URPE Summer Conference: ALTERNATIVES! Aug. 20-23

[Ruth Indeck <soapbox@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

UNION FOR RADICAL POLITICAL ECONOMICS (URPE) SUMMER CONFERENCE:
 
 ALTERNATIVES!
 
 Camp Chinqueka, Bantam, Connecticut
 
 Saturday, August 20 - Tuesday, August 23, 2005
 
 For several years now, people have asked for a Summer Workshop/Retreat focused
on alternatives – what can we do in the face of this brutal hegemonic world
social-political-economic order?  This year's workshop
will be focused on this (with lots of other topics addressed in the workshops
as well).  It promises to be very interesting, and given
the despair that has overcome fighters for social justice, inspiring – there
are plenty of ways to fight back, and beyond that, there are plenty of important
challenges to the hegemonic order going on right now.  
 
 Camp Chinqueka is located by Mt. Tom State Park in Western CT. The camp
provides opportunities for swimming, boating, tennis, basketball, soccer
and hiking. The relaxed environment of the camp provides a good setting for
informal discussions and social interaction. Children are welcome, and full
child care is provided at no additional charge for people who register early.
 
 Plan to join us – it will be both informative and fun! See the URPE website,
www.urpe.org,
for full information on the conference and how to get there. You can also
call the URPE National Office at 413-577-0806 or send an email to urpe@xxxxxxxxxxxx.
 
 
 ***********************************
 
 
 PLENARIES AND SPECIAL EVENTS:
 
         
         POLICY ALTERNATIVES
         
   Policy Implications of No Child Left Behind
         Susan Williams McElroy, Professor of Economics & Education
  Policy, The University of Texas at Dallas
         
     Be Utopian:  Demand the Realistic
         Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political
   Economy  Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Author
 most recently of Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the
Landscape   of Global Austerity
 
 Labor Policy: What are the Questions?
 Gil Skillman, Professor of Economics at Wesleyan University, co-author with
Joyce Jacobsen of  Labor Markets and Employment Relationships, and
co-editor of  Eastern Economic Journal
 
  
         RESTRUCTURING SOCIAL RELATIONS

The Transformative Moment: Personal Healing and the Restructuring of Economic Relations
Julie Matthaei, Professor of Economics, Wellesley College

Commodity Fetishism: A Concept for Organizing Sweatshop Labor
John Miller, Professor of Economics, Wheaton College

Re-embedding the Rural Economy: Social Capital, Economic Justice, and Environmental Stewardship
Héctor Sáez, Professor of Economics, Community Development and  Applied Economics Program and Environmental Program, University of Vermont

         ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALISM
         
         How Do We Begin to Get Serious About an American Transitional Strategy?
         Gar Alperovitz, Professor of Political
   Economy,  University of

Maryland

.
   Author  most recently of Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our
Wealth,   Our

Liberty

and Our Democracy

 New Possibilities for a Democratic Planned Economy
Allin Cottrell, Professor of Economics, Wake Forest University.

           Participatory Economics
         Robin Hahnel, Professor of Economics,
   American University. Author most recently of Economic Justice
   and Democracy: From Competition to Cooperation
         
         
         DAVID GORDON LECTURE
         The Future Within the Present: Seven Theses for a Robust 21st-Century
    Socialism
         David Laibman,                Professor of Economics, Brooklyn College
   and Graduate School, CUNY; Editor, Science & Society
      
 
 SPECIAL CONFERENCE EVENT – Two workshops organized in conjunction with
the Association  for Economic and Social Analysis (AESA):
 
  A Class Analysis of Socialism and Communism: What Was the USSR?
         Stephen Resnick, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst
 Richard Wolff, Professors of Economics, University     of Massachusetts,
Amherst
 
 Agents for Socialism and Community: Flirting with Aristotle?
 Ted Burczak, Professor of Economics, Denison University: Socialism
After Hayek
 Philip Kozel, Professor of Economics, Connecticut College: Aristotle
and Local Currency Movements

***********************************

OTHER WORKSHOPS PLANNED AS OF JUNE 1 

1) Living Simple and Confronting Consumerism

2) An Unfolding Revolution: Venezuela

3) A student centered/constructivist/contextual learning model for unemployment/outsourcing/globalization.

4) Reading the Nation State; Literature as Political Economy

5) The Future of New Immigrants Now and Then. A Case Study, New Haven.

6) Marxism and Today’s Economic Problems.

7) The Job Market or Economists

8) Cuba Today

   9) Alternatives to Capitalism