Wolf Wetzel war Mitglied der ehemaligen autonomen L.U.P.U.S.-Gruppe, welche unter anderem durch die Startbahnbewegung 1980-1991, die Anti-AKW-Bewegung, die Häuserkampfbewegung und die Libertären Tage in Frankfurt a. M. 1986 geprägt war. Er ist seit 1991 journalistisch und publizistisch tätig. Zuletzt erschien 2015 sein Buch Der Rechtsstaat im Untergrund: Big Brother, der NSU-Komplex und notwendige Illoyalität im PapyRossa Verlag.

[. . .]

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Every Saturday at 11am

Caffe Nero (Unit 1A, 100-110 High Holborn)

Everyone welcome

Facebook pages: Platypus UCL | Platypus LSE | London Platypus

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• required / + recommended reading

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

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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)
+ Carl Schorske, The SPD 1905-17: The Development of the Great Schism (1955)
+ J.P. Nettl, Rosa Luxemburg (1966) [Vol. 1] [Vol. 2]
+ 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

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Winter–Spring 2022

Week 10. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Jan. 15, 2022

• Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms 
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Herbert Marcuse, "Note on dialectic" (1960)
+ 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

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II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Week 11. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 22, 2022

• 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)

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Week 12. Reform or revolution? | Jan. 29, 2022

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

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Week 13. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 5, 2022

• 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)

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Week 14. What is to be done? | Feb. 12, 2022

• 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)

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Week 15. Mass strike and social democracy | Feb. 19, 2022

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

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Week 16. Feb. 26, 2022 (reading week break)

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Week 17. Permanent revolution | Mar. 5, 2022

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

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Week 18. State and revolution | Mar. 12, 2022

• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)

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Week 19. Imperialism | Mar. 19, 2022

“The bourgeoisie makes it its business to promote trusts, drive women and children into the factories, subject them to corruption and suffering, condemn them to extreme poverty. We do not ‘demand’ such development, we do not ‘support’ it. We fight it. But how do we fight? We explain that trusts and the employment of women in industry are progressive. We do not want a return to the handicraft system, pre-monopoly capitalism, domestic drudgery for women. Forward through the trusts, etc., and beyond them to socialism!”
— Lenin, The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution (1916/17)

• 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)

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Week 20. Failure of the revolution | Mar. 26, 2022

• 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)

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Week 21. Apr. 2, 2022 (Platypus international convention)

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Week 22. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 9, 2022

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

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Week 23. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 16, 2022

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

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Week 24. Lessons of October | Apr. 23, 2022

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

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Week 25. Trotskyism | April 30, 2022

+ 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 (AKA The Transitional Program and the Struggle for Socialism, 1938)
+ Trotsky, "Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay" (1940)
+ Trotsky, Letter to James Cannon (September 12, 1939)

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Week 26. The authoritarian state | May 7, 2022

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

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Week 27. On the concept of history | May 14, 2022

• 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 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

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Week 28. Reflections on Marxism | May 21, 2022

+ 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)

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Week 29. Theory and practice | May 28, 2022

+ 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)

[. . .]

On this episode of SPS, Rose and Pamela sit down with Spencer L., founding member of Platypus and historian of imperialism, to discuss the Rittenhouse trial and the “Left’s” response. They clear up the confusion around the Second Amendment among todays leftists, address the anti-racism of progressive liberals, and take up responses by Daniel Lazare (Weekly Worker) and the Bolshevik Tendency. In the second part of the episode, Andreas W. and Platypus Melbourne member, Ryan M., interview Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance) on the protests against the Australian vaccine mandate, including the September attack on the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) offices. Union leadership was under attack by union members for their complicity with state measures, which prevented a return to work without vaccination. Andreas and Ryan ask, how should the left respond? Are these protests simply cannon fodder for the right? How should socialists understand this discontent in civil society?

SEGMENT I Links
>The “Left” on Rittenhouse

Daniel Lazare, “Rittenhouse and White Backlash” in the Weekly Worker, issue 1373 (25 November 2021)
weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1373/rit…white-backlash/
“...The idea that good guys need guns to defend themselves against bad guys is asinine, since it is often far from clear in a shootout which is which. It is a determination that cannot be made individually on the spur of the moment, but can only be made deliberately and collectively, which is why democracy requires judges, courts and other such apparatus.”

Milwaukee DSA Statement on Rittenhouse Verdict, (22 November 2021)
milwaukee.dsawi.org/milwaukee-dsa-s…nhouse-verdict/
“It is no coincidence that Rittenhouse wants to be a police officer when he grows up. The US injustice system was developed to enshrine white supremacy at the expense of those who work to undo it. As those in power continue to build upon the fascist foundations of our nation, it becomes ever-clearer that abolition of police and the carceral state at large is the only path forward.”

Bolshevik Tendency, “Killer Rittenhouse Goes Free—Fascists Celebrate”
bolsheviktendency.org/2021/11/27/kil…sts-celebrate/
“Decent people do not recognize the “right” of fascists and their various ultra-rightist friends and associates to mobilize—nor do we recognize their right to “defend” themselves against attempts to disarm them, which is what Rittenhouse’s victims were seeking to do. While the latter’s tactics were obviously seriously deficient, their intent was commendable.”

>Education on Liberalism & Constitutional Rights
Ira Glasser, Free Speech and the ACLU, an interview by Glenn Greenwald
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGI4fc_VB7c
Platypus Public Fora Series: The Second Amendment and the Left
Platypus Review 110 (October 2018): platypus1917.org/2018/10/01/the-s…nt-and-the-left/
June 9, 2018, University of Houston: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaaAqAm6oAw

SEGMENT II Links
Sue Bolton's article in Green Left, Socialist Alliance's publication: www.greenleft.org.au/content/behind…k-cfmeu-office
The other Green Left article Andreas quotes, by Dave Kellaway: www.greenleft.org.au/content/italy-…-confederation
Socialist Alliance's website: socialist-alliance.org/

Hosted by Rose F., Pamela N. and Andreas W., with original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy, and editing assistance by Michael Woodson and Tamas Vilaghy. To learn more about Platypus, go to platypus1917.org/.

[. . .]

On this episode of SPS, Pamela and the Platypus Review Editor-in-Chief, Lou S. chat about the recent NBA crack-up over vaccine skepticism and discuss the articles in the new issue of the Platypus Review. Andreas, our EU correspondent, reports from the frontlines of a protest camp in the North East of Vienna. And, in the last segment, Andreas sits with our German members, Tobias, Tom and Anna, to reflect on the recent Bundestag election. They discuss the past and future of Die Linke, the upset by the Greens & the collapse of the left/right distinction within the Green Party, and the future of a post-Merkel, post-Neo-liberalism Germany.

Latest Issue of the Platypus Review: - platypus1917.org/platypus-review/

SPS on the DSA: - Platypus-affiliated-society – Ep22 - Platypus-affiliated-society – Ep8 - and on the DSA & Seth Ackerman: Platypus-affiliated-society – Ep3

Platypus Panels: - Panel Series “What does Climate Change?": platypus1917.org/international-se…-climate-change/ - Die Linke Panel (in German): platypus1917.org/2021/06/02/podium-linkspartei/ - Greens Panel (in German): platypus1917.org/panel-gruene/

Platypus on the Death of the Millennial Left: - Chris Cutrone article from 2017, platypus1917.org/2017/10/01/millennial-left-dead/ - Public Panel on “What was the Millennial Left?" during the Platypus 2021 International Convention: tinyurl.com/5a5uktsf - Chris Cutrone teach-in on the death of the millennial left from 2018: tinyurl.com/3sftxpfn

Hosted by Rose F., Pamela N. and Andreas W., with original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy, and editing assistance by Michael Woodson and Tamas Vilaghy. To learn more about Platypus, go to Platypus1917.org.

[. . .]

On this episode of SPS, Pamela and Rose discuss the Biden bungle of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the responses by the “Left,” including Tariq Ali for the New Left Review and Branko Marcetic for Jacobin. SPS European Correspondent Andreas interviews Eduardo Maura, from the Spanish party Podemos, and asks him to reflect on his political trajectory, from his work in the Indignados -- the Spanish anti-austerity movement -- to Podemos in government, to the party’s recent electoral defeats. In the last segment, Platypus president Efraim interviews Mike Watson, a UK born art & media theorist, and author of The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What To Do About It, released by Zero Books in 2021. They discuss the different responses to the New Left by Adorno and Marcuse and the conditions of possibility for political consciousness in an administered society.

Links:

Chris Cutrone, “Afghanistan: After 20 and 40 years” in Platypus Review 139 (September 2021)
platypus1917.org/2021/09/02/afgha…20-and-40-years/

Tariq Ali, “Debacle in Afghanistan” New Left Review: Sidecar (16 August 2021)
newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/de…e-in-afghanistan

Branko Marcetic, “Joe Biden Was Right to Pull Out of Afghanistan” Jacobin (24 August 2021)
jacobin-v2.positiondevapp.com/2021/08/jo…cy-pullout

Tariq Ali Interviewed by Chris Cutrone, on Iraq, the anti-war movement, and the state of the Left conducted on October 15, 2007 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
platypus1917.org/2007/10/15/tariq…y-chris-cutrone/

“Imperialism: What is it—Why should we be Against it?” On January 30th, 2007, Platypus hosted its first public forum. It features Adam Turl of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), Kevin Anderson of the Marxist-Humanist group News and Letters, Nick Kreitman of the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Danny Postel of Open Democracy, and Chris Cutrone of Platypus.
platypus1917.org/2010/07/09/imper…e-be-against-it/

“¿Más allá de la izquierda y la derecha? (Beyond left and right?): An Interview with Eduardo Maura of Podemos” by Lucy Parker and David Mountain with Nikos Manousakis in Platypus Review 72 (December 2014 – January 2015)
platypus1917.org/2014/12/01/mas-a…da-y-la-derecha/

Mike Watson, The Memeing Of Mark Fisher: How The Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism And What To Do About It (2021)
www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/…mark-fisher

Efraim Carlebach, “Forgetting Mark Fisher” in Platypus Review 115 (April 2019)
platypus1917.org/2019/04/01/forge…ing-mark-fisher/

Hosted by Rose F., Pamela N. and Andreas W., with original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy, and editing assistance by Michael Woodson. To learn more about Platypus, go to Platypus1917.org.

[. . .]