Platypus

Marxist reading group

2009

[e-mail]

3/23/09

[PDF statement of purpose]

[Marxist readings archive]

— Platypus reading groups updated pages —

Meets Sundays at:

Loyola University Chicago
Loyola Information Commons
6525 N. Sheridan Rd. room 105
6:30-10PM

·  primary readings

next meeting:

March 29, 2009

Marxian theory and practice (2)

· Georg Lukács, "Preface" [original, 1922], History and Class Consciousness, xli-xlvii

· Georg Lukács, "What is Orthodox Marxism?" (1919), History and Class Consciousness, 1-26

· Georg Lukács, "Class Consciousness" (1920), History and Class Consciousness, 46-82

Spring 2009

Introduction to revolutionary Marxism

January 18, 2009

The absence of the Left

"However difficult the task of grasping and confronting global capital might be, it is crucially important that a global internationalism be recovered and reformulated. . . . None of the massive demonstrations against the war featured oppositional progressive Iraqis who could provide a more nuanced and critical perspective on the Middle East, a telling political failure on the part of the Left." (Postone 2006)

"We have to note, with regret, that the Iraqi democratic forces have not received, in their difficult struggle, effective solidarity and support from international forces of the Left." (Iraqi CP 2006)

· Moishe Postone, "History and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalism" (2006)

· Fred Halliday, "Who is Responsible? [interview with Danny Postel in Chicago]" (2005)

Iraqi Communist Party, Letter to Fraternal and Friendly Parties About the Situation in Iraq and the Position of the Iraqi Communist Party (Jan. 2006)

Terry Eagleton, "The Politics of Amnesia" (Ch. 1 of After Theory, 2003)

Symptom: Tariq Ali, "Mid-Point in the Middle East?" (2006)

January 25, 2009

What is the Left?

"The concept of the Left remains unclear to this day." (Kolakowski 1968)

· Leszek Kolakowski, "The Concept of the Left" (1968)
[in Carl Oglesby, ed., New Left Reader (1969), 144-158]

February 1, 2009

Marxism as theory and practice: the 1920s-30s "Old" Left

"In socialism, freedom is to become a reality. But because the present system is called 'free' and considered liberal, it is not terribly clear what this might mean. . . . Not only [the Little Man's] lack of freedom but that of [his betters] as well spells his doom. His interest lies in the Marxist clarification of the concept of freedom. . . .
The socialist order of society is not prevented by world history; it is historically possible. But it will not be realized by a logic that is immanent to history but by men trained in theory and determined to make things better. Otherwise, it will not be realized at all." (Horkheimer 1926-31)

· Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung (Notes 1926-31)

· Theodor W. Adorno, part X. "Imaginative excesses" from "Messages in a Bottle" (orphaned from Minima Moralia 1944-47)

· Liza Featherstone, Doug Henwood, and Christian Parenti, " 'Action Will Be Taken': Left Anti-Intellectualism and its Discontents" (2002)

Esther Leslie, Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence (1999)

Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)

February 8, 2009

Anti-black racism in the U.S. and the Left

"For the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white." (Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks 1952)

· Richard Fraser, Two Lectures on the Black Question in America and Revolutionary Integrationism (1953)

· James Robertson and Shirley Stoute, "For Black Trotskyism" (1963)

Spartacist League, "Black and Red — Class Struggle Road to Negro Freedom" (1966)

· Bayard Rustin, "The Failure of Black Separatism" (1970)

Adolph Reed, "Paths to Critical Theory" (1984)

Symptom: Malcolm X, " 'I Don't Mean Bananas' " (1964)
[in Oglesby, ed., New Left Reader, 207-222]

Symptom: Huey Newton, A Prison Interview (1968)
[in Oglesby, ed., New Left Reader, 223-240]

February 15, 2009

Gender, sexuality and revolution

"The situation of women is different from that of any other social group. This is because they are not one of a number of isolable units, but half a totality: the human species. . . . They are fundamental to the human condition, yet in their economic, social and political roles, they are marginal. It is precisely this combination — fundamental and marginal at one and the same time — that has been fatal to them." (Mitchell 1966)

"While capitalism has knocked the material foundation away from family life, lesbians, gay men, and heterosexual feminists have become scapegoats for the instability of the system." (D'Emilio 1983)

"Sexual liberation in contemporary society is mere illusion. . . . In an unfree society, sexual freedom is hardly more conceivable than any other form of freedom. Sexuality is disarmed as sex, as though it were a kind of sport, and whatever is different about it still causes allergic reactions. . . . A true, instinctually erotic life, the relations that generate pleasure, is by no means that healthy sex life that in the most advanced industrial countries is encouraged by all sectors of the economy." (Adorno 1963)

· Juliet Mitchell, "Women: the Longest Revolution" (1966)
[revised version from Women's Estate (1971)]

Quintin Hoare, "On Mitchell's 'Women: the longest revolution' " (1967)

Mitchell, reply to Quintin Hoare (1967)

Clara Zetkin and V. I. Lenin, "My Recollections of Lenin: an interview on the woman question" (interview 1920)

Symptom: Lynne Segal, "Psychoanalysis and Politics: Juliet Mitchell then and now" (2000)

· John D'Emilio, "Capitalism and Gay Identity" (1983)

Theodor W. Adorno, "Sexual Taboos and the Law Today" (1963)

February 22, 2009

Marx and the origins of Marxism

· Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1847-48, Prefaces to various language editions, I. "Bourgeois and Proletarians," II. "Proletarians and Communists," and IV. "Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties" [PDF])
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 469-491, and 499-500]

· Karl Marx, selections from the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 ("Estranged Labour," "Private Property and Labour," "Private Property and Communism," and "The Meaning of Human Requirements" [PDF])
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 70-101]

Karl Marx, selections from The Grundrisse (1857-61, A. "Introduction: (1) Production: Independent Individuals, 18th Century Ideas, and (3) The Method of Political Economy," C. "The Dynamics of Capitalism," G. "Capitalism, Machinery and Automation," H. "The End of Capitalism" [PDF], and "(1) Value" [PDF])
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 222-226, 236-244, 247-250, 283-290, and 291-292, and Martin Nicolaus, transl., Grundrisse, 881-882]

March 1, 2009

The post-'60s Left and the "unknown" Marx: the path not taken

"The most important Marxian political manifesto remains to be written." (Nicolaus 1968)

· Martin Nicolaus, "The Unknown Marx" (1968)
[also in Carl Oglesby, ed., The New Left Reader (1969), 84-110]

Moishe Postone, "Rethinking Marx (in a post-Marxist world)" (1995)

March 15, 2009

Marxian critical theory

· Georg Lukács, "The Phenomenon of Reification" (Part I of "Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat," 1923) [PDF]
[in History and Class Consciousness, 83-110]

March 22, 2009

Marxian theory and practice (1)

"Qui si convien lasciare ogni sospetto;
Ogni viltà convien che qui sia morta
[Here all mistrust must be abandoned;
And here must perish every craven thought]"
(Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia 1308-21 quoted by Marx 1859)

· Karl Korsch, Introduction to Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme (1922)

· Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)
[also in Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 525-541]

Karl Marx, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)
[also in Robert Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 3-6]

March 29, 2009

Marxian theory and practice (2)

· Georg Lukács, "Preface" [original, 1922], History and Class Consciousness, xli-xlvii

· Georg Lukács, "What is Orthodox Marxism?" (1919), History and Class Consciousness, 1-26

· Georg Lukács, "Class Consciousness" (1920), History and Class Consciousness, 46-82

April 5, 2009

Marxian theory and practice (3)

"As scientific socialism, the Marxism of Marx and Engels remains the inclusive whole of a theory of social revolution . . . a materialism whose theory comprehended the totality of society and history, and whose practice overthrew it. . . . The difference [now] is that the various components of [what for Marx and Engels was] the unbreakable interconnection of theory and practice are further separated out. . . . The umbilical cord has been broken." (Korsch 1923)

· Karl Korsch, "Marxism and Philosophy" (1924)

Karl Marx, "To Make the World Philosophical" (1839-41) and "For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing" (1843)
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 9-15]

· Karl Korsch, "The Marxism of the First International" (1924)

April 12, 2009

What is "revolutionary leadership?"

"The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of revolutionary leadership." (Leon Trotsky 1938)

· Cliff Slaughter, "What is Revolutionary Leadership?" (1960)

· Rosa Luxemburg, "The Crisis of German Social Democracy" Part 1 (1915) [PDF]

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