New book: Back to the Future? The ILO's 1944 Declaration as a Source of Inspiration?

NEW TITLE:
THE SPIRIT OF PHILADELPHIA: SOCIAL JUSTICE VS. THE TOTAL MARKET
By ALAIN SUPIOT
Published: 7th June 2012

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--
EVENT:
Alain Supiot will be speaking at the LSE on Thursday 17th
May on his new book, hosted by THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS.
Thursday 17th May, 5pm
Connaught Building, room CON.1.04, LSE
Connaught House, Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
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A new manifesto for global social justice.

In 1944, the International Labour Organization laid
out its "Declaration of Philadelphia," a full-fledged social bill of
rights in the same spirit as FDR's State of the Union address of the same year. The
welfarist spirit was then at its apex, but Supiot argues that with
neoliberalism still rampant, even following the economic crash, the Declaration remains
an important baseline. Then as now, social ties had been compromised in favor
of market values; now, as then, the law must be reorganized to uphold social
values and the spirit of solidarity.

Short, punchy and often rousing, THE SPIRIT OF
PHILADELPHIA describes the worldwide triumph of neoliberalism as
once-communist elites turn towards market dogma and the privatization of
welfare states. Arguing against the return to social Darwinism, and the
bureaucratic embrace of numbers and statistics as ends, Supiot champions
the
social democratic spirit, hoping for its revival in the wake of the recent
Crash.

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Praise for THE SPIRIT OF PHILADELPHIA:
"France's most incisive jurist, Alain Supiot ... [whose work] has renewed
the idea that all significant belief-systems require a dogmatic foundation by focusing its
beam sharply, to the discomfort of their devotees, on the two most cherished
creeds of our time: the cults of the free markets and of human rights."
Perry Anderson, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n18/perry-anderson/union-sucree

"As a tonic in a grim time, Alain Supiot's THE SPIRIT
OF PHILADELPHIA recalls the now forgotten wartime apex of commitment to
welfarist solidarity. If that mid-twentieth century commitment now seems a
distant memory, Supiot offers both intellectual and practical reasons to
cherish its flame and light it again, after a return to the very economic
beliefs about the powers of the untrammelled free market that were once
repudiated - and could be again."
Samuel Moyn, Professor of History at COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY and author of THE LAST UTOPIA: HUMAN RIGHTS IN HISTORY.

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Alain Supiot is Professor of Law at the UNIVERSITY
OF NANTES, France. His previous books include BEYOND EMPLOYMENT: CHANGES
IN WORK, THE FUTURE OF LABOUR LAW IN EUROPE and, from Verso, HOMO JURIDICUS.

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ISBN: 9781844677542 / $24.95 / £16.99  / Hardback / 160 pages

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For more information about THE SPIRIT OF PHILADELPHIA, or to buy the book
visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/1112-intern-nation

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Academics can request an inspection copy. For further information please go
to: http://www.versobooks.com/pg/desk-copies

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