What is Socialism? A Panel Discussion

Join us for a panel discussion on "What is Socialism?" in which various perspectives on the Left engage this question - followed by a Q&A with the audience.

This is a free and public event.

The panel begins at 2:30PM and is located at Berkeley City College (2050 Center St, Berkeley) in Room #55 (downstairs).

Panel Description:

"This panel invites the speakers to reflect on the history of social democracy from a leftist viewpoint. Such a perspective raises the specter of the Second International, the political organization that led the workers’ movement for socialism around the turn of the 20th century.

The memory of social democracy is resuscitated by such phenomena as SYRIZA, Podemos, Jeremy Corbyn, and Bernie Sanders. But, do we in fact still need to reckon with the earlier history of Marxism—the split between Communists and Social Democrats—in order to understand the problem and project of social democracy today? How are the questions of social democracy and social revolution related today, in light of history? What has social democracy come to signify politically?"

Speakers:

Grover Furr (Montclair State University)
James R. Martel (San Francisco State University)
Ron Kelch (News & Letters)
Gerald Smith (Oscar Grant Committee)

Hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society
http://www.platypus1917.org

The Platypus Affiliated Society, established in December 2006, organizes reading groups, public fora, research and journalism focused on problems and tasks inherited from the “Old” (1920s-30s), “New” (1960s-70s) and post-political (1980s-90s) Left for the possibilities of emancipatory politics today.