Racism

No Nazis on Rocky Top?

Anti-racism in the age of Trump

June 1, 2018 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

On February 17, 2018, the white-nationalist Traditionalist Workers’ Party (TWP) held a rally on the campus of the University of Tennessee. The rally was led by Matthew Heimbach, a central organizer of the Unite the Right rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 in opposition to the planned removal of a public statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The TWP’s February 2018 rally on the University of Tennessee (UT) campus drew about 45 white nationalists, about 250 protesters, and about 200 law enforcement officers. [Read More]

Anti-fascism in the age of Trump

June 1, 2018 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

On October 17, 2017, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion entitled “Anti-fascism in the Age of Trump” at Berkeley City College. The event’s speakers were Eugene Ruyle of Peace and Freedom (Democratic Socialists of America), Luma Nichol of Freedom Socialist Party, Victoria Fierce of East Bay for Everyone (Democratic Socialists of America), and Ramsey Kanaan of PM Press and founder of AK Press. The event was moderated by William Lushbough of Platypus. [Read More]

The Platypus Review Anti-fascism Free Speech Racism Anti-racism Democratic Socialists of America Freedom Socialist Party PM Press

Black Politics and the American Left

Platypus 2016 convention

June 18, 2016 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Held on Saturday April 2, 2016. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Christoph Lichtenberg (IBT) Xavier Danae Maatra (Chicago Freedom School) Description Beneath a consensus of avowed anti-racism, the American Left remains conflicted about whether and how to politicize race. This panel seeks to shed historical light on today’s political impasses, asking: How has racism changed throughout U.S. history, and to what degree has racism been overcome in America? [Read More]

Platypus International Convention Platypus International Convention 2016 Black politics Marxism race racism

Marxism through the back door

September 1, 2015 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

GREGOR BASZAK of the Platypus Affiliated Society conducted an interview with Cedric Johnson, author of From Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics (2007). What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation. Stokely Carmichael lecturing on Pan-Africanism in the 1960s. Gregor Baszak: Most on the Left claim that the recent cases of police violence suffered by Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and others are racially motivated. [Read More]

Race Cedric Johnson Marxism Racism Black Power

Black Politics and State Violence: A Panel Discussion - University of Chicago

May 22, 2015 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

A panel held on May 21st, 2015 at the University of Chicago, hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture (CSRPC). Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Michael Dawson Mel Rothenberg Description The widely publicized killings of black men by police and the resulting movement with its slogan “Black Lives Matter” put 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]

University of Chicago Police Race Racism

Black Politics and State Violence: A Panel Discussion - UCSC

May 22, 2015 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists include Boots Riley of the Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club, Clarence Thomas formerly of ILWU, and Nancy Kato of the Freedom Socialist Party. This event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Platypus Affiliated Society, Politics Department, College 9, CAO/Provost, and the Student Union Assembly. Description The recent, widely publicized killings of unarmed black men – most notably Michael Brown and Eric Garner – and the resulting movement with its slogan “Black Lives Matter”, puts back on the agenda of a beleaguered American Left an old, yet seemingly perennial question, one that evokes a long history of struggle, longing, and disappointment; with a black president in the White House having survived or co-opted the Occupy Movement, the return of the Black Question to the forefront of the Left’s concerns seems to justify the suspicion that America is fundamentally, perhaps irredeemably, racist. [Read More]

Santa Cruz Media Police Race Racism

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

Immigration and the Left

August 31, 2011 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

JEREMY COHAN PUBLICLY INTERVIEWED DAVID WILSON, coauthor of The Politics of Immigration (2007), on April 19th, 2011 at NYU. The original description of the event reads: “Mass marches on May Day 2006 in the U.S., banning of minarets in Switzerland, pogroms in Libya against blacks from Central Africa feared to be mercenaries: Immigration is a central issue faced by the contemporary Left. But as mobilization has waxed and waned, the question of what constitutes an emancipatory response to the problems of immigration in modern society too often remains unaddressed. [Read More]

David Wilson Immigration race racism Democratic Party

"A Black Man Speaks of Marx"

The Sartre-Fanon Dialogues of the 1940s and 1950s

November 17, 2010 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

A talk held on November 17, 2010 at the University of Illinois. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Description In the years immediately following World War II French intellectuals Jean-Paul Sartre and Frantz Fanon turned their attention to racism, anti-semitism and anti-black racism. Both men were engaged with both. Neither wrote from identity, but rather both sought to link their reflections to Marxism, to its failure and possible reconstitution. [Read More]

Anti-black racism Anti-Semite and Jew Anti-semitism Black Orpheus Black Skin White Masks Frantz Fanon Jean-Paul Sartre Karl Marx Marxism Racism Jean-Paul Sartre Wretched of the Earth

The American Left and the "Black Question:"

From Politics to Protest to the Post-political

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 Benjamin Blumberg’s comments are transcribed in Platypus Review #19 Panelists Tim Barker, Columbia University Benjamin Blumberg, Platypus Affiliated Society Pamela Nogales, Platypus Affiliated Society Chris Cutrone, Platypus Affiliated Society, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago Description One catch-phrase that has flown in the wake of the successful election of Barack Obama is “post-racial,” raising the question of the degree to which America has overcome racism. [Read More]

Left Forum 2010 Barack Obama Racism