Student Left

One of the results of these recent movements is the understanding that henceforth a real demonstration has to be “wild,” not declared in advance to the police. Having the choice of terrain, we can, like the Black Bloc of Genoa in 2001, bypass the red zones and avoid direct confrontation. By choosing our own trajectory, we can lead the cops, including unionist and pacifist ones, rather than being herded by them. [Read More]

THE PLATYPUS AFFILIATED SOCIETY hosted a panel discussion on the Politics of the Contemporary Student Left at the U.S. Social Forum (USSF) in Detroit on June 26, 2010. Moderated by Laurie Rojas, assistant editor for The Platypus Review, the panel consisted of Will Klatt, member of the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and organizer for Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Luis Brennan, a student organizer at University of Chicago and former member of the new SDS; Aaron Petcov, formerly of the new SDS and currently a member of the Organization for a Free Society (OFS); and Ashley Weger, an organizer for Platypus and a former organizer for UNITE HERE. [Read More]

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 Panelists Pat Korte, New School Students for a Democratic Society and Radical Student Union, Organization for a Free Society Hannah Rappleye, CUNY School of Journalism, freelance journalist for Mott Haven Herald in the South Bronx, New School alumnus, former Senior Editor, New School Free Press [Read More]

“DIESER HÖRSAAL IST BESETZT!” (“This lecture hall is occupied!”) In November and December 2009, signs bearing such slogans were found on doors at over 60 German universities. For the second time that year, a broad student movement managed to gain public attention for its demands. Protests at the University of Vienna kicked off what became a Europe-wide solidarity wave. In Germany, the Viennese protest first triggered occupations in Heidelberg, Münster, and Potsdam, after which students at many other institutions also became involved. [Read More]

Video Recording Transcript in Platypus Review #15 Panelists Alexander L. Hanna (chair): former organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops Atlee McFellin: Students for a Democratic Society, New School Radical Student Union Pam Nogales: Platypus (New York) C. J. Pereira Di Salvo: former organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops Laurie Rojas: Platypus (Chicago), former member of Students for a Democratic Society Description Young people’s heightened participation in politics in the run-up to the election of Barack Obama was crucial to his election and cannot be ignored. [Read More]

TO THE EDITORS OF THE PLATYPUS REVIEW: I am not now, nor have I ever been, either a Maoist or sympathetic to Maoism. I am also not a member of SDS. I was outraged however, by the blatant red-baiting of Rachel Haut in a recent Platypus Review Interview and disturbed that it seems to have gone unchallenged by PR. Rachel Haut was quoted as saying: “To say that the Maoists can be part of the ideological debate would mean to condone them being in this organization, which is something I don’t do. [Read More]