Platypus » SAIC

SAIC screenings: The Handmaid’s Tale (1990) & Triumpth of the Will (1935)

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:30:06 +0000

History of Humanity film screenings:

112 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL.

Room 707 (7th floor)

4:30pm

Friday Janury 23, 2009:

The Handmaid’s Tale (1990) imdb

Director: Volker Schlöndorff

Based on a novel by Margaret Atwood

Friday January 30, 2009:

Triumph of the Will (1935) imdb

Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will clip

IMPORTANT: If you are not SAIC affiliated you need to contact laurie.rojas@gmail.com to be added to a list (just do subject: RSVP)

SAIC reading group Spring 2009

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:13:29 +0000

Platypus chapter at SAIC meets Sundays at

112 S. Michigan Ave.

Room 707 @ 1-4pm

[contact: ian.morrison.a@gmail.com if you are not SAIC affiliated]

[PDF of 2008-2009 scheduled readings]

January 25, 2009

What is “revolutionary leadership?”

· Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)

· Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” Part 1 (1915) [PDF]

February 1, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (1)

· J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890-1914 as a Political Model” (1965)

February 8, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (2)

· Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)

February 15, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (3)

· Karl Korsch, “Marxism and Philosophy” (1923)

Karl Korsch, “The Marxism of the First International” (1924)

February 22, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (4)

V. I. Lenin, “Where to Begin?” (1901)

· **V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement (1902) [PDF]
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology, 12-114]

March 1, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (5)

· Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (pamphlet 1978)**

Kautskyism and the Origins of Russian Social Democracy

Bolshevism vs. Menshevism: the 1903 Split

The 1905 Revolution

Party, Faction and “Freedom of criticism”

In Defense of Democratic Centralism:
A 1973 speech by James Robertson to the West German Spartacus (Bolschewiki-Leninisten)

The Struggle Against the Boycotters

The Final Split with the Mensheviks

Toward the Communist International

[recommended background reading:]
Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)

March 8, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (6)

· **Georg Lukács, “Preface” [original, 1922], History and Class Consciousness, xli-xlvii

· Georg Lukács, “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919), History and Class Consciousness, 1-26

· Georg Lukács, “Class Consciousness” (1920), History and Class Consciousness, 46-82**

March 15, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (7) 1905

· Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)

[recommended background reading:]
Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)

March 22, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (7) 1905 (continued)

· Rosa Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)

March 29, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (8)

· V. I. Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)

April 5, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (9) 1917-19 (1)

· Rosa Luxemburg, “What does the Spartacus League Want?” and “On the Spartacus Programme” (1918)

[recommended background reading:]
Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-19 (1968)

April 12, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (10)

· V. I. Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism — An Infantile Disorder (1920)

April 19, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (11)

· Georg Lukács, “The Standpoint of the Proletariat” [HTML sections 1-2] [sections 3-4] [sections 5-6] (Part III of “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” 1923), History and Class Consciousness, 149-222

April 26, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (12) 1917-19 (2)

· Leon Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [HTML]

Rosa Luxemburg, “The Russian Tragedy” (1918)

Rosa Luxemburg, “Order Reigns in Berlin” (1919)

May 3, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (13)

· Leon Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (AKA “Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution”) (1938) [HTML]

May 18, 2009

***Special potluck reading group meeting***

contact: ian.morrison.a@gmail.com

Theory and practice (1)

· Theodor W. Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1847-48, Prefaces to various language editions, I. “Bourgeois and Proletarians,” II. “Proletarians and Communists,” and IV. “Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties” [PDF])
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 469-491, and 499-500]

May 31, 2009

Theory and practice (2)

Theodor W. Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)

Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)

Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)

Theodor W. Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)

Theodor W. Adorno, “Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?,” 1968)

School of the Art Institute of Chicago google Calendar Spring 2009

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:00:56 +0000

This is a calendar with all events, meetings, and activities organized by the platypus chapter at SAIC (School of the Art Institute of Chicago).

You can add this calendar to your google account and get reminders of event through emails if you subscribe to it.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago marxist reading group meetings

admin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:30:29 +0000

SAIC chapter meets Sundays at
112 S. Michigan Ave.
room 707 (7th floor)
1-4PM

Contact lrojas@saic.edu if you are not affiliated with SAIC.

The Crisis in Marxist Thought forum (Chicago 7/25/08)

admin — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:00:54 +0000

Public forum with the Marxist-Humanist Committee hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society

The Crisis in Marxist Thought

Panel presentations and audience Q&A by: Kevin Anderson, Chris Cutrone (Platypus), Peter Hudis, Andrew Kliman, and Sandra Rein.

Event was held on Friday, July 25, 2008 6-9PM

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

112 S. Michigan Ave. (ballroom)

The 3 Rs: Reform, Revolution, and “Resistance”

admin — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:00:23 +0000

Platypus Affiliated Society public forum on The 3 Rs: Reform, Revolution, and “Resistance” — the problematic forms of “anticapitalism” today (Chicago, 11/6/07).

A moderated panel discussion and audience Q&A on problems of strategies and tactics on the Left today.

Panelists: Michael Albert (Z Magazine, author of Parecon: Life After Capitalism), Chris Cutrone (Platypus), Stephen Duncombe (Gallatin School of New York University, editor of Cultural Resistance Reader), Brian Holmes (Continental Drift and Université Tangente), and Marisa Holmes (new Students for a Democratic Society).

youtube playlist/url permalink

An edited transcript of the event is available here.

Interview with Tariq Ali

admin — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:17:30 +0000

Interview with Tariq Ali on Iraq, the anti-war movement, and the state of the Left today.

“Imperialism” What is it? — Why should we be against it?

admin — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:52:19 +0000

“However difficult the task of grasping and confronting global capital might be, it is crucially important that a global internationalism be recovered and reformulated. . . .
The Left should be very careful about constituting a form of politics that, from the standpoint of human emancipation, would be questionable, at the very best, however many people it may rouse.”
— Moishe Postone, “History and Helplessness” (2006)

A moderated panel discussion and audience Q&A on issues of global capital, imperialism and war, possiblities for progressive political opposition, and the problems and tasks for the Left in the post-Cold War and post-9/11 world raised by the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Panelists: Kevin Anderson (News and Letters), Chris Cutrone (Platypus) [Chris Cutrone's opening remarks prepared text], Nick Kreitman (new Students for a Democratic Society), Danny Postel (OpenDemocracy.net), and Adam Turl (International Socialist Organization).