SPS

News & Politics
**SPS**

The commentary on the commentary on the Left.

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 19: On Tarantino, the UAW Corruption Scandal, and Stalinism in Power Sep 16, 2019

Show notes

On this episode, we talk about Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the undigested legacy of the late sixties among millennials. We take up the recent corruption scandal plaguing the United Auto Workers (UAW) with Platypus member, Nick Kreitman, a personal injury, employment and labor attorney practicing in Chicago, Illinois. Nick gives us an update on the state of American unions and what leftists think is possible under Bernie Sanders. In the second segment, Sophia interviews Hillel Ticktin, a South African expat living in London who spoke on the fall of the Soviet Union at the CPGB’s summer Communist University. They discuss the counterrevolution left by Stalinists in Power, the atomization of the working class in the USSR and the legacy of 1989. As always feel free to send your questions, comments and criticism to shitplatypussays@gmail.com. And if you like the podcast, share it and leave us a review. Links; Rory Hannigan, Platypus Review 119, September 2019 https://platypus1917.org/2019/09/01/what-was-stalinism-in-power/ J. Hoberman, "Once Upon a Time in Tarantino’s Hollywood" in New York Review of Books (08.19.2019) https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/08/19/once-upon-a-time-in-tarantinos-hollywood/ Labor Notes on the United Auto Workers (UAW) https://www.labornotes.org/2019/09/corruption-cases-auto-workers-complicate-bargaining https://labornotes.org/2019/07/viewpoint-big-three-negotiations-open-which-way-forward-auto-workers Meagan Day, "Americans Are Starting to Love Unions Again" in Jacobin (09.02.2019) https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/09/unions-us-labor-movement-americans-gallup-poll-bernie-sanders Nick Kreitman https://www.nickkreitman.attorney Hosted by Pamela C. and Sophia

Ep. 18: On Art & Political Protest at the Whitney, and Artists Today Aug 04, 2019

Show notes

On this episode, Sophia and Pamela C. are joined by Allison Hewitt-Ward, a New York Platypus member and art critic. They discuss the recent crack-up at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the relationship between art and political protest. In the second segment, Sophia and Pam interview Goldsmiths University’s graduating Masters art students, Alexander Pierce, Lydia Blakeley, Fred Bungay, Paula Pinho Martins Nacif and Sara Rodrigues, about the relationship between art and freedom and if the censorship of art is ever justified. Feedback, criticism, and questions are always welcome. Drop us an e-mail at shitplatypussays@gmail.com. Links: “Art and the Commodity Form”, a Platypus panel at Goldsmiths, University of London (October 11, 2016). The panel brought together Rex Dunn, independent Marxist and writer; Zhoe Granger, a director of the gallery, project space, and art publisher, Arcadia Missa; and Peter Osborne, editor of the journal Radical Philosophy and professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University. Sophia of Platypus moderated the panel. https://platypus1917.org/2016/12/21/art-commodity-form-3/ "A Whitney Museum Vice Chairman Owns a Manufacturer Supplying Tear Gas at the Border" (November 27, 2018) https://hyperallergic.com/472964/a-whitney-museum-vice-chairman-owns-a-manufacturer-supplying-tear-gas-at-the-border/ "The Tear Gas Biennial" (July 17, 2019) A statement from Hannah Black, Ciarán Finlayson, and Tobi Haslett https://www.artforum.com/slant/a-statement-from-hannah-black-ciaran-finlayson-and-tobi-haslett-on-warren-kanders-and-the-2019-whitney-biennial-80328 "What Warren Kanders’s Defeat at the Whitney Teaches Us About How Protest Works Now" by Ben Davis (July 26, 2019) https://news.artnet.com/opinion/kanders-resignation-whitney-1580551 Spencer Leonard (Platypus) on Adam Smith, an interview with Douglas Lain for Zero Squared https://youtu.be/cApVoE_A-JM Book Review: Ben Davis, 9.5 Theses on Art and Class (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2013) by Robin Treadwell in Platypus Review 63 (February 2014) https://platypus1917.org/2014/02/01/the-artist-at-work/ Pictured: Sara Rodrigues, "Degrees of Abstraction" (2019), performance & installation. Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o2FztlYeMA

Ep. 17: On Chernobyl, the Brexit Party, and Platypus at George Mason University Jul 01, 2019

Show notes

On this episode, we chat about the HBO miniseries Chernobyl and Cold War nostalgia. Pamela discusses the ascendance of the Brexit Party in the UK with James Heartfield, a veteran Marxist and Brexit Party candidate. And Sophia and Pam sit down with members at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia to talk about Platypus chapter building & the left in the region. To learn more about the Platypus Summer Reading Group "30 years of 1989: What was Stalinism in power?" Visit: https://platypus1917.org/2019/05/07/summer-2019-readings-30-years-of-1989-what-was-stalinism-in-power/ James Heartfield spoke at in our Democracy and the Left panel held at Goldsmiths, University of London, in March 2019, the recording is here: https://platypus1917.org/2019/03/28/democracy-and-the-left-london/ Co-hosted by Pamela C. and Sophia

Ep. 16: On Cancel Culture and the End of the Bolivarian Revolution May 29, 2019

Show notes

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

Ep. 15: On the Democratic Party (US) Candidates & the Split from the Labour Party (UK) Mar 01, 2019

Show notes

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 shitplatypussauys@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shitPlatypussays

Ep. 14: On the Yellow Vest Protests & 10 Years after the Financial Crisis Feb 01, 2019

Show notes

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 shitplatypussays@gmail.com 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.

Ep. 13: On The Young Karl Marx, & the meaning of socialism Dec 30, 2018

Show notes

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: shitplatypussays@gmail.com 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.

Ep. 12: On Trump and trans-people, Berlin's anti-AFD protest, and the trouble with Die Linke Nov 04, 2018

Show notes

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.

Ep 11: On Kavanaugh, the American midterm election, & political strategies for socialism Oct 10, 2018

Show notes

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.

Ep. 10: On Cynthia Nixon, the Brazilian elections, and Afrofuturism Sep 17, 2018

Show notes

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.

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