Syllabus

Meeting 1

From Marx to Lenin, Luk·cs and Korsch:
The Problem of Envisioning a New Society

Readings

• Karl Marx: Letter to William Bracke of May 5, 1875

• Marx: Capital, Vol. I: "The Fetishism of Commodities and its Secret" (Vintage/Penguin edition).

• Raya Dunayevskaya: chapter 11 of Rosa Luxemburg, Women's Liberation, and Marx's Philosophy of Revolution

• Raya Dunayevskaya: "Letter on Karl Korsch," in The Power of Negativity

• Karl Korsch: "Introduction to Critique of the Gotha Program"

Meeting 2

'Transitional Society' or Absolute Liberation?
On What Happens the Day After the Revolution

Readings

• Marx: Critique of the Gotha Program, section 1

• Marx: The Poverty of Philosophy, chapter 1, section 2

• Dunayevskaya: "A New Revision of Marxian Economics," in The Marxist-Humanist Theory of State-Capitalism

• "Alternatives to Capitalism: What Happens After the Revolution?" (N&L report, 2004)

• Michael Albert, Parecon, part 2, chapter 9, "Summary and Defense"

Meeting 3

Directly and Indirectly Social Labor:
What Kind of Human Relations Can Transcend Capitalism?

Readings

• Marx: Critique of the Gotha Program, section 1

• Marx: Grundrisse, critique of Darimon, pp. 122-49 (Vintage edition)

• Dunayevskaya: "Response to Questions on State-Capitalism" [1940s]

• Dunayevskaya: "Dialectics of Revolution and Women's Liberation," chapter 15, The Power of Negativity

• Georg Luk·cs: The Process of Democratization, chapter 6

• Paresh Chattopadhyay: "A Manifesto of Emancipation: Marx's 'Marginal Notes' 125 Years Later"

Meeting 4

Critique of Politics, Economics, and the State

Readings

• Marx: Critique of the Gotha Program, sections 2-4

• Marx, The Civil War in France, section 3

• Dunayevskaya: Marxism and Freedom, chapter 12, "What Happens After"

• Dunayevskaya: "Reconsidering the Dialectic: Critiquing Lenin," chapter 17 of The Power of Negativity

• V.I. Lenin, State & Revolution, chapters 1 and 5

Meeting 5

Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy:
The Untrodden Path

Readings:

• Marx: Critique of the Gotha Program, sections 1-4

• Marx: Letter to Freiligrath of Feb. 29, 1860 (Collected Works, Vol. 41, pp. 80-87)

• Marx: "Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International Association" [1864], (Collected Works, Vol. 20, pp. 5-13)

• Dunayevskaya: "On the Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy," chapter 1 of The Power of Negativity

• Dunayevskaya: "One Possible Outline for 'Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy" (May 11, 1987) in Supplement to Raya Dunayevskaya Collection, #10922

• Dunayevskaya: "1953 on Concept vs. Experience" (May 12, 1987), in Supplement to RDC, #10923

• "World Crises and the Search for Alternatives to Capitalism," Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2005

Supplementary Readings:

Meeting 1

Frederick Engels: Critique of the Gotha Program, Foreword to the 1891 edition

Raya Dunayevskaya: Marxism and Freedom, chapter 4, "Worker, Intellectual and the State"

Dunayevskaya: The Power of Negativity, chapter 14, "Marxist-Humanism: The Summation that is a New Beginning"

Meeting 2

Mitch Weerth: News & Letters, December 2000, "Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program, 125 Years Later"

Bertell Ollman and David Schweickart: Market Socialism: The Debate Revisited Hal Draper: Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Vol. IV, Critique of Other Socialisms, chapter 3, "Of State-Socialism: Lassallean Model"

Meeting 3

David McGregor: Hegel and Marx After the Fall of Communism, chapter 6, "Property and the Corporation "

István Meszárós: Beyond Capital, chapter 18, "The Plurality of Capitals and the Meaning of Socialist Pluralism"

Meeting 4

Kevin Anderson: Lenin, Hegel and Western Marxism, chapter 6, "State and Revolution: Subjectivity, Grassroots Democracy, and the Critique of Bureaucracy"

Leon Trotsky: "The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution"

Draper: Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Vol. III, The 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat,' chapter 20

Meeting 5

Rosa Luxemburg: The Rosa Luxemburg Reader, chapter 14, "Our Program and the Political Situation"

For the session readings, check the websites where available, or contact the News and Letters Committee nearest to you, or email arise@newsandletters.org.

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