Left Forum Conference, The Center Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination

March 19, 2010 - 11:00 - March 21, 2010 - 17:00
Location: 
Pace University, One Pace Plaza, New York, NY 10038

 

Each spring in New York City, Left Forum gathers intellectuals and activists from around the world to address the burning issues of our times. The theme for 2010 is "The Center Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination." Richard Wolff will speak on a couple of panels during the conference.

 

The ongoing capitalist crisis generated high hopes that the parties and social movements of the Left, both in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, would be re-energized. So far this has not happened. The Left remains fractured and confused, drifting away from its labor base, while the Right seems to have emerged as the stronger or at least the more strident force. The result is that unemployment remains high, wages low, and insecurity grows. In the U.S., the Obama administration negotiates from the center, and concedes more and more to business interests and political conservatives. Can this be turned around? Can the hardships and opportunities generated by the capitalist crisis yet become the trigger for the revival of a transformative Left?

Left Forum provides a unique space for the generation of ideas crucial to theorizing and building a resurgent Left. Last spring the Left Forum conference had over 200 panels, more than 600 speakers, 3,000 attendees, two international art shows, a film festival, and theater arts performances. This year the Forum will include participants from all corners of North America, as well as Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. It will truly be a rare opportunity for a global left dialogue. Join us at the 2010 conference, this March at Pace.