Teach Ins

A teach-in held by the Platypus Affiliated Society Manchester on the 30th of January 2020, explaining in basic terms what is meant by “the dialectic”, through Theodor W. Adorno’s An Introduction to Dialectics.

Teach-in by Efraim Carlebach of the Platypus Affiliated Society at the LSE SU Platypus Society on 5 December 2019, on the history of the Labour party and its relationship to the Left, and the December 2019 UK general election.

Teach-in at Aarhus by Platypus member Victor Cova. Description: The contemporary left seems weaker than ever. Compared to the uprisings of the 1960s, to say nothing of the world revolution of the 1920s, the events that followed the 2008 crisis (#Occupy, Arab revolutions, Movement of the Squares, Black Lives Matter...) were nothing short of disappointing. Marxism had inspired many of these earlier revolutionary attempts, but now seems hopelessly obscure. Where left-wing movements continue to talk about \“capitalism\“, \“class\“, and \“revolution\“, it is rarely clear what they mean by these words. [Read More]

Teach-in, veranstaltet von der Platypus Affiliated Society im Café C.I. – Club International in Wien am 11. Oktober 2019. „In den 1980er Jahren verabschiedete sich eine ganze Generation Intellektueller im Zeichen der Postmoderne von jeglicher Utopie. Doch bereits zuvor war die Neue Linke in den 60er und 70er Jahren mit ihrer Rückkehr zu Marx gescheitert. Aus Sicht von Althusser inszenierten die Studenten weltweit 1968 eine „ideologische Revolte”. Sie revolutionierten den kulturellen Überbau, aber nicht die sozialen und politischen Verhältnisse. [Read More]

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A teach-in at the University of California Santa Cruz. Tracing the decline of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in Mexico, the rise of Neoliberalism, and the election of AMLO, this teach-in asks how the failure of the Left in the past century informs Mexican Democracy in the 21st century.

Teach-In by Eduardo Silveyra for Platypus Affiliated Society (University of Houston), October 4, 2019

Teach-in hosted by Platypus at London School of Economics introducing the Platypus project: “On Surviving the Extinction of the Left”.

[archiveorg doesmarxismevenmatterplatypusfairfax2019 width=640 height=480 frameborder=0 webkitallowfullscreen=true mozallowfullscreen=true] An introductory workshop by member Ethan Linehan on the development of freedom in human history from the Platypus perspective. In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels famously observed that a \“spectre was haunting Europe: the spectre of Communism\“. 170 years later, it is Marxism itself that haunts us, while capitalism remains. What does it mean that Marx and Marxism still appeal, while political movements for socialism are weak or non-existent? [Read More]

On September 27, 2019, at the University of Houston, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a teach-in led by Platypus member Michael Woodson on capital in history. What is the development of freedom in human history from the Platypus perspective? In the mid-19th century, Marx and Engels famously observed that a \“specter was haunting Europe: the specter of Communism\“. 170 years later, it is Marxism itself that haunts us, while capitalism remains. [Read More]

A teach-in on trans liberation held by David Faes at Northwestern University on June 4th, 2019. Description The socialist Left, which historically stood for increasing the scope of freedom, has historically shifted positions on issues of gender and sexuality. Recently, there has been some conflict over the trans identity, how it should be taken up by the Left if at all. What do such controversies tell us about the politics of sexual freedom and the history of the Left, moving forward? [Read More]