MIT reading group

Platypus chapter at MIT meets Sundays

For more information contact laurasch@mit.edu

PDF of 2008-2009 scheduled readings

[[January 25, 2009]]

[What is “revolutionary leadership?”]

[· Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)]

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

[[[February 1, 2009]]]

[[Revolutionary Marxism (1)]]

[ ][[· J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890-1914 as a Political Model” (1965)]]

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[ []]

[[[February 8, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (2)]]

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[[· Rosa Luxemburg, *Reform or Revolution?* (1900/08)]]

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[ []]

[[[February 15, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (3)]]

[ ][[· Karl Korsch, “Marxism and Philosophy” (1923)]]

[ ][[Karl Korsch, “The Marxism of the First International” (1924)]]

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[ []]

[[[February 22, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (4)]]

[ ][[V. I. Lenin, “Where to Begin?” (1901)]]

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[[· V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement (1902) PDF

[in Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology, 12-114]]]

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[ []]

[[[March 1, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (5)]]

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

Kautskyism and the Origins of Russian Social Democracy

Bolshevism vs. Menshevism: the 1903 Split

The 1905 Revolution

Party, Faction and “Freedom of criticism”

[In Defense of Democratic Centralism:

A 1973 speech by James Robertson to the West German Spartacus (Bolschewiki-Leninisten)](http://www.bolshevik.org/Pamphlets/LeninVanguard/LVP%20Robertson%20to%20Spartacus-BL.htm)

The Struggle Against the Boycotters

The Final Split with the Mensheviks

Toward the Communist International

[ ][[**[recommended background reading:]

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

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[ []]

[[[March 8, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (6)]]

[ ][[· György Lukács, “Preface” [original, 1922], History and Class Consciousness, xli-xlvii]]

[ ][[· György Lukács, “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919), History and Class Consciousness, 1-26]]

[ ][[· György Lukács, “Class Consciousness” (1920), History and Class Consciousness, 46-82]]

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[ []]

[[[March 15, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (7) 1905]]

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[[· Leon Trotsky, *Results and Prospects* (1906)]]

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[[**[recommended background reading:]

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

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[ []]

[[[March 22, 2009]]]

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[[Optional session: Revolutionary Marxism 1905 (2)]]

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[[· Rosa Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)]]

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[ []]

[[[March 29, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (8)]]

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[[· V. I. Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)]]

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[ []]

[[[April 5, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (9) 1917-19 (1)]]

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[[· Rosa Luxemburg, “What does the Spartacus League Want?” and “On the Spartacus Programme” (1918)]]

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[[**[recommended background reading:]

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

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[ []]

[[[April 12, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (10)]]

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[[· V. I. Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism “ An Infantile Disorder (1920)]]

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[ []]

[[[April 19, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (11)]]

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[[· [György Lukács, “The Standpoint of the Proletariat” HTML sections 1-2 [sections 3-4 [sections 5-6 (Part III of “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” 1923), History and Class Consciousness, 149-222]]

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[ []]

[[[April 26, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (12) 1917-19 (2)]]

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

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[[Rosa Luxemburg, “The Russian Tragedy” (1918)]]

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[[Rosa Luxemburg, “Order Reigns in Berlin” (1919)]]

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[ []]

[[[May 3, 2009]]]

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[[Revolutionary Marxism (13)]]

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[[· Leon Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (AKA “Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution”) (1938) [HTML]]

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[ []]

[[[May 10, 2009]]]

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[[Theory and practice (1)]]

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[[· Theodor W. Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)]]

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[[**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]]]

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[ []]

[[[May 17, 2009]]]

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[[Theory and practice (2)]]

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[[· Theodor W. Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)]]

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[[· Theodor W. Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)]]

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[[Theodor W. Adorno, “Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” (AKA “Is Marx Obsolete?,” 1968)]]

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

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