REVISED: CTWG RACKET THEORY DOSSIER
Texts from & on the ISR's early 40s 'Racket' project (updated 10/1/25)
Critics and theorists!
Cross-posting this here because readers of Substudies should be especially interested in the CTWG dossier on the ISR’s 1940s sketches on racket theory, fragments theorizing the return of direct forms of social domination under the impersonal rule of value in late capitalist society. Our dossier thus far includes:
(1.) “Introducing Racket Theory: On the History and Themes of the Frankfurt School’s Racket Theory.” by J.E. Morain and yours truly.
An introduction to our collection of texts by Horkheimer on ‘racket theory.’ This essay covers the history of the Frankfurt School’s racket theory project as well as some of the core theoretical problems and themes.
(2.) “Fragments and Texts on Racket Theory.”
Translations of five of Horkheimer (and Adorno’s) “Concepts” on racket theory from the first printing of Dialectic of Enlightenment, the Philosophische Fragmente, in 1944—including the rest of the aphorism titled “Theory of the Criminal,” an excerpt of which was published in Dialectic of Enlightenment, a 1942 fragment seemingly criticizing Pollock’s state-capitalism theory, and two previously unpublished internal memoranda on the racket project from Spring and Fall 1942.
(3.) “On the Sociology of Class Relations. Essay by Max Horkheimer.”
Max Horkheimer’s most integrated essay on racket theory, written and revised over the course of 1943. This text analyzes the return of direct domination in late capitalism, conformist reformism in the labor movement, and the role of hierarchies in human history.
(4.) “From Racket Theory to Real Domination. A Comparison of the Frankfurt School and Jacques Camatte.” by J.E. Morain.
A critical confrontation between the Frankfurt School and Jacques Camatte (RIP).
(5.) “Class and Rackets, Part I - Conditions.” and “Class and Rackets, Part II - Domination.” by Re Tejus.
An attempt at synthesizing a critical theory of class from the fragments on the racket.
(6.) “The Economic Limits of Racketology.” by Mac Parker.
Testing the Frankfurt School’s racket theory against Milios & Sotiropoulos’ critique of the “monopoly capitalism” paradigm.
(7.) “Variations. Fragmentary Theoretical Assays.” by the CTWG.
We attempt a synoptic application and extension of the Frankfurt School’s racket theory in the form of a series of collectively authored short fragments/essays. Topics include zionism, domestic labor, caste, conspiracy theories, class, and war.
(8.) “Two Unpublished Fragments by Horkheimer and Adorno (On the Tasks of Post-War Marxism).”
Translations of two previously unpublished fragments by Horkheimer and Adorno from the fall of 1946. These fragments challenged everything I thought I knew about the development of Critical Theory in the 1940s:
“The unapologetic profession of a revolutionary communism in defiance of Stalin’s USSR and refusal of the reformist postwar settlement in the liberal-democratic states, the quasi-third-worldist redeployment of the concept of ‘proletarian nations’ against Hitlerian white supremacy, and the projected development the ‘dialectic of enlightenment’ through the medium of ‘racket theory’ into a negative outline of a new internationalism—none of this can be divorced from Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment without betraying the spirit of the radical, heterodox Marxism that still animates it, however subterraneanly.”
A special thanks to webmaster, Anatarah Bin Alkaf, and especially to J.E. Morain, whose careful and constant editorial work is the only reason this dossier saw the light of day. Re Tejus and Mac Parker’s enthusiastic reception and criticism of the ISR’s racket theory has been the inspiration for my own work on this collection since last fall.
Take care and, as always, nil admirari
—James Crane (6/24/2025)