Critical Theory Working Group
@crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social
Resources & open reading groups for collective study of early Critical Theory.
Website: https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/
Website: https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/
Pinned
NEW ON THE CTWG SITE
MARGIN NOTES: A JOURNAL OF CRITICAL THEORY
V1: KERNELS OF EARLY CRITICAL THEORY
Critical Theory is only right in a wrong world.
Link: ctwgwebsite.github.io/projects/1_p...
MARGIN NOTES: A JOURNAL OF CRITICAL THEORY
V1: KERNELS OF EARLY CRITICAL THEORY
Critical Theory is only right in a wrong world.
Link: ctwgwebsite.github.io/projects/1_p...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Hello all, this is a new blog post at the CTWG. It is a written adaptation of my Hessen presentation from Spring. There, I give a condensed summary of the Hessen-Grossmann thesis while situating it within a broader genealogy of Marxist science historiography. Hope y’all find this fruitful.
Roots & Branches. Boris Hessen’s Marxist Science Historiography | CTWG
An Introduction to a Marxist Science Historiography
ctwgwebsite.github.io
November 19, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Hello all, this is a new blog post at the CTWG. It is a written adaptation of my Hessen presentation from Spring. There, I give a condensed summary of the Hessen-Grossmann thesis while situating it within a broader genealogy of Marxist science historiography. Hope y’all find this fruitful.
POD EP 5: A Conversation About Dialectical Biology, with Mac Parker and Anatarah Bin AlKaf—on Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins' "Dialectical Biologist"!
patreon.com/posts/episod...
patreon.com/posts/episod...
Episode 5: A Conversation About Dialectical Biology. | crittheoryworkgroup
Get more from crittheoryworkgroup on Patreon
patreon.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:44 PM
POD EP 5: A Conversation About Dialectical Biology, with Mac Parker and Anatarah Bin AlKaf—on Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins' "Dialectical Biologist"!
patreon.com/posts/episod...
patreon.com/posts/episod...
NEW: Part I of "Reflections on the Right and its Violence" by J. E. Morain
This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between.
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...
This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between.
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...
November 9, 2025 at 2:41 PM
NEW: Part I of "Reflections on the Right and its Violence" by J. E. Morain
This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between.
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...
This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between.
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
New Recording—Pod EP 4: Amadeo Bordiga and the Murder of the Dead, with Samuel J. Thomas, J.E. Morain, & James Crane. On Bordiga’s incredible 50s/60s run of eco-communist polemics against the so-called “civil engineering” of capitalist civilization!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
Episode 4: Amadeo Bordiga and the Murder of the Dead | crittheoryworkgroup
Get more from crittheoryworkgroup on Patreon
www.patreon.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:22 AM
New Recording—Pod EP 4: Amadeo Bordiga and the Murder of the Dead, with Samuel J. Thomas, J.E. Morain, & James Crane. On Bordiga’s incredible 50s/60s run of eco-communist polemics against the so-called “civil engineering” of capitalist civilization!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
NEW: “Racketology and the Development of Competition.”
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...
October 13, 2025 at 6:36 PM
NEW: “Racketology and the Development of Competition.”
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Adorno & Horkheimer taught me it was okay to be annoying
October 6, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Adorno & Horkheimer taught me it was okay to be annoying
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
rereading Bordiga’s stuff on how communism liberates human beings, animals, rivers, solar radiation, electrons, etc from the stupid & stupefying compulsions of capital accumulation & making the airhorn noise by myself at 3AM
October 7, 2025 at 6:37 AM
rereading Bordiga’s stuff on how communism liberates human beings, animals, rivers, solar radiation, electrons, etc from the stupid & stupefying compulsions of capital accumulation & making the airhorn noise by myself at 3AM
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU: You find yourself wondering: why can’t I find any two hour long podcast episode about Kanafani’s literary works as condition/consequence of his conception of resistance culture? YOUR SEARCH IS OVER
September 28, 2025 at 2:55 AM
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU: You find yourself wondering: why can’t I find any two hour long podcast episode about Kanafani’s literary works as condition/consequence of his conception of resistance culture? YOUR SEARCH IS OVER
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
New Recording—Pod EP 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality, with Sebastian Kokesch & yours truly. On the necessary connection between aesthetic autonomy & revolutionary political commitment in some of Ghassan Kanafani's best-known literary works!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
Episode 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality | crittheoryworkgroup
Get more from crittheoryworkgroup on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 28, 2025 at 12:54 AM
New Recording—Pod EP 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality, with Sebastian Kokesch & yours truly. On the necessary connection between aesthetic autonomy & revolutionary political commitment in some of Ghassan Kanafani's best-known literary works!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
On this day in 1940, Walter Benjamin took his own life in the town of Portbou, after being denied entry by Spanish officials.
“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener
“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener
September 26, 2025 at 2:42 PM
On this day in 1940, Walter Benjamin took his own life in the town of Portbou, after being denied entry by Spanish officials.
“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener
“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener
it’s not too late to sign up for the last meeting of the session (eventbrite.com/e/views-from...), & thanks to everyone who’s already contributed to the PCRF fundraiser—as of today we’re 87% of the way to meeting our goal! Help us to 100% if you can! pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/p...
September 23, 2025 at 11:02 PM
it’s not too late to sign up for the last meeting of the session (eventbrite.com/e/views-from...), & thanks to everyone who’s already contributed to the PCRF fundraiser—as of today we’re 87% of the way to meeting our goal! Help us to 100% if you can! pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/p...
We'll be starting up in 20 minutes
Thanks to everyone who came out for the conclusion to Rabea Eghbariah’s “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”—join us next Sat., 9/20 @ noon EST as Anatarah bin AlKaf opens our discussion of “Resisting Erasure” (2025) by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, & Rafeef Ziadah!
September 20, 2025 at 3:41 PM
We'll be starting up in 20 minutes
New CTWG Fall '25 Recording: Ghassan Kanafani's On Zionist Literature II (8/30), presented by Sebastian Kokesch. Reading Ch. 5-8 in the context of Kanafani's trajectory as author/critic & that of the Palestinian liberation struggle around the '67 Naksa
www.patreon.com/posts/138830...
www.patreon.com/posts/138830...
Ghassan Kanafani's On Zionist Literature II (8/30), Presented by Sebastian Kokesch | crittheoryworkgroup
Get more from crittheoryworkgroup on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 13, 2025 at 10:01 PM
New CTWG Fall '25 Recording: Ghassan Kanafani's On Zionist Literature II (8/30), presented by Sebastian Kokesch. Reading Ch. 5-8 in the context of Kanafani's trajectory as author/critic & that of the Palestinian liberation struggle around the '67 Naksa
www.patreon.com/posts/138830...
www.patreon.com/posts/138830...
Thanks to everyone who came out for the conclusion to Rabea Eghbariah’s “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”—join us next Sat., 9/20 @ noon EST as Anatarah bin AlKaf opens our discussion of “Resisting Erasure” (2025) by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, & Rafeef Ziadah!
September 13, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Thanks to everyone who came out for the conclusion to Rabea Eghbariah’s “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”—join us next Sat., 9/20 @ noon EST as Anatarah bin AlKaf opens our discussion of “Resisting Erasure” (2025) by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, & Rafeef Ziadah!
Theodor Adorno 🤝 Felix Dzerzhinsky
Sharing a birthday
Sharing a birthday
happy 9/11—Theodor W. Adorno’s Birthday—to those who celebrate, here’s my translation from a while back of Horkheimer’s 1938 birthday letter to Adorno on dialogue and dialectics! open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...
Translation: Horkheimer's Birthday Letter to Adorno (9/11/1938)
On dialectics and dialogue
open.substack.com
September 12, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Theodor Adorno 🤝 Felix Dzerzhinsky
Sharing a birthday
Sharing a birthday
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
happy 9/11—Theodor W. Adorno’s Birthday—to those who celebrate, here’s my translation from a while back of Horkheimer’s 1938 birthday letter to Adorno on dialogue and dialectics! open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...
Translation: Horkheimer's Birthday Letter to Adorno (9/11/1938)
On dialectics and dialogue
open.substack.com
September 11, 2025 at 5:18 PM
happy 9/11—Theodor W. Adorno’s Birthday—to those who celebrate, here’s my translation from a while back of Horkheimer’s 1938 birthday letter to Adorno on dialogue and dialectics! open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
We’re going to finish Eghbariah’s article by reading g the history of settler colonialism through the concept of the Nakba & the concept of the Nakba through the history of settler colonialism, within & beyond the framework of international law! Better see your ass there!
Thanks to everyone who came out for the discussion of Sections I-II of “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—see you this Saturday, 9/13, @ noon EST for our discussion of section III & the conclusion with J.E. Morain. See you there!
September 9, 2025 at 2:07 AM
We’re going to finish Eghbariah’s article by reading g the history of settler colonialism through the concept of the Nakba & the concept of the Nakba through the history of settler colonialism, within & beyond the framework of international law! Better see your ass there!
Thanks to everyone who came out for the discussion of Sections I-II of “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—see you this Saturday, 9/13, @ noon EST for our discussion of section III & the conclusion with J.E. Morain. See you there!
September 9, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Thanks to everyone who came out for the discussion of Sections I-II of “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—see you this Saturday, 9/13, @ noon EST for our discussion of section III & the conclusion with J.E. Morain. See you there!
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
see you all in just over 20 minutes! Discussing, alongside Eghbariah, Darwish’s “In Jerusalem,” as we work through the role of law & language in the occupation of Palestine.
September 6, 2025 at 3:39 PM
see you all in just over 20 minutes! Discussing, alongside Eghbariah, Darwish’s “In Jerusalem,” as we work through the role of law & language in the occupation of Palestine.
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Our podcast of the week reframes the Frankfurt School’s later turn toward abstract cultural critique not as a depoliticized retreat, but as a strategic pivot born from concrete political defeat.
With @jamescrane.bsky.social et al. on @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social
buff.ly/vymFkap
With @jamescrane.bsky.social et al. on @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social
buff.ly/vymFkap
September 4, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Our podcast of the week reframes the Frankfurt School’s later turn toward abstract cultural critique not as a depoliticized retreat, but as a strategic pivot born from concrete political defeat.
With @jamescrane.bsky.social et al. on @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social
buff.ly/vymFkap
With @jamescrane.bsky.social et al. on @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social
buff.ly/vymFkap
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
don’t remember if i posted here or not but here’s a snippet from Adorno’s letter to Horkheimer in the middle of their worst fight (1935) where A goes “By the way I LOVED Dämmerung if you even still care…” lol
September 3, 2025 at 7:47 AM
don’t remember if i posted here or not but here’s a snippet from Adorno’s letter to Horkheimer in the middle of their worst fight (1935) where A goes “By the way I LOVED Dämmerung if you even still care…” lol
Thanks to everyone who came out for the second study of Kanafani’s “On Zionist Literature”! Next up: two meetings on “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—Sections I & II presented by Esther Planas Balduz & Morgan Lily this Saturday, 9/6, @ noon EST. See you there!
September 1, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Thanks to everyone who came out for the second study of Kanafani’s “On Zionist Literature”! Next up: two meetings on “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—Sections I & II presented by Esther Planas Balduz & Morgan Lily this Saturday, 9/6, @ noon EST. See you there!
FACT: the CTWG is run by a secretive group of canines and felines which dictate our overall policy by using our editorial boards' subjective aims for ends beyond their ken.
the council has convened to decide your fate (CTWG editorial meeting)
August 31, 2025 at 8:08 PM
FACT: the CTWG is run by a secretive group of canines and felines which dictate our overall policy by using our editorial boards' subjective aims for ends beyond their ken.