Jensen Suther of the Platypus Affiliated Society hosts a teach-in on Hegel's Materialism in Athens. 1 June 2019

Teach-in by Jensen Suther of the Platypus Affiliated Society on Hegel's concept of life, held in Athens, 1 June 2019.

Teach-in on Engels' "Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State", hosted by Lucy Parker in Athens on 1 June 2019.

On this episode, we tackle cancel culture and the legacy of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Sophia, a London-based member of Platypus, joins us to discuss the feud between beauty influencers, James Charles and Tati Westbrook, and what it might tells us about the exhaustion of cancel culture. In the second segment, Marco Torres, Chicago Platypus member, and Pamela's interview Alejandro Velasco, the author of Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela, and contributor to the New York Times, In These Times and Jacobin Radio, on the passing of Chavismo and the future of Venezuela. Finally, Pam Nogales sits down with the journalist and sociologist Marc Saint-Upéry, to make sense of the left's response to Venezuela and the Maduro regime.

- Rose Freeman, "The Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, and the question of revolutionary politics today: An interview with Kathleen Cleaver" (PR 113, February 2019)

https://platypus1917.org/2019/02/03/the-black-panther-party-malcom-x-and-the-question-of-revolutionary-politics-today-an-interview-with-kathleen-cleaver/

- Marco Torres, "The dead Left: Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution" (PR 25, July 2010)

https://platypus1917.org/2010/07/09/the-dead-left-chavez-and-the-bolivarian-revolution/

- Alejandro Velasco, "A Call for Clear Heads on Venezuela: How To Criticize Maduro While Opposing U.S. Regime Change" (In These Times, March 2019)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/21789/venezuela-maduro-trump-barrios-intervention-sanctions-chavismo-guaido

- Marc Saint-Upéry, "La izquierda y los espejismos de la crisis venezolana" (2019)

http://periodicoellibertario.blogspot.com/2019/03/la-izquierda-y-los-espejismos-de-la.html

- James Charles response to Tati Westbrook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFvtCUzfyL4&t=1896s

Hosted by Pamela C. & Sophia

We run down some of the Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 and sit down with our London member Efraim Carlebach to discuss the recent crack up in British politics and the split from the Labour Party this month. We talk about the emerging new center in British politics and the response by the left to the split.

From the Platypus Review archives:

The unchanging core of Marxism: An interview with Ian Birchall

by Efraim Carlebach

https://platypus1917.org/2017/12/02/unchanging-core-marxism-interview-ian-birchall/

Feel free to send us questions, comments & suggestions at [email protected]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shitPlatypussays

On this episode of Sh*t Platypus Says, we have a report on the yellow vest protests with our members Ciat and Teo, both currently in Paris. They share their reflections on the mass demonstrations, the on-going crisis of neoliberalism and the confused responses by the left. After, your hosts, Laurie, Suzy and Pam talk about the memory of the 2008 financial crisis in popular culture and discuss some of the changes they foresee for labor & capital relations in the coming years. Finally, if you still don't know what happened in 2008, let our resident financial genius, Wentai, break it down for you at the end of our episode.

Questions, suggestions and smart-ass commentary always welcome! E-mail us at [email protected]

We recommend, from the Platypus Review archives:

"A cry of protest before accommodation? The dialectic of emancipation and domination" by Chris Cutrone, from Platypus Review 42 (December 2011 – January 2012) https://platypus1917.org/2011/12/01/cry-of-protest-before-accommodation/

Hosted by Pamela C., Laurie Rojas & Suzy V.

We say goodbye to 2018 by discussing The Young Karl Marx (Le Jeune Marx), Raoul Peck’s film commemorating 200 years of Karl Marx’s birth. We unpack the lame (so-called) film critiques by those on the left. In the main segment, we take up the question “What is Socialism?”, featuring responses by members of Platypus, listeners of the podcast, fellow travelers and some dude... including, Chris Cutrone, Erin Hagood, Ben Waite, Raul Cajias, & Sammy Medina. Throughout, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin & Karl Marx, help us with the heavy lifting.

Send us your questions, comments and requests for SPS in the new year! E-mail us at: [email protected]

Platypus Review article referenced:

- The birth of a revolution? An interview with Mary Gabriel on Love and Capital, by Spencer Leonard

https://platypus1917.org/2012/06/07/the-birth-of-a-revolution/

On February 28, 2012, the radio program Radical Minds on WHPK-FM Chicago broadcast an interview with Mary Gabriel, the author of Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011). The interview was conducted by Spencer A. Leonard of the Platypus Affiliated Society. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation. Original recording from Radical Minds interview can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/y8phrnwt

Hosted by Pamela C., Laurie Rojas​ and Suzy V​.

Suzy Vogenthaler, David Faes help us dispel the liberal confusion over the Obama administration's reforms for trans-people. Laurie and Pamela report on the recent anti-AFD protest in Berlin with over 150,000 participants. And Stefan Hain and Betül Yildrim talk to Pamela at the Freie University coffee break about the divisions within Die Linke, the decline of the Social Democratic Party and German politics after Merkel.

For more on trans politics see David Faes's articles for the new Platypus Review, issue 111.

(1) "Transgender liberation? A movement whose time has passed"

https://platypus1917.org/2018/11/02/transgender-liberation-a-movement-whose-time-has-passed/

(2) "#MeToo and the millennial sex panic"

https://platypus1917.org/2018/11/02/metoo-and-the-millennial-sex-panic/

For more on the German left listen to the recording of our panel in Frankfurt, from 07.12.2017, entitled "What is Socialism?" Speakers were invited to reflect on the history of social democracy from a leftist perspective: how are social democracy and social revolution today still connected? What does Social Democracy stand for politically? The following were invited: Hans-Gerd Öfinger (International Marxist Tendency), André Leisewitz (Journal Marxist Renewal), Martin Veith (Institute for Syndicalism Research), Lukas Schneider (Jusos Frankfurt) and Christoph Spehr (Die LINKE). Edited transcript linked below as well as the panel audio recording are both in German.

https://platypus1917.org/2018/09/15/podiumsdiskussion-was-ist-sozialismus/

Hosted by Pamela C., Laurie R. and Suzy V.

On this episode, Pamela Nogales, Laurie Rojas and Suzy Vogenthaler talk about the Kavanaugh hearing, his virginity and the failing Democratic Party strategy in the midterm electoral campaign. Laurie and Pamela interview Jack Devine from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and discuss the organization's strategy and long term goals. We end by interviewing Tana Forrester, from the Socialist Party USA (SPUSA), on the need to build a mass socialist party today.

Articles for further reading:

(1) Jack Devine, "The death agony of meritocracy" in the Platypus Review 109 (September 2018)

https://platypus1917.org/2018/09/04/the-death-agony-of-meritocracy/

(2) Erin Hagood & Stephanie Gomez, "What was the Socialist Party? An interview with David McReynolds" in the Platypus Review 110 (October 2018)

https://platypus1917.org/2018/10/01/what-was-the-socialist-party-an-interview-with-david-mcreynolds/

Hosted by Laurie Rojas, Pamela C. and Suzy V.

On this episode of SPS, we sit down with Jacobin contributor Alex Hochuli and discuss Brazil's upcoming, presidential elections. With Audrey Crescenti, we take up Afro-futurist aesthetics, with clips from artist Frances Bodomo, the Nation of Islam’s Elijah Muhammad, Sun Ra, and Terence Nance’s new HBO show, Random Acts of Flyness.

Alex Hotchuli on the Brazilian elections for Jacobin

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/09/brazil-election-bolsonaro-lula-haddad-boulos-corruption

Mark Dery, "Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose" (1994)

https://tinyurl.com/y9wulgbk

Hosted by Pamela C. & Laurie Rojas.