Platypus London Reading Group Spring-Summer 2015
As a consolidation of some of the themes explored last term, we will spend the first two weeks addressing the history of politics of gender, sexuality and race from a Marxist perspective.
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Following this, we will be starting a new series of readings on the history of the revolutionary Marxism of the 2nd International, and their followers.
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I. What is the "Left?" -- What is "Marxism?"
Gender, sexuality and Left | Jan. 12, 2015
- Juliet Mitchell, “Women: The longest revolution” (1966)
- Clara Zetkin and Vladimir Lenin, “An interview on the woman question” (1920)
- Theodor W. Adorno, “Sexual taboos and the law today” (1963)
- John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and gay identity” (1983)
Anti-black racism in the U.S. | Jan. 19, 2015
- Richard Fraser, “Two lectures on the black question in America and revolutionary integrationism” (1953)
- James Robertson and Shirley Stoute, “For black Trotskyism” (1963)
+ Spartacist League, “Black and red: Class struggle road to Negro freedom” (1966)
+ Bayard Rustin, “The failure of black separatism” (1970)
- Adolph Reed, “Black particularity reconsidered” (1979)
+ Reed, “Paths to Critical Theory” (1984)
II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 26, 2015
- Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” Part 1 (1915)
- J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model”(1965)
- Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)
Reform or revolution? | Feb. 2, 2015
- Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)
Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 9, 2015
- Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
What is to be done? | Feb. 16, 2015
- V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done? (1902)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
Mass strike and social democracy | Feb. 23, 2015
- Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)
+ Luxemburg, "Blanquism and Social Democracy" (1906)
Permanent revolution | Mar. 2, 2015
- Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners(1980)
State and revolution | Mar. 9, 2015
- Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)
Imperialism | Mar. 16, 2015
- Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916)
+ Lenin, Socialism and War Ch. 1 The principles of socialism and the War of 1914–15(1915)
Failure of the revolution | Mar. 30, 2015
- Luxemburg, “What does the Spartacus League Want?” (1918)
- Luxemburg, “On the Spartacus Programme” (1918)
+ Luxemburg, "German Bolshevism" (AKA "The Socialisation of Society") (1918)
+ Luxemburg, “The Russian Tragedy” (1918)
+ Luxemburg, “Order Reigns in Berlin” (1919)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19 (1968)
[Easter Holidays]
Platypus International convention Apr. 10-12, 2015
Retreat after revolution | Apr. 20, 2015
- Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
+ Lenin, "Notes of a Publicist" (1922)
Dialectic of reification | Apr. 27Â , 2015
- Lukács, “The Standpoint of the Proletariat” (Part III of “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” 1923). Available in three sections from marxists.org:section 1 section 2 section 3
Lessons of October | May 4, 2015
- Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF]
+ Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism" (1937)
Trotskyism | May 11, 2015
+ Trotsky, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
+ Trotsky, "Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay" (1940)
+ Trotsky, Letter to James Cannon (September 12, 1939)
The authoritarian state | May 18, 2015
- Friedrich Pollock, "State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations" (1941) (note 32 on USSR)
- Max Horkheimer, "The Authoritarian State" (1942)
On the concept of history | May 25, 2015
- epigraphs by Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson) and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche) on the modern concept of history
+ Charles Baudelaire, from Fusées [Rockets] (1867)
+ Bertolt Brecht, "To posterity" (1939)
+ Walter Benjamin, "To the planetarium" (from One-Way Street, 1928)
+ Benjamin, "Experience and poverty" (1933)
+ Benjamin, Theologico-political fragment (1921/39?)
- Benjamin, "On the Concept of History" (AKA "Theses on the Philosophy of History")(1940) [PDF]
- Benjamin, Paralipomena to "On the Concept of History" (1940)
Reflections on Marxism | Jun. 1, 2015
- Theodor Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)
- Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)
+ Adorno, Dedication, "Bequest", "Warning: Not to be Misused" and "Finale", Minima Moralia (1944–47)
+ Horkheimer and Adorno, "Discussion about Theory and Praxis" (AKA "Towards a New Manifesto?") [Deutsch] (1956)
Theory and practice | Jun. 8, 2015
+ Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (1969)
- Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
- Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
+ Adorno, “Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?”) (1968)
+ Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)
+ Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)
