Launch of Counterfutures: Issue 15

You are warmly invited to the launch of issue 15 of Counterfutures: Left Thought & Practice Aotearoa. Counterfutures is a multidisciplinary journal of Left research, thought, and strategy. It brings together work from across Aotearoa New Zealand’s Left, aiming to intervene in, and inaugurate, debates about how to understand and influence our society, politics, culture, and environment. The journal is edited by Neil Vallelly and it is housed in the Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology Programme at the University of Otago. 

The issue opens with an editorial reflecting on the significance of the 2023 General Election for the left. The editorial is followed by three articles. The first draws on interviews with sex workers in Aotearoa NZ to explore how sex work challenges the foundations of the institution of work. The second focuses on the rise of small religious right-wing parties during the 2020 General Election and their enduring presence in the political landscape. The third puts forward a programme for a national debt abolition movement in Aotearoa NZ. The articles are followed by an interview with renowned Italian Marxist autonomist philosopher Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi. An intervention by the Left TEU Network critiques the TEU’s response to the tertiary cuts in Aotearoa NZ in 2023, before two book reviews on Bain Attwood’s A Bloody Difficult Subject and Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood. The issues finishes with an epilogue reflecting on Israel’s siege on Gaza.

There will be snacks, drinks, and a few short speeches. You will be able to purchase copies of the Issue 15 at the launch. We’d love to see you there. And feel free to share the invitation with anyone that might be interested.