The Platypus Review

[ Die deutschsprachige Platypus Review ]

Latest Issue: 191

A social laboratory? Bonapartism and proletarian socialism in New Zealand, 1840–1914

As the following account will show, New Zealand, a country whose foundation coincided with capitalism’s first major crisis, offers interesting signposts of Bonapartism throughout its history. The eventual result was Bonapartism’s dialectical image: the development of proletarian socialism. Neither was exceptional in global terms.

[. . .]

Reflections on The Last Election

Russell Jacoby

The ABCs of history: in November 1932, an election took place in Germany. The Nazis emerged as the largest party in the Reichstag. Three months later the German president Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. That was the last free election in the German Republic. Sometimes last is last.

[. . .]

A century after Debs

Andrea Bauer, Carlos L. Garrido, Edward Remus, Mark Burrows

On Saturday, April 11, 2026, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel discussion at the University of Chicago, marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Eugene Debs. The speakers were Andrea Bauer (Freedom Socialist Party), Mark Burrows (Railroad Workers United and board member of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation), Carlos L. Garrido (American Communist Party, and author of Why You Need American Marxism), and Edward Remus (Platypus Affiliated Society and the Campaign for a Socialist Party).

[. . .]

What next?: The civic populist commonwealth

Harry C. Boyte

The supposedly scientific theory of “class for itself” is something removed from the lives of everyday people, imposed on them by intellectuals. It does not use the language of the commonwealth, the main resource for Americans imagining a future beyond state-centered socialism and rapacious capitalism.

[. . .]

Staff

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Allen You

MANAGING EDITOR

Matthew Ramirez

COPY EDITORS

Mike Bartlett
Charles Crum
Rory Hannigan
Octavio Hernandez
Thom Hutchinson
Liam Kenny
Michael McClelland
Divya Menon
Olivia Mistretta
Evan Rodgers
Patrick Unwin

DESIGNERS

Mike Atkinson
Chris Mansour
Carson Wright

WEB EDITOR

Nick Cochran

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

Gabe Gottfried

DISTRIBUTION

Erica Gamble
Diaz Mathis

CHAPTER COORDINATOR

Ceci Chang

EDITORIAL ADVISOR

Louis Sterrett

Editorial Statement

Taking stock of the universe of positions and goals that constitutes leftist politics today, we are left with the disquieting suspicion that a deep commonality underlies the apparent variety: What exists today is built upon the desiccated remains of what was once possible.
[ . . . ]

Submission Guidelines

Articles will typically range in length from 750–4,500 words, but longer pieces will be considered. Please send article submissions and inquiries about this project to editor.platypusreview@gmail.com. All submissions should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style.

The Platypus Review is funded by:

Phedias Christodoulides
Dalhousie Student Union
Loyola University of Chicago
The New School
New York University
Northwestern University
The Platypus Affiliated Society
School of the Art Institute of Chicago Student Government
The University of Chicago Student Government
The University of Illinois at Chicago