Teach-in: The Failure of the Islamic Revolution

Teach-in: The Failure of the Islamic Revolution

 February 15, 2010  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Join Platypus members this Wednesday, February 17th for a teach-in on the Iranian Revolution and a discussion on the current situation in Iran led by Platypus Review editor Pam C. Nogales C. This event will be held at the [New School, ] Undoubtedly, the Left today should demand the overthrow of theocratic regimes; the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran is no exception. However, how the regime is overthrown, who participates in this act and how they understand their political practice, has irreversible effects. [Read More]
Ervand Abrahamian  Iran  Iranian Revolution  New School  New York  New York chapter  NYC  Public forum  Teach-in 

Against the status quo

 January 8, 2010  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Despite unrelenting state repression, there have been rumblings throughout the 2000s of renewed labor organizing inside the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). One result of this upsurge in labor organizing was the May 2005 re-founding of the Syndicate of Workers of the United Bus Company of Tehran and Suburbs, a union that has a long history, albeit one that was interrupted by the 1979 “Revolution,” after which the union was repressed. [Read More]
Iran  Homayoun Pourzad  Unions 

30 years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran

 August 23, 2009  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON THURSDAY APRIL 16 2009 Platypus Review Editor-in-Chief Spencer A. Leonard interviewed the prominent historian and Columbia University professor Ervand Abrahamian on “Radical Minds” broadcast on UChicago WHPK-FM 88.5 on the subject of “30 years of Islamic Revolution in Iran.” Abrahamian kindly agreed to answer some further questions put to him by the Platypus Review to supplement that interview. Included below is an edited transcript of the original interview together with the answers Abrahamian gave to our supplemental questions. [Read More]
Ervand Abrahamian  Iran  Islam  Islamism  Islamic Revolution 

Iraq and the election

The fog of "anti-war" politics

 October 1, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

BARACK OBAMA HAD, UNTIL RECENTLY, made his campaign for President of the United States a referendum on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In the Democratic Party primaries, Obama attacked Hillary Clinton for her vote in favor of the invasion. Among Republican contenders, John McCain went out of his way to appear as the candidate most supportive of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq. Looking towards the general election, it is over Iraq that the candidates have been most clearly opposed: Obama has sought to distinguish himself most sharply from McCain on Iraq, emphasizing their differences in judgment. [Read More]
Adolph Reed  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  ANSWER  Anti-imperialism  Anti-war  Ba'athism  Bill Clinton  Bush administration  Democracy  Democrats  Election  History  History of the Left  Imperialism  Iran  Iraq  ISO  Joe Biden  Kurds  Liberalism  NATO  Barack Obama  Occupation  Politics  RCP (USA)  Republicans  Saddam Hussein  Saudi Arabia  Shia  Sunni  The Left  The Right  U.N  Vietnam  World Can't Wait 

Persepolis and the personal consequences of failure

 May 1, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

PERSEPOLIS IS A FILM that does not take itself seriously enough. This is not a comment on the unadorned animation style. Nor am I referring to the narrative of the protagonist: a story of a girl raised in a left-wing milieu that succeeds in arousing quite a bit of empathy in the audience. It is the film’s treatment of depoliticization as a fait accompli and its persistent retreat to the safety of the personal that make it a fascinating symptom of politics today. [Read More]
Iran  Iranian Revolution  Persepolis  Film 

Review: Iran "Insights into its Religion, Politics, and Power"

 March 1, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE WELL ATTENDED EVENT was held inside of the new auditorium housed in the recently buit expansion of the Spertus Insitute on Michigan avenue. The talk addressed the political character of Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1978–79. The evening’s first presenter, Dr. David Menashri, an esteemed political adviser and director of the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University, set the tone for the evening by commenting that he could not help but feel optimistic about the prospects of Iran. [Read More]
Iran 

Remember our real Iranian friends

 November 1, 2007  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

DURING HIS VISIT TO NEW YORK this week to address the UN General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to go to Columbia University to address faculty members and also to meet with a group of American religious leaders. His arrival was preceded by weeks of commotion and dispute: should Ahmadinejad have been allowed to visit ground zero? Should Columbia have agreed to host him? Should he even have been granted a visa to enter at all? [Read More]
1977  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  Bush administration  Columbia University  Democracy  Government  Human rights  Iran  Jürgen Habermas  Jean-Paul Sartre  Leonid Brezhnev  Michel Foucault  Nationalism  Noam Chomsky  Slavoj Žižek  The Left  Women's rights