SPS

In this episode of SPS, Tamas sits down with Aram Shakkour (@ShaqArama) of the Szikra Movement (@SzikraMozgalom), an oppositional movement based around Budapest, Hungary. They discuss the state of leftist politics in Hungary after the oppositional coalition which Szikra supported, United for Hungary, failed to stop Viktor Orbán’s FIDESZ from winning a two-thirds parliamentary majority. With over 5...

In this episode, the Editor-in-Chief of the German Platypus Review, Tobias Rochlitz, sits down with Platypus members Stefan H, Jan BH, and our co-host Lisa M, all of whom contributed to the content of the special PR issue on Gender, to discuss an reflect upon the interview with Koschka Linkerhand, Tove Soiland and the panel discussion 'Gender and the Left‘ with Platypus member Stefan H, Roswitha S...

In this episode Pamela and Laurie discuss the Trump indictment, DeSantis, and the conservative “resolution” to the crisis of neoliberalism through the Culture Wars. In our main segment, Platypus members from Vienna, Berlin, Melbourne and Chicago reflect on the Platypus panel, "A Century of Critical Theory: The Legacy of György Lukács,” (April 1st, 2023), the closing plenary of the 15th Platypus In...

In the first part of this episode, Lisa is joined by our German members Jakob, Nezam and Sebastian to discuss the crisis and history of DIE LINKE. They reflect on Platypus panels, interviews, and PR articles to think about the recent manifestations of the crisis within DIE LINKE and the radical Left's relation to the party. They talk about the international influence of the party and its impact on...

On this episode of SPS, Pamela & Andreas interview Spencer Leonard. Spencer is a founding member of Platypus and has recently published a two-volume selection of Marx & Engels journalism. The first volume focuses on Bonapartism, with selections from 1851–1859, and the second focuses on their writings on imperialism, with selections from 1856–1862. He speaks to us about the democratic revolution, l...

On this episode of SPS, we first focus on our Annual International Convention (March 29–April 1), which will take place in Chicago, at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, & the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Planning committee members, Ryan & Ethan introduce the convention theme, panels, and historical concerns across the upcoming events. Our second segment is a deep dive...

This episode includes an interview with Platypus founding member Chris Cutrone, who was interviewed by Johannes K. and Lisa on his article “The end of the Gilded Age: Discontents of the Second Industrial Revolution today”. They talked about the history of progressivism, the deferred problems of the Gilded Age that still impact us today, the unfulfilled task of the Left, as well as the things that...

In the first part of this episode, Lisa & Rebekah are joined by members, Laurie R. & Jasper to talk about how Platypus has captured the relationship between the Left & the elections. They have gone into the archives of the Platypus Affiliated Society, and have asked how our work can help us to think about these inflection points on the Left across the elections, namely, 2008 (Obama); 2016 (Brexit;...

On this special holiday episode, SPS brings to you reports from protests in the USA, Germany and Austria. We include shotgun interviews with participants and reflections by our members. In the first segment, our West Coast members interview the academic workers part of the strikes at the University of California. They ask the strikers at the LA and Santa Barbara campuses about their participation...

On this episode of SPS, Pamela first sits down with Platypus Brazilian members Paulo & Rosa. They comment on the election results, how the Left is responding to the return of Lula, and what the election of the Brazilian Workers Party means for the future of a socialist Left. In the second part, Platypus Oregon member Andony hosts a roundtable conversation on the U.S. Midterm elections with members...

Our 50th anniversary SPS episode comes in two parts. First, we cover the on-going cost of living protests organized by the Left in the U.K, Germany and Austria. Co-hosts Lisa and Andreas attended protests in Leipzig and Vienna, where they recorded soundbites and interviews with several leftist activists. Later, they discuss these interviews and the current crisis on the Left with SPS co-host Rebek...

In the first segment, our European Correspondent, Andreas W. interviews Emanuel Rota, a leftist historian from Italy who published extensively on the history of the Italian Communist party. He currently lives in the US and is the director of the European Union Center at the University of Illinois. They discuss the aftermath of the "Long '68" in Italy, the current crisis of the Italian government a...

This is a stand alone SPS segment to promote and introduce our fifth Platypus European Conference in Vienna, from 8 - 10 September, 2022. Lisa and Rebekah interview the lead organizers of the conference, Victor and Andreas. They talk about the different events of the conference and how they relate to its title "The Crisis of Society and the Left" as well as to our current historical moment of the...

On this episode of SPS, our resident financial guru sits down with Pamela to discuss the so-called Great Resignation, or “Big Quit”. They take up the concerns over birth rates & mental illness, as well as how social democratic policies naturalize the crisis of capital. In the second half of the episode, Pamela interviews Andy Gittlitz, cohost of the Antifada podcast and author of I Want to Believe...

On this episode of SPS, Pamela and Sophia discuss the Depp v. Heard and the exhaustion of #metoo. Andreas and Platypus members, Sebastian Vogel interview Boris Kagarlitsky on the war in Ukraine and the Russian Left. Finally, Lisa and Rebekah sit down with Chris Cutrone to discuss the Platypus Summer Reading Group on classical social theory, titled "What is Society?" The reading group is happening...

In this episode of SPS, Pamela sits down with Platypus member Tana F. to discuss the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade and the responses by the Left, including Marxist Humanist member, Mike Dola, and the Socialist Workers Party's newspaper, The Militant. They talk about what it means to defend constitutional rights absent an independent working class movement and a socialist party. In the secon...

In the first part of the episode our co-hosts Lisa Müller und Rebekah Parlar sit down with Platypus member Clint Montgomery to talk about our annual international Platypus Convention. Our international Convention, which is sort of the highlight in your platypus calendar, will take place in Chicago from the 31st of March until April the 3rd. In the segment Lisa, Rebekah and Clint talk about why thi...

On this two-part episode of SPS, Pamela sits with Leila Mechoi, the co-host of Red Star Radio podcast. They reflect on the Left's reaction to the late trucker protest in Canada, and discuss the role of civil liberties in the organization of the working class, as well as what sort of missed political opportunity -- if any -- did the protest present. In the second part of the episode, Andreas and Be...

On this episode, Pamela sits down with our Toronto member Cam Hardy to discuss Canada's "Freedom Convoy", and the responses by the "Left". They investigate Jacobin's hot take on the "inauthentic" working-class character of the protests, and the call by the Canadian Communist Party to criminalize the convoy. In the second segment, Andreas interviews Amir Sturm, a member of the Austrian Communist Pa...

In this special Xmas edition of SPS, your new hosts of the "Sh-t Platypus Does" segment, Rebekah and Lisa, chat with the Platypus Review Editor-in-Chief, Lou, about the new issue, PR #142 -- including articles: "What can one learn from the Right?" by D.L. Jacobs, "The Left is not a concept" by Benedict Cryptofash, "We are the city-building tendency" by Caleb T. Maupin and "Paths to Marxism" by Chr...

On this episode of SPS, Sophia and Pamela sit down with Spencer L., founding member of Platypus and historian of imperialism, to discuss the Rittenhouse trial and the “Left’s” response. They clear up the confusion around the Second Amendment among todays leftists, address the anti-racism of progressive liberals, and take up responses by Daniel Lazare (Weekly Worker) and the Bolshevik Tendency. In...

For this episode of SPS, Sophia and Pamela take up Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix special, "The Closer," and the blowback following its release. For the main segment, Sophia catches up with the makers behind the Aufhebunga Bunga pod, Alex Hochuli and George Hoare, to discuss their new book, The End of the End of History: Politics in the Twenty-First Century. She asks about their characterization...

On this episode of SPS, Pamela and the Platypus Review Editor-in-Chief, Lou S. chat about the recent NBA crack-up over vaccine skepticism and discuss the articles in the new issue of the Platypus Review. Andreas, our EU correspondent, reports from the frontlines of a protest camp in the North East of Vienna. And, in the last segment, Andreas sits with our German members, Tobias, Tom and Anna, to r...

On this episode of SPS, Pamela and Sophia discuss the Biden bungle of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the responses by the “Left,” including Tariq Ali for the New Left Review and Branko Marcetic for Jacobin. SPS European Correspondent Andreas interviews Eduardo Maura, from the Spanish party Podemos, and asks him to reflect on his political trajectory, from his work in the Indignados -- the Spanish...

On this three-part episode of SPS, Sophia and the Editor of the Platypus Review, Lou Sterrett, give a teaser of what’s inside the latest issue. In the second segment, our European Correspondent Andreas Wintersperger catches up with Ian Cassidy. Originally from Ireland, Cassidy is a Berlin-based activist, working for the campaign 'Deutsche Wohnen & co enteignen' which aims to pressure Berlin’s larg...