I don’t want to take a third position on the Russian Revolution but rather raise the question, what view tasks the present? The negative view presupposes that we know better, Lenin did policy X and that is where everything went wrong. But do we know better?
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On September 28, 2024, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion on the reemergence of the Popular Front in French politics under the original title “Le sens d’une politique de Front populaire aujourd’hui.” The panelists were Gilles Candar (historian, president of the Société d'études jaurésiennes), Aymeric Monville (writer, founder of Les éditions Delga), Victor (L’Offensive), and Alexis Henri (Ligue trotskyste de France, section of the International Communist League in France).
[. . .]
It was understood by Engels that simply being a “Marxist” was insufficient. Marxism needed to acclimate itself, to be attuned to, the particular circumstances of the countries and civilization in which the struggle for socialism was concretely being carried out. For Marxists in America, it was not enough to simply study Marx. Marx had to always be “translated” into one’s context. I do not simply mean a literal translation of text, but more fundamentally a translation of the insights central to Marxism into the common sense and sensibilities of the people.
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On September 25, 2025, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion at Australian National University with panelists Barry York (C21st Left blog), Lachlan (Communist Party of Australia), and Christina Veselovskiy (Revolutionary Communist Organization – Applicant Member).
[. . .]
On April 9, 2026, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel at Northwestern University on the Islamic Revolution in Iran as a satellite plenary to its 18th annual International Convention. The speakers were Chris Cutrone (founding member of the Platypus Affiliated Society), Mateo Farzaneh (professor of History at Northeastern Illinois University and author of The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the Clerical Leadership of Khurasani), Tirdad Kiamanesh (co-founder of Chicago4Iran, lecturer at Northwestern University), and Grayson Walker (American Communist Party).
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