Lesson 01
Dialectical and Historical Materialism: Stalin
Principles of Communism: Engels
Supplemental Materials
Dialectics: the science of struggle— CPUSA.org
Discussion Questions
Is the term proletariat synonymous with the term working class?
What is an example of the bourgeoisie from our history? What about currently?
Why does Engels claim that the proletariat and private property have not always existed? What relationship(s) existed before? Are we still proletarians today?
What does the industrial revolution have to do with the origin of the Bourgeoisie, private property, and the Proletariat?
Can you think of any examples of political, social, natural, or scientific phenomena that exemplify any of the four principles of Dialectical Materialism?
In your own words, what is the difference between metaphysics and dialectics?
Lesson 02
The Road to Socialism USA: Party Program of the Communist Party
Supplemental Materials
YouTube: An Introduction to the Party Program. Presented by Co-Chair Joe Sims
0)What is the Ultra-right? Who are the ultra-right composed of?
What are some of the defining characteristics of the Ultra-right?
What is the danger posed by the Ultra-right?
1) The other major political tendency is that largely associated with the Democratic party leadership. What are the defining characteristics of this tendency?
Which organizations and interests are represented by this tendency.
How is the goal of this tendency similar to that of the Ultra-right? How is it different?
2) For the first stage of the revolution (the all people’s front), why do we form a coalition with the non-ultra-right bourgeois forces?
3) How will this first step of defeating the ultra-right be accomplished?
4) The second step is referred to as building the anti-monopoly coalition. What are the core tenets of this step?
5) Describe the features of the transition to Working People’s Power (dictatorship of the proletariat, or lower stage socialism). What kinds of tasks will we need to undertake? What kinds of struggles will we face?
6) What does Bill of Rights Socialism mean? What does it not mean?
7) What is the role of the communist party? What theory and tools will help us make sense of analyzing the material conditions? What are the characteristics that the communist party MUST have? Why are these characteristics important?
Lesson 03
Wage Labor and Capital: Marx
Supplemental Materials
Spotify Podcast— Mass Struggle: Wage-Labor and Capital. (Note, the presenter’s opinions on China do not align with our Party’s perspective of Chinese economics)
Commodities
What is a commodity? What makes a commodity different from anything else that is produced?
Labor Vs Labor Power
What are the differences between “labor” and “labor power”
What is the exchange that occurs between capitalists and the working class that they employ?
Wages
What are wages?
What are the three types of wages?
What factors cause wages to be lower or higher?
Why does Marx deny that prices are determined by the balance of supply and demand?
What factors discussed in this text may cause wages to fall?
Can you think of any other examples of how this has happened in your local context?
Profit
Where does profit come from? If commodities are paid for their value, how can a buyer or seller consistently make a profit and get rich?
Connection to dialectics
What does Marx mean by saying that Capital is a social relation?
Discuss an example you know about of a new technique of production being introduced and the effects this had on prices, wages, etc.
How can an understanding of dialectical materialism help us make sense of the relationship between Capital and Labor?
Lesson 04
Imperialism–The Highest Stage of Capitalism: Lenin
Supplemental Materials
Podcast: Red Menace: Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism – V.I. Lenin
Article: cpusa.org: Imperialism in the 21st Century Affects Americans Too.
What are the stages of capitalism?
What are the five parts of Lenin’s definition of Imperialism?
What connections can you make between these characteristics of Imperialism as defined by Lenin and any current events in the world today?
What examples have you seen of monopolization of industry? Either in your local area or in general.
Have you seen examples of how the monopolization of industry affects electoral politics?
How can you use Lenin’s theory to explain why the stage of capitalism has tended towards monopoly?
Lesson 05
The State and Revolution: Lenin
Supplemental Materials
Lenin’s ‘The State and Revolution’ | MR Online
Marxism, U.S. Democracy, and Lenin’s Commune Against Capitalism – PMC (nih.gov) (by our own Joel Wendland-Liu)
Chapter 1: Class Society and the State
What is the state, and why does it exist?
To what degree is the state independent of social classes?
What does Engels mean by, “The state is not ‘abolished’. It withers away.”?
Chapter 2: The Experience of 1848-1851
What is the dictatorship of the proletariat? What is its purpose?
Why does Lenin argue that the overthrow of bourgeois rule can only be accomplished by the proletariat? Do you think he is correct?
Why does the proletariat need a state at all?
What is the difference between the recognition of the class struggle only and Marxism?
Chapter 3: Experience of the Paris Commune of 1871
What position did Marx take on the Paris Commune? How should this influence the approach we take to other revolutions?
What for Lenin is the significance of Marx’ reference to the “people’s revolution”? How did this relate to the tasks of the Russian Revolution?
Why did the Paris Commune fail?
Why is the immediate abolition of all bureaucracy “out of the question”? What does this mean for us?
Chapter 4: Supplementary Explanations by Engels
Why can the state not be abolished “within twenty-four hours”?
Why is it not necessary to abolish certain functions and institutions of the state?
Why is a democratic republic the best preparation for the dictatorship of the proletariat?
Why are centralized states preferable to federal systems in most scenarios? How does this relate to the national question?
Chapter 5: The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the State
How do capitalists have more political influence than workers?
Why would the absence of classes entail a withering away of the state?
Why, in a socialist society, would a worker not receive ‘the full product of his labor’ as LaSalle puts it?
What does Lenin mean by ‘bourgeois right’ and why is it still present in the lower stage of communism?
Chapter 6: The Vulgarization of Marxism by Opportunists
How did Bernstein distort a quote from Marx which said; ‘the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes’?
What does the term ‘centrism’ mean when used in a Marxist context?
Why is there a risk of proletarian officials becoming ‘bureaucratized’ under capitalism?
Lesson 06
Left-Wing Communism – an Infantile Disorder: Lenin
Supplemental Materials
Podcast: Red Menace. Left wing communism, an infantile disorder.
Verso (versobooks.com) (interview of Georg Lukacs)
The vanguard vs. the mass organization – Communist Party USA (cpusa.org) (popular work by Emile)
Background
How the political tendency of Bolshevism developed in Russia.
- Years of preparation for Revolution (1903-05)
- Years of revolution (1905-07)
- Years of reaction (1907-10)
- Years of revival (1910-14)
- First imperialist world war (1914-17)
- Second revolution in Russia (Feb to Oct 1917)
Vocabulary
Opportunism : Changing one’s political position in order to exploit certain circumstances for personal gain.
Social chauvinism: Aggressive or fanatical patriotism, particularly during time of war, in support of one’s own nation versus other nation(s).
Left wing communism: This was a movement, literally known as “left communists,” that opposed Lenin, often attacking him from the left (similar to what Trotsky did with Lenin and later Stalin).
Labor Aristocracy: Members within the labor movement’s leadership that are content with capitalism. Think the later term “business unionism.”
Discussion Questions
Bolshevik Success
Why is the dictatorship of the proletariat necessary?
Why is a Bolshevik centralisation necessary to keep the proletariat in power?
What influence did the revolution of 1905, and its defeat, have on the consciousness of the masses and of the revolutionary parties?
Trade Unions
What is the relationship between the workers’ party and the trade unions?
The German Left-Wing communists call for abandoning the reactionary trade unions and establishing workers’ unions. Why does Lenin oppose this approach?
How does the labor aristocracy cause “divergence between ‘leaders’ and ‘masses?’” How does this relate to the party’s role in the transition from capitalism to socialism in relation to small-commodity producers?
Parliament
Why was a boycott of parliament an effective position to take in 1905 but not in 1908-1914?
What are the main contradictions highlighted by Lenin in the German “Lefts” objections to participating in parliaments?
What does Lenin mean when he talks about “what is obsolete to us” vs “what is obsolete to the masses”?
How can participating in bourgeois parliaments facilitate their dissolution?
Why does Lenin argue that it is even more difficult to break with parliamentary politics in Western Europe than it was in Russia?
Why does this mean that it is even more important for communists to participate in them?
Compromise
What is Lenin’s position on the question of ‘compromises’?
How does Lenin distinguish between compromises enforced by ‘objective conditions’ and compromises based on opportunism?
Some Conclusions
What does Lenin say are the first and second historical objectives with respect to the vanguard of the proletariat?
What are the 3 main conditions that Lenin says must be present for the time to be ripe for revolution?
What does Lenin have to say about the use of different methods of struggle?
Lesson 07
On Contradiction: Mao
On Practice: Mao
Supplemental Materials
Podcast: Red Menace.
The Dialectic in China: Maoist and Daoist (redsails.org) (very good article, even despite Roderic Day’s bad takes and goofiness on Twitter)
Red Theory: On identity and antagonism in contradiction | Fight Back! (fightbacknews.org) (FRSO, but I would vouch for some of their texts)
On Contradiction
I. Two World Outlooks
What examples does Mao give of an internal cause effecting a political change?
To what extent does Climate Change fit into Mao’s dichotomy of internal vs. external causes?
II. Universality of Contradiction
What is the principal contradiction for Mao at the time of this writing? What is/are the principle contradiction(s) for us today in the USA?
Why does Mao argue that the contradictions appear from the outset of a thing? Why is this point important?
III. The particularity of contradiction
What are some examples that Mao gives about how contradictions can be resolved?
Mao points out that we as Marxist-Leninists must use different methods to resolve different contradictions. What does this mean for us today? Who might be the modern-day dogmatists who “arbitrarily apply an unalterable formula” as their method of resolving contradictions?
Contradictions have been a part of Marxism since the beginning, but may not have been called as such. What are some of the contradictions that Marx and Engels themselves discovered?
IV. The principle Contradiction and the Principle Aspect of a Contradiction.
What is the difference between the principle contradiction and the principle aspect of a contradiction?
How does the notion of shifting principle contradictions relate to the stages toward socialism outlined in our party’s program?
Who decides what the principle contradiction is? And how is it decided?
Mao argues that “when the superstructure (politics, culture, etc.) obstructs the development of the economic base, political and cultural changes become principle and decisive. To what extent is this true for us today in the USA?
V. The identity and struggle of the aspects of a contradiction.
What is the “identity of opposites?” Why is it important for us to study?
VI. The place of antagonism in contradiction.
Mao points out that “…as long as classes still exist, contradictions still exist, contradictions between correct and incorrect ideas in the Communist Party [will be] reflections within the Party of class contradictions. At first, with regard to certain issues, such contradictions may not manifest themselves as antagonistic. But with the development of the class struggle, they may grown and become antagonistic.” Mao wrote this essay in the 1930s; to what extent did this prediction come true?
On Practice
What are the stages of knowledge, according to Mao?
Examine the visual model of Critical Praxis. To what extent does this model line up with Mao’s theories in “On Practice?” To what extent is it different?
How has your club and the work that it has done gone through the stages of knowledge? What examples can you give of each of the stages (if applicable)?
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