Platypus Manchester primary Marxist Reading Group Winter–Spring 2019

•required/ + recommended reading

Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)

Winter 2019

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

WINTER BREAK for weeks commencing Dec. 17, 24, 31, Jan. 7.

Week 10. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Jan. 14, 2019

•Korsch,“Marxism and philosophy” (1923)
+Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ 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
+ Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), pp. 143–145

Film screening, Jan. 21, 2019

•Rosa Luxemburg (1986)

Winter–Spring 2019

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Week 11. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 28, 2019

• 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 12. Reform or revolution? | Feb. 4, 2019

•Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution?(1900/08)
+ Eugene Debs,"Competition versus Cooperation" (1900)

Week 13. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 11, 2019

•Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party(1978)

Week 14. What is to be done? | Feb. 18, 2019

• 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 15. Mass strike and social democracy | Feb. 25, 2019

• Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)
+ Luxemburg, "Blanquism and Social Democracy" (1906)

Week 16. Permanent revolution | Tuesday Mar. 5, 2019 Samuel Alexander Building A213

• Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects(1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism/Trotsky for Beginners (1980)

Week 17. State and revolution | Mar. 11, 2019

•Lenin, The State and Revolution(1917)

Week 18. Imperialism | Mar. 18, 2019

•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 19. Failure of the revolution | Mar. 25, 2019

•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 20. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 1, 2019

•Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder(1920)
+ Lenin, "Notes of a Publicist"(1922)

EASTER BREAK for weeks commencing Apr. 8, 15, 22

Week 21. Dialectic of reification | April 29

•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
+Commodity form chart of terms
+Reification chart of terms

Week 22. Lessons of October | Tuesday May 7, 2019, Samuel Alexander Building A213

•Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF] •Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism" (1937)

Week 23. Trotskyism | May 13

+ Trotsky, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
+ Trotsky, "If America should go communist" (1934)
•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 24. The authoritarian state | May 20, 2019

• Friedrich Pollock, "State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations" (1941) (note 32 on USSR)
• Max Horkheimer, "The Authoritarian State" (1942)

Week 25. On the concept of history | Tuesday May 28, 2019, Samuel Alexander Building A213

• 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, "Fire alarm" (from One-Way Street, 1928) [JPG] [PDF]
+ 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)
+Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

Week 26. Reflections on Marxism & Week 27. Theory and practice | *17:30* TUESDAY June. 4, 2019. Humanities Bridgeford Street room G34

• Theodor Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory”(1942)
•Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses”(1944–47)
+Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ 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)

&

+ Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (1969)
•Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
•Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
+Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ 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)
+ Adorno, Interview with Der Spiegel magazine (1969)