YOUTH INITIATIVE HIGH SCHOOL

Waldorf Initiative in Viroqua, Wisconsin, USA

 

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Perspectives on

SOCIALISM

Youth Initiative High School – Social Studies:  Spring 2007

Instructors: Jacob Hundt and Daniel O. Newton Simmons

In this class we will take an in-depth look at one of the most important political philosophies and movements of the modern era.  We will begin with a brief overview of liberalism, socialism’s major ideological precursor and competitor.  We will then explore the roots of socialism, several different branches of socialist thought and practice, and the history of socialist movements during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Unlike many high school classes, in which the teacher(s) adopt a posture of philosophical neutrality towards the subject matter, the co-teachers in this course will be making their positions known from the outset.  Daniel will pose as an advocate of libertarian socialism/anarchism, while Jacob will take the role of a defender of the liberal/free market status quo.  It is hoped that this will stimulate lively discussion and thought in the class and encourage careful readings of all assigned texts. 

The class will be academically rigorous.  In addition to regular reading assignments from works of history, philosophy, and journalism, students will be asked to write a series of opinion essays responding to ideas presented in the class.  The culminating project of the semester will consist of a research project about a contemporary country, party, movement, or organization with links to socialism.  On the basis of this research, students will compose a properly footnoted paper of at least 6 pages in length and deliver a 15-20 minutes presentation to the class during the final three weeks of the class.

 

Part I:  Background:  Private Property, Human Rights, Liberalism (Jacob)

--John Locke:  Second Treatise on Government

--Thomas Jefferson: “Declaration of Independence”

--Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

 

Part II:  Roots of Socialism:

--French Revolution:  Manifesto of the Equals, by Sylvain Marechal

--Industrial Revolution in England

 

Part III: Socialism Coalesces:

--First International:  Marx and Bakunin

--Reading:  The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels (1: Bourgeois and Proletarians)

--Reading:  Power Corrupts the Best, by Bakunin

--Paris Commune:  The Commune of Paris by Peter Kropotkin

--Social Democracy/Welfare State:  (Jacob)

 

Part IV:  Strategies for Revolution:

--Violent vs. Non-Violent Revolution (Jacob)

--Red Army Faction (Guest Speaker: Conrad Rehbach)

--Civil Disobedience:  Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, etc. 

--Revolutionary Unionism (Guest Speaker Donna Simmons)

--Reading:  The Statutes of Revolutionary Unionism (Introduction & Principles) by the IWA

--Political Engagement:  (Read:  Against Democracy by Wildcat (UK) and Neither Democrats Nor Dictators:  Anarchists by Errico Malatesta)

--History of struggle between varieties of socialism

--Russian Revolution

--Spanish Civil War

--Cold War era

 

Part V: Socialism Today: (Student Presentations

--Social Democracy in Europe, Canada, etc.

--Anarchist/Libertarian Socialist movements today:

--Zapatistas in Mexico (Read: History of a Zapatista Village by Subcommandante Marcos

--Workers control in Argentina (Watch The Take by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein

--The international Anarchist movement today

 

Weekly Schedule:

 

Part I: Liberalism/Free Markets

1.  January 8 & 10:

John Locke:  Second Treatise of Government

Thomas Jefferson, “Declaration of Independence”

2. January 15 & 17:

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

Part II: Roots

3. January 22 & 24:

French Revolution and Utopian Socialists

Manifesto of Equals, Sylvain Marechal

Part III: Socialism Coalesces

4. January 29 & 31:

Marx, Bakunin, & the First International

Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels

Power Corrupts the Best, by Bakunin

6. February 5 & 7:

Early Anarchism and Socialism

7. February 12 & 14:

(Research Topics Introduced) : Leninism

8. February 26 & 28:_____________________________

Part IV: Strategies/History

11. March 5 & 7:___________________

12. March 12 & 14:______________________________

13. March 19 & 21 :______________________________

14. March 26 & 28:______________________________

15. April 2 & 4:____________________

Part V: Today (Student Research Presentations)

16. April 23 & 25

17. April 31 & May 2

18. May 7 & 9