II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Boston, Chicago, Frankfurt, Graz, London, New York, Thessaloniki, Toronto

Saturdays 1–4PM CST

School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920

Friday 7:30 PM CST

University of Chicago (UChicago)
Harper 141

Chicago Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/179540438855464/

Saturdays 2–5PM EST

Harvard University
Emerson Hall room 318

Boston Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/270185313082455/

Saturdays 2–5PM

Richard Hoggart Bldg. room 356
Goldsmiths College, New Cross, Lewisham, London SE14

London Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/148283905314897/

Sundays 2–5PM EST

School of Visual Arts
133 West 21st St room 402

NYC Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/258824880896215/

Thursdays 7–10PM EST

University of Toronto
71 Queen’s Park Crescent, Second Floor Group Study Room

Toronto Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/530091583675075/

• required / + recommended reading
Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)

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)
+ 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
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)

Film screenings: January 2014

• Reds (1981)
• Rosa Luxemburg (1986)

Winter 2014

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

Week 11. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Jan. 11–12, 2014

• Lukács, Original Preface (1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919), “Class Consciousness” (1920), History and Class Consciousness (1923)
+ Marx, Preface to the First German Edition and Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873) of Capital (1867), pp. 294–298, 299–302

Week 12. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Jan. 18–19, 2014

• Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)
+ 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

Winter–Spring 2014

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Week 13. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 25–26, 2014

• 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. 1–2, 2014

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

Week 15. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 8–9, 2014

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

Week 16. What is to be done? | Feb. 15–16, 2014

• 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. 22–23, 2014

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

Week 18. Permanent revolution | Mar. 1–2, 2014

• 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. 8–9, 2014

• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)

Week 20. Imperialism | Mar. 15–16, 2014

• 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. 22–23, 2014 (spring break)

Week 22. Mar. 29–30, 2014 TBA

Week 23. Apr. 5–6, 2014 (Platypus international convention)

Week 24. Failure of the revolution | Apr. 12–13, 2014

• 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 25. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 19–20, 2014

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

Week 26. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 26–27, 2014

• 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 27. Lessons of October | May 3–4, 2014

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

Week 28. Trotskyism | May 10–11, 2014

+ Trotsky, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
• 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 29. The authoritarian state | May 17–18, 2014

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

Week 30. On the concept of history | May 24–25, 2014

• 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 31. Reflections on Marxism | May 31–Jun. 1, 2014

• 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 32. Theory and practice | Jun. 7–8, 2014

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

English  |   [Ελληνικό]  |  [Deutsch]

Boston, Chicago, Frankfurt, London, New York, Thessaloniki, Toronto

Chicago: Saturdays 1–4PM CST

School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)

112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920

University of Chicago (UChicago)

Reynolds Club 5706 S. University Ave. 2nd floor South Lounge*

Chicago Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/140497572752262/

Boston: Saturdays 2–5PM EST

Harvard University

Emerson Hall room 318

Boston Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/270185313082455/

London: Saturdays 7PM

Goldsmiths College, Richard Hoggart Bldg, Rm356,

London Borough of Lewisham, London SE14, UK

London Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/148283905314897/

New York: Sundays 2–5PM EST

School of Visual Arts

133 W. 21st St. room 402

NYC Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/258824880896215/

Toronto: Thursdays 7PM EST

University of Toronto

71 Queen’s Park Crescent, Second Floor Group Study Room

Toronto Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/530091583675075/

Summer and Fall/Autumn 2013 – Winter 2014

I. What is the Left? -- What is Marxism?

• required / + recommended reading

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

Week A. Radical bourgeois philosophy I. Rousseau: Crossroads of society | Aug. 3–4, 2013

Whoever dares undertake to establish a people’s institutions must feel himself capable of changing, as it were, human nature, of transforming each individual, who by himself is a complete and solitary whole, into a part of a larger whole, from which, in a sense, the individual receives his life and his being, of substituting a limited and mental existence for the physical and independent existence. He has to take from man his own powers, and give him in exchange alien powers which he cannot employ without the help of other men.

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract (1762)

• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller (on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58), and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche)

+ Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo" (1908)

+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754) PDFs of preferred translation (5 parts): [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

• Rousseau, selection from On the Social Contract (1762)

Week B. Radical bourgeois philosophy II. Hegel: Freedom in history | Aug. 10–11, 2013

• G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1831) [HTML] [PDF pp. 14-128]

Week C. Radical bourgeois philosophy III. Nietzsche (1): Life in history | Aug. 17–18, 2013

• Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life (1874) [translator's introduction by Peter Preuss]

Week D. Radical bourgeois philosophy IV. Nietzsche (2): Asceticism of moderns | Aug. 24–25, 2013

+ Human, All Too Human: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil (1999)

• Nietzsche, selection from On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)

• Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic (1887)

Week E. 1960s New Left I. Neo-Marxism | Aug. 31–Sep. 1, 2013 Labor Day weekend

• Martin Nicolaus, “The unknown Marx” (1968)

+ Commodity form chart of terms

• Moishe Postone, “Necessity, labor, and time” (1978)

+ Postone, “History and helplessness: Mass mobilization and contemporary forms of anticapitalism” (2006)

+ Postone, “Theorizing the contemporary world: Brenner, Arrighi, Harvey” (2006)

Week F. 1960s New Left II. Gender and sexuality | Sep. 7–8, 2013

• Juliet Mitchell, “Women: The longest revolution” (1966)

• Clara Zetkin and Vladimir Lenin, “An interview on the woman question” (1920)

• Theodor W. Adorno, “Sexual taboos and the law today” (1963)

• John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and gay identity” (1983)

Week G. 1960s New Left III. Anti-black racism in the U.S. | Sep. 14–15, 2013

• Richard Fraser, “Two lectures on the black question in America and revolutionary integrationism” (1953)

• James Robertson and Shirley Stoute, “For black Trotskyism” (1963)

+ Spartacist League, “Black and red: Class struggle road to Negro freedom” (1966)

+ Bayard Rustin, “The failure of black separatism” (1970)

• Adolph Reed, “Black particularity reconsidered” (1979)

+ Reed, “Paths to Critical Theory” (1984)

Week H. Frankfurt School precursors | Sep. 21–22, 2013

• Wilhelm Reich, “Ideology as material power” (1933/46)

• Siegfried Kracauer, “The mass ornament” (1927)

+ Kracauer, “Photography” (1927)

Week 1. What is the Left? I. Capital in history | Sep. 28–30, 2013

• 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

• Cutrone, "The Marxist hypothesis" (2010)

Week 2. What is the Left? II. Bourgeois society | Oct. 5–7, 2013

• 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. 12–14, 2013

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

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

Week 4. What is the Left? IV. Utopia and critique | Oct. 19–21, 2013

• 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

Week 5. What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Oct. 26–28, 2013

• Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts (1844), pp. 70–101

+ Commodity form chart of terms

• Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), pp. 469-500

• Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League (1850), pp. 501–511

Week 6. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Nov. 2–4, 2013

• Engels, The tactics of social democracy (Engels's 1895 introduction to Marx, The Class Struggles in France), pp. 556–573

• Marx, selections from The Class Struggles in France 1848–50 (1850), pp. 586–593

• Marx, selections from The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), pp. 594–617

Week 7. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Nov. 9–11, 2013

+ Karl Korsch, "The Marxism of the First International" (1924)

• Marx, Inaugural address to the First International (1864), pp. 512–519

• Marx, selections from The Civil War in France (1871, including Engels's 1891 Introduction), pp. 618–652

+ Korsch, Introduction to Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1922)

• Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, pp. 525–541

• Marx, Programme of the Parti Ouvrier (1880)

Week 8. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Nov. 16–18, 2013

+ Commodity form chart of terms

• Marx, selections from the Grundrisse (1857–61), pp. 222–226, 236–244, 247–250, 282–294

• Marx, Capital Vol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 "The fetishism of commodities" (1867), pp. 319–329

Week 9. Nov. 23–24, 2013 Thanksgiving break

Winter break readings

+ 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)

+ 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

+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)

+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)

Week 10. What is Marxism? V. Reification | Nov. 31–Dec. 2, 2013

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

+ Commodity form chart of terms

Week 11. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Dec. 7–9, 2013 / Jan. 11–12, 2014

• Lukács, Original Preface (1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919), “Class Consciousness” (1920), History and Class Consciousness (1923)

+ Marx, Preface to the First German Edition and Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873) of Capital (1867), pp. 294–298, 299–302

Week 12. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Dec. 14–15, 2013 / Jan. 18–19, 2014

• Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)

+ 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

Winter–Spring 2014

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Chicago, New York

Saturdays 1–4PM CST

School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920

Sundays 2–5PM EST

New School University
Eugene Lang College
65 W. 11th St. room 258

Summer 2013

Art and politics

• required / + recommended reading

Required preliminary reading

• Chris Cutrone, "The relevance of Critical Theory to art today" (2011)

• Cutrone, "An incomplete project? Art and politics after postmodernism" (2010)

Week 1. The meaning of art | Jun. 22–23, 2013

[Artists'] work is to sustain the critical moment of aesthetic experience. [Critics' work] is to recognize it.
-- Susan Buck-Morss, response to Visual culture questionnaire (1996)

• Susan Buck-Morss, response to Visual culture questionnaire (1996)
+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms [PNG]
+ Kant's 3 Critiques [PNG] and philosophy [PNG] charts of terms
• Immanuel Kant, Preface and Introduction, Critique of Judgment (1790) [full book PDF]

Week 2. Modern aesthetics of art | Jun. 29–30, 2013

• G.W.F. Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics first section:
1 Prefatory Remarks
2 Limitation and Defence of Aesthetics
3 Refutation of Objections
4 Scientific Ways of Treating Beauty and Art
5 Concept of the Beauty of Art
6 Common Ideas of Art
(i) The Work of Art as a Product of Human Activity
(ii) The Work of Art, as being for Apprehension by Man’s Senses, is drawn from the Sensuous Sphere
(iii) The Aim of Art

Week 3. Art and politics in our epoch | Jul. 6–7, 2013

• Leon Trotsky, "Art and politics in our epoch" (1938)
• Clement Greenberg, "Avant-garde and kitsch" (1939)

Week 4. Revolutionary art? | Jul. 13–14, 2013

• Walter Benjamin, "Experience and poverty" (1934)
• Benjamin, "The author as producer" (1934)
• Jürgen Habermas, "Modernity: an incomplete project" (1981)

Week 5. Art and the commodity form | Jul. 27–28, 2013

• Stewart Martin, “Critique of relational aesthetics” (2007)
• Stewart Martin, “The absolute artwork meets the absolute commodity” (2007)
• Theodor Adorno, "Art's self-evidence lost" and "Society", Aesthetic Theory (1970)

Chicago, New York

Saturdays 1–4PM CST

School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920

Sundays 2–5PM EST

New School University
Eugene Lang College
65 W. 11th St. room 258

Summer 2013

Late capitalism

• required / + recommended reading

Week 1. | Jun. 22–23, 2013

• Moishe Postone, "Contemporary historical transformations: Mandel and Bell" (1999)
• Daniel Bell, "Modernism and capitalism" (Foreword to The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, 1978)
+ Postone, "Theorizing the contemporary world: Brenner, Arrighi, Harvey" (2006)

Week 2. | Jun. 29–30, 2013

• Ernest Mandel, Late Capitalism (1972) pp. 8-183

Week 3. | Jul. 6–7, 2013

• Mandel, Late Capitalism pp. 184-342

Week 4. | Jul. 13–14, 2013

• Mandel, Late Capitalism pp. 343-473

Week 5. | Jul. 20–21, 2013

• Mandel, Late Capitalism pp. 474-590

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Boston, Chicago, Frankfurt, Graz, London, New York, Thessaloniki, Toronto

Saturdays 1–4PM CST

School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920

University of Chicago (UChicago)
Reynolds Club 5706 S. University Ave. 2nd floor South Lounge

Chicago Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/179540438855464/

Saturdays 2–5PM EST

Harvard University
Emerson Hall room 318

Boston Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/270185313082455/

Saturdays 2–5PM

Richard Hoggart Bldg. room 356
Goldsmiths College, New Cross, Lewisham, London SE14

London Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/148283905314897/

Sundays 2–5PM EST

The New School
Eugene Lang College
65 W. 11th St. room 258

NYC Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/258824880896215/

Thursdays 7–10PM EST

University of Toronto
71 Queen’s Park Crescent, Second Floor Group Study Room

Toronto Platypus Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/530091583675075/

• required / + recommended reading
Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)

 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)
+ 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
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)

Film screenings: January 2013

• Reds (1981)
• Rosa Luxemburg (1986)

Winter 2013

I. What is the “Left?” — What is “Marxism?”

Week 11. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Jan. 12–13, 2013

• Lukács, Original Preface (1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919), “Class Consciousness” (1920), History and Class Consciousness (1923)
+ Marx, Preface to the First German Edition and Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873) of Capital(1867), pp. 294–298, 299–302

 Week 12. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Jan. 19–20, 2013

• Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)
+ 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

 Winter–Spring 2013

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

Week 13. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 26–27, 2013

• 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. 2–3, 2013

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

 Week 15. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 9–10, 2013

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

 Week 16. What is to be done? | Feb. 16–17, 2013

• 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. 23–24, 2013

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

 Week 18. Permanent revolution | Mar. 2–3, 2013

• 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. 9–10, 2013

• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)

 Week 20. Imperialism | Mar. 16–17, 2013

• 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. 23–24, 2013 (spring break)

 Week 22. Mar. 30–31, 2013 (Easter weekend)

 Week 23. Apr. 6–7, 2013 (Platypus international convention)

 Week 24. Failure of the revolution | Apr. 13–14, 2013

• 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 25. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 20–21, 2013

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

 Week 26. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 27–28, 2013

• 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 27. Lessons of October | May 4–5, 2013

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

 Week 28. Trotskyism | May 11–12, 2013

+ Trotsky, “To build communist parties and an international anew” (1933)
• 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 29. The authoritarian state | May 18–19, 2013

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

 Week 30. On the concept of history | May 25–26, 2013

• 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 31. Reflections on Marxism | Jun. 1–2, 2013

• 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 32. Theory and practice | Jun. 15–16, 2013

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