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The following remarks were given at the Communist Party of Great Britain’s Communist University on August 22nd, 2019. 2019 MARKS 30 YEARS since the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of the unravelling of the Soviet Union, and the ejection from political power of Stalinist parties in the Eastern bloc. For those on the Left at the time, it was perceived variously as a traumatic disaster, or as a partial and temporary setback, or as an opportunity, and even a cause for rejoicing. [Read More]

Andrew Kliman, professor emeritus of economics at Pace University, is the author of The Failure of Capitalist Production: Underlying Causes of the Great Recession (2012) and Reclaiming Marx’s ‘Capital’: A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency (2007). Many of his writings are available at his personal website akliman.squarespace.com and With Sober Senses, Marxist-Humanist Initiative’s publication. On July 22nd, 2019 Emilio F. and Jason R. interviewed Prof. Kliman. What follows is an edited transcript of the interview. [Read More]

SHOULD SOCIAL MOVEMENTS BE ORGANIZED in a horizontal, spontaneous, and decentralized manner so that every member can equally participate? Or should movements be structured hierarchically with clear leadership so that they can act decisively in response to changing circumstances? The debate between spontaneity and organization is an old one, so old that one could trace it at least back to the debate between Rosa Luxemburg and Vladimir Lenin. In recent years, the debate has tilted in favor of organization. [Read More]

The following is an edited transcript of a panel that took place at the Left Forum in New York City on June 30, 2019. The panelists were asked to respond to the following description: In his 1973 essay, ”Anatomy of the Micro-Sect,” Hal Draper defines a party as opposed to a “movement” or the “sects” that dominated the Left of his time: A sect presents itself as the embodiment of the socialist movement, though it is a membership organization whose boundary is set more or less rigidly by the points in its political program rather than by its relation to the social struggle. [Read More]