BENEDICT CRYPTOFASH CRITICIZES me for using the âLeftâ as a concept for its alleged idealism and metaphysical essentialism. But by identifying the âLeftâ with a group of people, e.g. members of Jacobin/DSA et al., Cryptofash reifies the phenomenon of the Left, and in the worst possible way, by personalizing it.
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LESZEK KOĆAKOWSKIâS âTHE CONCEPT OF THE LEFTâ (1958) is useful for addressing what it means to say that there is a Left and a Right in Marxism. The actual occasion for KoĆakowskiâs article was Soviet Premier and Communist Party head Nikita Khrushchevâs denunciation of Stalin for âcrimes against Leninismâ and against socialism. What did this mean?
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MY PRINCIPAL TEACHERS IN MARXISM were the Spartacist League, Adolph Reed and Moishe Postone â Theodor Adorno was also a crucial teacher, through his writings, which Reed had pointed me towards when we met up in Chicago after I graduated from college. The title of this essay is an homage to Adolphâs own âPaths to Critical Theory,â which narrates his political and theoretical coming to consciousness.
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THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT is the most controversial proposition by Marxism â and is indeed how Marxism distinguishes itself politically, ideologically and theoretically, and intellectually as well as practically and organizationally.
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included panelists Chris Cutrone (Platypus Affiliated Society), Dennis Graemer (Association for the Design of History), Douglas Kellner (UCLA, author of Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism), and Doug Lain (Zer0 Books).
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