COVID, climate change, and capitalism present a set of fundamental crises. What will it take for the left to be adequate to the task of addressing them? This talk will consider the barriers constituted by the continuation of anti-communist assumptions. It will draw out the limits of left “assemblism,” state-phobia, and amorphous inclusivity and highlight the necessity of a disciplined struggle for state power. If the problems are as severe as the ever-present evocations of dystopian catastrophe indicate, then the only way forward is the revolutionary seizure of the state and the immediate building of socialism.

Moderated by UC Santa Cruz Professors Debbie Gould (Sociology) and T. J. Demos (History of Art and Visual Culture)

Jodi Dean is Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. She is the author or editor of thirteen books, including Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies (Duke 2009), The Communist Horizon (Verso 2012), Crowds and Party (Verso 2016), and Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging (Verso 2019).

Beyond the End of the World comprises a year-long research and exhibition project and public lecture series, directed by T. J. Demos of the Center for Creative Ecologies, bringing leading international thinkers and cultural practitioners to UC Santa Cruz. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Culture. For more information visit beyond.ucsc.edu