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Was ist revolutionärer Marxismus?

WÜchentlich mittwochs, 18:45-21:45
ab 29. März 2016
Kommunikationszentrum (KomZ) der STV Politikwissenschaft im 2. Stock des Neuen Institutsgebäudes (NIG)
Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien
Achtung! Ortswechsel ab 19. Juli 2016:
Cafe Gagarin
Garnisongasse 24, 1090 Wien 

Durch die LektĂźre von bedeutenden Texten der Hochphase des Marxismus in der 2. Internationalen und ihrer Krise im 20. Jahrhundert betrachten wir das Problem des Bewusstseins dieser Geschichte und ihrer politischen Implikationen fĂźr die Gegenwart. Die Textauswahl beinhaltet Schriften von Luxemburg, Lenin und Trotzki, die philosophische Reflexion des Marxismus von LukĂĄcs und Korsch und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Kritische Theorie von Benjamin, Horkheimer und Adorno.

Die Texte werden zu Hause gelesen und beim Lesekreis besprochen. Kein Vorwissen ist nĂśtig, Neueinsteigende sind absolut erwĂźnscht.

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Leseliste

• vorausgesetzte / + empfohlene Texte

Woche 1. Revolutionäre Fßhrung | 29. März 2017
• Rosa Luxemburg, “Die ‘Junius-Broschüre’ / Krise der Sozialdemokratie” Teil I. (1915)
• J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890-1914 as a Political Model” (1965)
• Cliff Slaughter, “What is revolutionary leadership?” (1960)


Woche 2. Reform oder Revolution? | 5. April 2017
• Luxemburg, Sozialreform oder Revolution (1899/1908)


Woche 3. Lenin und die Avantgardepartei | 26. April 2017
• Spartakist-Broschüre, “Lenin und die Avantgardepartei” (1978)


Woche 4. Was tun? | 3. Mai 2017
• W. I. Lenin, Was tun? (1902)
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)


Woche 5. Massenstreik und Sozialdemokratie | 10. Mai 2017
• Luxemburg, „Massenstreik, Partei und Gewerkschaften“ (1906)
• Luxemburg, „Blanquismus und Sozialdemokratie" (1906)


Woche 6. Permanente Revolution | 17. Mai 2017
• Leo Trotzki, Ergebnisse und Perspektiven (1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)


Woche 7. Staat und Revolution | 24. Mai 2017
• Lenin, Staat und Revolution (1917)


Woche 8. Imperialismus | 31. Mai 2017
• Lenin, "Der Imperialismus als höchstes Stadium des Kapitalismus" (1916)
+ Lenin, Sozialismus und Krieg I. Kapitel: Die Grundsätze des Sozialismus und der Krieg 1914/1915 (1915)


Woche 9. Das Scheitern der Revolution | 7. Juni 2017
• Luxemburg, Was will der Spartakusbund? (1918)
• Luxemburg, Unser Programm und die politische Situation (1918)
+ Luxemburg, Die Sozialisierung der Gesellschaft (1918)
+ Luxemburg, “The Russian Tragedy” (1918)
+ Luxemburg, Die Ordnung herrscht in Berlin (1919)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19 (1968) [Amazon verlinken? und PDF der englischen Übersetzung]


Woche 10. RĂźckzug nach der Revolution | 14. Juni 2017
• Lenin, Der „Linke Radikalismus“, die Kinderkrankheit im Kommunismus (1920)
+ Lenin, Notizen eines Publizisten (1922/24)


Woche 11. Dialektik der Verdinglichung | 21. Juni 2017
• Lukács, “Der Standpunkt des Proletariats” (Teil III. des Kapitels “Die Verdinglichung und das Bewußtsein des Proletariats”) In: Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (1923)


Woche 12. Die Lehren des Oktobers | 28. Juni 2017
• Leo Trotzki, 1917 – Die Lehren des Oktobers (1924)
+ Leo Trotzki, Bolschewismus und Stalinismus (1937)


Woche 13. Trotzkismus | 5. Juli 2017
+ Trotzki, "To build communist parties and an international anew" (1933)
• Trotzki, Der Todeskampf des Kapitalismus und die Aufgaben der 4. Internationale (Das Übergangsprogramm)(1938)
+ Trotzki, Die Gewerkschaften in der Epoche des imperialistischen Niedergangs (1940)
+ Trotzki, Brief an James Cannon (12. September 1939)


Woche 14. Der autoritäre Staat | 12. Juli 2017
• Friedrich Pollock, Staatskapitalismus (1941)
• Max Horkheimer, „Autoritärer Staat“ (1940/1942)


Woche 15. Über den Begriff der Geschichte | 19. Juli 2017
• Epigraphe von Louis Menand (über Edmund Wilson) und Peter Preuss (über Nietzsche) über den modernen Begriff der Geschichte
+ Charles Baudelaire, aus FusĂŠes [Rockets] (1867)
+ Bertolt Brecht, "An die Nachgeborenen" (1939)
+ Walter Benjamin, "Zum Planetarium" (aus Einbahnstraße, 1928)
+ Benjamin, "Erfahrung und Armut" (1933)
+ Benjamin, "Theologisch-politisches Fragment" (1921/39?)
• Benjamin, "Über den Begriff der Geschichte" (1940) • Benjamin, "Paralipomena zu den Thesen Über den Begriff der Geschichte" (1940)


Woche 16. Reflexionen Ăźber den Marxismus | 26. Juli 2017
• Theodor Adorno, "Reflexionen zur Klassentheorie" (1942)
• Adorno, "Ausschweifung" (Anhang Minima Moralia) (1944–47)
+ Adorno, "Zueignung", "Vermächtnis“, "Vor Mißbrauch wird gewarnt" und "Zum Ende", aus Minima Moralia (1944-47)
+ Horkheimer und Adorno, Diskussion Ăźber Theorie und Praxis (1956)


Woche 17. Theorie und Praxis | 2. August 2017
+ Adorno, "Zu Subjekt und Objekt" (1969)
• Adorno, “Marginalien zu Theorie und Praxis” (1969)
• Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
+ Adorno, "Spätkapitalismus oder Industriegesellschaft?" (1968)
+ Esther Leslie, "Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence" (1999)
+ Adorno und Marcuse, "Correspondence on the German New Left" (1969)

For 2017, the third time the Platypus Affiliated Society hosts its European Conference and we are happy to announce the University of Vienna as this year's location. The program includes two panel discussions on the Politics of Critical Theory and the Crisis of Neoliberalism as well as several workshops.

February 18, 2017
University of Vienna

Speakers: Dirk Lehmann und Anne Koppenburger, Bielefeld

A teach-in by Chris Cutrone and Richard Rubin on the legacy of the 1917 Russian Revolution today and the problems of Leftist historiography, held February 17, 2017 at the University of Vienna, as part of the 3rd annual Platypus European Conference.

A discussion on the Politics of Critical Theory, held on February 17, 2017 at the University of Vienna, as part of the 3rd annual Platypus European Conference.

Speakers (in order):

- Chris Cutrone, Platypus Affiliated Society, Chicago

- Martin Suchanek, Workers Power, Berlin

- Haziran Zeller, Berlin

Recently, the New Left Review published a translated conversation between the critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer causing more than a few murmurs and gasps. In the course of their conversation, Adorno comments that he had always wanted to develop a theory that remains faithful to Marx, Engels and Lenin, while keeping up with culture at its most advanced.’ Adorno, it seems, was a Leninist. As surprising as this evidence might have been to some, is it not more shocking that Adorno’s politics, and the politics of Critical Theory, have remained taboo for so long? Was it really necessary to wait until Adorno and Horkheimer admitted their politics in print to understand that their primary preoccupation was with maintaining Marxism’s relation to bourgeois critical philosophy such as Kant and Hegel? This panel proposes to state the question as directly as possible and to simply ask: How did the practice and theory of Marxism, from Marx to Lenin, make possible and necessary the politics of Critical Theory?

Donnerstag, 17.11.2017, 19:30 Uhr
Gußhausstraße 14/3, 1040 Wien

trumpism

Audio recording of the event


Trump and the American Left

The accusations against Donald Trump of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and even fascism have been front and center for Republicans, liberals and leftists alike, while at the same time it is recognized that it was millions of former Obama voters who put him over the edge.

Many of the policies Trump called for already existed. For instance, surveillance and increased scrutiny of Muslim immigrants in the “War on Terror,” the war against ISIS, the wall on the border with Mexico, the mass deportations of “illegal” immigrants, and proposals for a super-exploitative guest-worker immigration program. Since the election, many of his strongly worded rhetoric has been removed from his platform entirely. Leaders of the Democratic Party such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have conceded support for Trump on his policies meant to help American workers and to "drain the swamp" by getting finance out of politics. Meanwhile, many on the Left call for the dismantling of the Democratic Party, as a corporate fundraising machine that doesn’t speak to the needs of working people, to start anew. However what this means for them is the reinvigoration of the Democratic Party, which, based on the statements of Warren and Sanders, will now be led by President Trump.

During the campaign season itself the far left was divided between a strong anti-Trump, lesser evil endorsement of the Democrat establishment candidate and those who, too aware of what that neoliberal, imperialist establishment politics meant for people in America and around the world, could only stand helpless before the absence of anything outside the reality of Trump versus Clinton.

What is clear is that there is now no opposition to the status quo from the Left in America with power independent of the Democrat Party. In light of this fact, any future Left must keep firmly in view that its diagnosis of the Trump phenomenon--whether it is whitelash, proto-fascism, or neoliberal discontent--is at once its answer to what it represents. What sort of answers could the Left offer to oppose the establishment from the Left?"

The event will be led by Platypus members Clint Montgomery and Nunzia Faes. There will be a co-presentation followed by an open discussion. All are welcome.


The Platypus Affiliated Society, established in December 2006, organizes reading groups, public fora, research and journalism focused on problems and tasks inherited from the “Old” (1920s-30s), “New” (1960s-70s) and post-political (1980s-90s) Left for the possibilities of emancipatory politics today.