17 May 2016
Convergence around a broad alliance of the left has troubled socialist, communist, anarchist and other organisations since the 19th Century. Often, the divisions amongst the left are far more visible and audible than the factors that might bring unity. In an age of widening inequality, seemingly endless austerity, rising right-wing nationalism, and the calculated and brutal suppression of alternatives, questions of how the left might pull together in a common struggle are particularly urgent.
This workshop develops recent attempts to identify, explore, and foster convergences amongst oft-competing Marxisms and Anarchisms (see Capital and Class 40:1, 2016) by exploring the possibilities for broader convergences amongst the left. It explores the idea of and the prospects for left-wing convergence from the perspectives of and around ideas of class, race, decoloniality, left populism, communism and impropriety.
Wednesday 1 June, 9:00-5:30, Grand Parade, B56
9:00-9:15 – Introduction
9:15-10:45
Alex Prichard (University of Exeter): Left-Wing Convergence
Clare Woodford (University of Brighton) Communism or Emancipation
11:00-13:00
Mark Devenney (University of Brighton) Thinking the Improper People: Towards a Radical Politics of Property
Cathy Bergin (University of Brighton) Race/Class Convergences: African American Radical Politics Post WW1
Nicholas J Kiersey (Ohio University) – Space, Time and the Promise of Horizontal Politics Today
13:00-14:00 – Lunch
14:00-16:00
Anthony Leaker (University of Brighton) Corbyn and the International Context: Learning from Southern Europe and Latin America
Robin Dunford (University of Brighton) – Decolonial Articulations: Toward Pluriversality as a Counter-Hegemonic Project
Lara Montesinos Coleman (University of Sussex )’Problems of Solidarity in Left-Wing Convergence’
16:30-17:30
Roundtable (Chair and Discussant: Michael Neu (University of Brighton)
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