On this special holiday episode, SPS brings to you reports from protests in the USA, Germany and Austria. We include shotgun interviews with participants and reflections by our members. In the first segment, our West Coast members interview the academic workers part of the strikes at the University of California. They ask the strikers at the LA and Santa Barbara campuses about their participation in the strike and their views on the relationship between this labor struggle and the long-term vision for the Left. On the second segment, our members Marius, Lisa and Andreas went to several university occupations organized by “End fossil: Occupy!” –– a climate justice movement with the goal to put an end to the fossil fuel economy. Students occupied lecture halls in different cities for several weeks to draw attention to their demands and to initiate negotiations with their respective university administrations.

Links:

(1) On December 15th, 2022 the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a public forum in New York City called "Labor and the Left." This conversation was hosted in the immediate wake of the 2022 strike at The New School for Social Research.

Recording: https://youtu.be/f7o1XKt2mpc

(2) "The Concept of the Left and Right" a Platypus panel. Edited transcript printed in Platypus Review 68 (July 2014) https://platypus1917.org/2014/07/04/concept-left-right/

(3) G.M. Tamás, "Telling the truth about class" in Vol. 42: Socialist Register 2006: Telling the Truth, https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/tamasgm_tellingthetruthaboutclass.pdf

(4) "End Fossil: Occupy!" website

 https://endfossil.de