Class I, On Spontaneous forms of Organization vs. Vanguard Parties:
Suggested readings:
The one-page “possible outline” by Raya Dunayevskaya for a book on “Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy.”
Introduction, Section 2 of American Civilization on Trial: Black Masses as Vanguard, “The Compelling Issue at Stake,” and Part I on Abolitionism and the Civil War.
“Grenada: Counter-Revolution and Revolution,” a Political-Philosophic Letter by Dunayevskaya. (It is excerpted in Dialectics of Black Freedom Struggles with an added note on C.L.R. James.)
Related Marxist-Humanist writings:
“Spontaneity of Action and Organization of Thought: In Memoriam of the Hungarian Revolution,” a 1961 Weekly Political Letter that RD referred to in working out DOP in 1987
“Letter on Organization to an Iranian Revolutionary,” 1979, ch. 9 of Crossroads of History
Notes on book summaries: Marx on the Paris Commune and organization; the Spanish Revolution (#10905)
Marxism and Freedom, from 1776 until Today, ch. 9, “The Second International, 1889 to 1914”
Marxism and Freedom, ch. 11, “Forms of Organization: The Relationship of the Spontaneous Self-Organization of the Proletariat to the ‘Vanguard Party'”
Marxism and Freedom, ch. 12, “What Happens After”
Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution, ch. 4, “From the ‘National Question’ and Imperialism to the Dialectics of Revolution; the Relationship of Spontaneity and Consciousness to Organization in [Luxemburg’s] Disputes with Lenin, 1904, 1917”
Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution, ch. 8, “The Task That Remains to Be Done: The Unique and Unfinished Contributions of Today’s Women’s Liberation Movement”
Dunayevskaya on Cuba, Castro, Che Guevara, and Regis Debray:
“The Cuban Revolution: The Year After”; “Preliminary Statement on Crisis over Cuba,” Weekly Political Letter of April 22, 1961 (#2910-2912 in Weekly Political Letters); “Marxist-Humanism vs. the U.S. Blockade of Cuba, the Russian Missile Bases There, Fidel Castro’s ‘Selective’ Party, All Playing with Nuclear Holocaust,” Political Letter of Oct. 25, 1962 (#3082-3087 in Weekly Political Letters; excerpted here); “Ideology and Revolution: A Study of What Happens After” in November 1962 News & Letters; “Che Guevara, Revolutionary” in November 1967 News & Letters; “Revolution In The Revolution? by Regis Debray: Shortcut To Revolution Or Long Road To Tragedy?” Part I and Part II in March and April 1968 News & Letters
Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization by Eugene Gogol, ch. 5 and 6 on 1917 Russian Revolution
Utopia and the Dialectic in Latin American Liberation by Eugene Gogol, chapters on Venezuela, Mexico; section on Oaxaca; appendix by Ruben Dri
“Spontaneity, Organization, Philosophy (Dialectics),” a draft chapter of Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution (#14866)
Class II, Hegel and Marx — on dialectics of philosophy and organization:
Suggested readings:
Chapter 11 of Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution, by Dunayevskaya, “The Philosopher of Permanent Revolution Creates New Ground for Organization.”
Chapter 16 of The Power of Negativity, by Dunayevskaya, “Another Look at Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind.” (Or see online version.)
Talking to Myself document on “Why Phenomenology? Why Now?” (Raya Dunayevskaya Collection #10883)
Related Marxist-Humanist writings:
Talking to Myself document on 1953 as Concept vs. Experience (#10923); note that, after taking up the 1953 letters, a section of this expands on Marx’s 1844 “Critique of the Hegelian Dialectic,” especially in relationship to the Phenomenology and its “Absolute Knowing”
3/23/1987 REB presentation and 3/24/1987 DF letter (#10727), which take up the conclusion of “Absolute Knowing” in relationship to organization
Philosophy and Revolution, ch. 1, “Absolute Negativity as New Beginning”
Letter on “Marxism and the Party” from 1980 (#15235)
Letters on writing of ch. 11 of Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution (from 1980, #6454-56, 6463-64)
Talking to Myself document on Where to Begin (#10837)
Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization, ch. 9 on “Absolute Knowing” in Hegel’s Phenomenology
Class III, Hegel and Lenin
Chapter 17 of The Power of Negativity, which includes:
- 1986 letters to non-Marxist Hegel scholarson the Idea of Cognition as the threshold of the absolute and how that relates to Lenin’s philosophic ambivalence, and on Hegel’s Third Attitude to objectivity
- Jan. 21, 1987, Talking to Myselfletter on “the dialectical flow of the Self-Determination of the Idea” in the 1953 Letters on Hegel’s Absolutes, and
- Dunayevskaya’s last “Theory/Practice” column. (Alternative format in this pdf.)
Related Marxist-Humanist writings:
“Historic roots of far Right threat to U.S.” by Raya Dunayevskaya
“Goldwater Primary Victory in California: or Under the Backlash of Counter-Revolution,” June 7, 1964 Political Letter (#3139-3144 in Weekly Political Letters)
Class IV, Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy in the Post-World War II World:
Suggested readings:
“A 1980s View of the Two-Way Road between the U.S. and Africa” (1983 Introduction to American Civilization on Trial).
“Our Original Contribution to the Dialectic of the Absolute Idea as New Beginning” by Dunayevskaya. (Excerpted in May-June 2010 News & Letters, p. 4.)
“A Post-World War II View of Marx’s Humanism, 1843-83. Marxist Humanism, 1950s-1980s,” by Dunayevskaya. (Included in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Achilles Heel of Western ‘Civilization’.)
Related Marxist-Humanist writings:
“The Power of Abstraction” from 1985 Plenum of News and Letters Committees (#17246 or as excerpted in The Power of Negativity: Selected Writings on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx) plus Dunayevskaya’s remarks at the same 1985 Plenum (#17243)
Introduction/Overview to Women’s Liberation and the Dialectics of Revolution: Reaching for the Future
Ch. 27 of Women’s Liberation and the Dialectics of Revolution, “Answers to Questions Raised…” which takes up differences between Marx and Engels, the Black dimension in relationship to Marx’s concept of revolution in permanence, methodology in Hegel, and philosophy and organization in relationship to the women’s liberation movement
Dialectics of Black Freedom Struggles ch. 5, “The Self-Determination of the Idea in the African-American Struggle for Freedom”
Talking to Myself document on “CLR’s Notes on the Dialectic” (#10825)
“Our Original Contribution as Organization Builder” by Ron Kelch
“Meeting the Movement from Practice: Marx’s Self-Determination of the Idea as Organization” by Ron Kelch
Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization, ch. 14 section III on the dialectic
Utopia and the Dialectic in Latin American Liberation, ch. 14, conclusion
Class V, Marxist-Humanist Organization:
Suggested readings:
News and Letters Committees Constitution.
Part VII of American Civilization on Trial, which includes three sections: “The Self-Determination of People and Ideas”; “The New Voices We Heard”; “What We Stand For—and Who We Are”
June 1, 1987, Presentation on the dialectics of philosophy and organization, by Dunayevskaya
May 1953 Letters on Hegel’s Absolutes (printed in 3 parts in 3 issues of News & Letters), by Dunayevskaya
Related Marxist-Humanist writings:
“New Stage of Production, New Stage of Cognition, New Kind of Organization” (Prologue to 25 Years of Marxist-Humanism in the U.S.: A History of Worldwide Revolutionary Developments)
“Racism, workers and freedom ideas” by Raya Dunayevskaya
“Leadership and Politicalization as Ground for Organizational Growth” (June 15, 1977, #15061)
“Not by Practice Alone: The Movement from Theory” (in chapter 15 of The Power of Negativity or in The Marxist-Humanist Theory of State-Capitalism or Part III of the Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 1984-85)
The Coal Miners’ General Strike of 1949-50 and the Birth of Marxist-Humanism in the U.S.
Talking to Myself document on “The Organization, the Paper, the Book, All Equal Marxist-Humanism” (#10917)
Talking to Myself document on organization and becoming practicing dialecticians (#10967)
Aug. 6, 1986, In Lieu of REB Minutes (#10665) on “The Philosophy of Marxist-Humanist Leadership.” The concluding section of the presentation, which takes up the “firsts” involved in establishing News and Letters Committees, is titled “Organization, Organization, Organization: 1844, 1867-75-83, on the one hand, and the Present Concept of the Book-to-be, Dialectics of Organization: Philosophy, the ‘Party,’ and Forms of Organization Born Out of Spontaneity.” The wide-ranging first section touches on Absolute Knowing, organization, and post-Marx Marxism, among other things.
“Finances: Needs & Facts & Perspectives” (#2505). This is the 1956 presentation by RD that Bob included in the Convention packets.
Indignant Heart: A Black Worker’s Journal, ch. 25 and 26, “With the Wildcatters” and “Worldwide Struggle for Freedom”
American Civilization on Trial, Appendix 1 sections 1 and 3, “Black Caucuses in the Unions” and “25 Years as Editor of News & Letters“