A panel held on August 28, 2011 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Panelists (in speaking order): Jerzy Sobotta (Frankfurt), Haseeb Ahmed (Maastricht), Watson Ladd (Chicago), Pam C. Nogales C. (New York)

Poduimsdiskussion: Hosting the conversation on the death of the Left.
The panel will present on the recent history of the Left in the U.S. through the history of the emergence and activities of our new student organization, the Platypus Affiliated Society. Platypus was established in 2006 in response to the failure of the Iraq anti-war movement. We formed an organization dedicated to âhosting the conversationâ on the death of the Left internationally, seeking to present more directly questions and problems from the history of Marxism, as guide to why and how the world has arrived at its present state. We find the most interesting and deepest questions and problems of modern history to be raised by Marxism, but not exclusively so. We hope to help clear or at least call critical attention to the present and historical ideological obstacles to the potential for forming a cosmopolitan Left as a truly progressive-emancipatory force.

The panel will include speakers from New York, Chicago, Boston/Maastricht and Frankfurt.

Poduimsdiskussion: Hosting the conversation on the death of the Left.
Die Veranstaltung wird die neuere Geschichte der Linken in den USA anhand der Entstehung und den Aktivitäten der neuen studentischen Organisation, the Platypus Affiliated Society, zum Gegenstand haben. Platypus wurde 2006 als Antwort auf die Niederlage der Anti-Irakkrieg-Bewegung gegründet. Wir haben eine Organisation geschaffen, welche es sich zum Hauptanliegen gemacht hat, die Diskussion über den Tod der Linken zu anzustoßen und so direkter die Fragen und Probleme aus der Geschichte des Marxismus aufzuwerfen, um zu verstehen, wie und warum die Welt zu ihrem gegenwärtigem Zustand gelangt ist. Wir glauben, dass die interessantesten und tiefsten Probleme moderner Geschichte, nicht ausschließlich aber vor allem durch den Marxismus angesprochen wurden. Wir hoffen, gegenwärtige und historische ideologische Hindernisse für eine potentielle Entstehung einer kosmopolitischen Linken – als einer tatsächlich progressiv-emanzipatorischen Kraft – aus dem Weg zu räumen, oder zumindest kritisch ins Bewusstsein zu rufen.
Der Panel besteht aus Sprecherinnen und Sprechern aus New York, Chicago, Boston/Maastricht und Frankfurt. (Die Veranstaltung findet auf englisch statt.) 
IVI (Bockenheim) • Kettenhofweg 130 • Frankfurt am Main
Sonntag, 28. August 2011, 18:00 (IVI)

Panel organized by the Platypus Affiliated Society presented at the 2011 Naturfreundejugend (Friends of Nature) Berlin Herrschaftskritisches Sommercamp, held in August 2011.

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Introducing Platypus: Hosting the conversation on the death of the Left

What is Platypus?

We will present on the recent history of the Left in the U.S. through the history of the emergence and activities of our new student organization, the Platypus Affiliated Society. Platypus was established in 2006 in response to the failure of the Iraq anti-war movement. We formed an organization dedicated to "hosting the conversation" on the death of the Left. In particular, Adorno's critique of the 1960s New Left resonated powerfully, and led us to explore Adorno's assumptions from the history of Marxism. We find the most interesting and deepest questions and problems of modern history to be raised by Marxism, but not exclusively so. We hope to help clear or at least call critical attention to the present and historical ideological obstacles to the potential for forming a cosmopolitan Left as a truly progressive-emancipatory force.

The history of Platypus

Our first two public fora were in 2007, on the questions of "imperialism" and the anti-war movement, and "resistance" and the problems of neo-anarchism originating in the 1960s. Since then, we have held many further public fora on different topics, such as: the relation between art, culture and politics; immigration; Iran; Israel-Palestine; the labor movement; philosophy and critical theory; and sexual liberation. Also in 2007 we began publishing the Platypus Review, as our forum-in-print for contending perspectives on the Left and its history, reviewing monthly Platypus's various public activities and engagements. Platypus participated in the newly refounded Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), for instance, in collaboration with U.S. Labor Against the War, presenting workshops on the Iraqi Left, and we helped to organize new chapters of the SDS. But with the historical shift of the collapse of the anti-war movement, the financial crisis and economic downturn, and the election of Obama as U.S. President in 2008, Platypus has turned to more independent activity in hosting the conversation on the absence of a true Left, seeking to present more directly questions and problems from the history of Marxism, as guide to why and how the world has arrived at its present state.
Platypus's organizational aims and goals -- an international conversation

We aim at primarily student audiences and participation, trying to intervene in the reproduction of the bad "Left" that takes place pedagogically through both the academic and activist environments to which students are exposed. Beginning in 2009, we began participating in and hosting panel discussions at the annual national conference of the American Left, the Left Forum in New York City, and holding our own annual international convention in Chicago. Beyond the U.S., we have expanded internationally in Canada, Germany, Greece and the U.K., bringing the conversation we seek to host onto a greater global stage. We seek to establish and coordinate as many chapters for doing this work of hosting the conversation on the death of the Left, in as many campus locations, internationally, as possible, in order to make palpable the present absence but continued urgent need for a real Left.

Panelists include Omair Hussain, Jerzy Sobotta, Pam Nogales, and Jacob Cayia.