Week 5: Marxism and Global Revolution

(Leora Brody and Ray)

Leon Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism, Verso 2007. ["The Balance of Power", "Democracy", "Terrorism", "The Paris Commune and Soviet Russia"]

Mao Zedong, On Practice and Contradiction, Verso, 2007. ["Introduction by Zizek", "A Single Spark Can Start A Prairie Fire", "On Practice", "Combat Liberalism", "The Chinese People Cannot Be Cowed by the Atom Bomb", and "US Imperialism is A Paper Tiger" (Min Kyu)

Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare, Bison Books, 1998. "General Principles of Guerilla Warfare" pgs. 1-37]

International Solidarity, Weapons Surplus, and the Power of raw numbers (People with nothing to lose but their chains)

Week five will read and discuss Marxist revolution and counter-insurgency used to achieve revolutionary goals. This section will be draw on the earlier reading by Schmitt to determine how Marxism as a commitment to global rather than national equality and as a theory of human nature and freedom from economic alienation altered the strategies and tactics it pursued in these ends. For instance why notions of collective decision or freedom meant that much higher casualties were tolerated and why compromise and reform were not considered as alternatives to war and violence.