"The Living Thought of Gilles Deleuze" Conference

University of Copenhagen, Denmark, November 3-4, 2005

One of the prominent themes in the writings of Gilles Deleuze is an
understanding of thinking as being alive. Thinking is conceived as an
affirmation of life, and life itself is affirmed by thinking as something
that is alive. In other words, the relationship between life and thinking
is an affirmative relationship, in which life is affirmed by thinking and
thinking affirmed by life. The notion of the double affirmation in
Nietzsche et la philosophie (1962) is revolving around such an affirmative
relationship between life and thinking.

"Assessing the RNC Protests"

Open Community Discussion with Francesca Fiorentini, Gabriel Sayegh, Hany Khalil, Nana Soul, a Still We
Rise representative & Others

Wednesday, October 20, 7:30 pm

Brecht Forum (122 West 27th Street -10th floor)

You are invited to share your thoughts in an open and open-ended
discussion post- Republican National Convention to assess the mobilization
itself as well as the bigger picture relating to movement building and
left strategies here in the U.S. During the RNC protests we saw an amazing
breadth of participation on a full spectrum of issues and in a wide
variety of forms — labor/healthcare, global justice activists, peace
coalitions, alternative media, women, conferences and teach-ins, theater
and the arts, and the list goes on. We saw new structures and processes
arise — the RNC clearinghouse, the NY Uniting left strategy retreat, for
example — new kinds of solidarity, networks of coalitions, and new
relationships built across issues and tendencies and between local and
national mobilizations.

"The Dromocratic Condition" Conference:

Contemporary Cultures of Acceleration

University of Newcastle upon Tyne, March 12–13, 2005

Theories of contemporary culture have foregrounded the significance of 'late
capitalism' or 'post-Fordism' (Jameson; Harvey); simulation and
'hyper-reality' (Baudrillard); information technology and the 'inhuman'
(Lyotard); the 'panopticon' (Foucault); 'communicative action' (Habermas);
'desiring-production' and schizophrenia (Deleuze and Guattari); risk (Ulrich
Beck); and the cyborg (Haraway).

An alternative theorisation — which intersects with these perspectives, but
diverges from them — views acceleration as the defining feature of the
contemporary era. The French cultural theorist Paul Virilio has coined the
term 'dromocracy' (from the Greek dromos: avenue or race course) to
characterise this position. Under Virilio's 'dromocratic' reading of
history, scientific, technological, societal, military, and cultural change
is propelled by the pursuit of ever-increasing speed. Our own era — with its
fibre-optic cables, satellite-linked communications networks, supersonic
aircraft, and cruise missiles — is, Virilio suggests, approaching the limits
of acceleration, and teeters on the edge of the 'integral accident' - the
true end of modernity.

Shut Down the School of Assassins!

Fort Benning, Georgia, Nov. 19–21, 2004

The School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or
WHINSEC, is a combat training school for Latin American
security personnel located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Initially established in Panama in 1946, the SOA was
kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of
the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President
Jorge Illueca stated that the School of the Americas
was the "biggest base for destabilization in Latin
America." The SOA/WHINSEC, funded by US taxpayer money,
has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in such
courses as counterinsurgency techniques, sniper
training, commando and psychological warfare, military
intelligence and interrogation tactics.