Between us we can change this rotten society. Now, put on your coat and make for the nearest cinema. Look at their deadly love-making on the screen. Isn’t it better in real life? Make up your mind to learn to love. Then, during the interval, when the first advertisements come on, pick up your tomatoes or, if you prefer, your eggs, and chuck them. Then get out into the street, and peel off all the latest government proclamations until underneath you discover the message of the days of May and June.

Stay awhile in the street. Look at the passers-by and remind yourself: the last word has not yet been said. Then act. Act with others, not for them. Make the revolution here and now. It is your own. C’est pour toi que tu fais la révolution.

— Daniel and Gabriel Cohn-Bendit, Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative

Recommended films for screening

+ Brother Outsider: The Bayard Rustin Story
+ Rebels with a Cause: The SDS
+ Medium Cool
+ Columbia Revolt
+ The Weather Underground
+ Finally Got the News

Recommended background readings

+ Students for a Democratic Society, Port Huron Statement (1962)
+ Irwin Unger, The Movement (1974); see also Unger’s retrospective of 1968

Further background readings

+ Kirkpatrick Sale, SDS (1973)
+ Massimo Teodori, The New Left (1969)
+ Harold Jacobs, Weatherman (1970)

• required / + recommended reading

Primary book source *

• Carl Oglesby, ed. The New Left Reader (1968)

Recommended preliminary readings

+ The Platypus Historians Group, "Requiem for the '60s: Response to a boycott of discussion of '40 years of 1968'" (2008)
+ Chris Cutrone, "Let the dead bury the dead!" Response to Principia Dialectica (UK) on May 1968 (2008)
+ Atiya Khan, The Decline of the Left in the 20th Century: 1968 (2009)

Week 1 | June 9

• Stuart Hall, "Introducing New Left Review"
• C. Wright Mills, "Letter to the New Left" and "The politics of responsibility" *
• Leszek Kolakowski, "The concept of the Left" *
• Herbert Marcuse, "Conclusion to One-Dimensional Man" *

Week 2 | June 16

• Carl Oglesby, "The idea of the New Left" *
• Louis Althusser, "Contradiction and over-determination" *
+ Althusser, "Marxism and humanism"

Week 3 | June 23

• Cliff Slaughter, "What is revolutionary leadership?"
• Revolutionary Tendency of the Socialist Workers Party/U.S., "In defense of a revolutionary perspective"
• Spartacist League, "Genesis of Pabloism"

Week 4 | June 30

• Malcolm X, "I don't mean bananas" *
• Huey Newton, "A prison interview" *
• Spartacist League, "Soul power or workers' power? The rise and fall of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers"
+ Harold Cruse, from The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual Part 1 Part 2

Week 5 | July 7

• Andre Gorz, from Strategy for Labor *
• Stuart Hall, Raymond Williams, E.P. Thompson, from The May Day Manifesto *

Week 6 | July 14

• Daniel and Gabriel Cohn-Bendit, "The battle of the streets," from Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative *
• Rudi Dutschke, "On anti-authoritarianism" *
• Mark Rudd, "Columbia: Notes on the Spring rebellion" *
• Sorbonne students' open assembly of June 13-14, 1968, "The appeal from the Sorbonne" *
• Tom Fawthorpe, Tom Nairn, David Triesman, "Three student risings" *

Week 7 | July 21

• Marcuse, "The question of revolution" (1967)
+ Theodor 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, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
• Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
+ Adorno, Interview with Der Spiegel magazine (1969)

Coda

+ Marcuse, "The failure of the New Left" (1975)

Chicago
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Wednesdays 6pm
116 S. Michigan Ave., Room 202

Berkeley
Berkeley City College Room 033
Mondays 6:00PM
Last seven weeks beginning June 19th

• required / + recommended reading

Lenin readings available in Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology (Norton, 1977), except (*) on marxists.org

Recommended background readings

+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World (1919)

Week 1 | June 14

• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution (1905)
• Lenin, On the Two Lines in the Revolution (1915) *

Week 2 | June 21

• Lenin, Lecture on the 1905 Revolution (1917)
• Lenin, Letters from Afar (1917) *
• Lenin, April Theses (1917)

Week 3 | June 28

• Lenin, The Dual Power (1917)
• Lenin, The Enemies of the People (1917)
• Lenin, The Beginning of Bonapartism (1917)

Week 4 | July 5

• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)

Week 5 | July 12

• Lenin, Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power? (1917)
• Lenin, Marxism and Insurrection (1917)
• Lenin, Advice of an Onlooker (1917)

Week 6 | July 19

• Lenin, To the Citizens of Russia! (1917)
• Lenin, Theses on the Constituent Assembly (1917)
• Lenin, The Chief Task of Our Day (1918)
• Lenin, The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government (1918)

Week 7 | July 26

• Lenin, The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky (1918)

New York
Wednesdays at 6:30pm beginning June 15
School of Visual Arts
380 2nd Ave, Room 804B

Chicago
School of the Art Institute, Chicago
Mondays 6pm
112 S Michigan Ave, Room 919

Houston
Sundays at 3:00 pm (ongoing)
University of Houston
MD Anderson Library (meet in the lobby)

London
Mondays at 6pm
Goldsmiths College, Richard Hoggart Building, Room 257

• required / + recommended reading

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

Recommended background readings

+ Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. 12–16 (from "Marx and Engels go back to writing history" to "Karl Marx dies at his desk")
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889–1914 (1966)

Week 1

+ Karl Korsch, "The Marxism of the First International" (1924)
• Karl Marx, Inaugural address to the First International (1864), pp. 512–519
• Ferdinand Lassalle, Open letter to the German workers’ movement (1863)
• Mikhail Bakunin, A Critique of the German Social-Democratic Program (1870)
• Bakunin, Marxism, Freedom and the State (1872)

Week 2

+ 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)
• Karl Kautsky, The Class Struggle (1892)

Week 3

• Kautsky,The Social Revolution (1902)

Week 4

• Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread, especially Chapters 3, 11 and 12 (1906)
• Kropotkin, Anarchist Communism (1909)

Week 5

• Kautsky, The Road to Power (1909)

Recommended preliminary background reading

+ J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model” (1965)

Week 1

Karl Kautsky, The Class Struggle (1892)

Week 2

Kautsky, The Road to Power (1909)

Week 3

The Organisational Structure of the Communist Parties, the Methods and Content of Their Work: Theses

The 21 Conditions of Admission into the Communist International

Leon Trotsky, The First Five Years of the Communist International (1924)
2 vols. [Volume I] [Volume II]

Recommended selections (*)

Volume I
* Author’s 1924 Introduction *
I. The First World Congress
* 1. Manifesto of the Communist International to the Workers of the World *
2. Report on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Red Army
3. Order of the Day Number 83 to the Red Army and Navy
II. From the First to the Second World Congress
* 4. To Comrades of the Spartacus League *
* 5. A Creeping Revolution *
6. Great Days
7. En Route: Thoughts on the Progress of the Proletarian Revolution
8. French Socialism on the Eve of Revolution
9. Jean Longuet
10. On the Coming Congress of the Comintern
III. The Second World Congress
* 11. Speech on Comrade Zinoviev’s Report on the Role of the Party *
* 12. Manifesto of the Second World Congress *
* Part I *
* Part II *
IV. From the Second to the Third World Congress
13. On the Policy of the KAPD (Communist Workers Party of Germany)
14. Speech Delivered at the Second World Conference of Communist Women
15. Letter to Comrade Monatte
16. Letter to Comrades Cachin and Frossard
17. On L’Humanité, the Central Organ of the French Party
V. The Third World Congress
18. The Red Army to the General Staff of the Revolution
* 19. Report on the World Economic Crisis and the New Tasks of the Communist International *
* Part I *
* Part II *
20. Summary Speech
* 21. Theses of the Third World Congress on the International Situation and the Tasks of the Comintern *
22. Speech on the Italian Question at the Third Congress of the Communist International
23. Speech on Comrade Radek’s Report on “Tactics of the Comintern” at the Third Congress
24. Speech on Comrade Lenin’s Report: “Tactics of the Russian Communist Party”
VI. From the Third to the Fourth World Congress
25. The Main Lesson of the Third Congress
26. Report on “The Balance Sheet” of the Third Congress of the Communist International
27. Summary Speech
Appendix
Towards the First World Congress
1. May Day and the International
* 2. To the Spartacus League of Germany and the Communist Party of German Austria *
* 3. Order Out of Chaos *
The First World Congress
4. Invitation to the First World Congress
From the First to the Second World Congress
5. A Letter to Our French Comrades
From the Second to the Third World Congress
6. A Letter to a French Syndicalist About the Communist Party
7. Vergeat, Lepetit and Lefebvre
8. The March Movement in Germany
9. The March Revolutionary Movement in Germany (Personal Notes)
10. May Day Manifesto of the ECCI
* 11. The Unemployed and the Trade Unions *
Volume II
From the Third to the Fourth World Congress
* 1. A School of Revolutionary Strategy (July 1921) *
* Part I *
* Part II *
2. From the ECCI to the Central Committee of the French Communist Party (June 25, 1921)
3. From the ECCI to the Marseilles Convention of the French Communist Party (December 1921)
4. Speech on Comrade Zinoviev’s Report “The Tactics of the Comintern” at the Eleventh Party Conference (December 1921)
* 5. Summary Speech at the Eleventh Party Conference (December 1921) *
* 6. Flood-tide (December 25, 1921) *
* 7. Paul Levi and Some ‘Lefts’ (January 6, 1922) *
* 8. On the United Front (March 2, 1922) *
9. Resolution of the ECCI on the French Communist Party (March 2, 1922)
10. The Communists and the Peasantry in France (April 29, 1922)
11. The Lessons of May Day (May 10, 1922)
12. From the ECCI to the Central Committee of the French Communist Party (May 12, 1922)
13. French Communism and the Position of Comrade Rappoport (May 23, 1922)
14. To Comrade Ker (June 6, 1922)
15. Resolution of the ECCI on the French Communist Party (June 11, 1922)
16. To Comrade Treint (July 28, 1922)
17. From the ECCI to the Seine Federation of the French Communist Party (Summer 1922)
18. From the ECCI to the Paris Convention of the French Communist Party (September 13, 1922)
19. From the ECCI to the Paris Convention of the French Communist Party (October 6, 1922)
The Fourth World Congress
* 20. The Fifth Anniversary of the October Revolution and the Fourth World Congress of the Communist International (October 20, 1922) *
21. Speech in Honour of the Communist International (November 7, 1922)
* 22. The New Economic Policy of Soviet Russia and the Perspectives of the World Revolution (November 14, 1922) *
* Part I *
* Part II *
* 23. The Economic Situation of Soviet Russia From the Standpoint of the Socialist Revolution (theses) (December 1, 1922) *
24. Resolution on the French Question (December 2, 1922)
25. A Militant Labour Program for the French Communist Party(December 5, 1922)
26. Resolution of the French Commission (December 2, 1922)
After the Fourth Congress
* 27. Political Perspectives (November 1922) *
28. Report on the Fourth World Congress (December 28, 1922)
29. Preface to The Communist Movement in France (March 25, 1923)
30. Is the Slogan of ’The United States of Europe’ a Timely One? (June 30, 1923)
31. Can a Counter-Revolution or a Revolution be Made on Schedule? (September 23, 1923)
* 32. To Comrade McKay (March 13, 1923) *

Week 4

Trotsky, The Third International After Lenin (1928)

Week 5

C.L.R. James, The World Revolution 1917-36 (1937)

Chicago

Saturdays 1–4PM CST

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

• required / + recommended readings

Recommended background readings:

+ Chris Cutrone, "On anarchism and Marxism" (2008)
+ Trevor Bark, "Half-time team talk" (response to Cutrone) (2008)
+ Cutrone, "Against dogmatic abstraction" (2010)

Week 1 | Jun. 21, 2014

• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property? (1840)
+ Max Stirner, The Ego and Its Own (1845)

Week 2 | Jun. 28, 2014

• Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State (1871)
+ Bakunin, A Critique of the German Social-Democratic Program (1870)
+ Bakunin, Marxism, Freedom and the State (1872)
+ Ferdinand Lassalle, Open letter to the German workers’ movement (1863)

Week 3 | Jul. 12, 2014

• Peter Kropotkin, Anarchist Communism (1909)
+ Kropotkin, “The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Government” (1919)
+ Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread, especially Chapters 3, 11 and 12 (1906)

Week 4 | Jul. 19, 2014

• Errico Malatesta, Syndicalism and Anarchism (1926)
• Malatesta and Nestor Makhno, About the Platform (1927-29)

Week 5 | Jul. 26, 2014

• Murray Bookchin, Listen, Marxist! (1969)