On this two-part episode of SPS, Pamela sits with Leila Mechoi, the co-host of Red Star Radio podcast. They reflect on the Left's reaction to the late trucker protest in Canada, and discuss the role of civil liberties in the organization of the working class, as well as what sort of missed political opportunity -- if any -- did the protest present. In the second part of the episode, Andreas and Berlin-based Platypus member, Tamas talked to Peter and Noemi, both members of Szikra, a leftist group in Hungary founded in 2019. They discuss the situation of the Hungarian Left with regards to developments within the international left over the past decade, as well as the next Hungarian parliamentary election in April of this year. They also take up the deeper history of the Left in Hungary and specific political challenges in the "post-socialist "countries of Eastern Europe today.
Links for Leila Mechoui interview
- Red Star Radio podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/red-…io/id1516544636
- www.patreon.com/red_star_radio
- themilitant.com/2022/02/12/trucke…ght-boss-attacks/
- Simon Clarke, The State Debate (Basingstoke: Palgrave 1991). This work and other his works can be found here: cooltexts.github.io/
Links for Szikra interview
- Szikra's "about us": www.szikramozgalom.hu/about_us
- Nora Schultz (Szikra member)in Merce (the leftist online newspaper that is mentioned during the interview): merce.hu/2019/09/20/a-szabad-…s-baloldali-es-zold/
- An interview with Nora Schultz by Noemi Lehoczki: merce.hu/2020/11/21/politikai…-szikra-mozgalommal/
SPS is hosted by Rose F., Pamela N. and Andreas W., with original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy, and editing assistance by Michael Woodson and Tamas Vilaghy. Our Sh-t Platypus Does team is Lisa M. and Rebekah P. To learn more about Platypus, go to platypus1917.org/.
Zum historischen Verhältnis zwischen Anarchismus und Marxismus
Zeit: 28.02.-04.04.2022 (6 Termine), immer montags 19:30-22:30 Uhr
Ort: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87816906025
• vorausgesetzte Texte
+ zusätzlich, empfohlene Texte
Die Texte werden im Voraus gelesen und dann zusammen diskutiert. Neueinsteiger/innen sind herzlich Willkommen. Vorkenntnisse werden keine benötigt.
Empfohlene Vorbereitungs- und Hintergrundliteratur:
+ Chris Cutrone, "On anarchism and Marxism" (2008)
+ Trevor Bark, "Half-time team talk" (response to Cutrone) (2008)
+ Chris Cutrone, "Against dogmatic abstraction" (2010)
+ Edmund Wilson, Der Weg nach Petersburg (1940), Part II. Kapitel 12–16 (von "Marx und Engels wenden sich der Geschichtsschreibung zu” bis "Karl Marx stirbt an seinem Schreibtisch") (1924)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889-1914 (1966)
1.Woche | 28.02.
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Was ist das Eigentum?, vor allem Kapitel 1, 3 und 4 (1840)
• Karl Marx’ Brief “über P. J. Proudhon” an J. B. v. Schweitzer (1865)
2. Woche | 07.03.
+ Karl Korsch, "Der Marxismus der Ersten Internationale“ (1924)
• Marx, Inauguraladresse der Internationalen Arbeiter-Assoziation (1864)
• Ferdinand Lassalle, ''Offenes Antwortschreiben'' (1863)
• Michael Bakunin, "A Critique of the German Social-Democratic Program" (1870)
• Bakunin, Marxism, Freedom and State (1872)
3. Woche | 14.03.
• Marx, Kritik des Gothaer Programms (1875)
• Marx, "Einleitung zum Programm der französischen Arbeiterpartei" (1880)
• Karl Kautsky, Das Erfurter Programm (1892)
+ Korsch, Einleitung zu Marx, Randglossen zum Programm der deutschen Arbeiterpartei (1922)
4. Woche | 21.03.
• Kautsky, Die soziale Revolution (1902), Teil 1 [in GER (Fraktur) oder ENG] und Teil 2
5. Woche | 28.03.
• Peter Kropotkin, Die Eroberung des Brotes, vor allem Kapitel 3, 11 und 12 (1906)
• Kropotkin, Anarchist Communism (1909)
+ Errico Malatesta Syndicalism and Anarchism (1926)
6. Woche | 04.04.
• Kautsky, Der Weg zur Macht (1909)
Every Sunday at 2 pm
New North 204, Georgetown University (37th and O St NW, Washington, DC 20057)
For regular updates, please follow our Facebook page: facebook.com/PlatypusGeorgetown
• required / + recommended reading
Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)
Week 11. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Jan. 16, 2022
• Karl Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Herbert Marcuse, "Note on dialectic" (1960)
+ 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 2022
II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
Week 12. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 23, 2022
• 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 13. Reform or revolution? | Jan. 30, 2022
• Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)
+ Eugene Debs, "Competition versus Cooperation" (1900)
Week 14. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 6, 2022
• Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
Week 15. What is to be done? | Feb. 13, 2022
• 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 16. Mass strike and social democracy | Feb. 20, 2022
• Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)
+ Luxemburg, "Blanquism and Social Democracy" (1906)
Week 17. Permanent revolution | Feb. 27, 2022
• Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
Week 18. Mar. 6, 2022 (spring break)
Week 19. State and revolution | Mar. 13, 2022
• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)
Week 20. Imperialism | Mar. 20, 2022
“The bourgeoisie makes it its business to promote trusts, drive women and children into the factories, subject them to corruption and suffering, condemn them to extreme poverty. We do not ‘demand’ such development, we do not ‘support’ it. We fight it. But how do we fight? We explain that trusts and the employment of women in industry are progressive. We do not want a return to the handicraft system, pre-monopoly capitalism, domestic drudgery for women. Forward through the trusts, etc., and beyond them to socialism!”
— Lenin, The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution (1916/17)
• 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. Failure of the revolution | Mar. 27, 2022
• 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)
+ Eugene Debs, “The Day of the People” (1919)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19 (1968)
Week 22. Apr. 3, 2022 [Platypus international convention]
Week 23. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 10, 2022
• Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
+ Lenin, "Notes of a Publicist" (1922)
Week 24. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 17, 2022
• 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
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms + Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
Week 25. Lessons of October | Apr. 24, 2022
• Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF]
• Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism" (1937)
Week 26. Trotskyism | April 31, 2022
+ Trotsky, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
+ Trotsky, "If America should go communist" (1934)
• Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (AKA The Transitional Program and the Struggle for Socialism, 1938)
+ Trotsky, "Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay" (1940)
+ Trotsky, Letter to James Cannon (September 12, 1939)
Week 27. The authoritarian state | May 8, 2022
• Friedrich Pollock, "State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations" (1941) (note 32 on USSR)
• Max Horkheimer, "The Authoritarian State" (1942) [PDF]
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
Week 28. On the concept of history | May 15, 2022
• 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, "Fire alarm" (from One-Way Street, 1928)
[JPG] [PDF]
+ Benjamin, "Experience and poverty" (1933)
+ Benjamin, Theologico-political fragment (1921/39?)
+ Benjamin on history chart of terms
• Benjamin, "On the Concept of History" (AKA "Theses on the Philosophy of History") (1940) [PDF]
• Benjamin, Paralipomena to "On the Concept of History" (1940)
+ Benjamin, Arcades Project Convolute N, "On the theory of knowledge, theory of progress" (see especially p. 471 [N8,1] on Horkheimer on unredeemablility of past suffering)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 29. Reflections on Marxism | May 22, 2022
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ Benjamin on history chart of terms
• Theodor Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)
• Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ 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 30. Theory and practice | May 29, 2022
+ Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (1969)
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Adorno's critique of actionism chart of terms
• Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
• Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Adorno, “Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?”) (1968)
+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)
+ Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)
+ Adorno, Interview with Der Spiegel magazine (1969)
Sundays, 12:30 - 3:00PM
Harper 135
1116 E 59th St, Chicago, IL 60637
Join at any time / no prior knowledge assumed
Find the Facebook Events for each session: @uchicagoplatypus
[Online weeks will take place Sundays, 5:00 - 8:00PM]
• required / + 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)
+ Carl Schorske, The SPD 1905-17: The Development of the Great Schism (1955)
+ J.P. Nettl, Rosa Luxemburg (1966) [Vol. 1] [Vol. 2]
+ 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
I. What is the Left? What is Marxism?
Week 10. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Jan. 16, 2021 [ONLINE]
• Lukács, “Class Consciousness” (1920), Original Preface (1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919), History and Class Consciousness (1923)
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Herbert Marcuse, "Note on dialectic" (1960)
+ Marx, Preface to the First German Edition and Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873) of Capital (1867), pp. 294–298, 299–302
II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
Week 11. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 23, 2021 [ONLINE]
• 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 12. Reform or revolution? | Jan. 30, 2021
• Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)
+ Eugene Debs, "Competition versus Cooperation" (1900)
Week 13. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 6, 2021
• Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
Week 14. What is to be done? | Feb. 13, 2021
• 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 15. Mass strike and social democracy | Feb. 20, 2021
• Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)
+ Luxemburg, "Blanquism and Social Democracy" (1906)
Week 16. Permanent revolution | Feb. 27, 2021
• Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
Week 17. State and revolution | Mar. 6, 2021
• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)
Week 18. Imperialism | Mar. 13, 2021
“The bourgeoisie makes it its business to promote trusts, drive women and children into the factories, subject them to corruption and suffering, condemn them to extreme poverty. We do not ‘demand’ such development, we do not ‘support’ it. We fight it. But how do we fight? We explain that trusts and the employment of women in industry are progressive. We do not want a return to the handicraft system, pre-monopoly capitalism, domestic drudgery for women. Forward through the trusts, etc., and beyond them to socialism!”
— Lenin, The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution (1916/17)
• 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 19. Mar. 20, 2021 (spring break)
Week 20. Mar. 27, 2021 (spring break)
Week 21. Apr. 3, 2021 [Platypus international convention]
Week 22. Failure of the revolution | SKIPPED
• 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)
+ Eugene Debs, “The Day of the People” (1919)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918–19 (1968)
Week 23. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 10, 2021
• Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
+ Lenin, "Notes of a Publicist" (1922)
Week 24. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 17, 2021
• 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
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms + Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
Week 25. Lessons of October | SKIPPED
• Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF]
• Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism" (1937)
Week 26. Trotskyism | Apr. 24, 2021
+ Trotsky, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
+ Trotsky, "If America should go communist" (1934)
• Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (AKA The Transitional Program and the Struggle for Socialism, 1938)
+ Trotsky, "Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay" (1940)
+ Trotsky, Letter to James Cannon (September 12, 1939)
Week 27. The authoritarian state | May 1, 2021
• Friedrich Pollock, "State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations" (1941) (note 32 on USSR)
• Max Horkheimer, "The Authoritarian State" (1942) [PDF]
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
Week 28. On the concept of history | May 8, 2021
• 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, "Fire alarm" (from One-Way Street, 1928)
[JPG] [PDF]
+ Benjamin, "Experience and poverty" (1933)
+ Benjamin, Theologico-political fragment (1921/39?)
+ Benjamin on history chart of terms
• Benjamin, "On the Concept of History" (AKA "Theses on the Philosophy of History") (1940) [PDF]
• Benjamin, Paralipomena to "On the Concept of History" (1940)
+ Benjamin, Arcades Project Convolute N, "On the theory of knowledge, theory of progress" (see especially p. 471 [N8,1] on Horkheimer on unredeemablility of past suffering)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 29. Reflections on Marxism | May 15, 2021
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ Benjamin on history chart of terms
• Theodor Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)
• Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ 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 30. Theory and practice | May 22, 2021
+ Adorno, “On Subject and Object” (1969)
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Adorno's critique of actionism chart of terms
• Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
• Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Adorno, “Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?”) (1968)
+ Organic composition of capital chart of terms
+ Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)
+ Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)
+ Adorno, Interview with Der Spiegel magazine (1969)
On this episode of SPS, Rose and Pamela sit down with Spencer L., founding member of Platypus and historian of imperialism, to discuss the Rittenhouse trial and the “Left’s” response. They clear up the confusion around the Second Amendment among todays leftists, address the anti-racism of progressive liberals, and take up responses by Daniel Lazare (Weekly Worker) and the Bolshevik Tendency. In the second part of the episode, Andreas W. and Platypus Melbourne member, Ryan M., interview Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance) on the protests against the Australian vaccine mandate, including the September attack on the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) offices. Union leadership was under attack by union members for their complicity with state measures, which prevented a return to work without vaccination. Andreas and Ryan ask, how should the left respond? Are these protests simply cannon fodder for the right? How should socialists understand this discontent in civil society?
SEGMENT I Links
>The “Left” on Rittenhouse
Daniel Lazare, “Rittenhouse and White Backlash” in the Weekly Worker, issue 1373 (25 November 2021)
weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1373/rit…white-backlash/
“...The idea that good guys need guns to defend themselves against bad guys is asinine, since it is often far from clear in a shootout which is which. It is a determination that cannot be made individually on the spur of the moment, but can only be made deliberately and collectively, which is why democracy requires judges, courts and other such apparatus.”
Milwaukee DSA Statement on Rittenhouse Verdict, (22 November 2021)
milwaukee.dsawi.org/milwaukee-dsa-s…nhouse-verdict/
“It is no coincidence that Rittenhouse wants to be a police officer when he grows up. The US injustice system was developed to enshrine white supremacy at the expense of those who work to undo it. As those in power continue to build upon the fascist foundations of our nation, it becomes ever-clearer that abolition of police and the carceral state at large is the only path forward.”
Bolshevik Tendency, “Killer Rittenhouse Goes Free—Fascists Celebrate”
bolsheviktendency.org/2021/11/27/kil…sts-celebrate/
“Decent people do not recognize the “right” of fascists and their various ultra-rightist friends and associates to mobilize—nor do we recognize their right to “defend” themselves against attempts to disarm them, which is what Rittenhouse’s victims were seeking to do. While the latter’s tactics were obviously seriously deficient, their intent was commendable.”
>Education on Liberalism & Constitutional Rights
Ira Glasser, Free Speech and the ACLU, an interview by Glenn Greenwald
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGI4fc_VB7c
Platypus Public Fora Series: The Second Amendment and the Left
Platypus Review 110 (October 2018): platypus1917.org/2018/10/01/the-s…nt-and-the-left/
June 9, 2018, University of Houston: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaaAqAm6oAw
SEGMENT II Links
Sue Bolton's article in Green Left, Socialist Alliance's publication: www.greenleft.org.au/content/behind…k-cfmeu-office
The other Green Left article Andreas quotes, by Dave Kellaway: www.greenleft.org.au/content/italy-…-confederation
Socialist Alliance's website: socialist-alliance.org/
Hosted by Rose F., Pamela N. and Andreas W., with original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy, and editing assistance by Michael Woodson and Tamas Vilaghy. To learn more about Platypus, go to platypus1917.org/.
