From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Mon Jun 04 2007 - 07:48:35 EDT
---------------------------- Original Message --------------------------
Subject: Marx Conference in Havana (May 2008)
From: "michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@sfu.ca>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends and Comrades,
Here's an opportunity to mark your
calendars for May 2008--- the first notice for
the Marx Conference in Havana. There will be
further notices with more details; however, if
you know that you definitely want to come, you
can contact Jesus Garcia Brigos at
<mailto:jpastor@infomed.sld.cu>jpastor@infomed.sld.cu at this time.
in solidarity,
michael
4th International Conference – Karl Marx and the
Challenges of the XXI century. Havana, Cuba May 5 to 8, 2008
In the year 2008 we mark 125 years since Marx’s
death, 125 years since (in Frederick Engel’s
words) humanity was shortened by a head, ‘the
most remarkable head of our time.’ Only eleven
mourners at Marx’s funeral on 17 March 1883 heard
Engels (his brother both in ideas and struggles)
describe Marx as a man of science but above all,
a revolutionary. ‘His real mission in life,’
Engels pointed out, ‘was to contribute in one way
or another, to the overthrow of capitalist
society and of the state institutions which it
had brought into being.’ That mission was ‘to
contribute to the liberation of the modern
proletariat’--- a goal that required that the
proletariat be ‘conscious of its own position and
its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation.’
How can we today follow Marx’s mission and
contribute to the overthrow of capitalism? How
can we help the working class become ‘conscious
of its own position and its needs, conscious of
the conditions of its emancipation’? That is the
challenge we face today--- it is a challenge made
all the more urgent by the continuing destruction
of our living space by the ravages of capitalism.
At the upcoming 4th Conference in Havana on ‘The
work of Karl Marx and the Challenges of the 21st
Century, we want to renew our commitment to
Marx’s historic task. And we propose to centre
our discussion on three separate but connected themes:
1. The nature of contemporary capitalism and imperialism.
2. The articulation of revolutionary subjects:
the construction of a new militant
internationalism, social movements, and
contemporary types and forms of class struggle
required to face and transcend “the system of multiple domination” of
capital.
3. A socialist alternative: the need to go beyond
reforms of capitalism, the analysis of past
socialist experiences and of practical proposals,
under current conditions, to construct a
communist society that will permit the full development of human capabilities
On 5 May 2008 (the 190th anniversary of Marx’s
birth), we will begin 4 days of deliberation in
Havana on the work of Marx and the challenges
before us all. We invite all who struggle for the
necessary and possible world based upon true
humanity and solidarity to join us and to
demonstrate that Marx is more alive than ever.
Join us in Havana together with the Cuban
Revolution, victorious for 55 years from the battle of Moncada.
The Organizing Committee.
Havana, Cuba.
(<http://www.nodo50.org/cubasigloXXI/>www.nodo50.org/cubasigloXXI/;
<mailto:jpastor@infomed.sld.cu>jpastor@infomed.sld.cu)
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Director, Programme in 'Transformative Practice and Human Development'
Centro Internacional Miranda, P.H.
Residencias Anauco Suites, Parque Central, final Av. Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela
fax: 0212 5768274/0212 5777231
http//:centrointernacionalmiranda.gob.ve
mlebowit@sfu.ca
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