On May 2, 2023, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel on the American Constitution and the Left at New York University. The panelists were Erin Hagood (Platypus), Daniel Lazare (writer at the Weekly Worker, author of The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution is Paralysing Democracy), and Caleb Maupin (Center for Political Innovation). The panel was moderated by Platypus member Oliver Chasan. An edited transcript follows.
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How was the American Revolution revolutionary? Does the Left today inherit any of the revolutionary tasks of 1776? Should the Left break with or build on the legacy of the American Revolution? How should the Left make sense of recent attempts to reject, reinterpret, or reclaim the revolutionary tradition of 1776?
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IF TODAY’S ATOMIZED Marxist Left agrees on anything, it is the disastrous consequences of the Second International’s failure to mobilize against war in 1914. Instead of banding together against militarism, socialists rushed to defend bourgeois states they had previously pledged to destroy. They all had their reasons.
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On March 11, 2024, at New York University, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel regarding Left perspectives on the Israel–Palestine conflict. The speakers were Norman Finkelstein (author of The Holocaust Industry (2000) and Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom (2018)), Daniel Lazare (writer at the Weekly Worker, author of The Frozen Republic (1997)), Eva Porter (New School, Students for Justice in Palestine), and Joe Whitcomb (Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), former member of its youth section’s Organizational Committee). The panel was moderated by Oliver Chasan. An edited transcript follows
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FOR AN INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT supposedly fading into irrelevance, the gathering on New York’s Upper West Side on Saturday, January 13, was remarkable: an auditorium overflowing with hundreds of people arguing passionately about where Trotskyism is going and how to get there. On one side were the Spartacists and the International Communist League (ICL), whose U.S. outlet, Workers Vanguard, has long been known for its wit, high intellectual tone, and pugilistic style.
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