Leo Panitch

Leo Victor Panitch (BA Manitoba, MA & PhD London School of Economics) is the Senior Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, and the co-editor of the internationally renowned annual volume, The Socialist Register. His many books American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance, (Palgrave Macmillan 2009); Renewing Socialism: Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination (Merlin 2008); Global Capitalism and American Empire (Merlin, 2004); From Consent to Coercion: The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms (Garamond 2003); The End of Parliamentary Socialism (Verso 2001); A Different Kind of State? Popular Power and Democratic Administration (Oxford University Press 1992); Working Class Politics in Crisis (Verso 1986), The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power (University of Toronto Press 1977); and Social Democracy and Industrial Militancy (Cambridge University Press 1976). In 1994 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for “the wide ranging impact of his published scholarship,” including “his theoretical argument about the limitations of corporatism and for his contribution to the development of the theory of the state in capitalist societies.” He is now completing a major book with his co-author Sam Gindin on The Making of Global Capitalism. Foreign Policy magazine (May/June 2009) featured his essay “Thoroughly Modern Marx” on its front cover.

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Praise

“Once again, Panitch, Gindin, and Albo show that they have few rivals and no betters in analyzing the relations between politics and economics, between globalization and American power, between theory and quotidian reality, and between crisis and political possibility. At once sobering and inspiring, this is one of the few pieces of writing that I’ve seen that’s essential to understanding – to paraphrase a term from accounting – the sources and uses of crisis. Splendid and essential.” –Doug Henwood, Left Business Observer, author of After the New Economy and Wall Street

“Mired in political despair? Planning your escape to a more humane continent? Baffled by the economy? Convinced that the Left is out of ideas? Pull yourself together and read this book, in which Albo, Gindin, and Panitch, some of the world’s sharpest living political economists, explain the current financial crisis – and how we might begin to make a better world.” –Liza Featherstone, author of Students Against Sweatshops and Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart

“In and Out of Crisis is a salutary reminder that knee-jerk reactions to current events are not the best way forward for the Left. What we need is careful investigation combined with practical experiences on campaigns to develop our movement. This book not only gives us a course in the global financial meltdown, but it also provides a model for how the Left must develop its alternatives, not ex nihilo, but from a study of the contradictions of the present.” –Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World

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Forewords by Leo

Praise

“This insightful, revealing, and passionate book is a must read for workers and union activists all over the world in their efforts to develop strategies to overcome neoliberalism. The creation of a single North American and global labor market by NAFTA and neoliberal globalization has created both the bases and the necessity for workers and unions to move beyond nationalism and chauvinism.”
—Alejandro Álvarez, socioeconomist and professor at the Faculty of Economics–Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM, National Autonomous University of Mexico), member of the Trinational Coalition in Defense of Public Education and of the ’68 Pro-Democratic Liberties Committee.

“The analysis presented by the authors and the conclusions they come to are fundamentally sound. The call for going beyond basic cooperation between unions to a profound transformation of unions into organizations fighting for the needs and aspirations of working people in all three countries is powerful and exciting. This very readable text may well prove crucial for those wanting to move beyond a national framework and encompass one that is continental and global.”
—Chris Schenk, Global Labour Journal

“All of those interested in understanding the nature of the problems we face in taking on the capitalist class and building a new continental labor movement will find this book essential.”
—Dan La Botz, New Politics

“The product of decades of close collaboration between two participant/observers of the Mexican labor movement, Continental Crucible is a significant contribution to the literature on NAFTA and labor that merits the study and consideration of labor educators.”
—Labor Studies Journal

“Roman and Velasco have made a valuable contribution to understanding the convergence of North American political economy under free trade and neoliberalism, and a timely intervention in their call for a transnational labor movement with transformative ambitions.”
—Working USA

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Book Events

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Reviews

• Crisitunity: Review of “In and Out of Crisis”
• An Intelligent Take on the Economic Crisis
• Profits of Doom: Spectres of Capitalist Crisis
• Leo Panitch on the purpose & context of the G20
• In and Out of Crisis: A Socialist Studies Review
• Tri-National Integration
• In and Out of Crisis: A Review
• Capitalist Crisis and Left Alternatives
• In and Out of Crisis in Alternate Routes
• Panitch and Harvey Provide Essential Primers on the Financial Crisis
• The Busy Reader’s Guide to the Financial Meltdown
• An Intelligent Take on the Economic Crisis
• In and Out of Crisis on Irish Left Review

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Interviews

• Capitalist Crisis, Radical Renewal?—In and Out of Crisis
• In and Out of Crisis on ZNet
• In and Out of Crisis: Authors Meet Critics

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Mentions

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Blog

• Leo Panitch (1945–2020)
• Public Sector Austerity Unreasonable and Irrational
• Recommended Reading Links