University of Chicago Platypus Winter-Spring 2023 Reading Group: Introduction to Revolutionary Marxism
Sundays, 12:00 - 3:00PM
Harper 135
1116 E 59th St, Chicago, IL 60637
Join at any session / no prior knowledge assumed
Facebook events for each session can be found @uchicagoplatypus
(⢠required readings / + recommended readings)
Week 1. What is the Left? I. Introduction: Capital in history | Jan. 8, 2023
⢠Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom" (1926â31)
⢠epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857â58), and Peter Preuss (on history)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
⢠Chris Cutrone, "Capital in history" (2008)
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ video of Communist University 2011 London presentation
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
⢠Cutrone, "The Marxist hypothesis" (2010)
⢠Cutrone, âClass consciousness (from a Marxist perspective) todayâ (2012)
+ G.M. Tamas, "Telling the truth about class" [HTML] (2007)
+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)
+ Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo" (1908)
Week 2. What is the Left? II. Utopia and critique | Jan. 15, 2022
⢠Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung (1926â31)
⢠Adorno, âImaginative Excessesâ (1944â47)
⢠Leszek Kolakowski, âThe concept of the Leftâ (1958)
⢠Herbert Marcuse, "Note on dialectic" (1960)
⢠Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839â41), pp. 9â11
⢠Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12â15
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
Week 3. What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Jan. 22, 2023
⢠Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts (1844), pp. 70â101
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
⢠Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), pp. 469â500
⢠Marx, The coming upheaval (from The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847), pp. 218â19
WEEKS 4-10 SKIPPED
II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
Week 11. Revolutionary leadership | Jan. 29, 2023
⢠Rosa Luxemburg, âThe Crisis of German Social Democracyâ Part 1 (1915)
⢠J. P. Nettl, âThe German Social Democratic Party 1890â1914 as a Political Modelâ (1965)
⢠Cliff Slaughter, âWhat is Revolutionary Leadership?â (1960)
Week 12. Reform or revolution? | Feb. 5, 2023
⢠Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)
+ Eugene Debs, "Competition versus Cooperation" (1900)
Week 13. Lenin and the vanguard party | Feb. 12, 2023
⢠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. 19, 2023
⢠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. 26, 2023
⢠Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)
+ Luxemburg, "Blanquism and Social Democracy" (1906)
Week 16. Permanent revolution | Mar. 5, 2023
⢠Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
Week 17. Mar. 12, 2021 (spring break)
Week 18. Mar. 19, 2021 (spring break)
Week 19. State and revolution | Mar. 26, 2023
â˘Â Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)
Week 20. Apr. 2, 2023 (international convention)
Week 21. Imperialism | Apr. 9, 2023
âThe 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 âdemandâ such development, we do not âsupportâ 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!â
â 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 1914â15 (1915)
Week 22. Failure of the revolution | Apr. 16, 2023
⢠Luxemburg, âWhat does the Spartacus League Want?â (1918)
⢠Luxemburg, âOn the Spartacus Programmeâ (1918)
+ Luxemburg, "German Bolshevism" (AKA "The Socialisation of Society") (1918)
+ Luxemburg, âThe Russian Tragedyâ (1918)
+ Luxemburg, âOrder Reigns in Berlinâ (1919)
+ Eugene Debs, âThe Day of the Peopleâ (1919)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918â19 (1968)
Week 23. Retreat after revolution | Apr. 23, 2023
⢠Lenin, âLeft-Wingâ Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
+ Lenin, "Notes of a Publicist" (1922)
Week 24. Dialectic of reification | Apr. 30, 2021
⢠LukĂĄcs, âThe Standpoint of the Proletariatâ (Part III of âReification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,â 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
+ LukĂĄcs, âThe phenomenon of reificationâ (Part I of âReification and the consciousness of the proletariat,â History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
Week 25. Lessons of October | May 7, 2023
⢠Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF]
⢠Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism" (1937)
Week 26. Trotskyism | May 14, 2023
+ 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 21, 2023
⢠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 28, 2023
⢠epigraphs by Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson) and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche) on the modern concept of history
+ Charles Baudelaire, from FusĂŠes [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 | Jun. 4 2023
+ Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+ Benjamin on history chart of terms
⢠Theodor Adorno, âReflections on Class Theoryâ (1942)
⢠Adorno, âImaginative Excessesâ (1944â47)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Adorno, Dedication, "Bequest", "Warning: Not to be Misused" and "Finale", Minima Moralia (1944â47)
+ Horkheimer and Adorno, "Discussion about Theory and Praxis" (AKA "Towards a New Manifesto?") [Deutsch] (1956)
Week 30. Theory and practice | ???
+ Adorno, âOn Subject and Objectâ (1969)
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Adorno's critique of actionism chart of terms
⢠Adorno, âMarginalia to Theory and Praxisâ (1969)
⢠Adorno, âResignationâ (1969)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Adorno, âLate Capitalism or Industrial Society?â (AKA âIs Marx Obsolete?â) (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)