Andy Beckett discusses his new book about 5 key figures of the British Labour left: Tony Benn, Diane Abbot, Jeremy Corbyn, Ken Livingstone and John McDonnell. The Searchers: Five Rebels, Their Dream of a Different Britain, and Their Many Enemies was published earlier this year by Allen Lane. Andy and Jem go deep into some of the book’s key themes, including the strange place of London in the British left’s political imaginary, the decades-long political contest over what a post-industrial Britain could look like, and the long legacy of 1968.

This was the latest seminar in our ongoing sub-series: From Marx to Spinoza: Affect, Ideology, Materiality. The series is organised by Andrew Goffey, Jason Read and Jeremy Gilbert.

In this session we were honoured to be joined by one of the greatest Anglophone scholars of Spinozist Marxism: Warren Montag. This was a fantastically lucid and informative seminar focussing mainly on Althusser’s relationship to Spinoza, but ranging widely over political, metaphysical and theological topics.

Thanks to everyone who came and took part in the seminar and to everyone who has been supporting the project! 
For more information about Culture, Power and Politics, see here.
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In the latest emergency podcast, Jeremy and Alan Finlayson dissect the historic results of the 2024 UK general election.

For more information about the podcast and project see culturepowerpolitics.org

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This is the recording of the latest seminar in our series ‘From Marx to Spinoza: Affect, Ideology, Materiality‘

This time, our own Jason Read discusses his recent book The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work.

If you want a more basic introduction to the book then here’s a video, and if you want more of an introduction to the thought of Marx and Spinoza then check out our earlier podcasts on that subject.

Thanks to everyone who came and took part in the seminar and to everyone who has been supporting the project!

If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here.

If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here.

This is the second of our ’emergency podcasts’ with Professor Alan Finlayson during the UK’s 2024 general election.

Alan and Jem discuss the controversies of Labour’s de-selection of left-wing parliamentary candidates. the entry of Nigel Farage into the campaign, the politics of the party manifestos and the long-term crisis of the Conservative Party.

Come for the wholly speculative analysis about whether the Labour leadership were ever planning to purge the entire Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Members of Parliament, stay for the speculation over whether the same Labour leadership has any sense at all of who the British people are and where they work.

Marvel at Alan’s ’emergency podcast claxon’ sound-effect (even though it doesn’t always register in the recording)!`

For information about Culture, Power and Politics see www.culturepowerpolitics.org

Jeremy is joined once again by Alan Finlayson for an emergency podcast. We discuss the political situation in the UK, at the start of a general election campaign that nobody thought would be happening exactly now.

For more information about Culture, Power and Politics see here. 

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In this session, we look at the so-called ‘affective turn’ in the humanities and social sciences since the late 1990s. We consider the multiple forms which this ‘turn’ to affect has taken, in both political terms (from libertarian accelerationists to radical communists) and disciplinary ( from film theory to geography), asking how Spinozan it all is, and whether that matters anyway.

This is part of our series ‘From Marx to Spinoza’. For more information see: https://culturepowerpolitics.org/from-marx-to-spinoza-affect-ideology-materiality/

If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here.

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In this session we were joined by Tracie Matysik to discuss the very idea of a Spinozan philosophy beyond the writings of Baruch Spinoza himself, and particular in the work of Marx. To what extent is there a consistent  tradition of materialist monism that can be traced back to Spinoza and necessarily or possibly informs historical materialism? What is the nature of the Marx / Spinoza Encounter? How much Spinoza did Marx himself actually read?

For more information about Culture, Power and Politics see here. 

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What is ‘affect’, why does it matter, and why did people working in the humanities and social sciences start talking about it so much from the 1990s onwards?
This is a quick introduction to this topic, which was recorded in a hurry to make up for the fact that our big seminar on ‘the affective turn’ had to be postponed. That seminar will now take place March 23rd 2024. If you are reading this before then, please come along (it’s free and online)- details are here.

For more information about Culture, Power and Politics see here.

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In this session, we’re joined by none other than Etienne Balibar to discuss the history and present state of dialogue between Marxism and Spinozism.

This is part of our series ‘From Marx to Spinoza’. For more information see: https://culturepowerpolitics.org/from-marx-to-spinoza-affect-ideology-materiality/

If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here.

If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here.

With Jason Read and Jeremy Gilbert.
In this seminar we finally lay out and discuss the core topics from Spinoza’s major philosophical works, and discuss some of the issues involved with trying to read a 17th century Dutch philosopher who wrote in Latin when you’re a 21st-century Anglophone with a life of your own to live. 

This is part of our series ‘From Marx to Spinoza’. For more information see: https://culturepowerpolitics.org/from-marx-to-spinoza-affect-ideology-materiality/

If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here.

If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here.