Platypus Affiliated Society

The "Platypus Synthesis"

The Platypus Affiliated Society describes its interpretation of Marxism as a "synthesis" of orthodox Trotskyism and Frankfurt-School critical theory, though it does not claim to be either a Trotskyist organization or a modern incarnation of the Frankfurt School. Genealogically, it identifies with these traditions as objects of historical preservation, respectively by the Spartacist League and Moishe Postone's recovery of Marxian critical theory.^[7] Platypus argues that, even though these two traditions failed in their respective projects, they still by different means sought to preserve key elements of Leninism following its disintegration into Stalinism and so serve as the foremost negative object lessons for any contemporary attempt to recover Marxism.^[8]

In reading groups organized by PAS, Marx is situated as a critical interlocutor with "radical bourgeois philosophy," principally in conversation with thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.^[9][10] Marx and Marxism are read not as breaking with the Enlightenment tradition, but dialectically critiquing its project as self-contradictory in industrial capitalism. Platypus identifies in the radical Marxists of the Second International—namely Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, and Leon Trotsky—a shared commitment to this original approach of Marxism.^[11] This historiography of Marxism is received primarily through Karl Korsch's Marxism and Philosophy (1923) and György Lukács's History and Class Consciousness (1923), both being foundational texts for the critical theory of the Frankfurt School which was founded soon after.

Platypus identifies key thinkers in the milieu of the Frankfurt School, such as Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Walter Benjamin, as preserving Marxian theory after the liquidation of the Marxist political party.^[12] Analogously, Trotsky's characterization of the crisis of Marxism in the 1930s as a crisis of leadership represented for Platypus the attempt to preserve the radical, critical character of Marxist political practice.^[13]

Dr. Shtefan Alexander has characterized Platypus's ideological approach to Marxism as "via negativa," challenging the left with what it lacks or has abandoned and raising the history of Marxism as "a question to our contemporary society about the possibility of radically transforming our social relations."^[14]

Historical Regression

Platypus maintains that the history of the twentieth century was a history of regression in consciousness, wherein the left repeatedly missed opportunities for ideological clarification by inverting failures and defeats into victories. Platypus takes this historical regression as the occasion for its project.^[15] Platypus identifies four key periods around which it argues the left has regressed by abandoning the radical horizons of Marxism:^[16]

• 1917 – The Russian Revolution. Platypus argues that the singular advance brought by the Russian Revolution was opportunity to further clarify the tasks of Marxism. However, especially following the failure of the world revolution to spread to European countries such as Germany and Hungary, this priority has been obscured or abandoned.
• 1933 – The inaugurations of Franklin D. Roosevelt as U.S. President and of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor. During the 1930s, the left largely coalesced behind the Comintern policy of the popular front, supporting Stalinism and progressivism against the rise of fascism. This reorientation marked the disintegration of the left's commitment to the "utopian possibilities" of capitalism which only Marxism could realize, contrary to realist or merely oppositional politics.
• 1968 – Mass protest movements. The wave of protests around the world in 1968 failed to escape the horizons of capitalist politics. Student movements resisted urges from, e.g., Theodor Adorno of the need for the theoretical reflection and clarification potentially at the expense of immediate political practice. The period has instead been hailed as indicative of the success of popular action, thus failing to examine underlying deficiencies such as an implicit conservatism or authoritarianism.
• 2001 – Anti-war movements. Much of the international left was involved in the anti-war movement after the September 11 terror attacks. Platypus argues that the left failed to heed lessons from aforementioned historical failures, as well as from the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the anti-globalization movement of the 1990s—in all of which the left supported conservative-reactionary forces. As a consequence, the contemporary anti-war movement embraced campism, materially and ideologically supporting Islamist forces such as Al-Qaeda due to its uncritical opposition to U.S. imperialism and avoidance of the need for independent, socialist politics.

Namesake

The organization's name alludes to Friedrich Engels's disbelief at the existence of the platypus, which the organization likens to the current state of the left. They argue that, similarly to how preceding extinction events made the platypus difficult to taxonomize, the contemporary left may only be properly justified as a left on the basis of a presently-buried history.^[17] PAS's slogan, "The Left is dead! Long live the Left!", similarly expresses this prognosis, that "the Platypus symbolizes the need for intellectual flexibility, humility, and openness to new ideas in the left’s ideological framework."^[18]

Founding

Platypus was initially conceived in December 2004 as a journal project, organized by a group of students at the University of Chicago studying under Neo-Marxist historian and social theorist Moishe Postone.^[19] In 2006, Platypus organized a reading group on the history of Marxist critical theory, and in January 2007 hosted its first public forum. These activities, in addition to coffee breaks, came to comprise the "tripod" of Platypus.^[20] PAS has hosted public panel discussions since 2007. These discussions have featured panelists such as Norman Finkelstein, Adolph Reed Jr. and Bhaskar Sunkara,^[21][22] and have covered topics such as the political party,^[23] the labor movement,^[24] the Iranian Revolution,^[25] free speech,^[26] and anti-racism,^[27] as well as the legacy of the Anti-Germans in Germany.^[28] Platypus has hosted a yearly international convention in Chicago since 2009.

Platypus Review

The Platypus Review is a monthly, open-submission journal first published by the organization in November 2007. The Review is self-described as "a forum among a variety of tendencies and approaches on the Left […] [intending] to provoke disagreement and to open shared goals as sites of contestation."^[29] It has published notable thinkers on the left including Angela Davis, Grover Furr, David Harvey, Gerald Horne,^[30] Axel Honneth, Domenico Losurdo,^[31] Nina Power, Mark Rudd, and Slavoj Zizek. The Review also publishes articles written by students.^[32]

A German-language sister publication, Die Platypus Review, began serialization in April 2016.

2013 boycott letter

In late 2013, a number of the Platypus Affiliated Society's internal communications were leaked, including reports from then-president Chris Cutrone characterizing Platypus as "a combat organization waging war on the 'Left'" and, separately, comments remarking on the prospects for Palestinians in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Following these leaks, former Platypus member Ben Campbell wrote an open letter calling for a boycott of all participation on events and activities hosted by the organization; the letter was subsequently published by left-wing commentator Richard Seymour.^[42] The letter had eighteen additional signatories, including Sebastian Budgen, editor of Historical Materialism; political theorist Jodi Dean; Doug Henwood of Left Business Observer; and philosopher Nina Power. Power no longer supports the boycott, stating she had "no idea why I signed it in the first place."^[43]