San Diego State University ISSE
News about the ISSE at San Diego State University
Dear ISSE members, students and workers,
The International Students for Social Equality will be undertaking a 6-week study of Marxist theory this summer at San Diego State University. The academic year now coming to a close witnessed an awakening of class struggle among students and workers worldwide. These struggles are an indication of the massive social unrest to come as the crisis of capitalism deepens. The ISSE summers school is designed to equip a new generation of working class youth with the theoretical tools necessary to navigate a revolutionary course through the coming period of struggle. We encourage all ISSE contacts to come to the school, the details of which can be found below. Please come to this important summer school, join the ISSE and take up the international struggle for socialism.
ISSE Summer School, 2010
When: May 24- June 28th, 2010. Monday nights from 6:30- 9:00 pm. Where: Storm Hall 348, SDSU campus.
Concept:
The International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) is the youth wing of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the international revolutionary socialist party founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938. Following the degeneration of the USSR under the Stalinist bureaucracy Trotsky and the left opposition to Stalin established the Fourth International to carry on the legacy of Marxism. The ISSE defends the heritage of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, and it is incumbent upon our membership to absorb the historical lessons of Marxism worked out in decades of working class struggles.
Starting with the Marxist philosophy of historical materialism, the ISSE summer school will focus on instilling in our members a sophisticated grasp of the Marxist method. We will explore topics such as the relationship between Marxist thought and the natural sciences, the relationship between the natural sciences and the social sciences and the relationship between the material world and its reflection in human thought. The opening philosophical discussion will set the framework for the rest of the summer school.
We will continue to develop on these philosophical themes, and use them to guide us through the remaining topics, opening up the discussion to include the objective and subjective factors of revolution, dialectic and formal logic and the consistent application of the Marxist method against the backdrop of class pressures produced by the ever-evolving global economic structure. Throughout the school, we will be considering these philosophical ideas not for the joy of abstract contemplation, but for the sake of working out and strengthening our revolutionary perspective. The power of Marxism is that it is true. Armed with the theoretical and historical perspective of the Fourth International, the ISSE will be poised to take a leading role in the international revolutionary struggles ahead.
Reading Schedule:
Week 1 (Meeting May 24th): Historical materialism 1) Marx, 1859 preface (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm) 2) Marx and Engels German Ideology (Chapter 1; http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01.htm)
Week 2 (meet May 31st): Historical materialism (continued) 1) Lenin, In Lieu of an introduction (from Materialism and Empirio-criticism; http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1908/mec/intro.htm - v14pp72h-022). 2) Engels, The part played by labor in the transition from ape to man (http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1876/part-played-labour/index.htm)
Week 3 (meet June 7th): The Leninist conception of the Party - Lenin, What is to be done? (http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/index.htm)
Week 4 (meet June 14th): Permanent Revolution - Trotsky, Results and Prospects and Permanent Revolution (http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1931/tpr/index.htm) - North, A significant contribution to an understanding of permanent revolution (http://wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/perm-a19.shtml)
Week 5 (meet June 21st): The Fourth International - Trotsky, The transitional program (http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm) - Trotsky, A petty bourgeois opposition in the SWP (http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/idom/dm/09-pbopp.htm)
Week 6 (meet June 28th): Globalization - Globalization and the International working class (http://www.wsws.org/exhibits/slreply/index.htm) - Marxist internationalism vs. the perspective of radical protest (All parts; http://wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/cho1-f21.shtml)
Please feel free to email us back with questions, comments or concerns. Thanks. Hope to see you all there!
We hope to see you all there!! :)
Please, feel free to email us with questions, comments and/or concerns. :)
ISSE article in the Daily Aztec
The rally called by the ISSE on Sept. 26, 2009 on the SDSU campus was highlighted in the Daily Aztec, SDSU's independent student paper.
Please click here or copy and paste the link below to read the article. http://www.thedailyaztec.com/city/group-voices-budget-concerns-1.1930214
The ISSE is enthusiastic about the turnout of the rally, and strongly feels that the rally will increase the visibility of our organization on the campus of SDSU. As was one of the central themes of the speeches at the rally, the ISSE believes that the coming period will be marked by increased mobilization of students throughout the globe, and in California in particular. The ISSE at SDSU is organizationally and theoretically poised to be the leading voice of socialism on our campus. Over the coming months we will continue to deliver the perspective of international socialism in a clear and principled manner.
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