A panel discussion event held on May 28th, 2010, at the 2010 Platypus International Convention held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
To many on the Left today, opposition to imperialism has become a political litmus test of sorts, but historically anti-imperialism was by no means an exclusively leftist political projectâwhether we are speaking of right-wing anti-colonialism in the metropole or in the colonies. In light of these confusions, this panel seeks to clarify the character of the imperialism question on the Left from the Second International to the contemporary anti-war movement, in three interrelated papers. The first will begin at the end of this trajectory by examining anti-anti-imperialist discourse on the Left from the debate Bill Warrenâs Imperialism through Bosnian solidarity in the 1990s and the writings of anti-anti-imperialist leftists such as Fred Halliday, Christopher Hitchens, and Moishe Postone after 9/11. It will address centrally the question of the status and strategic significance of left anti-imperialism in the context of a moribund world revolution as well as in light of the 19th century Marxist legacy respecting the National Question. The second paper will revisit the foundational debates on "imperialism" in the Second International and the early Comintern. By returning to this locus classicus the aim is to examine the impetus given to the âcolonial questionâ by the Bolshevik Revolution and the formation of the Third International. The interconnection for Lenin and Third International radicals between the national and the colonial questions with world revolutionary strategy came to be unhinged for later apologists of Third World nationalism. The third will consist a close consideration of the Stalinization of the imperialism question with special reference to the Communist parties of India and Pakistan from 1928-1968. This is a particularly appropriate test case given the centrality of the subcontinentâs centrality in the history of decolonization and the fact that the Marxist Left in India emerged only after the Stalinization of the international Left.
Panelists
Atiya Khan
Spencer Leonard
Sunit Singh
Saturday and Sunday: School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 112 S. Michigan Ave.
The Platypus Affiliated Society is proud to announce its second annual international convention, What is Left, and where to begin? Platypus has organized four days of activities. Starting on Wednesday May 26th with a film screening at University of Chicagoâs Woodlawn Collaborative and Thursday with theater and poetry performances at Decima Musa in Pilsen. On Friday May 28th, the Platypus Affiliated Society will convene for the panel discussion on The Question of Imperialism in the 20th Century at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). On Saturday May 29th, Platypus will host a selective series of workshops and panel discussions at SAIC (112 S. Michigan Ave.) Â Activities will focus on political and cultural issues that have shaped the Left historically and today. Sunday May 30th, Platypus members will be leading a series of talks on The Platypus Experience: Perspectives from three generations and The origins of todayâs Left in the 1970s New Left. Saturday and Sunday spaces are limited and require registration. Click here to register.
Platypus presents:
Tuesday, May 18th 8:00 PM
5710 S. Woodlawn
Featuring a presentation by Chris Cutrone on Juliet Mitchellâs âWomen: The longest revolutionâ (1966)
Join us for dinner and discussion
âSocialism will be a process of change, of becoming. A fixed image of the future is in the worst sense ahistorical. . . . As Marx wrote: âWhat is progress if not the absolute elaboration of humanityâs creative dispositions . . . unmeasured by any previously established yardstick[,] an end in itself . . . the absolute movement of becoming?â . . . The liberation of women under socialism will [be] . . . a human achievement, in the long passage from Nature to Culture which is the definition of history and society.â
-- Juliet Mitchell
Juliet Mitchellâs groundbreaking essay, âWomen: The longest revolutionâ (1966), brilliantly anticipated the feminist critique of Marxian socialism. But Mitchell found feminism, too to be lacking. Far from dismissing Marxism as a retrograde, patriarchal theory, Mitchell embarked on an effort to reconstruct Marxism as a philosophy of freedom that could orient political activists' efforts to overturn male dominance and establish the equality of the sexes. Unfortunately, feminism after Mitchell's essay failed to heed her call to attend critically to history to help get a better grasp and clarity about the pursuit of gender and sexual liberation, and abandoned the utopian possibilities of socialism in favor of the politics of established social identities. Join us to reconsider the paths not taken out of 1960s radicalism, and work towards reformulating a theory of sexual freedom that answers the needs of the present.
Reading:
Juliet Mitchell Women: The Longest Revolution (1966)
The Platypus Affiliated Society at Woodlawn Collaborative present...
When:Saturday, May 8 1:30pm - 3:00pm.
Where:Â Woodlawn Collaborative 6400 S. Kimbark Ave., John Knox Hall.
The German Marxist critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) is known, along with his friend and mentor Walter Benjamin, for the critique of mid-20th century art and culture. What is less well understood is the specific character of Adornoâs Marxism, how his political perspective related to his philosophical concerns. This workshop will address several aspects of Adornoâs Marxism that relate to his critique of Leftist politics, in both periods of his early and late life, in the Old Left (1920s-40s) and New Left (1960s), and how Adorno remains relevant to issues and problems of Leftist politics today.
Recommended background readings:
Max Horkheimer, âThe Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedomâ (1926)
Adorno, âImaginative Excessesâ (1944)
Adorno, âMarginalia to Theory and Praxisâ (1969)
Adorno, âResignationâ (1969)
Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)
What can contemporary artists do? The question is a vague and obvious one, but remains unanswered amidst the splintering profusion of ideals and artistic practices. Has the recent infinitude of socially conscious art been liberating, or has it been constrictive? Do artists hope to regain the dissipating public, or withdraw from it? Do artists resist the culture industry which encroaches upon it and devise alternate utopia's, or liquidate into it and bring about change from within popular culture? What is at stake with artist collectives - singular isolation, or global revolution? Has postmodern and contemporary art moved beyond modernism, or has there been regression to pre-modernity? Most importantly, what purchase does art have on the present moment for augmenting change on a broader political level?
Three panelists working at the intersection of art and politics will attempt to answer these, and other questions from different perspectives - as historians, practitioners, and theorists. We hope that this conversation will aid in understanding the bewildering present by uncovering the implicit hopes of contemporary art.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
6:00pm - 9:00pm
280 S Columbus Dr.
Featuring:
Claire Pentecost (artist, writer, SAIC)
Chris Cutrone (Critic, Platypus, SAIC, U. Chicago)
Stephen Eisenman (Art History, Northwestern)
www.platypus1917.org
http://platypus1917.org/2010/04/08/an-interview-with-hal-foster/
