The New International Bookshop

Subversive Cinema: Capitalism Documentary Part 3 & 4 (of 6)

Thursday October 12th, 7pm

New International Bookshop, 54 Victoria St Carlton

Entry: $5 or $3 for NIBS members

In October, we continue our screening of CAPITALISM – an ambitious and accessible six-part documentary series that looks at both the history of ideas and the social forces that have shaped the capitalist world.

http://www.icarusfilms.com/new2015/capi.html

We will screen episodes 3 & 4:

EPISODE 3: RICARDO AND MALTHUS: DID YOU SAY FREEDOM?

EPISODE 4: WHAT IF MARX WAS RIGHT?

Description and Trailor for each episode found here: http://capitalism.vhx.tv/

October 12, 2016 0

From Mao to Now: On Constructing a massive online course on Chinese Marxism

Tickets here

What do you do when your boss asks you to construct a MOOC on Chinese Marxism? This was Roland Boer’s experience earlier this year.

Since there is relatively little international awareness of the nature, debates, and practices of Marxism in China today, Roland decided to focus on this area. This presentation discusses some of the practical issues around this unique MOOC, filming in China (with special permissions), how to present 5-7 minute videos effectively, and who might be interested, and – most importantly – what the best topics might be.

Roland Boer is Professor of Literary Theory at Renmin (People’s) University of China, Beijing, and Research Professor in Religious Thought at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

October 10, 2016 0

October 4, 2016 0

Book Talk – Big Farms Big Flu – Rob Wallace – Note: Date Change Now on Tuesday 25th, 7pm

Tuesday October 25th
7pm, New International Book Shop
54 Victoria St, Carlton, 3053

Admission: By Donation
RSVP here

Rob Wallace, U.S based author of a new book ‘Big Farms Make Big Flu,’ published by
Monthly Review Press, will give a talk about the book at New International Bookshop.

The book is a collection of dispatches, by turns harrowing and thought-provoking, which tracks the ways influenza and other pathogens emerge from an agriculture controlled by multinational corporations. With a precise and radical wit, Rob juxtaposes ghastly phenomena such as attempts at producing featherless chickens with microbial time travel and neoliberal Ebola. Rob also offers sensible alternatives to lethal agribusiness. Some, such as farming cooperatives, integrated pathogen management, and mixed crop-livestock systems, are already in practice off the agribusiness grid.

The book will be available for sale and signage on the night, at a discounted price.

September 29, 2016 0

New Books in October

W.E.B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line – Bill V Mullen – $32

The Politics of James Connolly – Allen – $32

Marx’s ‘Capital’ – Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho – $32

We Make Our Own History – Cox and Nilsen – $42

Brics: An Anti-Capitalist Critique – Edited by Patrick Bond and Ana Garcis – $40

The Three Worlds of Social Democracy: A Global View – Ingo Schmidt – $42

The Spectre of Babeuf – Ian Birchall – $30

The Left Hemisphere: Mapping Critical Theory Today – Razmig Keucheyan $30

A People’s History of Modern Europe – William A. Pelz – $42

The ABC of Socialism – $14

Understanding Class – Erik Olin Wright – $33

Bob Ellis: In His Own Words – Compiled by Anne Brookbank – $35

The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire – $27

Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges – Jack Rasmus – $32

Reading Capital: The Complete Edition – Louis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey and Jacques Ranciere -$55

Unleashing Usury: How Finance opened the door for capitalism then swallowed it whole – Richard Westra – $32

September 28, 2016 0

New Books in September

META Philosophy – Henri Lefebvre – $43

We Make Our Own History: Marxism and Social Movements in the Twilight of Neoliberalism – Laurence Cox and Alf Gunvald Nilsen – $42

Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics – Jules Boykoff with a foreword by Dave Zirin – $24

The Australian Greens: From Activism to Australia’s Third Party – Steward Jackson – $50

Planet Jackson: Power, Greed and Unions – Brad Norington – $33

Listen, Liberal: Or Whatever Happened to the Party of the People – Thomas Frank – $28

The Life of Murray Bookchin: Ecology or Catastrophe – Janet Biehl – $50

The Reawakening of the Arab World: Challenge and Change in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring – Samir Amin – $38

The Politics of Empire: The US, Israel and the Middle East – James Petras – $27

Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt – Chris Hedges – $25

Europe in Revolt – Edited by Catarina Principe and Bhaskar Sunkara – $29

The American War in Vietnam: Crime or Commemoration – John Marciano – $30

September 14, 2016 0

Globalisation & Labour in the 21st Century – Verity Burgmann

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Admission: $5 or $3 for NIBS members (pre-book here)

The book argues that despite the adverse impact of globalization on the working-class, today workers around the world are challenging their increased exploitation by globalizing corporations. In developed countries, many unions are transforming themselves to confront employer power in ways more appropriate to contemporary circumstances; in developing countries, militant new labour movements are emerging.Drawing upon insights in anti-determinist Marxian perspectives, Verity makes the case that working-class resistance is not futile, as protagonists of globalization often claim.

Verity is an Adjunct Professor of Politics in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. Over her career she has established a significant reputation as both a labour historian and a political scientist of social movements and social change.

September 14, 2016 0

Subversive Cinema -Capitalism Documentary Part 1 & 2 (of 6)

When: Thursday September 15th, 7pm-9pm

Where: New International Book Shop, basement Trades Hall

Entry: $5 or $3 if an existing NIBS member. Pre-book here

Over the last three months of 2016 NIBS will be screening CAPITALISM which is an ambitious and accessible six-part documentary series that looks at both the history of ideas and the social forces that have shaped the capitalist world.
http://www.icarusfilms.com/new2015/capi.html

Blending interviews with some of the world’s great historians, economists, anthropologists, and social critics, with on-the-ground footage shot in twenty-two countries, CAPITALISM questions the myth of the unfettered free market, explores the nature of debt and commodities, and retraces some of the great economic debates of the last 200 years.

Each month we will screen two of the six episodes. Each 52 minute episode is designed to stand alone.

Episode 1: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market
This episode explores the origins of capitalism, arguing that it is inextricably linked to colonialism, the rise of science, and the slave trade. Capitalism preceded Smith by centuries – the plantations of the West Indies were purely capitalist enterprises, as were the privately-funded expeditions that colonized much of the world. Like today’s startups, these ventures offered high risk but huge rewards to those that succeeded.

Episode 2: The Wealth of Nations: A New Gospel?
This episode of CAPITALISM argues that disconnecting Smith the economist from Smith the moral philosopher has led to tragic distortions that have profoundly shaped our global economic system.

A description and trailer for each episode can be found here:

http://capitalism.vhx.tv/

August 24, 2016 0

Left Q&A: Andy Blunden – On the Origins of Collective Decision Making

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When: Thursday September 8th, 7pm

Where: Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St, Carlton

Admission $5 – pre-book through Bell Union here.

In our October installment of Left Q/A, Andy Blunden will talk about his recently published book, On the Origins of Collective Decision Making.

This is the first investigation into the historical origins of the different traditions of decision making, Counsel, Majority and Consensus. The study was motivated by the conviction that rival traditions will work better together if they understand the ethical and historical bases of the decision making procedures used in each tradition. This is an important issue for the entire Left.

Andy Blunden is a Melbourne writer, secretary of the Marxists Internet Archive, perhaps best known for his writings on Hegel and the Soviet Psychologist Lev Vygotsky.

August 11, 2016 0