Enquanto não se é, nem se deixa de ser comunista, pense-se a ideia

Idea of Communism. Philosophy and Art is a scientific/artistic conference aimed at considering the concept of “Communism” from a new perspective and including its multiple significations. (...) In 2010 the fall of the socialist regime turns 20 years old and the future of Capitalism –free from the threat of an alternative- seems to be yet to come. Our lives develop under the sign of individual freedoms, democratic opinions and globalised trade, which Marx had already called “the world market”. But is a society organised above all around the rules of competition and maximum profit-making really the only option left nowadays? Are episodes of crisis only the result of actions by irresponsible players in the global business game? Should we not approach the issue from a different perspective to say that all social dynamics based on the interests, desires and needs of individuals are always pathological?



One thing is clear today: socialist regimes have failed. All alternative forms of a state suitable for those wishing to orient their lives by something other than globalised Capitalism have disappeared. Twenty years after the fall of such alternative attempts, the time has come to look for new alternatives. They will not be founded on a nostalgic, melancholic longing for the vanished systems. However, in order to create new alternatives, the failure of past alternatives must be scrutinised. That is the aim and challenge of the conference. Firstly, it is guided by the need to analyse the socialist states from an emancipating perspective. Secondly, it will focus on the possibility of achieving a new orientation out of the analysis: an orientation that may be again called “communist”. Therefore, the idea is to state again, but under new conditions, the question of what could be today a positive meaning of the word “Communism”. Such a new communist orientation cannot forget the experiences made by the vanished states; it will rather have to review all previous attempts, while not giving up the idea of an emancipating approach.


The Berlin conference should mark the beginning of such processes of analysis and reflection, review and criticism, aiming at a process of working on and with the communist hypothesis.