A teach-in with Sam Gindin, Packer Chair in Social Justice, York University, held in Toronto on November 29, 2010.
Transcript in Platypus Review #35 (Click below):
Austerity measures stemming from the global financial crisis threaten to undermine public sector unions and the services they provide. The unions, however, have failed to politicize the crisis along class lines, and by extension, to the Left. This is leading to situations like the Toronto mayoral election where union activity was stigmatized opportunistically to motivate a rightward populism.
If anything, this crisis reveals that the connection between public sector unionism and the Left has become unclear. This is a problem that cannot be solved by simply reconsidering union strategy pragmatically; its solution depends on working through and clarifying the history, ideology and politics that underlie how public sector unions and the Left have come to relate.
This teach-in with leading Canadian labour analyst Sam Gindin explores the present crisis, its meaning and how we might get beyond it. His recent piece with Michael Hurley, titled “The Public Sector: Search for a Focus” considers how union activity could be changed not only to meet the challenge of austerity but also to reignite the Canadian Left.
Co-hosted with OPIRG York. Thanks to Socialist Project for the video recording.
Platypus members Chris Mansour and Ian Morrison were interviewed by Mitchel Cohen on “Steal this Radio," broadcast on Friday, April 2, 2010 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.
Steal This Radio can be heard only over the internet, not on regular radio. To hear it, go to http://nytalkradio.net.
On Thursday March 11, 2010, Platypus Review Editor-in-Chief Spencer A. Leonard interviewed the prominent 1960s radical and last National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Mark Rudd, to discuss his recently published political memoir, Underground. In April, Leonard’s interview with Rudd, prepared in conjunction with Atiya Khan, was broadcast in two parts on “Radical Minds” on WHPK-FM 88.5 Chicago.
Transcript in Platypus Review #24 (Click below):
Audio Recordings:
Part One:
[audio:/wp-content/uploads/audio/Radical%20Minds%20-%20Mark%20Rudd%20podcast%201.mp3]
Part Two:
[audio:/wp-content/uploads/audio/Radical%20Minds%20-%20Mark%20Rudd%20podcast%202.mp3]
The economic crisis, as many commentators and critics are quick to point out, has rekindled interest in—and anxieties over—Marxism. Although many on the Left hope this renewed curiosity marks the beginning of a radical turn, similar revivals of anti-capitalist politics in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1990s failed to achieve the revolutionary transformations they sought.
Has Marxism returned as a significant political force? How might this translate into the possibility for a revitalized Left? Will the resurgence of Marxist theory provide opportunities for social change—or merely the opportunity to fail again?
An interview with Dr. Leo Panitch conducted on February 19th, 2010, at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Leo Panitch is Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto, and coeditor of the annual Socialist Register.
Transcript in Platypus Review #23:
A discussion held by the Platypus Affiliated Society and News & Letters (Marxist-Humanists) on Thursday, January 17th, 2008, at the University of Chicago.
Andrew Kliman on his new book "Reclaiming Marx's 'Capital'"
Marx's critique of political economy: the relation between price and social value in proper context
Andrew Kliman is Professor of Economics at Pace University, New York
http://akliman.squarespace.com/
