Curious harmonies| Common Notions

A space for self-education, militant research, and strategical thinking.

“We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.”—Black Panther Party, “Ten-Point Program” (1966) 

Curious Harmonies
This workshop series is an opportunity to think collectively about the common and curious histories guiding the current rise of liberation movements and workers’ struggles today.

Organized by Kevin Van Meter & Common Notions
Common Notions supports independent collective for movement self education and research. Through the organizations of programs, encounters and conversations, its work aims at the interrogation of the social, political and cultural present through the articulation of practical and theoretical knowledges.

PURpose & Concept

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION 

Common Notions began with a provocation: to amplify and renew a long line of autonomist militants, movements, ideas toward examining our history, our role in the present-day society, and to inquire into the forces and struggles that would bring us closer to collective, common liberation.  

      In this spirit, our Curious Harmonies Study Program revisits key historical moments and texts while seeking out harmonies between the past and the present, between seemingly disparate movements and geographies.  Initially, we will revisit the relationship between black, feminist, queer and trans liberation and workers’ autonomy.  Then, we will return to four classic autonomist texts Karl Marx’s A Workers’ Inquiry (1880), Paul Romano and Ria Stone’s The American Worker pamphlet (1947), and Harry Cleavers Reading Capital Politically (1979, 2000) along with Toni Negri’s Marx Beyond Marx (1984, 1991).  

 As Cleaver reminds us, “Work is Still the Central Issue.” Hence, we concentrate on the imposition of waged and unwaged work by capitalism as well as its refusal coupled with the creative potential for worlds beyond work amongst the myriad of imaginative and innovative liberation movements of the past few decades. Access to the means of survival, to the necessitates of life and our social reproduction, renewal of our capacities so we can place ourselves at the mercy of the labor market, even the measly and miserly payments from the state – all come through work. Nevertheless, workers’ autonomy and class struggle are grounded by, enriched and expanded by said liberation movements and it is these harmonies we seek as well.

      Our Study Program invites participants to read, reread, and revisit these moments and texts then listen in and ask questions during our online formal presentations by prominent militants and theorists, often the very authors of said texts themselves.  And may our words, their resonances as well as dissonances, begin to construct a new world, one in which many worlds fit.   

PROGRAM OUTLINE

March 2022 | Introduction and Orientation

Study Program Participant Meet Up

April 2022 | Revisiting the relationship between Black Liberation and Workers’ Autonomy 

Reading: CLR James, “Black Power” (1967). 

Viewing: “Workers’ Autonomy from Detroit to Turin and Beyond”

May 2022 | Revisiting the relationship between Wages for Housework and Workers’ Autonomy 

Reading: Mariarosa Dalla Costa, The Power of Women and Subversion of the Community (1971). 

June 202 | Revisiting the relationship between Queer and Trans Liberation and Workers’ Autonomy 

Reading: Mario Mieli, “Towards a Gay Communism” in Towards a Gay Communism: Elements of a Homosexual Critique (1977, 2018). 

July 2022 | Revisiting Marx’s A Workers’ Inquiry after 150 Years 

Reading: Karl Marx, A Workers’ Inquiry (1880).

August 2022 | Revisiting The American Worker after 75 Years 

Reading: Paul Romano (Phil Singer) and Ria Stone (Grace Lee Boggs), The American Worker (1947).  

September 2022 | Revisiting Reading Capital Politically and Marx Beyond Marx after Forty Years 

Reading: Harry Cleaver, “Introduction” to Reading Capital Politically  (1979, 2000) and Antonio Negri, various Preface’s and Introductions (1984, 1991).   

HOW TO PARTICIPATE   

·      Register for the Curious Harmonies Study Program: Registration link coming soon.    

·      Read, reread, and revisit the assigned texts and videos prior to the event. 

·      Our Study Program is being offered at no cost.  However, you can sustain Common Notions with monthly contributions from $5 to $50 here: https://www.commonnotions.org/sustain

·      For future Common Notions campaigns, events, and publications sign up on our email list here: Email List.