NYU Reading Group (Fall 2017 – Winter 2018): What is the Left? What is Marxism?

• required/ + recommended reading
• Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)

Week A. Radical bourgeois philosophy I. Rousseau: Crossroads of society | Aug. 7, 2017

Whoever dares undertake to establish a people’s institutions must feel himself capable of changing, as it were, human nature, of transforming each individual, who by himself is a complete and solitary whole, into a part of a larger whole, from which, in a sense, the individual receives his life and his being, of substituting a limited and mental existence for the physical and independent existence. He has to take from man his own powers, and give him in exchange alien powers which he cannot employ without the help of other men.

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract (1762)

• Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom"(1926–31)
• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller(on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand(on Edmund Wilson), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58), and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche)

+ Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo" (1908)

+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)

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

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality(1754) PDFsof preferred translation (5 parts): [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
• Rousseau, selectionfrom On the Social Contract (1762)

Week B. Radical bourgeois philosophy II. Hegel: Freedom in history | Aug. 14, 2017

• G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History(1831) [HTML] [PDF pp. 14-128] [Audiobook]

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

Week C. Radical bourgeois philosophy III. Nietzsche (1): Life in history | Aug. 21, 2017

• Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life(1874) [translator's introduction by Peter Preuss]

+ Nietzsche on history chart of terms

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

Week D. Radical bourgeois philosophy IV. Nietzsche (2): Asceticism of moderns | Aug. 28, 2017

+ Human, All Too Human: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil (1999)

• Nietzsche, selectionfrom On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
• Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic(1887)

Week E. 1960s New Left I. Neo-Marxism | 2017 U.S. Labor Day weekend (Cancelled)

• Martin Nicolaus, “The unknown Marx”(1968)

+ Commodity form chart of terms

• Theodor W. Adorno, “Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?”)(1968)
• Moishe Postone, “Necessity, labor, and time”(1978)

+ Postone, “Interview: Marx after Marxism” (2008)

+ Postone, “History and helplessness: Mass mobilization and contemporary forms of anticapitalism” (2006)

+ Postone, “Theorizing the contemporary world: Brenner, Arrighi, Harvey” (2006)

Week F. 1960s New Left II. Gender and sexuality | Sep. 11, 2017

• 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)

Week G. 1960s New Left III. Anti-black racism in the U.S. | Sep. 18, 2017

• 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)

Week H. Frankfurt School precursors | Sep. 25, 2017

• Wilhelm Reich, “Ideology as material power”(1933/46)
• Siegfried Kracauer, “The mass ornament”(1927)

+ Kracauer, “Photography” (1927)

Week 1. What is the Left? I. Capital in history | Oct. 2, 2017

• Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom"(1926–31)
• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis Menand(on Marx and Engels) and Karl Marx, on "becoming"(from the Grundrisse, 1857–58)
• Chris Cutrone, "Capital in history"(2008)

+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms

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

+ video of Communist University 2011 London presentation

• Cutrone, "The Marxist hypothesis"(2010)
• Cutrone, “Class consciousness (from a Marxist persective) today”

Week 2. What is the Left? II. Bourgeois society | Oct. 9, 2017

• Immanuel Kant, "Idea for a universal history from a cosmopolitan point of view"and "What is Enlightenment?"(1784)

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

• Benjamin Constant, "The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns"(1819)

+ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the origin of inequality (1754)

+ Rousseau, selection from On the social contract (1762)

Week 3. What is the Left? III. Failure of Marxism | Oct. 16, 2017

• Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung(1926–31)
• Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses”(1944–47)

Week 4. What is the Left? IV. Utopia and critique | Oct. 23, 2017

• Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left”(1968)
• Marx, To make the world philosophical(from Marx's dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11
• Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing(letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15

Week 5. What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Oct. 30, 2017

• Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts(1844), pp. 70–101

+ Commodity form chart of terms

• Marx and Friedrich Engels, selectionsfrom the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), pp. 469-500
• Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League(1850), pp. 501–511

Week 6. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Nov. 6, 2017

• Marx, The coming upheaval (from The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847) and Class struggle and mode of production (letter to Weydemeyer, 1852), pp. 218-220
• Engels, The tactics of social democracy(Engels's 1895 introduction to Marx, The Class Struggles in France), pp. 556–573
• Marx, selectionsfrom The Class Struggles in France 1848–50 (1850), pp. 586–593
• Marx, selectionsfrom The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), pp. 594–617

Week 7. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Nov. 13, 2017

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

• Marx, Inaugural address to the First International(1864), pp. 512–519
• Marx, selectionsfrom 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 8. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Nov. 20, 2017

+ Commodity form 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, CapitalVol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 "The fetishism of commodities" (1867), pp. 319–329

Week 9. Nov. 27, 2017 U.S. Thanksgiving break

Week 10. What is Marxism? V. Reification | Dec. 4, 2017

• Georg Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification”(Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)

+ Commodity form chart of terms

Winter break readings

+ 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)

+ 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, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)

+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)

Week 11. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Dec. 11, 2017

• Lukács, Original Preface(1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919), “Class Consciousness” (1920), History and Class Consciousness (1923)

+ Marx, Preface to the First German Edition and Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873) of Capital (1867), pp. 294–298, 299–302

Week 12. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Dec. 18, 2017

• Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy”(1923)

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

+ Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11

+ Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15

+ Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), pp. 143–145

Summer 2017 readings: Lenin and the 1917 Russian Revolution

• required/ + recommended reading
• Lenin readings available in Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology (Norton, 1977), except (*) on marxists.org

Recommended background readings

+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World (1919)

Week 1 | June 19

• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution(1905)
• Lenin, On the Two Lines in the Revolution(1915) *

Week 2 | June 26

• Lenin, Lecture on the 1905 Revolution(1917)
• Lenin, Letters from Afar (1917) *
• Lenin, April Theses (1917)

Week 4 | July 10

• Lenin, The Dual Power(1917)
• Lenin, The Enemies of the People (1917)
• Lenin, The Beginning of Bonapartism (1917)

Week 5 | July 17

• Lenin, Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?(1917)
• Lenin, Marxism and Insurrection (1917)
• Lenin, Advice of an Onlooker (1917)

Week 6 | July 24

• Lenin, To the Citizens of Russia!(1917)
• Lenin, Theses on the Constituent Assembly (1917)
• Lenin, The Chief Task of Our Day (1918)
• Lenin, The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government (1918)

Week 7 | July 31

• Lenin, The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky(1918)

Join us for discussion on contemporary political issues, and articles from the Platypus Reviews.

Mondays 6pm, Think Coffee 248 Mercer St, New York (by NYU)

Reading Group, Tuesdays 7pm, 19 University Place Room 337

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: January 2017

• 37 Days(2014) [Episode 1] [Episode 2] [Episode 3]
• Fall of Eagles (1974) episodes: "Absolute Beginners," "The Secret War," and "End Game"
• Rosa Luxemburg (1986)
• Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States (2012) Episodes A (1900-20) and B (1920-40)
• Reds (1981)

Week 13. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 30, 2017

• 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 14. Reform or revolution? | Feb. 6, 2017

• Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)

Week 15. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 13, 2017

• Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)

Week 16. What is to be done? | Feb. 20, 2017

• 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 17. Mass strike and social democracy | Feb. 27, 2017

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

Week 18. Permanent revolution | Mar. 6, 2017

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

Week 19. State and revolution | Mar. 13, 2017

• Lenin, The State and Revolution(1917)

Week 20. Imperialism | Mar. 20, 2017

• 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 21. Mar. 27, 2017 (spring break)

Week 22. Failure of the revolution | Apr. 3, 2017

• 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)

Week 23. Apr. 10, 2017 [Platypus international convention]

Week 24. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 17, 2017

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

Week 25. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 24, 2017

• 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

Week 26. Lessons of October | Apr. 29, 2017

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

Week 27. Trotskyism | May 1, 2017

• + Trotsky, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
• • 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 28. The authoritarian state | May 8, 2017

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

Week 29. On the concept of history | May 15, 2017

• 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)

Week 30. Reflections on Marxism | May 22, 2017

• 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)

Week 31. Theory and practice | Jun. 29, 2017

• + 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)

Please watch here.

A panel event held on December 6th, 2012, at New York University.

This past US election season saw an array of positions on the Left concerning the outcome that might follow from either major party’s victory. Among them, there were some who openly supported the incumbent Barack Obama as the lesser of two evils, others who opposed him by casting a vote for another candidate, and still others who followed the abstentionist line by not voting at all. Many of those who voted for “four more years” did so under the assumption that the Democrats were a broadly center-left party with vaguely social-democratic tendencies, who might be pushed to reverse neoliberal policies and stave off measures of austerity. Some, while generally less optimistic, endorsed Obama on the premise that organizing a mass movement against capitalism would be easier with the Democrats in power. Others argued that Obama had done nothing to deserve reelection, offering no hope for either change or progress moving forward. The rest, who took no stance either for or against any party, chose instead to eschew electoral politics altogether.

Now that the quadrennial plebiscite for the “leader of the free world” has resulted in a Democratic victory, we are afforded a brief chance to critically evaluate the prospects for the Left’s transition into the next four years. What is different today from four years ago, when Obama’s election seemed departure from eight years under Bush? Did the last four years signal progress or regress for the Left? How will the terrain shift for the Left with another term under the president? In terms of foreign policy, will there be an end to the wars? Or will US militarism continue unabated? Domestically, will government social programs and infrastructure deteriorate yet further? Or will legislative reforms breathe life back into the moribund welfare state? Should we, in fact, take for granted the idea that keeping Romney out of office promises a better environment in which the Left to organize? What does the future hold for a Left caught in the stale air of the status quo?

Panelists:
Ben Campbell (The North Star)
Annie Day (Revolution)
Chris Maisano (DSA, Jacobin)
Bhaskar Sunkara (Jacobin)

Moderator:
Tana Forrester (Platypus Affiliated Society)