Loren Goldner writes:

New York City Study Group on Marx

Beginning October, 2004

"It is not enough for theory to seek its practice;
practice must also seek its theory." — Karl Marx, 1844 Manuscripts

I am forming a class/study group in Karl Marx's
critique of political economy for
theoretically-inclined activists in the New York City
area.

The group will meet once every two weeks from October
until May 2005, and can of course continue thereafter
if enough people want it to.

Its purpose will be to give conceptual tools from
Marx's work to people interested in understanding and
changing the world, tools which make sense of current
world economic and political developments, shed light
on current possible intervention, and clarify what a
society beyond capitalism will look like.

"Anarchism, Marxism and the Bonapartist State"

Saul Newman, Anarchist Studies, [Volume 12, #1, 2004]

This paper explores the question of state power and sovereignty in radical political theory through an examination of the classical anarchist critique of Marxism. It draws on the Bonapartist moment in Marx's thinking, seeing this as laying the groundwork for the development of a theory of the state as autonomous from class, suggesting that the implications of this argument are only fully realised in anarchism. Anarchism was able to develop a wholly autonomous and specific theory of state power and political authority — one that was irreducible to the Marxist class and economic analysis. I will argue that this had crucial consequences for contemporary radical political theory as it allowed the political dimension to emerge as a separate field of antagonism, demanding its own specific forms of analysis. I then explore the implications of this theoretical terrain through Agamben's analysis of biopower and state sovereignty, and Laclau and Mouffe's 'post-Marxist' understanding of
hegemonic political identification, suggesting that there are important links here with anarchism that could be developed.

"Tandem Surfing the Third Wave:

Critical Art Ensemble and Tactical Media Production"

Ryan Griffis, Lumpen

This interview (from 2001) with Critical Art Ensemble was the first part of a series of investigations into collaborative/group artistic practice taking place in, and critical of, the e-conomy. Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), a collective of five artists working since 1987, produces cultural products ranging from books to Web projects to performances that investigate moments in art, technology, activism, and critical theory.

Ryan Griffis: How did CAE come to be a working group?

Critical Art Ensemble: It's too bad CAE has no heroic formation story about a grand international like the one the Situationists are often mythologized as having. CAE's story is much more mundane. We were students looking to develop a network that would have a cultural impact-some way of organizing that would give us enough financial, hardware, and labor resources that we could begin to construct a platform for a public voice. Collective activity seemed (and still seems) to be the best option.

dr.woooo writes:

"Europe and the New Movements"

An Interview With Andre Grubacic

From what I can tell Europeans are pretty ignorant of
events in the U.S. left, but, even more so, the U.S.
left, including myself, is horrendously ignorant of
events in Europe. Maybe you can help us do something
about the latter problem. I would like to try to find
out some of the trends you see developing in movements
in Europe, and your view of their virtues and flaws.

Grubacic: You know, I was just reading one essay, a
rather old one, from Barbara and John Ehrenreich, the
pivotal essay for a most excellent book titled
Between Labor and Capital. In this essay, the
authors describe the relation of what they call the
"professional managerial class" to the movement of the
1960's. It strikes me as remarkable how simillar this
is to the main relevant trends of the 'new movement'
we have in Europe.