Modes of Foreign Relations, Uneven and Combined Development, and Tektology

In 2007 I did write a review article for the first volume of Kees Van Der Pijl’s magnum opus: Modes of Foreign Relations and Political Economy, subtitled as Nomads, Empires, States. The title of my review article was “Modes of Foreign Relations vs Uneven and Combined Development: The Marxist Legacy and Relations between and within Alienated Societies”, and it was published by the journal of International Sociology in 2008. The text is online and can be accessed here. Just for self-crediting note, it was written before the reviewed book won the Isaac Deutscher prize in 2008, and the topic was discussed by a panel during the sixth Historical Materialism conference, which also hosts the Isaac Deutscher prize ceremony. Thus it was written independently from the separate journal symposium held on Cambridge Review of International Affairs in 2009 on the topic; and more importantly without any knowledge of the exchange (Alex Anievas refers in the intro to the CRIA symposium) took place between Justin Rosenberg and Alex Callinicos on “UE&CD and the international” somewhere in 2007.

The second and the third volumes of Van Der Pijl’s trilogy titled as The Foreign Encounter in Myth and Religion and The Discipline of Western Supremacy. Both volumes did exceeded my expectations, satisfying enthusiasm I got with the first volume. Although it was my intention I could not yet write a review for the entire work, nevertheless it would be just to say that Van Der Pijl’s trilogy has already taken its place amongst the 21st century classics. Along the pages of the three volumes Van Der Pijl applies Marx’ method of abstraction, that is historical and dialectical materialism, to the relations between alienated world societies, thus to the field of ‘foreign relations’, independently. Doing so the whole project not only smashes the cold blooded, state-maniacal, and disciplinary ‘International Relations’ to the ground, by a strong argument politicizing and historicizing it based on rich empirical material; but it also does so by providing a brilliant historical materialist analysis for rethinking modern nationalism. Van Der Pijl also claims that applying Marx methodology, in a similar way, on different fields of social life, as ideology, power and so on, and integrating those analyses that would be possible to develop a more complete Marxian state and class theories that are essential to advance the critique of today’s global political economy.

Open Co-operative Networked Labour Universe accept donations in #Faircoin!

After its launch yesterday, on 1 May 2015, we are happy to announce that the Networked Labour University (ProletKult 2.0) and its sister projects; co-operations research unit NetworkedLabour.net (http://www.networkedlabour.net/), Global Networked Labour Union (https://gnunion.wordpress.com/), and Social Network Unionism Project (http://www.snuproject.wordpress.com/) are accepting donations in Faircoin to following wallet address: fSUf2gJmo4G2nr7AwbjWFyXMjDgA5D4o9g

For more information on FairCoin and our sister network Fair.coop’ donation campaign visit: https://fair.coop/faircoop-donates-100-000-faircoins/

[http://www.networkedlabour.net/2015/05/open-co-operative-networked-labour-university-accepts-donations-in-faircoin/]

via Open Co-operative Networked Labour University Accepts donations in #FairCoin ! | Networked Labour.

Agora 99 » 24-26 Ekim 2014 İstanbul, Üçüncü Agora99 için Önhazırlık Toplantısı

Mücadelelerden mücadelelere bir çağrı: barınma ve kent hakkı için müşterekler için; güvencesiz emeğe ve neoliberal kentleşmeye, savaş ve devlet militarizmine karşı ve yurttaşlık hakkı ve sığınmacılık özgürlüğü için yerel ve küresel mücadeleleri bağlayabilecek örgüt pratiklerini geliştirelim.

“Üçüncüsü yapılacak Agora99’u 2015’te İstanbul’da düzenleyelim!”

25 Ekim’de İstanbul’da düzenlenecek ön buluşma için forumlara ve ağlara çağrımızdır.

Dünya, 2011 yılından itibaren, gerçek anlamda ulusları aşan ve küresel ölçeğe erişen bir taban ayaklanmaları dalgasına tanıklık etmiştir. Tunus, Mısır, İzlanda, Yunanistan, İspanya, İsrail, Şili, İngiltere, ABD, Türkiye, Brezilya ve diğer birçok yerde insanlar adaletsizlik ve eşitsizliği protesto etmek ve demokrasi uğruna sokaklara dökülmüştür. Yıllardır süregelen mücadeleler yeni bir görünürlük kazanmış ve yeni hareketler ve mücadeleler vücut bulmuştur.

Yerel ölçekteki çeşitli meselelerin tetiklediği bu ayaklanmalar ilk bakışta birbirinden kopuk ve eşzamanlı olmayan bir niteliğe sahipmiş gibi görünebilir. Ancak, öz-örgütlenme, bağlantı ve yataylık bu ayaklanmaların ortak özelliği olmuştur: hepsi de demokratik karar almanın yeni biçimlerini uyguluyor ve lidersizlik niteliği taşıyor. Hepsi, meclisler, çalışma grupları ve yakınlaşma alanları aracılığıyla örgütleniyor ve sosyal medya zemininde ve çevrimiçi buluşmalarla kitlesel katılıma olanak sağlıyorlar.

Aynı zamanda, yerelliğin ve ulusların ötesine geçerek grupları, hareketleri ve bireyleri bölgesel, ulusal ve enternasyonal düzeyde birbirine yaklaştıran bağlar, ayaklanmaların yayılmasına ve devam etmesine ve dünyanın birçok yerinde, insanlık değerlerine dayalı ağların kurulmasına olanak sağlamıştır. Büyük meclisler öz-düşünme ve fikir teatisi imkânlarını ortaya çıkarmıştır.

Bunlardan biri de Agora99 olmuştur.

via Agora 99 » 24-26 Ekim 2014 İstanbul, Üçüncü Agora99 için Önhazırlık Toplantısı.

Digital Labor, Nov 14-16, NYC, US

SWEATSHOPS, PICKET LINES, AND BARRICADES will bring together designers, labor organizers, theorists, social entrepreneurs, historians, legal scholars, independent researchers, cultural producers and perspectives from workers themselves to discuss emerging forms of mutual aid and solidarity.

The third in The New School’s Politics of Digital Culture Conference Series Sponsored by The New School and The Institute for Distributed Creativity.

Over the past decade, advancements in software development, digitization, an increase in computer processing power, faster and cheaper bandwidth and storage, and the introduction of a wide range of inexpensive, wireless-enabled computing devices and mobile phones, set the global stage for emerging forms of labor that help corporations to drive down labor costs and ward off the falling rate of profits.

Companies like CrowdFlower, oDesk, or Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk serve as much more than payment processors or interface providers; they shape the nature of the tasks that are performed. Work is organized against the worker. Recent books included The Internet as Playground and Factory (Scholz, 2013), Living Labor (Hoegsberg and Fisher) based on the exhibition Arbeitstid that took place in Oslo in 2013 and Cognitive Capitalism, Education, and Digital Labour (Peters, Bulut, et al, eds., Peter Lang, 2011). In 2012, the exhibition The Workers was curated by MASS MOCA in the United States. Christian Fuchs’ book Digital Labor and Karl Marx is forthcoming with Routledge.

Several events have been organized in the last few years to focus on these developments: Digital Labor: the Internet as Playground and Factory conference (The New School, New York City, 2009 http://digitallabor.org), Digital Labor: Workers, Authors, Citizens (Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, 2009), Invisible Labor Colloquium (Washington University Law School, 2013), Towards Critical Theories of Social Media (Uppsala University, Sweden, 2012), Re:publica (Berlin, 2013), and the Chronicles of Work lecture series at Schloß Solitude (Stuttgart, Germany, 2012/2013).

We would like to continue and elaborate on these discussions by raising the following questions:

via Digital Labor.

A Commons Guide for the 4th. International Degrowth Conference | CommonsBlog

Commons at the 4th.International Degrowth Conference -> Let’s make them visible.

A miniguide

This is an uncomplete collection of commons-related events at the 4th. international degrowth conference in Leipzig, which will start on September 2. There will be an enourmous number of parallel events, sessions and workshops during the 3 main conference days. So, if you want to find commons-related events, the following might be useful for you. We gathered information in English and German for panels and workshops prepared by commoners or where commoners participate. Moreover, You are also invited to one (or two?) network meetings of commoners.

We are thrilled, that the Degrowth-Conference goes beyond the degrowth movement and opens a space to discuss commonalities and differences with other movements. So,let’s make the commons visible at the conference and use this awesome opportunity to plan for our next steps. May be in a not so far future, the Commons Movement will organize a movement congress as well. Leipzig might be an example.

Remember, this collection is uncomplete, so: if you are a commoner and offer an event/ workshop etc at the degrowth conference, please add it to this list (you may use the comments or this pad: https://titanpad.com/Gjuw2Jl2zQ)

Thank you! And please spread the word. Share this information with all commoners who will be present in Leipzig.

Perhaps, the most important point is, that we’ve reserved a room for an informal networking meeting among commoners from all over the world: on Thursday September 4, at 2:30 pm, Room S 215 (see below)

The date is a bit odd, because it is parallel to the big convergence panel + other commons related sessions, but we can and should organize another informal meeting towards A COMMONS MOVEMENT CONGRESS IN 2016 on Thursday night or Friday. Suggestions welcome. Who takes the lead? -> mail to: Silke.Helfrich@gmx.de or via one of the commons/commoning mailing lists.

via A Commons Guide for the 4th. International Degrowth Conference | CommonsBlog.

#talk #dance #act – Come down from the balcony! Frankfurt Blockupy Festival November 20-23, 2014 – Blockupy

We will not wait for the appointments of the rulers – we will set our own agenda. Even if it will be 2015 before the ECB holds its hors d’oeurve event of prominent faces to inaugurate its new tower, Blockupy will be in Frankfurt this fall.

Now, after the “May of Solidarity” across Europe and before the blockade of the ECB inauguration next year, is the right time: we will discuss, we will bring together our struggles and make plans. We will meet to music, with a beer, at a film. And, of course, we will be present in those places where we disrupt normal activities: on the streets, over the fence.

Blockupy – we refuse to adapt! “Austerity kills!” still applies. The rulers are intensifying their structural measures, even if they are more “softly” packed. They are transforming the crisis politics of the Troika into “business as usual” – mini-jobs, Hartz-IV, authoritarian policies and social cuts, racist deportations, militarized borders, and privatization of public goods, ruined healthcare systems, appear to be the answer to unemployment, precarity and nationalist reflexes. The crisis should become a form of life…

Democracy comes from our many struggles. Blockupy attempts, together with others, to create a platform in Europe at a slow moment – against austerity and exploitation, for solidarity beyond borders. Europe is not a question of passport or origins for Blockupy – Europe is the region in which we are starting to struggle together. We are expressing a collective refusal of all nationalist, sexist and racist “crisis solutions”.

#talk – and listen/what to do. Together in workshops, podium discussions and assemblies we want to ask questions that we can answer in collective action: how do we find the cracks in the capitalist cement? How do we guarantee an unconditional welcome to all refugees and migrations? How do we take back our cities, which are selling themselves? How can we find each other so as to live and work with dignity? We will talk about what we must do, what we want to do, to develop alternatives, to bring our struggles together and become stronger.

#dance – grooves and resonances. The festival will bring a different light to many places in the city – spaces of self-managed culture, projects of other ways of living and taking residence, pubs and cafes, theatre, cinema or bookshops. We will met, listen, confuse and explain. We will dance, eavesdrop and be in the squares. A sustainable politics of protest cannot abstain from bringing disorder and confusion to the ruling order.

via #talk #dance #act – Come down from the balcony! Frankfurt Blockupy Festival November 20-23, 2014 – Blockupy.

Global Labour Institute International Summer School 2014 #ISS14

The third GLI International Summer School will be held from Monday 7th – Friday 11th July 2014 at Northern College in Barnsley, UK. The aim of the Summer School is to bring together trade union activists from around the world to debate and question what are, and what should be, the politics of the international trade union movement.

This year, up to 100 participants will be attending the Summer School – including delegations from national unions and global union federations, invited trade union activists, labour movement researchers and educators.

Most participants who attend the school are nominated by supportive unions, union federations and organisations. If you’re interested in attending the Summer School, get in contact with your union in the first instance.

If you have any further queries about the Summer School, drop us an email at gli-uk@global-labour.net

The Programme

#GeziFest Invitation (EN) open for all the Chapullers of the World / Bergse Bos, Rotterdam, NL / 21-22 June 2014

View this document on Scribd

Fuerza Valpo! Solidarity, Resistance, and Recovery In the Wake of Valparaíso Fires

Emily Achtenberg

Rebel Currents

May 30, 2014

On May 24, a coalition of neighborhood groups, students, labor unions, and other civil society organizations convened a popular assembly in Valparaíso, the major Chilean port city devastated by a raging fire last month. Announcing their aim to develop a grassroots plan for the recovery and reconstruction of Valparaíso, the Coordinadora for the Defense of Valparaíso also demanded a temporary freeze on construction permits and the resignation of right-wing mayor Jorge Castro.

Valparaíso, April 12, 2014 (resumenlatinoamericano.org)“The destruction and abandonment of Valparaíso, of which this conflagration is an unfortunate result, has authors who must assume [responsibility for] the consequences of their reproachable acts and omissions,” the Coordinadora’sstatement reads in part. The Coordinadora blames powerful political and economic interests for the “twin tragedies” of abandonment and real estate speculation that are destroying Valparaíso, and wants them to be held accountable.

Online Preparatory Meeting for the ‘Organizing Digital Labour and Digital Labour Organizing Workshop’ at Global Solidarity Conference

When: 10:00, 14 May 2014

Where: BigBlueButton

Preparatory and test call for planning the ‘Organizing digital labour & digital labour organizing’ workshop. The actual workshop is being planned to take place in Berlin between 23-25 May 2014, during  Labour Start‘s 5. Global Solidarity Conference.

Original Post

To open up the preparation process for the workshop as wide as possible and to allow those interested online participants to test and practice with the online system we will be using, we will be making several test conference calls in coming days. The first call will take place on Wednesday 14 May, between 10.00 am and 15.00 pm [UK time], so wider global participation will be possible during the day.

The draft description of the workshop, which we be taken as the starting point, can be found at ‘Union Upgrading’ Group Wiki created on Organizing Network -which we will be testing and using to document the workshop and the preperation, and to take the minutes. If you like to participate the preparatory call, and the workshop itself please add your name, affiliation, contact information, and any ideas or suggestion of yours on the wiki and click on ‘Save’. In order to be able to use all the functions of the Organizing Network, for instance the wiki, you will need to register first. Please read the user guide for the ON here.

The test call is open to all unionists, labour organizers, social justice activists, free information and knowledge [h]activists, researchers who are interested in and experienced on the topic. The call is especially set up for those who wish to actively collaborate in the preparation of the content of the workshop, and who needs to practice with the digital tools we will be using.

Unite the Union’s USI mediates the established union world entering into the networked organising (networganizing) era

The below are Google Hangout videos taken from the USI’s website:

i. Hack the Union from US interviews with Andrew of Union Solidarity International: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4U4FNAkZtSc

ii.  A small step for unions, but a giant step for global labour
emancipation?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k6BmWC5lr8Y

This following link is to a nice article by Walton Patland introducing the ON platform:
http://www.scoop.it/t/networked-labour/p/4017080234/2014/03/05/karl-marx-on-facebook-what-is-the-ideology-of-your-social-network?hash=fd4c16ef-09d3-468d-a043-3b8de2a28135

All the fists of the world are GNUniting! First Brainstorm – Online Meeting This Sunday at 13.00 PM GMT

All the fists of the world are GNUniting!
First Brainstorm – Online Meeting This Sunday at 13.00 PM GMT
https://www.facebook.com/GlobalNetworkedLabourUnion

We are the workers whose free labour and privacy has been stolen, and sold
for greed! We have been abused, spied on and betrayed constantly. Before
this massive exploitation and surveillance machine turns into a global
apparatus in the hands of fascism, being operationalized for direct
oppression, we have to unite our fists and strike back!

This May Day is the time… How and what is not decided yet, there are
initial ideas but much is needed to put the global collective intelligence
at work to defend our and our children’s rights and dignity! Join us this
Sunday and bring your most free, creative, powerful and peaceful ideas and
dreams along… We did beat Freon, Caesars, Barons, Kings, Emperors,
Merchants, Industrial Capitalists and Nazis in the past, we can beat the
TNCs, CEOs and 1% as well!

We call all the workers, hackers, makers, farmers, artists, indignant and
outraged to GNUnite all their constructive capacity around the most
spectacular free libre and open sourced swarm to fight back and win!

Hasta la Siempre Victoria!
https://www.facebook.com/events/583310555077672/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular
https://www.facebook.com/events/252508808246947/?ref=22&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular

2dh5-festival for activists and world-changers Jan 31- feb 2 in The Hague

The Hague will be the venue for the 9th edition of the 2dh5-festival. Almost 10 years ago we started organizing such a festival because we thought it would be good to organize space for the exchange of information and knowledge about methods, tactics and strategies to achieve change. The name 2dh5 stems from a bold and mostly fatal chess move.

We like to move around with the festival and choose a new city every second year. This time it will be held in the capital of the Low Countries, The Hague. The main program (two days of workshops and presentations) will be in neighborhood center Sam Sam in the Schilderswijk, near train station Holland Spoor (Van Mierisstraat 226). The workshops are about many different subjects, from art and juridical struggle, to migrants issues, historical developments and the significance of analysis. Some workshops are very practical (preparing for next blockupy, destroying amazon.com, safety on internet) while others are more theoretical. See the program on the website: http://www.2dh5.nl/den-haag-2014/programma

World Revolutionary Forum: Towards WorldWideWave of Actions in 2014 (#www)

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/593164267417330/

HashTags: #WREF, #www

#www call: http://gnunion.wordpress.com/www/
#WREF: http://gnunion.wordpress.com/worl-revolutionary-forum/
GNUnion: http://gnunion.wordpress.com/

Hosted by GNUnion – One Big Meshwork for All the Working People

Again, 2014 will be full of struggles, actions and mobilisations for a real global change. This Mumble call will be about starting a new series of forums and assemblies that are open to all individuals who will able to make independent efforts from any corporate, state and NGO funded agenda and; who could be exactly themselves when changing the world, when getting together, discussing and collaborating with others; either as a part of a collective, group, network or individually, and by using either online, or face to face means, or both.

P2PValue Project: Techno-social platform for sustainable models and value generation in commons-based peer production in the Future Internet

Commons-based peer production (CBPP) is a new and increasingly significant model of social innovation based on collaborative production by citizens through the Internet.

This project will foster the CBPP phenomenon by providing a techno-social software platform specifically designed to facilitate the creation of resilient and sustainable CBPP communities.

The design of the P2Pvalue platform will be empirically and experimentally grounded. Through a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods, we will elaborate guidelines for the institutional and technical features that favour value creation in CBPP.

The project focuses on three key areas of improvement over current platforms:

• Enhancing community sustainability by adopting the governance, legal, economic, and technical infrastructures that favour value creation and resilience;
• Supporting the contributors with systems of reward that allow value to flow back to the creators;
• Integrating the functionalities of online social networking services and collaborative software in a privacy-aware platform based on a decentralised architecture.

http://www.p2pvalue.eu/

GNUnion (Global Networked Labour Union) One Big Meshwork of Workers, Hackers, Farmers, Artists, Makers and Opressed Peoples of the World

Global Networked Labour Union, GNUnion – One Big Mesh Network, is the released 1.0 Beta version of new generation, free to join, borderless worker self-organisation, a work in progress. Its main ispiration is the history, struggle and experiences of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) on the one hand, and free-libre, and open source software GNU/Linux, on the other.

GNUnion is also inspired by comrades standing against global capitalism in women, Lgbt,  immigrant, environmental and social justice movements, Zapatistas, anti & alter golobalisation movements, social forums, free knowledge- information and culture movements; as part of organisations like WikilLeaks, Caos Computer Club, MayFirst People Link, or of recent wave of digital and real world uprisings Anonymous, 15M, Occupy, Gezi and others.

How to Start a Revolution, the Documentary | Critical open debate is urgently needed to complete the Global rEvolution!

The most important lesson I would take from the last years uprisings is that these tactics work. On the other hand it has become undeniable that there has been enemy involvement, conscious work done by groups gained experience from Velvet revolutions in Eastern Europe in deploying such tactics for the sake of the transnational intra-capitalist class struggle. There is however much larger collective learning and strategizing processs out side the enemy line and control, by the people for them selves. In order to transform this ‘our own’ tacit knowledge on these tactics into living systematic one in order to continue and realise the Global rEvolution is an urgent need.

We certainly need a wide open transnational public debate on the issue! On the one hand we all need to know how and who uses these tactics in paralel to enemy’s interest, what are the exact relationships between Otpor and Canvas and local groups as well as  the actors of transnational capitalist class struggle -within the US and on the global scale, what role they have been playing in triggering and manuplating grassroots uprisings; and on the other hand we, as independent grasroots, need to build a clear reflections on our own experiences, tactics and strategies we have been inventing and sharing accross countries along the way, and so how will we systematize these tacit knowledge is vital.

It is very useful, at least to me and for the first part of the question, to get informed by transnational historical materialist (Cox, Gill, van der Pijl…), geographical historical materialist (Harvey), post-automonous  and other useful accounts on Global Capitalism and new imperialism, as well as other important anarchist and horizontalist discussions.

INVITATION: OUTER-NATIONAL SOLIDARITY EVENING, Amsterdam. 26 October 2013, Saturday

NVITATION
OUTER-NATIONAL SOLIDARITY EVENING
Dear Friends,
We, as a group of outer-national activists organize an evening to bring all other activists from different countries who care about human rights, democracy and nature together.

Finally we all fight for the same reasons but we don’t really come together. Isn’t time to have and evening together to meet, get to know each other, share our stories, experience, food, music, dance, film etc?

Hopefully it will be a very nice evening with lots of pleasure and it will be a great beginning of a long term solidarity between all of us.

Please bring some food, some ingredients to cook (we have a very nice kitchen:-), prepare yourself to tell about what your concerns are, what’s your story as an activist, bring your instruments, film or what ever that you like to share with us.

The evening will be in two parts:

I – Creative part
We will cook, make a music rehearsal, paint, make posters/banners etc. All at the some time.

II – Presentations
Concerts, dance, film, speeches, sharing ideas etc.

Please contact one of us for more info and it would be great if you could inform us if your coming.

Warm greetings and hopefully see you all on saturday.

26 October 2013, saturday
16:00-23:00
Mediamatic Fabriek
voc-kade 10
Amsterdam

contact:
Deniz Yıldırım – denizway@gmail.com – 06-30 11 01 33
Selim Doğru – info@selimdogru.com – 06-13 23 46 84
Jun Saturay – jun.saturay@gmail.com – 06-22 12 71 86

GLOBAL UPRISINGS / Event De Balie Amsterdam

This three-day event will bring together activists, journalists and scholars from the front-lines of the popular uprisings unfolding around the world.

GLOBAL UPRISINGS

The Stories, Ideas and Future of Uprisings around the World

FREE ENTRY, LIMITED CAPACITY

Reserve Tickets Online at http://www.debalie.nl/agenda/global-uprisings/

De Balie, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
November 15-17, 2013

THREE DAYS OF GLOBAL NETWORKS, DIGITAL CULTURE AND DISTRIBUTED POLICY IN BARCELONA

On October 25th, once again, the FCForum in Barcelona will analyse the advances of the past twelve months and will consider the future outlook in the struggle for democracy in the digital era, free culture and net neutrality.

Year after year, the FCForum serves as a civil society tool, to move forward, analyse and answer questions and observe practices that actively grapple with them. Continuing the work carried out at the FCForum in 2011 and 2012, which looked at the increasing use of the net as a tool for democratic transformation – this year it will go further into some specific issues, such as the use and misuse of Big Data, electronic voting and electronic money, and how citizens can use them to achieve a society worthy of being called democratic in the twentieth century.