Winter 2005 Advance Course Information

This information effective for Winter 2005. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Community Studies

[CMMU-100J] [CMMU-106] [CMMU-126] [CMMU-142]

100J. Theory and Practice of Immigration and Social Justice

Note: This syllabus from winter 2004. There will be some reading changes in winter 2005, but the overall approach and topics of the course will remain the same.

Instructor: David Brundage
Office: 310 College Eight
459-4645; brundage@ucsc.edu
Office hours: Mon and Tues 1-2:30 and by appt

Course Description

Over the last decade, immigration has accounted for about a third of American population growth, with more than one million immigrants entering the United States each year. In 2000, the number of foreign-born residents and children of immigrants in the U.S. was a record 56 million, about 20 percent of the population. On the one hand, many immigrants and their children have faced and continue to face critical problems: exploitation at work, poverty, lack of political power, educational inequality, discrimination, and, particularly since 9/11/01, denial of basic civil liberties. On the other hand, immigrants and their allies in labor, religious, civil rights and community groups have developed a variety of strategies to confront these problems and to work for social justice.

The goal of Community Studies 100J, Theory and Practice of Immigration and Social Justice, is to provide students with an introduction to these issues and trends and to prepare prospective community studies majors for a six-month field study in an immigrant advocacy organization or on immigration-related policy issues. After three weeks in which we survey the larger context of immigration, we will turn to a variety of specific issues facing immigrant communities. While studying each of these issues, we will focus, first, on the nature of the particular problem and, then, on the theory and practice of specific organizations working to achieve social justice in this area.

Course Requirements

Since this course will be run as a seminar the overriding requirement is that students attend every class, having completed all the reading assignments and being prepared for discussion. Class participation will account for 25 percent of your grade in the course. In addition, students will write an analytical paper, approximately 6-8 pages in length, based on the assigned material from the first half of the course. This paper will account for another 25 percent of your grade. Finally, students will complete a research paper, approximately 15-20 pages in length, which will critically examine a contemporary immigrant-oriented organization, campaign or program in light of the larger theoretical concerns of the course (worth 50 percent of your grade). The first paper will be due in class, February 10. The final research paper will be due on the last day of class, March 11.

In addition, students who plan to enroll in Community Studies 102 in the spring are required to have both their spring part-time field placement and their subsequent full-time six-month field placement arranged (and approved by me) by the end of the winter quarter.

Finally, all students in this class are required to attend four Thursday evening workshops led by the department's Field Studies Coordinators, Michael Rotkin and Lisa Mastramico. These workshops will be held in Thimann Lecture Hall (Thim 001), from 6 to 8 pm, on the following dates: January 29, February 5, February 12, and February 19. Topics for the workshops will include clarifying goals and choosing full-time field placements; students' relationship to the internship environment; cover letters, resumes, and strategies for contacting organizations; and miscellaneous logistics.

Required Texts

• Alejandro Portes and Rubén G. Rumbaut, Immigrant America: A Portrait (1996)
• Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, Children of Immigration (2001)
• Rubén Martínez, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail (2001)
• Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Take On the Global Factory (2001)
• Mark R. Warren, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy (2001)

The above are available at Bay Tree Bookstore and are on two-hour reserve at McHenry Library. There are also some shorter required pieces available on Electronic Reserves (password: "immigration") or on two-hour reserve at McHenry Library.

Course Schedule

January 6 and 8: Introduction to the course and each other
READING: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America, Prefaces, Chapter 1

January 13 and 15: Contemporary immigration: global and historical contexts
READING: Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, Children of Immigration, Introduction and Chapter 1; Martínez, Crossing Over, Prologue and Book One.

January 20 and 22: Immigrant communities today, patterns of settlement
READING: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America, Chapter 2; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, Children of Immigration, Chapter 2; Martínez, Crossing Over, Book Two and Epilogue.

January 27 and 29: Work experiences and worker organizing
READING: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America, Chapter 3; Louie, Sweatshop Warriors, entire; Ruth Milkman and Kent Wong, "Organizing Immigrant Workers: Case Studies from Southern California," in Lowell Turner et al., eds., Rekindling the Movement: Labor's Quest for Relevance in the 21st Century (2001), pp. 99-128, on Electronic Reserves (ER) [Password: "immigration"] or two-hour reserve.

February 3 and 5: Citizenship, democracy and political activism
READING: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America, Chapter 4; Warren, Dry Bones Rattling, entire; Paul Johnston, "The Emergence of Transnational Citizenship among Mexican Immigrants in California," in T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Douglas Klusmeyer, eds., Citizenship Today: Global Perspectives and Practices (2001), pp. 253-77, on ER or two-hour reserve.

February 10 and 12: Health and health care, physical and mental
READING: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America, Chapter 5; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, Children of Immigration, Chapter 3; E. Richard Brown and Hongjian Yu, "Latinos' Access to Employment-based Health Insurance," in Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and Mariela M. Páez, eds. Latinos: Remaking America (2002) on ER or two-hour reserve.

February 17 and 19: Language, education, and the fight for educational equality
READING: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America, Chapter 6; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, Children of Immigration, Chapter 5; Laurie Olsen, "Holding Schools Accountable for Equity," Leadership, March 2001, and Jeffrey C. Isaac, "The Algebra Project and Democratic Politics," Dissent, Winter 1999, both on ER or two-hour reserve.

February 24 and 26: The second generation: issues and struggles
READING: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America, Chapter 7; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, Children of Immigration, Chapter 4.

March 2 and 4: Anti-immigrant violence, civil liberties and civil rights since 9/11/01
READING: Muneer Ahmad, "Homeland Insecurities: Racial Violence the Day after September 11," Social Text (2002), and David Cole, "Their Liberties, Our Security: Democracy and Double Standards," Boston Review (2003), both on ER or two-hour reserve.

March 9 and 11: Immigration policy: working for change
READING: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America, Chapter 8; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, Children of Immigration, Epilogue; George J. Borjas, "The New Economics of Immigration: Affluent Americans Gain, Poor Americans Lose," The Atlantic Monthly, November 1996, and David Bacon, "For an Immigration Policy Based on Human Rights," in Susanne Jonas and Suzie Dod Thomas, eds., Immigration: A Civil Rights Issue for the Americas (1999), both on ER or two-hour reserve.

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106. Politics, Love, and Revolution: C.L.R. James

Note: Preliminary Draft!

Instructor: Paul Ortiz

Course Description:

What does it mean to strive for love, liberation, and self-emancipation in an age of globalization? This seminar is an inquiry into the life and times of Cyril Lionel Robert James. James's passionate adherence to the democratic maxim that "every cook can govern" set him apart in a century of totalitarianism. "The essential truth," writes one of James's biographers, "is that he never, for a single moment, appeared to become discouraged or irresolute in any way." James brought ancient history, literary criticism, and Marxist analysis to bear on liberation struggles in the West Indies, Afric, and the United States. Selma Weinstein noted, "He saw the world, literature, sports, politics, and music as one totality, and saw political life embodying all of those...."

We will study and critique James's methods in writing, revolutionary organization, historical analysis, cultural studies, literary criticism, and social theory. Using film, music, and social documentary, we will explore the intimate connections between popular culture and social change. James's insistence on experience as the defining element of revolutionary consciousness allowed him to integrate cricket and anti-colonialism, Picasso and the Spanish Civil War, as well as the writings of Richard Wright and the Civil Rights movement.

We will explore the way that James's insights inform struggles for liberation from state and corporate domination. "When the time comes for you to seize the power," James declared to his brothers and sisters in Trinidad's Oilfield Workers Trade Union, "you won't need anyone to tell you. You will take it." The goal of this seminar is to find out how James arrived at this conclusion, and what this insight means for us today.

Course Format

During one session each week we will conduct multimedia laboratories. We will screen films and listen to musical/dramatic selections that deal with subject matter and events that James was vitally interested in, including works on slavery, labor movements, film noire, and other themes.

Course Requirements

Each student will write four synthesis essays and a 15-page final paper. No exams.

Required Texts: Major Texts We Will Sample from (Texts will be available at Bay Tree Bookstore and McHenry Library Reserves) Selwyn R. Cudjoe and William E. Cain, eds., C.L.R. James: His Intellectual Legacies; C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution; James, Beyond a Boundary; James, Mariners, Renegades & Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In; Beyond a Boundary; James, Minty Alley; James, A History of Pan-African Revolt

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126. African American/Latino Histories and Communities

Note: Preliminary Draft

Instructor: Paul Ortíz
459-5583, portiz@ucsc.edu

As brothers in the fight for equality, I extend the hand of fellowship and good will and wish continuing success to you and your members. The fight for equality must be fought on many fronts—in the urban slums, in the sweat shops of the factories and fields. Our separate struggles are really one—a struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity.... We are together with you in spirit and in determination that our dreams for a better tomorrow will be realized.

—Telegram from Martin Luther King Jr. to César Chávez, 1965

Course Description:

In 1990, artist-poet Elliot Pinkney created a mural in Los Angeles titled "Community Heroes." Four individuals are depicted in the mural: Dolores Huerta, Malcolm X, César Chávez, and Martin Luther King Jr. Pinkney's weaving together of Latino and African American freedom fighters is rooted in the historical experiences of oppression faced by both groups. The great intellectual/activist Ernesto Galarza wrote: As percentages of poor, brown and black hold about equal shares of not having." The "brown and black" have shared other things. In Puerto Rico, the popular and deeply historical rhythms of Plena and Bomba are rooted in slavery and reach back to West African musical traditions. From these musical blends, Salsa was born and transmitted through the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America.

In this seminar, we will explore the histories, cultures, and politics of African Americans and Latinos since the Mexican-American War. Key themes include racial oppression and popular struggle; culture and identity; citizenship; forced labor and working class organization; public policy as well as voting and contemporary electoral politics. Striking similarities between Latinos and African Americans have often been overlooked. Both populations are among the most heavily urbanized groups in North America. Latinos and African Americans are quintessentially diasporic populations and this has led to creative efforts to define and redefine identity, race, and place. Identities have been especially fluid if historically contingent and grounded in citizenship, immigration, and labor struggles: from "Negro" to "Black" to "African American" and from "Hispanic" to "Chicano" to "Latino."

Ongoing efforts to define identity, to re-imagine home as well as to find social justice have spawned dynamic cultures and politics that have overlapped at crucial moments. African American and Latino political organizations were targeted by the state for repression in the 1930s and late 1960s. In this seminar, we will focus on both historical and contemporary social movements in African American and Latino history. We will examine myths of the monolithic Black or Latino "community" that hamper efforts to understand how generational differences, gender conflicts, as well as migration/immigration experiences have created moments of solidarity as well as conflict between Latino and African American populations. We will pay careful attention to experiences with labor markets, politics, and public policy in urban and rural America.

Course Requirements: Four synthesis essays; final paper; no exams.

Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets; Elizabeth Martínez, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views For a Multi-Colored Century; August Wilson, The Piano Lesson; Martín Espada, Zapata's Disciple; Paul Ortiz, Emancipation Betrayed; Ruben Martinez, The Other Side: Notes from the New L.A., Mexico City, and Beyond; Martin Espada, Now the Dead Will Dance the Mambo

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142. Introduction to Marxism

Note: This syllabus from Winter 2004—updated one will be quite similar

Instructor: Mike Rotkin
Office: 203 College 8
Phone: 459-4601(office); 423-4209 (home, call 'til midnight)
E-mail: openup@ucsc.edu

I. Introduction to the Course and to Each Other

1. People's backgrounds, interests, and conception of Marxism
2. Structure of the class, projects, or work groups, expectations, etc.
   "Leading a Discussion for Class" (in Reader)
   "Some Comments and Ideas on Group Dynamics and Facilitating Discussions" (in Reader)
   "Combat Liberalism" (in Reader)
   Paulo Freire, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (in Reader)
3. Recommended: David McLellan, "The Life of Karl Marx" (in Reader)
   Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 1
   Priscilla Robertson, Revolutions of 1848 (on Reserve)

II. Dialectical-Historical Materialism (Marx's Method)

1. Lecture on Hegel and Feuerbach
   Recommended: Howard Sherman, "Dialectics as a Method" (in Reader)
   Richard Lichtman, "Notes on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx" (in Reader)
   John Judis, "The Personal and the Political" (on Reserve)
2. [The material under II.B. is broken up into logical little chunks for reading and to assign responsibility for facilitating discussions. Start by reading: "Notes on Reading the Theses on Feuerbach" (in Reader)]
   1. Theses on Feuerbach I through IV in K.M. pp. 171-2. (4 different people)
   2. "Introduction to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right," in K.M. pp. 71-2 (up to "... the following exposition.") Read this in relationship to the 4th Thesis on Feuerbach.
   3. Theses on Feuerbach V through VIII and XI in K.M. pp. 172-3. (5 diff. people)
   4. "Historical Materialism" (in Reader). Don't discuss this unless people have questions, but read it as preparation for the German Ideology readings.
   5. Preface to the German Ideology in K.M. pp. 175-6 and (the following section originally followed the three dots on p. 176 and was excerpted by McLellan, but we should read it, so it is in the Reader):
      "Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialistic and Idealistic Outlook"
   6. p. 176 ("The Premises of the Materialist Method") to p. 177 ("The relations of the different nations ...")
      
   7. from where 6 ends to p. 177 ("The various stages of development ..."
   8. from where 7 ends to the bottom of p. 180 ("The fact is, therefore …"). (Remember in leading this discussion to get out the basic idea of the relationship between ownership and the division of labor and not get lost in details about each of the three "stages" Marx and Engels are discussing.)
   9. from where 8 ends to the double space in the page on p. 181.
   10. Read to prepare for the following section, but do not discuss in class: O'Connor, "The Need for Production and the Production of Needs" (in the Reader).
   11. from where 9 ends (on p. 181) to the break in the page on p. 184.

   Recommended: The Capitalist System, Chapter 2, (on Reserve)
   K.M., pp. 187-192 (up to "The ideas of the ruling class …") and other selections
   from Part II
   Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, & 14

III. Alienation

1. "Alienation and Labor" (in Reader)
   Mandel, "The Causes of Alienation" (in Reader)
   Alienated Labor in K.M., pp. 85-95
   Barbara Garson, All the Livelong Day
2. The German Ideology in K.M., pp. 184-7 and 196-8
   "On Free Human Production" (in Reader)

   Recommended: Andre Gorz, selection from Critique of Economic Reason (on Reserve)
   Andre Gorz, Strategy for Labor, Chapters 1 and 2 (on Reserve)
   The rest of Chapter 4 in The Capitalist System (on Reserve)
   The rest of Mandel and Novack, The Marxist Theory of Alienation (on Reserve)

IV. Strongly Recommended for an overview of capitalism as a system (not for class discussion)

1. "The Capitalist Mode of Production" and "The Essence of Capitalism" (in Reader)
2. "The Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation" in K.M., pp. 523-5.

V. Fetishism of Commodities

1. Marx's Capital for Beginners (in Reader)
   Capital I, Chapter 1, sections 1 and 2 in K.M., pp. 458-467
2. "How Capitalism is Mystified" (in Reader)
   Capital I, Chapter 1, section 4, in K.M., pp. 472-480.
3. Amin, "In Praise of Socialism" and Response I (in Reader)
   Recommended: Balbus, "Marxism and Domination" (on Reserve)

VI. Exploitation and Surplus Value

1. Paul Sweezy, "Surplus Value and Capitalism" (in Reader)
   Capital I, Chapter 4, in K.M., pp. 482-488
2. "Wage Labor and Capital" in K.M., pp. 273-293
   Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 7
   Recommended: The Capitalist System, Chapter 3 (on Reserve)
   Capital I, Chapters 6 and 7 in K.M., pp. 488-508
   The Capitalist System, Chapters 9, and 10 (on Reserve)
   Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 8
   Other selections from Part IV of K.M.

VII. Social Classes

1. The Communist Manifesto in K.M., pp. 245-271 (esp. parts 1 and 2)
   "Introduction to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right," in K.M., pp. 78 (1st new paragraph)-82
   Lipset and Bendix, "Karl Marx's Theory of Social Classes" (in Reader)
   Classes, in K.M., pp. 544-5
2. Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 6
3. Highly Recommended (section leaders must select from among following readings):
   Michael Lind, "To Have and Have Not" (in Reader)
   Rotkin, "Expanding the Proletariat" (in Reader)
   "Racism" (in Reader)
   "Male Dominance" (in Reader)
   David Smith, "The Myth of the Middle Class" (in Reader)
   "Capital Accumulation and the Capitalist Class" (in Reader)
   "The Labor Process and the Working Class" (in Reader)
   "Class and Inequality" (in Reader)
   Almaguer, "Class, Race, and Chicano Oppression" (in Reader)
   Hartman, "Patriarchy and Capitalism" (in Reader)
   Hartman, "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism" (in Reader)
4. Also Recommended: Gintis, "The New Working Class and Revolutionary Youth" from Socialist Revolution #3 (on Reserve)
   Omi and Winant, "Race in the U.S.," in Socialist Review #71 (on Reserve)
   Eisenstein, "Capitalist Patriarchy and Socialist Feminism" (on Reserve)
   Pat Walker, Ed., Between Labor and Capital (on Reserve)
   Mike Rotkin, "Marx's View of Social Class" (on Reserve)
   The Capitalist System, Chapters 3, 4, 6, 7, & 8 (on Reserve).
   Braverman, "The Structure of the Working Class and Its Reserve Armies" (on Reserve)

VIII. Ideological Hegemony

1. The German Ideology in K.M., p. 192 ("The ideas of the Ruling Class …" to end of paragraph)
   Gitlin, "The Whole World is Watching" (in Reader)
   Michael Parenti, Selections from Power and the Powerless (in Reader)
   Recommended: Richard Lichtman in Socialist Revolution #23 (on Reserve)
   Douglas Kellner in Socialist Review #45 (on Reserve)
   Daniel Ben-Horin on TV in Socialist Review #35 (Xerox on Reserve)
   Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man (on Reserve)

IX. Political and Civil Society

1. Jennifer Nedelsky, Private Property and the Limits of American Constitutionalism (in Reader)
   A Reading Guide to "On the Jewish Question," by Mike Rotkin (in Reader)
   "On the Jewish Question" in K.M., pp. 46-64 (stop at p.64!)
   "Theses on Feuerbach" IX and X in K.M., p. 173
   Recommended: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (on Reserve)
   Milton Freedman, Capitalism and Freedom (on Reserve)
   The rest of Nedelsky, Private Property and the Limits of American Constitutionalism (on reserve)

X. The State

1. "Class Conflict and the State (in Reader)
   Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 9
2. Recommended: Richard Barnet, "Lords of the Global Economy" (in Reader)
   V.I. Lenin, State and Revolution (on Reserve)
   The Eighteenth Brumaire and The Civil War in France in K.M., pp. 329-354
   Poulantzas, "The State and the Transition to Socialism" (Xerox on Reserve)
   Fred Block in Socialist Revolution #33 (Xerox on Reserve)
   Boris Frankel, "The State of the State" (a Xerox on Reserve)
   Santiago Carrillo, Eurocommunism and the State (on Reserve)
   G. William Domhoff, The Power Elite and the State (on Reserve)
   G. William Domhoff, Who Rules America (Third Edition), Mayfield 1998 (on Reserve)
   Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 10

XI. Contradictions

1. Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 15
   Mike Rotkin, "A Three-Part Strategy for Democratic Socialism" (in Reader)
   "Waste and Irrationality" (in Reader)
2. Recommended: "From Capitalism to Socialism" (in Reader)
   "Economic Crises" (Xerox on Reserve)
   Socialist Visions, edited by Sholom (on Reserve)
   "The World After Communism" (Xerox on Reserve)
   "The Future of Socialism" (Xerox on Reserve)
   Andre Gorz, selections from Critique of Economic Reason (on Reserve)
   James O'Connor, "Preservation First! Toward a Political Economy of a Good Society." (Xerox on Reserve)
   Andre Gorz, Paths to Paradise, The Liberation from Work, Pluto Press, 1985 (Xerox on Reserve)
   An Anthology of Western Marxism, edited by Gottlieb (on Reserve)
   Marxism Essential Writings, edited by McLellan (on Reserve)
   Socialist Review, Vol. 95/3&4, "Explorations in Post Modern Marxism" (on Reserve)
   James O'Connor, Natural Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism, Guilford Press, 1998 (on Reserve)

XII. General Course Information

1. The following should be purchased for the course (available at Bay Tree on campus & at Slug Books)
   1. David McLellan, Karl Marx, Selected Writings, Oxford U. Press, 1977 (referred to as K.M. throughout the syllabus) Note: if you have the First Edition of Karl Marx: Selected Writings, see Mike for a special syllabus and reading guides.
   2. Barbara Garson, All the Livelong Day, Penguin Books, 1994.
   3. Howard Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1995
   4. A Reader for the course sold at Slug Books
2. All Reserve readings are located in McHenry Library at the Reserve Desk. If you would like to purchase your own copy of readings from Socialist Review or Socialist Revolution, see Mike Rotkin.

The above reading list is tentative. We will probably make changes during the quarter and hope that you will suggest appropriate changes as well. Even if you do not have a particular reading to recommend but have a topic-passion-concern-interest that you want to have discussed, mention it and maybe someone else in the class can suggest a good reading.

Some of the topics, particularly toward the end of the quarter, have a lot of recommended reading that is in the Reader. This is so the students facilitating the discussions may select alternative or additional readings for their sections and have them easily accessible to all class members. Remember that starting with the section on Alienation, student facilitators will often need to select, from among a variety of readings, which ones will actually be read by everyone and discussed in class. Your section facilitators (and/or Mike Rotkin) will help guide you in this process, but choices must me made! If you assign too much reading and don't focus, there is always the danger that students in your section will be discouraged and tend to read nothing. Think about creative ways to bring insights from the recommended readings into class discussion as well.

Bring the syllabus and the readings scheduled for the following meeting to class each time!

The last 10 to 15 minutes of each section meeting will be devoted to criticism/self-criticism. We will have a longer evaluation session after the fifth and tenth weeks. But please do not wait until the end of the quarter to give each other and the instructor/ facilitators constructive criticism and support. The course will be better if that can be shared regularly.

This course will not work if you approach it passively. The readings are difficult and require energy and a critical approach. The discussions will not be carried by the discussion leaders alone and will work best when people bring in their thoughts and experiences. Small study groups to go over the readings before class are highly encouraged (if not necessary!). An 8-15 page paper is required (the topic of which will be discussed in class). Active class participation is the most important requirement of this course.

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