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grundrisse 28: Editorial The importance of societal changes in China is beyond question. Therefore you will find in this issue of Grundrisse n°28 not only a review of the recently published book Dangomai. Workers’ Accounts of the World-Fabrics in China [Dagongmei, Arbeiterinnen aus Chinas Weltmarktfabriken erzählen], but also an interview with one of the co-publishers, Pun Ngai, who tells us about the situation of especially female migrant workers in China – a report, even more important considering the silence regarding the effects of the ongoing crisis on China. ..further reading grundrisse 28: Ayse Deniz Temiz - A Meridian
Decides the Truth? Departing from the recent launching of the Union for Mediterranean, the essay questions the EU’s externalization of its migration control policy to the third states—particularly those in North Africa—with an aim to seek relevances for the role that is currently being shaped for Turkey. The discussion focuses particularly on the shift that such externalization has brought about in migrants’ activism, from a political challenge to the policies of Euro-state to a toned-down ethical-juridical monitoring of refugees’ rights. Against this narrowing down of perspective in the field of activism, and the accompanying transfer of political culpability from the Euro-state to third countries, particularly those in North Africa, the essay then argues that a different picture emerges when one focuses on the micro-political practices of the undocumented migrants in the course of their border crossing. A proliferation of associations of sub-Saharan migrants in North Africa is one manifestation of these practices, while another is the mobilizations by North African diaspora communities in Europe against the EU’s border restrictions. ...further reading grundrisse 23: Gáspár Miklós Tamás - Counter-Revolution Against a Counter-RevolutionUnlike the revolutionary upheavals of 1953, 1956, 1968 and 1981 (respectively: East Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Gdańsk), the East European régime change in 1989 did not proclaim a purer and better socialism, workers’ councils, self-management or even higher wages for proletarians. It was seen as a re-establishment of ‛normalcy’, historical continuity and a restoration of the treble shibboleth: parliamentary democracy, ‛the market’ and an inconditional allegiance to ‛the West’...further reading grundrisse 22: Gáspár Miklós Tamás - A Capitalism Pure and Simple The symbolic and historic importance of Eastern Europe for the left is beyond dispute. It was, after all, in Eastern Europe where the socialist experiment has been allegedly attempted. The fall of the East Bloc régimes in 1989 has meant for most people that there is nothing over the horizon of global capitalism. Although it is by no means certain that what failed was socialism, institutions, organizations, currents of the Western left collapsed, as if what they represented would have been identical with the dismal heap of ruins which was the empire of Stalin’s diadochoi. However inglorious, drab, scary and tedious that empire was, today’s inmates believe that it was far superior in all respects to the new dispensation. Socialists appear to be disavowed by the general belief that capitalism is all there is, and democrats seem to be told that, compared to this new liberal democracy, dictatorship was a picnic...further reading grundrisse 22: Gáspár Miklós Tamás - Telling the truth about classOne of the central questions of social theory has been the relationship between class and knowledge, and this has also been a crucial question in the history of socialism. Differences between people – acting and knowing subjects – may influence our view of the possibility of valid cognition. If there are irreconcilable discrepancies between people’s positions, going perhaps as far as incommensurability, then unified and rational knowledge resulting from a reasoned dialogue among persons is patently impossible. The Humean notion of ‘passions’, the Nietzschean notions of ‘resentment’ and ‘genealogy’, allude to the possible influence of such an incommensurability upon our ability to discover truth. ..further reading |
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