Feature Article #1

The Occupy movement, a renascent Left, and Marxism today: An interview with Slavoj Žižek

Haseeb Ahmed with Chris Cutrone Platypus Review 42 | December 2011 – January 2012 [PDF] On November 5, 2011, using questions formulated together with Chris Cutrone, Haseeb Ahmed interviewed Slavoj Žižek at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. Haseeb Ahmed: Are we currently—after Tahrir [...]

| December 1st, 2011 | Continued

Feature Article #2

The elusive “threads of historical progress”: The early Chartists and the young Marx and Engels

David Black Platypus Review 42 | December 2011 – January 2012 [PDF] THE FIRST EVER REACTION by the Victorian ruling class to “Marxism” is found in a London Times leader of September 2, 1851 on “Literature For The Poor,” “only now and then when some startling fact is bought before us do we entertain even the [...]

| December 1st, 2011 | Continued

Feature Article #3

A cry of protest before accommodation? The dialectic of emancipation and domination

Chris Cutrone Platypus Review 42 | December 2011 – January 2012 [PDF] HOW ARE WE TO REGARD the history of revolutions? Why do revolutions appear to fail to achieve their goals? What does this say about consciousness of social change? One common misunderstanding of Marx (against which, however, many counter-arguments have been made) is with [...]

| December 1st, 2011 | Continued

Feature Article #4

Platypus Review editorial statement of purpose and submission guidelines

Statement of purpose 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. In order to make sense of the present, we [...]

| November 1st, 2007 | Continued

About Platypus

The Platypus Affiliated Society The Platypus Affiliated Society, established in December 2006, 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. [PDF] Get connected with the Platypus Yahoo! discussion group and the Platypus [...]

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Platypus primary Marxist reading group Winter–Spring 2012

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism Chicago, Frankfurt, London, New York, and Thessaloniki Saturdays 1–4PM School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) 112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920 New School University New York (New School) Lang Café, Eugene Lang Building 65 W. 11th St. ground floor (enter at 66 W. 12th St.) University of Chicago [...]

December 18th, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Platypus introductory readings

10 sessions of readings introducing the raison d’être of the Platypus project.

August 3rd, 2010 | | Comments Off | Continued
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Platypus primary Marxist reading group Winter–Spring 2011

II. Introduction to revolutionary Marxism Saturdays 1–4PM School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) 112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920 University of Chicago (UChicago) The Reynolds Club 2nd floor South Lounge 5706 S. University Ave. New York University (NYU) Puck Building 295 Lafayette St. 4th floor Memorial Room • required / + recommended reading [...]

December 9th, 2010 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Platypus introductory readings II

A second series of 10 sessions introducing the raison d’être of the Platypus project.

January 16th, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Platypus summer 2011: Radical bourgeois philosophy

Platypus Marxist reading group June 25 – August 21 Saturdays 1–4PM at: School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) 112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920 Sundays 1–4PM at: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 77 Massachusetts Ave., Bldg. 5 room 232 Cambridge Center City Philadelphia Good Karma Cafe 928 Pine St. (between 9th and 10th [...]

April 23rd, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Platypus history of Marxism readings Fall/Autumn 2011 – Winter 2012 syllabus

I. What is the “Left?” — What is “Marxism?” Chicago (School of the Art Institute of Chicago and University of Chicago) and New York City (New School University and New York University) Chicago Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=186447294761195 Saturdays 1–4PM Starting Sat. Sept. 10: School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) 112 S. Michigan Ave. room [...]

September 5th, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Letter from Greece: Brief notes on Revolt and Crisis in Greece and the Greek situation

Review of Antonis Vradis and Dimitris Dalakoglou, eds., Revolt and crisis in Greece: Between a present yet to pass and a future still to come (Oakland: AK Press & Occupied London, 2011). Thodoris Velissaris Platypus Review 41 | November 2011 [PDF] The book “What is happening here exceeds us.” (199) THERE IS A BAD THEORETICAL [...]

November 1st, 2011 | | 1 comment | Continued
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Black nationalism and the legacy of Malcolm X: An interview with Michael Dawson

Spencer A. Leonard Platypus Review 41 | November 2011 [PDF] Last fall, editor Spencer A. Leonard interviewed Michael Dawson, Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago. The interview, which centered around a discussion of Manning Marable’s new biography of Malcolm X, was broadcast on September [...]

November 1st, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Whither Marxism? Why the occupation movement recalls Seattle 1999

Chris Cutrone Platypus Review 41 | November 2011 [PDF] THE PRESENT OCCUPATION MOVEMENT expresses a return to the Left of the late 1990s, specifically the 1999 anti-World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. They both have taken place in the last year of a Democratic U.S. Presidential administration, been spearheaded by anarchism, had discontents with neoliberalism [...]

November 1st, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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The Marxist turn: The New Left in the 1970s

Carl Davidson, Tom Riley, and Mel Rothenberg Platypus Review 40 | October 2011 [PDF] On May 19, 2011, Platypus invited Carl Davidson, formerly of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Guardian Weekly, Tom Riley of the International Bolshevik Tendency, and Mel Rothenberg, formerly of the Sojourner Truth Organization, to reflect on “The [...]

September 26th, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Lenin the liberal? A reply to Chris Cutrone

David Adam Platypus Review 40 | October 2011 [PDF] CHRIS CUTRONE’S RECENT ARTICLE “Lenin’s Liberalism” (Platypus Review #36) claims that Lenin’s politics are distorted when characterized as a pure opposition to bourgeois conditions. In fact, he suggests that Lenin insisted on “the mediation of politics in society” even after the creation of a “workers’ state,” demonstrating [...]

September 26th, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Lenin’s politics: A rejoinder to David Adam on Lenin’s liberalism

Chris Cutrone Platypus Review 40 | October 2011 [PDF] THE PRINCIPAL MISTAKE MADE by those who contemplate Lenin’s political thought and action is due to assumptions that are made about the relation of socialism to democracy. Lenin was not an “undemocratic socialist” or one who prioritized socialism as an “end” over the “means” of democracy. Lenin [...]

September 25th, 2011 | | 0 comments | Continued


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