WRITTEN IN THE AFTERMATH of the 2008 banking crash and published in 2012, Andrew Kliman’s The Failure of Capitalist Production adds to the extensive literature on American decline. Kliman identifies the way that profits have tended to fall relative to investments since the 1970s and also the diminishing rate
[. . .]
Speaking for the International Bolshevik Tendency (IBT) at the Left Forum, Jason Wright recently observed that, “It seems for a while now that it has been the desire of Platypus to have a three-way conversation between New Left Maoism (as one of the more palatable faces of Stalinism)
[. . .]
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
(October 7th 2014)
Panelists:
Adam Turl
Benj Gerdes
Matthew Jesse Jackson
Ruslana Lichtzier
Benj Gerdes
Matthew Jesse Jackson
Ruslana Lichtzier
The “death of art” has been a recurring theme within aesthetic and philosophical discourse for over two centuries. At times, this “death” has been proclaimed as an accomplished fact; at others, artists themselves have taken the “death of art” as a goal to be accomplished. We are asking contemporary academics, activists and most importantly practicing artists to address this concept and answer the question, “If avant-garde movements once declared uncompromising war on art in order to tear down the barrier between art and life, would the end or overcoming of art not similarly require that the world itself become artistic?”
[. . .]
Platypus London: Goldsmiths College: Intro Reading Group, Autumn 2014
Mondays 7pm, Room TBC – check facebook for details: https://www.facebook.com/groups/londonplatypus
Week 1 (29 Sep 2014)
- Cutrone, “Symptomology: Historical transformations in social-political context”
- Cutrone, “Capital in history: The need for a Marxian philosophy of history of the Left”
Week 2 (6 Oct 2014)
- Kolakowski, “The concept of the Left”
- Adorno, “Imaginative excesses”
Week 3 (13 Oct 2014)
- Blumberg, Cutrone, Khan, Leonard, and Rubin, Forum: The decline of the Left in the 20th century
Week 4 (20 Oct 2014)
- Anderson, Cutrone, Kreitman, Postel, and Turl, Forum: Imperialism: What is it, why should we be against it?
- Albert, Cutrone, Duncombe, and Holmes, Forum: The 3 Rs: reform, revolution and “resistance:” The problematic forms of “anti-capitalism” today
Week 5 (27 Oct 2014)
- Brennan, Davis, Hendricks, Mujica, and Rubin, Forum: What is a movement?
- Hendricks, Hughes, Mwaura, and Thindwa, Forum: Left behind: The working class in the crisis
[3 Nov 2014 – No meeting – Goldsmiths’ reading week]
Week 6 (10 Nov 2014)
- Platypus Historians Group, Catastrophe, historical memory, and the Left: 60 years of Israel-Palestine
- Ibish, Kovel, and Rubin, Forum: Which way forward for Palestinian liberation?
- Goodman and Rubin, Forum: Marxism and Israel
Week 7 (17 Nov 2014)
- Farrow, Gabrellas, Mucciaroni, and Wolf, Forum: Which way forward for sexual liberation?
- Nogales, Pereira Di Salvo, and Rojas, Forum: Politics of the contemporary student Left
- Brennan, Klatt, Petcov, and Weger, Forum: Ideology and the student Left
Week 8 (24 Nov 2014)
- Bernstein, Cutrone, Goehr, and Horowitz, Forum: The relevance of Critical Theory to art today
- Cutrone, Feenberg, Westerman, and Brown, Platypus convention plenary: The politics of Critical Theory
Week 9 (1 Dec 2014)
- Horkheimer and Adorno, “Discussion about Theory and Praxis” (AKA “Towards a New Manifesto?”)[Deutsch] (1956)
- Horkheimer, selections from Dämmerung
- Adorno, “Resignation”
- Cutrone, “The Marxist hypothesis”
- Cutrone, “The Left is dead! — Long live the Left!” Vicissitudes of historical consciousness and the possibilities for emancipatory social politics today
Week 10 (8 Dec 2014)
- Cutrone, Morrison, and Rubin, Platypus convention plenary: The Platypus synthesis: History, theory, and practice
[. . .]
July 18 - 20, 2014, Goldsmiths College, London
[. . .]
