Friday 7 January 2011

Welcome back - All welcome

1) Welcome back - All welcome:

Here's hoping that everyone had a relaxing holiday and perhaps found some time to read! Please feel free to come along to any of our meetings this term, whether you want to join the reading groups themselves (Are you thinking about reading Capital? Have a look at the links below), or come to one of the meetings organised by the Contemporary Marxist Theory Seminar (Full timetable available at http://www.kclreadingcapital.blogspot.com)

Wage Labour and Capital:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm

Capital Volume I:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/

Capital Volume II:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1885-c2/index.htm

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2) Volume II Group: 'Theories of Fixed and Circulating Capital - Ricardo' & 'The Working Period, Time of Production and Time of Circulation'

The recording of the discussion from our last meeting on 'Theories of Fixed and Circulating Capital - Smith and the Physiocrats' is available here: http://rapidshare.com/files/438786805/KCLReadingCapital_20_Dec_2010.mp3.

Our next session will be discussing Vol.II chapters 11-14 on 'Theories of Fixed and Circulating Capital - Ricardo' & 'The Working Period, Time of Production and Time of Circulation':

Monday 17th January
6pm
Ground Floor Room 3
Strand Building
King's College London

"It is evident at the outset that the definition of capital invested in labour-power as circulating or fluent capital is a secondary one, obliterating its differentia specifica in the process of production. For in this definition, on the one hand, the capitals invested in labour are of the same importance as those invested in raw material, etc. A classification which identifies a part of the constant capital with the variable capital does not deal with the differentia specifica of variable capital in opposition to constant capital."

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3) Volume I Group: 'Exchange and Money, or the Circulation of Commodities'


The discussion from the previous session on 'The Fetishism of Commodities' is available to download here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/434577032/KCLReadingCapital_01_Dec_2010.mp3



The Volume I reading group will return on Wed 26th Jan 6:30pm, Room S3.32, with a discussion on 'Exchange and Money, or the Circulation of Commodities':


Wednesday 26th January
6:30pm
Room S3.32
Strand Building
King's College London


"All commodities are non-use-values for their owners, and use-values for their non-owners. Consequently, they must all change hands. But this change of hands is what constitutes their exchange, and the latter puts them in relation with each other as values, and realises them as values. Hence commodities must be realised as values before they can be realised as use-values."


N.B. We will be reading Vol.I chapters 2-3 for this session.


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4) LONDON SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY MARXIST THEORY


"In Search of the Young Marx's Politics"
- David Leopold (University of Oxford)
- Stathis Kouvelakis (King's College, London)


19th January, 5pm
King's College London, Strand Campus, S2.28

For further information, please contact:
Alex Callinicos: alex.callinicos [at] kcl.ac.uk
Stathis Kouvelakis: stathis.kouvelakis [at] kcl.ac.uk
Costas Lapavitsas: cl5 [at] soas.ac.uk
Peter Thomas: PeterD.Thomas [at] brunel.ac.uk


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5) Internation Socialism Journal 129 out now:
- A quarterly journal of socialist theory -

Analysis
The student revolt and the crisis


Mad as hatters? The Tea Party movement in the US
Megan Trudell
Police killings and the law
Simon Behrman
Labourism and socialism: Ralph Miliband’s Marxism
Paul Blackledge


...and more.

http://www.isj.org.uk/

LONDON SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY MARXIST THEORY

In Search of the Young Marx's Politics
19th January, 5pm
King's College London, Strand Campus, S2.28

David Leopold (University of Oxford)
Stathis Kouvelakis (King's College, London)

The global economic and financial crisis has witnessed a deepening of
interest in different forms of critical and radical thought and
practice. This seminar will explore the new perspectives that have
been opened up by interventions of contemporary Marxist theory in this
political and theoretical conjuncture. It involves collaboration among
Marxist scholars based in several London universities, including
Brunel University, King’s College London, and the School of Oriental
and African Studies. Guest speakers – from both Britain and abroad –
will include a wide range of thinkers engaging with many different
elements of the various Marxist traditions, as well as with diverse
problems and topics. The aim of the seminar is to promote fruitful
debate and to contribute to the development of more robust Marxist
analysis. It is open to all.


2010/11 Seminar Series

9th February, 5pm
King's College London, Strand Campus, S2.28
Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Marxism: A Realism of the Abstract?


23rd March, 5pm
King's College London, Strand Campus, room TBA
Esther Leslie (Birkbeck College)
Flat Screens and Liquid Crystals: On the Politics of Aesthetics and
Vice Versa


18th May, 5pm
King's College London, Strand Campus, K.3.11 Raked Lecture Theatre
Gail Day (University of Leeds)
Dialectical Passions: Art Theory, Art History and Marxism





Additional seminars in Spring 2011 will be announced in due course.

For further information, please contact:
Alex Callinicos, European Studies, King's: alex.callinicos [at]
kcl.ac.uk
Stathis Kouvelakis, European Studies, King's: stathis.kouvelakis [at]
kcl.ac.uk
Costas Lapavitsas, Economics, SOAS: cl5 [at] soas.ac.uk
Peter Thomas, Politics and History, Brunel: PeterD.Thomas [at]
brunel.ac.uk