The Platypus Affiliated Society

What is the Democratic Socialists of America?

Andrew Basta, Jack Clark, Jamal Abed-Rabbo, Lance Selfa

What follows is an edited transcript of a panel hosted on December 14, 2020 by the Northwestern University chapter of the Platypus Affiliated Society, with Platypus member Clay Mills moderating.

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What was the Millennial Left?

D.L. Jacobs

IF I WERE TO ASK a room of leftists in the 2010s what distinguishes them from the Democrats, I would get many responses. One leftist may say: “Well, I am not a Democrat — I only use their facilities or spread socialism amongst the base, over which the leadership does not have any control.”

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Platypus at #Occupy: Lessons learned from the death of the Millennial Left

Pam C. Nogales C.

OCCUPY ERUPTED IN 2011 after the revolt of the Tea Party, a populist expression of discontent from the Right which provoked a renewal among the Republican Party base. In the shadow of the economic downturn, amidst global austerity protests, the Zuccotti Park occupiers looked to the rebellions in Cairo, Tunis, Athens and London.

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The Death of the Millennial Left: Neo-Social Democracy

Giorgos Stefanidis

During the 2000s I participated in the student movement that fought against the privatization of higher institutions. Youth militancy culminated in the 2008 uprising, when massive demos and nationwide riots followed the murder of a teenager by the Greek police. Radical direct democracy demands were promulgated and local assemblies sprouted all over the country. Although the uprising soon came to an end, it became obvious that the Greek Left was going through serious ideological and political transformations.

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London Summer 2021: Adorno's Negative Dialectics

Mondays at 6:30pm BST via Zoom (recurring link here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86210746511). Everyone welcome.

( • required / + recommended readings)

Required background reading:
• Six readings by Chris Cutrone, "Revolution without Marx? Rousseau, Kant and Hegel" (2013); Review of Andrew Feenberg, The Philosophy of Praxis (2015); "Why still read Lukacs? The place of 'philosophical' questions in Marxism" (2014); "Ends of philosophy" (2018); "On philosophy and Marxism" (2020); and “The negative dialectic of Marxism” (2021)

Recommended supplemental reading:
+ Adorno, Lectures on Negative Dialectics
+ Adorno, History and Freedom
+ Adorno, Introduction to Dialectics
+ Adorno, Ontology and Dialectics
+ Adorno, Metaphysics: Concepts and Problems

Primary sources:
• Theodor Adorno, Negative Dialectics (1966, trans. E.B. Ashton, 1973)
+ Alternate translation by Dennis Redmond (2001/2021) [2021 updated PDF]

Charts of terms:
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Kant's 3 Critiques [PNG] and philosophy [PNG] chart of terms
+ Capitalist contradiction chart of terms
+ Commodity form chart of terms
+ Reification chart of terms
+ Adorno's critique of actionism chart of terms

Week 1: June 7, 2021

• Gillian Rose, Review of Adorno's Negative Dialectics (1976)
• Theodor W. Adorno, "Why still philosophy?"
• Chris Cutrone, "Ends of philosophy" (2018); "On philosophy and Marxism" (2020); and “The negative dialectic of Marxism” (2021)

Week 2: June 14, 2021

• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Prologue (Preface and Introduction)

Week 3: June 21, 2021

• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part One: Relation to Ontology: I. The Ontological Need

Week 4: June 28, 2021

• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part One: Relation to Ontology: II. Being and Existence

Week 5: July 5, 2021

• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part Two: Negative Dialectics: Concepts and Categories

Week 6: July 12, 2021

• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part Three: Models: I. Freedom

Week 7: July 19, 2021

• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part Three: Models: II. World Spirit and Natural History

Week 8: July 26, 2021

• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part Three: Models: III. Meditations on Metaphysics
+ Cutrone, "Ends of philosophy" (2018); "On philosophy and Marxism" (2020); and “The negative dialectic of Marxism” (2021)

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