In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels famously observed in the Communist Manifesto that a specter was haunting Europe: the specter of Communism. 160 years later, it is Marxism itself that haunts us.
In the 21st century, it seems that the Left abandoned Marxism as a path to freedom. But Marx critically intervened in his own moment and emboldened leftists to challenge society; is the Left not tasked with this today? Has the Left resolved the problems posed by Marx, and thus moved on?
With Platypus Affiliated Society member Pac Pobric. Held at New York University on September 20, 2012.
A conversation concerning the history and legacy of the struggles for sexual liberation. What successes and setbacks have shaped the prospect for LGBTQ and feminist organizing today? Held on Thursday, September 13, 2013, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
Panelists:
Karin Cope, Professor of Historical and Critical Studies, NSCAD
Kevin Kindred, Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project
Evan Coole, Queer Activist, Organizer and Educator
Ashley Weger, Platypus Affiliated Society
Moderated by Cam Hardy (Platypus Affiliated Society)
Questions for panelists:
1. How did the LGBTQ rights movement become such? What has its relation to the Left been, and how has the contemporary political focus on same-sex marriage affect that relation? What are the potentials and limits of present politics and organization around equality and legality? What successes and limitations has it met?
2. How does economic life shape our imaginations about what sexual freedom will look like? For example, arguments for marriage equality have often been made in terms of all the economic disadvantages one faces if one can't marry--extra taxes, loss of healthcare, etc. Does marriage equality solve these issues? Or, counter to marriage, consider the importance of the legal protection of sex work to many on the Left. How are and should economics and sex be bound in sex work? Should sex work be abolished or protected? What role would the State play in a Left that seeks to decrease both human economic precariousness and human dependence on the economy more generally?
3. Marriage has always been about the linking of the intimate and the public. The demand that "love" dominate marriage--its development in the 19th century away from a mere economic arrangement between parents--was a way to demand that the public sphere as represented in the state recognize the power and value of individual life. If once progressive, though, this also comes to represent the naturalization of the state as the voice of authority over private life, as well as the retention of the family form which has represented ages of abuse (of women, children, etc.), and enshrines the principle of property over people. What forms of personal/public relation are possible now? What relationship ought the Left fight for between love, the private and the public?
4. What do we mean by a liberated sexuality? That which has positioned itself counter to what we might deem âheteronormativeâ has in the past been given the qualification as âabnormal.â In fighting for greater civil equality, these formerly marginalized sexualities have often fought on the basis of their ânaturalâ or ânormalâ characters. Does recognition for equality often homogenize the formerly marginal into normative bonds (e.g. marriage, family, monogamy, etc.), or is sexual emancipation necessarily antagonistic to the sexual mainstream? Are neither of these positions adequate?
Presentation by Platypus Affiliated Society member Thodoris Velissaris at the Finanskriseseminar conference in Karlsøya, Norway, on August 10, 2012.
Richard Rubin
Lecture 7:
1953-1963
Part of the Summer 2012 Platypus Affiliated Society Primary Reading Group Lecture Series: Trotsky and Trotskyism
⢠recommended / + supplemental reading
Week 7 Readings:
+ Cornelius Castoriadis, âThe workers and organizationâ (1959)
⢠Cliff Slaughter, âWhat is revolutionary leadership?â (1960)
⢠Revolutionary Tendency of the Socialist Workers Party/U.S., âIn defense of a revolutionary perspectiveâ (1962)
+ Tony Cliff, âThe coming Russian revolutionâ (final chapter of Russia: A Marxist Analysis, 1964)
+ Hal Draper, âThe two souls of socialismâ (1966)
+ Isaac Deutscher, âMarxism in our timeâ (1965)
+ Murray Bookchin, âListen, Marxist!â (1969)
⢠Spartacist League, âGenesis of Pabloismâ (1972)
Richard Rubin
Lecture 6
1940-1953
Part of the Summer 2012 Platypus Affiliated Society Primary Reading Group Lecture Series: Trotsky and Trotskyism
⢠recommended / + supplemental reading
Week Six Readings:
+ James Cannon, âThe coming American revolutionâ (1946)
+ C.L.R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, et al., âProgram of the minority tendency of the Workers Party/U.S.â (1946)
+ C.L.R. James, âDialectical materialism and the fate of humanityâ (1947)
+ Herbert Marcuse, â33 Thesesâ (1947)
+ Earl Browder and Max Shachtman with C. Wright Mills, âIs Russia a socialist community?â (1950)
+ Ernest Mandel, âThe theory of âstate capitalismââ (1951)
+ Michel Pablo, âOn the duration and the nature of the period of transition from capitalism to socialismâ (1951)
+ Pablo, âWhere are we going?â (1953)