5th Annual Platypus School 5-7 April 2013, Chicago, US

[jondwhite]

UTOPIA AND PROGRAM
Fifth Annual Platypus Affiliated Society's International Convention
5-7 April 2013 The School of the Art Institute Chicago, IL., USA

*What possibilities might remain for a Left whose goal is no longer
utopian, and whose path is no longer programmatically defined?*

Please join the Platypus Affiliated Society for a weekend long series of
presentations and discussions on the Left, program, and utopia. “Program”
and “utopia” have for well over a century now sat in uneasy tension within
the politics of the Left, in tension both with each other and with
themselves. Political programs tend to be presented in the sober light of
practicability — straightforward, realistic, matter-of-fact. Social
utopias, by contrast, appear quite oppositely as the virtue of aspiring
ambition — involved, unrealistic, exhilarating. Historically, then, the
two would appear to be antithetical. In either case, one usually offers
itself up as a corrective to the other: the programmatic as a harsh
“reality check” to pipe-dream idealism; utopianism as an alternative to
dreary, cynical Realpolitik.

Today, however, it is unavoidable that both program and utopia are in
profound crisis. For those Leftists who still hold out some hope for the
possibility of extra-electoral politics, an impasse has arisen. Despite
the effusive political outbursts of 2011-12 in the Arab Spring and #Occupy
— with their emphasis on the identity of means and ends, anti-hierarchical
modes of organization, and utopian prefiguration — the Left still seems to
have run aground. Traces may remain in the form of various issue-based
affinity groups, but the more ambitious projects of achieving sweeping
social transformation have been quietly put to rest, consoled with the mere
memory of possibility.

Meanwhile, longstanding Left organizations, having temporarily reverted to
the usual waiting game of patiently tailing popular discontents with
the status quo, until the masses finally come around and decide to “get
with the program” (i.e., their program), have experienced a crisis of their
own: slowly disintegrating, with occasional spectacular implosions, many of
their dedicated cadre call it quits amid demoralization and recriminations.
What possibilities might remain for a Left whose goal is no longer
utopian, and whose path is no longer programmatically defined?

**
FRIDAY **
*1:00pm: Registration and opening remarks*
*2:00pm – 3:30pm: Different Perspectives on the Left* 1. Communist Party of
Great Britain (UK)
2. Green Party (US)
3. New Compass and Demokratisk Alternativ (Norway) *3:40pm –
5:10pm: Different Perspectives on the Left** *

1. Québec solidaire (Canada)
2. Party for Socialism and Liberation (US)
3. EXIT (Germany)
*7:30pm – 9:30pm: Opening Plenary *
*The Left in Power?*

Recently Leo Panitch, characterized SYRIZA as “the most promising
anti-neoliberal party on the European political stage”. This statement
reflects the mood of many in the Left, who have seen the huge electoral
empowerment of this left Greek party as a spark for a possible global
reconstitution of the radical Left. SYRIZA, for them, means shifting the
process of radicalization from the periphery to the center, from South
America to Europe, hoping to spread even further the development of
progressive governments (of which most prominent examples are Venezuela,
Bolivia, Equador, et al). For others, SYRIZA is doomed to fail within the
limits of the established parliamentary politics, and they are certain that
its leadership will betray all hopes, as actually they think inevitably
happens when left political forces, no matter how radical, think that they
can use the “bourgeois state” for their causes.

Speakers:
*Eirik Eiglad (New Compass)*
*Andreas Karitzis (SYRIZA)*
*James Turley (Communist Party of Great Britain)*

[jondwhite]

Videos published herehttp://media.platypus1917.org/2013-platypus-international-convention-program-and-utopia/

[Author]

Posts