Join the Houston DSA Political Education Working Group for our biweekly Reading Group! We’re beginning our series “Kautsky and Lenin: Why You Should Care.” Following Lenin’s arguments in his 1917 pamphlet The State and Revolution, Leninists for decades have hinged their strategy on the need for an insurrection to overthrow the entire parliamentary state and to place all power into the hands of workers’ councils. In contrast, Kautsky argued that the path to anticapitalist rupture in conditions of political democracy passed through the election of a workers’ party to government.

The primary discussion will be based around this article by Eric Blanc. The discussion will revolve around Kautsky’s formula of “the merger of socialism and the worker movement” that was a key idea that Lenin picked up on. If you want to dive in deeper, check out the optional readings: chapter one of Lars Lih’s Lenin Rediscovered, chapter two of Lih’s Lenin Biography (ebook available upon request), and Kautsky’s essay The Road To Power.

The Houston DSA Reading Group is open to members and non-members alike. We strive to be accessible to all attendees regardless of background knowledge or expertise. Notes and a presentation on the articles will be provided, so you can follow along even if you don’t finish. See you there!