Saturday and Sunday: School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 112 S. Michigan Ave.

The Platypus Affiliated Society is proud to announce its second annual international convention, What is Left, and where to begin? Platypus has organized four days of activities. Starting on Wednesday May 26th with a film screening at University of Chicago’s Woodlawn Collaborative and Thursday with theater and poetry performances at Decima Musa in Pilsen. On Friday May 28th, the Platypus Affiliated Society will convene for the panel discussion on The Question of Imperialism in the 20th Century at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). On Saturday May 29th, Platypus will host a selective series of workshops and panel discussions at SAIC (112 S. Michigan Ave.)  Activities will focus on political and cultural issues that have shaped the Left historically and today. Sunday May 30th, Platypus members will be leading a series of talks on The Platypus Experience: Perspectives from three generations and The origins of today’s Left in the 1970s New Left. Saturday and Sunday spaces are limited and require registration. Click here to register.

Tuesday, May 18th 8:00 PM
5710 S. Woodlawn

Featuring a presentation by Chris Cutrone on Juliet Mitchell’s “Women: The longest revolution” (1966)

Join us for dinner and discussion

“Socialism will be a process of change, of becoming. A fixed image of the future is in the worst sense ahistorical. . . . As Marx wrote: ‘What is progress if not the absolute elaboration of humanity’s creative dispositions . . . unmeasured by any previously established yardstick[,] an end in itself . . . the absolute movement of becoming?’ . . . The liberation of women under socialism will [be] . . . a human achievement, in the long passage from Nature to Culture which is the definition of history and society.”

– Juliet Mitchell

Juliet Mitchell’s groundbreaking essay, “Women: The longest revolution” (1966), brilliantly anticipated the feminist critique of Marxian socialism. But Mitchell found feminism, too to be lacking. Far from dismissing Marxism as a retrograde, patriarchal theory, Mitchell embarked on an effort to reconstruct Marxism as a philosophy of freedom that could orient political activists’ efforts to overturn male dominance and establish the equality of the sexes. Unfortunately, feminism after Mitchell’s essay failed to heed her call to attend critically to history to help get a better grasp and clarity about the pursuit of gender and sexual liberation, and abandoned the utopian possibilities of socialism in favor of the politics of established social identities. Join us to reconsider the paths not taken out of 1960s radicalism, and work towards reformulating a theory of sexual freedom that answers the needs of the present.

Reading:

Juliet Mitchell Women: The Longest Revolution (1966)

The German Marxist critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) is known, along with his friend and mentor Walter Benjamin, for the critique of mid-20th century art and culture. What is less well understood is the specific character of Adorno’s Marxism, how his political perspective related to his philosophical concerns. This workshop will address several aspects of Adorno’s Marxism that relate to his critique of Leftist politics, in both periods of his early and late life, in the Old Left (1920s-40s) and New Left (1960s), and how Adorno remains relevant to issues and problems of Leftist politics today.

Recommended background readings:

Max Horkheimer, “The Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedom” (1926)

Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944)

Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)

Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)

Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)

What can contemporary artists do? The question is a vague and obvious one, but remains unanswered amidst the splintering profusion of ideals and artistic practices. Has the recent infinitude of socially conscious art been liberating, or has it been constrictive? Do artists hope to regain the dissipating public, or withdraw from it? Do artists resist the culture industry which encroaches upon it and devise alternate utopia’s, or liquidate into it and bring about change from within popular culture? What is at stake with artist collectives – singular isolation, or global revolution? Has postmodern and contemporary art moved beyond modernism, or has there been regression to pre-modernity? Most importantly, what purchase does art have on the present moment for augmenting change on a broader political level?
Three panelists working at the intersection of art and politics will attempt to answer these, and other questions from different perspectives – as historians, practitioners, and theorists. We hope that this conversation will aid in understanding the bewildering present by uncovering the implicit hopes of contemporary art.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

6:00pm – 9:00pm

280 S Columbus Dr.

Chicago, IL 60603

Featuring:
Claire Pentecost (artist, writer, SAIC)
Chris Cutrone (Critic, Platypus, SAIC, U. Chicago)
Stephen Eisenman (Art History, Northwestern)

www.platypus1917.org
http://platypus1917.org/2010/04/08/an-interview-with-hal-foster/

Adorno’s political relevance today

When: Wednesday, April 21, 2010. 7-8:30pm.
Where: Loyola University – Crown Center Room 530.

The German Marxist critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) is known, along with his friend and mentor Walter Benjamin, for the critique of mid-20th century art and culture. What is less well understood is the specific character of Adorno’s Marxism, how his political perspective related to his philosophical concerns. This workshop will address several aspects of Adorno’s Marxism that relate to his critique of Leftist politics, in both periods of his early and late life, in the Old Left (1920s-40s) and New Left (1960s), and how Adorno remains relevant to issues and problems of Leftist politics today.

Recommended background readings:

Max Horkheimer, “The Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedom” (1926)

Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944)

Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)

Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)

Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)

Cosponsored by Pi Sigma Tau, STAND, and SAF.

From left to right: Gabriel Gaster, Chris Mansour and Ian Morrison

Platypus’s own Chris Mansour and Ian Morrison were recently interviewed by Mitchel Cohen on “Steal this Radio.” The show will be broadcast on Friday, April 2, 2010 at 11 a.m. (New York time). Steal This Radio can be heard only over the internet, not on regular radio.) To hear it, go to http://nytalkradio.net at that time and click on Listen Live.

If you are not able to catch it live, just click on the link below:

http://www.healthytipsradio.com/podcasts/03.30.10.STR.106.mp3

Chris and Ian did an excellent job representing the group, and I would recommend anyone even remotely interested in Platypus to tune in!

Please join us on the weekend of March 19th at the 2010 Left Forum. Platypus members from Toronto, Chicago, Boston along with New York City members will be there both presenting and chairing these panels.  Below are a list of Platypus organized panels along with their respective line-ups and time slots.

Uli vom Hagen replies to Jerzy Sabotta, on the legacy of Rosa Luxemburg and the German Left.

Manan Ahmed replies to Atiya Khan, on the poverty of Pakistan’s politics and the Taliban.

Chris Cutrone rejoins to David Black, on Karl Korsch’s Marxism and Philosophy.

Spencer Leonard talks with George Scialabba, on what intellectuals are good for.

Joshua Howard discusses totality and theory, Left cognition and social change, arguing that the Marxian theory of totality has had enervating effects on the ability of the radical Left to imagine alternatives to capitalism.

Finally, there is an edited transcript of a recent panel at the University of Chicago, 30 years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, with Danny Postel, Kaveh Ehsani, Maziar Behrooz, and Chris Cutrone.

Hussein Ibish is a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and is the executive director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab- American Leadership. From 1998-2004, he was Communications Director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab-American membership organization in the United States, with which he authored, along with Ali Abunimah, the issue-paper The Palestinian Right of Return. Ibish will discuss his recent book, What’s Wrong with the One State Agenda? Why Ending the Occupation and Peace with Israel is Still the Palestinian National Goal.

Joel Kovel is professor emeritus of social studies at Bard College, editor in chief of Capitalism, Nature, Socialism and the author of several books, including White Racism: A Psychohistory, A Complete Guide to Therapy, The Age of Desire: Case Histories of a Radical Psychoanalyst, The Radical Spirit, and The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or The End of the World. In 1998, he was the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senator from New York. He will be discussing his most recent book, Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine.

Hosted by the University of Chicago Platypus Affiliated Society. Cosponsored by UChicago Students for Justice in Palestine, the International House Global Voices Lecture Series, and the University of Chicago Student Government.

Free and Open to the Public.

RSVP online at the Facebook event.

Persons with disabilities that may need assistance should contact the Office of Programs & External Relations in advance of the program at 773-753-2274.

Background reading:
Ibish A Real Plan to Build Palestine.
Kovel Zionism’s Bad Conscience.

A film screening and discussion on the legacy of identity politics, its buried history,
unmet challenges, and the lingering problems on the Left.

Wednesday, February 17 2010 | 6:30PM to 8:30PM
Community Lounge | 5710 S. Woodlawn Ave.

Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and its national broadcast on PBS’ P.O.V. series, Brother Outsider has introduced millions of viewers around the world to the life and work of Bayard Rustin—a visionary strategist and activist who has been called “the unknown hero” of the civil rights movement.

Suggested reading:

Bayard Rustin (1970), “The Failure of Black Separatism”

An unmet challenge: Race and the Left in America

Book review: Jeffrey B. Perry, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1882-1918