New Keywords of Our Struggle: Climate/Capital

A virtual panel hosted by the Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Association

Since 9/11, millions worldwide have been drawn into struggles that have given rise to new social movements confronting the “War on Terror,” the 2007-9 economic meltdown, a global pandemic, and intensifying climate catastrophe. These movements include the Arab Spring, Occupy, the George Floyd Rebellion, police abolition, border protests from Gaza to Texas, and mass rebellions and strikes in the global North and South. This forum brings together activists and scholars to explore a new vocabulary—new “keywords”—galvanizing and emerging from these waves of militant anti-capitalist resistance.

How does the urgency of immediately addressing the effects of climate change, in the capitalist present, relate to our understanding that capitalism is the key cause of the crisis and needs to be transcended if life on planet earth is to survive? How do climate struggles connect with anti-capitalist one? How do these and other new keywords unlock and clarify efforts to make a better world? What limits to collective action do they make legible and which do they mystify? How do these climate-bound terms relate to terms with political-economic histories, such as exploitation, class struggle, and communism?

Use this link to register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqc-6pqDItGNDJxDMA8R8C8rerN8yKR4EP

WELCOME: Geordie Miller, Assistant Professor, Mount Allison University

Land Acknowledgement & Introduction of Climate/Capital: Brent Ryan Bellamy, Instructor, Trent University

About Keywords & Introductions to Speakers: Susan Comfort, Associate Professor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

PANELISTS: Brief Explorations of Keywords

• Carbon: Anne Pasek, Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture & Environment, Trent University
• Climate Justice: Kamala Platt, independent scholar, contingent professor, Arizona State Univ.
• Extraction: Jeffrey Insko, Professor, Oakland University
• Indigenous: Alok Amatya, Assistant Professor, Lyon College

OPEN DISCUSSION (moderator Brent) AND NEXT STEPS (moderator Susan)

TO CONTACT THE MLA RADICAL CAUCUS: geordie.miller@gmail.com