Open Meeting to plan 4-day Summer Conference of the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE)
Tuesday March 6, 6:00 PM • 60 Wall Street
The Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) will be holding a summer conference from August 10 – 13 with the theme “Political Economy of the 99%: Today and Tomorrow.” The three and a half day conference will take place at a summer camp about an hour and a half north of New York City.
The goal of this year’s conference is to bring together radical political economists and Occupy activists from around the country (some people are both.) The conference will explore the power of the 1%, what it is based on, and how this power is exercised, economically, politically and militarily, both within the United States and internationally. At the same time, it will explore the challenges that the Occupy movement is raising to this power and the new ways in which it is addressing this through its practice. Together, we will explore different ideas as to how we can act today to address the issues we face, as well as how we envisage a just society, free of exploitation and oppression.
The goal of the March 6 open meeting is to invite URPE members and Occupy activitsts to participate in planning for the conference. The general theme is how our political economic system works, and how we can change it. But the conference must be structured so as to allow Occupy activists and radical political economists to discuss more specific topics ranging from corporate political power to the (related) attacks on the working class and cutbacks in government programs and the structure of the financial system. We need to look forward, by talking about how best to organize opposition to the power of capital and address racial, national and gender divisions within our movement. And as we do so, we need to look at alternative ways of organizing production and decision-making that would characterize a future society free of exploitation and oppression.
* * *
Founded in 1968, URPE presents a continuing critique of the capitalist system and all forms of exploitation and oppression, while helping to construct a progressive social policy and create socialist alternatives. It has no affiliation with any political organizations and receives no foundation funds, relying instead on membership dues and receipts from the publication of its journal, The Review of Radical Political Economics. While sharing a critical perspective on the capitalist system, its members hold a wide variety of political views on and interpretations of this system.