Fifty Years of 1968

10th International Convention, Chicago

Fifty Years of 1968

 August 5, 2018  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

On April 6, 2018, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion, Fifty Years of 1968, as the opening plenary of its 10th International Convention, 1918–2018: A Century of Counterrevolution, held in Chicago. Speaking at the event were Abdul Alkalimat, professor of African-American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champagne, and author of numerous books, including Malcolm X for Beginners; Joseph Estes, a member of Platypus and of the Campaign for a Socialist Party; Johnny Mercer, a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain and an artist working in Chicago; and Mitchel Cohen, pamphleteer, poet, and founder of the Red Balloon Collective at SUNY Stony Brook in 1969. [Read More]
1968  Socialist Party of Great Britain  Black Liberation  Green politics  Herbert Marcuse  The Situationist International 

50 years of 1968

50 years of 1968

 April 1, 2018  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

On February 16 2018, as part of its Fourth European Conference, the Platypus Affiliated Society organized a panel discussion, “50 Years of 1968,” at Goldsmiths University. Moderated by David Faes of Platypus, the event brought together the following speakers: Robert Borba, supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP USA); Judith Shapiro, professor at the London School of Economics, former member of the Spartacist League, and adviser to the Russian Ministry of Finance; Jack Conrad, of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Weekly Worker; and Hillel Ticktin, honorary Senior Research Fellow at Glasgow University. [Read More]
The Platypus Review  1968  Stalinism  Maoism  CPGB  RCP (USA)  Spartacist League  Weekly Worker  South Africa  China  USSR 

2011, 1999, 1968 -- and 2012? The history of the Left and #Occupy

 March 18, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Video Recording Panelists Brooke Lehman is a faculty member at the Institute for Social Ecology and a longtime activist. She is on the Board of Smartmeme, the Brecht Forum, and Yansa, and spends most of her time organizing with Occupy Wall Street. Dave Haack is an organizer of Occupy Your Workplace. Description The two historical precedents for #Occupy are Seattle in 1999 and Paris in May 1968. The 1960s and 1990s saw the rise of anarchism against otherwise predominant liberal, social-democratic and Marxist tendencies. [Read More]
Occupy  Left Forum  Left Forum 2012  1968  1999  Occupy wall street  OWS  Seattle 

Is Marx back?

 May 9, 2010  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

IN LIGHT OF the recent economic crisis, Marxist theory has enjoyed a resurgence of interest. This most recent is the last of many returns to Marx’s work throughout the 20th century. Still, the question poses itself: Why return to Marx, yet again? What does this move tell us about our contemporary situation? Most important, what do previous returns to Marx tell us about capitalism and those who have self-consciously struggled against it? [Read More]
Leo Panitch  Karl Marx  Politics  Vietnam  1968  Imperialism 

Rosa Luxemburg's corpse

The stench of decay on the German Left, 1932--2009

 October 10, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

IN MAY OF 2009 SCIENTISTS IN BERLIN claimed to have unearthed the corpse of the martyred revolutionary leader Rosa Luxemburg. Stored in the cellar of a hospital, the corpse had neither a head, nor feet, nor hands. The stump of a corpse of Rosa Luxemburg lay rotting in a basement, subjected to the un-tender mercies of modern forensic science. Less than fourteen years after the death of one of its greatest leaders, the German Left died. [Read More]
1968  Anti-Americanism  Anti-Deutsche  Anti-imperialism  Anti-semitism  Germany  Herbert Marcuse  Nazi  New Left  Palestine  Theodor W. Adorno  Rosa Luxemburg  SPD 

Dialectics of Defeat

Towards a Theory of Historical Regression

 April 18, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Panel presentation by the Platypus Affiliated Society at Left Forum 2009: “Turning Points,” Pace University, NYC, April 17-19, 2009. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Transcript Panelists Benjamin Blumberg (Chair) Chris Cutrone Atiya Khan Spencer A. Leonard Richard Rubin Description The panelists elucidate significant moments in the progressive separation of theory and practice in the 20 and 21st Century history of Leftist politics: 2001 (Spencer A. [Read More]
About Platypus  Left Forum  Left Forum 2009  1917  1933  1968  2001  Dialectics  Historical regression  Pace University 

To the victor, the spoils

Review of Artforum's May 2008 issue May '68'

 September 1, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

We succeeded culturally. We succeeded socially. And we lost politically… I always say: ‘thank God!’ —Daniel Cohn-Bendit in interview on 1968, conducted by Yascha Mounk for The Utopian (2008) [O]ne asks with whom the adherents of historicism actually empathize. The answer is inevitable: with the victor… Whoever has emerged victorious participates to this day in the triumphal procession in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate. [Read More]
1968  /20th Century  Anti-capitalism  Antonio Negri  Art  Artforum  Barbarism  Capitalism  Critical theory  Daniel Cohn-Bendit  Difference  History  Labor  Marxism  Multitude  Paris  Philosophy  Postmodern  Proletariat  Society  Students  Theory  Transformation  Utopian  Walter Benjamin  Working class 

"Let the dead bury the dead!"

Response to Principia Dialectica (UK) on May 1968

 May 1, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE NEW MAYDAY MAGAZINE (UK) and Platypus have been in dialogue on the issues of anarchism and Marxism and the state of the “Left” today in light of history. (Please see “Organization, political action, history and consciousness” by Chris Cutrone for Platypus, and “Half-time Team Talk” by Trevor Bark for Mayday, in issues #2, February 2008, and #4, April-May 2008, respectively.) Principia Dialectica, another new British journal, also has taken note of Platypus (see “Weird gonzo leftoid journal,” April 15, 2008), specifically with our interview of Moishe Postone on “Marx after Marxism” (in issue #3, March 2008). [Read More]
1968  Anarchism  Exchanges  György Lukács  Marxism  Mayday  Moishe Postone  Principia Dialectica  Theodor W. Adorno  Trevor Bark  Walter Benjamin 

A Prelude to the History of the Left

 November 1, 2007  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE PLATYPUS HISTORIANS GROUP is a collective of members of Platypus who are researchers into the history of the Left. We will be publishing this series on the History of the Left under this collective authorship to indicate the collaborative nature of our research and the questions it raises. Each article under this byline will be written by one or several members of this collective, but with contributions and review by as many others of this group as possible and appropriate to the topics essayed. [Read More]
1789  1917  1960s  1968  Capitalism  Defeat  Enlightenment  History of the Left  Humanity  Marxism  Movements  Ronald Reagan  Sectarianism  Socialism  Stalinism  The Platypus Historians Group  Trotskyism