Political Economy



G02 - The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power Fifty Years On (Part II)

Date: Jun 12 | Time: 10:15am to 11:45am | Location: Zoom (see details/voir détails)

Chair/Président/Présidente : Bryan Evans (Toronto Metropolitan University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Gregory Albo (York University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Steve Maher (State University of New York - Cortland)

Zoom Meeting Link | Meeting ID : 929 2436 9450 | Password: 323311

Dennis Pilon (York University)
Christian Pépin (Université du Québec en Outaouais)
Arnel Borras (St. Francis Xavier University)
William Carroll (University of Victoria)
Nicolas Graham (University of British Columbia)
Robert Heynen (York University)

Abstract: In 1977, Leo Panitch’s edited collection The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power was published. For many, this was a first introduction to Leo and his Marxist analytical lens. The 1970s was a far cry from the political and economic context we find ourselves in today. Stagflation set the economic context. The political context globally was one of labour militancy, emancipatory struggles for social and national liberation in the Global South, and of a successful electoral and social movement Left. In Canada, 1976 saw this country’s first, and only, national general strike over wage controls as stagflation endured. Unions and the NDP advocated for the public ownership of natural resources, and in some provincial cases, actually did so, Left economic nationalism was a ‘thing’, various social movements – women, environmental – were at the zenith of their influence. Obviously that world has been turned upside down. With this historical context in mind, the editors (Gregory Albo (York), Bryan Evans (Toronto Metropolitan),and Stephen Maher (SUNY-Cortland), are undertaking a ‘re-imagining’ of Panitch;s original book entitled The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power Fifty Years On, 1977 to 2027. This roundtable provides a forum where contributors to the volume can share how they are re-imagining and contemporizing issues touched upon in the original collection as well as issues such as free trade, Indigenous struggles, and race not dealt with in 1977.