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ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2017 at the University of Houston the Platypus Affiliated Society organized a panel discussion, Anti-fascism in the Age of Trump. Participating on the panel were Gloria Rubac of the Workers World Party; Gus Breslauer of Redneck Revolt; Mark Kazanski of Socialist Alternative, Houston; and Bernard Sampson of the Communist Party, U.S.A., and the Democratic Socialists of America. Danny Jacobs of Platypus moderated. What follows is an edited transcript of their discussion. [Read More]

Those who demand guarantees in advance should in general renounce revolutionary politics. The causes for the downfall of the Social Democracy and of official Communism must be sought not in Marxist theory and not in the bad qualities of those people who applied it, but in the concrete conditions of the historical process. It is not a question of counterposing abstract principles, but rather of the struggle of living social forces, with its inevitable ups and downs, with the degeneration of organizations, with the passing of entire generations into discard, and with the necessity which therefore arises of mobilizing fresh forces on a new historical stage. [Read More]

The following short article was originally published in the Brandeis University Yearbook for 1963. Marcuse taught at Brandeis as Professor of Politics and Philosophy from 1958 to 1965. During those years he wrote and published his most famous work, One-Dimensional Man (1964), which, though largely forgotten today, served as a major touchstone for the New Left. Marcuse, together with a handful of other professors, wrote his essay in response to a general solicitation by the yearbook committee. [Read More]

An earlier version of this article is available with full links and citations at cwc.im/antifascism. It is worth taking a moment to review what anarchists and anti-fascists have accomplished since Donald Trump was elected. Despite harassment and attacks from fascists and law enforcement, what was initially a few hundred people without financial resources has grown into the foundation for a massive social movement. After the election, while liberals were immobilized by shock, anarchists immediately went on the offensive in order to destabilize the Trump regime before it could normalize a new level of tyranny. [Read More]

The following is based on my notes for the April 8, 2017, convention of the Platypus Affiliated Society, for a panel on the meaning of the 1917 Russian Revolution for today (the original closing plenary entitled: 1917-2017). I did not give the presentation due to a thunderstorm and flight cancellation. An earlier version of this write-up appeared at www.Anarkismo.net. REVOLUTIONARIES STUDY REVOLUTIONS. Many lessons might be learned from looking at the 1917 Russian Revolution and its aftermath. [Read More]