Prior to October 7, 2023, Gaza wasn’t seriously on the Western Left’s radar at all. It was a non-topic for discussion, as Gaza was quiescent. Hamas, which governed Gaza by force and threat of terror against its civilian population, seethed with anger against Israel, and desired Israel’s elimination and replacement by an Islamic caliphate; but not so much, generally, the Gazan civilian population, which was resigned to the uneasy status quo that kept everything as it was.
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But why has the proletariat never come directly to power? There is no simple answer, but a key is in the strategy of the Popular Front pursued by communist, socialist, and social-democratic parties all over the world, particularly since 1935–36.
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On April 10, 2026, as the opening plenary of its 18th annual Convention, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel at Northwestern University on the crisis of the American Revolution and its legacy. The speakers were Chris Cutrone (original lead organizer of Platypus and the Campaign for a Socialist Party), Edith Fischer (founding member of Communist Unity in Australia), and Ingar Solty (Senior Research Fellow at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Berlin and author of Trumps Triumph?, Der postliberale Kapitalismus, and Edition Marxismen). Platypus member Erin Hagood moderated the panel. An edited transcript follows.
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While there should not be a reinforcement let alone ratification of the casting aside of Marxist critical theory by politics, it is also important to recognize that the actual problem is rather the opposite: turning Marxist critics into mere comrades. "Comrade Marx" won't do. Neither will Comrade Adorno — nor Comrade Cutrone.
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In 2018, Platypus Affiliated Society member Stefan Hain interviewed Volkmar Sigusch (1940–2023), who was considered one of the most important sex researchers in the world. From 1973 to 2006, he was Director of the Institute for Sexual Science at the clinic of the J. W. Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, as well as Professor of Special Sociology (Sociology of Sexuality) at the Department of Social Sciences in Frankfurt am Main. Sigusch co-founded the International Academy of Sex Research in 1973 and the Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung in 1988. His book Results in Sexual Medicine (1972) was the first in the world to include “Sexual Medicine” in its title.
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