The journal Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory is aiming to publish a symposium on the theme of 'Marxism and the Fantastic', and we are looking for papers interrogating this topic in any fruitful way. We are open to consideration of 'the fantastic' in psychological terms, but we are particularly interested in discussions of the non-real, the fantastic in arts and literature.

Marxist theory has long engaged with modernist movements such as surrealism. In addition, there is already a body of Marxist theory engaging with science fiction, as exemplified in the work of Darko Suvin, Fredric Jameson and Carl Freedman. However, there is as yet no body of Marxist work which systematically engages with "the fantastic" more generally conceived, either perceiving science fiction as a subset of the fantastic, or opposed to it. We would like to make a start at filling that gap.

Introducing the International Simultaneous Policy Organization

zeroworkaholic writes Noam Chomsky has indicated his interest in the International Simultaneous Policy project, British in origin, about which, read on:

"The principal barrier to the implementation of any significant measure to improve today’s economic, environmental or social problems, be they in advanced, developing or non-industrialised countries, is competition. Global de-regulated capital flows and corporations know no national boundaries and by their ability or threat to move elsewhere, force nations to compete with one another for capital, jobs (and therefore votes) and ever scarcer natural resources.

Anonymous Comrade writes "Johan Soderberg has a fine essay called "Copyleft vs. Copyright: A Marxist Critique". Here is the Abstract and Table of Contents. You can find the whole piece at soderberg.

Copyright was invented by and for early capitalism, and its importance to that system has grown ever since. To oppose copyright is to oppose capitalism. Thus, Marxism is a natural starting point when challenging copyright. Marx's concept of a 'general intellect', suggesting that at some point a collective learning process will surpass physical labour as a productive force, offers a promising backdrop to understand the accomplishments of the free software community. Furthermore, the chief concerns of hacker philosophy, creativity and technological empowerment, closely correspond to key Marxist concepts of alienation, the division of labour, deskilling, and commodification. At the end of my inquiry, I will suggest that the development of free software provides an early model of the contradictions inherent to information capitalism, and that free software development has a wider relevance to all future production of information.

full story is here"

"No Compromise with Capitalism"

Floyce White, March 1, 2002

You are facing north. East is to your right? True.
You turn to face south. East is to your right?
False. Any idea, such as "east is to your right," is
only temporarily and conditionally true.

A woman is facing north. East is to her right?
Maybe. She could be standing at the South Pole, where
north is in every direction of travel. Every rule has
exceptions.

A Marxist Critique of Bakunin

Louis Proyect

With the advent of "anti-globalization" protests, a very old movement seems to be picking up steam once again. This seems to have something to do with fashion.

doyle and ben writes "January 31, 2002

As revolutionary social anarchists living in North America, we wrote this letter to initiate conversation and debate among fellow anti-authoritarians, hopefully leading to new ways of thinking about how to organize and make decisions as a movement. For us, revolutionary means that we are in this to win. We think certain ways of thinking within some anarchist groups are preventing us from building a coherent and strategic revolutionary movement and thereby winning a social revolution.

"Theory Trouble" Focus for Symploke Journal

symploke, a journal for the intermingling of literary, cultural, and
theoretical scholarship (ISSN 1069-0697),
seeks submissions for its special issue Theory Trouble (Vol. 11, no. 1).

Welcome are contributions discussing the current and future status of
theory in
the humanities. Is theory in trouble? What are the sources of this
trouble?
What is left of theory? Has theory lost its relevancy and critical edge?

Has it lost the self-identity that it once had? How important is it for
theory to ask self-reflexive questions about what it is and does? Is
self-reflexivity linked to relevancy?

Send manuscripts by 15 August 2002

to the Editor, Jeffrey R. Di Leo, symploke,
Department of English (MC
162),

University of Illinois at Chicago,
601 South Morgan St.,
Chicago, IL
60607-7120.

E-mail: editor@symploke.org.

"Rhetoric of Science and Technology" Conference

New Orleans, November 2002

American Association for Rhetoric of Science and Technology

6th Annual Pre-conference

November 20, 2002

New Orleans, LA

The American Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology
announces a call for papers for its annual Pre-conference on November
20th, 2002 in New Orleans, LA. Building upon the success of the past two
pre-conferences, this year's gathering will feature special sessions
focusing on the rhetorics of stakeholder engagement within the National
Laboratory System. Detailed information on these sessions and a call for
respondents/participants will be forthcoming.

At this time, we welcome submissions for a panel session featuring cutting
edge work being done in the rhetoric of science and technology. Papers
exploring any area of the rhetoric of science and technology are welcome.
New PhDs and graduate students are particularly encouraged to submit.
Submit papers to Joanna Ploeger (see contact information below) by June
15, 2002. Electronic submissions are encouraged and should be sent as
Word or RTF document attachments.

The American Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology
Pre-conference is held in conjunction with the 88th annual convention of
the National Communication Association, November 21-24.

Please contact the pre-conference organizer with questions or concerns.

Paper submissions and/or inquiries can be made to:

Joanna Ploeger

Department of Communication Studies

105 BCSB

University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA 52242

319-353-1996

joanna-ploeger@uiowa.edu



. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..

Gordon W. Coonfield

Humanities Department

Michigan Technological University

1400 Townnsend Drive

Houghton, MI 49931

e

v <906.487.3230>

f <906.497.3559>

On Saturday 4 May 2002 from 10.00am to 6.30pm, the Department of Politics
and International Studies at the University of Warwick will host its fourth
annual conference for postgraduate students working in political theory or
political philosophy. The three previous events have been very successful,
attracting a wide range of high quality papers, and participants from many
countries. Past participants have reported that the conference provides a
useful opportunity for graduate students to gain experience and receive
feedback on work in progress.

As well as postgraduate papers, there will be two Plenary Sessions. Prof.
Harry Brighouse (Institute of Education, London) and Dr. Matthew Clayton
(Brunel) will debate Liberalism, Autonomy, and the Family. Dr. Stuart Elden
(Warwick) will discuss Heidegger's Rhetorical Politics.

Postgraduates interested in giving papers should send abstracts (400-500
words) by no later than March 29, 2002. Papers may deal with any area within
contemporary political theory, political philosophy, or the history of
political thought, but should take no more than twenty minutes to present.
Those interested in attending the conference should reserve a place no later
than April 19, 2002. Attendance is free of charge.

All correspondence, or further inquiries, should be addressed to Dr. C.
Woodard, either at PAIS, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, or
C.Woodard@warwick.ac.uk

If you would like a poster version (Word attachment) of this message please
either contact Chris or stuart.elden@warwick.ac.uk

hydrarchist writes:
Ruptures Within Empire, The Power of Exodus

An Interview with Toni Negri by Giuseppe Cocco and Maurizio Lazzarato

Translated from the French journal Multitudes (Issue
No. 7) by Thomas Seay and Hydrarchist

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

Multitudes: In the early 90s, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we were together in the streets of Paris, demonstrating against the bombing of Baghdad. International intervention in the Gulf region under the aegis of the United States seemed to open a period of expansion in imperial management of international relations. In relation to that period, do the events in New York constitute a rupture, or is it part of a continuum? Should we consider the events in New York as bringing to a close a period opened by the fall of the Berlin Wall? Or, instead, should we consider that that period had already been drawn to a close by the unilateral positions taken by the United States in regards to the Palestinian question, the non-proliferation treaty on bacteriological weapons, on Kyoto, then at Durban?

Negri: In the early 90s there were really very few of us demonstrating. Today, we are many more, at least here in Italy. That is in itself a fact to take into account. But it is equally true of the United States, I believe. In addition to this important point, the New York events do indeed constitute a rupture. It is a rupture in imperial management, and one that takes place within the process of building the imperial network that collective capital has been putting into place. The construction of this imperial network started in the early 90s, with the end of the Cold War. It should be considered a real rupture because it comes from outside, or rather, outside of this process, which is not to say that it comes from the exterior of imperial constitution. By this I mean that there has been a process of imperial constitution, whereby capitalist sovereignty has been expanded out across the entire fabric of international relations; this has created a large-scale shift in sovereignty whereby international relations have been overshadowed by imperial sovereignty. And it was precisely in this moment that a suspension, a rupture occurred: the attack against the United States. Thus the rupture came from outside of the process, but at the same time it comes from within Empire. It involves a suspension of the process, a setback, a block; it is something that has been imposed. Before this turn of events there was undoubtedly an American attempt to unilaterally take control of the process. But now they are confronted by some very serious difficulties. For the sake of clarity, we'd best make use of an abstraction. In my opinion, three crises are in progress (I say "three" in order to simplify, but in fact there are multiple crises). These three crises concern the characterization of imperial sovereignty.