Key radical activists urge engagement with Trotsky, Lenin and Luxemburg
LeBlanc, Paul
Key radical activists urge engagement with Trotsky, Lenin and Luxemburg
Fifty key figures on the left including China Miéville, Lindsey German, Ken Loach, Suzi Weissman, Michael Yates and Immanuel Ness have backed a Pluto Press campaign urging activists fighting for the 99% to draw inspiration from the lives and writings of three giants of 20th century political change: Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg and VI Lenin. The Get Political campaign statement (www.getpoliticalnow.com) contends that 'It will not be a simple thing to win the battle of democracy ... Luxemburg, Trotsky and Lenin were among the most perceptive and compelling revolutionaries of the 20th century. The body of analysis, strategy and tactics to which they contributed was inseparable from the mass struggles of their time. Critically engaging with their ideas can enrich the thinking and practical activity of those involved in today’s and tomorrow’s struggles for a better world.'
Paul Le Blanc, author and co-ordinator, outlined the purpose of the campaign:
'The Occupy movement and the anti-cuts movement have made a huge impact in a short space of time, but we must build on these successes in order to advance struggles of the future. By engaging with the lives and ideas of Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky, activists will find vital analyses and organisational strategies which can help us overcome setbacks and cause a leftward shift of the political mainstream.'
The campaign gives those involved in recent movements such as Occupy the tools and inspiration to continue their struggle to build a fairer world. A campaign website, www.getpoliticalnow.com, offers the following resources:
- Extensive slide shows detailing the lives of Trotsky, Lenin and Luxemburg and an introduction to Marxism
- Sample Chapters from three Pluto Press Get Political titles on each the three figures
- Study plans for each title, ideal for planning reading groups or lectures
- A widget allowing users to endorse the campaign and spread the word
To interview Paul le Blanc or a Pluto Press representative, email jo...@plutobooks.com or call 0208 374 6426.
About Pluto Press
Pluto Press has a proud history of publishing progressive critical thinking across politics and the social sciences. Since the 1960s, Pluto Press has provided a home to progressive thinkers and dissenting voices from across the world. They have been published works by the likes of Karl Marx, Frantz Fanon, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Edward Said, Augusto Boal, Vandana Shiva and Susan George.
The current roster of authors includes historians such as Ilan Pappe and Nick Robins, political and economic analysts such as Graham Turner, Alastair Crooke and Gabriel Kolko, leading dissident thinkers such as Hamid Dabashi and Tommy McKearney and fearless investigative journalists such as Syed Saleem Shahzad, David Cronin and Jonathan Cook.
About Paul Le Blanc
Paul Le Blanc is Professor of History at La Roche College, Pittsburgh. He is the author of Marx, Lenin and the Revolutionary Experience (2006), A Short History of the US Working Class (1999) and editor or co-editor of the Get Political books on Trotsky, Lenin and Luxemburg.
About the Get Political Series
The Get Political series is a response to the unconvincing and desperate rhetoric from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. As the crisis of neoliberalism develops, the established order becomes ever more helpless to improve things.
The books in the series are for people who want to learn about and construct real alternatives to unrestrained capitalism and the selfish individualism it encourages. The series invites a return to classic revolutionary thinkers and texts, which have inspired and continue to inspire radicals worldwide.
The selection is consciously eclectic, covering postcolonial theory, history and theatre as well as what would normally be termed ‘politics’. However, the works are unified by rejections of the status quo so convincing that they inspire not only agreement, but further reading and meaningful political action.
To see all titles in the series go to www.getpoliticalnow.com/series/
INFORMATION ON INITIAL ENDORSERS OF THE CAMPAIGN STATEMENT
(asterisk – * -- for identification purposes only)
Mark Abel, Lecturer, School of Humanities, University of Brighton*
Dominic Alexander, book review editor, Counterfire*
Kieran Allen, author, Marx and the Alternative to Capitalism
Ian Angus, editor, Climate and Capitalism
Alexander Anievas, ed. board, Historical Materialism*; editor, Marxism and World Politics
Gopal Balakrishnan, ed. board, New Left Review*
Patrick Bond, Director, Centre for Civil Society (South Africa)*; author, Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation
Paul Buhle, co-editor, Encyclopedia of the American Left
Alex Callinicos, editor, International Socialism*
Kunal Chattopadhyay, Prof. of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University*
Terry Conway, Socialist Resistance; ed. board, International Viewpoint*
Ted Crawford, ed. board, Revolutionary History*
Neil Davidson, ed. board, International Socialism*; author, The Origins of Scottish Nationhood
Steve Edwards, ed board, Historical Materialism*
Neil Faulkner, Research Fellow, University of Bristol*
Des Freedman, co-editor, The Assault on the Universities
Phil Gasper, ed. board, International Socialist Review*
Lindsey German, author, Sex, Class and Socialism
Jane Hardy, Prof. of Political Economy, Univ. of Hertfordshire*, author, Poland's New Capitalism
Al Hart, managing editor, UE News (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America)*
Tom Hickey, Lecturer, Phil. and Pol. Economy, Univ. of Brighton*; author, Democracy: the Long Revolution
Dave Hill, Prof./Visiting Prof. of Education at Universities of Middlesex (England), Limerick (Ireland), Athens (Greece)*
Brian Jones, actor (“Marx in Soho”), teacher, activist
Andy Kilmister, editor Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe*
Stathis Kouvelakis, author, Philosophy and Revolution
Costas Lapavitsas, Prof. of Economics, School of African & Oriental Studies, Univ. of London*
Paul Le Blanc, author, A Short History of the US Working Class
Esther Leslie, Prof. in Political Aesthetics, Birkbeck University*
John Lister, Sr. Lecturer, Health Journalism, Coventry University*
Ken Loach, film-maker
Michael Löwy, author, Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx; The Marxism of Che Guevara
Soma Marik, author, Reinterrogating the Classical Marxist Discourses of Revolutionary Democracy
China Miéville, author, The City and the City; Embassytown; etc.
Immanuel Ness, editor, Working USA*, and The Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest
Bryan Palmer, author, James P. Cannon and the American Revolutionary Left
William A. Pelz, Director, Institute of Working Class History*
Shalini Puri, Director of Literature, Univ. of Pittsburgh; author, The Post-Colonial Caribbean
John Rees, ed. board, Counterfire*; author, The Algebra of Revolution
John Riddell, editor, of multi-volume documentary, The Communist International in Lenin’s Time
Ingo Schmidt, Academic Coordinator, Labour Studies, Athabasca University (Canada)*
Helen C. Scott, Prof. of English, University of Vermont*
George Shriver, writer & translator
Kostas Skordoulis, Prof. of Physics, Univ. of Athens*; OKDE–Spartakos*
Sharon Smith, author, Subterranean Fire
Bhaskar Sunkara, Editor, Jacobin*
Peter Thomas, ed. board, Historical Materialism*; author, The Gramscian Moment
Alan Thornett, veteran trade union activist; author, Militant Years: car workers’ struggles in Britain in the 60s and 70s
Achin Vaniak, Prof. of Political Science, Delhi University*, author, Globalization and South Asia
Alan Wald, ed. board, Against the Current*
Victor Wallis, managing editor, Socialism and Democracy*
Susan Weissman, ed. board, Critique*; author, Victor Serge: The Course is Set on Hope
Michael Yates, assoc. editor, Monthly Review*; editorial director, Monthly Review Press*
