Book launch: Assembly by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri
12 October 2017 - 7:00pm to 10:00pm
The Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies
Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B
2HW
In the face of rising right-wing movements and governments throughout
the world, along with the ever-increasing control of finance over social
life, forms of protest and resistance that disrupt the ruling order are
essential. But they are not enough. How can today's social movements
transform themselves so as to initiate a process of liberation and
create the bases for a lasting social alternative? Each year a new
eruption of 'leaderless' social movements – from North Africa and the
Middle East to Europe, the Americas, and East Asia — leaves journalists,
political analysts, police forces, and governments disoriented and
perplexed. Activists too struggle to understand and evaluate the power
and effectiveness of horizontal movements. Why have movements which
address the needs and desires of so many not been able to achieve
lasting change and create a new, more democratic and just society? Some
people assume that if only social movements could find new leaders they
would return to their earlier glory. Where, they ask, are the new Martin
Luther Kings, Rudi Dutschkes, and Stephen Bikos? Although today's
leaderless and spontaneous political organisations are not sufficient, a
return to traditional, centralised forms of political leadership is
neither desirable nor possible. Necessary instead, as Michael Hardt and
Antonio Negri argue, is an inversion of the roles of the multitude and
leadership in political organisations. Leaders should be confined to
short-term, tactical action, while the multitude drives strategy. In
other words, the formulation of long-term goals and objectives must come
from the collective, rather than designated figureheads. Assembly
outlines how large-scale, horizontal movements can collectively develop
political strategy and decision-making to effect lasting democratic
change. This event, organised by Westminster Institute for Advanced
Studies (WIAS) alongside Oxford University Press (OUP), launches
Assembly, Hardt and Negri’s follow-up book to the Empire trilogy,
consisting of Empire (2000), Multitude (2004) and Commonwealth (2009).
https://www.westminster.ac.uk/events/book-launch-assembly-by-michael-hardt-and-antonio-negri
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri on The State of the Neoliberal Global
Order
12 Oct 2017 - 13:00 to 14:00
Chatham House. The Royal Institute of International Affairs.
10 St James's Square, St. James's, London SW1Y 4LE
The global economic and political order that emerged over two decades
ago has been transformed in recent years, in particular by the
re-emergence of nationalism and by the authoritarian turn of
neoliberalism. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri will sketch the basic
outlines of the global order today and will attempt to discern the
resources for change within and outside the global and national
institutional structures. How are social movements able to challenge
unjust aspects of the current global order? And what alternative social
arrangements, political strategies and decision-making can effect
lasting, democratic change?
https://www.chathamhouse.org/event/state-neoliberal-global-order
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