Beyond Social Democracy

Popular assemblies, confederal democracy, and internationalism

Beyond Social Democracy

 October 6, 2016  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE RECENT PLATYPUS PANEL on the “Death of Social Democracy” raised the prospect of a socialist left whose approach is not focused on taking power in capitalist national states, whether through the electoral reformism of traditional Social Democracy or a Bolshevik-style armed seizure, but on building a grassroots-democratic, confederal, and internationalist counterpower that can replace capitalist nation-states with a truly democratic socialism. This prospect was only broached in the critique of Social Democracy. [Read More]
Social Democracy 

What is socialism? International social democracy

 July 12, 2016  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON APRIL 1ST, 2016, during its eighth international convention in Chicago, Illinois, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion entitled, “What is socialism? International social democracy.” The panelists were Bernard Sampson, a member of the CPUSA and a precinct chair in Houston, Texas, for the Democratic Party; Karl Belin, a socialist worker, writer, and member of the Pittsburgh Socialist Organizing Committee; Jack Ross, a freelance editor and historian, and author of The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History (2015); and Chris Cutrone, president of the Platypus Affiliated Society. [Read More]
Social Democracy 

The death of Social Democracy

The death of Social Democracy

 July 11, 2016  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

IN APRIL, the Platypus Affiliated Society held its Eighth Annual International Convention, based on the question, “What is socialism?” On April 2, 2016, Platypus held the convention’s closing plenary, “The Death of Social Democracy,” a discussion and Q & A moderated by Pam Nogales of Platypus, with the following panelists: Jason Schulman of the Democratic Socialists of America; Christoph Lichtenberg of the International Bolshevik Tendency; Brian Tokar, former director and current board member of the Institute for Social Ecology; and William Pelz, director of the Institute of Working Class History. [Read More]
Social Democracy  Democratic Socialists of America  International Bolshevik Tendency  Institute of Working Class History  Institute for Social Ecology 

Closing plenary: The Death of Social Democracy

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 Brian Tokar (Institute for Social Ecology) Jason Schulman (DSA) Christoph Lichtenberg (IBT) William Pelz (Author and Historian) Description Given the disintegration of traditional social democratic parties, 2015 saw the rise of novel political formations such as Syriza and Podemos. 2016 has seen the rise of the Corbyn leadership of the Labour Party and the mass support for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party. [Read More]
Platypus International Convention  Platypus International Convention 2016  Social Democracy 

Socialism Democracy Social Democracy - A Panel Discussion at II European Conference

 December 16, 2015  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Ursula Jensen (IBT) Paul Demarty (CPGB) Moderated by Richard Rubin. Description In the late nineteenth century, working people’s response to capital was expressed in the political demand for Socialism. This demand galvanized the formation of European Social Democratic parties guided by the ideology of Marxism. Among the most influential members of the German Social Democratic Party, the political leaders of the Second International, agreed that the primary task of Social Democratic parties was bringing about the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is, the decisive political struggle between capital and labor. [Read More]
Social Democracy  Socialism 

Empire and social democracy

Summer 2014 teach-in

 June 14, 2014  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society

A discussion of the relation of Keynesianism, social-democratic politics and Marxism to the purported decline of the U.S. as global hegemonic state, beginning in the 1970s and continuing in “Left” discourse to the present held on June 14, 2014 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Teach-in led by Chris Cutrone. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Video Recording Description Taking advantage of the break in our primary reading group schedule, we will hold a discussion of the relation of Keynesianism, social-democratic politics and Marxism to the purported decline of the U. [Read More]
American empire  Empire  Milton Friedman  Michael Harrington  Friedrich Hayek  John Maynard Keynes  Keynesianism  Marxism  Social Democracy  Socialism 

The Left is dead! Long live the Left!

Vicissitudes of historical consciousness and possibilities for emancipatory social politics today

 November 1, 2007  |  The Platypus Affiliated Society  • Other languages: Ελληνικά

The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. —Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (1852) The theorist who intervenes in practical controversies nowadays discovers on a regular basis and to his shame that whatever ideas he might contribute were expressed long ago – and usually better the first time around. —Theodor W. Adorno, “Sexual Taboos and the Law Today” (1963) [Read More]
19th Century  /20th Century  capitalism  consciousness  counterrevolution  crisis  Vladimir Lenin  Critical Theory  defeat  depoliticization  emancipation  György Lukács  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel  History  History of the Left  humanity  ideology  Imperialism  Industrial Revolution  Iraq  Karl Korsch  liberalism  Marxism  Karl Marx  Moishe Postone  Negative Dialectics  New Left  Friedrich Nietzsche  opportunism  Philosophy  Political economy  Politics postmodernism  Revolution  Robert Pippin  Rosa Luxemburg  Social Democracy  Social Democratic Party of Germany  SPD  Socialism  society  Stalinism  Theodor W. Adorno  utopianism  Walter Benjamin  war