"Towards a Cosmopolitan Marxism"

Historical Materialism Annual Conference

London, 4-6 November, 2005

In association with Socialist Register and the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize Committee University of London Union, and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, WC1 The Editorial Board of Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory, in collaboration with the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize Committee, the Editorial Board of the Socialist Register, and the Faculty of Law & Social Sciences and the Department of Development Studies at SOAS is pleased to announce its annual conference, ‘Towards a Cosmopolitan Marxism’, 4-6 November 2005.Since its inception, Historical Materialism has been firmly committed to the project of creating a space of dialogue and debate which extends across disciplinary, linguistic and cultural borders, and promotes the circulation, cross-fertilisation and expansion of critical Marxist thought.

For the 2005 conference we have invited a wide range of leading figures in European Marxist thought to discuss the terrain of a future ‘cosmopolitan Marxism’. This will be an exciting weekend of comradely exchange, which the Editorial Board of Historical Materialism hopes will grow into an important annual international event. The conference will be organised with three plenary sessions (Deutscher Memorial Prize Lecture, Socialist Register and Historical Materialism plenary sessions) and workshops dedicated to specific themes.

Workshop themes include: the philosophy of Nietzsche, the critique of Liberalism, Gramsci, Althusser, the young Marx, the break-up of Yugoslavia, the interpretation of Capital, Marxism and intellectuals, Marxism and philosophy, ‘mutations’ in the mode of production, visions of socialism, Deleuze and Marx, imperialism, Venezuela, the Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism, thinking the political, and combined and uneven development. The Deutscher Memorial Prize Lecture, ‘The Politics of Assumption, the Assumption of Politics’, will be delivered by Michael Lebowitz on Friday evening, 4 November.

The Socialist Register Plenary Sessions, to launch the 2005 edition of the Register, edited by Colin Leys and Leo Panitch, ‘Telling the Truth about Class’ and ‘The State of the Third Way’, will be held on Saturday evening, 5 November.

The Historical Materialism Plenary Session, ‘War and Capitalism’, will conclude the conference on Sunday afternoon, 6 November.

The language of the conference will be English with consecutive translation provided for a limited number of sessions, where necessary. Attendance is free. However, the conference is entirely self-funding and we will depend on voluntary donations by attendants and participants to support the event. The suggested donation is £20 waged and £10 for unwaged for the full event, and £10 and £5 for one-day attendance. Please register in advance by email to help us to guarantee sufficient seating: historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.uk