Platypus primary Marxist reading group Spring 2021
II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
Every Sunday
5:00pm to 7:00pm
Online via Zoom; recurring link (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89913198002)
Find us on social media! Facebook (group), Facebook (page), and Twitter
Find us on Mason360!
Contact us with platypus.metrodc@gmail.com
Recommended winter break preliminary readings:
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19 (1968)
+ Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940)
+ J.P. Nettl, Rosa Luxemburg (1966) [Vol. 1] [Vol. 2]
+ Georg Lukacs, Lenin: A Study on the Unity of his Thought (1924)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate , Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980) [ask for PDF]
Film screenings: spring 2021
• Fall of Eagles (1974) episodes: "The Last Tsar," "Absolute Beginners," "Dearest Nicky," "The Appointment," "The Secret War," and "End Game"
• 37 Days (2014) ([Episode 1] [Episode 2]) [Episode 3]
• Rosa Luxemburg (1986)
• Reds (1981)
• Lenin: The Train (1988)
• Doctor Zhivago (1965)
• Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States (2012) Episodes A (1900-20) and B (1920-40)
Winter–Spring 2021
II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
• required / + recommended reading
Week 12. Revolutionary Leadership | Jan. 17, 2021
• Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” (1915)
• J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model” (1965)
• Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)
Week 13. Reform or Revolution? | Jan. 24, 2021
• Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)
+ Eugene Debs, "Competition versus Cooperation" (1900)
Week 14. Lenin and the Vanguard Party | Jan. 31, 2021
• Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate , Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ Georg Lukacs, Lenin: A Study on the Unity of his Thought (1924)
Week 15. What is to be done? | Feb. 7, 2021
• V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done? (1902)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate , Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
Week 16. Mass Strike and Social Democracy | Feb. 14, 2021
• Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)
+ Luxemburg, "Blanquism and Social Democracy" (1906)
Week 17. Permanent Revolution | Feb. 21, 2021
• Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)
+ Trotsky, 1905 (1907)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
Week 18. State and Revolution | Feb. 28, 2021
• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)
Week 19. Imperialism | Mar. 7, 2021
• Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1915-17)
+ Lenin, Socialism and War, Ch. 1 The principles of socialism and the War of 1914–15 (1915)
Week 20. Failure of the Revolution | Mar. 14, 2021
• Luxemburg, “What does the Spartacus League Want?” (1918)
• Luxemburg, “On the Spartacus Programme” (1918)
+ Luxemburg, "German Bolshevism" (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 21. Retreat after Revolution | Mar. 21, 2021
• Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
• Lenin , "Notes of a Publicist" (1922)
Week 22. Dialectic of Reification | Mar. 28, 2021
• Lukács, “The Standpoint of the Proletariat” (Part III of “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” 1923). Also available on Marxists.org
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
early April, 2021 [Platypus international convention] --- all are invited
Week 24. Lessons of October | Apr. 18, 2021
• Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924)
• Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism" (1937)
Week 25. Trotskyism and the 4th International| Apr. 25, 2021
+ 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)
+ Platypus Historians Group, "The Dead Left: Trotskyism" (2008)
Week 26. The Authoritarian State | May 2, 2021
• Friedrich Pollock, "State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations" (1941)
• Max Horkheimer, "The Authoritarian State" (1942)
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
Week 27. On the Concept of History | May 9, 2021
• two epigraphs, Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels, 2003) and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche, 1980)
• Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (1940) [PDF]
• Benjamin, Paralipomena to "On the Concept of History" (1940)
+ 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, Arcades Project Convolute N, "On the theory of knowledge, theory of progress" (see especially p. 471 [N8,1] on Horkheimer on unredeemablility of past suffering)
+ Charles Baudelaire, from Fusées [Rockets] (1867)
+ Bertolt Brecht, "To posterity" (1939)
+ Benjamin on history chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 28. Reflections on Marxism | May 16, 2021
• Theodor Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)
• Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)
+ Adorno, four selections from Minima Moralia (1944–47)  Dedication, "Bequest", "Warning: Not to be Misused", and "Finale"
+ Horkheimer and Adorno, "Discussion about Theory and Praxis" (a.k.a "Towards a New Manifesto?") (1956)
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ Benjamin on history chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 29. Theory and Practice | May 23, 2021
• Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
• Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
+ Adorno, “Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (a.k.a. “Is Marx Obsolete?”) (1968)
+ Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)
+ Adorno, Interview with Der Spiegel magazine (1969)
+ Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)
+ Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (1969)
+ Adorno's critique of actionism chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
