President's report delivered by Chris Cutrone on April 8, 2018 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as the closing plenary of the 2018 international convention of the Platypus Affiliated Society.
Chris' prepared remarks were published in the Platypus Review Issue #106.
As a part of the 10th annual Platypus International Convention, we hosted a panel on the history of Platypus and its engagement with the Left. Held April 7th, 2018 at the School of the Art Institute Chicago. The discussion was moderated by Erin Hagood.
Speakers:
Ian Morrison (1st Phase: Anti-war Movement / Anti-Imperialism)
Spencer Leonard (2nd Phase: The "Marxist Turn" / IBT, CPGB Engagement)
Tom Carey (3rd Phase: #Occupy / Marxism and Anarchism)
Ed Remus (Protracted 4th Phase: Syriza, Podemos / What is Political Party for the Left?)
Omair H (4 ½ Phase: The "Socialist Turn" / Millennial Left)
Panel description:
Draining the swamp, psychoanalyst of the Left, and training the next generation of revolutionaries, are all more or less problematic formulations which we have used to describe what motivates the Platypus project. That given, these formulations all betray a peculiar attachment to that which Platypus wishes to forget: the dead Left. Perhaps they express a secret and difficult desire: that the object of critique might also be saved from the swamp, be receptive to the analysis, or indeed might learn better from our pedagogy. And yet we admit that this will not be the case.
The task of this panel is not so much to inoculate such formulations, rather it aims to dissect them, to observe the motivations of our activity within Platypus, especially where we encounter the greatest difficulty for reflection—that is, when we mean to regard our activity as Platypus itself. With these thoughts in mind, we propose to ask ourselves: Who is Platypus for? How do we assess our progress—as a membership? as an organization? How do we identify our audience?—and how do we become a Platypus for them?
The history of the Platypus Critique begins with a judgment issued on the dead-end course of the 20th century, indeed on the situation arrived at by all history preceding: that the Left has lived and died; that the ‘progress of freedom’ continues to exhaust itself in chimerical forms—a Platypus among others. But this judgment was not passed in condemnation, with the same breath it cried also: Long Live the Left! The very unnaturalness of the historical chimera, it was thought, might mask—and hence disclose—the purpose of its true nature. At least for those still learning how to look upon its monstrous features, illumined by the thought that “the new does not add itself to the old but remains the old in distress, in its hour of need...”
But today, this problematic has itself matured. We have now a ‘first decade’ of the Platypus Critique—this has consequences for the continuing possibility of such a critique. Today, perhaps, the swamp of the dead Left drains itself—in fact, this was already the case even before the first moments of the Platypus Critique. We must admit: our glance is retrospective, our pronouncements made post-festum. But they, like capital, accumulate. It is left for us to reason through this process, and so reflect on our reflection of the past which is the present.
SPS tackles the legacy of the late Moishe Postone, the feud between Killer Mike and March for Our Lives organizers, and the reboot of (Trump-supporting) Roseanne.
From the Platypus Review archives:
platypus1917.org/2008/03/01/marx-…-moishe-postone/
Clip of Moishe Postone from Doug Lain's podcast, "Zero Squared" #108: The Subject of Capitalism with Moishe Postone: zero-books.net/blogs/zero/zero-s…ct-of-capitalism/
Held on April 6th at the University of Chicago, as part of the 2018 international convention of the Platypus Affiliated Society.
Description:
The financial crash in 2008 caused a crisis for the neoliberal order which has dominated Europe since the 1970s. Initially people put their hopes in neoliberalism, to rectify the situation, by trying to replace one neoliberal party with another but it became increasingly clear that the crisis was terminal. As a result they turned increasingly towards non-neoliberal parties, mostly on the right. Why this turn to the right? Why are people's concerns and needs apparently better met by the right than the left? What does this mean for the left?
Panelists:
Pam Nogales (Berlin, Germany)
Rory Hannigan (London, U.K.)
Jan Schroeder (Vienna, Austria)
David Mountain (London, U.K.)
Dom Jones (London, U.K.)
Clint Montgomery (Leipzig, Germany)
Padraig Macguire (London, U.K.)
„Die Tradition aller toten Geschlechter lastet wie ein Alp auf dem Gehirne derLebenden“- Karl Marx
- vorausgesetzte / + empfohlene Texte
Woche 1, 23. Abril, Revolutionary Leadership
- Luxemburg, “Die ‘Junius-Broschüre’ / Krise der Sozialdemokratie” Teil I. (1917)
- J.P. Nettl, “The German Social Democratic Party 1890-1914 as a Political Model” (1965)
- Cliff Slaughter, “What is revolutionary leadership?” (1960)
Woche 2, 30. Abril, Reform oder Revolution:
- Rosa Luxemburg, "Sozialreform oder Revolution" (1899)
Woche 3, 7. Mai , Lenin und die Avantgarde
- Spartakist-Broschüre, “Lenin und die Avantgardepartei” (1978)
Woche 4, 14. Mai, Was tun?
- W.I. Lenin, "Was tun?" (1902)
+ Richard Appignanesi und Oscar Zarate / A&Z, "Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners" (1977)
Woche 5: 21. Mai Massenstreik und Sozialdemokratie
- Rosa Luxemburg, „Massenstreik, Partei und Gewerkschaften“ (1906)
- Rosa Luxemburg, „Blanquismus und Sozialdemokratie" (1906)
Woche 6, 28. Mai , Permanente Revolution
- Leo Trotzki, "Ergebnisse und Perspektiven" (1906)
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, "Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners" (1980)
Woche 7, 4. Juni, Staat und Revolution
- W.I. Lenin, "Staat und Revolution" (1917)
Woche 8, 11. Juni , Imperialismus
- W.I. Lenin – "Der Imperialismus als höchstes Stadium des Kapitalismus" (1916)
Woche 9, 18. Juni, Das Scheitern der Revolution
- Rosa Luxemburg, "Was will der Spartakusbund?" (1918)
- Rosa Luxemburg, "Unser Programm und die politische Situation" (1918)
+ Luxemburg, "Die Sozialisierung der Gesellschaft" (1918)
+ Luxemburg, "Die Ordnung herrscht in Berlin" (1919)
+ Sebastian Haffner, "Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19" (1968)
Woche 10, 25. Juni, Rückzug nach der Revolution
- W.I. Lenin, "Der „Linke Radikalismus“, die Kinderkrankheit im Kommunismus" (1920)
+ Lenin, "Notizen eines Publizisten" (1922/24)
Woche 11, 2. Juli , Dialektik der Verdinglichung
- Lukács, “Der Standpunkt des Proletariats” (= Teil III. des Kapitels “Die Verdinglichung und das Bewußtsein des Proletariats”) In: Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (1923)
Woche 12, 9. Juli , Lehren des Oktobers
- Leo Trotzki, 1917 – "Die Lehren des Oktobers" (1924)
+Trotzki, "Bolschewismus und Stalinismus" (1937)
Woche 13, 16. Juli , Trotzkismus
- Leo Trotzki, "Der Todeskampf des Kapitalismus und die Aufgaben der 4. Internationale" (Das Übergangsprogramm) (1938)
Woche 14, 23. Juli , Der Begriff der Geschichte
- epigraphs by Louis Menand (on Edmund Wilson) and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche) "on the modern concept of history"
- Walter Benjamin, "Über den Begriff der Geschichte" (1940)
- Benjamin, "Paralipomena zu den Thesen Über den Begriff der Geschichte" (In: GS I) (1940)
+ Bertolt Brecht, "An die Nachgeborenen" (1939)
+ Benjamin, "Erfahrung und Armut" (1933)
+ Benjamin, "Theologisch-
+ Benjamin, "Zum Planetarium" (aus: Einbahnstraße, 1928)
Woche 15, 30. Juli, Reflexionen auf den Marxismus
- Theodor Adorno, "Reflexionen zur Klassentheorie" (1942)
- Adorno, "Ausschweifung" (Anhang Minima Moralia) (1944–47)
+ Adorno, Adorno, "Zueignung", "Vor Mißbrauch wird gewarnt" und "Zum Ende", aus Minima Moralia (1944-47)
+ Horkheimer und Adorno, Diskussion über Theorie und Praxis (1956)
Woche 16. 6. August , Theorie und Praxis:
- Adorno, “Marginalien zu Theorie und Praxis” (1969)
- Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
+ Adorno, "Zu Subjekt und Objekt" (1969)
+ Adorno, "Spätkapitalismus oder Industriegesellschaft?" (1968) [Audio] [Text]
+ Adorno und Marcuse, "Correspondence on the German New Left" (1969)
+ Esther Leslie, "Introduction to the 1969 Adorno-Marcuse correspondence" (1999)