The Platypus Affiliated Society is proud to host James Vaughn, PhD., for his talk on the United Kingdom's forthcoming withdrawal from the European Union in three historical contexts: 1. the development of capitalism and Great Power rivalry from the nineteenth century to the present; 2. the evolution of the liberal world order and European integration since the Second World War; and 3. the rise, triumph, and crisis of neoliberalism from the 1970s to today. There will be plenty of time for discussion afterwards. Light refreshments will be served!
Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at 7 PM – 8:30 PM
Parlin 105, Parlin Hall, UT Austin
Held at the University of Sheffield on April 12, 2019.
Description:
From Brexit and the French yellow-vests to the AfD in Germany, the present centre of political attention is the crisis being expressed through democratic politics both within the nation-state and at the level of the EU. How should the Left understand and relate to this crisis? More broadly speaking, what is the history informing the demands for greater democracy today, and how does the Left adequately promote - or not - the cause of popular empowerment?
Speakers:
Anton Jäger (PhD History student, University of Cambridge)
Patrick Finan (Alliance for Workers' Liberty)
Isaac Stovell (Independent researcher, activist, ecclesial ecologist)
Moderated by Rory Hannigan
Questions for panelists:
- What is the relationship between democracy and the working class today? Do you consider historical struggles for democracy by workers as the medium by which they were “assimilated” to the system, or the only path to emancipation that they couldn’t avoid trying to take?
- Do you consider it as necessary to eschew established forms of mass politics in favour of new forms in order to build a democratic movement? Or are current mass form of politics adequate for a democratic society?
- Why has democracy emerged as the primary demand of spontaneous forms of discontent? Do you consider it necessary, or adequate, to deal with the pathologies of our era?
- Engels wrote that “a revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is”. Do you agree? Can this conception be compatible with the struggle for democracy?
- Is democracy oppressive, or can it be such? How would you judge Lenin’s formulation that: “…democracy is also a state and that, consequently, democracy will also disappear when the state disappears”?
Held at Columbia University on April 11, 2019. The discussion was moderated by Erin Hagood.
Panelists:
- Dan Driscoll, Direct Outreach Coordinator for Columbia’s Housing Equity Project
- Andy Gittlitz, writer for the New Inquiry and the New York Times
- Jennifer Wenzel, Associate Professor in English and Comparative Literature, and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, at Columbia University
- Frederico of the Revolution Club
A teach-in by Platypus member Jensen Suther on Hegel's Science of Logic and its relationship to Marxism, given April 6th, 2019 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as part of the 11th annual international convention of the Platypus Affiliated Society.
Held April 5th at the University of Chicago, as part of the 11th Annual Platypus International Convention.
Speakers:
Victor Cova, Aarhus University (Aarhus)
Andreas Wintersperger, University of Vienna (Vienna)
Jan Schroeder, Goethe University (Frankfurt)
Panos Didachos, Panteion University (Athens)
Padraig Maguire, Goldsmiths University (London)
Description:
What is the mean EU for the Left today? Does the Left believe the EU should be overcome on the basis of the EU itself, or against the EU? How can the Left address the current crisis of the EU, with the aim of overcoming capitalism and achieving socialism, when the political expression of its crisis has largely come from the Right? The clarification of the EU’s nature and appropriate responses seem to be one of the most pressing issues for the Left on the continent and beyond.
