more better analysis

Time for my quarterly blog post.

Found this nice line whilst rereading The Star Fraction recently. For those who haven’t read it, the J in question had previously worked the financial markets online: ‘Jordan had never realized before how vast and diverse was the invisible army of men and women whose labour was too cheap or too complicated to automate, but which made the kind of work he was familiar with possible.’

There were of course a number of other things I wanted to note, but they seemed to have slipped the tether now that I’m actually typing this. Ho hum, will try harder next time.

Been back nearly a fortnight from a short trip to Britain, which took in conferences at Cambridge and Leicester, and a day with friends in Royal Leamington Spa. As usual with conferences, the most enjoyable part for me was the conversation outside the formal proceedings - lots of faces placed to names, lots of intriguing experiences and perspectives to learn about. It was the same with the Italian Effect conference in Sydney a few years ago, and indeed every other conference I’ve been to, academic or otherwise (eg the last local IWW conference I attended) - it’s the stuff that happens in the corridors, in the bars and cafes, on the sidewalks and elsewhere that makes it worthwhile.

There’s been a certain controversy around the Cambridge gathering, voiced in forums like aut-op-sy and the Mute site. Chris Carlsson’s blog Attitude Adjustor does a good job of capturing much of the mood in the circles I mixed in. As for some of the criticisms raised to date: I wish I’d had the presence of mind to look more carefully weeks before at the conference program structure, and to make suggestions about session lengths etc - but of course I didn’t. To the extent that speakers didn’t always leave time for discussion after their presentations - well, I was as guilty as anyone on that score, unfortunately. I was convinced I could get what I wanted to say down to ten minutes and leave a whole 20 minutes for discussion (whether of my paper or any other conference theme, I grandly announced), but I was sadly mistaken. How embarrassment. For those who care, the paper itself is up at the conference site, minus the diagrams (although the main one can be found at Chris’ site). As for the formal presentations, the highlight for me in terms of both content and theatre was Emma’s paper (which also provided further ammunition against the ill-considered use of categories like ‘immaterial labour’) …

So far I haven’t seen any accounts of the Leicester conference, which is a pity. Rather smaller in size (about 35 people, perhaps half of whom had been at Cambridge as well), there was quite a bit of time programmed in for discussion of and around presentations. Amongst other things, it was great there to meet Nate at last, to see the video of NoTAV that Emi and Raf had compiled, to catch up again briefly with both Arianna and the Otonom comrades, and to meet many of the people associated in some way with the Leicester ‘Management Centre’.

Thursday was fun too, meeting in London with Nate, Alberto and Nina (she of the excellent blog infinite thØught), then visiting the social centre in Russell Square with Emma, Nate and Alberto, before a superior pizza with John, Emma and Nate (tag team discussions all day, in other words). And the obligatory quick visit to Hamley’s thrown in there somewhere, for good measure.

Well, here I am again, the world’s slackest blogger. A few things to report since the last entry: the latest Aufheben has a number of interesting pieces, including one on the rise of China. The latest prol-position continues the encounter between workerism and world systems analysis, particularly in an essay on ‘The Heart of the Beast - An Unknown Entity. Worker’s power and the future of Operaism’. And I’ve now read most of the Retort book Afflicted Powers, which also needs to be added to the mix of ‘global analyses worth addressing’.

A link to something I wrote for the next book from the Mute crowd. Or rather, the cleaned-up version based on Ange’s editing, that I think got there too late for the deadline (so they’ll be publishing the less elegant version - sad face here). Posting it tonight is really a way of me avoiding work on something I have to (and want to) write about Luciano Ferrari Bravo …

It still could do with some work (you noticed too, huh?). Apart from anything else, reflecting on Massimo De Angelis’ work on value would help.

Now, if I can’t work out how to link to it, I guess you’ll just get the whole thing below. Let’s see what happens.

Newsletter No. 1

“Immaterial Labour, Multitudes and New Social Subjects: Class Composition in Cognitive Capitalism”

to be held at the University of Cambridge: Venue to be announced.

Saturday 29 - Sunday 30 April 2006

Dear Colleagues,

A couple of weeks ago an informal mailing about our “Immaterial Labour” conference was sent to a handful of people. In no time at all, upwards of 50 people have responded from all around the world, expressing interest in attending the conference or in receiving conference mailings.

This is very positive, and suggests that our conference will have a strong take-up.

This letter is a brief update.

1. HISTORY OF THE CONFERENCE

This event is a follow-up to the conference “CLASS COMPOSITION IN COGNITIVE CAPITALISM” held in Paris on 15-16th February 2002.

It is a personal initiative by myself, operating under the aegis of the “Universitas adversitatis”, which is an informal network of collaborators operating in cyberspace and coming down to earth periodically to organise seminars, conferences and symposia on matters of mutual interest.

People from the Department of Politics, University of Cambridge and from the Uni-nomade network have indicated a willingness to collaborate in organising the event.

1. SHAPE OF THE CONFERENCE

The dates and location (Cambridge, 29-30 April 2006) are confirmed. The venue is still being arranged.

The likely shape of the conference will be presentations of papers, each 20 minutes long, with 10 minutes for discussion.

The languages of the conference will be English by preference and French where necessary.

We shall work to a maximum of 16 papers, and probably fewer.

There may also be a small social event on the Friday evening preceding the conference, for those who are able to arrive earlier.

1. CONTENT OF THE CONFERENCE

Our conference title is all-embracing, within a general terrain of analysis. We are now specifying the the areas of debate more precisely. Our intention is to create thematic focuses, around which papers can be grouped.

I shall be meeting with some of our Italian contributors (including the people from Uninomade) this week, in order to decide these thematic areas.

That will then lead into a formal Call for Papers which will be circulated to all interested parties. A website will also be established for publication of abstracts and CVs.

Part of our panel will consist of invited speakers. Some have already been approached (Toni Negri and Yann Moulier-Boutang among others) and have agreed to present papers.

Two likely thematic areas are:

(a) Inquiry / Inchiesta etc. Tracing the history, theory and practice of “The Inquiry”, from Marx’s “Workers’ Inquiry” to the present day.

An appropriate starting point might be the article by Toni Negri: “Logica, teoria dell’ inchiesta. La prassi militante come soggetto e come episteme”.

I am translating this piece, and shall have it ready for circulation by the end of September.

(b) A mapping of the intellectual history, and the specific contributions of individuals, involved in creating the notions of immaterial labour, cognitive capitalism, class composition etc. It would be particularly useful to map history of the “Italian” and “Italianate” elements of this tradition post-1979.

1. CONFERENCE ARRANGEMENTS

(a) Registration

The conference has zero funding. We cannot fund travel or expenses for speakers. There will be a modest registration fee for other participants (with reduced rate for concessions, and free entry for those who cannot afford either). Speakers programmed for presenting papers will not pay a registration fee.

Numbers will necessarily have to be limited for space reasons.

If you wish to attend the conference, I recommend that you register early. You can register by sending an e-mail to ed.emery@britishlibrary.net. A registration form will be sent by return.

(b) Accommodation

The conference will not organise accommodation, except for people presenting papers.

However, we shall lend a helping hand to those seeking accommodation in the city.

We shall circulate a list of possibilities for accommodation in the Cambridge area, so that attendees can make their own arrangements. We have a good list of “bed and breakfast” contacts.

If you have friends and contacts with whom you can stay in London, you may find it easier and cheaper to travel from London to Cambridge each day, by National Express bus (the 9.00am bus gets you to Cambridge for about 10.20, day-return fare about £9). Can be booked via the Internet.

(c) Travel

If you are arriving from Europe, the cheapest option is probably to fly RyanAir to Stansted Airport, which is about 30 minutes from Cambridge by bus. If you book well in advance you can obtain very cheap flights.

1. PROPOSALS OF PAPERS

The formal Call for Papers will go out in October. However if you have a proposal for a paper it would be good to hear from you earlier. That would help with our shaping of the eventual conference. Write to me at the address below.

1. EXCITEMENT

It is already clear that the conference will provide a platform for some profound and challenging discussions - the kinds of discussions which are fundamental in creating a new politics for the years ahead.

It is also clear that - as is natural in any field of hard-fought radical politics - there may be animosities and reservations between people invited to attend the conference.

There is great value in being able to debate our chosen topics in the framework of an English-speaking public, and I very much hope that historical reticences will not stand in the way of that happening.

If you have queries and questions about the conference, feel free to write.

Ed Emery [Class Composition Conference] Peterhouse Cambridge CB2 1RD UK

E-mail: ed.emery@britishlibrary.net

Fax: 0870 133 0145

I’ve been asked to write something on the knowledge economy, immaterial labour and the law of value, ranging across Negri et al. to critics such as Caffentzis. It’s a good prod, since I’ve wanted to do this for some time - if only I wasn’t already late with another piece that still isn’t finished …

Anyhow, with any luck that sort of discussion can be herded towards an encounter with the likes of Arrighi and Silver, who see the predominance of financial expansion within the current period as one sympton of hegemonic crisis within the world system.

Thinking about world systems theory, I finally started reading a book that Ron had recommended some time ago - Orinoco flow : culture, narrative, and the political economy of information by Benjamin Keith Belton. The book begins by arguing that the ‘production and reproduction of [the] global information economy’, which Castells identifies as a post-WWII phenomenon, ‘has been a major strategy of global capital since the fifteenth century’ (p.3). This in turn conjured up some recent comments from Nate or Ange (or both?) concerning the propensity in Negri to emphasise the novelty within present day capitalism above all else - as if the practices incompletely grasped in the category of ‘affective labour’, for example, haven’t been crucial to accumulation for hundreds of years. And don’t even get me started on immaterial labour …

One of the many operaisti who deserve to be better known is Mario Dalmaviva. A crucial ‘external’ militant at FIAT during the Hot Autumn, he brought talents previously honed in the advertising industry to bear within the Italian movement of the late sixties and seventies. And a fine cartoonist, whose ‘Doors’ have been making the rounds in Europe. Here’s some thoughts he offered when interviewed for the Futuro Anteriore project back on 19 February 2001:

‘‘In my opinion there was a great social revolution in Italy. It didn’t become a political revolution as we had wanted, and yet it happened, and it prompted a ferocious reaction from the other side [controparte] that’s continued up until today. They won, but not only don’t they know where they’re going, they don’t even know where they are. The problem is that we don’t know either.’

G. Borio, F. Pozzi & G. Roggero (2002) Futuro anteriore. Dai “Quaderni Rossi” ai movimenti globali: ricchezze e limiti dell’operaismo italiano. Rome: Derive Approdi.

Adrian Wilding’s essay ‘The Complicity of Posthistory’ (to be found in W. Bonefeld et al (1995) Emancipating Marx. Open Marxism Volume 3. London: Pluto Press) offers the following quote from Benjamin:

‘Marx says that revolutions are the locomotives of world-history. But perhaps it is completely different. Perhaps revolutions are the people on these trains reaching for the emergency brake.’

Prospectus:

Papers are invited for a conference: 
”Immaterial Labour, Multitudes and New Social Subjects: Class Composition in Cognitive Capitalism”

Venue: University of Cambridge, UK: Location: to be announced.

Date: Saturday 29 – Sunday 30 April 2006

Among other themes the conference will address issues of cognitive capitalism, class composition, new social subjects, the knowledge economy and immaterial labour. 

Papers will be provided in advance of the conference. They will be translated into English. They will be circulated via the medium of website and internet mailing lists.

The papers will eventually be published in book form.

Conference organised under the aegis of “Universitas adversitatis”, a peripatetic university. Supported by the Uninomade network. With possible involvement of other organising bodies.

A full prospectus for the conference is being prepared.

For proposals of papers, and for participation in the conference, further details from:

Ed Emery [Class Composition Conference] Peterhouse Cambridge CB2 1RD

E-mail: ed.emery@britishlibrary.net

28.v.05

prol-position news #3 (see link in sidebar) carries an interview with Beverly Silver, where amongst other things she compares her work with that of the operaisti