Union for Radical Political Economics
The Union for Radical Political Economics, founded in 1968 is an interdisciplinary association devoted to the study, development and application of radical political economic analysis to social problems. URPE seeks to critique the capitalist system and all forms of exploitation and oppression while helping to construct a progressive social policy and create socialist alternatives.[1]
Mission
URPE's core purpose as outlined on their website is,
- "to be an alternative professional organization for left political economists and an intellectual home for academics, policy-makers, and activists who are interested in participating in a left intellectual debate on theoretical and policy issues."[2]
The URPE has established the following caucuses and projects to further its cause:
- The Women’s Caucus, formed in 1971 "to protest the white male domination within URPE that tended to mute women’s and feminists’ voices."
- The Gay, Lesbian and Bi-Sexual Caucus, formed in the early 1980s "has actively participated in sponsoring workshops and panels on issues such as sexuality, family policy, and AIDS, as well as presented the concerns of gays, lesbians, and bi-sexuals to the rest of the URPE"
- The Third World Caucus, founded in the late 1980s "in order to bring a representative voice of people of color and from countries of the South into the organization and onto the Steering Committee."
- The Political Education and Action Project
- The Economics Education Project[2]
Affiliations
The following organizations are affiliated with the URPE:[2]
History
The URPE was founded in the summer of 1968, when graduate students and faculty from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Harvard University and Radcliffe College held a working meeting in Ann Arbor just a few weeks before the National Democratic Party Convention in Chicago.[2]
Founding Members
The founding members of the URPE were:[2]
URPE and Economics Society of the New School Conference on the Soviet Union
A "Conference on the Nature of the Soviet Union and Its Role in the World Today" was scheduled for March 17, 1979 in New York City, and was co-sponsored by the Union for Radical Political Economics URPE andthe Economics Society of the New School.
It was divided into both a Morning Session and Afternoon Workshops, to be held at the Washington Irving High School and then the New School for Social Research respectively. The notice appeared in the March 14, 1979 issue of the "Guardian", the U.S. maoist-oriented radical weekly.
Morning Session Speakers:
- Paul Sweezy - Editor, "Monthly Review"
- Victor Perlo - author of forthcoming "Dynamic Stability: The Soviet Economy Today" (and id. Soviet spy, id. CPUSA member), later the open leader of the CPUSA's "Economics Commission"
- Noel Ignatin - author of "No Condescending Saviors", and (well known marxist)
- Michael Zweig - SUNY Stony Brook, contributor to "How Capitalism Has Been Restored in the Soviet Union and What This Means for the World Struggle", (another well known marxist)
Afternoon Workshops: Subjects
- COMECON
- Women in the USSR
- USSR and the Third World
- Economic Structure
- Law of Value
- USSR and India
- USSR and Africa
- Detente
- Agriculture
- Eurocommunism, and many others
Workshop Speakers: (Partial Listing)
- Elmer Altwater - Free University of Berlin, one of the homes of marxist theoretician Hebert Marcuse
- Jorge Calderon - National University of Mexico
- Malik Chaka - former journalist based in Southern Africa
- Phillip Corrigan, N.E. London Polytechnic University; co-author of "Socialist Construction and Marxist Theory"
- Bogdan Denitch - "Dissent" magazine (a well-known marxist and later a DSA leader)
- Beatrice Farnsworth - Wells College
- Arthur Felberbaum - School for Marxist Education
Coordinators
The coordinators of the URPE for 2009 - 2010 were:[3]
- Pat Duffy (National Office), University of Massachusetts
ASSA Coordinators:
- Fred Moseley, Mount Holyoke College
- Laurie Nisonoff, Hampshire College
- Jenny Brown (Newletter Editor & Women’s Caucus Representative), Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives
- Ruthie Indeck (Economy Connection Coordinator)
Steering Committee:
- Frances Boyes, UNITE HERE
- Al Campbell, University of Utah
- Scott Carter, University of Tulsa
- Marie Duggan, Keene State College
- Laura Ebert, Marist College
- Mathew Forstater, University of Missouri
- Armagan Gezici, Keene State College
- Julio Huato, St. Francis College
- Laurie Nisonoff, Hampshire College
- Patty Lee Parmalee
- Paddy Quick, St. Francis College
Review of Radical Political Economics
The Review of Radical Political Economics is the journal of the Union for Radical Political Economics, being published four times a year by Sage Publications. It promotes critical inquiry into all areas of economic, social, and political reality with an approach they define as "non-orthodox economics". The RPE publishes research in Marxian economics, post-Keynesian economics, Sraffian economics, feminist economics, and radical institutional economics.[4]
Editorial Board
The editorial board for 2008 - 2009 was:[5]
- Hazel Dayton Gunn (Managing Editor), Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University
- David Barkin (Book Review Editor), Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico
- Enid Arvidson, University of Texas at Arlington
- Ron Baiman, Loyola University Chicago
- Brigitte Bechtold, Central Michigan University
- Richard Cornwall, Emeritus, Middlebury College
- William Dugger, The University of Tulsa
- Don Goldstein, Allegheny College
- Christopher Gunn, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
- Alan Day Haight, SUNY Cortland
- Dorene Isenberg, University of Redlands
- Fadhel Kaboub, Drew University
- Michael Keaney, Mercuria Business School/Evtek University
- Marlene Kim, University of Massachusetts at Boston
- David Kotz, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
- Mehrene Larudee, DePaul University
- Victor Lippit, University of California at Riverside
- John McDermott, Emeritus, SUNY
- Gary Mongiovi, Saint John’s University
- Shaianne Osterreich, Ithaca College
- Bruce Pietrykowski, University of Michigan at Dearborn
- Paddy Quick, St. Francis College
- Gil Skillman, Wesleyan University
- Ramaa Vasudevan, Colorado State University at Fort Collins
- John Weeks, Emeritus, University of London
- John Willoughby, American University