Here are details of new papers on the Signs of the Times web-site,
http://www.signsofthetimes.org.uk
.....and details of seminars being held soon in London.

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Who Moved My Worth? Management Self-Help Books and YOU!

Paul Bowman deconstructs the management-theory parable 'Who Moved my
Cheese?'
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Not in My Name: The Possibility of a Popular Politics

Nicky Marsh and Liam Connell ask whether February's Anti-war
demonstration forms a useful model for political mobilisation of the
Left
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A Spin Too Far

Liz Davies speculates about the possibilities for the Left outside the
Labour Party
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The Private Finance Initiative & the Education Market

Jonathan Rutherford considers the operation of PFI for funding
investment in education
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Report From New York City Anti-War Demonstration

Mike Marqusee records the February 15th march in New York
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...and
Some thoughts on the anti-war movement

Mike Marqusee reflects on the nature of the anti-war coalition and
considers the possibilities for protest against a forthcoming war with
Iraq.

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS

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Monday 14 April at 7.30pm
STATES OF WAR: The 21st Century Military-Industrial-Scientific Complex

with 
GIDEON BURROWS, author of THE NO-NONSENSE GUIDE TO THE ARMS TRADE and
DOMINICK JENKINS author of FINAL FRONTIER : AMERICA, SCIENCE AND TERROR

Technologies of warfare seek to sanitise our understanding of the
actuality of warfare. Battles become flashes on a computer screen; the
killing fields are often far from the media gaze. But the deadly reality is
that the end of the Cold War has been marked scarcely a decade later with
the return of Hot War. This is an era marked both by armed conflict and a
huge international arms trade that profits from the sale of weapons to past,
present and future foes.

DOMINICK JENKINS, author of a new book on the science of war joins
anti-arms trade campaigner GIDEON BURROWS to discuss the power and the
impact of today's military-industrial-scientific complex.

The Union Tavern, 52 Lloyd Baker Street, London WC1

Free admission; no advance registration; donations welcome

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Monday 19 May at 7.30pm
CONTRADICTIONS OF CULTURAL DEMOCRACY: Culture and self-realisation in
postmodern times

KATE SOPER and MARTIN RYLE discuss the themes of their recent book, 'To
Relish the Sublime? Culture and self-realisation in postmodern times'
(Verso, 2002)

Matthew Arnold wrote that since people naturally have Œa taste for the
bathos¹, they must be Œcompelled to relish the sublime¹.  Few today
would defend Arnold¹s prescriptions for cultural education.  However,
Ryles & Soper point out that some notion of cultural self-realisation
remains central both to the stated educational policies of liberal
democracies and to the self-understanding of teachers of culture. Even
those who prefer to focus on popular texts expect their students to
develop, by studying them, more complex and demanding sensibilities and
criteria. They argue that neither postmodern scepticism about the
coherence of Œthe subject¹ nor political critiques of Œwestern¹ textual
forms and canons need lead us to reject conceptions of self-development
and cultural value.

The Union Tavern, 52 Lloyd Baker Street, London WC1.

Free admission, no advance registration; donations welcome.

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Future events: June 28th is the date we are planning to hold
our day conference - 'Days of Hope - Social Forums and the Future of
Protest'. 
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Signs of the Times is an independent, self-funded collective. We exist to
provide a space for the free exchange and circulation of ideas on the left,
free from sectarian loyalties or ideological dogma. For more information and
resources see http://www.signsofthetimes.org.uk