Meetings (Reading Group, Coffee Break, Events)

FALL 2025

Introduction to Platypus teach-in Monday, September 29th at 6 PM in McHenry Library, Room 2353

Join us for our beginning-of-the-school-year teach-in introducing Platypus as a club on the topic of "Capital in History: Does Marxism Even Matter?" at 6 PM on Monday, September 29th in McHenry Library, Room 2353.

In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels observed, in the Communist Manifesto, that a "specter" was haunting Europe - the specter of Communism. A century and a half later, it is Marxism itself that continues to haunt the Left, while capitalism remains. What does it mean that Marx and Marxism still appeal, while political movements for socialism are weak or non-existent? What were Marxism's original points of departure for considering radical possibilities for freedom that might still speak to the present? Does Marxism even matter today?

Everything you want to know about the Left and Marxism but were afraid to ask.

Weekly coffee breaks on Monday at 3 PM at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance

Join us for our weekly coffee breaks at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance every Monday at 3 PM (at least for the Fall 2025 quarter): Informal conversation about politics, what the Left is up to, current events, the latest issue of the Platypus Review, what's going on with your classes, or really anything that's on your mind.

Year-long Marxist reading group meeting Wednesdays at 7 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362

Join us for our year-long Marxist reading group every Wednesday from 7-9 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362.

Here's the reading schedule for the Fall 2025 quarter, with links to the readings included. Everyone is welcome! Don't let (a) not having attended before, (b) not being able to finish the reading or (c) not being familiar with everything being discussed, deter you from showing up. We're all here to learn and wade through difficult texts together.

Week 1: What is the Left? I. Capital in History | Wednesday, October 1st, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom" (1926–31)

• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58), and Peter Preuss (on history)
• Chris Cutrone, "Capital in history" (2008)
• Cutrone, "The Marxist hypothesis" (2010)
• Cutrone, “Class consciousness (from a Marxist perspective) today” (2012)

Week 2: What is the Left? II. Utopia and critique | Wednesday, October 8th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung (1926–31)
• Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left” (1958)
• Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11
• Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15

Week 3: What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Wednesday, October 15th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts (1844), pp. 70–101
• Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), pp. 469–500

Week 4: What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Wednesday, October 22nd, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League (1850), pp. 501–511
• Marx, selections from The Class Struggles in France 1848–50 (1850), pp. 586–593
• Marx, selections from The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), pp. 594–617, including 1869 Preface

Week 5: What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Wednesday, October 29th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Marx, Inaugural address to the First International (1864), pp. 512–519
• Marx, selections from The Civil War in France (1871, including Engels's 1891 Introduction), pp. 618–652
• Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, pp. 525–541

Week 6: What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Wednesday, November 5th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Marx, selections from the Grundrisse (1857–61), pp. 222–226, 236–244, 247–250, 276–293 ME Reader pp. 276–281
• Marx, Capital Vol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 "The fetishism of commodities" (1867), pp. 319–329

Week 7: What is Marxism? V. Reification | Wednesday, November 12th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Georg Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)

Week 8: What is Marxism? VI. Class conciousness | Wednesday, November 19th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Lukács, “Class Consciousness” (1920), Original Preface (1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919)

Week 9: What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Wednesday, December 3rd, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Karl Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)

SUMMER 2025

Summer reading group on pre-Marxian socialism meeting Wednesdays at 7 PM in Stevenson College, Classroom 175

For those of you in Santa Cruz over the summer, join us for our summer-long reading group on pre-Marxian socialism every Wednesday from 7-9 PM in Stevenson College, Classroom 175.

Here's the reading schedule for the summer, with links to the readings included. Please show up even if you aren't able to finish the reading or aren't familiar with everything being discussed – we're all here to learn and wade through difficult texts together!

Babeuf and Jacobin socialism | Wednesday, July 2nd, 7 PM, Stevenson 175
• Sylvain Maréchal, (1796) "Manifesto of the Equals" 

• Philippe Buonarroti, History of Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality (1828/36) selections: "Author's Preface", Part I pp. 5-36, 88-232

Henri de Saint-Simon | Wednesday, July 9th, 7 PM, Stevenson 175
• Henri Saint-Simon, Social Organisation, the Science of Man, and Other Writings (1803-25)

Charles Fourier | Wednesday, July 16th, 7 PM, Stevenson 175
• Charles Fourier, from The Utopian Vision of Fourier: Selected Texts selections: I. First Proclamations, II. Commerce, Industry and Work in Civilization, III. Philosophy, Morality and Sex in Civilization and V. The ideal Community

Robert Owen | Wednesday, July 23rd, 7 PM, Stevenson 175
• Robert Owen, A New View of Society and Other Writings (“A New View,” “Address to the Inhabitants,” “Observations on the Effects,” “To the British Manufacturer,” “Address to the Working Class,” and “Catechism”)

Left Ricardian socialism and Chartism | Wednesday, July 30th, 7 PM, Stevenson 175
• Thomas Hodgskin, Labour Defended Against the Claims of Capital (1825)

• Chartist writings, Selection (1833-55)

Young Hegelian communism and Chartism | Wednesday, August 13th, 7 PM, Stevenson 175

• Moses Hess, “Socialism and Communism,” “A Communist Credo,” and “Consequences of a Revolution of the Proletariat” (1843-47)

Democracy and socialism | Wednesday, August 20th, 7 PM, Stevenson 175
• Victor Considerant, The Principles of Socialism: Manifesto of 19th Century Democracy (1847) selections: Part One. The State of Society (complete); Part Two. The State of Opinion I. Study of the Great Divisions of Modern Democracy

SPRING 2025

Weekly coffee breaks (TIME TBA) at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance

Join us for our weekly coffee breaks at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance every (TIME TBA) (at least for the Spring 2025 quarter): Informal conversation about politics, what the Left is up to, current events, the latest issue of the Platypus Review, what's going on with your classes, or really anything that's on your mind.

Year-long Marxist reading group meeting Sundays at 7 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362

Join us for our year-long Marxist reading group every Sunday from 7-9 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362.

Here's the reading schedule for the Spring 2025 quarter, with links to the readings included. Please show up even if you aren't able to finish the reading or aren't familiar with everything being discussed – we're all here to learn and wade through difficult texts together!

Imperialism | Sunday, April 13th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916)

Failure of the revolution | Sunday, April 20th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Rosa Luxemburg, “What does the Spartacus League Want?” (1918)
• Luxemburg, “On the Spartacus Programme” (1918)

Retreat after revolution | Sunday, April 27th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)

Lessons of October | Sunday, May 4th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Leon Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924)

Trotskyism | Sunday, May 11th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International 

On the concept of history | Sunday, May 18th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Walter Benjamin, "On the Concept of History" (AKA "Theses on the Philosophy of History") (1940)

Reflections on Marxism | Sunday, May 25th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Theodor Adorno, “Reflections on Class Theory” (1942)
• Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)

Theory and practice | Sunday, June 1st, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
• Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)

WINTER 2025

Introduction to Platypus teach-in Thursday, January 16th at 5 PM in Room 2353, McHenry Library

Join us for our beginning-of-the-quarter teach-in introducing Platypus as a club on the topic of "Capital in History: Does Marxism Even Matter?" at 5 PM on Thursday, January 16th in McHenry Library, Room 2353.

In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels observed, in the Communist Manifesto, that a "specter" was haunting Europe - the specter of Communism. A century and a half later, it is Marxism itself that continues to haunt the Left, while capitalism remains. What does it mean that Marx and Marxism still appeal, while political movements for socialism are weak or non-existent? What were Marxism's original points of departure for considering radical possibilities for freedom that might still speak to the present? Does Marxism even matter today?

Everything you want to know about the Left and Marxism but were afraid to ask.

Weekly coffee breaks on Tuesday at 4 PM at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance

Join us for our weekly coffee breaks at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance every Tuesday at 4 PM (at least for the Winter 2024 quarter): Informal conversation about politics, what the Left is up to, current events, the latest issue of the Platypus Review, what's going on with your classes, or really anything that's on your mind.

Year-long Marxist reading group meeting Sundays at 7 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362

Join us for our year-long Marxist reading group every Sunday from 7-9 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362.

Here's the reading schedule for the Winter 2024 quarter, with links to the readings included. Please show up even if you aren't able to finish the reading or aren't familiar with everything being discussed – we're all here to learn and wade through difficult texts together!

Revolutionary leadership | Sunday, January 19th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” Part 1 (1915)

• J. P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model” (1965)
• Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)

Reform or revolution? | Sunday, January 26th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)

Lenin and the vanguard party | Sunday, February 2nd, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)

What is to be done? | Sunday, February 9th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done? (1902)

Mass strike and social democracy | Sunday, February 23rd, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)

Permanent revolution | Sunday, March 2nd, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)

State and revolution | Sunday, March 9th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)

Imperialism | Sunday, March 16th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916)

FALL 2024

Introduction to Platypus teach-in Tuesday, October 1st at 7 PM in Room 2353, McHenry Library

Join us for our beginning-of-the-quarter teach-in introducing Platypus as a club on the topic of "Capital in History: Does Marxism Even Matter?" at 7 PM on Tuesday, October 1st in McHenry Library, Room 2353.

In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels observed, in the Communist Manifesto, that a "specter" was haunting Europe - the specter of Communism. A century and a half later, it is Marxism itself that continues to haunt the Left, while capitalism remains. What does it mean that Marx and Marxism still appeal, while political movements for socialism are weak or non-existent? What were Marxism's original points of departure for considering radical possibilities for freedom that might still speak to the present? Does Marxism even matter today?

Everything you want to know about the Left and Marxism but were afraid to ask.

Weekly coffee breaks on Tuesday at 4 PM at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance

Join us for our weekly coffee breaks at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance every Tuesday at 4 PM (at least for the Fall 2024 quarter): Informal conversation about politics, what the Left is up to, current events, the latest issue of the Platypus Review, what's going on with your classes, or really anything that's on your mind.

Year-long Marxist reading group meeting Sundays at 7 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362

Join us for our year-long Marxist reading group every Sunday from 7-9 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362.

Here's the reading schedule for the Fall 2024 quarter, with links to the readings included. Please show up even if you aren't able to finish the reading or aren't familiar with everything being discussed – we're all here to learn and wade through difficult texts together!

Week 1: What is the Left? I. Capital in History | Sunday, September 29th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom" (1926–31)

• epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis Menand (on Marx and Engels), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857–58), and Peter Preuss (on history)
• Chris Cutrone, "Capital in history" (2008)
• Cutrone, "The Marxist hypothesis" (2010)
• Cutrone, “Class consciousness (from a Marxist perspective) today” (2012)

Week 2: Radical bourgeois philosophy I. Rousseau: Crossroads of society | Sunday, October 6th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754) PDFs of preferred translation (5 parts): [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
• Rousseau, selection from On the Social Contract (1762)

Week 3: Radical bourgeois philosophy II. Kant and Constant: Bourgeois society | Sunday, October 13th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Immanuel Kant, "Idea for a universal history from a cosmopolitan point of view" and "What is Enlightenment?" (1784)
• Benjamin Constant, "The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns" (1819)

Week 4: Radical bourgeois philosophy III. Hegel: Freedom in history | Sunday, October 20th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1831) [HTML] [PDF pp. 14-128]

Week 5: What is the Left? II. Utopia and critique | Sunday, October 27th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Max Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung (1926–31)
• Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944–47)
• Leszek Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left” (1958)
• Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839–41), pp. 9–11
• Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12–15

Week 6: What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Sunday, November 3rd, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts (1844), pp. 70–101
• Marx and Friedrich Engels, selections from the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), pp. 469–500

Week 7: What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Sunday, November 10th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League (1850), pp. 501–511
• Marx, selections from The Class Struggles in France 1848–50 (1850), pp. 586–593
• Marx, selections from The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), pp. 594–617, including 1869 Preface

Week 8: What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Sunday, November 17th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Marx, Inaugural address to the First International (1864), pp. 512–519
• Marx, selections from The Civil War in France (1871, including Engels's 1891 Introduction), pp. 618–652
• Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, pp. 525–541

Week 9: What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Sunday, November 24th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Marx, selections from the Grundrisse (1857–61), pp. 222–226, 236–244, 247–250, 276–293 ME Reader pp. 276–281
• Marx, Capital Vol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 "The fetishism of commodities" (1867), pp. 319–329

Week 10: What is Marxism? V. Reification | Sunday, December 1st, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Georg Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)

Week 11: What is Marxism? VI. Class conciousness | Sunday, December 8th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Lukács, “Class Consciousness” (1920), Original Preface (1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919)

SUMMER 2024

Summer reading group meeting Wednesdays at 6 PM in Room 104, Crown Classrooms

Join us for our summer reading group every Wednesday from 6-8 PM in Crown Classrooms, Room 104.

Here's the reading schedule for Summer 2024, with links to the readings included. Please show up even if you aren't able to finish the reading or aren't familiar with everything being discussed – we're all here to learn and wade through difficult texts together!

Week 1, July 3rd:

• Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence (1908/19) [Letter to Daniel Halevy; Introduction; Chapters 2, 4, 5 (complete); final section of Chapter 6 (section IV); final section of Chapter 7 (section V); Appendix III: In Defense of Lenin]: https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/Georges-Sorel-Reflections-on-Violence-Cambridge-University-Press-1999.pdf

Week 2, July 10th:

• Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (1932) including + "The age of neutralizations and depoliticizations" (1929): https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/Concept-of-the-Political-Carl-Schmitt.pdf

Week 3, July 17th:

• James Burnham, The Managerial Revolution (1941) [Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 pp. 99-109, Chapter 9 pp. 119-126, 135-138, Chapter 10 pp. 143-151, Chapter 11 pp. 160-171, Chapter 13]: https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/James-Burnham-The-Managerial-Revolution-John-Day-1941.pdf

Week 4, July 24th:

• Burnham, The Machiavellians (1943): https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/James-Burnham-Machiavellians-Defenders-of-Freedom-Putnam-1943.pdf

Week 5, July 31st:

• Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (1963): https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/Hannah-Arendt-On-revolution-Penguin-Books-1990.pdf

Week 6, August 7th:

• Arendt, On Violence (1969): https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/Hannah-Arendt-On-violence-Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich-1969.pdf

Week 7, August 14th:

• Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985): https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/Ernesto-Laclau-Chantal-Mouffe-Hegemony-and-Socialist-Strategy_-Towards-a-Radical-Democratic-Politics-Second-Edition-Verso-2001.pdf

WINTER 2024

Weekly coffee breaks on Thursday at 4 PM at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance

Join us for our weekly coffee breaks at the tables outside the Cowell-Stevenson dining hall entrance every Thursday at 4 PM (at least for the Fall 2023 quarter): Informal conversation about politics, what the Left is up to, current events, the latest issue of the Platypus Review, what's going on with your classes, or really anything that's on your mind.

Year-long Marxist reading group meeting Sundays at 7 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362

Join us for our year-long Marxist reading group every Sunday from 7-9 PM in McHenry Library, Room 4362.

Here's the reading schedule for the Winter 2024 quarter, with links to the readings included. Please show up even if you aren't able to finish the reading or aren't familiar with everything being discussed – we're all here to learn and wade through difficult texts together!

Week 1: What is Marxism? | I. Reification | Sunday, January 14th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Georg Lukács, “The phenomenon of reification” (Part I of “Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, 1923)

Week 2: What is Marxism? | II. Class consciousness | Sunday, January 21st, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Lukács, “Class Consciousness” (1920), Original Preface (1922), “What is Orthodox Marxism?” (1919)

Week 3: What is Marxism? | III. Ends of Philosophy | Sunday, January 28th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Korsch, “Marxism and philosophy” (1923)

Week 4: Introduction to revolutionary Marxism | IV. Revolutionary leadership | Sunday, February 4th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” Part 1 (1915)
• J.P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model” (1965)
• Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)

Week 5: Introduction to revolutionary Marxism | V. Reform or revolution? | Sunday, February 11th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900/08)

Week 6: Introduction to revolutionary Marxism | VI. Lenin and the vanguard party | Sunday, February 18th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Spartacist League, Lenin and the Vanguard Party (1978)

Week 7: Introduction to revolutionary Marxism | VII. What is to be done? | Sunday, February 25th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• V.I. Lenin, What is to be Done? (1902)

Week 8: Introduction to revolutionary Marxism | VIII. Mass strike and social democracy | Sunday, March 3rd, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Luxemburg, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906)

Week 9: Introduction to revolutionary Marxism | IX. Permanent revolution | Sunday, March 10th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906)

Week 10: Introduction to revolutionary Marxism | X.State and revolution | Sunday, March 17th, 7 PM, McHenry 4362
• Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)