The Platypus Affiliated Society

Frankfurt SoSe 2019 Lesekreis: Einführung in den revolutionären Marxismus

Programm des Platypus-Lesekreises an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt im Sommersemester 2019

Columbia University (Spring, 2019): A Short Course in Marxism

When: Wednesdays 8-9pm
Where: Kent 522a

Week 1 - March 27th

• Max Horkheimer, “The little man and the philosophy of freedom” (pp. 50–52 from selections from Dämmerung,1926–31)
• Louis Menand, on Marx and Engels as philosophes of a Second Enlightenment
• Karl Marx, on “becoming” (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms

Week 2 - April 3rd* - starting @ 7 PM

Teach-in on the 1918 German Revolution by Richard Rubin. Some students from the University of Leipzig will be joining us for this event!

Week 3 - April 10th

• Chris Cutrone, “Capital in history” (2008)
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ video of Communist University 2011 London presentation
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
• Cutrone, “Class consciousness (from a Marxist perspective) today” (2012)

Week 4 - April 17th

• Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left” (1968)
• Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843)

Week 5 - April 24th

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
• Cutrone, “The Marxist hypothesis” (2010)

[. . .]

Democracy and the Left (Philadelphia)

Discussion about the significance of democracy for the Left, held at the University of Pennsylvania on March 21, 2019. The discussion was moderated by Austin Carder.

An edited transcript of the event was published in the Platypus Review Issue #117.

Speakers:

Adolph Reed (Professor of Political Science, UPenn)
Jon Bekken (Editor of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Review)
Warren Breckman (Professor of History, UPenn)
Erin Hagood (Platypus Affiliated Society, NYC)

Description:

What is the history informing the demands for greater democracy today, and how does the Left adequately promote—or not—the cause of popular empowerment? What does democracy mean for the Left? What are the potential futures for “democratic” revolution, especially as understood by the Left?

Questions for panelists:

What is the relationship between democracy and the working class today? Do you consider historical struggles for democracy by workers as the medium by which they got “assimilated” to the system, or the only path to emancipation that they couldn’t avoid trying to take?
Do you consider it as necessary to eschew established forms of mass politics in favour of new forms in order to build a democratic movement? Or are current mass form of politics adequate for a democratic society?
Why has democracy emerged as the primary demand of spontaneous forms of discontent? Do you also consider it necessary, or adequate, to deal with the pathologies of our era?
Engels wrote that “A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is”. Do you agree? Can this conception be compatible with the struggle for democracy?
Is democracy oppressive, or can it be such? How would you judge Lenin’s formulation that: “…democracy is also a state and that, consequently, democracy will also disappear when the state disappears.”

[. . .]

Cottonopolis, Capital of the Industrial Revolution: A Walking Tour

Led by the University of Manchester Platypus Society, this walking tour takes us around the Manchester of the industrial revolution, with Friedrich Engels as our guide.

We will tread his footsteps and uncover Manchester's mostly lost, but surprisingly sometimes extant, industrial 'heritage', and together we will question just what bearing the past has on the city of the present.

Meet at the Engels statue outside HOME (M15 4FN) no later than 3pm. Walk followed by drinks.

All welcome, tickets free but please book beforehand via Eventbrite: cottonopolis.eventbrite.co.uk

FB event: facebook.com/events/498087800724617/

Venue/Timing

Venue: Start: Engels Statue outside HOME
Type: Meeting, Other, Social, Society, Travel or Trips
Start Date: Wednesday 27-03-2019 - 15:00
End Date: Wednesday 27-03-2019 - 17:00
Capacity: 25

Location

Latitude: 53.4737421
Longitude: -2.2463890999999876

Contact Details

london@platypus1917.org

[. . .]

Lesekreis: Was ist revolutionärer Marxismus? Sommersemester 2019

Durch die Lektüre von bedeutenden Texten der Hochphase des Marxismus in der 2. Internationalen und ihrer Krise im 20. Jahrhundert betrachten wir das Problem des Bewusstseins dieser Geschichte und ihrer politischen Implikationen für die Gegenwart. Die Textauswahl beinhaltet Schriften von Luxemburg, Lenin und Trotzki, die philosophische Reflexion des Marxismus von Lukács und Korsch und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Kritische Theorie von Benjamin, Horkheimer und Adorno.

Wöchentlich
Montags, 18:30-21:30
ab 18. März 2019

Im KomZ (Kommunikationszentrum) der STV Politikwissenschaft im 2. Stock des NIG (Neues Institutsgebäude), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien

Die Texte werden zu Hause gelesen und beim Lesekreis besprochen. Kein Vorwissen ist nötig. Neueinsteigende sind ausdrücklich erwünscht.

Mailingliste: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/platypus-wien

Facebook-Gruppe: Platypus Österreich/Austria

Facebook-Seite: Platypus Wien

Leseliste

vorausgesetzte / + empfohlene Texte

18.03.2019 | Woche 1. Revolutionäre Führung

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

25.03.2019 | Woche 2. Reform oder Revolution

Rosa Luxemburg, "Sozialreform oder Revolution" (1899)

+ Eugene V. Debs, „Competition vs. Cooperation” (1900)

01.04.2019 | Woche 3. Lenin und die Avantgardepartei

Spartakist-Broschüre, “Lenin und die Avantgardepartei” (1978)

08.04.2019 | Woche 4. Was tun?

W.I. Lenin, "Was tun?" (1902)

+ Richard Appignanesi und Oscar Zarate / A&Z, "Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners" (1977)

29.04.2019 | Woche 5. Massenstreik und Sozialdemokratie

Rosa Luxemburg, „Massenstreik, Partei und Gewerkschaften“ (1906)
Rosa Luxemburg, „Blanquismus und Sozialdemokratie" (1906)

06.05.2019 | Woche 6. Permanente Revolution

Leo Trotzki, "Ergebnisse und Perspektiven" (1906)

13.05.2019 | Woche 7. Staat und Revolution

W.I. Lenin, "Staat und Revolution" (1917)

20.05.2019 | Woche 8. Imperialismus

W.I. Lenin, "Der Imperialismus als höchstes Stadium des Kapitalismus" (1916)

+ Lenin, „Sozialismus und Krieg“ (1915)

27.05.2019 | Woche 9. Scheitern der Revolution

Rosa Luxemburg, "Was will der Spartakusbund?" (1918)
Rosa Luxemburg, "Unser Programm und die politische Situation" (1918)

+ Luxemburg, "Die Sozialisierung der Gesellschaft" (1918)

+ Luxemburg, “Die russische Tragödie“ (1918)

+ Luxemburg, "Die Ordnung herrscht in Berlin" (1919)

+ Sebastian Haffner, "Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19" (1968)

+ Eugene V. Debs, „The Day of the People” (1900)

03.06.2019 | Woche 10. Rückzug nach der Revolution

W.I. Lenin, "Der „Linke Radikalismus“, die Kinderkrankheit im Kommunismus" (1920)

+ Lenin, "Notizen eines Publizisten" (1922/24)

17.06.2019 | Woche 11. Dialektik der Verdinglichung

Lukács, “Der Standpunkt des Proletariats” (= Teil III. des Kapitels “Die Verdinglichung und das Bewußtsein des Proletariats”) In: Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (1923)

+ Reification chart of terms

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

+ Commodity form chart of terms

+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms

24.06.2019 | Woche 12. Die Lehren des Oktobers