Platypus | special discussion sessions 2007-08

"We have seen that in its economic essence imperialism is monopoly capitalism. This in itself determines its place in history, for monopoly that grows out of the soil of free competition . . . is the transition from the capitalist system to a higher socio-economic order. . . . Imperialism is the eve of the social revolution of the proletariat." (Lenin 1916)

"The socialists of oppressed nations must unfailingly fight for the complete (including organisational) unity of the workers of the oppressed and oppressing nationalities. The idea of 'cultural-national autonomy' is reactionary." (Lenin, Socialism and War 1915)

"However difficult the task of grasping and confronting global capital might be, it is crucially important that a global internationalism be recovered and reformulated. . . . The reemergence of imperialist rivalries calls for the recovery of nondualistic forms of internationalism. . . . [T]he Left should be very careful about constituting a form of politics that, from the standpoint of human emancipation, would be questionable, at the very best, however many people it may rouse." (Postone 2006)

1st and 2nd sessions:
January 7 and 14, 2007

Fundamentals

V. I. Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) and Socialism and War Ch. 1 (1915)
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology, 204-274 and 183-195]

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

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

[supplemental reading:]
David Harvey, The New Imperialism (2005)

Leon Trotsky, "Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay" (1940)

recommended background viewing:]
Reds (film, 1981, 195 min.: dir. Warren Beatty)
[public screening Saturday 1/13/06 1PM at Open University of the Left, In These Times, 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago]

[recommended background reading:]

Third World-ism and critique

Samir Amin, "U.S. Imperialism, Europe, and the Middle East" (2004)

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

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

Europe-ism and critique

Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, "February 15, Or What Binds Europeans Together: A Plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in the Core of Europe" (2003)
[excerpts from original German publication]

Russell Berman, "Anti-Americanism and the Movement Against Globalization"
[from Anti-Americanism in Europe: A Cultural Problem (2004)]

3rd session:
January 28, 2007

Debate with Spartacist League

Spartacist League, "The Left and the Occupation: U.S. Out of Iraq Now! For Class Struggle Against U.S. Capitalist Rulers!" (2005)

Spartacist League and Chris Cutrone, "Exchange on the Iraq 'Resistance' " (2004/05)

Spartacist League and Chris Cutrone, "Exchange on Iraq Occupation" (2006)

Spartacist League, "The 'War on Terror' and the Imperialist World Order: Terrorism: A Marxist Analysis" (Parts 1 + 2, 2006)

Spartacist League, "Imperialist Occupation: Hell for Iraq: U.S. Out Now!" (2006)

[supplemental viewing:]
PBS/Frontline, The Insurgency: An investigation into the people who are fighting against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq (2006)

[addenda:]
Karl Kautsky, "Ultra-Imperialism" (1914) [PDF]

Perry Anderson, "Internationalism: A Breviary" (2002)

February 11 - July 1, 2007

Marx after Marxism

February 11, 2007

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]

February 25, 2007

[background reading:]
Adam Smith, selections from The Wealth of Nations (1776, Vol. I. Book I. Ch. 1-9, Book III. Ch. 1-4; Vol. II. Book IV. Ch. 7, Book V. Ch. 1 Article 2 and Conclusion of the chapter)
[in Edwin Cannan, ed., Smith, The Wealth of Nations (Chicago, 1976), Vol. 1: 1-4, 7-43, 53-110, 399-446; Vol. 2: 66-158, 282-309, and 338-340]

March 11 and 25, 2007

Georg Lukács, "The Standpoint of the Proletariat" (Part III of "Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat," 1923)
[in History and Class Consciousness, 149-209]

[supplemental reading:]
Karl Marx, "The Coming Upheaval" (from The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847)
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 218-219]

Karl Marx, "Class Struggle and Mode of Production" (from letter to Weydemeyer, 1852)
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 220]

Georg Lukács, "Class Consciousness" (1920)
[in History and Class Consciousness, 46-82]

Moishe Postone, "Lukács and the Dialectical Critique of Capitalism" (2003)

[background reading:]
G. W. F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History [HTML]
[PDF 14-128]

April 8, 2007

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

Wilhelm Reich, "Ideology as Material Power" (1933/46)

Siegfried Kracauer, "The Mass Ornament" (1927)

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

April 22 and May 6, 2007

Karl Marx, Capital vol. 1, Chapter 1 "The Commodity" (1867), and "Afterword to the Second German Edition" (1873)
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 299-302, and 302-329]

Moishe Postone, "Necessity, Labor, and Time: a reinterpretation of the Marxian critique of capitalism" (1978)

[supplemental reading:]
Moishe Postone, "Rethinking Marx (in a post-Marxist world)" (1995)

May 20, 2007

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

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

Theodor W. Adorno, "Marginalia to Theory and Praxis" (1969)

[supplemental reading:]
Theodor W. Adorno, "Resignation" (1969)

Theodor W. Adorno, "Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?" (AKA "Is Marx Obsolete?," 1968)

Theodor W. Adorno, "Reflections on Class Theory" (1942)

June 3 and 17, 2007

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," III. "Socialist and Communist Literature" and IV. "Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties" [PDF I, II and IV])
[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, 469-491, 491-499 and 499-500]

Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, V. I. Lenin, Max Adler, and Leon Trotsky, selected excerpts from writings on the Communist Manifesto
[in Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto (Norton Critical Edition, ed. Frederick L Bender, 1988), 125-145] [PDF]

Theodor W. Adorno, "Reflections on Class Theory" (1942)

Theodor W. Adorno, "World-spirit and Natural History. Excursus on Hegel: 1. Tendency and Facts" [295-297], Negative Dialectics (1966) [PDF 1-2]

[background reading:]
Eric Hobsbawm, "Conclusion: Towards 1848" The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848, 297-308

July 1, 2007

Karl Korsch, "Marxism and Philosophy" (1923)

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

Korsch and Adorno, selected epigraphs on social being and consciousness in modern history (1923, 1935, 1966, 1969)

July 8 - August 26, 2007

A History of the Left, pre-1689 - 1968
(8 sessions)

[background reading book list PDF]

[film screening series PDF]

Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848

Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital: 1848-75

Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire: 1875-1914

Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-19 (1968)

Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)

Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (pamphlet 1978)

Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)

session schedule:

DSS recordings:
[Mac player application] [Windows player application]

July 8
History before 1689 and the figure of the pre-modern
lecture by Richard Rubin
[DSS recording]

July 15
1689-1789
Proto-modern
lecture by James Vaughn
[DSS recording]

Eric Hobsbawm, "The General Crisis of the European Economy in the 17th Century" [Part I] [Part II] (1954)

July 22
1789-1848
"Bourgeois" revolution?
lectures by James Vaughn and Richard Rubin
[DSS recording Vaughn] [DSS recording Rubin]

Immanuel Kant, "What is Enlightenment?" (1784)

July 29
Pivot: the French Revolution and politics before Marx
lecture by James Vaughn
[DSS recording part 1] [part 2]

Slavoj Žižek, "Robespierre, or, the 'Divine Violence' of Terror" (2007)
[introduction to Robespierre: Virtue and Terror]

Benjamin Contant, "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns" (1819)

[background reading:]
Eric Hobsbawm, Chapter 3: The French Revolution, The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, selections from The Social Contract (1762) [HTML full text]

Maximillien Robespierre, selections from speeches (1791-94)

August 5
1848-89
Marx and Marxism
lectures by James Vaughn and Richard Rubin
[DSS recording Vaughn] [DSS recording Rubin]

August 12
1889-1923
Missed opportunity
lecture by Chris Cutrone
[DSS recording part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Marx and Engels in 1851 and Rosa Luxemburg in 1915 on critical consciousness and the possibility of social emancipation

[recommended background reading:]
J. P. Nettl, "The German Social Democratic Party 1890-1914 as a Political Model" (1965)

August 19
1923-39
Aftermath
lecture by Chris Cutrone
[DSS recording part 1] [. . .]

Leon Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [HTML]

Leon Trotsky, "If America Should Go Communist" (1934/35)

Leninism versus Stalinism: an outline

August 26
1939-68
Degeneration
lecture by Richard Rubin and Chris Cutrone
[WMA recording]

Leon Trotsky, In Defense of Marxism (1939/40)

Spartacist League, "Genesis of Pabloism" (1972)

September 9 - November 4, 2007

A History of the Present — After the Death of the Left
1968 - present
(5 sessions)

DSS recordings:
[Mac player application] [Windows player application]

September 9
Adorno in 1969: the significance of the politics of the 1930s for the 1960s "New" Left
lecture by Chris Cutrone
[DSS recording part 1] [part 2]

Chris Cutrone, "Adorno in 1969: Adorno's Marxism and the problem and legacy of the 1960s Left in theory and practice" (2006)
[expanded draft for University of Chicago Social Theory Workshop]
[edited and revised for Rethinking Marxism 2006 conference]

Karl Korsch and Adorno, selected epigraphs on social being and consciousness in modern history (1923, 1935, 1966, 1969)

September 23 - November 4, 2007

The 3 Rs: Reform, Revolution and "Resistance"
The problematic forms of "anticapitalism" today
(4 sessions)

"[After the 1960s, the] underlying despair with regard to the real efficacy of political will, of political agency [. . .] in a historical situation of heightened helplessness [. . .] became a self-constitution as outsider, as other [. . .] focused on the bureaucratic stasis of the [Fordist/late 20th Century] world: it echoed the destruction of that world by the dynamics of capital [with the neo-liberal turn after 1973, and especially after 1989].
The idea of a fundamental transformation became bracketed and, instead, was replaced by the more ambiguous notion of 'resistance.' The notion of resistance, however, says little about the nature of that which is being resisted or of the politics of the resistance involved — that is, the character of determinate forms of critique, opposition, rebellion, and 'revolution.' The notion of 'resistance' frequently expresses a deeply dualistic worldview that tends to reify both the system of domination and the idea of agency.
'Resistance' is rarely based on a reflexive analysis of possibilities for fundamental change that are both generated and suppressed by [the] dynamic heteronomous order [of capital]. ['Resistance'] is an undialectical category that does not grasp its own conditions of possibility; that is, it fails to grasp the dynamic historical context of which it is a part."
(Moishe Postone, "History and Helplessness," 2006)

September 23
Theorizing Reform, Revolution and "Resistance" after the 1960s "New" Left: an introduction
lecture by Chris Cutrone
[DSS recording part 1] [part 2]

Cornelius Castoriadis, "The Working Class and Organization" (1959)

Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, "Intellectuals and Power: A Conversation" (1972)

Moishe Postone, "Contemporary Historical Transformations: Beyond Post-Industrial Theory and Neo-Marxism" [on Daniel Bell and Ernest Mandel] (1999)

[supplemental reading:]
Daniel Bell, "Modernism and Capitalism" (Foreword to The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, 1978)

October 7
Reform, Revolution and "Resistance"
Locating sites (1): Change

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967, especially Ch. 4, § 73-124, "The Proletariat as Subject and Representation")

Stephen Duncombe, "Imagine an Ethical Spectacle" (Ch. 6 of Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy, 2007)

[supplemental reading:]
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, "The Multitude against Empire" (Ch. 4.3 of Empire, 2000)

Marina Sitrin and Emilio Sparato, "New Languages from New Practices in Argentina" in The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest #3 (2004?)

October 21
Reform, Revolution and "Resistance"
Locating sites (2): Continuity

Mute editor, "Introduction: Exploring Precariousness" (for Mute magazine, 2006)

Brian Holmes, "The Spaces of a Cultural Question" [interview with Marion von Osten of Atelier Europa for republicart on Precariat] (2004)