Speaker:  Alexander Diones, Loyola Marymount University
Title: Criticism and Self-Criticism: The Combahee River Collective and the Critique of Global Maoism
Topic:  PT Workshop
Time:  Friday, March 3rd; 4:00pm

The password-protected paper is both attached and available on the PT website at
https://polisci.ucla.edu/events/workshops/political-theory-workshop
The password is (case-sensitive) UCLAtheory

Abstract:
How do we conceive of solidarity when we’re conditioned to treating one another as antagonists? To answer this question, I turn to the Combahee River Collective’s “Statement,” particularly its theory of what the authors call “criticism and loathing.” Building on recent scholarship on the collective’s place in the intellectual history of global Maoism, this essay argues that the account of criticism contained in this phrase should be thought of as both a reformulation of Maoist theories of vanguard politics and a claim about the relation of identity and solidarity.