[Educationforall] Marxist Summer School

[Kurt Wellman]

Marxist Summer School


Start Time:
Monday, May 24, 2010 at 6:30pm
End Time:
Monday, June 28, 2010 at 6:30pm
Location:
San Deigo State University, Storm
 Hall 348

DescriptionMARXIST SUMMER 
SCHOOL:  The theoretical and historical foundations of the ISSE

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
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

1) 
Lenin, What is to be done? 
http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/index.htm



*Week
 4 *(meet June 14th): Permanent Revolution

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

2)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

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

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



*Week
 6 *(meet June 28th): Globalization

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

2)Marxist
 internationalism vs. the perspective of radical protest
Part One:
http://wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/cho1-f21.shtml
Part
 Two:
http://wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/chos2-f23.shtml
Part
 Three:
http://wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/chos-f25.shtml

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


      
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