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A panel discussion organized by the Platypus Affiliated Society, held on March 20, 2011 at Left Forum, Pace University.

Panel Abstract:

Marx and Engels were not the preeminent socialists but rather socialism's greatest critics, distinguishing their "communism" from "reactionary," "bourgeois" and "democratic" socialism. Lately, Marx is taken for his theoretical analysis of capitalism more than his and Engels's revolutionary politics, discredited after the 20th century's spectacular failures of "Marxism." So what is Marx and Engels's political legacy? What Marx wrote after the failed "social-democratic" revolutions of 1848 still resonates: "Every demand of the simplest bourgeois financial reform, of the most ordinary liberalism, of the most formal republicanism, of the most insipid democracy, is simultaneously castigated as an 'attempt on society' and stigmatized as 'socialism'." How does Marx and Engels's politics of "communism," that is, socialism aware of its historical vocation, task us today?

Benjamin Blumberg - University of Chicago
Nathan Smith - The Platypus Affiated Society
Pam Nogales - New York University
Richard Rubin - Platypus
Tana Forrester - The Platypus Affiliated Society

Join Platypus members this Wednesday, February 17th at 7:30pm for a teach-in on the Iranian Revolution and a discussion on the current situation in Iran led by Platypus Review editor Pam C. Nogales C.

This event will be held at the New School, 80 Fifth Avenue, Rm. 802

Undoubtedly, the Left today should demand the overthrow of theocratic regimes; the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran is no exception. However, how the regime is overthrown, who participates in this act and how they understand their political practice, has irreversible effects. In 1977-79, the international Left overlooked this consideration by uncritically supporting those seeking to overthrow the Shah. In so doing, the Left helped a right-wing popular movement establish the theocratic dictatorial government the protesters fight against today. How are we as leftists to make sense of this political failure so as to help rebuild an emancipatory Left today? How do the current protests challenge the Islamic Republic? What are the prospects for overthrowing the Iranian regime and what would take its place?

1. Against the status quo: An interview with Iranian trade-unionist Homayoun Pourzad

2. The failure of the Islamic revolution: The nature of the present crisis in Iran

Red Channels and the Platypus Affiliated Society present:

The Poverty of Student Life, a film screening and discussion

SFimg

Monday, November 23, 7:30 pm - 10:30 pm @ The Brecht Forum, 451 West Street

San Francisco State: On Strike - Newsreel, 1969, 25 minutes
Community Control - Newsreel, 1969, 50 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes | Digital Projection

Discussion with:

Pam C. Nogales C. of the Platypus Affiliated Society

Luz Schreiber of the Committee in Defense of the Children's Learning Center at Hunter College, and Ollin Imagination

Jitu Weusi - teacher, principal, member of the African American Teachers Association, co-founder of The East (1969-1985)

[more TBA]


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Platypus Review articles on student politics:

1. Politics of the contemporary student Left

2.  Violence at the RNC

3. The New School occupation and the direction of student politics: an interview with Atlee McFellin

4. Five questions to the student Left

Saturday, October 3 - 7:30pm @ Union Docs [ 322 Union Ave, Brooklyn NY ]

Platypus NY Chapter head, Chris Mansour, will be introducing the film. Discussion with Filmmaker and Stephen Duncombe to follow the screening.

In EXAMINED LIFE (2008, 87 minutes, Canada, DVD), filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

This event is presented in association with the Platypus Affiliated Society, New York chapter. Platypus organizes reading groups, public fora, research and journalism focused on problems and tasks inherited from the “Old” (1920s-30s), “New” (1960s-70s) and post-political (1980s-90s) Left for the possibilities of emancipatory politics today.

http://www.uniondocs.org/examined-life-with-astra-taylor/

At the Left Forum hosted by New York’s Pace University in April of this year, a panel discussion was held on the subject of Politics of the Contemporary Student Left: Hopes and Failures. Organized by Alex Hanna of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), the panel consisted of Pam Nogales of Platypus, Carlos J. Pereira Di Salvo of USAS, and Laurie Rojas of Platypus. What follows is a transcript of each panelist’s formal presentation and the subsequent Q&A session. Video of the panel discussion is available at the above link.