Volume 15 – Section 5

  • Section V. Towards the “Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy,” the unfinished book

    The writings in this section are directly related to Dunayevskaya’s work on a new book which, by 1986, she tentatively titled “Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy: ‘the party’ and forms of organization born out of philosophy.” The many documents approaching the subject matter of the book, left unfinished at her death in 1987, can be found in Volume XIII, “Raya Dunayevskaya’s Last Writings, 1986-1987—Toward The Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy.”

  • A. Preliminary presentations and correspondence

  • 2. Dunayevskaya remarks to the Resident Editorial Board, made July 12, 1983.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17149.pdf

    On her 1980s View as “the combination of the challenge to Post-Marx Marxism and…ourselves” and “philosophy as ground for organization” as it relates to Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Program, autonomy, and the designation “Marxist-Humanism.”

  • 3. Dunayevskaya letter to “Dear Friends,” written July 25, 1983.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17150.pdf

    On “1) What the Marx Centenary and the National Tour taught us about ourselves, especially re Marx vs. Engels; 1875 vs. 1891. 2) The philosophic ground of the trilogy of revolution and what philosophic ground meant to Lenin, Luxemburg and Gramsci. 3) The specificity of Marxist-Humanism, as well as the ground of the 1983-84 Perspectives, with great emphasis on Organization.”

  • 4. Dunayevskaya letter to Harry McShane, written Aug. 15, 1983.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17152.pdf

    On the Erfurt Program as “the period of origin of deviation from Marx’s Marxism.” Included also is McShane letter to Olga Domanski, written Aug. 2, 1983, with marginalia by Dunayevskaya.

  • 5. “NOTES by RD,” August 1983.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17155.pdf

    Critique of proposed amendments to the News and Letters Committees Constitution, with revisions dictated by Dunayevskaya. See also 15538; for proposals, see 7819; and for Constitution as amended, see 7993.

  • 6. Olga Domanski letter to Bess Gogol, written Aug. 11, 1983.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17160.pdf

    Transmits message from Dunayevskaya to Gogol on “Organizational Growth and the Dialectics of ‘Revolution in Permanence’” by Peter Wermuth. Included also is Wermuth’s essay as it appeared in “Pre-convention Discussion Bulletin Number Four,” August 1983, with marginalia by Dunayevskaya.

  • 7. Philosophy/Organization; Organization/Philosophy: as Path to Revolution.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17167.pdf

    Dunayevskaya notes for presentation to Executive Session of the News and Letters Committees convention, given Sept. 4, 1983. Included also is Dunayevskaya summation of the session.

  • 8. What is New in the Concept and Practice of Organization since Chapter 11 of Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17174.pdf

    Dunayevskaya presentation to the Resident Editorial Board, given Oct. 22, 1984, on attitudes to organization in Marxist-Humanism since 1958. The first public discussion on why “a whole new book” is necessary to “concretize organizational responsibility for the philosophy we have founded.” Included also are Dunayevskaya letter to “Dear Friends,” written Oct. 23, 1984; letter to Anne Jaclard and the New York NEB, written Oct. 10, 1984, on Marxist-Humanism in England and Scotland; letters to N., Dick (Richard Bunting), Dave (Black) and Celia, and Lydia, written Oct. 23, 1984.

  • 9. Dunayevskaya letter to Neda Azad, written Nov. 20, 1984.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17185.pdf

    On why “Party and Organization are not synonymous”; Marx and the “Organization Question” in Critique of the Gotha Program; organization inseparable from “philosophic roots and vision.”

  • 10. Dunayevskaya letter to Anne Jaclard, written Dec. 3, 1984.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17187.pdf

    On “subjectivity of the Notion” versus “petty bourgeois subjectivity”; Lenin “never relating dialectics and the Critique of the Gotha Program to organization”; “how historically and philosophically I look at any mistake.” Contains marginalia by Dunayevskaya. Included also are Dunayevskaya presentation, with marginalia by her, and letter to the Resident Editorial Board, both dated Dec. 3, 1984.

  • 11. Dunayevskaya letter to Jim Mills, written Feb. 26, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17196.pdf

    On “A Revolutionary Critical Look over the Historic Barrier” by Jim M ills. Included also is essay by Mills. Both contain marginalia by Dunayevskaya.

  • 13. Dunayevskaya letter to Eugene Walker, written March 14, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17209.pdf

    On revisions to lecture at Wayne State University, March 21, 1985, and “my next work on the Party, the Party.” For typed copy of lecture, see 8394. For letter to Olga Domanski on reverse side, see 16538.

  • 15. Dunayevskaya letter to David Joravsky, written May 15, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17213.pdf

    On “Organizational Jnterlude” in Marxism and Freedom, and submitting “the question of Party” to Absolute Method in a new book. Included also is Joravsky letter to Dunayevskaya, written April 14, 1985, with marginalia by Dunayevskaya.

  • 17. Dunayevskaya letter to Peter Wermuth, written June 28, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17217.pdf

    On projecting the dialectics of revolution and of thought as they relate to youth. For Wermuth’s essay, “A 1980s View of Youth as a Revolutionary Category,” published in “Pre-Plenum Discussion Bulletin 4,” August 1985, see 10306.

  • 18. Dunayevskaya letter to Mihailo Markovic, written June 28, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17220.pdf

    On India and “when national revolutions are internationalist”; a new book on “Dialectics of the Party.” Included also is Markovic letter to Dunayevskaya, written May 20, 1985.

  • 19. Dunayevskaya letter to Gabriele Dietrich, written July 12, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17223.pdf

    On “the dialectics of the ‘Party’” inseparable from the dialectics of revolution and thought and on Dietrich’s review of Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution. Included also are Dietrich’s review in Marxist Review (Calcutta), September 1985, with marginalia by Dunayevskaya. For Dietrich review in Das Argument-Beiheft, see 17113.

  • 20. Dunayevskaya remarks to the Resident Editorial Board, made July 29, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17238.pdf

    On revolutionary finances and on projecting Women’s Liberation and the Dialectics of Revolution to youth and women’s liberationists.

  • 21. Dialectics of Marxist-Humanism as Leadership at Turning Points in the History of Our Organization.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17240.pdf

    Presentation by Dunayevskaya, given Aug. 3, 1985, to the Resident Editorial Board, summarized in “In Lieu of R.E.B. minutes,” written Aug. 6, 1985, by Michael Connolly and checked by Dunayevskaya.

  • 22. Dunayevskaya remarks at the News and Letters Committees plenum, made Aug. 31, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17243.pdf

    On recognizing new projections of Marxist-Humanism; C.L.R. James and the Caribbean; “building of the Marxist-Humanist organization.”

  • 23. The Self-Thinking Idea in a New Concept of and Relationship to The Dialectics of Leadership, As Well As The Self-Bringing Forth of Liberty.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17246.pdf

    Dunayevskaya presentation to the Executive Session of News and Letters Committees plenum, given Sept. 1, 1985. Typed copy. For presentation excerpts as published in “Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 1985-86,” Aug. 31–Sept. 1, 1985, see 10348.

  • 26. Philosophy and Revolution: Russia 1905, 1917; Germany 1919; Fanon’s new Humanism and Today’s South African Undeclared Civil War

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17262.pdf

    . Typed copy of Dunayevskaya lecture at Broadway Presbyterian Church/Columbia University, given Nov. 12, 1985.

  • 27. Dunayevskaya presentation to the Resident Editorial Board, given Nov. 25, 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17270.pdf

    On her New York lecture tour, “interest in the 5th book on the Dialectic of the Party,” and selling Women’s Liberation and the Dialectics of Revolution “as founders.” Included also are Dunayevskaya letter to Ted, Suzanne, Jim, and Laurie, written Nov. 29, 1985, on projecting Marxist-Humanism in New York. For Dunayevskaya letter on New York tour, see 16807.

  • 28. New Beginnings That Determine the End.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17273.pdf

    Dunayevskaya presentation to an expanded meeting of the Resident Editorial Board, given Dec. 29, 1985. Typed copy with marginalia by Dunayevskaya on cover page and not by Dunayevskaya on the other pages. Included also is Dunayevskaya remarks at the meeting. For presentation, as published, see 10492.

  • B. Notes and studies for “Dialectics of the Party”

  • 2. Dunayevskaya letter to Cyrus Noveen, written Nov. 20, 1985

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17315.pdf

    . On Noveen’s commentary on Robert Michels, Political Parties. Included also are Noveen commentary, written Nov. 7, 1985, and letter to Dunayevskaya, written Nov. 29, 1985, both with marginalia by Dunayevskaya. For Dunayevskaya notes on Michels, see 10895.

  • C. Marginalia by Dunayevskaya

  • 2. Eugene Walker letters and commentaries on writings by Monty Johnstone, John Cunliffe, Rossana Rossanda, and Robert Service, written September and December 1985.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17330.pdf

    For Dunayevskaya notes on Johnstone, Cunliffe, Rossanda, and Service see 10800.

  • 3. The Newness of Our Philosophic-Historic Contribution.

    link to PDF file: https://rayadunayevskaya.org/raya/ArchivePDFs/17347.pdf

    Discussion bulletin written by Dunayevskaya, June 1969, reissued October 1973. Included are pages with marginalia by Dunayevskaya made probably in 1985. For complete bulletin, see 4407.

  • Volume 15 concludes on page 17358.