On November 14, 2021, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion, “The ALP and the Left,” at the New International Bookshop in Melbourne, Australia. An edited transcript follow.
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PROFESSOR HOLTON appears to believe that my entire critique of the 1619 project boiled down to a “demand that it make the Black History Month compromise of showcasing black heroes instead of white oppressors”
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KARL KAUTSKY WAS RIGHT. The general term “imperialism” describes a set of policies and practices which facilitate the domination of one political entity over another.
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I HAVE ARGUED THAT the 1619 Project failed to acknowledge the decades of scholarship that has made all U.S. historians acutely aware of the significance of slavery and racism. I have expressed particular concern that the Project misconstrues the nature of the slave economy, of cotton production, and the relationship between capitalism and slavery.
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WHAT IS THE HISTORY of the anti-war movement for the Left? In the last 108 years there are five wars that show regression and stagnation through anti-war politics from the First World War, the Second World War, the Vietnam War, the wars in the Middle East in the early 00s, and the present war in Ukraine.
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