[Educationforall] Fw: Marxist summer school: The theoretical and historical foundations of the ISSE

[Kurt Wellman]

Kurt A. Wellman EFA- ISSE



http://www.educationforallcoalition.com/ 



http://www.witches.meetup.com/1369/



"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in periods of moral crisis maintain their neutrality" Dante

--- On Thu, 5/13/10, International Students for Social Equality <isse.sdsu at gmail.com> wrote:

From: International Students for Social Equality <isse.sdsu at gmail.com>
Subject: Marxist summer school: The theoretical and historical foundations of  the ISSE
To: "International Students for Social Equality" <isse.sdsu at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, May 13, 2010, 4:40 PM

Dear ISSE members, students and workers,
The International Students for Social Equality will be undertaking a 6-week study of Marxist theory this summer at San Diego State University. The academic year now coming to a close witnessed an awakening of class struggle among students and workers worldwide. These struggles are an indication of the massive social unrest to come as the crisis of capitalism deepens. The ISSE summers school is designed to equip a new generation of working class youth with the theoretical tools necessary to navigate a revolutionary course through the coming period of struggle. We encourage all ISSE contacts to come to the school, the details of which can be found below. Please come to this important summer school, join the ISSE and take up the international struggle for socialism. 

Best regards,Cody StephensPresident of the ISSE at SDSU



ISSE summer school, 2010

 

When: May 24- June 28th, 2010. Monday nights from 6:30- 9:00
pm. 

Where: Storm Hall 348, SDSU campus.

 

Concept:

 

            The
International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) is the youth wing of the
International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the international
revolutionary socialist party founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938. Following the
degeneration of the USSR under the Stalinist bureaucracy Trotsky and the left
opposition to Stalin established the Fourth International to carry on the
legacy of Marxism. The ISSE defends the heritage of Marx, Engels, Lenin and
Trotsky, and it is incumbent upon our membership to absorb the historical
lessons of Marxism worked out in decades of working class struggles. 

            Starting
with the Marxist philosophy of historical materialism, the ISSE summer school
will focus on instilling in our members a sophisticated grasp of the Marxist
method. We will explore topics such as the relationship between Marxist thought
and the natural sciences, the relationship between the natural sciences and the
social sciences and the relationship between the material world and its
reflection in human thought. The opening philosophical discussion will set the
framework for the rest of the summer school. 

            We
will continue to develop on these philosophical themes, and use them to guide
us through the remaining topics, opening up the discussion to include the
objective and subjective factors of revolution, dialectic and formal logic and
the consistent application of the Marxist method against the backdrop of class
pressures produced by the ever-evolving global economic structure. Throughout
the school, we will be considering these philosophical ideas not for the joy of
abstract contemplation, but for the sake of working out and strengthening our
revolutionary perspective. The power of Marxism is that it is true. Armed with
the theoretical and historical perspective of the Fourth International, the
ISSE will be poised to take a leading role in the international revolutionary
struggles ahead. 

 

Reading Schedule

 

Week 1 (Meeting May 24th): Historical materialism

1) Marx, 1859 preface (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm)


2) Marx and Engels German
Ideology (Chapter 1; http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01.htm)


 

Week 2 (meet May 31st): Historical materialism (continued)

1) Lenin, In Lieu of an
introduction (from Materialism and Empirio-criticism; http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1908/mec/intro.htm
- v14pp72h-022).

2) Engels, The part played by
labor in the transition from ape to man (http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1876/part-played-labour/index.htm)


 

Week 3 (meet June 7th): The Leninist conception of the
Party

- Lenin, What is to be done?
(http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/index.htm)

 

Week 4 (meet June 14th): Permanent Revolution

- Trotsky, Results and
Prospects and Permanent
Revolution (http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1931/tpr/index.htm)

- North, A significant
contribution to an understanding of permanent revolution (http://wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/perm-a19.shtml)

 

Week 5 (meet June 21st): The Fourth International

- Trotsky, The transitional
program (http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm)

- Trotsky, A petty bourgeois
opposition in the SWP (http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/idom/dm/09-pbopp.htm)

 

Week 6 (meet June 28th): Globalization

- Globalization and the
International working class (http://www.wsws.org/exhibits/slreply/index.htm)

- Marxist internationalism vs.
the perspective of radical protest (All parts; http://wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/cho1-f21.shtml)










      
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