Revolutionary Politics and Thought

 April 6, 2014  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel held on April 5, 2014 at the Sixth Annual Platypus International Convention at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Chris Cutrone (Platypus) Samir Gandesha (Simon Fraser University) Nikos Malliaris (Lieux Communs) Dimitrios Roussopoulos (Transnational Institute of Social Ecology) Joseph Schwartz (Temple University) Description No coarser insult, no baser defamation, can be thrown against the workers than the remark, ‘Theoretical controversies are for the intellectuals’ [Read More]
Platypus International Convention 2014  Lieux Communs  Transnational Institute of Social Ecology 

CPGB contra Lukács

 January 11, 2014  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A Platypus-wide teach-in on the CPGB’s campaign against Lukács and its stakes for Platypus as a project. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Description Held on Saturday January 11 1-4PM at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago 112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920 while simultaneously broadcast internationally via Livestream. Paul Demarty's historical chart of Lukács's influence on Platypus The preparatory readings for this event are as follows and can be found at: [Read More]
Communism  CPGB  Marxism  Socialism  Trotskyism 

Revolution without Marx?

Rousseau and his followers for the Left, Left Forum 2013

 June 9, 2013  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel discussion held at Left Forum 2013, at Pace University, on June 9, 2013. Video Recording Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element This panel was transcripted in Platypus Review #61 Speakers Chris Cutrone Spencer A. Leonard Sunit Singh Description Bourgeois society came into full recognition with Rousseau, who in the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and On the Social Contract, opened its radical critique. [Read More]
Left Forum  Left Forum 2013  Friedrich Nietzsche  Jean-Jacques Rousseau 

Sexual Freedom and the History of the Left

 February 14, 2013  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A teach-in led by Chris Cutrone at the University of Chicago on February 14, 2013. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Description The political and cultural Left, which stand for increasing the scope of freedom, have shifted positions historically on issues of sexuality. For instance, where once the Left challenged marriage and family norms in society, there has been a turn to advocating participation in predominant institutions, for instance gay marriage: there has been some conflict in LGBTQ circles over the politics of gay marriage, whether it should be advocated in certain ways or at all by the Left. [Read More]
Gay marriage  LGBTQ  Barack Obama  Sexual liberation 

Global Rut

Chris Cutrone on CrossTalk

 October 15, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Platypus Affiliated Society member Chris Cutrone on RT’s Crosstalk, hosted by Peter Lavelle, on the global economic crisis. “The IMF has released a report that predicts the hoped-for global economic growth is again endangered. Why is this happening? Why has the Great Recession come back so early? Did it ever end? Has austerity made things worse? And is there a way to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff’ issue in Washington? [Read More]
Austerity  Capitalism  Crisis  Crosstalk  Economic crisis  Great Recession  Martin Hennecke  Policy  Recession  RT  Seijiro Takeshita  Socialism  Stimulus 

Trotsky and Trotskyism, Lecture 4

1923--1933

 July 7, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Part 4 of the Summer 2012 Platypus Affiliated Society Primary Reading Group Lecture Series: Trotsky and Trotskyism. Recorded on 7 July, 2012 at The New School, New York. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Week 4 Readings * recommended / * supplemental reading Trotsky, Where is Britain Going? (1925) Trotsky, Problems of the Chinese Revolution 1927–31 (1932) Trotsky, writings on the rise of Hitler and the destruction of the German Left (1930–40), especially “To build communist parties and an international anew” (1933) [Read More]
Trotskyism  Leon Trotsky 

Why I Joined Platypus

 April 11, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

“Why I joined Platypus” was the Sunday Plenary panel at the Platypus Affiliated Society’s 4 Annual International Convention, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, March 30 to April 1, 2012. In this panel four members reflect on why they joined Platypus, and what this decision has meant for them. This panel took place on April 1st, 2012, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. [Read More]
About Platypus  Left Forum  Left Forum 2012  Platypus International Convention 2012  Platypus  Platypus Affiliated Society