File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9801, message 155


Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 14:33:18 -0500
Subject: M-TH: FWD: Virtual Conference: Communist Manifesto
From: "ORIONTEC" <oriontec-AT-prodigy.net>


Reply-To: cm150-l-AT-mtu.edu


I posted the following announcement on PSN, AHS and a few 
other lists 
some time ago.  I think the participants of this list will also be 
interested in this virtual conference. Please forward the post 
to any 
other discussion group or individual who may be interested.

Progressive Sociologists' Network is organizing a virtual 
conference 
on the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Communist 
Manifesto. The Manifesto, the most widely read and defining 
single 
text in the history of modern socialism, was first published on 
February 26, 1848. "League of the Just" was a secret political 
organization formed in 1836 by German radical workers living 
in Paris. 
At its London Congress in 1847,the organization changed its 
name to 
"Communist League."  The Manifesto was the political 
document of the 
newly renamed organization. 

There are some disagreements among scholars about who 
was assigned to 
write the Manifesto.  According to David Riazanov, one of the 
most 
prominent Marx scholars among the Bolsheviks and the 
former director of 
the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow, Marx was commissioned 
to write the 
document, "although 'other professions of faith', one of them 
drafted by 
Engels, had been presented to the Congress."  On the other 
hand, according 
to some other sources, both Marx and Engels were assigned 
to write the 
Manifesto.  Whatever the case was, (and the names of both 
Marx and Engels 
appeared as authors in the final version ), the primary 
authorship of the 
Manifesto can probably be attributed to Marx.  In Engels' own 
phrase, "the 
fundamental proposition which forms its nucleus belongs to 
Marx."  The 
draft prepared by Engels is preserved under the title 
"Principles of 
Communism."  "The Principles" is compiled in the appendixes 
of "The 
Communist Manifesto", edited by David Riazanov ( the first 
English 
translation of the Riazanov edition in the United States was 
published 
in 1930 by Russell & Russell).  

Riazanov was also responsible for editing Marx's unpublished 
writings, 
including the 1844 manuscripts. Like many other revolutionary 
scholars and 
activists, Riazanov died in Stalin's purges.   

The purpose of the virtual conference is to stimulate 
dialogues
on the contemporary theoretical and practical relevance of 
the Manifesto.  
We encourages papers and commentaries on a broad range 
of issues, from 
a multiplicity of vantage points within the general terrain of 
progressive sociology.   Examples of some  possible issues 
that may be 
explored in the papers and commentaries are -

a. The theoretical and practical relevance of the Manifesto in 
today's global capitalist context.

b. Analyses of and debates on specific discursive concepts in 
the  
Manifesto, such as "the centrality of class struggle" or "the 
state being 
a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole 
bourgeoise."  

c. How the readings of the Manifesto may transgress the 
conventional 
Marxist boundaries and intrude upon deconstructionist and 
other post-
marxist spaces.  Derrida's play with the word "spectre" in 
Marx's text in 
his *Spectre of Marx* can probably seen as one example.

d. Whether the Manifesto can be located in any specific 
moment of the 
development of Marx's thought.  

e. How can the Manifesto be compared/contrasted with the 
"Principles of Communism" authored by Engels.  

The length and organization of the conference will depend on 
the 
number of submissions;  if we get several good papers, we 
could have 
several virtual seminars with the author online to discuss the 
paper 
with participants.  The papers will be available on line so 
people can 
read them way ahead of the date the papers will be 
discussed.  
Furthermore, the papers will be submitted to be considered 
for 
publication in Critical Sociology.  Depending on the number of 
papers, 
we could have a symposium or a special issue.


Send your papers to Gimenez-AT-csf.colorado.edu and 
Mkarim-AT-moses.culver.edu.   We will announce the web page 
for the 
conference soon.

Manjur Karim

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
<<




                   C.E.Masterson
               oriontec-AT-pridigy.net
              


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