THE PANELS AT the 2024 Platypus East Coast Conference in Boston and Cambridge generated a number of interesting threads of discussion. One thread, which I found particularly engrossing, was initiated by “Hegelian e-girl” Nikki Kirigian in the “Theory in crisis” panel.
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On September 10, 2024, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted the panel “Democracy and the Left” at New York University with panelists Andy Gittlitz (Antifada), Sebastian (Revolutionary Communists of America), George Shulman (NYU), and Grayson Walker (American Communist Party). An edited, expanded version of Grayson Walker’s opening remarks follows.
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I HAD THE PLEASURE of actually seeing Benjamin Studebaker during an online Platypus panel on the Middle East on July 20. Through our comradely deliberations I discovered we had a lot in common; we both see the kernel of truth in Bismarckianism; Marxists should have no empathy nor patience for city-states’ right to self-determination. From that angle, I can understand his opposition to both Israeli and Palestinian nationalisms, and maybe even towards most postcolonial nationalisms in the region.
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On May 4, 2024, the Platypus Affiliated Society chapters at UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz hosted an introductory workshop on the Philippines and the Left, which included this teach-in by member Daniel Rudin. An edited, revised version follows.
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Presented on October 30, 2024, for the panel discussion “The Left and the 2024 election” with Eddie Liger Smith (American Communist Party) and Jorge Mujica, hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society at the University of Chicago.
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