Vanishing points in working class culture – Miguel Amorós
A brief discussion of the origins, decline, and fall of modern working class culture as a culture of resistance to capitalism, a process that led to our current condition of “perpetual present” “without time or memory”, concluding with some reflections on the possible reemergence of “communities of struggle” that will rediscover history, as the system can only “overcome its contradictions … by plunging into even greater ones”, thus unleashing new conflicts in a society that has become increasingly more unpredictable due to the proliferation of unhinged, “desperate identities” in search of a remedy for their “feeling of uprootedness”.
The culture industry in the 21st century - Robert Kurz
In this revised and expanded version of a 2010 talk, Robert Kurz examines the continuing relevance, and the limitations, of the concept formulated by Adorno and Horkheimer in 1944—the “Culture Industry”—with discussions of “cultural pessimism”, the postmodern “cult of superficiality”, the role of technology in cultural change, the “abstract individual”, advertising, the Internet, “virtualization”, “interactive” media, exhibitionism and narcissistic self-promotion, the pseudo-“gift economy” of the Net, the impact of the current economic crisis on the culture industry, the “depletion of cultural reserves”, “estheticization”, and the impossibility of a separate “cultural revolution”.
Review of Vivek Chibber's Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital
Vivek Chibber challenges the post-Marxist framework of the Subaltern Studies group.
Contemporary anarchist studies: an introductory anthology of anarchy in the academy
This volume of collected essays by some of the most prominent academics studying anarchism bridges the gap between anarchist activism on the streets and anarchist theory in the academy.
2009 Interview with IHU Online - Robert Kurz
A wide-ranging and comprehensive summary of Robert Kurz’s views on capitalism, economic crisis, gender relations, the environmental crisis, postmodernism, abstract labor, Marxism, the failure of the left, technological change, the State, etc., transcribed from an interview that took place three years before his death.
Another World - Michelle Kuo talks with David Graeber
David Graeber talks with the Editor-in-Chief of Artforum about philosophy, totalities, insurrectionism, baseline communism, and his book Debt.
The condition of postmodernity - David Harvey
Marxist academic David Harvey on post-modernism in PDF format.
The metaphysical subtleties of the commodity - Anselm Jappe
Essay by German author Anselm Jappe discussing the history and continuing relevance of the concept of commodity fetishism, with particular emphasis on the role of situationist theory in its further elaboration after Marx.
Reading Marx in the 21st century-Robert Kurz
In this introduction to his 2001 book, Marx Lesen, German author Robert Kurz sets forth brief summaries of his concepts of "non-simultaneity", "catch-up modernization", the "exoteric" and "esoteric" Marx, and the importance of understanding the role of "fetishism" in modern capitalism.
Multi-Culturalism or World Culture? On a "Left"-Wing Response to Contemporary Social Breakdown
Loren Goldner on multiculturalism, post-modern cultural theory, and the social and economic conditions of the late 20th century.
