Leo Panitch

Audio recording of the closing plenary of the 9th annual Platypus Affiliated Society international convention. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Bryan Palmer Leo Panitch Chris Cutrone Description The First World War manifested an economic, social and political crisis of global capitalism, – “imperialism” – which sparked reflection in the mass parties of the Second International on the task of socialist politics. The revisionist dispute, the “crisis of Marxism” in which Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky first cut their teeth, shaped their understanding of the unfolding revolution as a necessary expression of self-contradiction within the movement for socialism. [Read More]

A panel event hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society on January 21st 2015, at University of King’s College, Halifax. Sponsored by the King’s Student Union and Dalhousie Student Union. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Jackie Barkley - Solidarity Halifax Carlos Pessoa - Author of Post-Marxism and Politics: the case of the Brazilian Workers’ Party Leo Panitch - Socialist Project(Toronto), Author of Renewing Socialism [Read More]

The economic crisis, as many commentators and critics are quick to point out, has rekindled interest in – and anxieties over – Marxism. Although many on the Left hope this renewed curiosity marks the beginning of a radical turn, similar revivals of anti-capitalist politics in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1990s failed to achieve the revolutionary transformations they sought. Has Marxism returned as a significant political force? How might this translate into the possibility for a revitalized Left? [Read More]