The George Floyd Rebellion of Summer 2020 transformed the terrain of contemporary social struggle. In Fall 2020 I taught an intro class on “Marxism, Anarchism, and Anti-Colonialism” as an attempt to provide a theoretical and historical grounding for students involved in the movement. Here is the syllabus, with links/PDFs for all readings.
Course Description:
The US president tweets about “ugly anarchists” and pundits warn of a communist conspiracy to destroy America; meanwhile, abolitionists in Black Lives Matter offer a vision of a society without police, prisons, and capitalism. In a broad historical analysis of the contemporary political moment, this course asks: what do Marxists and anarchists really believe? This writing seminar will explore the theory and practice of Marxism and anarchism with particular focus on race, imperialism, and anti-colonialism. Students will write a persuasive political essay, a film analysis, papers exploring anti-capitalist theory, and historical reflections on national liberation movements. Readings will include Marx, Lenin, Kropotkin, Ho Chi Minh, Fanon, Mao, Mariátegui, the Combahee River Collective, Angela Davis, and more.
Note that the Marx readings all come from Robert C. Tucker’s The Marx-Engels Reader, Second Edition (1978). Here is a PDF.
Course Schedule
Week One: Introduction to Class
- Angela Davis, “Abolishing Police Is Not Just About Dismantling. It’s Also About Building Up,” interview on Democracy Now (2020)
Unit One: Marxism
Week Two: The Communist Manifesto
- Karl Marx, “Manifesto of the Communist Party”(1848) [p. 472-500]
- Karl Marx, excerpt from “Marx on the History of His Opinions,” [Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy] (1859) [p. 4-5]
Week Three: Wage Labor and Alienation
- Karl Marx, excerpt from Wage Labor and Capital (1847) [p. 203-206]
- Karl Marx, excerpt from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (1844) [p. 70-84]
Week Four: Marx and Colonialism
- Karl Marx, “On Imperialism in India” (1853) [p. 653-664]
- Karl Marx, “The So-Called Primitive Accumulation,” from Capital, Vol. 1 (1867) [p. 431-438]
- Silvia Federici, excerpt from Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (2004) [p. 21-22 and 61-64]
Week Five: Marxism-Leninism
- Vladimir Lenin, excerpts from The State and Revolution (1917)
- Ho Chi Minh, “The Path Which Led Me to Leninism” (1960)
- David N. Balaam and Michael Veseth, “Lenin’s Critique of Global Capitalism” in Introduction to International Political Economy (2001)
Unit Two: Anarchism
Week Six: Introduction to Anarchism
- Peter Kropotkin, “Anarchist Communism: Its Basis and Principles” (1891)
- Emma Goldman, “Anarchism: What It Really Stands For” (1911)
- David Graeber, “Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!” (2000)
Week Seven: Case Study: Mutual Aid and Coronavirus
- subMedia, “What is Mutual Aid?” [Video] (2016)
- Lucy Diavolo, “People Are Fighting the Coronavirus with Mutual Aid Efforts to Help Each Other” in Teen Vogue (2020)
- CrimethInc., “Surviving the Virus: An Anarchist Introduction to Pandemic Life” [Podcast] (2020)
Week Eight: Anarchism and Anti-Colonialism
- Lucien van der Walt and Steven Hirsch, introduction to Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940 (2010)
- Maia Ramnath, excerpt from Decolonizing Anarchism: An Antiauthoritarian History of India’s Liberation Struggle (2011)
Unit Three: National Liberation and Indigeneity
Week Nine: “Stretching Marxism” with Fanon
- Frantz Fanon, excerpt from The Wretched of the Earth (1961) (Most of Chapter One, “Concerning Violence”)
Week Ten: Marxism and Indigeneity
- José Carlos Mariátegui, “The Problem of the Indian” and excerpt from “The Problem of Land” in Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality (1928)
- Russell Means, “The Same Old Song,” from Marxism and Native Americans (ed. Ward Churchill) (1983)
Week Eleven: Case Study: The Zapatistas
Unit Four: The Black Freedom Struggle
Week Twelve: Resistance, Marronage, and National Liberation
- Russell Maroon Shoatz, “The Real Resistance to Slavery in North America”
- Robin D.G. Kelley, excerpt from Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (1990)
Week Thirteen: Black Power and Anti-Colonialism
- Robin D.G. Kelley and Betsy Esch, “Black Like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution” (1999)
- Black Panther Party, “Ten-Point Program” (1966)
Week Fourteen: Black Feminism and Abolition
- Combahee River Collective, “Statement” (1977)
- Angela Davis, excerpt from Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003)
