Women’s March

An Islamophile intervention against women’s rights

Women’s March

 March 8, 2018  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

“WE CAN DISAGREE AND STILL LOVE EACH OTHER, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist,” Linda Sarsour proudly announces on her Twitter account.1 Sarsour is a self-proclaimed human rights activist and supporter of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She and her Women’s March (WM) colleagues were named Women of The Year 2017 by Glamour magazine.2 However, for Sarsour, Trump’s so-called “white supremacy” seems to be the only phenomenon deserving of the term “oppression. [Read More]
feminism  women's march  islam  anti-semitism  palestine  israel  islamism  iran  anti-deutsch 

A reply to Stephan Grigat

On anti-Semitism and the Left on Iran

 December 1, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

THERE ARE SECTIONS of the international left that support Iran’s Islamic regime, want to ban any criticism of its dictatorial practices, and condemn calls for its revolutionary overthrow because it is currently threatened by the U.S. and its allies. It is entirely legitimate to be sharply critical of this approach and to ask: What has created this bizarre allegiance of sections of the antiwar left with some of the most unsavory Islamic governments and political forces in the Middle East and beyond? [Read More]
PR Iran  Iran  Anti-semitism  Stephan Grigat 

To know the worst

Anti-Semitism and the failure of the Left on Iran

To know the worst

 September 1, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

DESPITE THE CREATION OF AN AUTOCRATIC and anti-Semitic regime after the Khomeneiite revolution of 1979, the European Community and later the European Union continued to deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran; and even with new, insufficient sanctions in place, trade with Iran continues until today. It is the capitalist state’s primary task to allow the further realization of capital, but there is a certain sense in which politics surpasses this function. [Read More]
Anti-Deutsche  Anti-semitism  Iran  PR Iran  Islamism  Israel  Israel-Palestine Conflict  Khomeni  Middle East  Zionism 

Antisemitism and the Left

A German-US comparison

 November 28, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Description From accusations directed towards Occupy Wall Street to arson attacks in Brooklyn, antisemitism has reemerged as a concern of the left in recent months. This talk will look at the relationship between the left and antisemitism, giving an overview of different historical forms, analyzing divergent theoretical explanations, and comparing the U.S. and German cases. Special attention will be given to examining the particular relationship of antisemitism to political economy and critiques of capitalism, the political implicationst of viewing antisemitism as a form of prejudice versus an ideology, and left debates around antisemitism and Israel post-9/11. [Read More]
Anti-semitism  Antisemitism  Germany  Israel  Zeena Arnold 

"A Black Man Speaks of Marx"

The Sartre-Fanon Dialogues of the 1940s and 1950s

 November 17, 2010  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A talk held on November 17, 2010 at the University of Illinois. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Description In the years immediately following World War II French intellectuals Jean-Paul Sartre and Frantz Fanon turned their attention to racism, anti-semitism and anti-black racism. Both men were engaged with both. Neither wrote from identity, but rather both sought to link their reflections to Marxism, to its failure and possible reconstitution. [Read More]
Anti-black racism  Anti-Semite and Jew  Anti-semitism  Black Orpheus  Black Skin White Masks  Frantz Fanon  Jean-Paul Sartre  Karl Marx  Marxism  Racism  Jean-Paul Sartre  Wretched of the Earth 

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 

Nothing Left to say

A critique of the Guardian's coverage of the 2008 Mumbai attacks

Nothing Left to say

 February 3, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

This article has been reprinted in Mainstream Weekly. Deep historical precedents HOWEVER SINCERE ITS BACKERS or belligerent its enemies, the “War on Terror” is not and cannot become anti-Islamist. This is not because, as some think, there is no Islamist or Taliban-style fascism on the receiving end of America’s War on Terror. Far from it. The reason is that the prosecutors of the war are only half committed to the selective elimination of certain religious reactionaries. [Read More]
Afghanistan  Anti-semitism  History of the Left  Lashkar-e-taiba  Mumbai  Mumbai Attacks  Pakistan  Taliban  The Guardian  The Left  War on Terror  India  Terrorism