Climate Change and the End of Capitalism// 25.10 - 27.10

MARX 2 019 //climate change and the end of capitalism// 25.10 - 27.10

SCHEDULE AND INFORMATION SôNIA GUAJAJARA [BRA] / ANDREAS MALM [SWE] //climate change and the end of capitalism// AARON BASTANI [UK] / COSTAS LAPAVITSAS [GRC]

Marx2019 will provide a meeting place for activists and researchers who take Marx and the Marxist tradition as points of departures in their organizing, writing, STEFANIA BARCA [PRT] / CHRISTOPHER SELLERS [USA] struggles and research. Following on the previous conferences of 2013 and 2016, this year’s conference focuses on the topic of Climate Change and the End of Capitalism. The program will involve dozens of panels, talks and presentations, mainly (but not exclusively) centered on the question of eco-socialism and the intersections of climate activism and Marxist thought. GÖRAN THERBORN [SWE] / KATE SOPER [UK]

Warm greetings from the organizers: Centrum för Marxistiska Samhällsstudier, ABF Stockholm, Svenska Clartéförbundet, Fronesis, Transform! Europe

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

WHERE? ABF-huset, Sveavägen 41 in central Stockholm HOW DO I GET THERE? Subway station (T) Rådmansgatan WHEN? Friday 25th 17:30-20:00, Saturday 26th 10:00-17:30 and Sunday 27th 11:00-16:45 DO I NEED TO REGISTER? No, but you are required to pay the 100 SEK fee beforehand or upon arriving at the conference any time during the three days. WHAT LANGUAGE WILL THE SESSIONS BE IN? Mostly English, the sessions held in Swedish are highlighted in the schedule

Please follow this link to purchase tickets online.

Click here to find the Facebook-event where we will post updates. We ask for donations to make the conference better, stronger and for it’s work to make Do not hesistate to CONTACT US at [email protected] a difference. Swish: 1233720018 //friday pre conference talks// //the party saturday evening//

Join us at RESTAURANT CIRKELN 17:30-20:00 on Between 19:00 and 00:00 on Saturday 26th we Friday 25th where we will arrange interviews, shorter talks and present celebrate with music, drinks, poetry and DJs. More details to be announced samples from the program together with some of the participants in the sessions, a few weeks before the conference. Are you an artist, DJ or do you know someone organizers and the climate movement. who should perform? Send us suggestions on [email protected]

SCHEDULE: SATURDAY 26th SCHEDULE: SUNDAY 27th

ZÄTA PALME SANDLER ZÄTA PALME SANDLER

10:00-10:30 Opening Aaron Bastani Egendom och Vem blir fascist? makt 11:00-12:30 Andreas Malm Reformismens Communist spirits 10:45-12:15 andra chans - the afterlives of Chinese communism Kate Soper Vad kämpar Till ideologi- klimatrörelsen för? kritikens försvar 12:45-14:15 Sônia Guajajara I: Whiteness, The Specters of 12:30-14:00 fascism, fossil fuel an Impasse

Göran Therborn Rätten - kritiskt Rebellious agency 14:30-16:00 motstånd eller Costas Lapavitsas II: Whiteness, Reclaiming kapitalismens smörjmedel? 14:15-15:45 fascism, fossil fuel ideological and programmatic hegemony 16:15-16:45 Final words

The enemy of Conversation: Klimatomställning 16:00-17:30 nature is not the Costas och revolution worker but Lapavitsas & capitalism Kajsa Ekis Ekman KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

ANDREAS MALM is a senior lecturer in human CHRISTOPHER SELLERS is a professor of ecology at Lund University, as well as a history at Stony Brook University. His rese- prolific writer and journalist. His research arch concentrates on the history of environment and writings focus on the intersections of and health, of cities and industries, and of inequ- capitalism and climate change, as well as on the ality and democracy, with a focus on the United politics of opposing the fossil capitalist system. States and Mexico. He holds a Ph.D. in Ame- Amongst his works are Fossil Capital: The Rise of rican Studies from Yale and an M.D. He is the Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming and author of Hazards of the Job: From Industrial Di- The Progress of This Storm: Nature and Society in sease to Environmental Health Science; Crabgrass a Warming World. His talk will concern ways to Crucible: Suburban Nature and Environmentalism escalate the struggle against climate change, and in Twentieth-Century America and co-editor of, the possibilities of direct action and sabotage. among other edited volumes, Dangerous Trade: Histories of Industrial Hazard across a Globalizing World .

SôNIA GUAJAJARA is an environmental and STEFANIA BARCA is a senior researcher at indigenous activist, and the executive coor- the University of Coimbra. dinator of Brazil’s indigenous movement, She holds a PhD in Economic History and has been a visiting Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil, as scholar at Yale University, postdoctoral fellow at well as the former vice-presidential candidate of UC Berkeley, and guest professor at Lund Uni- Brazil’s Socialism and Liberty Party. Guajajara is versity. In the past ten years, she has published a leading voice advocating the protection of the widely on the political ecology of industrial ca- Amazon rainforest and indigenous land rights pitalism, with focus on labour and environmen- against president Bolsonaro’s plans to open up tal politics, socialist ecofeminism, environmental reservations to mining and commercial farming. justice, degrowth; she has recently co-edited the Her talk will be followed by a conversation with book collection Towards the Political Economy of Patricia Lorenzoni. Degrowth. She is actively contributing to shaping a Green New Deal policy proposal in Europe.

COSTAS LAPAVITSAS is a professor of Eco- GÖRAN THERBORN is a professor emeritus nomics at the School of Oriental and African of sociology at Cambridge University and is Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is amongst the most highly cited contempora- an expert on the relationships between financial ry Marxian-influenced sociologists. He has systems and development. Based on his expertise published widely in journals such as the New in these fields he is a critic of the current capita- Left Review, and is notable for his writing on list system. Lapavitsas also criticizes the political topics that fall within the general political and and economic role played by the European Uni- sociological framework of post-Marxism. Topics on in upholding the principles and foundations on which he has written extensively include the of this system. His presentation at Marx2019 intersection between the class structure of society will highlight the continuing relevance of a Left and the function of the state apparatus, the for- criticism of the European Union. mation of ideology within subjects, and the future of the Marxist tradition. SESSIONS

AARON BASTANI is co-founder and Senior Editor at Novara Media and has a doctorate SATURDAY 26.10 from the University of London. His research interests include new media, social movements Period 1 10:45-12:15 and political economy. He has written for Vice, the Guardian, the London Review of Books and [ZÄTA] Andreas Malm is a senior lecturer in human ecology at Lund University, as well as a the New York Times and regularly appears on prolific writer and journalist. His research and writings focus on the intersections of capital- the BBC and Sky News. In his new book, Fully ism and climate change, as well as on the politics of opposing the fossil capitalist system. Automated Luxury Communism, Bastani conju- Amongst his works are Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power, the Roots of Global Warming res a vision of extraordinary hope, showing how and The Progress of This Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World. His talk will concern we move to energy abundance, feed a world of 9 ways to escalate the struggle against climate change, and the possibilities of direct action and billion, overcome work, transcend the limits of sabotage. biology, and establish meaningful freedom for everyone. Rather than a final destination, such a [PALME] Klimatkrisen – reformismens andra chans? society merely heralds the real beginning of his- Om löntagarfondsfrågans aktualitet tory. His talk will be followed by a conversation För ett sekel sedan, med införandet av den politiska demokratin, intensifierades diskussionen with Aron Etzler, party secretary of the Left Par- om möjligheterna att utveckla en reformistisk, samhällsomdanande strategi som syftade ty in Sweden. till att överskrida kapitalismen och bana väg för socialismen. Demokratin uppfattades då som det instrument som stod arbetarklassen till buds i strävan efter en socialistisk samhälls- omvandling. Kapitalismen skulle bli sin egen dödgrävare genom att göra arbetarklassen till en majoritet i samhället som på demokratisk väg kunde genomföra den eftersträvade KATE SOPER is a British emeritus profes- samhällsomvandlingen. Nu, hundra år senare, är denna reformistiska politiska strategi död sor of philosophy, currently at University och begraven, i Sverige symboliserat av misslyckandet på 1970-talet att genomföra den of Brighton. Her work has focused on femi- ekonomiska demokratin i form av förslaget till kollektiv kapitalbildning genom löntagar- nism, the environment and theories of need and fonder. Men idag har löntagarfondsfrågan aktualiserats på nytt inom vänstern i USA, Norge consumption. Her most important works include och Storbritannien. Innebär det ett försök att väcka liv i en traditionell reformistisk strategi What is Nature? Culture, Politics and the Non-Hu- eller utveckla en ny? Och kan löntagarfonder och, bredare, ekonomisk demokrati erbjuda ett man and The Politics and Pleasures of Consuming instrument för att förhindra att kapitalismen löper akut och ytterligare skärper klimatkrisen? Differently. Her talk will concern the current job- Medverkande: Lars Ekdahl, professor emeritus i historia vid Södertörns högskola. Arrangör: Clarté loss and disaffection with work, and on the form [SANDLER] Communist Spirits: Discussing Afterlives of Chinese Communism that a more benign post-work order might take. In contrast to the tech-utopian and ‘luxury com- Seventy years after the Chinese Revolution of 1949, what remains of Mao’s communist munism’ visions currently influential on the Left legacy? This session brings together authors from the recently published volumeAfterlives of with their rather orthodox views on consump- Chinese Communism (2019 Verso) to discuss how, and to what extent, concepts and practices tion, she will defend the potential of a less tech- from the Mao period continue to shape Chinese politics today. Taking Chinese revolutionary no-driven and intensive work culture for intro- political discourse as the point of departure, the panellists will explore the lessons we can learn ducing more fulfilling ways of living, developing from the Chinese communist project and whether there is a future for the egalitarian politics new skills and reinstating some earlier ways of that communism once promise. Chair: Catherine Liu (University of California – Irvine) doing and making. Panellists: Ivan Franceschini (Australian National University), Matt Galway (University of Melbourne), Jane Hayward (King’s College London), Nicholas Loubere (Lund University), Christian Sorace (Colorado College) Period 2 12:30-14:00 [PALME] White skin, black fuel II: whiteness, fascism, nationalism, and fossil fuel - ”Autarky in the UK: nationalism and climate change” [ZÄTA] Sônia Guajajara is an environmental and indigenous activist, and the executive George Edwards is a student and researcher at the Human Ecology department at Lund coordinator of Brazil’s indigenous movement, Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil, University. He is a member of the Zetkin Collective. as well as the former vice-presidential candidate of Brazil’s Socialism and Liberty Party. - ”Kulturbolschewismus and on the role of fossil fuels in Nazi Germany” Guajajara is a leading voice advocating the protection of the Amazon rainforest and indigenous Laudy van den Heuvel has previously studied Dutch Language and Culture and Sociology land rights against president Bolsonaro’s plans to open up reservations to mining and in Nijmegen (NL), Ghent (B) and Brussels. She is currently doing her Master's in Human commercial farming. Her talk will be followed by a conversation with Patricia Lorenzoni. Ecology at Lund University. She is a member of the Zetkin Collective. - Skin and fuel: episodes from the history of fossilised whiteness [PALME] White skin, black fuel I: Responses to climate change from far-right Andreas Malm is a senior lecturer in human ecology at Lund University, as well as a prolific denial to liberal democracy´s inaction writer and journalist. He is a member of the Zetkin Collective. - “The Denial Machine - how the fossil fuel industry shaped the climate change debate?” [SANDLER] Reclaiming ideological and programmatic hegemony: Kjell Vowles is a PhD-student within the Centre for Studies of Climate Change Denialism The role of radical left political foundations in Europe (CEFORCED)-project, and is researching on climate change denialism in combination with nationalism and radical right-thinking. Although it is increasingly obvious that neoliberal capitalism is responsible for the catastrophic - Anna Bartfai, an environmental activist and member of the Zetkin Collective. climate change and the increase of poverty and inequalities in Europe and the world, people - “Climate change, complicity and economic growth- early response denialism in Sweden” either do not react, or are attracted by authoritarian, nationalist and extreme right discourses. Kristoffer Ekberg is a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology. As a part of the Political education of radical left party members, activists of social movements, trade- Centre for Studies of Climate Change Denialism (CEFORCED) he is currently working on unionists and, in a broader sense, society as a whole is an important weapon in the necessary the history of Swedish climate change knowledge and denial in the political and industrial fight of emancipatory forces for regaining hegemony in the field of ideas. Representatives spheres. of five European radical left and marxist think tanks (the Swedish Center for Marxist Social - “Changing climate policies in Norway: green – neoliberal – denial” Studies, the French Espaces Marx, the Spanish Foundation for Marxist Studies the Greek Ståle Holgersen is researcher at Institute for Housing and Urban Research (IBF) and at Nicos Poulantzas Institute, the German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation) and the European Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University. He is a member of the network transform! europe discuss their own experiences among themselves and with the Zetkin Collective public and trace a road for a closer future cooperation. [SANDLER] The Specters of an Impasse: Period 4 16:00-17:30 The Ideologies of Environmental Destruction [ZÄTA] The enemy of nature is not the worker but capitalism. How to merge class The capitalist mode of production, to which transformation, exploitation, and the destruction and environmental struggles. of nature is inherent as it seeks to meet its demand for perpetual capital expansion and accumulation, exerts considerable pressure on the ecosystems on our planet. Different The conflict between the environment and work has always been a central theme in the ideological constructions, fantasies, practices, and discourses serve to conceal and maintain environmental movement. For a long time and still today for many environmentalists, the exploitative nature of this system, and in this session, we invite everyone who is interested workers are accused of being insensitive towards ecological issues. According to this narrative, in exploring the origins, workings, and outcomes of such ideologies. This session also invites for them preserving their jobs is the main aim. Instead, scientific research and struggles on contributions that investigate how struggles over, and discourses about nature and environ- the ground have clearly proved that workers have been and should be crucial actors in any mental issues may themselves be ideologically constituted. Participants: Jonas Thoreson, Örjan environmentalist mobilization which aims to merge social and environmental justice. We Bartholdson och Katarina Landström will discuss of labour and the environmental question with two eminent scholars who have uncovered the hidden histories of working-class commitment to socio-ecological justice. Period 3 14:15-15:45 Panelists: Stefania Barca and Chistopher Sellers. Chair: Marco Armiero [PALME] Conversation: Costas Lapavitsas & Kajsa Ekis Ekman [ZÄTA] Costas Lapavitsas is a professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is an expert on the relationships between financial This conversation will revolve around the political implications of the EU’s current development systems and development. Based on his expertise in these fields he is a critic of the current and what implications it may have for member countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom capitalist system. Lapavitsas also criticizes the political and economic role played by the and Greece, as well as the implications of development for progressive politics. Kajsa Ekis European Union in upholding the principles and foundations of this system. His presentation Ekman is a Swedish journalist, writer, and activist. She is the author of several works about at Marx2019 will highlight the continuing relevance of a Left criticism of the European the financial crisis, women’s rights, and capitalism critique. Her bookStolen Spring describes Union. the eurocrisis as seen from Athens, and the way in which it affected the Greek economy. [SANDLER] liggande förutsättningarna för att människor låter sig mobiliseras av fascistiska rörelser. Paul Klimatomställning och revolution Fuehrer och Mats Deland resonerar om hur fördomsforskningen utvecklats med exempel Varför är frågan om revolution avgörande för våra chanser att lyckas möta klimathotet? Vilka från långtidsundersökningarna "Rechtsextremismus der Mitte" som bedrivits i Leipzig och förutsättningar finns för en sådan revolutionär klimatomställning? Hur skulle den kunna se Bielefeld och ställer frågan vad som finns att hämta idag i Adornos analyser. Medverkande: ut? Utgångspunkten för samtalet är dels Fronesis #60-61 med temat Revolution, dels en serie Anders Ramsay, sociolog vid Mittuniversitetet, Paul Fuehrer, sociolog vid Södertörns högskola och artiklar som publicerats under åren i Röda Rummet. I Fronesis temanummer ryms texter Mats Deland, historiker vid Södertörns högskola. om revolutionsbegreppets olika betydelser (exempelvis Marx distinktion mellan borgerlig Period 2 12:45-14:15 och proletär revolution) och frågan om revolutionära strategier (bland annat genom texter av Michael Hardt och Antonio Negri å ena sidan och Jodi Dean å den andra). I Röda Rummet [ZÄTA] Kate Soper har en rad artiklar, inte minst om ekosocialism, publicerats som ger perspektiv på de frågor is a British emeritus professor of philosophy, currently at University of som ska lyftas i panelsamtalet. Medverkande: Nina Björk, litteraturvetare och författare, Lars Brighton. Her work has focused on feminism, the environment and theories of need and the Henriksson, facklig aktivist och socialist och samtalsledare Johan Örestig, sociolog och aktivist. Ar- consumption. Her most important works include What is Nature? Culture, Politics and rangör: Tidskrifterna Röda Rummet och Fronesis. Non-Human and The Politics and Pleasures of Consuming Differently. Her talk will concern the current job-loss and disaffection with work, and on the form that a more benign post-work SUNDAY 27.10 order might take. In contrast to the tech-utopian and ‘luxury communism’ visions currently influential on the Left with their rather orthodox views on consumption, she will defend the Period 1 11:00-12:30 potential of a less techno-driven and intensive work culture for introducing more fulfilling ways of living, developing new skills and reinstating some earlier ways of doing and making. [ZÄTA] Aaron Bastani is co-founder and Senior Editor at Novara Media and has a doctorate [PALME] Vad kämpar klimatrörelsen för? from the University of London. His research interests include new media, social movements and political economy. He has written for Vice, the Guardian, the London Review of Books Aktioner för klimatrörelsen kan ta olika former, från opinionsbildning till direkt aktion eller and the New York Times and regularly appears on the BBC and Sky News. In his new en blandning av de två, men det är sällan vi ser en politik artikuleras bortom metoden. book, Fully Automated Luxury Communism, Bastani conjures a vision of extraordinary hope, Klimatfrågan beskrivs istället som något tekniskt och/eller moraliskt. Tekniskt som i ”lyssna showing how we move to energy abundance, feed a world of 9 billion, overcome work, på vetenskapen” och moraliskt som i ”vi slåss för era barn”. Men när vi går hem från blockaden transcend the limits of biology, and establish meaningful freedom for everyone. Rather than och den fossila industrin återupptar sin verksamhet, vad vann vi, vad var syftet och vilket är a final destination, such a society merely heralds the real beginning of history. His talk will vårt politiska projekt? Detta kommer att diskuteras i ett panelsamtal där aktivister från olika be followed by a conversation with Aron Etzler, party secretary of the Left Party in Sweden. organisationer i klimatrörelsen kommer att delta. Arrangör: Allt åt alla Stockholm [PALME] Egendom och makt [SANDLER] Rebellious agency and structural stultification in public debates on climate change and illegalized immigration Under 1980-talet vändes den utveckling som i Sverige och många andra delar av världen under lång tid hade kännetecknats av minskat fåvälde, minskad ojämlikhet och utvidgade In February 1858, Marx wrote in a letter to Ferdinand Lassalle that he was going to write sociala rättigheter. När vi i finanskrisens kölvatten ser olika rörelser och partier mobilisera an exposé of capital and its economic categories. The exposé of the system, Marx had stated, mot ökad ojämlikhet samtidigt som ett gryende ekologiskt krismedvetande verkar ta form är was by the same token already its critique. This panel follows the Marxist assumption that det viktigt att inte stanna vid analyser av 1980-talets brott under den allmänna och vanligt the analysis of climate change is at once a ruthless critique of capitalism. It aims at a criticism förekommande beteckningen ”fördjupad ojämlikhet”. Genom att likställa egendom, inkomst, of political, public debates on migration and climate change, drawing arguments from the ekonomiska tillgångar, fördelning av resurser och olika former av maktrelationer riskerar en works of Althusser’s, Lukács’ and Gramsci’s. Each of the participants takes a different angle sådan sammanblandning i analysen av de senaste 40 årens historia grumlar bilden av vår from which to articulate what remains invisible in these debates, the involved subjectivities samtid, vilket i värsta fall leder det politiska tänkandet och den politiska handlingen fel. En as well as their structural boundaries. Participants: Esther Edelmann, Hannes Kaufmann and strategi för jämlik inkomstfördelning som samtidigt ska kunna rå på den globala upp- Thomas Bragdon värmningen verkar helt enkelt ha en gemensam nämnare: de kan inte förlita sig på Period 3 14:30-16:00 fördelningspolitiska verktyg och existerande institutioner utan måste på ett eller annat sätt konfrontera ägandet som sådant. Medverkande: Vanja Carlsson, Maryam Fanni och Carl Wilén. [ZÄTA] Göran Therborn: The challenges of the left movement 2020 Arrangör: Fronesis Therborn is a professor emeritus of sociology at Cambridge University and is amongst the [SANDLER] Vem blir fascist? Adornos (mfl) bok Den auktoritära personligheten och most highly cited contemporary Marxian-influenced sociologists. He has published widely modern fördomsforskning in journals such as the New Left Review, and is notable for his writing on topics that fall Anders Ramsay, bland annat författare till Upplysningens självreflexion. Aspekter av within the general political and sociological framework of post-Marxism. Topics on which Theodor W. Adornos kritiska teori (2005) berättar om boken The Authoritarian Personality som he has written extensively include the intersection between the class structure of society and publicerades i USA 1950 och som nu kommit i nyutgåva (Verso). Boken är en undersökning the function of the state apparatus, the formation of ideology within subjects, and the future som med hjälp av djuppsykologiska intervjuer och enkäter försöker förstå de under- of the Marxist tradition. His talk will concern the main challenges of the left movement in thea years to come. The talk will be followed by a panel discussing the new program of the Swedish Left Party. [PALME] Rätten - kritiskt motstånd eller kapitalismens smörjmedel? Klimatförändringarna är ett av de största hoten som människan har mött. Ett instrument som ofta påtalas i den politiska debatten är hårdare regleringar. Men kan vi förändra genom strängare miljölagar eller kommer rättssystemet i ett kapitalistiskt samhälle alltid att verka som en bromskloss? Kan juridiken vara ett progressivt instrument eller medverkar rätten i ett kapitalistiskt samhälle enbart till stagnation? Medverkande: Åsa Ågren, Mikael Bernadini och Håkan Gustafsson. [SANDLER] Till ideologikritikens försvar Trots att kapitalismen och fossilkapitalet har frambringat en klimatkris som tycks allt svårare att stoppa presenteras vi antingen med bilden av total kollaps eller av att teknologis- ka lösningar och förändrade konsumtionsvanor är nycklarna till förändring snarare än med krav på genomgripande förändringar. Med andra ord verkar det förekomma ett samband mellan oförmågan att sätta kapitalismen i centrum när strategier för förändring undersöks och den utbredda presentismen där framtiden förminskas till en förlängning av nuet utgör myntets ena sida och där livets slutgiltiga kollaps skymtar fram från den andra sidan. I den här sessionen introduceras och diskuteras det pågående antologiprojektet Ideologianalys – En introduktion (planerad utgivning hösten 2020, Studentlitteratur) samt några av antologins 15 bidrag. Medverkande: Evelina Johansson Wilén, Tomas Wedin, Carl Wilén, Johan Alfssonsson, Vanja Carlsson.

See you at the conference!

We ask for donations to make the conference better, stronger and for it’s work to make a difference. Swish: 1233720018