Overview of all pages with the tags #Iraq - THE PLATYPUS AFFILIATED SOCIETY

What is imperialism? (What now?)

September 1, 2013 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON APRIL 6, 2013, a panel on “What is Imperialism? (What Now?)” took place during the Platypus International Convention at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The panel was motivated by the ten-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and aimed to discuss whether we are any closer to understanding what imperialism is and the relationship between anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism. This panel brought together Larry Everest from the Revolutionary Communist Party (USA), Joseph Green from Communist Voice, and Paul Demarty of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and was moderated by Lucy Parker of Platypus. [Read More]

10 years after the Iraq War

The inevitability of failure -- and of success

February 1, 2013 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

LEADING PUBLIC MEMBER of the Socialist Workers Party of the United Kingdom, Richard Seymour, who made a name for himself with the book The Liberal Defense of Murder (2008), polemicizing against campaigns of “humanitarian” military intervention such as the Iraq War, recently released his book on the late Christopher Hitchens, Unhitched, demonstrating that Hitchens remains an enduring and indeed indispensable phenomenon in the present system of thinking on the “Left.” [Read More]

Christopher Hitchens Iraq Richard Seymour Tariq Ali

Imperialism: What is it, why should we be against it?

July 9, 2010 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON JANUARY 30, 2007, Platypus hosted its first public forum, “Imperialism: What is it – Why should we be Against it?” The panel consisted of Adam Turl of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), Kevin Anderson of the Marxist-Humanist group News and Letters, Nick Kreitman of the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Danny Postel of Open Democracy, and Chris Cutrone of Platypus. What follows is an edited transcript of this event; the full video can be found online at the above link. [Read More]

Afghanistan Bosnia Bush administration History of the Left Iraq Imperialism War Anti-war ISO Marxism New SDS Vietnam

The Left and Prospects for Democracy in the Middle East: Iraq

March 20, 2010 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Platypus panel held at Left Forum 2010 in New York City, Pace University, March 20, 2010. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Laura Lee Schmidt (Chair)—Platypus Affiliated Society; History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture, MIT Issam Shukri—Worker-Communist Party of Iran (WPI) Ashley Smith—International Socialist Organization Christopher Cutrone—Platypus Affiliated Society; University of Chicago Description The 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq was, like the 1990-91 Gulf War, a turning point for the international Left, though few recognized this. [Read More]

Left Forum 2010 Democracy Iraq Iraq war Leftism Middle East Worker-Communist Party of Iran

Remarks on Chris Cutrone's 'Iraq and the election: the fog of 'anti-war' politics'

March 15, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

I WAS INTRIGUED TO FIND in The Platypus Review #7 a commentary by Chris Cutrone on the U.S. role in world politics. I found it more sophisticated and original than anything I had previously come across in the mainstream media either here or in Europe. Before launching my machine, I would like to situate myself. I’m a foreigner, philosopher of sorts, and not a student any more (That means I’m old. [Read More]

Anti-war War Bush administration Capitalism Democracy Exchanges Francis Fukuyama Imperialism Iraq Neo-conservatism Reagan Wilsonianism

Going it alone: Christopher Hitchens and the death of the Left

Book Review: Simon Cottee and Thomas Cushman (eds.). Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left.

March 15, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

New York: New York University Press, 2008. IF IT DID NOT COME TO END IN 1989, as conservative critic Francis Fukuyama expected, this is because, in Hegel’s sense, as freedom’s self-realization in time, History had already ceased. Long before the new geopolitical configurations and institutional forms of the post-Soviet world, a new and unprecedented, though scarcely recognized, political situation had taken shape: The last threads of continuity connecting the present with the long epoch of political emancipation were severed. [Read More]

Christopher Hitchens Enlightenment Iraq Marxism Moralism Terror The Left War Anti-war

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

Ba'athism and the history of the Left in Iraq

Violence and politics

March 1, 2008 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

SINCE THE 1960s the saturation of brutality and violence in Iraq has caused considerable confusion among Leftists in regards to both its political meaning and causes. One cannot fully understand the character of Saddam Hussein’s Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party without taking into account that it achieved political power by systematically killing off the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) and quelling other political dissent with acts of extreme cruelty. The eight year battle of attrition instigated by Hussein, known as the Iran-Iraq War, caused over half a million Iraqi deaths, and the ethnic cleansing campaigns directed against the Kurds resulted in countless more. [Read More]

The Left is dead! Long live the Left!

Vicissitudes of historical consciousness and possibilities for emancipatory social politics today

November 1, 2007 | The Platypus Affiliated Society • Other languages: Ελληνικά

The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. —Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (1852) The theorist who intervenes in practical controversies nowadays discovers on a regular basis and to his shame that whatever ideas he might contribute were expressed long ago – and usually better the first time around. —Theodor W. Adorno, “Sexual Taboos and the Law Today” (1963) [Read More]

19th Century /20th Century capitalism consciousness counterrevolution crisis Vladimir Lenin Critical Theory defeat depoliticization emancipation György Lukács Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel History History of the Left humanity ideology Imperialism Industrial Revolution Iraq Karl Korsch liberalism Marxism Karl Marx Moishe Postone Negative Dialectics New Left Friedrich Nietzsche opportunism Philosophy Political economy Politics postmodernism Revolution Robert Pippin Rosa Luxemburg Social Democracy Social Democratic Party of Germany SPD Socialism society Stalinism Theodor W. Adorno utopianism Walter Benjamin war

Tariq Ali Interviewed by Chris Cutrone

October 15, 2007 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Interview with Tariq Ali on Iraq, the anti-war movement, and the state of the Left today conducted by Platypus member Chris Cutrone on October 15, 2007 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Audio Recording

Interviews Anti-war movement Iraq Iraq War Leftism Tariq Ali