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Paul Le Blanc (born 1947) is an American historian at La Roche University in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylv ...
as well as labor and socialist activist who has written or edited more than 30 books on topics such as
Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
and
Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat part ...
.


Background

Paul Joseph Le Blanc was born in 1947 in
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania Huntingdon is a borough in (and the county seat of) Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located along the Juniata River, approximately east of Altoona and west of Harrisburg. With a population of 7,093 at the 2010 census, ...
and spent his childhood in
Clearfield, Pennsylvania Clearfield is a borough and the county seat of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 5,962 people, making it the second most populous community in Clearfield County, behind DuBois. The borough ...
. His parents Gaston Le Blanc and Shirley Harris were labor activists; he has two sisters. Le Blanc studied at the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
, focusing on history and receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971, a Master of Arts degree in 1980, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1989.


Career

In 1965, Le Blanc joined the “
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
” group
Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...
(SDS). In 1966, as a
conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
, he worked for the Quaker-based
American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (''Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by Am ...
in Pittsburgh and Baltimore. In the early 1970s, he served on the board of the Pittsburgh Peace and Freedom Center and the coordinating committee of the National Peace Action Coalition (1971-1974). He opposed the
Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and ...
and supported anti-racist activity – most prominently as part of the Pittsburgh Black Construction Coalition of 1969 – pro-feminist activities, defense of Latin American political prisoners, and Central America solidarity work. In the 1990s, he became active in the
Thomas Merton Center (Pittsburgh) The Thomas Merton Center is a non-profit grassroots organization in Pittsburgh whose mission to build and support collaborative movements that empower marginalized populations to advance collective liberation from oppressive systems. The Center wa ...
. He has been a member of the Socialist Workers Party (USA), the Fourth Internationalist Tendency, Solidarity (United States), and the
International Socialist Organization The International Socialist Organization (ISO) was a Trotskyist group active primarily on college campuses in the United States that was founded in 1976 and dissolved in 2019. The organization held Leninist positions on imperialism and the role ...
(until it terminated in 2019). He was active in efforts to create a Labor Party. He is a member of the
Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a left-wing multi-tendency socialist and labor-oriented political organization. Its roots are in the Socialist Party of America (SPA), whose leaders included Eugene V. Debs, Norman Thomas and Mich ...
. Since 2000, Le Blanc has supported the Green Party. He has opposed war and militarism, including US military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also collaborated closely with South African poet and global justice activist
Dennis Brutus Dennis Vincent Brutus (28 November 1924 – 26 December 2009) was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet best known for his campaign to have South Africa banned from the Olympic Games due to its racial policy of apartheid. ...
in building Pittsburgh participation in World Social Forums taking place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2003 and Mumbai, India, in 2004. In 2000, Le Blanc joined the faculty of La Roche College (renamed La Roche University in March 2019) as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences (2003-2009) and as a professor of history. He has lectured for the
International Institute for Research and Education The International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE) is a research and educational centre based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It conducts training and publishes research for and by progressive activists around the world. The institute was ...
and the
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (german: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung), named in recognition of Rosa Luxemburg, occasionally referred to as ''Rosa-Lux'', is a transnational alternative policy lobby group and educational institution, centered in Germ ...
and writes for the Center for Economic Research and Social Change's '' International Socialist Review''.


Personal life

Le Blanc married and had two sons. Le Blanc is currently a member of: * Pittsburghers for Public Transit *
Thomas Merton Center (Pittsburgh) The Thomas Merton Center is a non-profit grassroots organization in Pittsburgh whose mission to build and support collaborative movements that empower marginalized populations to advance collective liberation from oppressive systems. The Center wa ...
He has been a member of: *
American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership includes over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations. The AAUP's stated mission is ...
*
American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
*
International Socialist Organization The International Socialist Organization (ISO) was a Trotskyist group active primarily on college campuses in the United States that was founded in 1976 and dissolved in 2019. The organization held Leninist positions on imperialism and the role ...
*
Organization of American Historians The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad inc ...


Influences

Le Blanc's influences include: David Montgomery, Philip S. Foner, Frank Lovell, Richard N. Hunt,
Paul Sweezy Paul Marlor Sweezy (April 10, 1910 – February 27, 2004) was a Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and founding editor of the long-running magazine ''Monthly Review''. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory ...
, George Breitman,
Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel (; also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter (5 April 1923 – 20 July 1995), was a Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist, and Holocaust survivor. He f ...
, and
Michael Löwy Michael Löwy (born 6 May 1938) is a French-Brazilian Marxist sociologist and philosopher. He is emeritus research director in social sciences at the CNRS (French National Center of Scientific Research) and lectures at the ''École des hautes ...
.


Works

Magazines and journals to which he contributes include: * ''Dialectical Anthropology'' * ''Green Left Weekly'' * ''International Socialism'' * '' International Socialist Review'' * ''International Viewpoint'' * ''Russian Review'' * ''
Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...
'' * ''Monthly Review'' * ''New Formations: A Journal of Culture, Theory and Politics'' * ''Socialist Worker'' * ''WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society'' Publications include: * 1984: ** ''Permanent Revolution in Nicaragua'' ** ''In Defense of Revolutionary Continuity'' * 1988: "Reflections on the Fourth Internationalist Tendency" * 1990: ''Lenin and the Revolutionary Party'' * 1992: ''In Defense of American Trotskyism: Revolutionary Principles and Working-Class Democracy'' * 1994: ''C.L.R. James and Revolutionary Marxism'' * 1996: ** ''Trotskyism in the United States: Historical Essays and Reconsiderations'' (with George Breitman and Alan M. Wald) ** ''From Marx to Gramsci'' (edited with major introductory essay) ** "Letter to the Editors" in ''Solidarity'' * 1999: ** ''A Short History of the U.S. Working Class'' ** ''Rosa Luxemburg: Reflections and Writings'' (edited with major introductory essay) * 2000: ** Revolutionary Labor Socialist: The Life, Ideas and Comrades of Frank Lovell ** ''U.S. Labor in the Twentieth Century'' (edited with John Hinshaw) ** ''The Working-Class Movement in America,'' by Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling (edited with introductory essay) * 2003: ''Black Liberation and the American Dream'' (edited with major introductory essay) * 2006: ''Marx, Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience: Studies of Communism and Radicalism in the Age of Globalization'' * 2008: ** ''Lenin: Revolution, Democracy, Socialism: Selected Writings'' (edited with introductory essay) ** "History on the Printed Page" in ''Solidarity'' ** "Reluctant Memoir, Part 2" in ''Solidarity'' ** "Does Lenin Still Matter?" in ''International Socialist Review'' * 2009: ''International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest'' * 2011: ** ''Work and Struggle: Voices from U.S. Labor Radicalism'' (edited with introductory essays) ** ''Socialism or Barbarism: Selected Writings of Rosa Luxemburg'' (co-ed. with Helen C. Scott) ** "Lenin’s Marxism" * 2012: ''Leon Trotsky: Writings From Exile'' (co-edited with Kunal Chattopadhyay) * 2013: ''A Freedom Budget for All Americans: Recapturing the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in the Struggle for Economic Justice Today'' (with Michael D. Yates) * 2014: ** ''Unfinished Leninism: The Rise and Return of a Revolutionary Doctrine'' **''Leon Trotsky and the Organizational Principles of the Revolutionary Party'' (with Dianne Feeley and Thomas Twiss) ** ''The "American Exceptionalism of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades, 1929-1940'' (co-ed. with Tim Davenport) ** * 2014: "The Third American Revolution" in ''Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA''( * 2015: ''Leon Trotsky'' * 2016: ''The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume II: Economic Writings 2'' * 2017: ** ''Rosa Remix'' ** ''October Song: Bolshevik Triumph, Communist Tragedy, 1917-1924'' ** ''October 1917: Workers in Power'' ** ''Left Americana: The Radical Heart of US History'' ** "The ‘American Exceptionalism’ of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades, 1929-1940" in ''Dissident Marxism in the United States, Volume I'' * 2018: ** ''US Trotskyism 1928–1965, Part I: Emergence'' ** ''US Trotskyism 1928–1965, Part II: Endurance'' ** ''Revolutionary Studies: Essays in Plain Marxism'' * 2019: **''Living Flame: The Revolutionary Passion of Rosa Luxemburg'' ** ''US Trotskyism 1928–1965, Part III: Resurgence''


References


External links

* Michael D. Yates
"Interview with Paul Le Blanc,"
''Monthly Review'' online, Aug. 28, 2006
ResearchGate.net - Paul Le Blanc
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Blanc, Paul 1947 births Living people 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers University of Pittsburgh alumni American activists Members of the International Socialist Organization Members of the Democratic Socialists of America 20th-century American male writers