Health Care Reform and American Politics

An interview with Helen Redmond

 April 24, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

The single-payer insurance model is the basis of the health care systems of other advanced industrial nations such as the United Kingdom and Canada, so what accounts for the apparent impracticality of achieving this reform in the United States? If the single-payer system is so much more rational and humane than the alternatives, why does it play such a marginal role in American politics? And if one is seriously committed to this reform, how might the situation change? [Read More]
Chicago Single Payer Action Network  Helen Richmond  International Socialist Organization  ISO  Single-payer insurance model  Health Care 

Which way forward for sexual liberation?

Which way forward for sexual liberation?

 February 1, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON NOVEMBER 8, 2010, Platypus hosted a forum entitled “Which Way Forward for Sexual Liberation?” moderated by Jeremy Cohan at New York University. The panel consisted of Gary Mucciaroni, professor of political science at Temple University; Sherry Wolf, author of Sexuality and Socialism and organizer for the International Socialist Organization; Kenyon Farrow, executive director of Queers for Economic Justice and author of the forthcoming Stand Up: The Politics of Racial Uplift; and Greg Gabrellas of Platypus. [Read More]
ISO  Public fora  Queers for Economic Justice  Sexuality 

The dead Left: Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution

The dead Left: Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution

 July 9, 2010  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

ONE FINDS QUITE A BIT OF NAME-CALLING among the innumerable articles and blog posts written in criticism of Hugo Chavez and his government. Although most of this invective is not very illuminating, one article by a young, Colombian, Trotsky-ish labor organizer describes Chavez perfectly in two words: a “postmodern Bonapartist.” Chavez, his Bolivarian Revolution, and his project of “21st Century Socialism” are postmodern in the sense that they exist in a discontinuity, in an amnesiac disconnect, with the modernist project of social and political emancipation that started with the bourgeois revolutions of the 18th century and withered and died sometime in the late 20th century. [Read More]
Bolivarian Revolution  Hugo Chavez  ISO  Michael Albert  Noam Chomsky  Tariq Ali  The Left  Venezuela 

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

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 

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 

Immigrants Rights and the Labor Movement

 April 23, 2008  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Information session for organizers of the May 1, 2008 International Workers’ Day demonstration in Chicago, held on April 23, 2008 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Co-sponsored by the Students for a Democratic Society and the Platypus Affiliated Society.

Audio Recording

Panelists

Tania Unzueta, May 1st Youth

Jorge Mujica, Movimiento 10 de Marzo

Shaun Harkin, International Socialist Organization

International Socialist Organization  ISO  May 1st Youth  Movimiento 10 de Marzo  SDS  Student movement  Students for a Democratic Society  Immigration 

"Imperialism"

What is it? Why Should We Be Against It?

 January 30, 2007  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

However difficult the task of grasping and confronting global capital might be, it is crucially important that a global internationalism be recovered and reformulated… The Left should be very careful about constituting a form of politics that, from the standpoint of human emancipation, would be questionable, at the very best, however many people it may rouse. —Moishe Postone, “History and Helplessness” (2006) A moderated panel discussion and audience Q & A on issues of global capital, imperialism and war, possibilities for progressive political opposition, and the problems and tasks for the Left in the post-Cold War and post-9/11 world raised by the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. [Read More]
Afghanistan  Imperialism  International Socialist Organization  Iraq  Iraq War  ISO  News and Letters  OpenDemocracy.net  Platypus Affiliated Society  SDS  Students for a Democratic Society  War in Afghanistan