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Whatever Happened To Revolution?
Whatever happened to the revolution? Back in the sixties (remember those days?), revolutions seemed to be everywhere—nations, groups, and guerilla movements all claimed the word. But now? Not so much. Not at all, really. Has the idea just changed names? Have we outgrown it? And what would a 21st-century revolution against class society even look like?
There’s a lot to discuss. It almost feels like we’re stuck in a Counter-Revolution—before a revolution has even happened.
Jasper Bernes’ The Future of Revolution: Communist Prospects from the Paris Commune to the George Floyd Uprising explores what revolution could look like in the twenty-first century. He reflects on the past, noting that many key revolutionary ideas—like the party, the union, the commune, the uprising, and the strike—come from the nineteenth century. The only truly new idea, he argues, was the workers’ council (or Soviet), which emerged in Russia during the 1905 mass strikes.
Now, in the twenty-first century, these old ideas resurface, sometimes disguised as something new. Bernes suggests that the future of revolution is waiting to be discovered—it can’t be fully imagined until it happens. But we can still outline the steps that will have been necessary to get there.
Joining Jasper in the discussion will be Idris Robinson, Professor of Philosophy, Texas State University; Colleen Lye, Associate Professor of English at UC Berkeley; and Nikhil Pal Singh, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at NYU. Philip Wohlstetter of Red May will moderate.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3013593-0
