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Primary Marxist Reading Group
Introduction to the history of the Left and Marxism (32-40 weeks, including 3-4 weeks of breaks)
Part I. What is the “Left?” – What is “Marxism?”
The historical roots of the Left and Marxism in the bourgeois revolution of the 17th-18th centuries and its 19th century crisis in capitalism are addressed through readings from Karl Marx and the background in radical bourgeois philosophy of Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel. 20th century attempts to recover Marx and Marxism’s political consciousness by the Frankfurt School and in the 1960s-70s “New Left” frame the problem of consciousness of the Left in the mid-late 20th century leading to the present, through writings by Juliet Mitchell, Adolph Reed, Moishe Postone, and the Spartacist League/U.S., among others, and Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, György Lukács, Karl Korsch, and Leszek Kolakowski.
Part II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism
Through reading key texts from the high period of the history of Marxism in the 2nd International and its crisis in the early 20th century, the problem of consciousness of this history and its potential political implications in the present are addressed. Readings include Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotsky, the philosophical reflections on Marxism by Lukács and Korsch, and their ramifications in the Frankfurt School Critical Theory of Walter Benjamin, Horkheimer, and Adorno.
Short Courses in Platypus, History of the Left and Marxism
Platypus Introduction to the History of Marxism
A series of 10 sessions introducing Platypus’s approach to the history of Marxism, including readings on Luxemburg, Lenin and Trotsky.
Introduction to Platypus
10 sessions of readings introducing the raison d’être of the Platypus project, including published transcripts of our public forum activities.
Short Course in Platypus
A series of 4 readings introducing Platypus’s approach to Marxism and pedagogical philosophy.
Summer Reading Groups
Every summer, Platypus holds a special summer session of our reading group internationally. Below is an archive of previous reading groups held around the world.