Ep. 24: On the anti-quarantine protests, Lenin at 150, and the sectarian extinction

On this episode, Pamela and Sophia discuss the anti-quarantine protestors as the newly christened "deplorables" in the lead up to the presidential election, Brad Troemel's fake ad and the Biden campaign. Pamela interviews August Nimtz, Professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. Prof. Nimtz wrote a two volume book on Lenin’s electoral strategy from Marx and Engels through the Revolution of 1905 (vol. 1); & from 1907 to the October Revolution of 1917 (vol. 2). On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth, we discuss the electoral area in his political strategy. We talk about the end of the Bernie Sanders campaign and then the legacy of the 1930s Popular Front today. On the second half of the episode, Sophia Freeman sits with to the current president of Platypus, Efraim Carlebach, who takes stock of the decline of the sectarian left, of the small Trotskyist and Maoists groups, and the waning influence of the party turn of the 1970s. They reflect on whether or not the mission of Platypus has changed in 2020, thirteen years after the organization's founding. Feel free to send it your responses, questions, criticism -- we’d like to hear from you -- to [email protected]. From the Platypus Archives: - Prof. Nimtz was on our Convention virtual panel, "The American Revolution and the Left," April 2020. Video: https://youtu.be/FvlbLgjnczo - Efraim & Sophia's interview with Ian Birchall, December 2017, for the Platypus Review https://platypus1917.org/2017/12/02/unchanging-core-marxism-interview-ian-birchall/ Hosted by Pamela C., Sophia, with editing assistance by Michael W.