[Graetzwerk] Book launch: "Assembly" by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri

[Martin Mair]

Liebe Leute,

ein interessantes Buch das vielleicht den bitter notwendigen Geist 
"horizontaler Demokratie" auch nach Graz bringen könnten. Ein Grund für 
das Scheitern der Murszene ist ja der eklatante Mangel an Transparenz 
und Demokratie. Nur Miteinander und nicht in isolierten Blasen können 
wir etwas erreichen!

lg

Martin Mair

*Talks by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri *

*Chaired by WIAS Director Christian Fuchs*

*Drinks reception and book signing*


  Thursday 12 October 2017
  18:00 – 21:00
  Fyvie Hall
  309 Regent Street
  University of Westminster
  London W1B 2HW

This event is co-organised with Oxford University Press (OUP) and 
launches///Assembly 
<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/assembly-9780190677961?cc=gb&lang=en&%20>/, 
Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt’s follow-up book to the Empire trilogy 
consisting of “Empire” (2000), “Multitude” (2004) and “Commonwealth” (2009).

In the face of rising right-wing movements and governments throughout 
the world, along with the ever-increasing control of finance over social 
life, forms of protest and resistance that disrupt the ruling order are 
essential. But they are not enough. How can today’s social movements 
transform themselves so as to initiate a process of liberation and 
create the bases for a lasting social alternative?

Each year a new eruption of “leaderless” social movements — from North 
Africa and the Middle East to Europe, the Americas, and East Asia — 
leaves journalists, political analysts, police forces, and governments 
disoriented and perplexed. Activists too struggle to understand and 
evaluate the power and effectiveness of horizontal movements. Why have 
the movements, which address the needs and desires of so many, not been 
able to achieve lasting change and create a new, more democratic and 
just society? Some people assume that if only social movements could 
find new leaders they would return to their earlier glory. Where, they 
ask, are the new Martin Luther Kings, Rudi Dutschkes, and Stephen Bikos?

Although today’s leaderless and spontaneous political organizations are 
not sufficient, a return to traditional, centralized forms of political 
leadership is neither desirable nor possible. Necessary, instead, as 
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri argue, is an inversion of the roles of 
the multitude and leadership in political organizations. Leaders should 
be confined to short-term, tactical action, while the multitude drives 
strategy. In other words, the formulation of long-term goals and 
objectives must come from the collective, rather than designated 
figureheads. Drawing on the ideas developed through their well-known 
Empire trilogy, Hardt and Negri have produced, in /Assembly/, a timely 
proposal for how current large-scale, horizontal movements can develop 
collectively the capacities for political strategy and decision-making 
to effect lasting and democratic change.


*Michael Hardt *teaches in the Literature Program at Duke University and 
is co-director of the Social Movements Lab. He serves as editor of The 
South Atlantic Quarterly.

*Antonio Negri *taught at the University of Padua and the University of 
Paris VIII. He has been one of the central figures of Italian autonomist 
Marxism. His work is devoted to studies of political philosophy and the 
analysis of capitalism and globalization.

*Hardt and Negri* have co-authored the books /Labor of Dionysus/ (1994), 
/Empire/ (2000), /Multitude/ (2004), /Commonwealth/ (2009), 
/Declaration/ (2012), and /Assembly/ (2017). Their books are considered 
to be among the most influential works in political philosophy today.

*Christian Fuchs*is a Marxist theorist of society and communication. He 
is Director of the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS) and 
the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) at the University 
of Westminster.

Register via Eventbrite: 
http://wias.ac.uk/event/book-launch-assembly-by-michael-hardt-and-antonio-negri/

Best wishes,

Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS)

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