The New SPACE
Fall, 2005 Courses

(The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education)

FALL COURSES



READING JOHN HOLLOWAY’S _CHANGE THE WORLD WITHOUT TAKING POWER_

Instructor: Andrew Kliman

6:00-7:30 p.m., alternate Wednesdays Oct. 5-Dec. 14



A READING OF HEGEL’S _PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT_

Instructor: Alex Steinberg

7:30-9:00 p.m., every Tuesday Oct. 4-Dec. 20


Banking An Investments

Instructor: Howard F. Seligman

6:00-7:30 p.m., every Tuesday Oct. 4-Nov. 8

See the course descriptions below for details and fees. ********************

TALKS BEGIN SEPT. 21

(This is a partial list – check our website for additions
and descriptions)

Donation: $7-10, sliding scale

THE POLITICS OF THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
Bill Weinberg

Wed. Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m.




THE ECOSOCIALIST VISION

Joel Kovel

Wed. Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m.




THE PEOPLE’S PENSION: THE ANARCHIST ORGINS OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND TODAY’S BATTLE OVER ITS FUTURE

Eric Laursen

Wed. Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

MODERN CRISIS THEORY: WHY A DYNAMIC UNDERSTANDING OF TODAY'S CRISES IS CRITICAL FOR ORGANIZING A PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT AND VISION OF AN ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY

Roz Bologh and Len Mell

Wed. Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m.

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NEW LOCATION



All courses and talks will be held at

CLEMENTE SOTO VELEZ CULTURAL & EDUCATIONAL CENTER
107 SUFFOLK STREET

Lower East Side, New York City Between Rivington and Delancey Streets. Take F train to Delancey stop, J, M or Z train to Essex St. stop. Exit station at northeast corner (look for escalator). See website for map. All events are in the second floor Art Gallery.


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Contact us at

http://new-space.mahost.org

new-space@mutualaid.org

telephone: (800) 377-6183

The New SPACE

P.O. Box 19, Planetarium Station, New York, NY 10024-0019


See our website for registration requirements, pluralism policies,
and more information.

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The New SPACE teachers, speakers, and organizers include:
Stanley Aronowitz, Roz Bologh, Jack Z. Bratich, Stephen Eric Bronner, Andrea Fishman, Jeannette Gabriel, Loren Goldner, David Graeber, Robin Hahnel, Jesse Heiwa, Charles Herr, Joshua
Howard, Anne Jaclard, Andrew Kliman, Louis Kontos, Joel
Kovel, Raymond Lampe, Eric Laursen, Len Mell, Alan W. Moore,
Bertell Ollman, Howard Seligman, Stevphen Shukaitis,
Tom Smith, Alex Steinberg, Bill Weinberg, Seth G. Weiss

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The New SPACE is a new anti-capitalist educational project
dedicated to developing and advancing ideas for liberatory social change. Together with the new movements for global justice, we believe that "another world is possible" - a world free from the domination of capital and free for the flowering of human powers and talents.


The New SPACE holds that free dialogue and the protection of
dissenting views are essential for the development of liberatory ideas and for forging real unity among those struggling for liberation. We reject the suppression of dissenting views and individuals in the name of "unity," convinced that such suppression is antithetical to the working out of real
unity. "Freedom," as Rosa Luxemburg reminds us, "is always and
exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently." Accordingly, one distinguishing aspect of our mission is to create an educational space - not existent at present - in which pluralistic dialogue and dissident perspectives arerespected and encouraged.


The New SPACE will be a place for exploring challenging questions that today's movements confront, such as: How do we build non-hierarchical movements that can sustain themselves? How can such movements safeguard
grass roots democracy? How do consciousness and ideas relate to movements for social transformation?


Resolutely anti-authoritarian and non-sectarian, the New SPACE
brings together anarchists, humanist Marxists, and others. All those who share our mission and goals are invited to join us as students, teachers, and partners in the development of this project. In particular, we will encourage and facilitate the participation of women, people of color, GLBT people and others who face exclusion and discrimination. We also envision a
new space that young people, without ties to the old Left, will find welcoming. We seek, though our classes and other activities, to create an environment in which youth, working people from diverse backgrounds, intellectuals, and activists can dialogue and collaborate in order to make sense of, and transform, our world.


New York City

November 8, 2004


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DESCRIPTIONS OF UPCOMING COURSES

(see website for instructors’ reading lists and syllabi)


READING JOHN HOLLOWAY’S _CHANGE THE WORLD WITHOUT TAKING POWER_

Instructor: Andrew Kliman

Alternate Wednesdays, 6:00-7:30 p.m.

6 Sessions: Oct. 5 & 19, Nov. 2, 16 & 30, Dec. 14.

Tuition: $75 -- $100, sliding scale.




Revolution has frequently been identified with the capturing of
state power. This notion is now discredited. But the idea of revolution itself will also be discredited unless a different concept of revolution that can replace it is worked out concretely. In _Change the World Without Taking
Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today_ (Pluto, 2002), John Holloway argues that genuine revolution cannot be a process of capturing power – not even in order to abolish state power and other relations of domination. Power must be dissolved.



The premise of this course is that, whether one ultimately agrees or disagrees with this idea, Holloway’s book deserves serious consideration. It is an important recent effort to come to grips with the need to work out an alternative concept of revolution for today. We will read and discuss the whole of _Change the World_. Since fetishism and anti-fetishismare among its
major concepts, we will also read and discuss the section on the fetishism of the commodity in Marx’s _Capital_. Other readings include Peter Hudis’ and Cyril Smith’s reviews of Holloway’s book.



Students should read the Preface and first two chapters of
_Change the World_ (a total of 19 pages) before the first class session and be prepared to discuss them. See the syllabus for the other readings, which are available online. For more information contact the instructor at

Andrew_Kliman@msn.com.

Andrew Kliman taught a course on Volume I of Marx's _Capital_ last Spring at the New Space. Kliman, a professor of economics at Pace University, has published extensively on Marx’s _Capital_, crisis theory, and value theory. Co-editor of _The New Value Controversy and the Foundations of Economics_
(2004), he has recently finished a book that reclaims _Capital_ from the myth of internal inconsistency. Many of Kliman's writings are available at his new website:

http://akliman.squarespace.com



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A READING OF HEGEL’S _PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT_

Instructor: Alex Steinberg

Tuesdays, 7:30pm -- 9:00pm

12 Sessions, October 4 – December 20

Tuition: $150 -- $180, sliding scale

“The True is the Bacchanalian revel in which no member is not
drunk.” -- Preface to the _Phenomenology of Spirit_


It has been said that one cannot understand much of what has
transpired in terms of art, culture, politics or philosophy in the last 200 years without having read Hegel's _Phenomenology of Spirit_. For good reason, many have considered this work to be the culmination of the Western philosophical tradition that began in ancient Greece.



In this 12-session series, we will explore the different shapes of
consciousness that have inhabited our culture and continue to shape our world. We will go on a journey that takes us from the Inverted World, to the Master-Slave dialectic, to the Unhappy Consciousness, to the Beautiful Soul, to Absolute Freedom and Terror and finally to Absolute Knowing. Along the way, we will consider Hegel's relationship to the Enlightenment,
Romanticism, the French Revolution, and to his student, Karl Marx.



By the end of this study, students should be able to judge for themselves what is living and what is dead in the work of this titan of the Western tradition. No prior background in philosophy is expected or assumed.



Students should get a hold of the A.V. Miller translation of the
_Phenomenology_ (Oxford University Press). The reading for the
first session is Hegel's (not Findlay's) Introduction -- not the Foreword, which is supposed to be read last.



Alex Steinberg holds an MA in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research; he left the PhD program after participating in the student takeover of the New School following the Kent State massacre in 1970. Steinberg is facilitator of a philosophy and literature discussion group in Brooklyn and author of several essays, including "The Case of Martin Heidegger" and "From Alienation to Revolution: A Defense of Marx's Theory of Alienation." He has also served as a member of the WBAI Local
Station Board (2004) and as Chairperson of the WBAI LSB Programming Committee.


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BANKING AND INVESTMENTS

Instructor: Howard F. Seligman

Tuesdays, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

6 Sessions, October 4 – November 8

Tuition: $75 -- $100, sliding scale




This course will explore banking, investment, and financial markets. We will begin with an introduction to financial accounting and discounted cash flow in order to construct a toolkit for further analysis.



Using several conventional MBA textbooks, we will examine
fractional reserve banking -- the underlying mechanical basis of monetary expansion in the United States. We will also scrutinize the role played by "the Fed" in money creation and economic regulation, and look at stock and bond markets from
both a historical and a regulatory perspective.



The techniques of security analysis and asset valuation will,
then, be presented in simple lay persons' terms (and in mathematical detail if students are interested). The same tools will also be applied to non-investment materials such as air pollution and birth control. Finally, we will compare different banking systems across the globe -- with an eye toward the impact of emerging economic powers like China
and India on the world scene.



Howard F. Seligman taught a course on taxation and finance last Spring at the New SPACE. He has been a self employed financial and tax consultant since 1984. Howard's practice specializes in the arts and entertainment fields, and he serves as
the treasurer to more than fifteen arts and cultural organizations. Howard has taught accounting and finance at The Pratt Institute. His hobbies include playing Howie Solo,
a singer and stand up comedian who can host your local fundraising event. He is currently researching a book on the history of the Jewish gangster in America.