Revolution without Marx?

Rousseau and his followers for the Left, Left Forum 2013

A panel discussion held at Left Forum 2013, at Pace University, on June 9, 2013. Video Recording Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element This panel was transcripted in Platypus Review #61 Speakers Chris Cutrone Spencer A. Leonard Sunit Singh Description Bourgeois society came into full recognition with Rousseau, who in the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and On the Social Contract, opened its radical critique. [Read More]

Beyond Post-Industrial Society and Neo-Marxism

A Platypus Teach-in on the Current Economic Crisis

A discussion led by Platypus Affiliated Society member Spencer A. Leonard on the current economic crisis, longue-durée social change, and the Left. This teach-in was an introduction to the some of essential problems to be explored in the Chicago iteration of the “Radical Interpretations of The Present” panel on December 3, 2012. PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical issues, only the first forty-five minutes of the talk were recorded. Video Recording Description In 1999 the prominent social theorist Moishe Postone published an artile entitled “Contemporary Historical Transformations: Beyond Post-Industrial Theory and Neo-Marxism” in which he interrogated the two predominant theories of the social change that had been formulated in the 1970s by Daniel Bell and Ernest Mandel. [Read More]

Marx's Critique of Political Economy

Proletarian Socialism Continuing the Bourgeois Revolution?

A presentation by Platypus member Spencer A. Leonard on August 19, 2011, at Communist University, which took place from August 17th to August 20, 2011, at Goldsmiths, University of London.

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Audio Recording

Mike Macnair’s Critique of Platypus

Cutrone, “Capital in history” (2008)

Cutrone, “The Marxist hypothesis” (2010)

Platypus at Communist Party of Great Britain (PCC) Communist University 2011, London

Communist University took place August 13–20, 2011, at Goldsmiths, University of London, including two talks by Platypus members. Chris Cutrone presented on “Capital in history: Marxism and the modern philosophy of freedom” on August 16, and Spencer A. Leonard presented “Marx’s critique of political economy: proletarian socialism continuing the bourgeois revolution?” on August 19. Audio Recordings Capital in history: Marxism and the modern philosophy of freedom Your browser does not support the audio element Marx’s critique of political economy: proletarian socialism continuing the bourgeois revolution? [Read More]

The Marxism of Second International Radicalism

Lenin, Luxemburg, and Trotsky

Panel held at the Marxist Literary Group Summer 2011 Institute on Culture and Society at the Institute for the Humanities, University of Illinois at Chicago on June 22, 2011 Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Chris Cutrone, Lenin Greg Gabrellas, Luxemburg Ian Morrison, Trotsky Moderated by Spencer A. Leonard. Description The legacy of revolution 1917-19 in Russia, Germany, Hungary and Italy is concentrated above all in the historical figures Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky, leaders of the Left in the Second International (1889-1914)—what they called “revolutionary social democracy” – in the period preceding the crisis of war, revolution, counterrevolution and civil war in World War I and its aftermath. [Read More]

Marxism and the Bourgeois Revolution

Panel held at the Marxist Literary Group Summer 2011 Institute on Culture and Society at the Institute for the Humanities, University of Illinois at Chicago on June 20, 2011. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Spencer A. Leonard, “Marx’s critique of political economy: Proletarian socialism continuing the bourgeois revolution?” Pamela Nogales, “Marx on the U.S. Civil War as the 2 American Revolution” Jeremy Cohan, “Lukács on Marx’s Hegelianism and the dialectic of Marxism” [Read More]

Trotsky's Marxism

A panel discussion organized by the Platypus Affiliated Society held on March 19, 2011, at Left Forum, Pace University. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element A transcript of Jason Wright’s remarks appears in Platypus Review #35 A transcript of Ian Morrison’s remarks appears in Platypus Review #37 Panelists Ian Morrison—Platypus Affiliated Society; University of Chicago Jason Wright—International Bolshevik Tendency (IBT) Spencer A. Leonard—Platypus Affiliated Society; University of Chicago [Read More]

The Bourgeois Revolution From Marx's Point of View

A panel discussion organized by the Platypus Affiliated Society, held on March 19, 2011, at Left Forum, Pace University. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists James Vaughn - University of Texas at Austin, Platypus Affiliated Society Jeremy Cohan - New York University Richard Rubin - Platypus Affiliated Society Spencer A. Leonard - University of Chicago, Platypus Affiliated Society Description The “bourgeois revolutions” from the 16 through the 19 centuries – extending into the 20–conformed humanity to modern city life, ending traditional, pastoral, religious custom in favor of social relations of the exchange of labor. [Read More]