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Reading John Holloway’s Change
the World Without Taking Power
Andrew
Kliman
Alternate Wednesdays, 6:00pm --
7:30pm
6 Sessions: Oct. 5 & 19,
Nov. 2, 16 & 30, Dec. 14
Tuition: $75 -- $100, sliding
scale
Revolution has frequently
been identified with the capturing of state power. This notion is now
discredited. But the idea of revolution itself will also be discredited
unless a different concept of revolution that can replace it is worked out
concretely. In Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of
Revolution Today (Pluto, 2002), John Holloway argues that genuine
revolution cannot be a process of capturing power – not even in order to
abolish state power and other relations of domination. Power must be dissolved.
The premise of this course is that, whether one ultimately agrees or
disagrees with this idea, Holloway’s book deserves serious consideration. It
is an important recent effort to come to grips with the need to work out an
alternative concept of revolution for today. We will read and discuss the
whole of Change the World. Since fetishism and anti-fetishism are
among its major concepts, we will also read and discuss the section on the
fetishism of the commodity in Marx’s Capital. Other readings include Peter
Hudis’ and Cyril Smith’s reviews of Holloway’s book.
Students should read the Preface and first two chapters of Change the
World (a total of 19 pages) before the first class session and be
prepared to discuss them. See the syllabus for the other readings, which are
available online. For more information contact the instructor at
Andrew_Kliman@msn.com.
Syllabus
Andrew Kliman taught a course on Volume I of Marx's Capital
last Spring at the New Space. Kliman, a professor of economics at Pace
University, has published extensively on Marx’s Capital, crisis
theory, and value theory. Co-editor of The New Value Controversy and the
Foundations of Economics (2004), he has recently finished a book that
reclaims Capital from the myth of internal inconsistency. Many of
Kliman's writings are available at his new website:
http://akliman.squarespace.com
Copies of Holloway’s
Change the World Without Taking Power are available for purchase at May Day Books & Infoshop.
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