The Platypus Affiliated Society presents, a moderated panel discussion and audience Q&A addressing issues of global capital, trade unions, workers rights, international solidarity, and immigration, in light of recent economic and political change.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
280 S. Columbus Drive (main auditorium)
Speakers include:
Abraham Mwaura, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, organizer at the Republic Windows & Doors Factory.
Chuck Hendricks, Unite Here organizer
Aaron Hughes, representative at the International Labor Conference Erbil Iraq, and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War
James Thindwa, executive director of Chicago Jobs with Justice
Left Forum 2009 "Turning Points"
April 17-19, 2009
Dialectics of Defeat: Towards a Theory of Historical Regression and
Politics of the Contemporary Student Left: Hopes and Failures
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
112 South Michigan room # 707
5-6:30
We want everyone from SAIC, UChicago, Loyola, DePaul and other Chicago platypi to a city-wide meeting and a night on the town.
It's about time everyone from around the city meets face to face to talk about the future of our group.
Come to discuss and plan our upcoming events in March and April along with our first international convention in June.
I hope to see you all there!
-Ian Morrison and Laurie Rojas
Please email laurie.rojas@gmail.com to RSVP if you are not SAIC affiliated.
Platypus chapter at MIT meets Sundays
For more information contact laurasch@mit.edu
[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
Party, Faction and "Freedom of criticism"
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
Optional session: Revolutionary Marxism 1905 (2)
· 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 10, 2009
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 17, 2009
Theory and practice (2)
· Theodor W. Adorno, "Marginalia to Theory and Praxis" (1969)
· Theodor W. Adorno, "Resignation" (1969)
Theodor W. Adorno, "Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?" (AKA "Is Marx Obsolete?," 1968)
Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)
Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)
