Red Wedge is proud to be contributing to the organizing of the very first Montreal Historical Materialism Conference. Held from May 17-20, it is a bilingual conference, and an excellent chance to break down barriers between English and French speaking activists and scholars. The them of the conference is ambitious: “The Great Transition,” reflecting a sorely needed optimism but also rooted in practical and sober theory.
From the conference website:
After years of revolt and mobilization following the economic crisis of 2008, from Occupy Wall Street to Bernie Sanders, from the Maple Spring through Nuit Debout (and without forgetting the tragic backlash aimed at Syriza) to the complex evolution of the Pink Tide in Latin America and the democratic socialism of Rojava, the domination of the capitalist economy has been questioned on numerous occasions. In order to pass from multiple resistances to a convergent offensive, it seems imperative to elaborate a real project of transition out of capitalism, building on the critical knowledge produced both at the university and in social movements. For the conference “The Great Transition: Setting the Stage for a Post-Capitalist Society” we invite anyone – whether they are activists, trade unionists, active members of political parties, students, researchers or professors – to reflect on this question along one of our three general lines of inquiry: critiques of capitalism, anti-capitalist transition strategies and post-capitalist models.
More information here.
What Red Wedge and the conference committee agree upon is the necessity of cultural artistic praxis in developing these critiques, these strategies, these models. Which is why we are so pleased to be organizing the following panels, as part of the “Building Counter-Hegemony” theme.
- Cognitive Mapping, Affect and the Aesthetic Experience.
- Queer Counter-Hegemonic Cultural Production Today.
- Counterculture and Social Reproduction.
- The Purpose of Art and Culture: Exploring the Popular Avant-Garde.
This is a call for papers. Those who are interested in contributing to one of these panels, in addition to uploading their abstracts to the Grand Transition HM Montreal website, should email them to us at red.wedge.magazine@gmail.com with the word “Abstract” in the subject line. Please do be sure to inform us and HM Montreal which of the four panels you think your paper fits. And please make double sure that you conform to the style and format laid out on the website’s own CFP.
This should be an exciting event and a new chance to develop solidarity across borders and linguistic lines, as well as grow and find new links for a necessary revolutionary cultural praxis.
We will see you there!
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