Leo Panitch

Leo Panitch

Leo Victor Panitch FRSC was 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. Panitch was the author of more than 100 scholarly articles and nine books including Working-Class Politics in Crisis and Renewing Socialism.

About Leo Panitch in brief

Summary Leo PanitchLeo Victor Panitch FRSC was 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 was the author of more than 100 scholarly articles and nine books including Working-Class Politics in Crisis and Renewing Socialism. His book The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire traces the development of American-led globalization over more than a century. 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 DavidsonSPE Book Prize for the best book in political economy by a Canadian. He was born on May 3, 1945, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. 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. His 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. At 22, Panitch left Winnipeg and moved to London, where he earned his Master of Science degree in 1968. His doctoral thesis was entitled The Labour Party and the Trade Unions of the Industrial Unions. He taught at Carleton University between 1972 and 1984 and at London School of Economics and LSE between 1974 and 1984. He died on September 14, 2013. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.