Beyond Capitalism Syllabus

BEYOND CAPITALISM SENIOR SEMINAR IN RADICAL THEORY Residential College in the Arts & Humanities Michigan State University RCAH 492 section 001 Fall 2015 PROFESSOR INFORMATION DAY + TIME DYLAN A.T. MINER, PHD DMINER@MSU.EDU 884‐1323 T + TH 10:20‐12:10 OFFICE HOURS C203 SNYDER 416 BAKER T + TH 12:10‐2:00 “A revolution without dancing is not a revolution worth having.” – Emma Goldman “The philosophers have interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is also to change it.” – Karl Marx “Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well.” – Frantz Fanon “We must be patient with each other as we learn to live in a decolonised way.” – Patricia Monture‐Angus (Kanien'kehá:ka) “This is about sharing knowledge amongst whānau, and between other indigenous people around the world. Sharing assumes that knowledge is for the collective benefit and that knowledge is a form of resistance.” – Linda Tuhiwai Smith (Maori) DESCRIPTION Can a world outside or beyond capitalism exist? If it could, what would it look like? Moreover, is this anti‐capitalist (or non‐capitalist) option one we should even explore? In this senior seminar, we will investigate various theorists, activists, movements, and artists as they articulate, to borrow a phrase from the Zapatistas, ‘another possible world’. Using my own interest in Indigenous, Third World, anti‐colonial, and anarchist movements, we will pay particular attention to the ways in which these movements have attempted to form ‘the structure of the new society within the shell of the old,’ to use the language of the IWW. As in other RCAH courses, creative and artistic exploration may be central to your own working through these questions. Moreover, as a senior seminar, this capstone course asks you to invest significant time reading and making connections with other courses you have taken during your tenure at university. READINGS 1. Taiaiake Alfred (2005). Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2. Grace Lee Boggs (2012). The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty‐First Century. Berkeley: University of California Press. 3. Frantz Fanon (2005). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove. 4. Emma Goldman (1996). Anarchism and Other Essays. New York: Dover. 5. David Harvey (2010). A Companion to Marx’s Capital. New York: Verso. 6. Robin Wall Kimmerer (2014). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions. 7. Staughton Lynd and Andrej Grubacic (2008). Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History. Oakland: PM Press. 8. Karl Marx (1990). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume I. London: Penguin Classics. $13 9. Various PDFs available on angel.msu.edu. OBJECTIVES 01. Due to the interdisciplinarity of this course, the goals and objectives are likewise multiple. By reading, discussing, analyzing, eating, and cooking, students will accomplish the following: • Investigate the relationship between and among cultures and societies; • Explain how and why societies create or contest hierarchies; • Examine the complex role that radical political thought performs across cultures and time periods; • Interpret various non‐capitalist texts and practices; • Describe the relationship between cultures, economics and social structures; • Understand how and why certain societies dominate and/or subjugate others; • Develop a vocabulary to discuss the complexities of non‐ and anti‐capitalist ontologies; • Create an awareness of the integral role that capitalism and its resistance plays in the world. 02. The course will also help students meet general liberal learning outcomes, as outlined by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. These include, but are not limited • Develop a robust knowledge of human cultures and the natural world; to: • Improve intellectual and practical skills, such as inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, communication, literacies, and problem solving; • Enhance personal and social responsibility through direct civic participation, ongoing intercultural competency, and continued ethical reasoning and action; • Demonstrate integrative learning by synthesizing Indigenous and Western knowledge across disciplinary fields. ASSIGNMENTS Project 1 Project 2 Weekly Participation Final Project GRADING SCALE 20% 20% 30% 30% 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 100‐93 92‐86 85‐81 80‐76 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 75‐71 70‐66 65‐61 60‐55 54‐0 ATTENDANCE As part of the Residential College in Arts and Humanities, attendance is expected. Although I will not actively ‘take roll,’ you are obliged to reflect upon seminar activities and discussion in the form of weekly writing assignments. Therefore, continued absences will alter your ability to comprehend the overall themes of the course. Moreover, your presence in the seminar is needed for full participation credit. As such, your attendance may positively or negatively affect your final grade through multiple avenues. PARTICIPATION Active discussion is paramount to intellectual development. As such, 30% of your final grade is based on class participation combined with in‐class writing assignments. You are expected to arrive on time to each class session and fully prepared. Preparation includes having thoroughly read all assigned readings and ready to critically and creatively discuss the material. You are expected to speak during each and every class, however quantity of participation is not a surrogate for quality. Your participation grade will take into consideration the frequency, as well as excellence, of your participation in classroom discussions. POLICY ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND INTEGRITY In agreement with Article 2.3.3 of the Academic Freedom Report which states that ‘the student shares with the faculty the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades, and professional standards,’ it is expected that students neither plagiarize nor copy from a peer’s intellectual or creative work. In addition, the RCAH adheres to the policies on academic honesty as specified in General Student Regulations 1.0, Protection of Scholarship and Grades, and in the All‐University Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and Grades, which are included in Spartan Life: Student Handbook + Resource Guide (http://www.vps.msu.edu/SpLife/index.htm). Students who engage in academically dishonest activities may receive a 0.0 on that given assignment or for the overall course. POLICY ON ACCOMODATIONS Students with disabilities that may interfere with completing your assigned course work may speak with me, as well as contact the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities to establish reasonable accommodations. For an appointment with a counselor, call 353‐9642 [voice] or 355‐1293 [TTY]. Week One January 13 Introductions and Expectations Introductions Week Two Sept. 08 Thinking Beyond the Constraints of Capitalism Understanding the Tools Audre Lorde, ‘The Master’s Tools,’ PDF Freire, ‘Pedagogy of Oppressed,’ Ch. 3 PDF Sept. 10 Learning to Speak Another Language Kimmerer, 3‐59 Smith, ’25 Indigenous Projects,’ PDF Harvey, “Introduction” Week Three An Anti‐Capitalist Origin Story? Sept.15 Marx and Capital Commodity Marx, Ch. 1 Harvey, Ch. 1 Sept. 17 Marx and Capital, cont’d Exchange & Circulation Marx, Chs. 2‐3 Harvey, Ch. 2 Week Four Sept. 22 Toward a Critique of Capital Marx and Capital, cont’d again Capitalist Accumulation Marx, Chs. 16, 19‐21 Harvey, Ch. 9‐10 Sept. 24 Marx, Gramsci, and some Notebooks Marx, Chs. 26‐27 Primitive Accumulation Harvey, Ch. 11 and Hegemony Gramsci, PDF Week Five Sept. 29 Anarchism, Syndicalism and Alternative Political Economies Anarchisms Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays, 41‐108 Lynd & Grubacic, Wobblies & Zapatistas, 3‐61 Chomsky, On Anarchism, PDF Oct. 01 Wobblies Lynd & Grubacic, Wobblies & Zapatistas, 62‐118 Kornbluh, Rebel Voices: IWW Anthology, PDF Screen: The Wobblies (1979) Week Six Oct. 06 Frantz Fanon and Black Anti‐Colonial Thought Colonialism is a System Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, Ch. IV (also Ch. I suggested) Sartre, ‘Colonialism is a System’, PDF Marx, Ch. 33 Oct. 08 Colonialism is a Language Week Seven Oct. 13 Theorizing Against Patriarchy Feminisms Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism, PDF Memmi, Colonizer and Colonized, PDF Goldman, Anarchism & Other Essays, 177‐239 Mohanty, Feminism without Borders, PDF Heywood, Political Ideologies (Feminism), PDF Oct. 15 Womanisms Hill Collins, ‘What’s in a Name?’ PDF Roundtable, ‘Must I be Womanist?’ PDF Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, PDF Smith, “Native Feminism…Apology’, PDF Kimmerer, 63‐117 Week Eight Oct. 20 Indigenous Resurgence on Turtle Island Resurgence Alfred, Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways, TBD Oct. 22 Leaving Gifts when Gaining Knowledge Week Nine Oct. 27 Indigenous Options Beyond Capitalism From Turtle Island Simpson, Dancing On Turtle's Back, PDF Cheyfitz ‘What Is a Just Society?’ PDF Kimmerer, 203‐300 Oct. 29 Desde el Ombligo de la Tierra Week Ten Nov. 03 Decolonization(s) Descolonización Nov. 5 Recognition Kimmerer, 121‐201 (Suggested, New Socialist Review #58) Screen: Kanasatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) Khasnabish, Zapatistas, PDF Ramirez, Fire and the Word: A History of the Zapatista Movement, PDF Screen: Vice, The Zapatista Uprising: 20 Years Later (2014) Week Eleven Decoloniality Nov. 10 Coloniality of Power Nov. 12 Decolonial Option Ticona Alejo, Lecturas para Descolonización, PDF. Paredes and Guzmán, Tejido de la Rebeldía, PDF Coulthard, Red Skin, White Mask, PDF Quijano, Coloniality of Power, PDF Mariatequi, 7 Interpretative Essays, PDF Mignolo, “Epistemic Disobedience…,” PDF Kimmerer, 301‐384 Wk Twelve Nov. 17 Black Radicalisms Beyond Marxism Black Marxisms Robinson, Black Marxism, PDF Screen: Black Power Mix Tape (2011) Nov. 19 Anarchism + Johnson‐Forest Erwin, Anarchism & Black Revolution, PDF. Misc. Johnson‐Forest texts, PDF Wk Thirteen Queer Oppositions Nov. 24 Queering Oppositions Daring, Queering Anarchism, PDF Driskill, Queer Indigenous Studies, PDF GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, PDF Nov. 26 Feast Day No Class Wk Fourteen Community Economies Dec. 01 Post‐capitalism Gibson‐Graham, A Postcapitalist Politics, PDF Dec. 03 The End of Capitalism Gibson‐Graham, The End of Capitalism, PDF Wk Fifteen Dec. 08 The Next Revolution, A View from Detroit Toward Revolution Boggs, Next American Revolution, Chs. 1‐3 Crass, Towards Collective Liberation, PDF Screen: American Revolutionary (2013) Dec. 10 Toward Liberation Wk Sixteen Dec. 18 Final Examinations Friday, 7:45‐9:45 a.m. Boggs, Next American Revolution, Chs. 4‐6 BIBLIOGRAPHY - TEXTS Taiaiake Alfred. Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom (Toronto: Broadview, 2005). Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Fourth Edition (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books,, 2012). Grace Lee Boggs, with Scott Kurashige. The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty‐First Century, Updated and Expanded Edition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012). Aimé Cesaire. Discourse on Colonialism, new edition (New York: Monthly Review, 2001). Eric Cheyfitz. "What Is a Just Society? Native American Philosophies and the Limits of Capitalism's Imagination: A Brief Manifesto." South Atlantic Quarterly Spring 2011 (110:2); 291‐307. Noam Chomsky. On Anarchism (New York: New Press, 2013) Glen Sean Coulthard. Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Prss, 2014). Chris Crass. Towards Collective Liberation: Anti‐Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy (Oakland: PM Press, 2014). C.B. Daring, J. Rogue, Deric Shannon, and Abbey Volcano, eds. Queering Anarchism: Addressing and Undressing Power and Desire (Oakland: AK Press, 2013). Qwo‐Li Driskill, Chris Finley, Brian Joseph Gilley, and Scott Lauria Morgensen, eds. Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics, and Literature (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011). Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin. Anarchism and The Black Revolution and Other Essays (). Frantz Fanon. Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove, 1963). Paulo Freire. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2000). Daniel Heath Justice, Mark Rifkin, and Bethany Schneider, eds. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies Vol. 16, No. 1‐2 (2010). Special Issue on "Sexuality, Nationality, Indigeneity". J.K. Gibson‐Graham. A Postcapitalist Politics (Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 2006). J.K. Gibson‐Graham. The End Of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy (Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 2006). Emma Goldman. Anarchism and Other Essays (Mineola, NY: Dover Books, 1929). Antonio Gramsci. Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Reprint edition (New York: International Publishers Co, 1971). David Harvey. A Companion to Marx's Capital (New York: Verso, 2010). Andrew Heywood. Political Ideologies: An Introduction (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012). Patricia Hill Collins. "What's in a name?: Womanism, Black Feminism, and Beyond." The Black Scholar (Winter/Spring 1996). Johnson‐Forest Tendency (C.L.R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, and Grace Lee Boggs). Misc. texts. Alex Khasnabish. Zapatistas: Rebellion from the Grassroots to the Global (New York: Zed, 2013). Robin Wall Kimmerer. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis: Milkweed, 2014). JoyceL. Kornbluh. Rebel Voices: IWW Anthology (Oakland: PM Press, 2011). Audre Lorde. “The Master’s Tools,” Sister Outsider (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press 1984): 110‐113. Staughton Lynd and Andrej Grubacic. Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History (Oakland: PM Press, 2008). José Carlos Mariatequi. Seven Interpretative Essays on Pervuvian Reality (Austin: University of Texas, 1988). Karl Marx. Capital: Volume 1, A Critique of Political Economy (New York: Pengiun Classics, 1992). Albert Memmi. The Colonizer and the Colonized, Expanded edition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991). Walter D. Mignolo. "Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and De‐Colonial Freedom." Theory, Culture & Society Vol. 26, No. 7–8 (2009): 1–23 Chandra Talpade Mohanty. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003). New Socialist Review #58. Julieta Paredes C. and Adriana Guzmán A., El Tejido de la Rebeldía (La Paz, Bolivia: Mujeres Creando Comunidad, 2014). Anibal Quijano. “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America.” Nepentla: Views From the South 1(3), 2000: pp. 533‐580 Gloria Muños Ramirez. The Fire and the Word: A History of the Zapatista Movement (San Francisco: City Lights, 2008). Cedric J. Robinson. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (Raleigh, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000). Monica A. Coleman, et al. "Must I be a Womanist?," a Roundtable Discussion. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion Vol. 22 No. 1 (2006). Jean‐Paul Sartre. "Colonialism is a System." Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies Vol. 3 Issue 1 (2001); 127‐140. Leanne Simpson. Dancing On Our Turtle's Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re‐Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence (Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring, 2011). Andrea Smith. “Indigenous Feminism without Apology.’ Unsettling Ourselves: Reflections and Resources for Deconstructing Colonial Mentality (2011). Available at http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/indigenous‐feminism‐without‐ apology/ Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Second edition (New York: Zed, 2012). Esteban Alejo Ticona. Lecturas para la descolonización : taqpachani qhispiyasipxañani (liberémonos todos) (La Paz, Bolivia: Universidad de la Cordillera, 2005). BIBLIOGRAPHY - FILMS Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer. The Wobblies (1979, 89 minutes). Luis Chaparro. The Zapatista Uprising (20 Years Later), Vice News (2014, 13 minutes). Grace Lee. American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (2013, 82 minutes). Alanis Obomsawin. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993, 119 minutes). Göran Olsson. The Black Power Mix Tape 1967‐1975 (2011, 100 minutes).