On Anarchism and Marxism

In response to Price and Swenson

On Anarchism and Marxism

 May 6, 2014  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

IN RESPONSE TO THE CRITIQUES of Wayne Price and Liam Swenson to my piece on anarchism in The Platypus Review #65,1 I will reiterate what I consider the major differences between Marxist revolutionary theory and anarchism in general. I say in general because I see nothing to be gained by dealing with the great variety of differences within anarchism itself presented by these critiques. In fact their great variety proves the very fleeting and vacillating nature of the anarchist project. [Read More]
Anarchism  History  History of the Left  Vladimir Lenin  Marxism  Occupy  Revolution 

Marxism and Anarchism

Radical Ideologies Today, Halifax

 February 1, 2014  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel discussion held at University of King’s College on 1st February, 2014. Sponsored by the King’s Student Union and Dalhousie Student Union Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Eva Curry – Stand Christoph Lichtenberg – International Bolshevik Tendency Chris Parsons – student activist Alex Khasnabish – The Radical Imagination Project, Mount Saint Vincent University Description It seems that there are still only two radical ideologies: Anarchism and Marxism. [Read More]
Peter Kropotkin  Vladimir Lenin  October Revolution  STAND  Student politics  The Radical Imagination Project  Zapatista 

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 

1873--1973: The century of Marxism

The death of Marxism and the emergence of neo-liberalism and neo-anarchism

 June 7, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

AT THE 2012 PLATYPUS AFFILIATED SOCIETY’S (PAS) annual International Convention, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago March 30–April 1, Chris Cutrone, President of the PAS, delivered the following presentation, which has been edited for clarity. A full audio recording is available online by clicking the above link. IN THE TRADITION we established just two years ago, there is a Platypus President’s report, speaking to the historical moment. [Read More]
Anarchism  History  History of the Left  Vladimir Lenin  Karl Marx  Marxism  Stalinism  The Left  Theodor W. Adorno  Trotskyism 

Lenin and the Marxist Left after #Occupy

 March 31, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel discussion held at the 2012 Platypus International Convention on March 31st, 2012.

Audio Recording

Transcript in Platypus Review #47

Panelists

Ben Lewis—Communist Party of Great Britain

Tom Riley—International Bolshevik Tendency

Chris Cutrone (Moderator)—Platypus Affiliated Society

Platypus International Convention 2012  Communist Party of Great Britain  GPGB  IBT  International Bolshevik Tendency  Vladimir Lenin  Occupy  Occupy wall street  OWS 

A destroyer of vulgar-Marxism

Book review: Karl Korsch, _Marxism and Philosophy_ (Leipzig: C.L. Hirschfeld, 1923)

A destroyer of vulgar-Marxism

 January 30, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Karl Kautsky’s 1924 review of Karl Korsch’s Marxism and Philosophy appears below in English for the first time.1 It is hoped that other reviews of Marxism and Philosophy will also be made available in the very near future, not least by leading German communists such as August Thalheimer. Given the highly disputed theoretical legacy of both Kautsky and Korsch, the publication of this review will doubtless add to the debate on the idea of a “coming of age” of Marxism in the late 1860s. [Read More]
Book Review  History of the Left  Karl Kautsky  Karl Korsch  Vladimir Lenin  Marxism 

"Thirty years of counter-revolution"

 January 29, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

_LAST SUMMER, SPENCER A. LEONARD interviewed Clyde Young, a veteran member of the Revolutionary Communist Party. The interview was broadcast on June 31, 2011 on the radio show Radical Minds on WHPK – FM Chicago. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation. A shorter version of this interview ran in the broadsheet edition of Platypus Review issue 43._ Spencer A. Leonard: Everyone hears a lot about the 1960s, the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. [Read More]
1970s  Bob Avakian  Clyde Young  Communism  Vladimir Lenin  Maoism  Radical Minds  RCP (USA)  Civil Rights  Third World 

The Relevance of Lenin Today

 December 17, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Video Recording Transcript in Platypus Review #48 Description The Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry on Lenin states that, If the Bolshevik Revolution is – as some people have called it – the most significant political event of the 20th century, then Lenin must for good or ill be considered the century’s most significant political leader. Not only in the scholarly circles of the former Soviet Union, but even among many non-Communist scholars, he has been regarded as both the greatest revolutionary leader and revolutionary statesman in history, as well as the greatest revolutionary thinker since Marx. [Read More]
Bolshevik Revolution  Vladimir Lenin  Leninism  Karl Marx  Marxism  Russian revolution 

The Occupy movement, a renascent Left, and Marxism today

The Occupy movement, a renascent Left, and Marxism today

 December 1, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON NOVEMBER 5, 2011, using questions formulated together with Chris Cutrone, Haseeb Ahmed interviewed Slavoj Žižek at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. Haseeb Ahmed: Are we currently – after Tahrir Square and the eruption of the Occupy movement – living through a renaissance of the Left? If so, what is the historical legacy that stands in need of reconsideration? [Read More]
Egypt  Vladimir Lenin  Maoism  Max Horkheimer  Moishe Postone  RCP (USA)  Slavoj Žižek  Theodor W. Adorno  Occupy  Occupy Wall Street 

Lenin's politics

A rejoinder to David Adam on Lenin's liberalism

Lenin's politics

 September 25, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE PRINCIPAL MISTAKE MADE by those who contemplate Lenin’s political thought and action is due to assumptions that are made about the relation of socialism to democracy. Lenin was not an “undemocratic socialist” or one who prioritized socialism as an “end” over the “means” of democracy. Lenin did not think that once a majority of workers was won to socialist revolution democracy was finished. Lenin was not an authoritarian socialist.1 [Read More]
Vladimir Lenin  Liberalism  Exchanges