Platypus Affiliated Society members D. L. Jacobs and Justin Spiegel interviewed Michael Wayne, author of Red Kant: Aesthetics, Marxism and the Third Critique (2014) in two parts: email and in-person conversation on December 2, 2021. What follows is an edited transcription of their discussions.
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On October 17, 2021, Platypus Affiliated Society members Zeyu Chen and D. L. Jacobs interviewed Anthony Monteiro, a W. E. B. Du Bois scholar and an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia. What follows is an edited transcript of their discussion.
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I REMEMBER TALKING TO AN ANARCHIST in 2016 about Platypus; they were irate that we had published an anti-Deutsch communist in 2010. He claimed that Platypus was like CNN, in that we would host people with different views on a panel in order to suggest that the middle position is the best. I said, no, we host the conversation among the Left, and the Left itself takes contradictory stances on an issue as a result of their shared history.
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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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On February 9, 2021, D.L. Jacobs interviewed John Leveille via Zoom. Leveille is an associate professor of sociology at West Chester University, where he specializes in sociological theory and social movements. His book Searching for Marx in the Occupy Movement is based on nine months of participation in and observation of Occupy Philadelphia and analyzes the movement’s rise, organization, and ultimate demise.
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