Leo Panitch

Leo Panitch (born May 3, 1945 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) is professor of political science at York University, in Toronto, Ontario.

He is a prominent exponent of Marxism who sees his own work as theoretically innovative within that tradition, because he maintains that the dominance of the United States in the early years of the twenty-first century can't be understood using theories of imperialism that are themselves a century old.

He has argued, for example, that the concept of imperialism developed for the Victorian era over-emphasized the matter of the export of capital. Yet if one uses that as a yardstick today (he reasons) Great Britain is more a victim of U.S. imperialism than Kenya -- since American investors have much more at stake in the former than in the latter. The advanced industrial nations, in other words, are interpenetrating -- exporting capital to one another, not to the 'South,' and this requires a great deal of revision in Marxist-Leninist models.

Panitch has also argued that Marx was wrong to contend that the rise of trade unions would develop a socialistic class-consciousness in the working class. The association of workers for the purpose of collective bargaining has proven quite compatible with capitalism -- since such bargaining concerns the terms of wage labor, not the legitimacy of wage labor. He argues that Marxist political parties must abandon the assumption that there is anything inherently revolutionary about any class, so that they can get to work creating a self-conscious revolutionary class of wage earners, "articulating the articulation."

Leo Panitch is a Distinguished Research Professor, renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and editor of the "Socialist Register". He received a B.A. (Hons.) from the University of Manitoba in 1967 and a M.Sc.(Hons.) and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1968 and 1974, respectively. He was a Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor at Carleton University between 1972 and 1984. He has been a Professor of Political Science at York University since 1984. He was the Chair of the Department of Political Science at York from 1988-1994. He was the General Co-editor of State and Economic Life series, U. of T. Press, from 1979 to 1995 and is the Co-founder and a Board Member of Studies in Political Economy. He is also the author of numerous articles and books dealing with political science including The End of Parliamentary Socialism (1997). He was a member of the Movement for an Independent and Socialist Canada, 1973-1975, the Ottawa Committee for Labour Action, 1975-1984, the Canadian Political Science Association, the Committee of Socialist Studies, the Marxist Institute and the Royal Society of Canada. He is currently a supporter of the Socialist Project.

On May 4th, 2008, professor Panitch was guest at The Real News, for a discussion on the democratization of the economy in the U.S. [" [Leo Panitch part 1: Truly democratic institutions are needed to direct investment] "]

References

*" [http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=844&thisview=item&renewx=2008-01-26+08%3A22%3A38 Is this a global recession?] " - Leo Panitch on the US recession. Friday January 25th, 2008

*" [http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=525&thisview=item&renewx=2008-01-23+12 Real News Debate: Why is the US threatening Iran] " - What is behind President Bush's warning about WW III? Tuesday October 23rd, 2007

*" [http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=838&thisview=item&renewx=2008-01-25+08%3A37%3A01 US recession fueled by low wages and consumer debt] " - Thursday January 24th, 2008 02:05:37

*" [http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=842&thisview=item&renewx=2008-02-04+13%3A17%3A19 Do stimulus packages work?] " - Friday January 25th, 2008 08:37:04

*" [http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisepisode=101 If you were President . . .] " - Friday January 25th, 2008 09:00:00
*" [http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=845&thisview=item&renewx=2008-01-28+15%3A26%3A32 If you were President . . .] " - Sunday January 27th, 2008 10:46:01

*" [http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=844&thisview=item&renewx=2008-01-26+08%3A22%3A38 Is this a global recession?] " - Leo Panitch on the US recession. Friday January 25th, 2008 09:00:00

*" [http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=843 Will unions respond to economic crisis] " - Sunday January 27th, 2008 10:52:18

*" [http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1429 Debt-fueled rat race drives economic crisis] " - Leo Panitch part 1. Sunday May 4th, 2008 08:11:54

*" [http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=74&jumival=Leo+Panitch&search=search Search The Real News] " - Leo Panitch on The Real News

External links

* [http://www.arts.yorku.ca/politics/faculty/panitch.html Leo Panitch bio] on the York University [http://www.yorku.ca website]
* [http://www.socialistproject.ca/inthenews/MayDay.html "What you need to know about May Day"] by Leo Panitch
* [http://www.socialistproject.ca/documents/whose_violence.html "Whose Violence?"] by Leo Panitch
* [http://www.socialistproject.ca/theory/sr2008.html Launch of the Socialist Register 2008]
* [http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet080.html Putting the U.S. Economic Crisis in Perspective] by Leo Panitch