Arvind Institute of Marxist Studies (AIMS) invites applications from students, researchers and activists for a 7-day Capital Workshop to be held in Lucknow from November 3 to 9, 2019. The workshop will be conducted in bilingual medium (English and Hindi).
As all of us know, world capitalist system is undergoing the most serious structural crisis since 2007-8. Now, even the mainstream economists have stopped making claims of recovery. In fact, according to a number of economists, the world capitalism is facing another imminent melt-down and most notably in the so-called global engines of growth like China, India, etc. Following the re-election of Modi, we have been informed that Indian economy is headed for a serious slow-down, as the sales in the automobile sector, textile sector and other leading sectors show.
The recurrent crises of capitalism cannot simply be explained away by some kind of contingency theory or conjunctural theory. What is now being termed as ‘the Long Depression’ has continued from the 1970s and it has shown that all such contingent or conjunctural explanations of capitalist crises fail to provide any causal analysis. Different bourgeois schools of political economy as well as the neoclassical economics fall far short of providing any viable framework for analysing the recurrent crisis and the workings of global capitalism.
Marx’s critique of political economy still provides the best framework for the analysis of capitalism, despite the various notable changes in the modus operandi of capitalism, information technology revolution, communication and transport revolution, rise of ‘affective/immaterial labour’, etc. For previous 15 decades Marxist political economy has more-or-less correctly predicted the economic trajectory of capitalism and it continues to do so. Even mainstream economists are now accepting apologetically that Marx has something useful to say as far as understanding the present economic system is concerned.
‘Capital’ is Marx’s magnum opus, the result of a life-time of research and study. Marx could not complete the project of Capital, but even the first volume that Marx could complete and the second and third volumes that Engels compiled and edited, provide us with a framework that can effectively be used to understand present world capitalism. It is not without reason that there has been an unprecedented global revival of interest in Marx and especially Capital since the last one decade. The reason is simple: Without understanding Marx’s Capital, the task of understanding capitalism becomes infinitely difficult.
Another reason why there is a need to study Marx’s Capital today its misreadings and misinterpretations by various scholars and the continuing debate regarding Marx’s crisis theory, transformation problem, labour theory of value, etc. From Michael Heinrich to David Harvey, various interpretations have emerged especially since the outbreak of the latest crisis. In view of these interpretations, another objective of this workshop is to reclaim the scientific and revolutionary core of Marx’s Capital.
In view of the continuing relevance of Marx’s Capital, Arvind Institute of Marxist Studies is organizing this 7-day Capital Workshop in order to acquaint interested students and political activists with the fundamentals of Marxist political economy. It is a residential workshop where the applicants will be provided lodging and food by AIMS. Journey tickets and conveyance will not be provided by AIMS. The workshop will start at 10 AM in the morning and will continue till 6 PM everyday, with lunch and tea breaks in between.
The workshop will be conducted by Abhinav Sinha, who has written and lectured on Marx’s Capital extensively around India as well as abroad. He is the author of Subversive Interventions, On the Caste Question: Towards a Marxist Understanding, Faasivaad Kya Hai aur Isse Kaise Ladein and writer of renowned Marxist blog Red Polemique. He also edits workers’ monthly Mazdoor Bigul and students quarterly Aahwan.
Interested applicants should fill the online form by going to the link below. 30 applications will be selected from the applications received. The last date of sending the application is 7th October, 2019.
Registration Fees: Rs. 8000 / Rs. 6500 only for students
Note: Since we have received requests, from many students who want to attend the workshop, for a special students’ concession, the AIMS has decided that students producing valid bonafides would be charged Rs. 6500.
Link of online form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfV5VG0AAgzrQ5LM2UVovL8DNMdR2V8hl9B6GLtJIAMiw4ldw/viewform