In the first part of the episode our co-hosts Lisa Müller und Rebekah Parlar sit down with Platypus member Clint Montgomery to talk about our annual international Platypus Convention. Our international Convention, which is sort of the highlight in your platypus calendar, will take place in Chicago from the 31st of March until April the 3rd. In the segment Lisa, Rebekah and Clint talk about why this year's convention will be held under the overarching theme of “Marxism and the ends of liberalism”, what that has to do with the COVID pandemic and what other events will be hosted during the convention. Whether you you want to meet Platypus members from all over the world, discuss global trends within the left and its history or get a sense of meaning of the death of the left for our current moment in history, you should come to Chicago and get yourself a ticket for the convention. Your Shit Platypus say podcast team will be there as well!
For the second part of the episode Lisa and Rebekah talk with the editor in chief of the German Platypus Review, Tobias Rochlitz. - Tobias, Rebekah and Lisa discuss the failure of the New left with articles on Hans-Jürgen Krahl and the 1968s movement; an Interview with Wolf Wetzel on the disintegration of the autonomous movement in the 1970s and the response from Michael Fischer to an article from our Member Max Hörügel on the Failure of the early Anti-Deutsch current within the left.
+2022 Platypus International Convention
>The official website of the convention: platypus1917.org/platypus-interna…onvention/2022_/
+Mentioned in he German Platypus Review segment
>Platypus panel on “Corona und die Linke”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cynozxmZQsg&t=157s
>Platypus teach-in on "The Millennial Left is dead": www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkR-aSK60U8
>Platypus panel on "Die Krise des Neoliberalismus": www.youtube.com/watch?v=sADJlRLGCqY
>Ep. 43: On the Freedom Convoy, the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) & 2021 Platypus Highlights: platypus1917.org/2022/02/14/ep-43…ypus-highlights/
>Lenin - What is to be done: www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/
On this two-part episode of SPS, Pamela sits with Leila Mechoi, the co-host of Red Star Radio podcast. They reflect on the Left's reaction to the late trucker protest in Canada, and discuss the role of civil liberties in the organization of the working class, as well as what sort of missed political opportunity -- if any -- did the protest present. In the second part of the episode, Andreas and Berlin-based Platypus member, Tamas talked to Peter and Noemi, both members of Szikra, a leftist group in Hungary founded in 2019. They discuss the situation of the Hungarian Left with regards to developments within the international left over the past decade, as well as the next Hungarian parliamentary election in April of this year. They also take up the deeper history of the Left in Hungary and specific political challenges in the "post-socialist "countries of Eastern Europe today.
Links for Leila Mechoui interview
- Red Star Radio podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/red-…io/id1516544636
- www.patreon.com/red_star_radio
- themilitant.com/2022/02/12/trucke…ght-boss-attacks/
- Simon Clarke, The State Debate (Basingstoke: Palgrave 1991). This work and other his works can be found here: cooltexts.github.io/
Links for Szikra interview
- Szikra's "about us": www.szikramozgalom.hu/about_us
- Nora Schultz (Szikra member)in Merce (the leftist online newspaper that is mentioned during the interview): merce.hu/2019/09/20/a-szabad-…s-baloldali-es-zold/
- An interview with Nora Schultz by Noemi Lehoczki: merce.hu/2020/11/21/politikai…-szikra-mozgalommal/
SPS is hosted by Rose F., Pamela N. and Andreas W., with original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy, and editing assistance by Michael Woodson and Tamas Vilaghy. Our Sh-t Platypus Does team is Lisa M. and Rebekah P. To learn more about Platypus, go to platypus1917.org/.
On this episode, Pamela sits down with our Toronto member Cam Hardy to discuss Canada's "Freedom Convoy", and the responses by the "Left". They investigate Jacobin's hot take on the "inauthentic" working-class character of the protests, and the call by the Canadian Communist Party to criminalize the convoy. In the second segment, Andreas interviews Amir Sturm, a member of the Austrian Communist Party (KPĂ–). Andreas asks about the current state of the KPĂ–, its history & political self-understanding and the relationship between the KPĂ– and Junge Linke, an Austrian leftist youth organization. Finally, our Shit Platypus Does team, Rebekah and Lisa, chat with our members Ryan, Daniel, and Phedias about how Platypus has engaged the Left over the Legacy of Occupy, the meaning of Capitalism, and the politics of COVID-19 in our panel events in 2021.
+ The Left on the "Freedom Convoy"
> Jacobin
jacobinmag.com/2022/02/canada-fr…rker-anti-vaccine
jacobinmag.com/2022/02/freedom-t…au-vaccines-covid
> Communist Party of Canada
communist-party.ca/freedom-convoy-…e-ruling-class/
> The Communist League
themilitant.com/2022/02/12/trucke…ght-boss-attacks/
+KPĂ– Segment Links
>Platypus Interview with Tobias Schweiger platypus1917.org/2021/12/20/inter…_kpoe_schweiger/
> Platypus panel on the KPĂ–
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayjLSqH3Y…AffiliatedSociety
> Jacobin article about the election in Graz, September 2021: jacobinmag.com/2021/09/communist…tory-red-fortress
>Links to websites of KPĂ– and Junge Linke
www.kpoe.at/?playlist=17a123d&video=2bd4121
www.jungelinke.at/
+ Mentioned in our Shit Platypus Does segment
> What is capitalism and why should we be against it? - Panel Melbourne www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii8nVnWeUu0&t=174s or in the PR What is capitalism, and why should we be against it? platypus1917.org/2021/09/01/what-…be-against-it-2/
> From Protest to Politics? What was the Millennial Left? - Panel youtu.be/NDB0LyeQiU4
> Giving voice to Occupy: An interview with John Leveille platypus1917.org/2021/03/01/givin…h-john-leveille/
> What was Occupy? Ten years later - Panel www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-4GyAgwFw&t=146s
> D.L. Jacobs, What was the Millennial Left? platypus1917.org/2021/06/01/what-…millennial-left/
> The Millennial Left and the Democratic Party: A response to D. L. Jacobs platypus1917.org/2021/10/01/the-m…e-to-d-l-jacobs/
> Pam N., Platypus at #Occupy: Lessons learned from the death of the Millennial Left
platypus1917.org/2021/06/01/platypus-at-occupy/
> Coronavirus and the Left - Panel Melbourne www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqeIcDT7ys4
> SPS interview with Sue Bolton on Aussie Protests against the Vaccine Mandate platypus1917.org/2021/12/05/ep-41…vaccine-mandate/
> Anti-fascism in the Age of Trump 2017 - Panel Houston www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eaRuXRqP9c
> Hegel and the Left 2020 - Panel www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Pjhv7kDF0
> Corona und die Linke - Panel Germany www.youtube.com/watch?v=cynozxmZQsg
> Police Brutality and the Left - Panel www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwf1_df6FiA
In this special Xmas edition of SPS, your new hosts of the "Sh-t Platypus Does" segment, Rebekah and Lisa, chat with the Platypus Review Editor-in-Chief, Lou, about the new issue, PR #142 -- including articles: "What can one learn from the Right?" by D.L. Jacobs, "The Left is not a concept" by Benedict Cryptofash, "We are the city-building tendency" by Caleb T. Maupin and "Paths to Marxism" by Chris Cutrone.
New Issue, PR #142
platypus1917.org/platypus-review/
Leszek Kolakowski "The Concept of the Left" (1968)
platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploa…ceptleft1968.pdf
The Marxist hypothesis: A response to Alain Badiou's "communist hypothesis" by Chris Cutrone, in the Platypus Review #29 (November 2010)
platypus1917.org/2010/11/06/the-m…nist-hypothesis/
On this episode of SPS, Rose and Pamela sit down with Spencer L., founding member of Platypus and historian of imperialism, to discuss the Rittenhouse trial and the “Left’s” response. They clear up the confusion around the Second Amendment among todays leftists, address the anti-racism of progressive liberals, and take up responses by Daniel Lazare (Weekly Worker) and the Bolshevik Tendency. In the second part of the episode, Andreas W. and Platypus Melbourne member, Ryan M., interview Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance) on the protests against the Australian vaccine mandate, including the September attack on the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) offices. Union leadership was under attack by union members for their complicity with state measures, which prevented a return to work without vaccination. Andreas and Ryan ask, how should the left respond? Are these protests simply cannon fodder for the right? How should socialists understand this discontent in civil society?
SEGMENT I Links
>The “Left” on Rittenhouse
Daniel Lazare, “Rittenhouse and White Backlash” in the Weekly Worker, issue 1373 (25 November 2021)
weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1373/rit…white-backlash/
“...The idea that good guys need guns to defend themselves against bad guys is asinine, since it is often far from clear in a shootout which is which. It is a determination that cannot be made individually on the spur of the moment, but can only be made deliberately and collectively, which is why democracy requires judges, courts and other such apparatus.”
Milwaukee DSA Statement on Rittenhouse Verdict, (22 November 2021)
milwaukee.dsawi.org/milwaukee-dsa-s…nhouse-verdict/
“It is no coincidence that Rittenhouse wants to be a police officer when he grows up. The US injustice system was developed to enshrine white supremacy at the expense of those who work to undo it. As those in power continue to build upon the fascist foundations of our nation, it becomes ever-clearer that abolition of police and the carceral state at large is the only path forward.”
Bolshevik Tendency, “Killer Rittenhouse Goes Free—Fascists Celebrate”
bolsheviktendency.org/2021/11/27/kil…sts-celebrate/
“Decent people do not recognize the “right” of fascists and their various ultra-rightist friends and associates to mobilize—nor do we recognize their right to “defend” themselves against attempts to disarm them, which is what Rittenhouse’s victims were seeking to do. While the latter’s tactics were obviously seriously deficient, their intent was commendable.”
>Education on Liberalism & Constitutional Rights
Ira Glasser, Free Speech and the ACLU, an interview by Glenn Greenwald
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGI4fc_VB7c
Platypus Public Fora Series: The Second Amendment and the Left
Platypus Review 110 (October 2018): platypus1917.org/2018/10/01/the-s…nt-and-the-left/
June 9, 2018, University of Houston: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaaAqAm6oAw
SEGMENT II Links
Sue Bolton's article in Green Left, Socialist Alliance's publication: www.greenleft.org.au/content/behind…k-cfmeu-office
The other Green Left article Andreas quotes, by Dave Kellaway: www.greenleft.org.au/content/italy-…-confederation
Socialist Alliance's website: socialist-alliance.org/
Hosted by Rose F., Pamela N. and Andreas W., with original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy, and editing assistance by Michael Woodson and Tamas Vilaghy. To learn more about Platypus, go to platypus1917.org/.
