Reading for Thursday 20:th - Machines

We're reading the Grundrisse excerpt The Fragment on Machines

And also a text by Virno discussing this fragment:
http://www.generation-online.org/p/fpvirno10.htm

Reading 6th of October - The Mass Psychology of Fascism

The first two chapters of The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilhelm Reich.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/masspsychology_fascism.pdf

Thursday 15:th - Bitcoin

Bitcoin - the decentralized digital currency.

A discussion of technical and political aspects of decentralized currency.

Reading suggestions: (feel free to add your own in comments)

• http://interviews.slashdot.org/story/11/06/22/1737237/Amir-Taaki-Answers-Your-Questions-About-Bitcoin
• https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ
• http://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2011/06/bitcoin-is-economic-singularity.html
  
  

1st of September meeting: The UK riots

Let´s discuss the recent UK riots and the possibilities for left politics. Not focusing on one text in particular but here is some recommended reading:

The Commune - Don´t moralise, don´t judge, don´t take pictures - it´s time for the riot to get radical: http://thecommune.co.uk/2011/08/09/don%E2%80%99t-moralise-don%E2%80%99t-judge-don%E2%80%99t-take-pictures-%E2%80%93-it%E2%80%99s-time-for-the-riot-to-get-radical/

Socialism and/or Barbarism - On open letter to those who condemn the looting
Part 1: http://socialismandorbarbarism.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-letter-to-those-who-condemn.html
Part 2: http://socialismandorbarbarism.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-letter-to-those-who-condemn_10.html

University for Strategic Optimism - #riotcleanup or #riotwhitewash?
http://universityforstrategicoptimism.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/riotcleanup-or-riotwhitewash/

Slavoj Zizek- Shoplifters of the World Unite http://www.lrb.co.uk/2011/08/19/slavoj-zizek/shoplifters-of-the-world-unite

And some interesting videos and more texts can be found here: http://www.metamute.org/en/news_and_analysis/riot_round_up

Some questions that we might like to discuss around:

What are the possibilities for the radicalization of the riots when class is no longer functioning as a point of collective resonance for mass action? Are consumerist subjectivities and desires too entrenched, even (or especially) amongst the working and underclasses, to shift into something else; revolutionary collective desire? Is the Left in the UK too weak to build on the possibilities of the hegemonic rupture created by the riots; too hesitant to seek productive connections and alliances with the anger of the rioters, and lacking the coherence necessary to present an offensive front against the dominating right-wing discourse? What can be done about the huge repressive power of the state (in the form of police, army, weapons, courts and prisons) when it comes to mass uprisings?

Writing exercise for 18th of August - reading our own texts

Some of the people who attend the group will write short texts and we'll discuss them during the meeting. Everyone is invited to write! It doesn't need to be an amazingly original and exceptional text.

Formulate problems that are interesting for you, speak about some texts/authors/things that inspire or bother you, or maybe just pose a series of questions. The texts may or may not be published in this blog before the meeting. In case they don't, they will be distributed during the meeting.

UPDATE

Here two of the texts:

The Reproduction of the Inaction

Two Exercises of Imagination

Reading for 4th of August

Breivik's manifesto! I suggest we just read the introduction, until page 37 of the pdf. I don't know if there's any key passages in the book that one shouldn't miss, but the intro seems to contain an analysis of the Frankfurt school and deconstruction that might be interesting to look at.

http://rymdkoloni.se/2083.pdf

There's also a video manifesto that seems to be a sort of summary of the 1500 page text; it's just 12 minutes so I suggest we have a look at that as well to get a general idea of Breivik's ideas.

http://publicintelligence.net/utoya-gunman-anders-behring-breivik-video-manifesto/

Reading for 21:th of july

PRELIMINARY NOTES TOWARDS AN ACCOUNT OF THE “MOVEMENT OF POPULAR ASSEMBLIES”

8 pm at Tempest Library @ Reichenberger str 63a.