Loyola University
Tuesdays 6-9 PM
Metropolis Cafe
1039 W Granville Ave

School of the Art Institute at Chicago
Thursdays 6-9 PM
MacLean Center
112 S Michigan Ave
Room 517

University of Chicago
Saturdays 12:30-3:30 PM
Harper Memorial Library
1116 E 59th St
Room 151

• required / + recommended reading

Week 1. What is the Left? I. Capital in history | Sep 30 (UChicago) Oct 3 (Loyola) Oct 5 (SAIC), 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 7 (UChicago) Oct 10 (Loyola) Oct 12 (SAIC), 2017

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

• 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 14 (UChicago) Oct 17 (Loyola) Oct 19 (SAIC) , 2017

• Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung (1926–31)

• Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)

Week 4. What is the Left? IV. Utopia and critique | Oct 21 (UChicago) Oct 24 (Loyola) Oct 26 (SAIC), 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

From the Second International to the Frankfurt School

Loyola University
Tuesdays, 7-9:30 PM
6738 N Sheridan Ave
at Starbucks

School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
Tuesdays, 6-9 PM
112 S Michigan Ave
MacLean Center, Room TBA

University of Chicago
Tuesdays, 6:30-9 PM
1116 E 59th St
Harper Memorial Library, Room 102

University of Illinois at Chicago
Tuesdays, 6-9 PM
701 S Morgan St
Stevenson Hall, Room 101

• required reading / + recommended reading

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)

Winter–Spring 2017

1. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Week 13. Revolutionary leadership | Jan 31, 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 7, 2017

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

Week 15. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb 14, 2017

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

Week 16. What is to be done? | Feb 21, 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 28, 2017

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

Week 18. Permanent revolution | Mar 7, 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 14, 2017

• Lenin, The State and Revolution(1917)

Week 20. Imperialism | Mar 21, 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 28, 2017 (spring break)

Week 22. Failure of the revolution | Apr 4, 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. March 31-April 2, 2017 [Platypus International Convention]

Week 24. Retreat after revolution | Apr 18, 2017

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

Week 25. Dialectic of reification | Apr 25, 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 | May 2, 2017

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

Week 27. Trotskyism | May 9, 2017

• Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (1938)
  + Trotsky, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
  + Trotsky, "Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay" (1940)
  + Trotsky, Letter to James Cannon (September 12, 1939)

Week 28. The authoritarian state | May 16, 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 23, 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 30, 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 7, 2017

• Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
• Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
  + Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (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)

Our weekly Coffee Breaks are a great way to meet Platypus members and fellow travelers, and to get to know the Platypus project. It’s an opportunity to discuss issues raised in the latest issue of the Platypus Review, consider the state of the Left, and just hang out with people who have similar political interests.

Spring 2014 Coffee Breaks

Loyola University: Wednesdays | 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Damen Student Center, Room 123
6511 North Sheridan Road
Contact: luc@platypus1917.org

School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Thursdays | 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Cosi 116 South Michigan Avenue
Contact: saic@platypus1917.org

University of Chicago: Tuesdays | 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Harper Cafe University Hall, 601 South Morgan Street
Contact: uic@platypus1917.org