Trotsky on "degeneration" and "entire generations passing into discard" (1933)

 February 7, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

It is not a question of counterposing abstract principles… [W]ith the degeneration of organizations, with the passing of entire generations into discard… the necessity… arises of mobilizing fresh forces on a new historical stage… With inevitable halts and partial retreats it is necessary to move forward on a road crisscrossed by countless obstacles and covered with the debris of the past. Those who are frightened by this had better step aside. [Read More]
Chris Cutrone  crisis  Discussion  History  Marxism  Politics  the Left  Leon Trotsky  Trotskyism 

University of Chicago Marxist reading group Winter-Spring 2009

University of Chicago Marxist reading group Winter-Spring 2009

 January 11, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Platypus chapter at University of Chicago[ meets Sundays at][ **] [ Reynolds Club 5706 S. University Ave.] [ **2nd floor South Lounge 2-5PM**] [For more information contact mtorre3@artic.edu] [ **] [PDF of 2008-2009 scheduled readings ### [[January 25, 2009]] [What is “revolutionary leadership?”] [· Cliff Slaughter, “What is Revolutionary Leadership?” (1960)] [· Rosa Luxemburg, “The Crisis of German Social Democracy” Part 1 (1915) [PDF]] [ ] [ ] [ []] [Read More]
Cliff Slaughter  J.P. Nettl  Karl Korsch  leadership  Vladimir Lenin  Marxism  Reading group  Rosa Luxemburg  Leon Trotsky  University of Chicago 

Capital in history

The need for a Marxian philosophy of history of the Left

 October 1, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society  • Other languages: Deutsch, Español, Ελληνικά

The following is a talk given at the Marxist-Humanist Committee public forum on The Crisis in Marxist Thought, hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society in Chicago on Friday, July 25th, 2008. I want to speak about the meaning of history for any purportedly Marxian Left. We in Platypus focus on the history of the Left because we think that the narrative one tells about this history is in fact one’s theory of the present. [Read More]
1789  1930s  1960s  19th Century  Bourgeois  Capital  Capitalism  Class consciousness  Crisis  Degeneration  Domination  Friedrich Engels  Freedom  French Revolution  György Lukács  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel  History  History of the Left  Industrial Revolution  Karl Korsch  Vladimir Lenin  Marxism  Marxist-Hummanist Committee  Modern  Moishe Postone  Politics  Proletariat  Regression  Revolt of the Third Estate  Rosa Luxemburg  The Left  Theodor W. Adorno  Leon Trotsky  Walter Benjamin 

The dead Left: Trotskyism

 September 1, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

One cannot separate the ability to know the world from the ability to change it, and our capacity to change the world is on a very small scale compared to the heroic days of the Communist International. —James Robertson, founder of the Spartacist League (U.S.), “In Defense of Democratic Centralism” (1973) Zombies and Sectarians WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY, as Platypus does, that “the Left is Dead? [Read More]
History of the Left  Trotskyism  Leon Trotsky