Lectures about “Eco-Socialism” and Left, Jewish Intellectuals

Michael Loewy in Vienna

In co-operation with the Viennese experimental theatre FLEISCHEREI mobil, the Diplomatic Academy and transform! austria, transform! europe organised two events in Vienna with the French philosopher and sociologist Michael Loewy which drew quite some public attention.

On Thursday, 23 February, Loewy in a 90 minutes’ interview for the Viennese TV-channel Okto answered the questions of stage and artistic director Eva Brenner and transform! europe coordinator Walter Baier on the concept of “eco-socialism” which currently is the focus of his research work. Without a radical critique of capitalism no solution could be achieved of the pending ecological crisis, while at the same time there was no social emancipation without the ecological dimension, the author said.
On the next day, a public discussion took place at the Jewish Theatre of Austria which was also recorded by Okto under the title “A Storm Is Blowing from Paradise” – a quote taken from the “Theses on the Philosophy of History” written by Walter Benjamin in 1939. The event complemented by the presentation of songs from the Jewish resistance had as its subject Lowey’s book “Juifs hétérodoxes: Messianisme, romantism, utopie” published in Paris in 2010 – a publication dedicated to the manifold interactions between Jewish intellectuals and the Left in the interwar period.
In the context of the programme the interest of a well-known Austrian publishing-house could be won for the project of publishing Loewy’s book in German.