2011 MLG Institute on Culture and Society
06/20-24/2011, University of Illinois at Chicago

Call for Papers
2011 Marxist Literary Group Institute on Culture and Society
Special Topic: "What Is Revolution?"
Deadline for Proposals: March 1, 2011.

The Marxist Literary Group´s 2011 Institute on Culture and Society
(2011 MLG-ICS) will convene this summer (June 20-24) on the campus of
the University of Illinois at Chicago. As always, any submission that
engages seriously with Marxist thought will be considered, including,
but not limited to, Marxist considerations of literature or literary
considerations of Marxism. This year´s special topic will be "What is
Revolution?" What is class struggle? Can there be one without the
other, as horizon or precondition? How does radical social change take
place? Is it necessary to have a theory of revolution, or is it better
to pursue an intelligent opportunism? Does Marxism require revolution?
Does revolution require class? What would a plausible political
subject, or a plausible subject of history, look like today? Does our
present moment hold any revolutionary possibility? What contemporary
movements, possibilities, and practices hold promise (or do not)? Is
there a plausible relationship today between aesthetic practices and
the end of capitalism (as we know it)? How does one represent what is
only possible, not actual? Is "struggle" another name for the
possible? What is the relationship between politics as such and the
economic as such? What is the relationship between politics and
thinking, between revolution and philosophy? These questions and
others will be the focus of this year´s Institute. Selected papers
will be invited for submission to Mediations (mediationsjournal.org).
Recent years´ programs can be accessed at mlg.eserver.org/the-institute.

Call for Papers: Radical Democracy Conference, New York, April 4-5, 2011

April 4 – April 5, 2011, New York, NY
Paper Abstracts Submission Deadline: January 31
Notification Date: February 18
Full Papers Deadline: March 21

The Department of Politics at The New School for Social Research, incollaboration with the Institute of Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, is sponsoring a two-day graduate student conference interrogating the concept, history, and implications of radical democracy. Striving to assess the legacy of antiquity o ncontemporary radical democratic theory, as well as explore the work of contemporary theorists such as Abensour, Arendt, Castoriadis, Mouffe, Negri, Ranciere, and Wolin, we invite you to submit abstracts on any theme pertaining to the history, meaning, development and application, or critique of the concept of “radical democracy.”

International Week of Actions in Solidarity with the Reykjavik Nine An international week of actions has been called for 10th - 16th of January, 2011 in support of the Reykjavik Nine, nine individuals including anarchists and radical leftists, who face up to 16 years in prison for protest against the Icelandic parliament.

International week of actions in solidarity with the Reykjavik Nine 10th - 16th of January 2011 An international week of actions has been called for 10th - 16th of January, 2011 in support of the Reykjavik Nine, nine individuals including anarchists and radical leftists, who face up to 16 years in prison for protest against the Icelandic parliament. In December 2008 the bullet that killed Alexandros Grigoropoulos set fire to the streets of Athens, a fire that soon spread to every city across Greece. That same December on the opposite shore of Europe, in Iceland another revolt was already under way born out of the wreckage of the economy that had collapsed that fall. In the winter of 2008, Iceland, the first ‘victim’ of this global crisis, was witness to the largest mobilization in its history. Demonstrations, mass gatherings and popular assemblies, direct action and confrontation on a daily basis and finally mass riots managed to bring down the right wing government at the time. But, just like in Greece that bullet was only one cause to a revolt that had a thousand reasons behind it, in Iceland the bubble that burst that fall was only the spark for the pent up rage and frustration resulting from two decades of neoliberal government - and well, against the political and economic system in its entirety. As we speak, the Icelandic state threatens with imprisonment nine individuals chosen to be the scapegoats of the uprising that brought down the government in January 2009. They are the Reykjavik Nine.

Edu-Factory Planning for Paris, February 11-13, 2011 A short update and contribution for the organization of the European meeting planned for 11-13 February in Paris: Although it might be somewhat superfluous to underline the political importance of creating effective networks of student struggles in Europe, I'd simply like raise a few points. First, based on Edu-Factory's experience, the possibility of gathering different student movements together for discussion, debate and organization has always proved to be a positive, constructive and stimulating way of building new relationships and connections between diverse realities. Beyond the warmth and quality in direct human interaction (never to be underestimated), the extensive common character of different movements nearly always emerges in new and sometimes unexpected forms. Small, seemingly anecdotal elements of our singular movements that are shared in these occasions can find echos in other experiences even if we didn't know that similar conditions exist elsewhere. Likewise, differences between national and cultural contexts (for example of how the Bologna Process is being applied differently in different countries) can shed light on each individual context in new ways and help provide strategies for interpreting these differences constructively and overcoming the limits and problems that we face – we learn to read our reality and other realities in new ways, we learn new languages and new translation skills.

"They Rule" Josh On "They Rule" aims to provide a glimpse of some of the relationships of the US ruling class. It takes as its focus the boards of some of the most powerful U.S. companies, which share many of the same directors. Some individuals sit on 5, 6 or 7 of the top 500 companies. It allows users to browse through these interlocking directories and run searches on the boards and companies. A user can save a map of connections complete with their annotations and email links to these maps to others. They Rule is a starting point for research about these powerful individuals and corporations. http://www.theyrule.net/html/about.php

“Social Science and Cultural Politics” 12th March 2011 - Sociology Department, University of Warwick (UK) 5th Annual Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference CALL FOR PAPERS Cultural politics is a concept used to label a complex range of social phenomena, frequently as diverse as media cultures and ideologies, forms of political action and social movements, institutional and professional cultures. However, social sciences themselves are driven (explicitly or otherwise) by ideological commitments and assumptions about their own role in society (this being particularly questioned at the moment, especially in the UK).

Call Montreal’s 6th Annual International Anarchist Theatre Festival The Montreal International Anarchist Theatre Festival (MIATF), the only theatre festival in the world dedicated to showcasing anarchist theatre, is currently seeking submissions to be staged in May 2011. Application deadline for the Montreal International Anarchist Theatre Festival: January 20, 2011.

TRAVOL 2011: Volunteer Summer Camp An autonomous gathering of people, organizations, and community experiences Second World Forum of Applied Knowledge January 10th to February 20, 2011 TraVol will take place in the village of Polpaiko, which is located at the edge of the municipality of Tiltil in the northern part of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile.

Submit to "Upping the Anti" Pitches due December 3, 2010; first draft due January 7, 2010 UPPING THE ANTI: A JOURNAL OF THEORY AND ACTION is a radical journal published twice a year by a pan-Canadian collective of activists and organizers. We are dedicated to publishing radical theory and analysis about struggles against capitalism, imperialism, and all forms of oppression. In our first ten issues, we've published articles by and interviews with renowned activists and intellectuals, including Aijaz Ahmad, Himani Bannerji, Grace Lee Boggs, Ward Churchill, Michael Hardt, John Holloway, Sunera Thobani, Andrea Smith, and many more.