Platypus NYC Black Politics And State Violence

 March 15, 2015  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society, in conjunction with the SVA Black Student Union, on 11 March 2015, at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Benjamin Blumberg (Platypus Affiliated Society) Eljeer Hawkins (Socialist Alternative/CWI) Dread Scott (Artist) Moderated by Allison Hewitt Ward (Platypus). Introduced by Tiffany Freeman (SVA Black Student Union). Description The widely publicized killings of black men by police and the resulting movement with its slogan “Black Lives Matter” puts back on the agenda of a beleaguered American Left a seemingly perennial question, one that evokes a long history of struggle, longing, and disappointment. [Read More]
Race  Racism  Violence  Black Lives Matter  Occupy 

Democracy and The Left

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 

On Anarchism and Marxism

In response to Price and Swenson

On Anarchism and Marxism

 May 6, 2014  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

IN RESPONSE TO THE CRITIQUES of Wayne Price and Liam Swenson to my piece on anarchism in The Platypus Review #65,1 I will reiterate what I consider the major differences between Marxist revolutionary theory and anarchism in general. I say in general because I see nothing to be gained by dealing with the great variety of differences within anarchism itself presented by these critiques. In fact their great variety proves the very fleeting and vacillating nature of the anarchist project. [Read More]
Anarchism  History  History of the Left  Vladimir Lenin  Marxism  Occupy  Revolution 

Aging in the Afterlife: The Many Deaths of Art

 February 23, 2013  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel held by the Platypus Affiliated Society on Saturday, February 23, 2013, at the New School. Video Recording Transcribed in Platypus Review #58 Panelists Julieta Aranda was born in Mexico City, and currently lives and works between Berlin and New York. Central to Aranda’s multidimensional practice are her involvement with circulation mechanisms and the idea of a “poetics of circulation”; the possibility of a politicized subjectivity through the perception and use of time, and the notion of power over the imaginary. [Read More]
Aesthetics  Art  Occupy  The many deaths of art 

A Year, a Month, and a Day

Looking Back on Occupy

 October 18, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A roundtable discussion organized by the Platypus Affiliated Society on October 18, 2012 at New York University. PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, the last five minutes of this panel were not recorded on either audio or video. We apologize for the inconvenience. Video Recording Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Fritz Tucker (Occupier, journalist) is a native Brooklynite, writer, activist, theorist, and researcher of people’s movements the world over, from the US to Nepal. [Read More]
Occupy  Global Noise  Occupy  Occupy wall street  Occupy Wall Street Radio  Occupy Your Workplace  Strike Debt  Zuccotti park 

A Year, a Month, and a Day

Looking Back on Occupy

 October 18, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A roundtable discussion organized by the Platypus Affiliated Society on October 18, 2012 at New York University. PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, the last five minutes of this panel were not recorded on either audio or video. We apologize for the inconvenience. Video Recording Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Fritz Tucker (Occupier, journalist) is a native Brooklynite, writer, activist, theorist, and researcher of people’s movements the world over, from the US to Nepal. [Read More]
Occupy  Global Noise  Occupy  Occupy wall street  Occupy Wall Street Radio  Occupy Your Workplace  Strike Debt  Zuccotti park 

Crisis of the eurozone and the Left

Responses to the global economic downturn

 July 3, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE FOLLOWING TRANSCRIPT is from an event that took place on April 2, 2012 at the University of Chicago, in conjunction with the 2012 Platypus International Convention, titled “Responses to the Global Economic Downturn.” Members and contacts of the Platypus Affiliated Society in Europe were invited to speak on their experience of leftist responses to the economic downturn. The speakers included Haseeb Ahmed (Netherlands), Valentin Badura (Austria), Cengiz Kulac (Austria), Moritz Roeger (Germany), Jerzy Sobotta (Germany), and Thodoris Velissaris (Greece). [Read More]
Crisis  Eurozone  Germany  Greece  Occupy 

The Day After: What is the #Occupy Movement? NYC III

 May 2, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Platypus@NYU presents a roundtable discussion following the May 1st General Strike. Held on May 2, 2012, at New York University. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Description Since November of 2011, and with the help of working groups and organizers of OWS, Platypus has been hosting a series of roundtable discussions reflecting on the obstacles and possibilities, political content, and potential future of the #Occupy movement. [Read More]
General strike  May 1st  May Day  Occupy  Occupy wall street  OWS 

The 3 Rs: Reform, Revolution, and Resistance, NYC

 April 26, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel held on April 26, 2012 at New York University, as part of the 3 Rs panel series. Video Recording Panelists John Asimakopoulos (Institute for Transformative Studies) Todd Gitlin (Columbia University) Tom Trottier (Workers’ International Committee) Ross Wolfe (Platypus Affiliated Society) Description [After the 1960s, the] underlying despair with regard to the real efficacy of political will, of political agency… in a historical situation of heightened helplessness… became a self-constitution as outsider, as other… focused on the bureaucratic stasis of the [Fordist/late 20th century] world: it echoed the destruction of that world by the dynamics of capital [with the neo-liberal turn after 1973, and especially after 1989]. [Read More]
Institute for Transformative Studies  Occupy  Occupy wall street  OWS  Reform  Resistance  Revolution  Workers International Committee