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You are here: The Platypus Affiliated Society/Platypus London Reading Group Spring-Summer 2015

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.

 

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.

 

I. What is the "Left?" -- What is "Marxism?"

Gender, sexuality and Left | Jan. 12, 2015

Anti-black racism in the U.S. | Jan. 19, 2015

+ Spartacist League, “Black and red: Class struggle road to Negro freedom” (1966)

+ Bayard Rustin, “The failure of black separatism” (1970)

+ Reed, “Paths to Critical Theory” (1984)

 

 

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 26, 2015

Reform or revolution? | Feb. 2, 2015

Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 9, 2015

What is to be done? | Feb. 16, 2015

+ 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, "Blanquism and Social Democracy" (1906)

Permanent revolution | Mar. 2, 2015

+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners(1980)

State and revolution | Mar. 9, 2015

Imperialism | Mar. 16, 2015

+ 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, "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, "Notes of a Publicist" (1922)

Dialectic of reification | Apr. 27 , 2015

Lessons of October | May 4, 2015

+ 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

On the concept of history | May 25, 2015

+ 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?)

Reflections on Marxism | Jun. 1, 2015

+ 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, “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)