Sundays starting November 13th at 10 AM PST / 11 AM MST / 12 PM CST / 1 PM EST

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The purpose of this course is to enable participants to develop a firm grasp of the Marxist understanding of fascism and closely related topics, such as finance capital and monopoly capital. We will begin by briefly brushing up on some basics of Marx’s economic theory of capitalist society before moving on to consider relevant historical accounts and documents, before considering developments of the Marxian theory on the topic of fascism up to the contemporary situation.

All readings will be made available. All are welcome to attend. The only requirement is that every participant prepare and engage in earnest and open-minded discussion and debate. Participants who would simply like to attend and listen but cannot always finish all of the reading etc. are nevertheless more than welcome.

If you are interested in participating, please register online HERE and you will be notified when this course will begin. All readings listed will be discussed. (It is recommended to have a Google account to register. Please be sure to be logged in to your Google account before clicking on the link above, and choose “Request to join group”.)

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Schedule:

1. Introduction: Crash Course Marx

• A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy [“Preface”]
• Wage Labor and Capital
• “The Different Parts Into Which Surplus Value Is Decomposed” [Chapter XI], Value, Price, and Profit

2. Karl Marx

• The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte [on so-called “Bonapartism”]

3. History and Documents

• Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism [Introduction, Chapter 8]
• Benito Mussolini, “The Doctrine of Fascism”
• Giovanni Gentile, “The Philosophic Basis of Fascism”
• Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism in the Classical Tradition [“The Argument of Fascism”]
• Thorstein Veblen, “Bolshevism is a menace—to whom?”

4. Giorgi Dimitrov 

• “The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International in the Struggle of the Working Class against Fascism” [Part 1, “Fascism and the Working Class”]
• “Fascism is War”
• [Optional: J.A. Stalin, “Concerning the International Situation”]

5. Clara Zetkin

• “The Struggle Against Fascism”
• “Resolution on Fascism”
• “The Frankfurt Conference Against Fascism”

6. Leon Trotsky

• “Fascism: what it is and how to fight it”
• “Bonapartism and Fascism”

Transition to Economic Accounts of Fascism

7. Rosa Luxemburg

• Required Reading:
  • 1. Michael Bleaney (L&W, 1976), Underconsumption Theories
    • Chapter 1. Introduction
    • Chapter 9. “Rosa Luxemburg”
  • 2. Rosa Luxemburg, The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg (Verso, 2015/16) volume 2:
    • From: The Accumulation of Capital, Or, What the Epigones Have Made Out of Marx’s Theory—An Anti-Critique, Part I, “What My Book Was About”
    • From: The Accumulation of Capital: A Contribution to the Economic Theory of Imperialism, Chapter 26 [Excerpts]
    • From: The Accumulation of Capital: A Contribution to the Economic Theory of Imperialism, Chapter 32, “Militarism in the Sphere of Capital Accumulation”.
• Optional Reading:
  • 3. Michael Bleaney (L&W, 1976), Underconsumption Theories
    • Chapter 8. “J. A. Hobson”
  • 4. J.A. Hobson, Imperialism: A Study
    • Chapter 6. “The Economic Taproot of Imperialism”
  • 5. Marx, Hilferding, Lenin, and Trotsky: Excerpts on Finance Capital and Imperialism

8. Alfred Sohn-Rethel

• Economy and Class Structure of German Fascism
• “38 Years Later”
• “Is the Fascist Economy Still a Threat?”

9. Michał Kalecki

• Selected Works of Michał Kalecki: Great War, Inflation, and Fascism
• “Stimulating the Business Upswing in Nazi Germany” (1935)
• “The Impact of Armaments on the Business Cycle after the Second World War (1955)