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Confronting Today's Crises:The Marxist-Humanist return to Marx and the revolutionary abolition of capitalismAs we endure the worst world economic crisis since the Great Depression, the need for an alternative to capitalism is increasingly urgent. Capitalism's destructiveness is seen in unemployment, economic uncertainty, the world food crisis, endless wars, ever-growing prison populations and police repression, resurgent racism, anti-immigrant hysteria, homophobia and sexism, and the havoc wrought by global warming. Obama's election cannot solve these problems. People across the world are looking for a far deeper changeÑfor a new human society, a humanist socialism that doesn't settle for state-capitalism.
Let's tackle these questions by digging into Raya Dunayevskaya's original contribution, which established continuity with Marx. Ours is not only the age of state-capitalism, but the reach for total freedom and recovery of Marx's Humanism. This class series by News and Letters Committees explores what that means in philosophy, organization, and practice, and is part of the process of working out a new book of DunayevskayaÕs writings on Marx. As part of the battle of ideas, we will also read theoreticians and popular progressive thinkers on "green-collar economy" and "socialism for the 21st century." The classes are open to all. For dates, time and place contact the Committees nearest you Class 1 - Can the state save society from self-destruction? The analysis of state-capitalism and the search for an alternative in Marx's Humanism and the dialectic Decades before the collapse of the "Soviet Union," the transformation into opposite of the Russian Revolution had become clear to some revolutionaries. In the search for an alternative to Stalinism, Raya Dunayevskaya developed the theory of state-capitalism as the nature of Stalin's Russia and a new world stage, including the New Deal. State-capitalist theory's development draws on Marx's Humanism, the dialectic, and the revolt of workers and Black masses. "Labor and Society" was a first exploration of Marx's Humanist essays and their concept of alienated labor. "A New Revision of Marxian Economics" brings the dialectical structure of Marx's Capital into the analysis of Russia's claim that the law of value operates under socialism. "Negro Intellectuals in Dilemma" brings Marxism to bear on "philosophical premises" that obscure the revolutionary potential of Black masses. The letter on Volume 3 of Capital speaks to todayÕs global economic crisis. The development and struggles culminate in the creation of the philosophy of Marxist-Humanism, marked by Dunayevskaya's 1953 letters on Hegel's Absolutes. The supplemental reading is an example of current prescriptions for alternatives to capitalism's crisis that bypass the theory of state-capitalism. This class aims to comprehend the 1953 letters as the philosophic moment that illuminates all other readings as reaching for a rebirth of Marx's philosophy for our age. Readings: (Except where otherwise noted, the core readings in each class are by Raya Dunayevskaya.)
Supplemental reading:
Class 2 - Marxism and Freedom: The Movement from Practice and a New Concept of Theory
Readings:
Supplemental readings:
Class 3 - The Philosophy of 'Absolute Idea as New Beginning': Revolutionary Paths out of Capitalist Economy The central category of Philosophy and Revolution: From Hegel to Sartre and from Marx to Mao is Absolute Negativity as New Beginning, an original contribution to Marxism that is needed for this age to reach freedom. That explicit recognition is taken up in "Our Original Contribution to the Dialectic of the Absolute Idea as New Beginning." From P&R, chapter 7 takes up the world economy and how capitalism's law of value can be transcended. "Today's Epigones Who Try to Truncate Marx's Capital" analyzes the mid-1970s global economic crisis. The supplemental reading confronts Zizek, the current advocate of "repeating Lenin," as against Dunayevskaya's critiques. Readings:
Supplemental reading:
Class 4 - Socialism for the 21st Century: Marxist-Humanism vs. the legacy of post-Marx Marxism as pejorative
Readings:
Supplemental readings:
Class 5 - Today's Global Meltdown and the Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy Class 5 takes up aspects of the work Dunayevskaya did toward a book on Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy. The June 1, 1987, presentation made a category of the philosophic moment as determinant and gave a new vantage point for grasping the body of ideas of Marxist-Humanism. The Introduction/Overview to Women's Liberation and the Dialectics of Revolution is in part a statement about Marx's philosophic moment and Women's Liberation, organization and private enclaves. All core readings take up Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program. "The Power of Abstraction" makes it a question of Absolute Method, as does "Capitalist Production/Alienated Labor," which speaks directly to today's economic crisis. "Why Phenomenology? Why Now? What Is the Relationship Either to Organization, or to Philosophy, Not Party, 1984-87?" takes up Critique of the Gotha Program in relationship to Hegel's Phenomenology and organization. We include her one-page "possible outline." Supplemental readings include Leftist analyses of the current economic crisis, juxtaposed against the Marxist-Humanist analysis from News & Letters. The challenge is to study all readings from the vantage point of the philosophic moment of Marxist-Humanism. Readings:
Supplemental readings:
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Can this be achieved by state initiatives without a
socialÑnot just politicalÑrevolution? Can revolutions of the 21st century avoid transformation into one more
form of state-capitalist totalitarianism? Can revolution unite with a philosophy of total human liberation, of
Marx's revolution in permanence?
This class highlights
Dunayevskaya's original contribution. She made explicit how Marx responded to the dialectic in the movement
from practice and in thought, as he restructured Capital and broke with old
concepts of theory. From Marxism
& Freedom we
include the split in the category of labor and the analysis of capitalist
crisis. American Civilization
on Trial
expands on Marx's American roots in the Abolitionist movement and the Civil
War. The battle of ideas with
Herbert Marcuse around Hegel's Absolutes and the revolutionary potential of
U.S. workers is reflected in his exchange of letters with Dunayevskaya on
Automation, his Preface to M&F, and an excerpt from the worker-written pamphlet Workers
Battle Automation, mentioned
in Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man.
What is a viable basis for socialism for
the 21st century? Can the new
moments of Marx's last decade provide a trail to today? The analysis in Rosa Luxemburg,
Women's Liberation, and Marx's Philosophy of Revolution of Marx's Critique of
the Gotha Program anticipates what Dunayevskaya later
called Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy, as does "Not by Practice
Alone." This developed in the
context of capitalist crisis (a key aspect of which is illuminated by the piece
on religion), the Women's Liberation Movement, and the contradictions in Third
World revolutions such as in Iran. Dunayevskaya's relationship to that revolution is reflected in her
Introduction to the
Iranian Edition of Marx's
Humanist Essays. The supplemental
readings expose us to debates around "socialism for the 21st century"
in relationship to current South American movements.