presentations--where to start

[ernesto]

Dear comrades;
I'll be teaching a new course labeled Intro to Socialism in a few days. Where to start? With the decline of feudalism? Any thoughts, suggestions on how to structure such a course would be appreciated . Any links to text, media and the like would also be appreciated. Ernesto e-mail [email protected]

Prelimimary structure:

Definitions of economic and political terms
Decline of feudalism
Political spectrum
French Revolution
Revolutions of 1848
Marx-Engels Communist Manifesto
Russian Revolution
Rise of National socialism Nazism--Must introduce fascism
Chinese Revolution
Communism in Southeast Asia, Cuba
Malcolm X
Current trends

Suggestions? Thank you

[JKP]

Cuba and Vietnam were never communist.

Also, you seem to have left anarchism.

Talk about the spanish civil war.

[ComradeOm]

I'd lump the decline of feudalism and the rise of liberalism into an overview of historical materialism.

As for Cuba and Vietnam you could mention them if talking about how Marxism has been involved in national liberation struggles.

[Gura]

Does "Russian revolution" include the different parties (i.e., the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks, the Socialist Revoluionaries, the Left Socialist Revolultionaries, etc?) and will Trotskyism also be included?

For texts, Ten Days That Shook the World is very good, and although reading the whole book as part of the course might be difficult, certain parts of it would probably be useful.

Will the different American socialist and communist parties in the United States be part of the curriculum?

Also, I'm sure Marxists.org would be a good place to get primary sources, if you haven't thought of that already.

Also, how long does this course last? it seems like quite a lot of material to cover.

Good luck with the course.