The Platypus Affiliated Society

Althussers Marxismus

In den 1980er Jahren verabschiedete sich eine ganze Generation Intellektueller im Zeichen der Postmoderne von jeglicher Utopie. Doch bereits zuvor war die Neue Linke in den 60er und 70er Jahren mit ihrer Rückkehr zu Marx gescheitert. Aus Sicht von Althusser inszenierten die Studenten weltweit 1968 eine „ideologische Revolte“. Sie revolutionierten den kulturellen Überbau, aber nicht die sozialen und politischen Verhältnisse. Er bemerkte damit das Ende der Neuen Linken, die sich dafür entschied, Politik gegen Protest einzutauschen. Das politische Scheitern der Neuen Linken 1968 ebnete sowohl der Post-Moderne als auch dem Post-Marxismus den Weg. Ihre historischen und intellektuellen Ursprünge kreuzen sich.

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Platypus Goldsmiths Primary Reading Group Winter-Spring 2019: Introduction to Revolutionary Marxism

Tuesday, 6-9pm, RHB 2107, Goldsmiths.

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)

Winter 2019

I. What is the "Left?" – What is "Marxism?"

Week 10. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Jan. 23, 2019

• Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique 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

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Winter–Spring 2019

Week 11. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 30, 2019

• 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. 6, 2019

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

Week 13. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 13, 2019

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

Week 23. Break Apr. 10, 2019 [Platypus international convention]

Week 22. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 25, 2019

Week 23. Lessons of October | Apr. 30, 2019

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

Week 24. Trotskyism | May 7, 2019

+ 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 25. The authoritarian state | May 14, 2019

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

Week 26. On the concept of history | May 21, 2019

• 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, "Fire alarm" (from One-Way Street, 1928)
[JPG] [PDF]
+ 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)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms

Week 27. Reflections on Marxism | May 28, 2019

• 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 28. Theory and practice | June 04, 2019

+ Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (1969)
+ Reification 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)
+ 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)

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Santa Cruz - Platypus primary Marxist Reading Group Winter–Spring 2019

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Location/time: Cowell 134 Wednesdays at 7:30PM.

• required / + recommended reading

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

Film screenings: January 2019

• 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)