notes on Feb. 15 reading Korsch "Marxism and Philosophy" (1923)

 February 15, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

‘[Humanity] always sets itself only such problems as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely it will always be found that the problem itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution are already present or are at least understood to be in the process of emergence’ [Marx, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)]. This dictum is not affected by the fact that a problem which supersedes present relations may have been formulated in an anterior epoch. [Read More]
/20th Century  Chris Cutrone  crisis  critical theory  Discussion  History  ideology  Karl Korsch  Vladimir Lenin  Karl Marx  Marxism  Philosophy  Platypus  Revolution  Rosa Luxemburg  Socialism  vulgar Marxism 

note on recent readings: Slaughter, Nettl, Luxemburg

 February 10, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

After the recent discussion of Luxemburg’s pamphlet on Reform or Revolution? (1900/08), there might be some confusion regarding the relationship between Luxemburg’s formulations and the raison d’etre of Platypus as an organized project today.—What is the point of reading Luxemburg today? Whereas Luxemburg was critiquing Eduard Bernstein and other “revisionists’” arguments that the development of capitalism had made proletarian social revolution superfluous or even harmful, Luxemburg was arguing that such historical “development” must be seen as symptomatic of the growing and deepening crisis of capitalism, and that the organized Marxist social-democratic labor and political movement must be seen as part of that history, part of that crisis. [Read More]
capitalism  Discussion  emancipation  History  Marxism  organization  Politics  Revolution  Rosa Luxemburg  Socialism  society  the Left 

Trotsky on "degeneration" and "entire generations passing into discard" (1933)

 February 7, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

It is not a question of counterposing abstract principles… [W]ith the degeneration of organizations, with the passing of entire generations into discard… the necessity… arises of mobilizing fresh forces on a new historical stage… With inevitable halts and partial retreats it is necessary to move forward on a road crisscrossed by countless obstacles and covered with the debris of the past. Those who are frightened by this had better step aside. [Read More]
Chris Cutrone  crisis  Discussion  History  Marxism  Politics  the Left  Leon Trotsky  Trotskyism 

University of Chicago Marxist reading group Winter-Spring 2009

University of Chicago Marxist reading group Winter-Spring 2009

 January 11, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Platypus chapter at University of Chicago[ meets Sundays at][ **] [ Reynolds Club 5706 S. University Ave.] [ **2nd floor South Lounge 2-5PM**] [For more information contact mtorre3@artic.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]] [ ] [ ] [ []] [Read More]
Cliff Slaughter  J.P. Nettl  Karl Korsch  leadership  Vladimir Lenin  Marxism  Reading group  Rosa Luxemburg  Leon Trotsky  University of Chicago 

SAIC reading group Spring 2009

SAIC reading group Spring 2009

 January 11, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Platypus chapter at SAIC[ meets Sundays at] 112 S. Michigan Ave. Room 707 @ 1-4pm [contact: ian.morrison.a@gmail.com if you are not SAIC affiliated] [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)]] [Read More]
J.P. Nettl  Vladimir Lenin  Marxism  Reading group  Rosa Luxemburg  SAIC 

Chicago North Side reading group starts January 18th, 2009

Chicago North Side reading group starts January 18th, 2009

 January 10, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

[Meets Sundays at: ] [Loyola University Chicago] Loyola Information Commons 6525 N. Sheridan Rd. room 105 6:30-10PM** join facebook group [[Winter-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. [Read More]
Chicago North side  Loyola U. Chicago  Marxism  Reading group 

University of Chicago, SAIC, MIT, NYU reading group starts January 11

University of Chicago, SAIC, MIT, NYU reading group starts January 11

 January 1, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

1960s paths not taken (1): Civil Rights - Black Power Platypus Marxist readings for Sunday January 11, 2009 Richard Fraser, [Two Lectures on the Black Question in America and Revolutionary Integrationism](http://www.bolshevik.org/history/Fraser/Fraser01.html)(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)** At two locations in Chicago: University of Chicago Reynolds Club 5706 S. [Read More]
1960s  America  black Trotskyism  class struggle  freedom  integrationism  James Robertson  Marxism  Reading group  Richard Fraser  separatism  Shirley Stoute 

Platypus in the New Yorker article 'Outside Agitator: Naomi Klein and the new new left'

Platypus in the New Yorker article 'Outside Agitator: Naomi Klein and the new new left'

 December 8, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

“Outside Agitator: Naomi Klein and the new new left.” By Larissa MacFarquhar Read the complete article from the December 8, 2008 issue of The New Yorker. After the death of Milton Friedman, in 2006, the University of Chicago decided to set up an institute in his honor. The institute was opposed by many professors, who formed a group to protest it. Klein offered to debate someone from the institute’s board, but nobody would do it, so she agreed to go to Chicago and talk about her own objections to the project. [Read More]
Larissa MacFarquhar  Marxism  Naomi Klein  New Yorker  the Left  University of Chicago 

Living Marxism

 December 1, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

ONE OF THE STRANGER SIGHTS in today’s banking crisis is the sudden popularity of Karl Marx. The Manifesto is flying off the shelves, and business execs are boning up on Marx’s crisis theory in much the same way that they used to lap up Sun Tzu’s Art of War, or parrot Heraclitus’ saying that there is nothing permanent but change. Today’s economic dislocation, though, does not correspond to the crisis of overaccumulation that Marx explained in the third volume of his book Capital. [Read More]
Crisis  Economics  Karl Marx  Marxism  RCP (UK)  Value  Living Marxism