New Left 95 annual conference "Nationalism, Globalization and the Future of the Left"

2011-10-05 08:54 paskelbė Naujoji Kairė 95

On 8-9 October, 2011 a New Left 95 conference "Nationalism, Globalization and the Future of the Left"  will take place at Vilnius City Municipality Hall (Konstitucijos ave. 3, 2nd floor) (starting at 9:30 am each day), which will seek to analitically comprehend and discuss societal challenges such as increasing nationalism, the extreme Right, and will ask what the future holds for the Left at the time of neo-liberal capitalist globalization.

Programme

The event will be conducted in English/Lithuanian   – a synchronous translation will be provided.

Public intellectuals, civic and human rights activists from around Europe (Spain, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary and Lithuania) will speak at the conference. 

The notable speakers include Prof. Iñaki Santa Cruz (Barcelona), an intellectual and former dissident who fought Franco’s regime, Prof. Jakob Rigi (Budapest), an academic and a former activist of Iranian Left suppressed under Khomeini 

The new generation of intellectuals and outspoken critics of a new neoliberal order will be represented by Dr Gavin Rae, Dr Przemysław Sadura (Warsaw), Dr Marin Franc (Prague), Dr Luboš Blaha (Bratislava) and others.

The speakers from Lithuania will include the intellectuals and activists from the New Left 95: Prof. Andrius Bielskis, Dr Nida Vasiliauskaitė, Dr Linas Eriksonas, Dr Tadas Leončikas, Daiva Repečkaitė, Tomas Tomilinas and Algis Davidavičius. The conference is hosted by the DEMOS Institute of Critical Thought, a think-tank for a progressive agenda, and supported by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. 

More than 20 years ago „the end of history“ was declared as „the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy“. However, the period which followed has been all but the end. It has witnessed the resurgence of old-new nationalism, religious fundamentalism, a global displacement of labour and the damaging impact of unrestricted flows of speculative capital – all making the history repeating itself. In the 1930s such a confluence of socio-economic factors led to the demise to liberal democracies and the rise of totalitarianism.  The European Left which played a vital role in democratising societies and increasing levels of prosperity was defeated.

The future of the Left looks uncertain now as it looked back then. Under such circumstances the intellectuals and activists from the new Left movements from around Europe will gather in Vilnius for a two-day thought-provoking conference to ponder over the question:  what the future holds for the Left and for democracy in capitalism-ridden societies? How the Left has to tackle the explosive issues which are easily appropriated for the populist and indeed undemocratic politics: nationalism, xenophobia, immigration, abuse of labour and human rights.  

 

Come, listen and be heard!

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