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.
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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.
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I. What is the "Left?" -- What is "Marxism?"
Gender, sexuality and Left | Jan. 12, 2015
- Juliet Mitchell, “Women: The longest revolution” (1966)
- Clara Zetkin and Vladimir Lenin, “An interview on the woman question” (1920)
- Theodor W. Adorno, “Sexual taboos and the law today” (1963)
- John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and gay identity” (1983)
Anti-black racism in the U.S. | Jan. 19, 2015
- Richard Fraser, “Two lectures on the black question in America and revolutionary integrationism” (1953)
- James Robertson and Shirley Stoute, “For black Trotskyism” (1963)
+ Spartacist League, “Black and red: Class struggle road to Negro freedom” (1966)
+ Bayard Rustin, “The failure of black separatism” (1970)
- Adolph Reed, “Black particularity reconsidered” (1979)
+ Reed, “Paths to Critical Theory” (1984)
II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 26, 2015
- 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)
Reform or revolution? | Feb. 2, 2015
- Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)
Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 9, 2015
- Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
What is to be done? | Feb. 16, 2015
- 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)
Mass strike and social democracy | Feb. 23, 2015
- Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)
+ Luxemburg, "Blanquism and Social Democracy" (1906)
Permanent revolution | Mar. 2, 2015
- Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners(1980)
State and revolution | Mar. 9, 2015
- Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)
Imperialism | Mar. 16, 2015
- 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)
Failure of the revolution | Mar. 30, 2015
- 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)
+ 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, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
+ Lenin, "Notes of a Publicist" (1922)
Dialectic of reification | Apr. 27Â , 2015
- 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
Lessons of October | May 4, 2015
- Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF]
+ 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
- Friedrich Pollock, "State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations" (1941) (note 32 on USSR)
- Max Horkheimer, "The Authoritarian State" (1942)
On the concept of history | May 25, 2015
- 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, "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)
Reflections on Marxism | Jun. 1, 2015
- Theodor Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)
- Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)
+ 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, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
- Adorno, “Resignation” (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)
Wednesdays 7pm
Pure Origins
GeorgenstraĂźe 193
Berlin
check Facebook event for details
Week 1 (14 Jan 2015)
- Cutrone, “Symptomology: Historical transformations in social-political context”
- Cutrone, “Capital in history: The need for a Marxian philosophy of history of the Left” + Capital in history timeline and chart of terms + video of Communist University 2011 London presentation + Marx on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse) + Marx and Engels as philosophes of a Second Enlightenment
- Cutrone, "Class consciousness (from a Marxist perspective) today"
Week 2 (21 Jan 2015)
- Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left”
- Adorno, “Imaginative excesses”
Week 3 (28 Jan 2015)
- Blumberg, Cutrone, Khan, Leonard, and Rubin, Forum: The decline of the Left in the 20th century
Week 4 (4 Feb 2015)
- Anderson, Cutrone, Kreitman, Postel, and Turl, Forum: Imperialism: What is it, why should we be against it?
- Albert, Cutrone, Duncombe, and Holmes, Forum: The 3 Rs: reform, revolution and “resistance:” The problematic forms of “anti-capitalism” today
Week 5 (11 Feb 2015)
- Brennan, Davis, Hendricks, Mujica, and Rubin, Forum: What is a movement?
- Hendricks, Hughes, Mwaura, and Thindwa, Forum: Left behind: The working class in the crisis
Week 6 (18 Feb 2015)
- Platypus Historians Group, Catastrophe, historical memory, and the Left: 60 years of Israel-Palestine
- Ibish, Kovel, and Rubin, Forum: Which way forward for Palestinian liberation?
- Goodman and Rubin, Forum: Marxism and Israel
Week 7 (25 Feb 2015)
- Farrow, Gabrellas, Mucciaroni, and Wolf, Forum: Which way forward for sexual liberation?
- Nogales, Pereira Di Salvo, and Rojas, Forum: Politics of the contemporary student Left
- Brennan, Klatt, Petcov, and Weger, Forum: Ideology and the student Left
Week 8 (4 March 2015)
- Bernstein, Cutrone, Goehr, and Horowitz, Forum: The relevance of Critical Theory to art today
- Cutrone, Feenberg, Westerman, and Brown, Platypus convention plenary: The politics of Critical Theory
Week 9 (11 March 2015)
- Horkheimer and Adorno, “Discussion about Theory and Praxis” (AKA “Towards a New Manifesto?”)[Deutsch] (1956)
- Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung
- Adorno, “Resignation”
- Cutrone, “The Marxist hypothesis”
- Cutrone, “The Left is dead! — Long live the Left!” Vicissitudes of historical consciousness and the possibilities for emancipatory social politics today
Week 10 (18 March 2015)
- Cutrone, Morrison, and Rubin, Platypus convention plenary: The Platypus synthesis: History, theory, and practice
1. What sorts of questions should radical students ask themselves, the Left, and about the world?
Student life presents unique opportunities — to read, discuss, examine and critique different traditions of politics, sometimes with no previous political experience at all. And yet, a fear of sectarian controversy that could rip apart fragile student coalitions seems to call for, at least partially, imposed limitations to debate and criticism, and perhaps even the intellectual and political development enabled by the post-secondary setting. Even more, as students we often occupy a precarious part of the broader Left, due to perceived (and, perhaps often, real) social privilege. How can we as students actually engage in serious, honest reflection and conversation to clarify these uncertainties? What obstacles do they face? What sort of fundamental questions ought we as student activists ask ourselves and the broader Left? How should we ask them?
2. What is capitalism, and how can it be overcome?
In 2006 the new SDS, a broad coalition of student activists in the US, asserted its aims were to: “change a society which depends upon multiple and reciprocal systems of oppression and domination for its survival: racism and white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, heterosexism and transphobia, authoritarianism and imperialism, among others.” A very similar vision was advanced during the 2012 student strike in the CLASSE Manifesto. These systems, with a single exception, are straightforward forms of domination. A ruling stratum (whites, men) oppresses a given subaltern. While capitalism might appear likewise, as the direct and violent oppression of one class by another, many on the Left would argue this oversimplifies the complicated historical, social, political, economic and cultural characteristics of capitalism. How ought the students think about the specific form of capitalist domination? And what forms of politics are adequate to overcome it?
3. Why, and how, could students succeed today where they didn't in the past?
The Port Huron (1962) statement of the original Students for a Democratic Society sought to “replace power rooted in possession, privilege, or circumstance by power and uniqueness rooted in love, reflectiveness, reason, and creativity…” From the vantage point of the present, the first SDS seems to have failed to meet its own task. Possession, privilege and circumstance still determine social power. So why did the student movement of the past fail to achieve its ultimate ends? And how can the new student movement succeed, especially in the absence of a large-scale, organized international movement in the present? What would make international revolutionary politics possible again? How ought we to understand the loss of political possibility?