Die Podiumsdiskussion soll die heute prominenten Vorstellungen von sozialem Wandel, Reform, Revolution und Widerstand kritisch hinterfragen und historisch einordnen. Alle stellen problematische Formen des historischen und gegenwärtigen âAntikapitalismusâ dar, ohne dass Klarheit darĂźber herrscht, was genau damit gemeint ist â im Gegenteil, gerade angesichts vergangener Niederlagen der Linken und einer sich immer weiter verschärfenden Situation in der Gegenwart fällt auf, dass diese Konzepte heute diffuser denn je sind.
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Reform, Revolution, Widerstand: welche Bedeutung haben diese Kategorien fßr die heutige Linke? Wie werden sie benutzt, was sollen sie bewirken und wie ist ihre Geschichte? Wir mÜchten mit der Diskussion zu einer Klärung dieser Vorstellungen beitragen.
Referierende:
Thomas Seibert: Aktivist seit den 70er Jahren und Philosoph. Zahlreiche Publikationen zu Philosophie und Politik, zu Globalisierung und globalisierungskrititischen Bewegungen. Zuletzt erschienen: alle zusammen. jede fßr sich. die demokratie der plätze. (zus. mit M. Jäger, 2012) und Humanismus nach dem Tod des Menschen. Flucht und Rßckkehr des subjektiven Faktors der Geschichte.
Norbert Trenkle:Â Redakteur der Zeitschrift Krisis. Co-Autor des Buches Die groĂe Entwertung (2012).
Janine Wissler:Â Fraktionsvorsitzende der LINKEN in Hessen. Mitglied u.a. bei Marx 21 und ver.di.
Daniel Loick: Philosoph an der Goetheuniversität Frankfurt. Autor des Buches Kritik der Souveränität (2012).
Moderiert von:Â Jerzy Sobotta (Mitglied der Platypus Affiliated Society)
Eine Veranstaltung der Platypus Affiliated Society,
in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Asta der Uni-Frankfurt.
1. Seit den 1960er Jahren, und ganz besonders seit den 90ern, werden Kämpfe fĂźr soziale, wirtschaftliche und politische Emanzipation eher im Sinne von âWiderstandâ verstanden anstatt in Form von strukturellen Reformen oder gar in Form einer revolutionären Transformation. Was verstehen Sie unter âWiderstandâ? Welche MĂśglichkeit fĂźr sozialen Wandel bietet er?
2. âWiderstandâ wird heutzutage ganz besonders im kulturellen Raum verortet, als politische ĂuĂerung gegen den âAlltagswahnâ. Welche implizite (wenn nicht gar explizite) Unterscheidung sehen Sie hier zwischen einer politischen Praxis, die sich gegen die Gesellschaft als Ganzes richtet, und den scheinbar einfacheren Anliegen alltäglichen Daseins?
3. Wo sehen Sie die Ursachen und Folgen dieser historischen Wendung weg von Bewegungen fĂźr reformistische oder revolutionäre Politik, hin zu Taktiken, Strategien, und dem Selbstverständnis von âWiderstandâ als Praxis?
4. Wohin deuten diese Akte des âWiderstandesâ, Ihrer Einschätzung nach, fĂźr mĂśgliche soziale Emanzipation, heute und in der Zukunft?
5. Welche Veränderungen sozialer Probleme stehen uns heute bevor? Auf welche Art und Weise werden sich diese potentiellen Veränderungen äuĂern?
6. Welche Taktiken und Strategien kann und soll eine Linke, die sich sozialer Emanzipation verpflichtet fßhlt, wählen, um diesen Wandel zu ermÜglichen?
A panel discussion with audience Q & A on the problematic forms of "anticapitalism" today.
Held on Wednesday 13th June, 7pm at the University of London Union (ULU), Malet Street, London.
SPEAKERS:
Clare Solomon (co-editor of Springtime: The New Student Rebellions (2011); President of the University Of London Union in 2010)
James Heartfield (active in extra-parliamentary Left for thirty years; author of The 'Death of the Subject" Explained (2002), and the forthcoming Unpatriotic History of the Second World War (2012)).
James Turley (member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) for five years, and a regular writer for the Weekly Worker; co-editor and contributer to Red Mist, a blog of Marxist cultural commentary)
Matt Cole (organizer, researcher, editor, writer, Rousseauist; Kingston University)
Moderated by:
Laurie Rojas (founding member of the Platypus Affiliated Society, editor of the Platypus Review).
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"[After the 1960s, the] underlying despair with regard to the real efficacy of political will, of political agency [. . .] in a historical situation of heightened helplessness [. . .] became a self-constitution as outsider, as other [. . .] focused on the bureaucratic stasis of the [Fordist/late 20th Century] world: it echoed the destruction of that world by the dynamics of capital [with the neo-liberal turn after 1973, and especially after 1989].
The idea of a fundamental transformation became bracketed and, instead, was replaced by the more ambiguous notion of âresistance.â The notion of resistance, however, says little about the nature of that which is being resisted or of the politics of the resistance involved â that is, the character of determinate forms of critique, opposition, rebellion, and ârevolution.â The notion of 'resistance' frequently expresses a deeply dualistic worldview that tends to reify both the system of domination and the idea of agency.
'Resistance' is rarely based on a reflexive analysis of possibilities for fundamental change that are both generated and suppressed by [the] dynamic heteronomous order [of capital]. ['Resistance'] is an undialectical category that does not grasp its own conditions of possibility; that is, it fails to grasp the dynamic historical context of which it is a part."
- Moishe Postone, "History and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalism"
(Public Culture 18:1, 2006)
1. Since the 1960s, and especially since the 1990s, struggles for social, economic and political emancipation have been conceived less in terms of structural reforms or revolutionary transformation and more in terms of "resistance." How do you define âresistanceâ and how do you understand its role in possibilities for social change?
2. One powerful way "resistance" has been conceived has been in terms of "culture" and practices of âeveryday life.â How do you understand the implicit (if not explicit) distinction thus made of politics directed at society as a whole, from the more apparently mundane concerns and stakes of quotidian existence?
3. What, in your understanding, are the reasons for and the consequences of this historical shift away from movements for reform or revolutionary politics, to tactics, strategies, and self-understandings in terms of "resistance?"
4. Where do the new forms of politics of âresistanceâ point, in your estimation, for social-emancipatory possibilities, today and in the future?
5. What kinds of change do you envision on the horizon of present social concerns? How do you imagine the potential manifestations of such change?
6. What can and should those on the Left and those interested in working towards social emancipation do, tactically and strategically, in view of such possibilities for change?
Panel held on April 26th, 2012 at New York University, as part of the 3 Rs panel series.
âAfter the failure of the 1960s New Left, the underlying despair with regard to the real efficacy of political will, of political agency, in a historical situation of heightened helplessness, became a self-constitution as outsider, as other, rather than an instrument of transformation. Focused on the bureaucratic stasis of the Fordist, late 20th Century world, the Left echoed the destruction of that world by the dynamics of capital: neoliberalism and globalization.
The idea of a fundamental transformation became bracketed and, instead, was replaced by the more ambiguous notion of âresistance.â The notion of resistance, however, says little about the nature of that which is being resisted, or of the politics of the resistance involved.
âResistanceâ is rarely based on a reflexive analysis of possibilities for fundamental change that are both generated and suppressed by the dynamic heteronomous order of capital. âResistanceâ is an undialectical category that does not grasp its own conditions of possibility; it fails to grasp the dynamic historical context of capital and its reconstitution of possibilities for both domination and emancipation, of which the âresistersâ do not recognize that that they are a part.â
â Moishe Postone, âHistory and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalismâ (Public Culture¸ 18.1: 2006)
Reform, revolution, resistance: what kind of weight do these categories hold for the Left today? How are they used, to where do they point, and what is their history? Join the Platypus Affiliated Society for a discussion concerning a question that has renewed immediacy in light of the #Occupy movement.
Speakers:
John Asimakopoulos (Institute for Transformative Studies)
Todd Gitlin (Columbia University)
Tom Trottier (Workersâ International Committee)
Ross Wolfe (Platypus Affiliated Society)
Panel held on April 16th, 2012, in Boston, as part of the 3 Rs panel series.
Thanks to Doug Enaa Greene (http://www.youtube.com/user/dwgthed) for the video recording.
âAfter the failure of the 1960s New Left, the underlying despair with regard to the real efficacy of political will, of political agency, in a historical situation of heightened helplessness, became a self-constitution as outsider, as other, rather than an instrument of transformation. Focused on the bureaucratic stasis of the Fordist, late 20th Century world, the Left echoed the destruction of that world by the dynamics of capital: neoliberalism and globalization.
The idea of a fundamental transformation became bracketed and, instead, was replaced by the more ambiguous notion of âresistance.â The notion of resistance, however, says little about the nature of that which is being resisted, or of the politics of the resistance involved.
âResistanceâ is rarely based on a reflexive analysis of possibilities for fundamental change that are both generated and suppressed by the dynamic heteronomous order of capital. âResistanceâ is an undialectical category that does not grasp its own conditions of possibility; it fails to grasp the dynamic historical context of capital and its reconstitution of possibilities for both domination and emancipation, of which the âresistersâ do not recognize that that they are a part.â
â Moishe Postone, âHistory and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalismâ (Public Culture¸ 18.1: 2006)
Reform, revolution, resistance: what kind of weight do these categories hold for the Left today? How are they used, to where do they point, and what is their history? Join the Platypus Affiliated Society for a discussion concerning a question that has renewed immediacy in light of the #Occupy movement.
Panelists:
Jeff Booth (Socialist Alternative)
Gayge (Common Struggle Libertarian Communist Federation)
Joe Ramsey (Kasama Project)
Laura Lee Schmidt (Platypus)
J. Phil Thompson (MIT)
A moderated panel discussion and audience Q&A on problems of strategies and tactics on the Left today.
Panelists:
Clare O'Connor,
Baolinh Dang (Proletarian Revolutionary Action Committee- Revolutionary Students Movement),
Cam Hardy (Platypus),
Megan Kinch (#Occupy, Toronto Media Co-Op), and
Jim Stanford (Canadian Auto Workers).
"After the failure of the 1960s New Left, the underlying despair with regard to the real efficacy of political will, of political agency, in a historical situation of heightened helplessness, became a self-constitution as outsider, as other, rather than an instrument of transformation. Focused on the bureaucratic stasis of the Fordist, late 20th Century world, the Left echoed the destruction of that world by the dynamics of capital: neoliberalism and globalization.
The idea of a fundamental transformation became bracketed and, instead, was replaced by the more ambiguous notion of 'resistance.' The notion of resistance, however, says little about the nature of that which is being resisted, or of the politics of the resistance involved.
'Resistance' is rarely based on a reflexive analysis of possibilities for fundamental change that are both generated and suppressed by the dynamic heteronomous order of capital. 'Resistance' is an undialectical category that does not grasp its own conditions of possibility; it fails to grasp the dynamic historical context of capital and its reconstitution of possibilities for both domination and emancipation, of which the 'resisters' do not recognize that that they are a part."
- Moishe Postone, "History and Helplessness: Mass mobilization and contemporary forms of anticapitalism" (2006)
