[Educationforall] Marxist Summer School/ Starts tomarrow

[Kurt Wellman]

MARXIST 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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