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 

The New Left zombie is dead! Long live Occupy!

 April 1, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

IN THE EIGHTEENTH BRUMAIRE, Marx disagrees with Hegel’s famous quote about history when he writes, “Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce…”1 Occupy is not a return to the New Left, a farce of the sixties. Usually history becomes codified once the right academic authorities have made their case most palatable to other academic authorities. [Read More]
C. Wright Mills  Eighteenth Brumaire  Karl Marx  New Left  OWS  Occupy  Slavoj Žižek  David Haack  PR Occupy 

Whence Anarchism?

The Historical Conjuncture of #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 Slavin (Industrial Workers of the World, 4 Star Anarchist Organization) Daniel Dulce (Crimethinc) Kelvin Ho (Occupy Chicago) Sara Whitford (Formerly Occupy Chicago) Description #Occupy represents one of the most significant prospects and challenges for the Left in the past decade. [Read More]
Occupy  Platypus International Convention 2012  4 Star Anarchist Organization  Anarchism  Crimthinc  Industrial Workers of the World  IWW  Occupy  Occupy Chicago  Occupy wall street  OWS 

Lenin and the Marxist Left after #Occupy

 March 31, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel discussion held at the 2012 Platypus International Convention on March 31st, 2012.

Audio Recording

Transcript in Platypus Review #47

Panelists

Ben Lewis—Communist Party of Great Britain

Tom Riley—International Bolshevik Tendency

Chris Cutrone (Moderator)—Platypus Affiliated Society

Platypus International Convention 2012  Communist Party of Great Britain  GPGB  IBT  International Bolshevik Tendency  Vladimir Lenin  Occupy  Occupy wall street  OWS 

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 

The Environmentalism of Occupy

 March 18, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, the first twenty minutes of this panel were not captured onto video. We apologize for the inconvenience. The first twenty minutes as well as the full audio for the panel can be found in the audio version below. Held at Left Forum 2012 at Pace University, New York on March 18, 2012. Hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society. Video Recording Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Phil Aroneanu(US Campaign Director, 350. [Read More]
Occupy  Left Forum  Left Forum 2012  Ecology  Environment  Environmentalism  OWS  Sustainability 

2011, 1999, 1968 -- and 2012? The history of the Left and #Occupy

 March 18, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Video Recording Panelists Brooke Lehman is a faculty member at the Institute for Social Ecology and a longtime activist. She is on the Board of Smartmeme, the Brecht Forum, and Yansa, and spends most of her time organizing with Occupy Wall Street. Dave Haack is an organizer of Occupy Your Workplace. Description The two historical precedents for #Occupy are Seattle in 1999 and Paris in May 1968. The 1960s and 1990s saw the rise of anarchism against otherwise predominant liberal, social-democratic and Marxist tendencies. [Read More]
Occupy  Left Forum  Left Forum 2012  1968  1999  Occupy wall street  OWS  Seattle 

What is the #Occupy Movement? London I

 March 16, 2012  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Held on March 16, 2012, at Housmans in London. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Barbara Dorn (IBT) Tammy Samede, Occupier Ed Nagle, Activist Steve Maclean, and Michael Richardson, editors of The Occupied Times Description A roundtable discussion with students and activists either directly involved with Occupy Wall St. or who are closely following the #Occupy movement. The recent #Occupy protests are driven by discontent with the present state of affairs: glaring economic inequality, dead-end Democratic Party politics, and, for some, the suspicion that capitalism could never produce an equitable society. [Read More]
Occupy  IBT  International Bolshevik Tendency  Michael Richardson  Occupy  Occupy London  Occupy wall street  OWS  Steve Maclean  Tammy Samede  The Occupied Times 

What is the #Occupy Movement? Cambridge I

 December 15, 2011  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Video Recording A series of roundtable discussions hosted by The Platypus Affiliated Society. This is the first part of the discussion series held in Cambridge. Panelists Jason Giannetti (Lawyer) Doug Enaa Greene (Kasama Project) Nick Ford (ALL-oNE) Evan Sarmiento (FRSO) Stephen Squibb (Occupy Harvard, n+1) Held on December 15, 2011 at Harvard University. The recent Occupy protests are driven by discontent with the present state of affairs: glaring economic inequality, dead-end Democratic Party politics, and, for some, the suspicion that capitalism could never produce an equitable society. [Read More]
Occupy  ALL-oNE  FRSO  Kasama Project  N+1  Occupy  Occupy boston  Occupy cambridge  Occupy harvard  OWS