Radical Philosophy Hour - April 5, 2021

Radical Philosophy Hour is a monthly event featuring two speakers and discussion on Facebook Live. Join us and share your questions in the comments section.
The first event in our series features Eli Portella Perreras and Larry Alan Busk, whose presentations both address climate change.
Eli Portella Perreras, “Ecological Imperialism and Anti-Colonial Critique”
Abstract: “Ecological Imperialism and Anti-Colonial Critique” focuses on the central role of the extraction of natural resources and the exploitation of colonized labor in order to remove, process, and export those resources in reconstructing the history of capitalist imperialism (i.e., ecological imperialism). The centrality of the category of ‘nature,’ furthermore, is examined in the context of 20th century anti-colonial critique (esp. in the Caribbean and African Marxist traditions, esp. Walter Rodney, C.L.R. James, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara). Drawing this historical view into the present, the presentation argues for the potential of the contraction-convergence model of climate policy with specific attention to the problem of underdevelopment. This intervention is situated as part of a broader advocacy for a rationally planned transformation of global production in response to the climate crisis, drawing on insights from dependency and world-systems theory as well as ecological Marxism.
Larry Alan Busk, "Climate Jacobin"
Abstract: “Climate Jacobin” argues that the severity and scope of the impending climate catastrophe necessitates the revival of an all-but-extinct concept in critical political theory: the rationally planned society. Juxtaposing historical and contemporary philosophical and economic arguments against ‘rational planning’ with the stark realities of climate change, this talk argues that we face a difficult but soluble choice: either embrace a centralized, vertically integrated, coordinated, and totalizing plan for economic production and political organization at a global level, or accept gradual extinction. The supposed obsolescence of the former project thus desperately needs to be reconsidered. In service of such a project, this talk will sketch a few features of a political and philosophical disposition capable of navigating a climatically compromised world in a coherent and conscionable way.