Kevin Anderson, Chris Cutrone, Nick Kreitman, Danny Postel, and Adam Turl On January 30th, 2007, Platypus hosted its first public forum, “Imperialism: What is it—Why should we be Against it?” The panel consisted of Adam Turl of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), Kevin Anderson of the Marxist-Humanist group News and Letters, Nick Kreitman of the [...]
The Platypus Review
Imperialism: What is it, why should we be against it?
The dead Left: Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution
M. A. Torres ONE FINDS QUITE A BIT OF NAME-CALLING among the innumerable articles and blog posts written in criticism of Hugo Chavez and his government. Although most of this invective is not very illuminating, one article by a young, Colombian, Trotsky-ish labor organizer describes Chavez perfectly in two words: a “postmodern Bonapartist.” Chavez, his [...]
Against dogmatic abstraction
A critique of Cindy Milstein on anarchism and Marxism Chris Cutrone AT THE LEFT FORUM 2010, held at Pace University in New York City in March, Cindy Milstein, director of the Institute for Anarchist Studies, spoke at a panel discussion on anarchism and Marxism, chaired by Andrej Grubacic, with fellow panelists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Andrew [...]
Book Review: Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Max Elliot Katz STUDY THE STALLS OF A SEMINARY BATHROOM and chances are you will find the following scrawled out in ballpoint: “Nietzsche: God is Dead. God: Nietzsche is dead.” The quip relies on a misreading—God, for Nietzsche, did not die like your grandmother or pet turtle might die. [...]
You don’t need a Marxist to know which way the wind blows: An interview with Mark Rudd
Spencer Leonard with Atiya Khan On Thursday March 11, 2010, Platypus Review Editor-in-Chief Spencer A. Leonard interviewed the prominent 1960s radical and last National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Mark Rudd, to discuss his recently published political memoir, Underground. In April, Leonard’s interview with Rudd, prepared in conjunction with Atiya Khan, was [...]
Rebelling Against the World
Book Review: Alex Butterworth, The World that Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents. New York: Pantheon Press, 2010. James Heartfield “THE TERRORIST IS NOBLE, irresistibly fascinating, for he combines in himself the two sublimates of human grandeur: the martyr and the hero” (127). The man who spoke these words [...]
Adorno and Freud
The relation of Freudian psychoanalysis to Marxist critical social theory Chris Cutrone ADORNO’S HABILITATIONSSCHRIFT was on Kant and Freud. It ended with Marx. Why did Adorno think that Marx addressed the problems of both Kantian and Freudian accounts of consciousness? The distinction between Kant and Freud turns on the psychoanalytic concept of the “unconscious,” the [...]
Is Marx back? An interview with Leo Panitch
Ian Morrison In light of the recent economic crisis, Marxist theory has enjoyed a resurgence of interest. This most recent is the last of many returns to Marx’s work throughout the 20th century. Still, the question poses itself: Why return to Marx, yet again? What does this move tell us about our contemporary situation? Most [...]
On nationalism: An anti-fascist intervention
Jerzy Sobotta Uli vom Hagen’s response[1] to my article on the current state of the German Left[2] engages in a remarkable apology for its nationalism, which results from its near complete failure to digest the dangerous policies of the German KPD of the 1920s and 30s. With his focus on the events of 1923 and [...]
Disappearances: Reflections on the collapse of honey bees and the Left
Andony Melathopoulos A bustling city at dawn. Industrious workers set out from their homes, coming and going in a perfect and productive ballet. But by evening the workers vanish. No trace of foul play. No bodies left behind. Mass disappearances like this have recently occurred across the globe, not of humans, but of millions of [...]
