What's happening 2/21?

Please read "The Critique of Hegel's 'Philosophy of Right'" , p. 32-38 in McLellan's Karl Marx: Selected Writings, 2nd edition. This will be our primary source. Then read Dupre, chapter 4, pp. 87-108,"Marx's Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of the State."

What's happening Monday Feb 19?

My friend, Lubos Hubata-Vacek will be coming to tell us what it was like living in a Marxist society. Obviously, he found it unacceptable because he sought political asylum in the U.S. Come listen to Lubos Monday morning.

New Classroom

From now on we will be meeting in P103 (first floor of Pomajevich). Whoo hoo!

What are we doing, Feb. 14?

The flu has hit us hard! Hopefully we will all be together on Wednesday. Let's plan on chapter 10,"The Theory of Revolution" and Chapter 11: "Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Socialism and Communism" and perhaps even work through chapter 12, "Labor Movement and International" and 13, "The Philosophy of Practice." Whatever happens, by next week we need to start Dupre and the Marx primary source readings.

The Pyramid of the Capitalist System

From top level, down: "We rule you; We fool you; We shoot at you; We eat for you; We work for you/we feed all.

http://images.indymedia.org/imc/barcelona/capitalism.jpg

Another Great Website

Are you needing something succinct to guide you through the morass that is Marx? Here's a great website by Professor Dino Felluga at Purdue

http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/marxism/.

First, there is his list of terms:
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/marxism/terms/index.html
This is a handy glossary of most of the concepts we will be working with.

Then Felluga offers four modules:
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/marxism/modules/

1) On ideology
2) On the stages of economic development
3) On Capital
4) On Commodity Fetishism

What makes these modules so unique is that you are able to click on every important concept in the text and have an immediate definition appear in a box below it. I find this especially valuable as I am reading Marx's economic theory, where after a while I find it difficult to keep things straight: how to distinguish exchange value straight from use-value? money power from capital?

Even though this site is written for English students, it cab be helpful for us!

Illustrating the Labor Movement

Illustrating the Labor Movement
Cartoonists Draw on Workers’ History

by Mike Konopacki

The typical cartoon in today’s mainstream press is essentially the artist’s take on the headline du jour. Usually, that means illustrating some aspect of the liberal vs. conservative debate. At Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons, Gary Huck and I have found that labor cartoons can do much more. By going to the root of working-class struggle, labor cartoonists are "radical" in their expression of workers’ challenges, outrage, and, ultimately, empowerment. Labor cartoons are radical even in the sense that they acknowledge the existence of a working class, a concept that has all but disappeared off the media’s screen, replaced by the amorphous, nearly all-encompassing "middle class." (read more at http://www.resistinc.org/newsletter/issues/2002/11/konopacki.html

What to read for Wednesday,2/7?

in The Essential Marx,
please read Chapter 9, "The Problem of Increasing Misery"
Chapter 10, "The Theory of Revolution"

What to read? for Monday, 2/ 5

In The Essential Marx,
please read Chapter 7,"Value and Surplus Value" and
Chapter 8: "Profit and Capital"