From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@msn.com)
Date: Sat Feb 03 2007 - 09:40:13 EST
Mitchel Cohen gave a talk at the "Marxist Theory Colloquium" at NYU last week, which I attended. The Colloquium is a monthly workshop facilitated by Bertell Ollman. Mitch's talk was on: "Marxists and Ecology: Is Marx's Critique of Science and Technology Radical Enough?". There was a lively discussion after Mitch's talk which fellow OPE-Ler David Laibman participated in. David, like Mitch, has been participating in Bertell's workshop on Marxist Theory for years. I am *attaching* two files to this message: the *paper* he presented and a *summary* he wrote of that paper. You might want to start with the latter. I have also *included below* a short bio of Mitch and a short description he wrote about Ollman's workshop and the context of his talk (this was part of the invitation I received). Mitch would appreciate any comments that you have on his paper or the subject more generally or specifically. I will forward any comments to him. In solidarity, Jerry > MARXIST THEORY COLLOQUIUM AT NYU > > > MITCHEL COHEN - author of series on Zen-Marxism; > former editor of "Green Politix" and co-editor of > "G" (newspaper of New York State Greens); > founding member of the Red Balloon Collective, > which grew out of the independent caucus of > Students for a Democratic Society at SUNY Stony > Brook in 1969, and of the No Spray Coalition > (1999) and Recycle This! (2002); frequent > contributor to a variety of radical publications; > member of the Radical Philosophy Association, the > Brooklyn Greens/Green Party, NY-911-Truth, and > elected listener representative to the WBAI Local > Station Board. And, author of "The Permanent Carnival," his new book of > poetry. > > TOPIC: "MARXISTS AND ECOLOGY: IS MARX'S CRITIQUE > OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY RADICAL ENOUGH?" > > -------------------------------------- > Bertell Ollman has run this > last-Friday-afternoon-of-the-month Marxism > workshop for many years, and I have attended it > from the start. It was set up for people writing > in or seriously studying the many aspects of Marx > and his dialectical critique of capitalism. > > I have both learned a great deal and have been > very frustrated in taking part in this workshop. > I am frustrated because the cruciality of > ecological issues has been missing -- sometimes > it seems like this is intentional -- from many of > the versions of Marxism that have been presented > and discussed here. So I proposed to Bertell that > I do a workshop on this subject, and I told him > that I'd invite other Greens and social justice > activists to take part. I'm sure some of the > participants are going to tear me to shreds. (Joy > of joys.) But gently. They are, after all, decent marxists. > > So I'm inviting you, my Green comrades, anarchist > and marxist friends. A familiarity with Marx's > work is helpful, but for this one workshop it is > not required. We hope to have a rousing discussion following my > presentation. > > If you plan to attend and would like to see my > talk in advance, I can send you the 2-page > outline of conclusions. (The whole talk is 19 > pages.) Hopefully that won't remove the surprise! (the butler did it! > Whoops.). > > Mitchel
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