Members Discussion Reading list: 2007-2008

Socialist Party USA – Joint NYC/NJ Local Discussion Group

AN END AND NEW BEGINNINGS
Howard Zinn, “Beyond the Soviet Union,”
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/1999-09/2zinn.htm
Bertell Ollman, “America Beyond Capitalism: A Socialist Stew Prepared for Liberals and Conservatives,”
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/america_beyond_capitalism.php

INTRODUCTION TO DIALECTICAL THOUGHT
Bertell Ollman, “The Meaning of Dialectics,” in Dance of the Dialectic
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/dd_ch01.php
Dialectics - http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/d/i.htm#dialectics
Historical materialism - http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/h/i.htm#historical-materialism

CLASS AND CONSCIOUSNESS
Karl Marx, Preface to the Critique of Political Economy
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface-abs.htm
E.P. Thompson, Preface, The Making of the English Working Class
http://www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/histcourse/social/text/themake.htm
Erik Olin Wright, “Class,” The Encyclopedia of Social Theory
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Social%20Class%20--%20Sage.pdf
Teleology - http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/t/e.htm#teleology

STRATEGY I - Reform or Revolution?
Rosa Luxembourg, Reform or Revolution?
http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/index.htm

STRATEGY II – The Party
Ernest Mandel, The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Socialist Democracy
http://www.ernestmandel.org/en/works/txt/1985/1985.htm
Antonio Gramsci, The Modern Prince, selections
http://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/prison_notebooks/modern_prince/index.htm

STRATEGY III – Non-Violence
David McReynolds, The Philosophy of Non-Violence
http://www.nonviolence.org/issues/philosophy-nonviolence.php
Gene Sharp, The Role of Power in Non-Violent Struggle
http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/TheRoleofPowerinNonviolentStruggle-English.pdf
Brian Martin, Non-Violence Versus Captialism, selections
http://lanternblog.com/library/Nonviolence/Books/nvcpall.pdf

Theme 1 - OLD AND NEW IMPERIALISM(S)???
Vladimir Lenin, “Imperialism as a Special Stage of Capitalism,” and “Paracitism and the Decay of Capitalism,” in Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ch07.htm#v22zz99h-265-GUESS
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ch08.htm#v22zz99h-276-GUESS
David Harvey, “Introduction,” The New Imperialism
Project for a New American Century, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” selections
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

Theme 2 - RACE AND THE AMERICAN LEFT
Manning Marable, “Why Black Americans are not Socialists,” in Speaking Truth to Power
Robin Kelley, “Black Like Mao: Red China and the Black Revolution,” Souls Journal, vol 1 no. 4.
Bayard Rustin meets Malcolm X
http://www.socialdemocrats.org/rusmalx.html

Theme 3 - ANIMAL RIGHTS
Why Vegan? The basics about veganism, speciesism, and animal rights (By Vegan Outreach)
http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/
ONE STRUGGLE: Essays on the Links Between Human and Nonhuman Oppression and the Struggle for Justice for All Sentient Beings (Collection selected by Adam Weissman, Wetlands Activism Collective)
http://shirari.com/DROPBOX/one-struggle.pdf

Possible topics for future meetings:
Anarcho-syndicalism, Socialist-feminism, LGBT Rights & Sexuality, Prison Industrial Complex, New York City History & Policy, Environmentalism, Trans-Atlantic Slavery, Latin American History (Colonial & Modern), Indigenismo in Latin America, History of Middle East…