On Saturday, April 11, 2026, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion at the University of Chicago, marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Eugene Debs. The speakers were Andrea Bauer (Freedom Socialist Party), Mark Burrows (Railroad Workers United and board member of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation), Carlos L. Garrido (American Communist Party, and author of Why You Need American Marxism), and Edward Remus (Platypus Affiliated Society and the Campaign for a Socialist Party).
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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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