Produced as an internal document: n.d. [1976].
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Reading:
Speech at the Nguyen ai Quoc Party School by Liu Shao Chi
Questions:
1. What must we do to “smash the attacks of modern revisionism?”
2. What is dogmatism?
Reading:
Marxism: Science or Revolution by Lucio Colletti
Questions:
1. What is wrong with the theory that marxism is only a science?
2. What is wrong with the theory that marxism is only a revolution?
3. What is scientific and what is revolutionary in marxism?
Reading:
How To Be a Good Communist by Liu Shao Chi (first half)
Questions:
1. What is self-cultivation? Why is it necessary?
2. Discuss the aspects and methods of self-cultivation.
3. What does Liu say about ideological background and theoretical
study?
4. Do we agree that the proletariat has a “clear cut, firm, correct
and pure standpoint and ideology” (p. 22)?
5. What is the relationship between Liu’s remarks on ideology and
Colletti’s on science?
Reading:
How To Be A good Communist (2nd half)
Questions:
1. What kind of personal life is required of a Communist? What respect does the Party ewe to the personal life of its members?
2. Which of the erroneous kinds of ideologies discussed are most relevant to the USA today and our collective?
3. What are some of the factors which give rise to erroneous views?
4. What is the correct and incorrect way to conduct the inner-Party struggle?
Reading:
What is Class Consciousness? by Wilhelm Reich (part I)
Questions:
1. In what context does Reich discuss the need for Marxist political psychology?
2. What are the two kinds of class consciousness Reich discusses?
3. What does he say has been the traditional error of Communists with regard to the consciousness of the masses?
4. What is the nature of the class consciousness of leaders and its tasks?
5. What does Reich understand of mass class consciousness, its elements, and its personal nature?
6. By drawing the distinction between the two forms of class consciousness does Reich foster elitism and the idea that the masses are backward?
7. What does Reich say about the consciousness of adult men and women and its relationship to developing class consciousness?
8. Is Reich asking for a compromise between bourgeois and revolutionary thinking in his formulation of the tasks of Communists?
Readings:
What is Class Consciousness? (part II) and Reforming the Movement by Wilhelm Reich
Questions:
1. What are the characteristics of bourgeois politics? What are those of revolutionary politics? Discuss the case of the German Communist Party and its meaning for today.
2. What does Reich say should be the relationship between the party and the masses?
3. Are Reich’s remarks on exploiting the contradiction between the two aspects of the life of the “cop” useful and still true today? How should we react to police strikes?
4. What are some of the most important points in Reforming the Labor Movement?
Reading:
Women: the Longest Revolution by Juliet Mitchell
Questions:
1) What is the major failing of classical treatments of women’s condition and how does Mitchell see her concept of structure as a solution?
2) What are the four key structures soaping women’s condition, discuss the nature and form of each under capitalist?
3) What are the relationships between the four structures, how do they
develop and what would be the satire of a genuine revolution in
women’s condition vis-a-vis these structures?
4) How does Mitchell criticize the reformist and voluntarist views of women’s liberation?
5) Are Mitchell’s conclusions on the necessary changes in each structure presented in her conclusions viable as guides for the US communist movement?