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)
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
Chicago
Saturdays 1–4PM
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920
Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/events/339098822822962/
• required / + recommended reading
Film screening: May 2012
• Last Party 2000 (2001)
Week 1. May 26, 2012
Marx and democracy
• Dick Howard, selections from The Specter of Democracy (2002)
+ Howard, “Philosophy by other means?” (2001) (original version of Chapter 13 of The Specter of Democracy)
+ Benjamin Constant, “The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns” (1819)
+ Karl Marx, On Bruno Bauer’s The Jewish Question (1844)
+ Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)
+ Chris Cutrone, “Lenin’s liberalism” and “Lenin’s politics” (2011)
Week 2. Jun. 2, 2012
Communist Party of Great Britain debates Platypus
• Selected articles from Weekly Worker, May 12 – August 11, 2011
+ Original pages of Weekly Worker
• Ben Lewis, “Chicago school” (letter in Weekly Worker 914, May 17, 2012)
• Chris Cutrone, letter in response to Ben Lewis (May 17, 2012)
+ Danny Hammill, “Debate, controversy and comradeship” (on the 2011 CPGB Communist University summer school, Weekly Worker 879, September 1, 2011, p. 11)
+ Spencer Leonard, “Adam Smith’s profoundest reader: Marx” (Weekly Worker 895, December 22, 2011, pp. 12–14)
June 16 – July 28
Trotsky and Trotskyism
Recommended preliminary readings:
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ Nicolas Krassó, “Trotsky’s Marxism” (1967)
• Platypus Historians Group, “The dead Left: Trotskyism” (2008)
• Richard Rubin, “The decline of the Left in the 20th century: 1933″ (2009)
• Ian Morrison, “Trotsky’s Marxism” (2011)
• Mike Macnair, Bryan Palmer, Richard Rubin, and Jason Wright, “The legacy of Trotskyism” (2011)
• Grover Furr, “Learning from the Communist Movement of the 20th century: A response to Richard Rubin”(2012)
+ Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1978)
+ Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet: Trotsky biography (three volumes: 1954, 1959, 1963)
