni del termine capitalismo, non un'analisi semantica dello stesso, ma piuttosto una mappa che orienti il lettore verso un universo vario e complesso di riflessioni che nel corso della storia hanno fatto perno sul termine capitalismo per spiegare dinamiche economiche molto diverse tra loro.