Oxford Spring 2018 Reading Group: Introduction to Revolutionary Marxism
Oxford: Thursdays 5.00 – 7.00 pm
Harris Manchester College, Carpenter Room (map of the college)
1 Mansfield Rd, Oxford OX1 3TD
• required / + recommended reading
Recommended winter break preliminary readings:
+ Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left” (1968)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, “Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners” (1977)
+ Sebastian Haffner, “Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19” (1968)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, “Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners” (1980)
+ James Joll, “The Second International 1889–1914” (1966)
+ Edmund Wilson, “To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History” (1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6
Hilary Term 2018
I. Introduction to Platypus
Week 1. Capital in History | 18th January 2018
• Max Horkheimer, “The little man and the philosophy of freedom” (1926–31)
• Chris Cutrone, “The Marxist hypothesis” (2010)
• Chris Cutrone, “Class consciousness (from a Marxist persective) today” (2012)
• Chris Cutrone, “Capital in history” (2008)
• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels) and Karl Marx, on “becoming” (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58)
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
+ video of Communist University 2011 London presentation
Week 2. Utopia and Critique | 25th January 2018
• Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left” (1968)
• Marx, “To make the world philosophical” (from Marx's dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11
• Marx, “For the ruthless criticism of everything existing” (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15
II. Introduction to Revolutionary Marxism
Week 3. Revolutionary leadership | 1st February 2018
• 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)
Week 4. Reform or revolution? | 8th February 2018
• Luxemburg, “Reform or Revolution?” (1900/08)
+ Eugene Debs, “Competition versus Cooperation” (1900)
Week 5. Lenin and the vanguard party | 15th February 2018
• Spartacist League, “Lenin and the Vanguard Party” (1978)
Week 6. What is to be done? | 22th February 2018
• 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)
Week 7. Mass strike and social democracy | 1st March 2018
• Luxemburg, “The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions” (1906)
+ Luxemburg, “Blanquism and Social Democracy” (1906)
Week 8. Permanent revolution | 8th March 2018
• Leon Trotsky, “Results and Prospects” (1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, “Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners” (1980)
Trinity Term 2018
Week 9. State and revolution | 26th April 2018
• Lenin, “The State and Revolution” (1917)
Week 10. Imperialism | 3rd May 2018
• 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)
Week 11. Failure of the revolution | 10th May 2018
• 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)
+ Eugene Debs, “The Day of the People” (1919)
+ Sebastian Haffner, “Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19” (1968)
Week 12. Retreat after revolution | 17th May 2018
• Lenin, ““Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder” (1920)
+ Lenin, “Notes of a Publicist” (1922)
Week 13. Dialectic of reification | 24th May 2018
• 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
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 14. Lessons of October | 31th May 2018
• Trotsky, “The Lessons of October” (1924) [PDF] + Trotsky, “Stalinism and Bolshevism” (1937)
Week 15. Trotskyism | 7th June 2018
+ Trotsky, “To build communist parties and an international anew” (1933)
• Trotsky, “The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International” (1938)
+ Trotsky, “Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay” (1940)
+ Trotsky, “Letter to James Cannon” (September 12, 1939)
Week 16. The authoritarian state | 14th June 2018
• Theodor Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)
• Max Horkheimer, “The Authoritarian State” (1942)
+ Friedrich Pollock, “State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations” (1941) (note 32 on USSR)
