Democracy

Democracy and the Left

June 1, 2019 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

The following is an edited transcript of a panel hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society at the University of Pennsylvania on March 21st, 2019. The panelists were Jon Bekken, editor of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, Adolph Reed, Jr., Professor of Political Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, Warren Breckman, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, and Erin Hagood, member of the Platypus Affiliated Society. The panel discussion was moderated by Austin Carder, member of the Platypus Affiliated Society. [Read More]

democracy

What is the European Union and should we be against it?

September 6, 2016 | The Platypus Affiliated Society • Other languages: Deutsch

ON NOVEMBER 7, 2015, at its Second Annual European Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel addressing the topic “What is the European Union and should we be against it?” The discussion was moderated by Thodoris Velissaris and included the following panelists: Juan Roch, a member of the Spanish political party Podemos; Jens Wissel, a founding member of the Assoziation für Kritische Gesellschaftsforschung and author of Staatsprojekt EUropa: Grundzüge einer materialistischen Theorie der Europäischen Union; Nikos Nikisianis, a member of DIKTYO (Network for Political and Social Rights) in Greece, an affiliate of SYRIZA until July 2015; and Martin Suchanek, a member of Gruppe Arbeitermacht, the German section of the League for the Fifth International, and the editor of its theoretical journal Revolutionärer Marxismus. [Read More]

The European Union Nationalism Internationalism Democracy

Left Exit or No Brexit?

June 18, 2016 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON JUNE 8, the London chapter of the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel on the topic “Left Exit or No Brexit?” at the London School of Economics. The panel brought together Neil Davenport, Mike Macnair, and Gerry Downing, and was moderated by Ninad Pandit of the Platypus Affiliated Society. Neil Davenport is the head of sociology at a comprehensive school in North London, and is a NASUWT representative. He is on the organizing committee for the Institute of Ideas’ annual festival, the Battle of Ideas, and is a regular contributor to its associated publication, Spiked Online. [Read More]

The European Union Brexit Socialist Fight Spiked! CPGB Weekly Worker Democracy Nationalism Internationalism sovereignty

Democracy and the Left

July 8, 2015 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON APRIL 11, 2015, The Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion on democracy and the Left at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the seventh annual Platypus International Convention. In conversation were Mike Macnair, member of the Provisional Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and author of numerous works including Revolutionary Strategy (2008); August Nimtz, author of numerous works including Marx and Engels: Their Contribution to the Democratic Breakthrough (2000); Aaron Smeaton, a member of the International Communist Tendency and a contributor to leftcom. [Read More]

Democracy

Revolutionary politics and thought

September 5, 2014 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

No coarser insult, no baser defamation, can be thrown against the workers than the remark, ‘Theoretical controversies are for the intellectuals’ —Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution (1900) Since there can be no talk of an independent ideology formulated by the working masses themselves in the process of their movement the only choice is – either bourgeois or socialist ideology… This does not mean, of course, that the workers have no part in creating such an ideology. [Read More]

C. Wright Mills Democracy Environmentalism French Revolution Hannah Arendt Ideology Jacobin Karl Marx Vladimir Lenin Leon Trotsky Organization Political party Praxis Revolution Rosa Luxemburg Theory and practice Thomas jefferson

Democracy and The Left

June 1, 2014 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Honoré Daumier's (1808-1879) 'The Republic', 1848. After the Republic was proclaimed on 24 February 1848, the official image of the State had to be changed. A competition was launched to define the 'painted face of the republic'. The French caricaturist, painter, and sculptor submitted a mother nursing powerful toddlers while holding the tricolour flag in her hand. The child sitting at her feet, reading, was much admired. [Read More]

1776 1789 1848 1914 1917 1989 Arab Spring Bonapartism CIO Critique Cuban Missile Crisis Democracy Electoral politics GDR Immanent critique John F. Kennedy Koch brothers Kshama Sawant Vladimir Lenin Karl Marx Max Weber New Deal Occupy Republic Revolution Rosa Luxemburg Russian revolution SFIO Socialist Alternative SPD The Left Ukraine WWII

Democracy and the Left, Chicago,

November 23, 2013 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

The fourth installment of a panel series with thinkers, activists and political figures focused on contemporary problems faced by the Left in its struggles to construct a politics that adequately address issues of democracy. Held at the University of Chicago on November 23, 2013. The first three panels were held in Halifax, Frankfurt, and Thessaloniki. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Michael Goldfield (Wayne State University) [Read More]

Democracy and the Left Democracy Democracy and the left

Democracy and the Left, Halifax,

November 14, 2012 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel event held on November 14, 2012, at Dalhousie University. The first iteration of our “Democracy and the Left” international panel series. Video Recording Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Matthew Furlong (Foundation Year and Contemporary Studies Programme, King’s University) David Howard (Historical and Critical Studies, NSCAD University) John Hutton (student activist, Dalhousie) Clare O’Connor (Toronto activist and author) Moderated by Andony Melathopoulos [Read More]

Democracy and the Left Democracy Leftism

"These petrified relations must be forced to dance"

October 1, 2012 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON AUGUST 22, 2012, Douglas La Rocca and Spencer A. Leonard of Platypus interviewed Dick Howard, professor emeritus at Stony Brook University and the author of The Specter of Democracy: What Marx and Marxists Haven’t Understood and Why, among other books. What follows is an edited transcript of their interview. Spencer A. Leonard: In The Development of the Marxian Dialectic (1972), you countered Louis Althusser on the question of Marx’s relationship to the Young Hegelians and, through them, to German Idealism as a whole. [Read More]

Democracy Dick Howard

Defining Democracy: The Labor Movement and #Occupy

March 31, 2012 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Panel held on March 31st, 2012 at the Fourth Annual Platypus International Convention, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists John Peterson (International Marxist Tendency) David Moberg (In These Times) James Manos (Occupy Chicago Labor Committee) Description In 2009 President Obama’s auto bailouts became a major flashpoint between the left and the mainstream of the labor movement. The majority of the left, including UAW dissidents, felt the auto bailouts were a missed opportunity to retool our manufacturing base, and a miserable half-measure. [Read More]

Occupy Platypus International Convention 2012 Democracy In These Times International Marxist Tendency Labor Labor movement Occupy Occupy Chicago Occupy wall street Organized labor OWS