Footnotes to Endnotes – umt.world: Recent Episodes
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Join us for a discussion of Jasper Bernes’s contribution to Endnotes 5, a treatment of proletarian motives vs interest that examines the theoretical framework of game theory. Read the essay here: https://endnotes.org.uk/file_hosting/EN5_Revolutionary_Motives.pdf
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The Friends of the Classless Society intake to Endnotes 5 is a straight-up piece of social fiction, discussing in great detail how a communist utopia would function. It is quite satisfying on an immediate level to read such a detailed piece of utopian social imagining, and our discussion in this episode ranges quite widely. Support […]
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How does the revolutionary insert themselves into the capitalist totality? What kind of totality is capitalism, anyway? It has a definite beginning, but is it possible that it is logically determined to stretch into infinity? How do we extricate ourselves from this totality? As a totality based on a particular mode of production, capitalism can […]
The post Episode 5.3: Error appeared first on umt.world.
We read and discuss the first proper essay in the fifth volume of the Endnotes journal, “The Passions and the Interests.” This essay, “We Unhappy Few,” breaks the fourth wall and reflects on the experience of the Endnotes as a collective. The major innovation in terms of theory is the introduction of Wilfred Bion’s theories […]
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A loose episode where we break off the fifth edition of the Endnotes journal, discussing the very short editorial; most of our time is given to discussing the future of the podcast. Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/theinvertedform Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/euMjcM89lqk Send me a DM if you want access to the Discord.
The post Episode 5.1: Editorial / State of the Pod appeared first on umt.world.
In this episode, we are reading and discussing two essays from the Berlin communiser group Friends of the Classless Society. We spend a fair amount of time recounting a history of 20th century revolution that we are all familiar with at this point; we also discuss Adorno and his idea of a “classless class society,” […]
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Breaking from the format of the show for a bit, in this episode we are not discussing a primary text, but rather reflecting on the past year of pandemic life, what possibilities remain open to us, and how it relates to this project in particular.
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This essay from the New Institute for Social Research explores the concept of the council, originating out of the “council communist” tendency, which is closely related to communisation. A lot of this essay is given over to a form of “social fiction,” wherein the author tries to imagine how the council, as a relational process, […]
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Before we get into volume 5 of the Endnotes journal, we are going to take some time to read a few assorted essays to round out our understanding of the communisation current. In this episode, we are reading a contribution by John Clegg and Aaron Benanav, two members of the collective, to a collection on […]
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Wrapping up Endnotes 4 with this follow-up and clarification to the standout essay from Endnotes 2, “Misery and Debt.” The function of this essay is to clarify that the “surplus population” should NOT be misunderstood as containing any hopeful elements of an organizational, revolutionary subject. Support the show on Patreon: patreon.com/theinvertedform If you want access […]
The post Episode 4.8: An Identical Abject-Subject? appeared first on umt.world.
This intake to Endnotes 4 is an analysis of urbanism, from the Debordian perspective that capitalism has successfully managed to collapse space in the form of the suburb, the greenfield, the urban metropole. This essay begins with that analysis, but takes it further afield by analyzing the history of housing and urban development in the […]
The post Episode 4.7: Its Own Peculiar Decor appeared first on umt.world.
In this episode we talk about Hegel, we discuss Endnotes’s essay on the wave of riots that swept through Eastern Europe in early 2014, and we focus in again on the “composition problem.” One of the key theoretical points made in the essay under review is that the problem of a lack of demands is […]
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Wrapping up our long episode on this long history on the history of the worker’s movement, as well as discussing the stonks kerfuffle in the news. We reflect on internet culture and its possibilities for a future mode of consciousness; the Endnotes corpus thus far; and a lot more! Remember that we have a Discord […]
The post Episode 4.5: The Rise and Fall of the Worker’s Movement, 1883-1982 (pt 3) appeared first on umt.world.
Our second episode on the long essay in Endnotes 4 on the history of the worker’s movement. Join us for another discussion that runs the gamut, from discussing billionaires, neo-feudalism, the Avatar remakes, to the early decades of the worker’s movement. Remember that we have a Discord community (DM for an invite) and a Patreon […]
The post Episode 4.4: The Rise and Fall of the Worker’s Movement, 1883-1982 (pt 2) appeared first on umt.world.
Join us for a wide-ranging discussion as we get into Endnotes’s epic history of the worker’s movement, from its roots in the 19th century and the proletarianization of the peasantry, to the “communizing turn.” We are discussing the preface and the first part of the essay. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4qt58c1ihMc Read the essay here: https://endnotes.org.uk/issues/4 […]
The post Episode 4.3: A History of Separation—The Rise and Fall of the Worker’s Movement, 1883-1982 appeared first on umt.world.
Endnotes are back on their journalistic kick, tracing the history and contours of the Ferguson uprising circa 2014. Connecting it to its immediate history of police killings and the social movement that mobilized around them, to the more distant history of the civil rights movement, as well as the material history of the construction of […]
The post Episode 4.2: Brown v. Ferguson appeared first on umt.world.
After a month of bonus episodes, we are getting into volume 4 of the Endnotes journal, “Unity in Separation.” At the same time, we are sharing some exciting updates to the show and spend some time thinking about the future of this podcast. The piece we are discussing is just a short editorial introducing the […]
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Professor and editor of Communization and its Discontents Benjamin Noys joins Uriah for a discussion on today’s episode of the pod. We’ve read a few essays on the pod, and for this discussion we take Endnotes’s critical appraisal of Tiqqun / The Invisible Committee as our starting point. We cover the political and cultural context […]
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Another bonus episode before we get into volume 4 in the new year, continuing the discussion from last week, and the discussion that started from The Logic of Gender essay in Endnotes 3. This time we are reading P. Valentine’s 2012 contribution to the LIES Journal, coming out of Oakland / elsewhere. This is a […]
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Reading another essay from the Communization and its Discontents reader, edited by Benjamin Noys. This one is by Maya Andrea Gonzalez, “revolutionary Marxist feminist” and a member of the Endnotes collective. She is also the author of the essay from vol. 3 The Logic of Gender. In this work from a few years prior, Gonzalez […]
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In this bonus episode, Uriah sits down with Jasper Bernes to discuss his essay from vol. 3 on logistics and its follow up, focusing on questions of agriculture and technology. We discuss Marx’s concept of the metabolic rift, permaculture, planning and logistics, reparations, and more. Leave a comment, hopefully we will have more guests on […]
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This is a first in a series of bonus episodes that we will be putting out before diving into volume 4 of the journal. We are reading the essay authored by the Endnotes collective, included in the reader “Communization and its Discontents,” edited by Benjamin Noys and published by AK Press in 2012. The text […]
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Wrapping up volume 3 of Endnotes with a meditation on the relationship between the nature of anti-capitalist struggle, the role of militants in realizing that struggle, and what struggle can hope to accomplish. This essay further advances a definition of communisation, and develops the collective’s vision for the conditions of possibility of a communist revolution. […]
The post Episode 3.7: Spontaneity, Mediation, Rupture appeared first on umt.world.
This week’s essay is another intake, this time from Chris Chen. We are discussing race and identity politics. The essay argues that “race” is a process of socio-economic interpellation, in contra-distinction to identity politics which seeks to affirm racial identity. The author develops an anti-racist practise within the materialist framework of value-form theory. Instead of […]
The post Episode 3.6: The Limit Point of Capitalist Equality appeared first on umt.world.
In this very special episode recorded on Halloween, and released on the eve of the American presidential election, we are discussing Jasper Bernes’s (@outsidagitator) essay on the history of logistics. Posited as capital’s theory of its own globalized form, the essay situates us in 2011, the same moment of historical upheaval this entire collection of […]
The post Episode 3.5: Logistics, Counterlogistics and the Communist Prospect appeared first on umt.world.
This week we are discussing the riot wave that burned throughout England in 2011. Precipitated by anti-austerity protests and anti-police brutality protests, Endnotes explore the myriad social movements that coalesced in days of protests, arson, property damage, and violence directed toward cops, and toward protesters from the cops. Sound familiar? The parallels to the riot […]
The post Episode 3.4: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats appeared first on umt.world.
How do you fit the gender/sex binary into the framework of value-form theory, and the method of systemic dialectic? Listen to this week’s episode to find out, our first episode recorded virtually, and Endnotes’ first sustained foray into Marxist feminism. Read the essay here. Listen on YouTube.
The post Episode 3.3: The Logic of Gender appeared first on umt.world.
This week on the podcast we are going back to 2013 and discussing the Occupy Wall Street movement, the “movement of the squares” internationally, and all the explosions of worker’s movements of that period. We go back and forth about the utopianism of the Endnotes collective, and arrive at a better understanding of just what […]
The post Episode 3.2: The Holding Pattern appeared first on umt.world.
Breaking off a new edition of the Endnotes journal. This survey text previews what’s ahead. We reflect on the historical circumstances of this publication (2013), on the issue that we just finished, what we like and don’t like about Endnotes, and what’s to come. Read the editorial here. Watch on YouTube.
The post Episode 3.1: Editorial appeared first on umt.world.
This week we are finishing off the second edition of the Endnotes journal with a reflective meditation on the working life of a programmer. We discuss the politics of the software industry, the logic of technology, and how it all relates to capitalism. Read the essay here. Watch on YouTube.
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This week we are discussing the historiography of class conflict. Endnotes critically analyse the Marxist category of subsumption, originating in Kant and Hegel. Kant uses the concept in his epistemological distinction between synthetic and analytic; Hegel extends it to the metaphysical subsumption of one subject to another. Finally, Marx uses the concept into a materialist […]
The post Episode 2.6: The History of Subsumption appeared first on umt.world.
This week’s episode of the Footnotes to Endnotes podcast is on the essay “The Moving Contradiction.” The theme continues building the same methodological and theoretical premises the Endnotes collective have been outline over the course of this issue, this time at a much more abstract level. Our verdict is that this essay is “bad,” repetitive, […]
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Best episode of the podcast yet, a wide-ranging exploration of the theoretical history of communisation theory, and value form theory. In this essay, Endnotes elaborate why they have attached themselves to these two contemporary Marxist and communist theories, and begin to advance their argument about why the two are related. Read the essay by Endnotes […]
The post Episode 2.4: Communisation and Value Form Theory appeared first on umt.world.
Episode 3 of the Footnotes to Endnotes podcast. This episode discusses the history of housing in the United States over the course of the 20th century, and analyzes how the housing market was intimately connected to post-war “New Deal” policies. A major topic in this episode / essay is the requirement of state-managed capital to […]
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In this week’s episode of the podcast, join Uriah and Owen as they discuss and analyze the left-communist text “Misery and Debt,” published in 2010 by the Endnotes Collective. This is one of the most important essays in contemporary Marxian economics that has emerged after the 2008 crisis, and provides an invaluable corrective to 20th […]
The post Episode 2.2: Misery and Debt appeared first on umt.world.
Owen Gilbride and I have been recording a new podcast, discussing every essay in the Endnotes series. We are beginning with Endnotes no. 2 “Misery and the Value-Form” because I didn’t order no. 1. The first episode of the podcast is out now. You can add this URL to your podcast apps. You can also […]
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