The Seminar in Contemporary Marxist Theory is hosting Professor Gargi Bhattacharya for its next event.

‘If you think this is bad, see what comes next: Racial Capitalism and Catastrophic Business as Usual’ takes place via Zoom on 3 February, from 16.00 – 18.00.

You can register for the event here.

Professor Bhattacharyya said: “I first suggested this title in early 2020 - and then again in late 2020 - confident that the news would get no better and the amusement of ‘miserablism’ (perhaps the core shared habit of the UK left) would continue to entertain. But, do you know what? I want to check myself - and, in the process I hope, revisit the rapid take-up of the conceptual framework of racial capitalism.

“I don’t think it is the job of progressive people to accept catastrophe as inevitable. I don’t think the intellectual energies of the left should be taken up with arguing against any hope of better times. I don’t think analytic habits which seem to freeze history or mute agency or present change as impossible are useful - and I don’t think they are progressive.

“Perhaps we can never have the wild-eyed enthusiasm of the (post, post, post) neoliberal salvation business, be it individual, national or corporate, but we also have our moments of communal joy. And if we ever have brief opportunities to converse, I think this is what we should reach for.

“The concept of racial capitalism offers us a framework to understand how the losses of catastrophe fall as they do. It also asks the question of how we might be together differently.”

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