September 21 – November 30

Wednesdays 6:30PM at:

Saxby’s Coffee @ Temple University

1902 Liacouras Walk, Philadelphia, PA  19122

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is the ‘Left’? / What is ‘Marxism’?

Platypus is a project for the self-criticism, self-education, and, ultimately, the practical reconstitution of a Marxian Left. At present the Marxist Left appears as a historical ruin. The received wisdom of today dictates that past, failed attempts at emancipation stand not as moments full of potential yet to be redeemed, but rather as “what was” — utopianism that was bound to end in tragedy. As critical inheritors of a vanquished tradition, Platypus contends that — after the failure of the 1960s New Left, and the dismantlement of the welfare state and the destruction of the Soviet Union in the 1980s-90s — the present disorientation of the Left means we can hardly claim to know the tasks and goals of social emancipation better than the “utopians” of the past did.

In the face of the catastrophic past and present, the first task for the reconstitution of a Left as an emancipatory force is to recognize the reasons for the historical failure of human emancipation and to clarify the necessity of a Left for the present and future. — If the Left is to change the world, it must first transform itself!

The improbable — but not impossible — reconstitution of an emancipatory Left is an urgent task; we believe that the future of humanity depends on it. While the devastating forces unleashed by modern society — capitalism — remain, the unfulfilled promise of social emancipation still calls for redemption. To abdicate this or to obscure the gravity of past defeats and failures by looking to “resistance” from “outside” the dynamics of modern society is to affirm its present and guarantee its future destructive reality.

What has the Left been, and what can it yet become?

Schedule

September 21

• Cutrone, “Symptomology: Historical transformations in social-political context”
• Cutrone, “Capital in history: The need for a Marxian philosophy of history of the Left”

September 28

• Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left”
• Adorno, “Imaginative excesses”

October 5

• Blumberg, Cutrone, Khan, Leonard, and Rubin, Forum: The decline of the Left in the 20th century

October 12

• 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

October 19

• 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

October 26

• 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

November 2

• 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, Petcoff, and Weger, Forum: Ideology and the student Left

November 9

• 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

November 16

• 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

November 30

• Cutrone, Morrison, and Rubin, Platypus convention plenary: The Platypus synthesis: History, theory, and practice

In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels famously observed in the Communist Manifesto that a specter was haunting Europe: the specter of Communism. 160 years later, it is Marxism itself that haunts us.

In the 21st century, it seems that the Left abandoned Marxism as a path to freedom. But Marx critically intervened in his own moment and emboldened leftists to challenge society; is the Left not tasked with this today? Has the Left resolved the problems posed by Marx, and thus moved on?

With Platypus Affiliated Society member Andony Melathopoulos.

I. Was ist die “Linke?” — Was ist “Marxismus?”

Immer Freitags um 16 Uhr.

Goetheuniversität Frankfurt
Studierendenhaus, Campus Bockenheim
Mertonstr. 26-28

• vorausgesetzte / + empfohlene Texte

 Woche 1.: Oct 4, 2011

• Inschriften von James Miller (über Jean-Jacques Rousseau) und Louis Menand (über Edmund Wilson) über moderne Geschichte und Freiheit
• Robert Pippin, “On Critical Theory” (2003)
• Chris Cutrone, “Capital in history” (2008)
• Cutrone, “The Marxist hypothesis” (2010)

  Woche 2.: (Di.) Oct. 11, 2011

• Immanuel Kant, “Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht” und “Was ist Aufklärung?” (1784)
• Benjamin Constant, “The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns” (1819)(Deutsch: Benjamin Constant. Über die Freiheit der Alten im Vergleich zu der der Heutigen (1819), in: Werke, herausgegeben von Alex Blaeschke, Lothar Gall, Propyläen, Berlin, 1972, Bd. 4, S.363-396.)

+ Jean-Jacques Rousseau,Abhandlung über den Ursprung und die Grundlagen der Ungleichheit unter den Menschen (1754)
+ Rousseau, Auszüge aus Der Gesellschaftsvertrag (1762) (Erstes Buch: Kap. 5 – 9, Zweites Buch: Kap. 1 – 4)

 Woche 3.: (Fr.) Oct. 14, 2011

• Max Horkheimer, Auszüge aus Dämmerung (1926–31):  download (8MB).
• Adorno, “Ausschweifungen” (1944–47) (GS4:297-300, Anhang in Minima Moralia)

 Woche 4.: Oct. 21, 2011

• Wilhelm Reich, “Ideologie als materielle Gewalt” (1933/46)
• Siegfried Kracauer, “Das Ornament der Masse” (1927)
+ Kracauer, “Die Photographie” (1927)

 Woche 5.: Oct. 28, 2011

• Leszek Kolakowski, “Der Sinn des Begriffes ‘Linke’” (1968)
• Karl Marx, Auszug aus den Anmerkungen zur Doktordissertation (1839–41) [MEW 40, S. 325 - 331] • Marx, Brief von Marx an Arnold Ruge ( September 1843)

 Woche 6.: Nov. 4, 2011

• Marx, Auszüge aus Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte (1844): Die entfremdete Arbeit;Privateigentum und Kommunismus; Bedürfnis, Produktion und Arbeitsteilung (bis |XXI||, MEW 40:556 [exclusiv ||XXXIV|| Die Grundrente]).
• Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848)
• Marx, Ansprache der Zentralbehörde an den Bund (1850)

 Woche 7.: Nov. 11, 2011

• Engels, Einleitung zu Karl Marx’ “Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich 1848 bis 1850″ (1895)
• Marx, Auszüge aus Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich 1848 bis 1850 (1850) [MEW Bd. 7: Teil I (S.11-34), S. 87-90, S.97-98] • Marx, Auszüge aus Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Napoleon (1852) [Teil I und VII]

 Woche 8.: Nov. 18, 2011

+ Karl Korsch, “The Marxism of the First International” (1924)
• Marx, Inauguraladresse der Internationalen Arbeiter-Assoziation (1864)
• Marx, Auszüge aus Der Bürgerkrieg in Frankreich [Teil III und IV] (1871, mit Engels Einleitung von 1891)
Änderung: Gothaer Programm in der nächsten Woche!

 Woche 9.: Nov. 25, 2011

+ Korsch, Einleitung zu Marx, Randglossen zum Programm der deutschen Arbeiterpartei (1922)
• Marx, Kritik des Gothaer Programms (1875)
• Marx, Einleitung zum Programm der französischen Arbeiterpartei (1880) [Über den Entwurf]

 Woche 10.: Dec. 02, 2011

• Marx, Einleitung zur Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie (1857–61) [MEW Bd. 13, S.615-641] • Marx, Kapital Bd. I, Kap. 1 Teil. 4 “Der Fetischcharakter der Ware und sein Geheimnis” (1867) [MEW Bd. 23, S.85-98]

 Woche 11.: Dec. 09, 2011

• Georg Lukács, “Das Phänomen der Verdinglichung” (Teil I des Kapitels “Die Verdinglichung und das Bewusstsein des Proletariats,” Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (1923)

 Woche 12.: Dec. 16, 2012

• Lukács, Vorwort von 1922, “Was ist orthodoxer Marxismus?” (1919), “Klassenbewusstsein” (1920), Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (1923)
+ Marx, Vorwort zur ersten Auflage und Nachwort zur zweiten Auflage (1873) des Kapitals (1867)

 Woche 13.: Jan. 13, 2012

• Korsch, “Marxismus und Philosophie” (1923) [in der verlinkten Ausgabe S.84-160] + Karl Marx, Auszug aus den Anmerkungen zur Doktordissertation (1839–41) [MEW 40, S. 325 - 331] + Marx, Brief von Marx an Arnold Ruge ( September 1843)

 Woche 14.: Jan. 20, 2012

• Spartakist-Broschüre, “Lenin und die Avantgardepartei” (1978) [PDF]

 Woche 15.: Jan. 27, 2012

• Cliff Slaughter, “What is revolutionary leadership?” (1960)

 Woche 16.: Feb. 03, 2012

• Luxemburg, “Die ‘Junius-Broschüre’ / Krise der Sozialdemokratie”  Teil I. (1917)
• J.P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890-1914 as a Political Model” (1965)

Hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society.

In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels famously observed in the Communist Manifesto that a 'specter' was haunting Europe— the specter of Communism. 160 years later, it is 'Marxism' itself that haunts us.

In the 21st century, it seems that the Left abandoned Marxism as a path to freedom. But Marx critically intervened in his own moment and emboldened leftists to challenge society; is the Left not tasked with this today? Has the Left resolved the problems posed by Marx, and thus moved on?

For more information, please contact Brian Hioe: bch250@nyu.edu