The European Union

ON NOVEMBER 7, 2015, at its Second Annual European Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel addressing the topic “What is the European Union and should we be against it?” The discussion was moderated by Thodoris Velissaris and included the following panelists: Juan Roch, a member of the Spanish political party Podemos; Jens Wissel, a founding member of the Assoziation für Kritische Gesellschaftsforschung and author of Staatsprojekt EUropa: Grundzüge einer materialistischen Theorie der Europäischen Union; Nikos Nikisianis, a member of DIKTYO (Network for Political and Social Rights) in Greece, an affiliate of SYRIZA until July 2015; and Martin Suchanek, a member of Gruppe Arbeitermacht, the German section of the League for the Fifth International, and the editor of its theoretical journal Revolutionärer Marxismus. [Read More]

ON JUNE 8, the London chapter of the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel on the topic “Left Exit or No Brexit?” at the London School of Economics. The panel brought together Neil Davenport, Mike Macnair, and Gerry Downing, and was moderated by Ninad Pandit of the Platypus Affiliated Society. Neil Davenport is the head of sociology at a comprehensive school in North London, and is a NASUWT representative. He is on the organizing committee for the Institute of Ideas’ annual festival, the Battle of Ideas, and is a regular contributor to its associated publication, Spiked Online. [Read More]

AFTER THE OUTBREAK of the global economic crisis in 2008, Greece was actually the first Euro-area country where the neoliberal “shock doctrine” was imposed. (I thank Professor Vassilis Droucopoulos for his comments on an earlier version of this article.) This was an attempt to place the fallout of the systemic capitalist crisis on the shoulders of working people. These extreme austerity policies were disputed. A series of mass demonstrations and strikes ensued. [Read More]

A panel event held on April 5, 2014 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at the Sixth Annual Platypus International Convention. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Bill Barclay  James Heartfield (audacity.org) Mel Rothenberg (Chicago Political Economy Group) Moderated by Alex Gonopolskiy (Platypus London). Description With the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Communist states the world has witnessed the unchallenged restoration of capitalism. [Read More]