Trotsky and Trotskyism, Lecture 4

1923--1933

 July 7, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Part 4 of the Summer 2012 Platypus Affiliated Society Primary Reading Group Lecture Series: Trotsky and Trotskyism. Recorded on 7 July, 2012 at The New School, New York. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Week 4 Readings * recommended / * supplemental reading Trotsky, Where is Britain Going? (1925) Trotsky, Problems of the Chinese Revolution 1927–31 (1932) Trotsky, writings on the rise of Hitler and the destruction of the German Left (1930–40), especially “To build communist parties and an international anew” (1933) [Read More]
Trotskyism  Leon Trotsky 

Trotsky and Trotskyism, Lecture 3

1917--1923

 June 30, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Part 3 of the Summer 2012 Platypus Affiliated Society Primary Reading Group Lecture Series: Trotsky and Trotskyism. Recorded on 30 June, 2012 at The New School, New York. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Week 3 Readings * recommended / * supplemental reading * Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism (1920) * Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF] Trotsky, Literature and Revolution (1924) [Read More]
Trotskyism  Leon Trotsky  Art 

Trotsky and Trotskyism, Lecture 2

1905--1917

 June 23, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Part 2 of the Summer 2012 Platypus Affiliated Society Primary Reading Group Lecture Series: Trotsky and Trotskyism. Recorded on 23 June, 2012 at The New School, New York. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Week 2 Readings • recommended / * supplemental reading Trotsky, (1905)(http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1907/1905/index.htm) (1907) * Trotsky, The Lessons of October (1924) [PDF] Full Syllabus and Readings Please Note: Due to technical problems, the video recording glitches after ~32:00. [Read More]
Leon Trotsky  Trotskyism 

Trotsky and Trotskyism, Lecture 1

1879--1905

 June 16, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Part 1 of the Summer 2012 Platypus Affiliated Society Primary Reading Group Lecture Series: Trotsky and Trotskyism. Recorded on 16 June, 2012 at The New School, New York. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Week 1 Readings * recommended / * supplemental reading * Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980) * Leon Trotsky, Results and Prospects (1906) [Read More]
Trotskyism  1879-1905  Phil Evans  Tariq Ali  Leon Trotsky 

Lenin and the Marxist Left after #Occupy

 June 7, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON MARCH 31ST, 2012, the Platypus Affiliated Society invited Ben Lewis of the Communist Party of Great Britain and Tom Riley of the International Bolshevik Tendency to speak on the theme of “Lenin and the Marxist Left after #Occupy” at the 2012 Platypus International Convention held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The original description of the event reads as follows: “The occasion for this panel is, in part, Pham Binh’s recent critique of Tony Cliff’s biography of Lenin, which was circulated on the web and published in the Communist Party of Great Britain’s Weekly Worker, and the responses in on-going debate by Paul LeBlanc and Paul D’Amato. [Read More]
/20th Century  CPGB  Vladimir Lenin  Marxism  Politics  Leon Trotsky  PR Occupy  PR Lenin 

Learning from the Communist Movement of the 20th century

A response to Richard Rubin

Learning from the Communist Movement of the 20th century

 April 1, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

RICHARD RUBIN ARGUES that “the 1930s were a decade of defeat for the Left.” His essay, “1933,” in The Platypus Review issue on The Decline of the Left in the 20th century,1 is an idealist abstraction from real historical events, one founded on an uncritical acceptance of Trotsky as a significant historical thinker and actor and a corresponding Trotskyist caricature of the Soviet Union, Stalin, and Chinese Communism. Consequently, the real history of the Left in the 20th century is absent. [Read More]
Permanent Revolution  Response  Leon Trotsky  Trotskyism 

The legacy of Trotskyism

The legacy of Trotskyism

 August 5, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

_ONE OF THE plenary sessions held at the third annual Platypus Affiliated Society international convention, hosted by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago between April 29–May 1, 2011, set about exploring the legacy of Trotsky’s Marxism. Speakers Mike Macnair of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Bryan Palmer of Trent University, Richard Rubin of Platypus, and Jason Wright of the International Bolshevik Tendency were asked to consider: “What is the relevance of Trotskyism for the Left today? [Read More]
Communist Part of Great Britain  International Bolshevik Tendency  International Convention  Platypus Convention  Leon Trotsky  Trotskyism 

Trotsky's theory of art

 July 1, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society  • Other languages: Deutsch

At its Third Annual Convention, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago between April 29-May 1, Platypus hosted a conversation on “Art, Culture, and Politics: Marxist Approaches.” Platypus members Omair Hussain, Lucy Parker, Pac Pobric, and Bret Schneider sought to address “What might the problems of aesthetics and culture have to do with the political project of the self-education of the Left?” A full audio recording of the event is available by clicking the above link. [Read More]
Art  Art and culture  Theodor W. Adorno  Leon Trotsky 

Trotsky's Marxism

 July 1, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

At the 2011 Left Forum, held at Pace University in NYC between March 18–21, Platypus hosted a conversation on “Trotsky’s Marxism.” Panelists Ian Morrison (Platypus), Susan Williams (Freedom Socialist Party), and Jason Wright (International Bolshevik Tendency) were asked to address, “What was Trotsky’s contribution to revolutionary Marxism? At one level, the answer is clear. Above even his significance as organizer of the October insurrection and leader of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, what makes Trotsky a major figure in the history of Marxism is his status as the leader of the Left Opposition and, later, his founding of the Fourth International. [Read More]
Marxism  Leon Trotsky 

The Marxism of Second International Radicalism

Lenin, Luxemburg, and Trotsky

 June 22, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

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]
Vladimir Lenin  Leninism  Leon Trotsky  Karl Marx  Marxism  Rosa Luxemburg