Public Fora

Antifascism in the Age of Trump

A Panel Discussion

September 15, 2017 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel hosted by Platypus Houston on September 15, 2017. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Gloria Rubac Gus Breslauer Mark Kazanski Bernard Sampson Description Since the Nazi seizure of power eighty years ago anti-fascism has been a component of left-wing politics. In response to the Trump presidency, the politics of anti-fascism, reminiscent of the Popular Front of the 30’s or the Black Bloc politics of the 90s, have – once again – been resurrected by the Left. [Read More]

Anti-Fascism Donald Trump Public Fora Gloria Rubac Gus Breslauer Mark Kazanski Bernard Sampson

Electoral Politics And The Left

April 26, 2017 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Recording of a panel hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville), April 26, 2017. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Travis Donoho, Democratic Socialists of America Barbara Bridges, Green Party (US) Jason Dawsey, UT Department of History Description Electoral politics are a longstanding problem for the U.S. left. In recent decades, a number of parties have formed as an alternative to the Democratic Party: the Labor Party, the Green Party, and now, the Justice Party. [Read More]

Public Fora

Labor And The State

April 7, 2017 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Recording of a panel hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, April 8, 2017, at the 9th Annual International Platypus Convention. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists William Pelz Djamil Arbia Brit Schulte Description The bourgeois revolutions strove to subordinate the power of the state to the interests of civil society. Yet the revolutions of 1848 disappointed, resulting in the recrudescence of the state, which rose above society to maintain “order. [Read More]

Public Fora Labor

Radical interpretations of the present crisis

London

April 1, 2013 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

LAST AUTUMN, chapters of the Platypus Affiliated Society in New York, London, and Chicago hosted similar events on the theme of “Radical Interpretations of the Present Crisis.” The speakers participating in London included David Graeber, Saul Newman, Hillel Ticktin, and James Woudhuysen. The original description of the series reads: “The present moment is arguably one of unprecedented confusion on the Left. The emergence of many new theoretical perspectives on Marxism, anarchism, and the left generally seem rather than signs of a newfound vitality, the intellectual reflux of its final disintegration in history. [Read More]

Public fora Crisis Radical interpretations of the present crisis

What is the #Occupy movement?

A roundtable discussion

March 1, 2012 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

LATE IN 2011, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a series of roundtable debates on the #Occupy Wall Street Movement. Speakers at the event held on December 9, 2011 at New York University included Hannah Appel (OWS Think Tank Working Group), Erik Van Deventer (NYU), Nathan Schneider (Waging Nonviolence), and Brian Dominick (Z Media Institute), with Jeremy Cohan (Platypus Affiliated Society) moderating. The original description of the roundtable reads as follows: “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]

PR Occupy NYC Occupy Public fora Roundtable

The Marxist turn

The New Left in the 1970s

September 26, 2011 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON MAY 19, 2011, Platypus invited Carl Davidson, formerly of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Guardian Weekly, Tom Riley of the International Bolshevik Tendency, and Mel Rothenberg, formerly of the Sojourner Truth Organization, to reflect on “The Marxist turn: The New Left in the 1970s.” The original description of the event, which was moderated by Spencer A. Leonard at the University of Chicago, reads: “The 1970s are usually glossed over as a decade of the New Left’s disintegration into sectarianism, triggered by the twin defeats of Nixon’s election and the collapse of SDS in 1968–69. [Read More]

1970s New Left Public fora

Marxism and Israel

Left perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

May 5, 2011 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

LAST NOVEMBER PLATYPUS hosted a roundtable discussion between Alan Goodman from The Revolutionary Communist Party USA, and Richard Rubin from Platypus entitled “Marxism and Israel: Left Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” at Hunter College in New York City. Panelists were asked to speak on the role the Left has played in the development of Israel, the Left’s analysis of the role of American intervention in the Middle East, and what a critical Marxian approach to the conflict currently looks like, compared to what it might look like. [Read More]

Alan Goodman Israel-Palestine Conflict Public fora RCP Israel Palestine Middle East

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

Which way forward for Palestinian liberation?

April 8, 2010 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON FEBRUARY 23 2010, Platypus hosted an event entitled Which Way Forward for Palestinian Liberation? in which Joel Kovel, author of Overcoming Zionism and frequent commentator on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Hussein Ibish, political analyst and senior fellow at The American Task Force on Palestine, answered questions posed by Richard Rubin of Platypus. An audience question and answer session followed. Below is an edited transcript of the event. The Platypus Review encourages readers to listen to the full audio of the event, available online at the above link. [Read More]

Israel Palestine Public fora Middle East