Leo Panitch

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Leo Panitch

The Socialist Register
(co-editor)
Spouse
Melanie Panitch
(m. 1967)
Children2
Academic background
global capitalism
  • socialism
  • Notable worksThe Making of Global Capitalism (2012)[3]
    InfluencedBhaskar Sunkara[4]

    Leo Victor Panitch FRSC (3 May 1945 – 19 December 2020) was a distinguished research professor of political science and a Canada Research Chair in comparative political economy at York University.

    From 1985 until the 2021 edition, he served as co-editor of the Socialist Register, which describes itself as "an annual survey of movements and ideas from the standpoint of the independent new left". Panitch himself saw the Register as playing a major role in developing Marxism's conceptual framework for advancing a democratic, co-operative and egalitarian socialist alternative to capitalist competition, exploitation, and insecurity.[5][6][7][page needed][8]

    Since his appointment as a Canada Research Chair in 2002, Panitch focused his academic research and writing on the spread of global capitalism. He argued that this process of

    Federal Reserve. Panitch saw globalization as a form of imperialism, but argued that the American Empire is an "informal" one in which the US sets rules for trade and investment in partnership with other sovereign, but less powerful capitalist states. His book The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (2012), written with his close friend and university colleague Sam Gindin, traces the development of American-led globalization over more than a century.[5][9] In 2013, the book was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize in the United Kingdom for best and most creative work in or about the Marxist tradition and in 2014 it won the Rik Davidson/SPE Book Prize for the best book in political economy by a Canadian.[10][11]

    Panitch was the author of more than 100 scholarly articles and nine books including Working-Class Politics in Crisis: Essays on Labour and the State (1986), The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour (2001) and Renewing Socialism: Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination (2008) in which he argued that capitalism is inherently unjust and undemocratic.[12]

    Early life and education

    Panitch was born on 3 May 1945, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He grew up in Winnipeg's North End, a working-class neighbourhood that, as he observed decades later, produced "many people of a radical left political disposition."[13] His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants.[14] His father, Max Panitch, was born in the southern Ukraine town of Uscihtsa, but remained behind in Bucharest, Romania, with a fervently religious uncle when his family emigrated to Winnipeg in 1912. He was reunited with them in 1922 and by that time was well on his way to becoming a socialist and a supporter of Labor Zionism. As a sewer and cutter of fur coats (an 'aristocrat of the needle trade'), he was active in the Winnipeg labour movement and the Manitoba CCF and its successor, the New Democratic Party of Manitoba (NDP).[15][16][additional citation(s) needed]

    Panitch's mother, Sarah, was an orphan from Rivne in central Ukraine who had come to Winnipeg in 1921 at the age of 13 accompanied only by her older sister, Rose. Max and Sarah married in 1930. Panitch's older brother Hersh was born in 1934.[8][17][page needed]

    Panitch attended a secular Jewish school named after the radical

    Workmen's Circle. Panitch told the conference that its first declaration of principles, adopted in 1901, began with the words: "The spirit of the Workmen's Circle is freedom of thought and endeavour towards solidarity of the workers, faithfulness to the interests of its class in the struggle against oppression and exploitation." He added: "As such institutions multiplied and spread through the Jewish community, for a great many people and for a considerable number of decades to come, to be Jewish, especially in a city like Winnipeg, came to mean to be radical."[17][page needed
    ]

    Panitch received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science in 1967 from the University of Manitoba. During his undergraduate years, he realized how much the writings of Karl Marx and the evolution of historical materialism helped him understand capitalism and its relation to the state.[9][page needed] One of his teachers, Cy Gonick, introduced him to ideas about industrial democracy in which workers would control and manage their own workplaces.[17][page needed] The 1960s generation of the New Left, Panitch writes, was impelled towards socialism by "our experience with and observation of the inequalities, irrationalities, intolerances and hierarchies of our own capitalist societies."[18][page needed]

    At age 22, Panitch left Winnipeg and moved to

    Thesis advisor.[5][14]

    Academic work, writing and activism

    Panitch taught at Carleton University between 1972 and 1984, was a Professor of Political Science at York University from 1984, and served as Carleton Chair of the Department of Political Science from 1988 to 1994.[8] In 2002, he was appointed Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy at York. The appointment was renewed in 2009. His research involved examining the role of the American state and multinational corporations in the evolution of global capitalism.[5]

    After his text The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power was published in 1977 by the University of Toronto Press, Panitch became the General Co-editor of its State and Economic Life book series in 1979, serving in that role until 1995. He also co-founded the Canadian academic journal Studies in Political Economy in 1979 and played a role in establishing Carleton's Institute for Political Economy in the 1980s.[8][21][22]

    He was politically active in the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada and the Ottawa Committee for Labour Action, the two main organizational successors to The Waffle after it was expelled from the NDP in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, he was a regular columnist ("Panitch on Politics") for the independent socialist magazine, Canadian Dimension, and remained active in socialist political circles, in particular the Socialist Project in Toronto. He was inducted as an Academic Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1995, and was also a member of the Marxist Institute and the Committee on Socialist Studies as well as the Canadian Political Science Association.[8][23][24]

    In addition to the 33 annual volumes of the Socialist Register he edited from 1985, he was the author of over 100 scholarly articles and nine books, including From Consent to Coercion: The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms; A Different Kind of State: Popular Power and Democratic Administration; The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour; American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance; and In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives.[8][19] Panitch saw the Register as a crucial link between the politics of the New Left and those of Ralph Miliband, his mentor and the 1964 founder of the journal. As editor, Panitch strove to produce works that were at once easily readable in prose and difficult to digest in content.[25]

    At the "Globalization, Justice and Democracy" symposium at

    Delhi University on 11 November 2010), Panitch drew on his book In and Out of Crisis (with Greg Albo and Sam Gindin). The book and symposium argued that the left's lack of ambition during the global economic crisis was more debilitating than its lack of capacity. He outlined immediate reforms that could lead to fundamental changes in class relations, including nationalizing banks to turn them into public utilities; demanding universal public pensions to replace private, employer-sponsored ones; and free health care, education and public transit to escape capitalism's drive to turn public needs into marketable, profit-generating commodities.[26]

    Making of global capitalism

    Sam Gindin

    In 2012, Leo Panitch, with his friend and colleague Sam Gindin, published The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (2012). As its title suggests, the 456-page book is a comprehensive study of the growth of a global capitalist system over more than a century. Panitch and Gindin argue that the process known as globalization was not an inevitable outcome of expansionary capitalism, but was consciously planned and managed by America, the world's most powerful state[27][28][29]

    They dispute the idea that globalization was driven by multinational corporations that have become more powerful than nation states. For them, this claim ignores the intricate relationships between states and capitalism; states maintain property rights, oversee contracts and sign free trade agreements, for example, while deriving tax revenues and popular legitimacy from the success of capitalist enterprises within their borders.[27]

    Panitch and Gindin also dismiss claims that the American Empire is in decline as shown, for example, by US trade deficits, industrial shutdowns and layoffs. They argue, in fact, that the opposite is true. In recent decades, American firms "restructured key production processes, outsourced others to cheaper and more specialized suppliers and relocated to the US south – all as part of an accelerated general reallocation of capital within the American economy." They write that although it is always highly volatile, the robust and globally dominant US financial system facilitated this economic restructuring while making pools of venture capital available for investment in new, high-tech firms. As a result, the US share of global production remained stable at around one quarter of the total right into the 21st century.[27][30]

    American-led global capitalism

    According to Panitch and Gindin, the institutional foundations for American-led global capitalism were laid during the

    Second World War led, moreover, to the growth of a permanent American military–industrial complex.[31]

    The authors argue that these state financial and military institutions made the US into a

    Great Power capable of superintending the spread of its own brand of capitalism. The US also dominated post-war global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, while the American dollar, backed by US Treasury bonds, became the anchor for international finance. Panitch and Gindin write that the American-financed post-war rebuilding of Europe and Japan, "through low-interest loans, direct grants, technological assistance, and favourable trading relations," created the conditions for investment by US multinational corporations and eventually for substantial foreign investment in the US.[32]

    America's informal empire

    As they trace the history of global capitalism, Panitch and Gindin write that in the years after the Second World War, the US succeeded in building an "informal empire" integrating other capitalist states into a co-ordinated, global capitalist system:

    The US informal empire constituted a distinctly new form of political rule. Instead of aiming for territorial expansion along the lines of the

    US military installations around the globe after World War II, mostly on the territory of independent states, needs to be seen in this light rather than in terms of securing territorial space for the exclusive US use of natural resources and accumulation by its corporations.[33]

    Although the US dominates in this informal, imperial system, Panitch and Gindin argue that other advanced capitalist states maintain their sovereignty, but must defer to American wishes when it comes to military interventions abroad. "The American state arrogated to itself," they argue, "the sole right to intervene against other sovereign states (which it repeatedly did around the world), and largely reserved to its own discretion the interpretation of international rules and norms."[34]

    From golden age to crisis

    The book chronicles the "golden age" of capitalism during the 1950s and '60s when capitalists enjoyed high profits in a booming, full-employment American economy. Workers benefited too from improved social programs and the higher wages that labour unions fought for and won. But, as the authors point out, capitalism is prone to crisis, and the 1970s produced "stagflation", simultaneously high rates of inflation and unemployment, stagnant economies and declining profits.[35]

    In 1979,

    Chairman of the Federal Reserve found a way out of the crisis by administering the "Volcker shock", double-digit interest rates. The deep recession that followed brought high unemployment and with that, a decline over time of labour militancy. The adoption of neoliberal policies during the 1980s, that restricted workers' rights to organize and to strike, made it possible for capitalists to "discipline" workers by demanding greater "flexibility" in hours and working conditions and by holding down wages. Neoliberalism also led to an array of free trade agreements that promoted worldwide corporate investment and production.[36]

    According to Panitch and Gindin, the neoliberal era ushered in a second, highly-profitable "golden age", but this time only for the capitalist class, not for workers whose wages stagnated while union membership declined.[37]

    Global financial meltdown

    The final chapter in The Making of Global Capitalism is devoted to a detailed examination of the

    financial crisis of 2007–2008
    , however, was not regional, but global:

    The roots of the crisis, in fact, lay in the growing global importance of US mortgage finance – a development which could not be understood apart from the expanded state support for home ownership, a long-standing element in the integration of workers into US capitalism. Since the 1980s, wages had stagnated and social programs had been eroded, reinforcing workers' dependence on the rising value of their homes as a source of economic security. The decisive role of American state agencies in encouraging the development of

    housing bubble and to its profound global impact when it burst, as mortgage-backed securities became difficult to value and to sell, thus freezing the world's financial markets.[38]

    Panitch and Gindin add that the collapse of housing prices led to a sharp decline in US consumer spending because housing represented a main source of workers' wealth. "The bursting of the housing bubble," they write, "thus had much greater effects than had the earlier bursting of the

    stock-market bubble at the turn of the century, and much greater implications for global capitalism in terms of the role the US played as 'consumer of last resort'."As manager-in-chief of the global capitalist system, the authors note that the U.S. once again came to the rescue with billions of dollars in bail-out money for domestic and foreign banks.[39]

    Reviews

    The Making of Global Capitalism has been the subject of a wide range of commentary. In Panitch's newspaper obituary, his friend, the journalist, Robert Collison was quoted as saying: "Global Capitalism will be Leo's seminal achievement because it really does address directly the major issue facing Western democracies: the relative impoverishment of the working and lower-middle classes because of globalization and neoliberal and corporatist policies that have been embraced, ironically, by much of the social democratic left-leaning parties in the West."[40]

    Writing in the Marxist journal, Science & Society, however, Canadian sociologist J.Z. Garrod questions the validity of Panitch and Gindin's theory of informal American empire. While he acknowledges the "American state's role in constructing global capitalism," Garrod argues that Panitch and Gindin neglect wider transformations in the nature of global capital and labour and "that such changes will also affect and redefine the role of the nation-state." He cites, for example, a column by journalist George Monbiot, who writes that dispute resolution tribunals established under international trade treaties give transnational corporations the right to challenge restrictions imposed by legislatures and courts at secret hearings where corporate lawyers serve as judges. Garrod argues that such treaties transform, reframe and alter conceptual categories such as national political spaces, modes of production and property relations. "Given that these [trade] agreements fundamentally alter the material foundations of the American state as well, I am not convinced that it is possible to consider them evidence of an informal American empire — indeed, I find them evidence of a much greater terror: the consolidation of the global market, the rise of private forms of public authority, and the total commodification of social life."[41][42]

    Martijn Konings, professor of political economy and social theory at the University of Sydney, points to what he terms the "key conceptual contribution" of Panitch's work in The Making of Global Capitalism: i.e "the understanding of the role of money, finance, and credit in capitalist life and how this relates to questions of social transformation." At the same time, Konings notes that Panitch rejected much of "value theory, a label that refers to Marxist debates about what determines the value of commodities and other objects traded on markets, and in particular, what the role of labour is in this process." Although he acknowledges, that for him, value theory "never stopped nagging at me," Konings also felt "there was something uniquely compelling about Leo's more political perspective on globalization and empire." His essay in honour of Panitch describes the evolution of his own thinking on the development of a capitalist economy in which increasingly indebted households generate income from precarious employment constantly choosing from a menu of least-bad options, yet nonetheless becoming emotionally invested "in the provocative logic of capital." Konings suggests that in emphasizing the vitality of money, finance and credit in capitalism, Panitch points the way for labour to organize resistance against "our receptiveness to the promises of capital."[43]

    In a memorial tribute, Panitch's York University colleague Reg Whitaker, writes that the Making of Global Capitalism represented the "capstone" of his "academic achievements" written in collaboration with his "intellectual comrade" Sam Gindin. Whitaker notes that the book: "involved a rethinking of American history, showing how, for instance, the New Deal represented a crucial development of state capacity that by the late 1930s permitted a 'Grand Truce' with capital, which in turn led through war and postwar to an 'internationalization of the New Deal' in a new global order of 'informal' American Empire." However, as the book points out, that new global order was shaken by the financial crisis of 2007-08 requiring emergency action by the Obama administration to rescue the system. Whitaker notes that Panitch and Gindin contrast the 21st century capitalist crisis with the Great Depression of the 1930s which led to competition and rivalry between nation states, the spread of fascism and another world war. Instead of conflict between states, the latest economic crisis led to internal conflicts within them as evidenced, for example, by an anti-globalization movement that began with the conflict in Chiapas and continued with such protests as Occupy Wall Street. Whitaker writes that Panitch and Gindin end their book with a look at the renewed opportunities this movement brings for democratic socialism: "That fault lines of global capitalism now run within states rather than between states holds considerable political significance for the renewed possibilities for radical politics."[44]

    Personal life

    Panitch married Melanie Pollock of Winnipeg in 1967. She is a longtime activist and

    Canadian Association for Community Living, focused on mothers' campaigns to close institutions and gain human rights for disabled Canadians. In 2007, it was published as Disability, Mothers and Organization: Accidental Activists.[45][46]

    The Panitches had two children. Maxim is a photographer, writer, and Scrabble champion, while Vida is a philosophy professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.[47][48]

    Panitch spoke three languages: English, French, and

    Yiddish. He and his wife lived in Toronto, Ontario.[8]

    Leo Panitch died on 19 December 2020, of viral pneumonia associated with COVID-19 amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, which he contracted in hospital while receiving treatment for multiple myeloma.[49][50][51]

    Works

    Books

    • Searching for Socialism: The Project of the Labour New Left from Benn to Corbyn (co-authored with Colin Leys), Verso: 2020[25]
    • The Socialist Challenge Today (new expanded edition) (co-authored with Sam Gindin and Steve Maher), Merlin Press: 2020[25]
    • The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (co-authored with Sam Gindin), Verso: 2012[25]
    • In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives (co-authored with Greg Albo and Sam Gindin), PM Press: 2010[52]
    • Renewing Socialism: Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination, Merlin Press: 2008[49]
    • From Consent to Coercion: The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms (co-authored with Donald Swartz), University of Toronto Press: 2003[53]
    • The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour (2nd edition) (co-authored with Colin Leys), Verso: 2001[49]
    • Working Class Politics in Crisis: Essays on Labour and the State, Verso: 1986[54]
    • The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power (editor), University of Toronto Press: 1977[25]

    Articles

    • Superintending Global Capital (co-authored with Sam Gindin), New Left Review 35, 2005[55]
    • Global Capitalism and American Empire (co-authored with Sam Gindin), Socialist Register 40, 2004 [56]
    • The New Imperial State, New Left Review 2, 2000[57]
    • The Impoverishment of State Theory, Socialism and Democracy 13, no. 2, 1999[58]
    • Globalisation and the State, Socialist Register 30, 1994[59]
    • Trade Unions and the Capitalist State, New Left Review 125, 1981[60]
    • Dependency and Class in Canadian Political Economy, Studies in Political Economy 6, no. 1, 1981[61]
    • Recent Theorizations of Corporatism: Reflections on a Growth Industry, The British Journal of Sociology 31, no. 2, 1980[62]
    • The Development of Corporatism in Liberal Democracies, Comparative Political Studies 10, no. 1, 1977[63]
    • Various articles and videos[64]

    References

    Footnotes

    1. ^ Hurl & Christensen 2016, p. 183.
    2. ^ Panitch, Leo (August 7, 2014). "Interview – Leo Panitch". E-International Relations. Interviewed by Fletcher, Louis. Archived from the original on December 22, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
    3. ^ Palmer 2017, p. 326.
    4. ^ "Friday March 8, 2019 Full Transcript". The Current. CBC Radio. March 8, 2019. Archived from the original on July 18, 2019. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
    5. ^ a b c d "Canada Research Chairs: Leo V. Panitch". Government of Canada. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
    6. ^ "Socialist Register". Socialist Register. Archived from the original on 9 February 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
    7. ^ Panitch 2013.
    8. ^
      ISSN 0068-9963
      .
    9. ^ a b Panitch & Gindin 2012.
    10. ^ "Past Recipients". Deutscher Memorial Prize. 10 June 2014. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
    11. ^ "Book Prize in Political Economy". Studies in Political Economy. Archived from the original on March 31, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
    12. ^ Panitch 2008; Panitch & Gindin 2012.
    13. ^ Panitch, Leo (June 28, 1997). "Why Was Winnipeg a Hotbed for Radicals?". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. p. D12.
    14. ^ a b "Beloved teacher and public thinker Leo Panitch has died of COVID-19". thestar.com. 2020-12-21. Retrieved 2020-12-26.
    15. ^ "Manitoba History: The Jewish Community of Winnipeg and the Federal Election of 1935 in Winnipeg North". www.mhs.mb.ca. Retrieved 2020-12-26.
    16. ^ "Leo Panitch (1945–2020)". jacobinmag.com. Retrieved 2020-12-26.
    17. ^ a b c d Panitch 2003.
    18. ^ Panitch 2008.
    19. ^ a b "Inventory of the Leo Panitch fonds". York University. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
    20. ^ "Leo Panitch (Bio and Stories)". Parkland Institute. Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
    21. ^ Panitch 1977.
    22. ^ "Socialist savant: Leo Panitch (1945-2020)". canadiandimension.com. 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
    23. ^ "Leo Panitch". Fernwood Publishing. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
    24. ^ "Canadian Dimension, about us". Canadian Dimension. Archived from the original on March 20, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
    25. ^
      Jacobin Magazine
      . Retrieved 23 December 2020.
    26. ^ Leo Panitch. "Web Transcript" (PDF). socialistproject.ca. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
    27. ^ a b c Panitch & Gindin 2012, pp. 1–21.
    28. .
    29. – via ProQuest One Academic.
    30. ^ Leys, Colin (January 14, 2021). "Leo Panitch obituary". The Guardian (Online). Retrieved January 9, 2022.
    31. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, p. 59-63.
    32. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, p. 67-87.
    33. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, pp. 11–12.
    34. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, p. 12.
    35. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, p. 9-17.
    36. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, p. 163-172.
    37. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, p. 16, 183-193.
    38. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, pp. 20–21.
    39. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012, p. 21, 310-318.
    40. ^ Stoffman, Judy (January 1, 2021). "Marxist intellectual Leo Panitch had a 'big voice' and 'big mind'". The Globe and Mail. pp. B22. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
    41. – via ProQuest One Academic.
    42. ^ Monbiot, George (November 4, 2013). "This transatlantic trade deal is a full-frontal assault on democracy". The Guardian. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
    43. ^ Konings, Martijn (Fall 2021). "What Does Money Do? The Critique of Capitalism between Political Sociology and Political Economy". Labour (88) – via ProQuest One Academic.
    44. ^ Whitaker, Reg (Fall 2021). "In Memoriam: Leo Panitch, 1945–2020". Labour (88) – via ProQuest One Academic.
    45. ^ "School of Disability Studies". Ryerson University. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
    46. ^ "Disability, Mothers, and Organization: Accidental Activists". Routledge. 28 October 2008. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
    47. ^ "Artist's Book of the Moment". Art Gallery of York University. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
    48. ^ "Profile: Vida Panitch". Carleton University. Archived from the original on 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2017-09-02.
    49. ^
      Jacobin Magazine
      . Retrieved 23 December 2020.
    50. ^ Jiang, Kevin (December 21, 2020). "Beloved teacher and public thinker Leo Panitch has died of COVID-19". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on December 21, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
    51. Jacobin magazine. Retrieved 25 December 2020.[permanent dead link
      ]
    52. ^ Albo, Gindin & Panitch 2010.
    53. ISBN 978-1-4426-0096-6. Archived from the original
      on 18 May 2021. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
    54. .
    55. ^ Panitch, Leo; Gindin, Sam (2004). "Superintending Global Capital". Socialist Register. 40: 1–41.
    56. ^ Panitch, Leo; Gindin, Sam (2004). "Global Capitalism and American Empire". New Left Review. 35: 101–123.
    57. ^ Panitch, Leo (2000). "The new imperial state". New Left Review. 2: 5–20.
    58. .
    59. ^ Panitch, Leo (1994). "Globalisation and the state". Socialist Register. 30: 60–93.
    60. ^ Panitch, Leo (1981). "Trade unions and the capitalist state". New Left Review. 125: 21–43.
    61. .
    62. .
    63. .
    64. ^ "Author Leo Panitch". Socialist Project. Retrieved September 28, 2022.

    Works cited

    External links

    Awards
    Preceded by Deutscher Memorial Prize
    2013
    With: Sam Gindin
    Succeeded by