Ep 69: Platypus Review Reader 2 Roundtable & Millennial Helplessness

SPS

This episode comes in two parts. At the beginning of this year the PAS published its second installment of the Platypus Review Reader. This volume, in addition to Marxism in the Age of Trump and Chris Cutrone's recent publication The Death of the Millennial Left, are a curated selection of articles in our monthly publication spanning between 2013 and 2017. In the first segment, we present a roundtable with Platypus members involved in the curation, publication and digestion of the Platypus Review Reader 2, opening up a discussion about the long history of the Platypus Review, the denouement of the Millennial Left, and how we make this history meaningful as the Zoomer Left enters the mid-2020s. In the second segment, Pam N. sits down for an interview led by our German members, Kat and Lara, to discuss the teach-in she gave in November 2023, after the October 7th attacks, and take up the horizons of possibility of the Millennial Left, the new forms of politicization and depoliticization, and the task of political education by Platypus today. --- Platypus Review Reader 2 Roundtable links: "The Platypus Review Reader" 1 and 2 and "Marxism in the Age of Trump" are available at https://platypus1917.org/publishing/ Full table of contents for the PRR2 available at https://platypus-publishing.square.site/product/pr-reader-ii-soft-/4?si=true "Editorial Statement" for the Platypus Review: https://platypus1917.org/platypus-review/editorial-statement/ Some key articles mentioned: "Program and Utopia" Platypus Panel (July 2013) https://platypus1917.org/2013/07/01/program-and-utopia/ "What is a Political Party for the Left?" Platypus panel (2015) https://platypus1917.org/2015/08/30/political-party-left-3/ Teo Velissaris., "Ghosts of national sovereignty: SYRIZA and the Left in the current situation" (September 2015) https://platypus1917.org/2015/09/01/ghosts-national-sovereignty-syriza-left-current-situation/ "1917-2017" Platypus Panel (September 2017) https://platypus1917.org/2017/08/29/1917-2017/ --- Nogales Interview links: Pamela C. Nogales C., “Helplessness without history: Political education after the Millennial Left” in the Platypus Review 170 (October 2024) https://platypus1917.org/2024/10/01/helplessness-without-history-political-education-after-the-millennial-left/ Pamela C. Nogales C., “Ohnmacht ohne Geschichte: Politische Bildung nach der Millenial Linken” Die Platypus Review 33 (September/Oktober 2024) https://platypus1917.org/2024/10/01/nogales_ohnmacht_ohne_geschichte/ SPS #67 Interviews with encampment participants https://soundcloud.com/platypus-affiliated-society/ep67 “Beyond Left and Right,” Platypus public panel, London, (July 2024) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25pD9iyQmr0&t=84s Benjamin M. Studebaker, “Beyond Bonapartism: Breaking statephobic thought taboos” in the Platypus Review 166 (May 2024) https://platypus1917.org/2024/05/01/beyond-bonapartism-breaking-statephobic-thought-taboos/ Pamela C. Nogales C., “Platypus at #Occupy: Lessons learned from the death of the Millennial Left” in the Platypus Review 137 (June 2021) https://platypus1917.org/2021/06/01/platypus-at-occupy/ Efraim Carlebach, “The unchanging core of Marxism: An interview with Ian Birchall” in the Platypus Review 102 (December 2017 – January 2018) https://platypus1917.org/2017/12/02/unchanging-core-marxism-interview-ian-birchall/ James Heartfield “The anti-political party, Book Review: Ian Birchall. Tony Cliff: A Marxist for His Time. London: Bookmarks, 2011” in the Platypus Review 55 (April 2013) https://platypus1917.org/2013/04/01/the-anti-political-party/ Erin Hagood, “Have we unlearned how to learn? 1968 and today” in the Platypus Review 168 (July - August 2024) https://platypus1917.org/2024/07/01/have-we-unlearned-how-to-learn-1968-and-today/ 50 Years of 1968, Platypus public panel series (2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMYuijyS19Q&list=PLNc4xGUuaRwmXgnewb_tYfhp8_YTn_c9F&pp=iAQB