Fwd: After the Elections: The Future of the Status Quo ⚠

[Allison Hewitt Ward]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Platypus <agon...@umich.edu>
Date: Sat, Nov 26, 2016 at 2:44 PM
Subject: After the Elections: The Future of the Status Quo ⚠
To: alliso...@gmail.com

Platypus Public Fora at NYU View this email in your browser After the Elections: The Future of the Status Quo Saturday, December 3 at 2pm | NYU, Kimmel Center, room 808 Panelists: Howie Hawkins (Green Party, USA), R.L. Stephens (Labor organizer and editor of The Orchestrated Pulse), Benjamin Serby (volunteer-organizer, Team Bernie NY and PhD Candidate in US History, Columbia), Karl Belin (Socialist worker from Pittsburgh, labor organizer). Moderated by Tana Forrester (Platypus). The Left has for over a generation -- for more than 40 years, since the crisis of 1973 -- placed its hopes in the Democratic and Labour Parties to reverse or slow neoliberal capitalism -- the move to trans-national trade agreements, the movement of capital and labor, and austerity. The post-2008 crisis of neoliberalism, despite phenomena such as SYRIZA, Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring and anti-austerity protests more generally, Bernie Sanders's candidacy, and Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership, has found expression on the avowed Right, through UKIP, Brexit, the U.K. Conservatives' move to "Red Toryism" and now Donald Trump's election. The old neoliberal consensus is falling apart, and change is palpably in the air. Margaret Thatcher's infamous phrase "There Is No Alternative" has been proven wrong. What can the Left do to advance the struggle for socialism under such circumstances?  Recent generations of marginalized radicals have been forced to grapple with an impossible choice: they must either submit to a “realistic” electoral compromise with the status quo, often in the form of “lesser evilism,” or they must vote for a third-party candidate, hoping that by making their platform public the winning party could be pushed leftward. Alternatively, out of exhaustion with this impasse, they may choose not to vote, advocating instead a principled abstention from electoral politics.  What lessons can the Left draw from the history of mass electoral parties for socialism to create more emancipatory choices in the future? How do we reimagine the role of electoral campaigns for Leftist politics today? Given that a significant number of working people in America have left the Democratic Party, what is possible? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Platypus Affiliated Society, established in December 2006, organizes reading groups, public fora, research and journalism focused on problems and tasks inherited from the “Old” (1920s-30s), “New” (1960s-70s) and post-political (1980s-90s) Left for the possibilities of emancipatory politics today. Copyright © 2016 Platypus, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have signed up to receive event announcements to Platypus Affiliated Society. Our mailing address is: Platypus 2 Saxon House, 1 Thrawl St, LONDON, E1 6RW United Kingdom Add us to your address book

--

Allison Hewitt Ward

 Sent with Mailtrack