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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In The Revolutionary Movement in Britain, Walter Kendall sets out to prove an a priori assumption that the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was an artificial creation that wrenched the whole course of the movement’s Left wing out of one direction and set it off on another.
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Prior to October 7, 2023, Gaza wasn’t seriously on the Western Left’s radar at all. It was a non-topic for discussion, as Gaza was quiescent. Hamas, which governed Gaza by force and threat of terror against its civilian population, seethed with anger against Israel, and desired Israel’s elimination and replacement by an Islamic caliphate; but not so much, generally, the Gazan civilian population, which was resigned to the uneasy status quo that kept everything as it was.
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But why has the proletariat never come directly to power? There is no simple answer, but a key is in the strategy of the Popular Front pursued by communist, socialist, and social-democratic parties all over the world, particularly since 1935–36.
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