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You are here: The Platypus Affiliated Society/Archive for category 2017
On September 15, 2017 at the University of Houston the Platypus Affiliated Society organized a panel discussion, Anti-fascism in the Age of Trump. Participating on the panel were Gloria Rubac of the Workers World Party; Gus Breslauer of Redneck Revolt; Mark Kazanski of Socialist Alternative, Houston; and Bernard Sampson of the Communist Party, U.S.A., and the Democratic Socialists of America. Danny Jacobs of Platypus moderated. What follows is an edited transcript of their discussion.

Held October 2nd, 2018 at the University of Chicago.

Panelists: 

Elijah Wolter, member of UChciago Student Action (formerly known as the IIRON Student Network)
Jesse Pace, member of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation
Ted Sirota, co-initiator of Refuse Fascism and founder of Degenerative Artists Against Fascism

Description:

Since the Nazi seizure of power eighty years ago anti-fascism has been a component of left-wing politics. In response to the Trump presidency, the politics of anti-fascism, reminiscent of the Popular Front of the 1930s or the Black Bloc politics of the 1990s, have -- once again -- been resurrected by the Left. How is anti-fascism the same or different today? Why anti-fascism now?

On this episode, commentary on:

(1) "The negative-sum internet" (Weekly Worker)
Paul Demarty reviews: Angela Nagle, Kill all normies: the online culture wars from Tumblr and 4chan to the alt-right and Trump (Zero Books, 2017)
https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1176/the-negative-sum-internet/

(2) Platypus Berkeley panel: "Antifascism in the Age of Trump"
Description: Since the Nazi seizure of power eighty years ago, anti-fascism has been a component of left-wing politics. In response to the Trump presidency, the politics of anti-fascism, reminiscent of the Popular Front of the 1930s or the Black Bloc politics of the 1990s, have—once again—been resurrected by the Left. How is anti-fascism the same or different today? Why anti-fascism now?
Speakers: Eugene Ruyle (CPUSA/DSA Member, runs Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library); Luma Nichol (Freedom Socialist Party, Communities Against Racism and Fascism); Victoria Fierce (DSA Member, East Bay for Everyone); Ramsey Kanaan (PM Press)
Audio recording: https://archive.org/details/berkeley-antifascism-panel

(3) Platypus Review articles (issue 100, October 2017)
- “Not your grandfather’s anti-fascism: Challenges facing the anti-fascist movement in the age of Trump” by Participants in CrimethInc. Ex-Workers’ Collective
https://platypus1917.org/2017/10/01/not-grandfathers-anti-fascism-challenges-facing-anti-fascist-movement-age-trump/
- "The Millennial Left is dead" by Chris Cutrone (Platypus)
https://platypus1917.org/2017/10/01/millennial-left-dead/

Hosted by Audrey Crescenti, Pamela Nogales and Laurie Rojas.

The academic establishment can betray its trust in many ways; one of them is the teaching of irrelevant modes of thought not geared to understanding that which is really going on. The goal of teaching and learning has been set by the Western tradition: It is no longer (if it ever was) free choice; we have to work with the historical heritage which has shaped our thought and action, theory and practice.
The Millennial Left has been subject to the triple knock-out of Obama, Sanders, and Trump. Whatever expectations it once fostered were dashed over the course of a decade of stunning reversals. In the aftermath of George W. Bush and the War on Terror; of the financial crisis and economic downturn; of Obama’s election; of the Citizens United decision and the Republican sweep of Congress; of Occupy Wall Street and Obama’s reelection; and of Black Lives Matter emerging from disappointment with a black President, the 2016 election was set to deliver the coup de grâce to the Millennials’ “Leftism.”