COMMUNISM, A NEW BEGINNING? Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek with Verso Books at Cooper Union, New York, October 14th-16th 2011

By Rowan Wilson / 19 September 2011

Verso will LIVE STREAM the conference on this website, from Friday, Oct 14th at 6pm. The video will be on this discussion page—you’ll need to log in to access it, so please register now if you don't yet have an account. 

A new conference with leading thinkers to discuss the continued relevance of the communist idea.

“The long night of the Left is coming to a close” wrote Slavoj Žižek and Costas Douzinas in their introduction to The Idea of Communism. The continuing economic crisis, the shift away from a unipolar world defined by American hegemony, and the ecological crisis mean that growing numbers of people are keen to explore an alternative, and to rediscover the idea of communism. With the advent of the Arab Awakening, millions have sought new ways to overcome corruption and dictatorship—and they’ve now been joined by the wave of occupations in the US, challenging runaway inequality and the power of corporations and the super-rich.

Responding to Alain Badiou’s proposition of the ‘communist hypothesis,’ the leading thinkers of the Left convened in London in 2009 to discuss the persistent notion that, in a truly emancipated society, all things should be owned in common. Now Slavoj Žižek is hosting a new discussion, at Cooper Union in New York.

Organised with Verso Books, eight leading thinkers will be discussing 'Communism, A New Beginning? at Cooper Union on the weekend of October 14th-16th. Entry will be by ticket only, and all tickets are now sold out. Please register on the Verso website to watch the event LIVE on this discussion page. 

With great regret we have to announce that, due to illness, Alain Badiou will not be able to attend the conference this weekend. We are all extremely disappointed but we hope you'll join us in wishing Alain a swift recovery. He has prepared a text to be read by Bruno Bosteels—so he will still be able to contribute to the conference, and we still expect the conference to be an extraordinary event. 

PROGRAM

COMMUNISM, A NEW BEGINNING?

COOPER UNION, New York, October 14-16, 2011
Organizers: Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou

Session 1: Friday, Oct 14, 6:00 pm–9:00 pm
Slavoj Žižek: Short Introductory Remarks
Frank Ruda: Remembering the Impossible: For a Meta-Critical Anamnesis of Communism
Alain Badiou: Politics and State, Mass Movement and Terror (read by Bruno Bosteels)

Session 2: Saturday, Oct 15, 10:00 am–1:00 pm
Bruno Bosteels: On the Christian Question
Susan Buck-Morss: Communism and Ethics

Session 3: Saturday, Oct 15, 3:00 pm–6:00 pm
Adrian Johnston: From Scientific Socialism to Socialist Science: Naturdialektik Then and Now 
Étienne Balibar: Communism as Commitment, Imagination, and Politics

Session 4: Sunday, Oct 16, 10:00 am–1:00 pm
Jodi Dean: Communist Desire
Slavoj Žižek: Conclusion: Freedom in the Clouds

28 comments

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a discussion of the communist idea for those who can afford to do so
David Roquentin / 20 September 2011 0 people think so
It's only $20, David, ten times less than the average academic conference fee.
Steve Hall / 21 September 2011 0 people think so
It costs more than $20 for a person to see two movies in the theatres and yet working class families manage to see several.
fanshen wong / 21 September 2011 0 people think so
It's in New York...I'm in Hertfordshire.
steve pinhorn / 23 September 2011 0 people think so
I'm in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.
steve pinhorn / 23 September 2011 0 people think so
This was sold out hours after the tickets went on sale??? Shouldn't this be streamed live for all the world to see?
Lala Lopez / 29 September 2011 0 people think so
Did tickets really sell out within hours of going on sale??? Shouldn't this be streamed live and free for all the world to see/hear, since ticket sales will surely cover the costs of  event production??
Lala Lopez / 29 September 2011 1 person thinks so
This event should certainly be streamed live and free. A discussion of the Idea of Communism should be accompanied, if only in a nominal way, by a practice of Communism.
Gabe Jones / 04 October 2011 0 people think so
A message for Mr. Zizek:

Since you will be here in New York next week for this conference, given the timeliness of the discussion, I was wondering if you will be making a visit to Zucotti Park for the Occupy Wall Street Protests.

Thanks!
Penley Chiang / 09 October 2011 0 people think so
this must be free! so that communist from Philippines can also watch!
glen teejay jarito / 10 October 2011 1 person thinks so
anyone have an extra ticket??
zach stone / 10 October 2011 0 people think so
Does anyone have an extra ticket? They canceled the event with Badiou at my school, so I hadn't thought to get one. Much thanks.
zach stone / 10 October 2011 0 people think so
Sorry for sullying comment board with commerce, but i do, 2 extra tix in fact. Get at me: brownslacks--------A-T--------g---Mail
~jean
J. Malouin / 10 October 2011 0 people think so
Sorry to all the organizers, but why aren't they having this conference at Occupy Wall Street for the public? If you talk the talk, then walk the walk. It seems a cruel irony when what they talk about and call for is just a few miles away in huge numbers. Are they not in danger of being seen, as Zizek always says, "champagne revolutionists," "a revolution far away as possible." Just saying.
Ed D / 11 October 2011 1 person thinks so
Thanks for sharing this live event. Even though I have downloaded several Verso titles on the internet, whenever I have the chance to invest in the actual book, it is always a huge pleasure to support you guys and your wonderful thinkers. I'm anxiously waiting for Slavoj's long masterpiece on Hegel! I need it on pdf and on paperback!!!!
marco vélez / 13 October 2011 0 people think so
Thanks Marco! Slavoj's book on Hegel will be April 2012 ... We're excited about the live stream - perhaps it's the launch of Verso TV ... Please tell all your friends! 
Jacob Stevens / 14 October 2011 0 people think so
Listening to Zizek last night and Bosteels this morning  one cannot but note the elephant in the room, the traumatic real  that cannot be  named or discussed-- Michel Foucault and his much abused and misunderstood model of biopolitics. This is evident in Bosteel's discussion of Augustinian disciplines of the body and confession as the production of the first modern subject,  and his discussion of the foundational terror that underlies  liberal democracy already dissected by Foucault In Society Must be Defended, Bosteels never cited Foucault. But this theoretical amnesia  was even more profound in last night's debate on necessary communist state violence where the Foucauldian perspective of a biopolitical reduction of political personhood to a biologized, commodiied and weaponized body that cross cuts neoliberal democracies, and  instituted Marxist states was never explored. The exception to this was when Zizek declaimed "I hate Foucault!".  Zizek's  renewed faith in communist organization after his earlier professions of being a "Chrisitan Materialist" still does not propel him to develop a critique of the state form such as that advanced by Foucault. Nor could Zizek distinguish between the inceptual  conditions  for " excusable" state terror under Stalin and  the continuation of  this terror beyond the duration of those conditions, during WWII and afterwards nor its replication in Eastern and Central European Communist regimes after WWII.  Foucault's genealogy/archeology of biopower and the statist administration of life and death at least embarks in this direction, though it too can be critiqued, but that is a far different project than the sheer structural forgetfulness instituted in this conference too date.
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