Chicago: Post-Maoism Panel at Platypus Conference
- Details
- Category: Theory
- Created on Friday, 29 April 2011 08:34
- Written by Platypus
Badiou and post-Maoism: Marxism and Communism Today
Sat. Apr. 30 from 2:45-4:15PM, in 112 S. Michigan Ave. building of the School of the Art Institute, Chicago
Presenters: John Steele, Joe Ramsey, Mike Ely, and Chris Cutrone of Platypus.
Panel Description:
How does the prominence of Alain Badiou’s approach to communism today speak to the present historical moment and its emancipatory possibilities? Badiou has prioritized May 1968 in France and the contemporaneous Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China for his conception of communism and its potential future. As a former student of Louis Althusser and follower of Jacques Lacan, as well as a philosopher of mathematics, Badiou’s work has emphasized a radical ontology of the “event” to describe revolutionary transformation. In describing the politics of communism, Badiou has traced its modern history to the Jacobin phase of the French Revolution, periodizing modern communism’s two great “sequences” from 1792-1871 and 1917-76. How does Badiou’s conception of communism relate to the history of Marxism in the 20th century, with its roots in the 19th century? How does Badiou’s work address the problem of capital, in Marx’s terms, or not, and what are the implications of Badiou’s communism for anticapitalist politics, moving forward? What does Badiou’s work say about the relation of Marxism and communism today?
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Latest Comments
Ok, I see.
So, I am not sure how you think of Althusser. I think he is pretty different thinker than Marx. Maybe tha...
Communism abolishes all forms of oppression
Keith, my point is is not that capital is in insoluble contradiction with any form of oppression other than the exploita...
I am not sure I follow your argument, Nat.
Ending the wage relation would end the exploitation of labor, right? That...
Good piece. Recently I received an article by Maoistroad in response to articles such as the one cited above. Tithi Bhat...
First-tate, informative, engaged and inspirational.
As to your broader point I would only remark that oppression takes many forms. And Communists opposed all forms of oppre...
...clearly China had enough workers for a "genuine revolution..."
According to Mao: A Life by Philip Short, in the earl...
Bravo to Ed Thompson for writing this response piece - a piece which was a long time coming. In an overwhelmingly good a...
Nat,
I think that Althusser's version of the quote from the Grundrisse does a different job in Marx's text (and theory)...
Thanks foryour very thoughtful response HiFi. I responded to your comment in a new thread that you can find here. http:/...
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