At the fourth annual international convention of the Platypus Affiliated Society, speakers from various perspectives were asked to bring their experience of the Leftâs recent history to bear on todayâs political possibilities and challenges as part of the "Differing Perspectives on the Left" workshop series.
A workshop on the International Bolshevik Tendency with Josh Decker held on March 30th, 2012.
At the fourth annual international convention of the Platypus Affiliated Society, speakers from various perspectives were asked to bring their experience of the Leftâs recent history to bear on todayâs political possibilities and challenges as part of the "Differing Perspectives on the Left" workshop series.
A workshop on the Communist Party of Great Britain with Ben Lewis, held on March 30th, 2012.
Radical Minds interviews Cary Nelson, Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and President of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), on his recent book, 'No University is an Island: Saving Academic Freedom' (2010).
Aired on March 27th, 2012 on the Radical Minds radio show.
Platypus International Convention 2012
The 1990s-2000s: combined legacies of the recent history of the Left for today.Â
The two decades of the 1990s 2000s form a cycle containing certain common as well as differing concerns. The second decade of the 21st century has begun under the mixed legacy of recent history, presenting important problems needing to be worked through, moving forward.
For Platypusâ 2012 international convention, two plenary panels will ask speakers from various perspectives to bring their experience of the Leftâs recent history to bear on todayâs political possibilities and challenges.
Registration $20
To register visit:
http://
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PUBLIC PROGRAMÂ
Friday, March 30Â
Workshops: Differing Perspectives on the Left (2:30-5:30pm)
Opening Plenary: The â90s Left Today (7:00-9:00pm)
Saturday, March 31
Workshops: Differing Perspectives on the Left (10:00am-12:00pm)
Panel discussions: Lessons from the recent history of the Left (1:00pm-4:30pm)
- Panel 1: Defining Democracy: the Labor Movement and #Occupy
- Panel 2: Changes in Art and Society: A view from the present
- Panel 3: Politicizing G8 and NATO: Rulers, Domination, and Emancipation
- Panel 4: Whence Anarchism? The historical conjuncture of #Occupy
Closing Plenary: The â00s Left Today (7:30-9:30pm)
Sunday, April 1Â
Platypus Plenary: Why I joined Platypus (11:00am-12:30pm)
Platypus President's Report: 1873-1973: The century of Marxism (1-1:30pm)
Electoral politics are a longstanding problem for the U.S. left. In recent decades, a number of parties have formed as an alternative to the Democratic Party: the Labor Party, the Green Party, and now, the Justice Party. However, these parties risk becoming little more than networks of activists or pressure groups on the Democratic Party, and it still remains unclear whether a serious electoral challenge to the Democratic Party is possible.
Many progressives blame the âfirst-past-the-postâ structure of U.S. elections, contra labour-friendly parliamentary systems; yet others insist that this procedural focus is misplaced. Leninists charge some quarters of the Left with misunderstanding the proper relationship of the party to the state; but for many, it remains unclear how State and Revolution bears upon the present. Most activists grant the desirability of a viable party to the left of the Democrats, but why exactly such a party is desirable-- to win reforms? to spread emancipatory consciousness?-- is contested as well.
These are old questions for the American left-- as old as Henry George, Daniel De Leon, and the 1930s American Labor Party, perhaps the high point of independent electoral politics in the U.S. This panel will investigate several contemporary approaches to electoral politics to draw out the theories that motivate Leftist third parties; it will also ask how the historical achievements and failures of third parties bear upon the present.
Nikil Saval is an editor at n+1, and a co-editor of Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America (Verso, 2011). He is currently writing a history of office design and white-collar work.
Lenny Brody is an activist, student of political change, printing industry worker, and descendant of union organizers. He fought with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the civil rights movement and refused induction during the Vietnam War. Mr. Brody has been active in local elections and in the Dennis Kucinich campaigns. He is a member of the Justice Party National Steering Committee and is working to build an independent political movement that will empower the victims of the current economic crisis.
Jason Wright, a contributor to the IBT's journal, 1917, began his career on the left in support of the Democratic Socialists of America. Breaking with DSA in opposition to the 1991 US invasion of Iraq, he spent several years in the Revolutionary Workers League. Disenchanted with the RWLâs mindless hyper-activism, Wright undertook a study of Trotskyism. He concluded that the Revolutionary Tendency of the Socialist Workers Party represented the continuation of Trotskyism and joined the IBT.
Katie Robbins is an activist and member of Healthcare-NOW! NYC and Healthcare for the 99%, a working group of Occupy Wall Street. Katie was national organizer with Healthcare-NOW! from 2008 - 2011 during the national healthcare debate. With doctors, nurses, and other advocates, she was arrested in May 2009 in the Senate Finance Committee asking for single-payer healthcare to be considered as a solution to the healthcare crisis when it was systematically ignored by policy makers.
