Eric Hobsbawm Memorial Lecture: Racial Capitalism. What's in a Name?

Dear Colleagues,

One of the (few) benefits of the pandemic is the increased volume of events and activity that you can engage with online. And with this in mind I am keen to promote your attendance at this year's Eric Hobsbawn Memorial Lecture. 

I first came across Hobsbawn at Ruskin College when, as a feckless student, I read The Forward March of Labour ( halted as part of reading list introducing catalysts for the decline of organised labour. I had no grasp before then of the degree to which the movement had, to a degree at least, wrought its demise and, at that point at least, appeared incapable of conjuring its own rejuvenation. That book was a revelation and led me to read what has become my essential reading on the subject of profound change in the composition of the working class and of the institutions arising from it, Farewell to the Working Class by Andre Gorz: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780861043644/farewell-to-the-working-class/

Thereafter, I would often look out for Hobsbawm's other books, and was highly chuffed to find that he was a lover of jazz and had written on this subject also: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571320103-the-jazz-scene/ And so, I was pleased to see some year's ago that his old academic institution Birkbeck hosts an annual memorial lecture.

This year's theme, of racial capitalism, is a great opportunity to step back from events that have unfolded since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement to better understand the organic relationship between capitalism, imperialism and racism.

You can register for the event here: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=26110

And here is some promotional material for the event - I hope you sign up and enjoy the session.

Racial Capitalism. What’s in a Name? 
‘Racial capitalism’ is a term that is being increasingly used in an effort to capture the organic connections between these two interrelated but different systems that continue to dominate the modern world. This talk will argue for the need for temporal and spatial specificities in trying to untangle what constitutes the workings of ‘racial capitalism’. Taking the example of C18 Jamaica it will explore the relation between the plantation economy, the imperial framework within which it operated, constructions of whiteness and hereditary racial slavery. Where, how, and by whom was wealth created?  Who accumulated it? 

Catherine Hall is Emerita Professor of History and Chair of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London. Her recent work has focused on the relation between Britain and its empire: Civilising Subjects (2002), Macaulay and Son (2012) and Hall et al, Legacies of British Slave-ownership (2014). Between 2009-2015 she was the Principal Investigator on the ESRC/AHRC projects Legacies of British Slave-ownership which aimed to put slavery back into British history. Her new book will be Making Racial Capitalism: Edward Long’s History of Jamaica.  

In Solidarity

Ian