At the start of the shelter-in-place order, Emerge members used our social distancing time to further our political education. These readings have provided the basis for political discussion— both points of agreement and disagreement— through which we are cohering our collective political perspective. This is an ongoing project, so check back for regular updates.

Session 1: Dictatorship Of The Proletariat Or ‘DOTP’ (3/20)

“Dictatorship Dies in Darkness”, Asad Haider
“What is Political Power”, Asad Haider
“The Dictatorship of the Proletariat is Not the Same Thing as Stalinism”, Louis Althusser

Session 2: Covid-19 (3/27)

“Coronavirus and Chronopolitics”, Gabe Winant
Mike Davis on The Dig
“We Must Survive Until We Can Transform Society”, Huey Newton

Session 3: Post Bernie (4/3)

“Bernie’s Revolution Failed. But His Movement Can Still Win”, Eric Levitz
“Where Do We Go After Last Night’s Defeat?”, Dustin Guastella
“Should We Participate in Bourgeois Parliaments?”, Lenin
“Dashed Expectations, a World to Transform”, Bue Rübner Hansen

Session 4: Organizational Structure (4/10)

“The Primitiveness of the Economists and the Organization of the Revolutionaries”, Lenin
“Organizational Questions of the Russian Social Democracy”, Luxemburg
“The Organisational Structure of the Communist Parties, the Methods and Content of their Work”, The Third Congress of the Communist International
“The Tyranny of Structurelessness”, Jo Freeman

Session 5: Party Time (4/17)

“Age of Extremes”, Eric Hobsbawn
“Actuality of Revolution”, Salar Mohandesi
“All Tomorrow’s Parties”, Salar Mohandesi
“What’s a Worker’s Party?”, Red Star SF
“A New Party of a New Kind”,Seth Ackerman on the Dig / OR read it here at Jacobin

Session 6: Coronavirus And The Economy: The Great Lockdown (4/24)

“Coronavirus Economics with Grace Blakeley” on The Dig / “The Corona Crash”, Grace Blakeley
“The Great Lockdown: World Economic Outlook, April 2020,” the International Monetary Fund
“An Organic Crisis is Upon Us”, Zachary Levenson

Session 7: Social Reproduction (5/1)

“Wages Against Housework”, Silvia Federici
“Contradictions of Capital and Care”, Nancy Fraser
“Slaves: The Capital That Built Capitalism”, Julia Ott
“Social Reproduction And The Pandemic”, Tithi Bhattarchya
“‘Social Reproduction Theory,’ Social Reproduction, and Household Production”, Kirstin Munro

Session 8: Social Revolution (5/15)

“State and Revolution”, Shaun Harkin
“Dual Power: A Strategy to Build Socialism in Our Time”, LSC
“Everyday Ruptures: Putting Basebuilding on a Revolutionary Path”, Teresa Kalisz
“Insurrection and Production”, Angry Workers

Session 9: Black Reconstruction (5/22)

“Black reconstruction, Counter Revolution of Property”, W.E.B. Du Bois
“The Legacy of Black Reconstruction”, Robert Greene II
“What Reconstruction and the New Deal can teach us about what comes after the pandemic presidency” (minute 9 – minute 49), Jeremy Scahill interviews David Blight
“The Shadow of the Plantation”, Asad Haider

Session 10: Transformative Justice (6/19)

“Philly Stands Up: Inside the Politics and Poetics of Transformative Justice and Community Accountability in Sexual Assault Situations”, Esteban Lance Kelly
“Summary Statement Re: Community Accountability Process”(March 2017), Mariame Kaba
“Why Misogynists Make Great Informants”, Courtney Desiree Morris

Session 11: Imperialism (7/10)

“Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Chapter VII. Imperialism as a Special Stage of Capitalism)”, V.I. Lenin
“The Accumulation of Capital, Chapter 26: The Reproduction of Capital and Its Social Setting”, Luxemburg
“Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism by V.I. Lenin (until 28:00)”, Red Menace
“The Specificity of Imperialism (until “Imperialism Between Capitalist Countries”)”, Salar Mohandesi
“The Imperialist Partition of Africa”, Walter Rodney
“Huey Newton introduces Revolutionary Intercommunalism”, Huey Newton

Session 12: Anti-Work Politics (7/24)

“Could a Green New Deal Make People Happier”, Kate Aronoff
“The Trouble with Full Employment”, Francis Fox Piven and co.
Doug Henwood Interviews Wilson Sherwin on Left Business Observer
“Social Reproduction, Neoliberal Crisis, and the Problem with Work:” A Conversation with Kathi Weeks

Session 13: Disability And The Prison Carceral Complex (8/7)

Disability Glossary
“Disablement, Prison, and Historical Segregation”, Jean Stewart & Marta Russell
“Radical Disability Politics”, A.J. Withers and Liat Ben-Moshe (eds) with Lydia X. Z. Brown, Loree Erickson, et. al
“Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Ch. 1: Care Webs”, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
“Pipeline to Prison: Special education too often leads to jail for thousands of American children”, Jackie Mader and Sarah Butrymowicz