News (24)
Children categories
(By Jack Whitman)
With 33 people from 15 different countries, 3 courses of food reflecting a smorgasbord of cultural influences and a live session from an azeri tar and accompanying singing chef, the fundraising dinner organised by Borderless that took place at IIRE on 9th February was precisely that, sans frontières.
Public Talk by Boots Riley and The Coup in Concert from IIRE on Vimeo.
On Sunday the 8th April, boots Riley visited the IIRE for a public talk on the Occupy movement and the General Strike in Oakland.
Followed a concert by The Coup in the neighbour venue Studio/K. See a presentation of both events in this video.
Boots Riley, the legendary anticapitalist MC from the hip-hop band The Coup, will be visiting the IIRE on Sunday the 8th April. He will speak on the Occupy movement and the recent General Strike which took place in Oakland. It will start at 18h in the IIRE (Lombokstraat 40).
After that The Coup will be holding it's first ever concert in Amsterdam, in the IIRE's neighbour nightclub Studio/K (Timorplein 62).
The eldest living member of the FI in Germany, Jakob Moneta, died on the third of March 2012 at the age of 97 in Frankfurt. Jakob was born in 1914 in Austria in a Jewish family, which escaped to Cologne in Germany in 1919 after a pogrom in his hometown in 1918.
In Cuba, there is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, Transsexual (LGBTT) movement whose gestation is found at the intersection of the state and organised civil society. This movement seeks to tackle the main themes of LGBTT reality from the perspective of human rights, health and social integration, while inserting itself into the national project of edifying a just society. Historically, the space for its existence was provided by the country’s Women’s Movement, which was largely responsible for making Cuba, in 2008, the first country in the Americas having the sex-change operation included in the package of universal health care that island’s citizens enjoy.
This January, IIRE Fellow Antonio Carmona Báez interviewed Mariela Castro, president of the Havana-based National Centre for Sexual Education (CENESEX) and a bulwark for the nascent LGBTT movement in Cuba.
The elaborations on gender of the last 20 years, in particular Queer theory, challenge the Marxist approach to the issue of gender oppression, and thereby demand the overcoming of an approach based on the establishment of a hierarchy of priorities between oppressions. At this year's annual Left Forum (the former Socialist Scholar Conference), IIRE Fellow Cinzia Arruzza hosted a panel to discuss this challenge: "Does Marxism have Gender Trouble?" on Saturday, March 19th.
The challenge is to see how a complex relation of material and ideological factors contributes to the continuous reproduction of Capitalism as a whole, and therefore of women's oppression. The panel focused on gender oppression within Capitalism, coping with issues as gender division of labor and social reproduction. In dealing with these topics, the panel took into account the general question of the relation between gender theories, in particular Queer theory, and Marxism. An aim of the panel was the discussion of the critical potential of the notion of gender performativity, and the way in which this transformative perspective might offer a common ground for both Socialist and Queer politics.
The panel was joined by Catherine Sameh, Johanna Brenner and Rutgers University's Nancy Holstrom. For a full programme of this year's Left Forum see: http://www.leftforum.org/conference/2011
Welke rol spelen de voormalige militairen in de nieuwe Egyptische regering?
In een interview met Real News Network legt Achcar, auteur van The Clash of Barbarism en fellow van het IIRE, uit dat er gevaarlijke illusies bestaan over het nieuwe regime. Dit blijft een belangrijke klant van de VS en de continuïteit met de dictatuur van Mubarak is reëel . Gilbert Achcar is Hoogleraar van Studies inzake ontwikkelingshulp en internationale relaties in de School of Oriental and African Studies in Londen.
In March 2011 we were honoured by a visit from the new Cuban Ambassador to The Netherlands, Zelmys María Dominguez Cortina. The ambassador met with IIRE Executive Director Marijke Colle, former directors Susan Caldwell and Antonio Carmona Báez, IIRE Fellow James Cockcroft and a delegation from IIRE Manila.
The ambassador, pictured right with IIRE director Marijke Colle, wanted to know more about the possibilities with the Institute for developing solidarity work in The Netherlands with Cuba. She also took a tour of the Institute's library, lecture hall, seminar rooms, offices and other facilities.
The IIRE's latest newsletter spotlights some impresisve accomplishments by the Institute's fellows. The lastest Asian edition of the Global Justice School (GJS), and the Youth School in Amsterdam are also reported. The newslatter also highlights the plans for our upcoming GJS in Amsterdam and other developments. The IIRE's successful contribution to the European Social Forum, also reported in this issue, is one of the reasons why we are extending our fundraising partnership with the SOWS, a Dutch foundation for scientific research.
