Special Summer Seminar Series I: 4 Lectures on the Grundrisse

Facilitated by Bruno Gulli, Guest Lecturer & Visiting Scholar, Institute for the Critical Study of Society

Session I: Sunday,  July 27th - 11am to 1pm
Session II: Tuesday, July 29th  7pm to 9pm
Session III: Thursday, July 31st  7pm to 9pm
Session IV:  Sunday,  August 2nd at 11am to 1pm 

The Grundrisse (“Outlines”)  or “Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie” (Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy) is Marx's voluminous manuscript, completed in 1858, that is generally seen as the preparatory “groundwork” for Das Kapital.  It also stands alone as a powerful and essential work of Marxist theory, illuminating, elaborating and dialectically clarifying the key ideas of Marx.  Coming out of the period of Marx’s most intense, in-depth scholarship of economics and political philosophy, this series of seven notebooks, develops key Marxist concepts including production, distribution, exchange; value, money & commodities; labor, capital & surplus value; machinery and automation; the transformation problem;  pre-capitalist forms of social organization, and the preconditions for revolution.

With the guidance of Bruno Gulli, we will look at some of the most important sections of this 900 page opus, starting from the Introduction, and traversing through to the so-called Fragment on Machinery towards the end of it. We will combine close reading with dialogue, discussion and debate, cultivating both philosophical rigour and poetic insight as we engage dialogically and analytically with this deep, rich and rewarding text.  We will cross-reference Capital and other texts from time to time as necessary. 

The Institute invites scholars, thinkers, activists of all stripes and persuasions to join us in this rare opportunity for a profound and stimulating engagement with this foundational work of Marxism.

Bruno Gulli, scholar-in-residence, the author of Labor of Fire: The Ontology of Labor  between Economy and Culture, is known for his ground-breaking scholarship on the Grundrisse and his pioneering work on the reconceptualization of art and labor.
    
 


Mourning the death of a worker: Tim Russert 1950-2008

Mourning the death of a worker: Tim Russert 1950-2008

I'm a blue-collar guy from Buffalo -Tim Russert

Our hearts reach out to the Russert family for their unexpected and heartbreaking personal loss. Tim Russert’s death is also the loss of a voice in mainstream corporate television of a journalist who regularly declared his love and respect for the working class.

Mr. Russert often stated how proud he was of his roots. This pride came from appreciation of his father, who grew up in working class Buffalo, N.Y.; a workingman and veteran of World War II, who drove a garbage truck and usually worked another job, and who retired with 200 unused sick days. He taught his son the value of hard work and the importance of education. This was one of the very few positive stories on TV that challenges the Archie Bunker stereotype of workers. We thank you Tim, for that.

The loss of Tim Russert also reminds us of the loss of generations of proud working class people of the thriving industrial cities in the most formative years of our county’s resurgence after World War II. These returning soldiers built their communities with the tremendous efforts of their hearts, their hands and backs, building at the same time the industrial base that created the enormous wealth of this country.

Tim Russert’s character and personal style reflected the working class values of these people: the values of authenticity, honesty, directness and loyalty; an ethos that cherishes family, community, solidarity, and understands the value of hard labor, the art and craft of work; that understands education as the means of achieving a good life, without forgetting that a good life comes only through solidarity with and remembrance of one’s class roots. Tim Russert came from the group that built America.

Now he and his working class history are dead. Tim died of a heart attack, but even before that, the communities that he came from were having their hearts trodden on and ripped out by the deindustrialization, the outsourcing, and the attack on unions since the 1970s. Cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Flint, Canton, and Pittsburgh are the broken, devastated results of this attack, breaking the hearts and killing the hopes of millions of working people.

So it is in deep mourning that we say to Tim Russert, rest in peace good buddy, Sunday mornings will never be the same without you; and it is with deep outrage that we say to the workers back in the rust belt, yes it’s time, now; it’s time to organize.

Members of The Institute for the Critical Study of Society. (tifcss.org)


Theatre of the Oppressed Workshops

We offer classes and workshops on Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, for educators, activists, artists, organizers and the general public.  No prior acting or TO experience is required.

Please contact us if you would like to be put on our mailing list for future classes or workshops.


Close Reading of Marx

Every Tuesday Evening
Dates: ongoing, 7 - 9 p.m. • We will read Marx's work together and make sure we understand it. • For information, e-mail Kosta at bagman-at-sfsu.edu.