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The Dutch atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen recently characterized the period marked by the start of the industrial revolution in the 18th Century to the present as a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. This periodization is meant to capture a change in the history of the planet, namely that for the first time in history its course will be determined by the question of what humanity will become; the question of freedom.

Mondays, 7:30 – 10:00 p.m.
Stokes Hall Room S363


• required / + recommended reading


Recommended winter break preliminary readings:

+ Leszek Kolakowski, â€œThe concept of the Left” (1968)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19 (1968)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)
+ Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6


Wednesday Film screenings: Winter 2020

4 screenings, 7:30–9:30 p.m., Stokes (building) S363 (room), *Pizza and soda provided*

Jan. 15, 2020

1.) Fall of Eagles episodes: #5 "The Last Tsar" and #6 "Absolute Beginners" on the origins of the Bolsheviks  

Jan. 29, 2020

2.) 37 Days [Episode 3] "One Long Weekend" (uncut BBC version including the Socialists) on the start of WWI; and Fall of Eagles episode #12 "The Secret War" on WWI and the Russian Revolution 

Feb. 12, 2020

3.) Fall of Eagles episode #13 "End Game" on the German Revolution 1918-19; and Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States Prequel Episode A. 1900-20, on imperialism, WWI and the Russian Revolution 


Feb. 26, 2020

4.) Rosa Luxemburg film 


additional recommended viewings:
Fall of Eagles episodes #s 7-8 "Dearest Nicky" and "The Appointment" on the Russo-Japanese War and Russian Revolution of 1905 and modernization, the Narodniks and Socialist Revolutionaries 
Reds film on American anarchists, Socialists and Communists in WWI and the Russian Revolution 
Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States Prequel Episode B. 1920-40 on counterrevolution, fascism, the Great Depression, Stalinism and Nazism 


Winter–Spring 2020 Readings

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Week 11. On the concept of history | Jan. 20, 2020

• epigraphs by Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson) and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche) on the modern concept of history

• Benjamin"On the Concept of History" (AKA "Theses on the Philosophy of History") (1940) [PDF]
• BenjaminParalipomena to "On the Concept of History" (1940)

• Theodor Adorno“Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)

Capital in history timeline and chart of terms 

+ Charles Baudelaire, from FusĂŠes [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 history chart of terms
+ 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)
Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms


Week 12. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 27, 2020

• 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 13. Reform or revolution? | Feb. 3, 2020

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


Week 14. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 10, 2020

• Spartacist LeagueLenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)


Week 15. What is to be done? | Feb. 17, 2020

• V. I. LeninWhat is to be Done? (1902)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)


Week 16. Mass strike and social democracy | Feb. 24, 2020

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


Week 17. Mar. 2, 2020 (spring break)


Week 18. Permanent revolution | March 9, 2020

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


Week 19. State and revolution | Mar. 16, 2020

• LeninThe State and Revolution (1917)


Week 20. Imperialism | Mar. 23, 2020

• LeninImperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916)
+ Lenin, Socialism and War Ch. 1 The principles of socialism and the War of 1914–15 (1915)


Week 21. Failure of the revolution | Mar. 30, 2020

• Luxemburg“What does the Spartacus League Want?” (1918)
• Luxemburg“On the Spartacus Programme” (1918)
+ Luxemburg, "German Bolshevism" (AKA "The Socialisation of Society") (1918)
+ Luxemburg, â€œThe Russian Tragedy” (1918)
+ Luxemburg, â€œOrder Reigns in Berlin” (1919)
+ Eugene Debs, â€œThe Day of the People” (1919)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19 (1968)


Week 22. Theory and practice | Apr. 6, 2020 

• Adorno“Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)

• Adorno“Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969) 

• Adorno“Resignation” (1969)

+ Adorno, â€œOn Subject and Object” (1969)
Commodity form chart of terms
Reification chart of terms
Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
Adorno's critique of actionism chart of terms

Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Adorno, â€œLate Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?”) (1968)
Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ 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)
+ 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)


Week 23. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 13, 2020

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


Week 24. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 20, 2020

• LukĂĄcs“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
Capitalist contradiction chart of terms + Organic composition of capital chart of terms
Reification chart of terms
+ LukĂĄcs, â€œThe phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)


Week 25. Lessons of October | Apr. 27, 2020

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


Week 26. Trotskyism | May 4, 2020

• TrotskyThe Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (1938)
+ Trotsky, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
+ Trotsky, "If America should go communist" (1934)
+ Trotsky, "Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay" (1940)
+ Trotsky, Letter to James Cannon (September 12, 1939)


Week 27. The authoritarian state | May 11, 2020

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


On September 27, 2019, at the Democracy Center in Cambridge, MA, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a teach-in led by Platypus members Divya M. and Soren W. on capital in history.

What is the development of freedom in human history from the Platypus perspective?

In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels famously observed that a "specter was haunting Europe: the specter of Communism". 170 years later, it is Marxism itself that haunts us, while capitalism remains.

What does it mean that Marx and Marxism still appeal, while political movements for socialism are weak or non-existent? What were Marxism's original points concerning radical possibilities for freedom that might still speak to the present?

Does Marxism even matter?

● vorausgesetzte Texte 
+ zusätzliche Texte 


Zeit: Sonntags und ab 3. Woche 5.11.2019 Dienstags, 19-22 Uhr

Ort: Karl Liebknecht Haus, Braustrasse 15, Leipzig (kÜnnte sich fßr den Dienstags Termin noch ändern)


1. Woche | EinfĂźhrung: Das Kapital in der Geschichte | 20.10.2019

● Max Horkheimer: “Der kleine Mann und die Philosophie der Freiheit”, in: Dämmerung (1926-31), S.360

● epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller (on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson), Karl Marx (on “becoming” – aus: Grundrisse 1857-58) and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche

+ Rainer Maria Rilke: “Archaischer Torso Apollos” (1908)

+ Robert Pippin “On Critical Theory” (2004) 

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms 

● Chris Cutrone: “Das Kapital in der Geschichte” (2008)

+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms

+ video of communist University 2011 London presentation 

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

● Cutrone: “The Marxist hypothesis” (2010)

● Cutrone: “Klassenbewusstsein (aus einer marxistischen Perspektive) heute” (2012)

+ G.M. Tamas, "Telling the truth about class" [HTML] (2007)


2. Woche | I. BĂźrgerlich-Radikale Philosophie: Rousseau | 27.10.2019

"Wer den Mut besitzt, einem Volke Einrichtungen zu geben, muß sich imstande fühlen, gleichsam die menschliche Natur umzuwandeln, jedes Individuum, das für sich ein vollendetes und einzeln bestehendes Ganze ist, zu einem Teile eines größeren Ganzen umzuschaffen, aus dem dieses Individuum gewissermaßen erst Leben und Wesen erhält; die Beschaffenheit des Menschen zu seiner eigenen Kräftigung zu verändern und an die Stelle des leiblichen und unabhängigen Daseins, das wir alle von der Natur empfangen haben, ein nur teilweises und geistiges Dasein zu setzen. Kurz, er muß dem Menschen die ihm eigentümlichen Kräfte nehmen, um ihn mit anderen auszustatten, die seiner Natur fremd sind und die er ohne den Beistand anderer nicht zu benutzen versteht."

– Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Der Gesellschaftsvertrag (1762)

+ Max Horkheimer: “Der kleine Mann und die Philosophie der Freiheit”, in: Dämmerung (1926–31), S.360

+ epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller (on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson), Karl Marx (on “becoming” – aus: Grundrisse 1857-58) and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche)

+ Rainer Maria Rilke: “Archaischer Torso Apollos” (1908)

+ Robert Pippin “On Critical Theory” (2004) 

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms 

● Jean-Jacques Rousseau: „Abhandlung über den Ursprung und die Grundlagen der Ungleichheit unter den Menschen“ (1754)

● Rousseau, Auszüge aus: „Der Gesellschaftsvertrag“ (1762)


3. Woche | II. BĂźrgerlich-Radikale Philosophie: Adam Smith (Teil 1) | 05.11.2019

Seminargebäude Raum 015

● Adam Smith, Auszüge aus: Der Wohlstand der Nationen (1776)

- Einleitung und Plan des Werkes 

Buch I: Die Ursachen der Produktivitätssteigerung der Arbeit und die Ordnung der natßrlichen Verteilung des Arbeitsertrages auf die einzelnen BevÜlkerungsschichten

Buch III: Die unterschiedliche Entwicklung verschiedener VĂślker zum Wohlstand


4. Woche | III. BĂźrgerlich-Radikale Philosophie: Adam Smith (Teil 2) | 12.11.2019

Seminargebäude Raum 017

  • Smith, AuszĂźge aus: Der Wohlstand der Nationen (1776)

Buch IV: Systeme der politischen Ökonomie

Buch V: Die Finanzen des Herrschers oder des Gemeinwesens


5. Woche | IV. BĂźrgerlich-Radikale Philosophie: Was ist der dritte Stand? | 19.11.2019

Seminargebäude Raum 017


6. Woche | V. Bürgerlich-Radikale Philosophie: Kant und Constant – Bürgerliche Gesellschaft | 26.11.2019

Seminargebäude Raum 017

● Immanuel Kant: „Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht” und „Was ist Aufklärung?” (1784)

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms

● Benjamin Constant: „Von der Freiheit des Altertums, verglichen mit der Freiheit der Gegenwart” (1819)

+ Jean-Jacques Rousseau: „Abhandlung über den Ursprung und die Grundlagen der Ungleichheit unter den Menschen“ (1754)

+ Rousseau, Auszüge aus: „Der Gesellschaftsvertrag“ (1762)


7. Woche | VI. Bürgerlich-Radikale Philosophie: Hegel – Freiheit in der Geschichte | 03.12.2019

Seminargebäude Raum 017

● W.F. Hegel, Einleitung aus: Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte (1831)

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms


8. Woche | Was ist die Linke? – Utopie und Kritik | 10.12.2019

Seminargebäude Raum 017

● Max Horkheimer, Auszüge aus: Dämmerung (1926–31), S. 360
- „Umschlag von Gedanken“, S. 340-341
- „Skepsis und Moral“, S. 341-344
- „Diskussion über die Revolution“, S.346-349
- „Der kleine Mann und die Philosophie der Freiheit“, S.360-363
- „Indikation“, S.389
- „Sozialismus und Ressentiment“, S.391-392
- „Der Fortschritt“, S.418-419
- „Der Idealismus des Revolutionärs“, S.419-420

● Theodor W. Adorno: „Ausschweifung” (1944–47) (GS4:297-300, im Anhang aus: Minima Moralia)

● Leszek Kolakowski: „Der Sinn des Begriffes ‘Linke’” (1968)

● Karl Marx, Auszüge aus seiner Doktordissertation (1839–41)

● Marx, Brief an Arnold Ruge (September 1843)

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms


9. Woche | I. Was ist Marxismus? – Sozialismus | 17.12.2019

Seminargebäude Raum 017

● Marx, Auszüge aus: Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte (1844)
- „Die entfremdete Arbeit“„Privateigentum und Kommunismus“
- „Bedürfnis, Produktion und Arbeitsteilung“ (exklusiv: „Die Grundrente“)
- „Die entfremdete Arbeit“

+ Commodity form chart of terms

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms

● Marx und Friedrich Engels: „Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei“ (1848) [exklusiv: “III. Sozialistische und kommunistische Literatur”]

● Marx: „Ansprache der Zentralbehörde an den Bund vom März“ (1850)


HintergrundlektĂźre fĂźr die Weihnachtspause (23.12.-11.01.2020)

+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z: Lenin fßr Anfänger (1977)

+ Sebastian Haffner: „Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19“ (1968) [ PDF]

+ Edmund Wilson: „To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History“ (1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6

+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans: „Trotzki für Anfänger“ (1980)

+ James Joll: „The Second International 1889–1914“ (1966)


10. Woche | II. Was ist Marxismus? – Die Revolution von 1848 | 14.01.2020

Seminargebäude Raum 017

● Marx: "Strikes und Arbeiterkoalitionen", aus: Das Elend der Philosophie (1847) [§5., im zweiten Kapitel]

● Marx, Brief an Joseph Weydemeyer (5.März 1852) [MEW 28, S.503-509]

● Engels‘ Einleitung zu Karl Marx‘: Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich 1848 bis 1850 (1895)

● Marx, “Teil I: Die Juniniederlage 1848”, aus: Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich 1848 bis 1850 (1850)

● Marx, Auszüge aus: Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Napoleon (1852) [Teil I und VII]


11. Woche | III. Was ist Marxismus? – Bonapartismus | 21.01.2020

Seminargebäude Raum 017

+ Karl Korsch: „Der Marxismus der Ersten Internationale“ (1924)

● Marx: „Inauguraladresse der Internationalen Arbeiter-Assoziation“ (1864)

● Marx, Auszüge aus: Der Bürgerkrieg in Frankreich (1871) [Teil III und IV; inklusive Engels’ Einleitung von 1891]

+ Korsch: „Einleitung zu Marx’ Kritik des Gothaer Programms“ (1922)

● Marx: „Kritik des Gothaer Programms“ (1875)

● Marx‘ Einleitung zum Programm der französischen Arbeiterpartei (1880) [MEW 19: Die Einleitung findet ihr auf S.238 und das Programm selbst in den Anmerkungen (Nr. 151), auf den Seiten 570-71.]


12. Woche | IV. Was ist Marxismus? – Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie | 28.01.2020

Seminargebäude Raum 017

„Der Fetischcharakter der Ware ist keine Tatsache des Bewußtseins sondern dialektisch in dem emminenten Sinne, daß er Bewußtsein produziert. […] [D]ie Vollendung des Warencharakters in einem Hegelschen Selbstbewußtsein die Sprengung der Phantasmagorie inauguriert.“

– Theodor W. Adorno, in einem Brief an Walter Benjamin, 2.-4. August 1935

+ Commodity form chart of terms

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms 

● Marx, Auszüge aus: Grundrisse (1857-1861)

● Marx: "Der Fetischcharakter der Ware und sein Geheimnis", aus: Das Kapital Bd. I (1867) [MEW 23, S.85-98; Kapiel 1, Teil 4]

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms


13. Woche | V. Was ist Marxismus? – Verdinglichung | 04.02.2020

Seminargebäude Raum 017

● Georg Lukács: "Das Phänomen der Verdinglichung" (I. Abschnitt des Kapitels: “Die Verdinglichung und das Bewusstsein des Proletariats“), in: Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (1923)

+ Commodity form chart of terms

+ Reification chart of terms 

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms

+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms


14. Woche | VI. Was ist Marxismus? – Klassenbewusstsein | 11.02.2020

Seminargebäude Raum 017

● Lukács: “Vorwort” von 1922, „Was ist orthodoxer Marxismus?” (1919) und „Klassenbewusstsein” (1920), in: Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (1923)

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Reification chart of terms 

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

● Marx, “Vorwort” zur ersten Auflage des Kapital Bd. I (1867) und “Nachwort” zur zweiten Auflage (1873)


15. Woche | VII. Was ist Marxismus? – Das Ende der Philosophie | 18.02.2020

● Karl Korsch: „Marxismus und Philosophie” (1923), S.84-160

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms 

+ Karl Marx, Auszüge aus seiner Doktordissertation (1839–41)

+ Marx, Brief an Arnold Ruge (September 1843)

+ Marx „Thesen über Feuerbach“ (1845)


Empfohlene Hintergrundlektüre für die zweite Hälfte (SoSe ‘20) des Lesekreis’ “Was ist revolutionärer Marxismus?”

+ Leszek Kolakowski: „Der Sinn des Begriffes ‘Linke’” (1968)

+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z: “Lenin für Anfänger” (1977)

+ Sebastian Haffner: “Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19” (1968) [engl. PDF]

+ Edmund Wilson: „To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History“ (1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6

+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans: „Trotzki für Anfänger“ (1980)

+ James Joll: „The Second International 1889–1914“ (1966)

brodsky_leninsmolnypalace

Meets Tuesdays from 5 - 7 p.m. in HSS Room G069
No prior knowledge assumed / all are welcome
Direct inquiries to platypusknoxville@gmail.com


II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism


• required / + recommended reading


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


Recommended winter break preliminary readings:

+ Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left” (1968)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19 (1968)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)
+ Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. (1–4,) 5–10, 12–16; Part III. Ch. 1–6


Film screenings: Winter 2020

Sundays at 7:00 p.m. in Hodges Library's Lindsay Young Auditorium

• January 19th: Fall of Eagles episodes: #5 "The Last Tsar" and #6 "Absolute Beginners" on the origins of the Bolsheviks 
• January 26th: 37 Days Episode #3 "One Long Weekend" (uncut BBC version including the Socialists) on the start of WWI; and Fall of Eagles episode #12 "The Secret War" on WWI and the Russian Revolution
• February 2nd: Fall of Eagles episode #13 "End Game" on the German Revolution 1918-19; and Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States Prequel Episode A. 1900-20, on imperialism, WWI and the Russian Revolution 
• February 9th: Rosa Luxemburg film 


Winter 2020

I. What is the Left? – What is Marxism? (ct'd.)

Week 8. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Jan. 6, 2020

• Karl Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League (1850), pp. 501–511 and Class struggle and mode of production (letter to Weydemeyer, 1852), pp. 218-220

• Friedrich Engels, The tactics of social democracy (Engels's 1895 introduction to Marx, The Class Struggles in France), pp. 556–573

• Marx, selections from The Class Struggles in France 1848–50 (1850), pp. 586–593

• Marx, selections from The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), pp. 594–617


Week 9. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Jan. 13, 2020

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

• Marx, Inaugural address to the First International (1864), pp. 512–519

• Marx, selections from The Civil War in France (1871, including Engels's 1891 Introduction), pp. 618–652

+ Korsch, Introduction to Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1922)

• Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, pp. 525–541

• Marx, Programme of the Parti Ouvrier (1880)


Week 10. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Jan. 20, 2019

The fetish character of the commodity is not a fact of consciousness; rather it is dialectical, in the eminent sense that it produces consciousness. . . . [P]erfection of the commodity character in a Hegelian self-consciousness inaugurates the explosion of its phantasmagoria.
— Theodor W. Adorno, letter to Walter Benjamin, August 2, 1935

+ Commodity form chart of terms

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 

+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms 

• Marx, selections from the Grundrisse (1857–61), pp. 222–226, 236–244, 247–250, 276–293 ME Reader pp. 276-281

• Marx, Capital Vol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 "The fetishism of commodities" (1867), pp. 319–329

+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms


Winter–Spring 2020

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Week 11. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 28, 2020

• 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, 2020

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


Week 13. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 11, 2020

• Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)


Week 14. What is to be done? | Feb. 18, 2020

• 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, 2020

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


Week 16. Permanent revolution | Mar. 3, 2020

• 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. 10, 2020

• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)


Week 18. Imperialism | Mar. 17, 2020

• 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. Mar. 24, 2020 (spring break)


Week 20. Failure of the revolution | Mar. 31, 2020

• 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 21. Apr. 7, 2020 [Platypus international convention]


Week 22. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 14, 2020

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


Week 23. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 21, 2020

• 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
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms + Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ LukĂĄcs, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)


Week 24. Lessons of October | Apr. 28, 2020

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


Week 25. Trotskyism | May 5, 2020

+ 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 26. The authoritarian state | May 12, 2020

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


Week 27. On the concept of history | May 19, 2020

• epigraphs by Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson) and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche) on the modern concept of history
+ Charles Baudelaire, from FusĂŠes [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 history chart of terms
• Benjamin, "On the Concept of History" (AKA "Theses on the Philosophy of History") (1940) [PDF]
• Benjamin, Paralipomena to "On the Concept of History" (1940)
+ 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)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms


Week 28. Reflections on Marxism | May 26, 2020

+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ Benjamin on history chart of terms
• 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)


Week 29. Theory and practice | Jun. 2, 2020

+ Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (1969)
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Adorno's critique of actionism chart of terms
• 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)
+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ 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)