Platypus chapter at SAIC meets Sundays at

112 S. Michigan Ave.

Room 707 @ 1-4pm

[PDF of 2008-2009 scheduled readings]

January 25, 2009

What is "revolutionary leadership?"

· Cliff Slaughter, "What is Revolutionary Leadership?" (1960)

· Rosa Luxemburg, "The Crisis of German Social Democracy" Part 1 (1915) [PDF]

February 1, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (1)

· J. P. Nettl, "The German Social Democratic Party 1890-1914 as a Political Model" (1965)

February 8, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (2)

· Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)

February 15, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (3)

· Karl Korsch, "Marxism and Philosophy" (1923)

Karl Korsch, "The Marxism of the First International" (1924)

February 22, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (4)

V. I. Lenin, "Where to Begin?" (1901)

· V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement (1902) [PDF]
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology, 12-114]

March 1, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (5)

· Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (pamphlet 1978)

Kautskyism and the Origins of Russian Social Democracy

Bolshevism vs. Menshevism: the 1903 Split

The 1905 Revolution

Party, Faction and "Freedom of criticism"

In Defense of Democratic Centralism:
A 1973 speech by James Robertson to the West German Spartacus (Bolschewiki-Leninisten)

The Struggle Against the Boycotters

The Final Split with the Mensheviks

Toward the Communist International

[recommended background reading:] Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)

March 8, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (6)

· Georg Lukács, "Preface" [original, 1922], History and Class Consciousness, xli-xlvii

· Georg Lukács, "What is Orthodox Marxism?" (1919), History and Class Consciousness, 1-26

· Georg Lukács, "Class Consciousness" (1920), History and Class Consciousness, 46-82

March 15, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (7) 1905

· Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)

[recommended background reading:] Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)

March 22, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (7) 1905 (continued)

· Rosa Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)

March 29, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (8)

· V. I. Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)

April 5, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (9) 1917-19 (1)

· Rosa Luxemburg, "What does the Spartacus League Want?" and "On the Spartacus Programme" (1918)

[recommended background reading:] Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-19 (1968)

April 12, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (10)

· V. I. Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism — An Infantile Disorder (1920)

April 19, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (11)

· Georg Lukács, "The Standpoint of the Proletariat" [HTML sections 1-2] [sections 3-4] [sections 5-6] (Part III of "Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat," 1923), History and Class Consciousness, 149-222

April 26, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (12) 1917-19 (2)

· Leon Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [HTML]

Rosa Luxemburg, "The Russian Tragedy" (1918)

Rosa Luxemburg, "Order Reigns in Berlin" (1919)

May 3, 2009

Revolutionary Marxism (13)

· Leon Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (AKA "Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution") (1938) [HTML]

May 18, 2009

***Special potluck reading group meeting***

contact: ian.morrison.a@gmail.com

Theory and practice (1)

· Theodor W. Adorno, "Reflections on Class Theory" (1942)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1847-48, Prefaces to various language editions, I. "Bourgeois and Proletarians," II. "Proletarians and Communists," and IV. "Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties" [PDF])
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 469-491, and 499-500]

May 31, 2009

Theory and practice (2)

Theodor W. Adorno, "Resignation" (1969)

Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)

Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)

Theodor W. Adorno, "Marginalia to Theory and Praxis" (1969)

Theodor W. Adorno, "Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?" (AKA "Is Marx Obsolete?," 1968)