Fanon: On Interracial Utopia and Anti-Colonialism
A teach-in led by Sunit Singh
Where: Quinlan Life Science Center, Room 312, 1032 W. Sheridan Road.
When: February 1st, 7pm.
Free and open to the public.
Suggested Readings:
Fanon - Wretched of the Earth - Conclusion
Fanon - Black Skin White Masks (Introduction) (Conclusion)
"The Negro, however sincere, is the slave of the past. None the less I am a man, and in this sense the Peloponnesian War is as much mine as the invention of the compass. Face to face with the white man, the Negro has a part to legitimate, a vengeance to exact; face to face with the Negro, the contemporary white man feels the need to recall the times of cannibalism... Some men want to fill the world with their presence. A German philosopher described this mechanism as the pathology of freedom... The problem considered here is one of time. Those Negroes and white men will be disalienated who refuse to let themselves be sealed away in the materialized Tower of the Past. For many other Negroes, in other ways, disalienation will come into being through their refusal to accept the present as definitive. I am a man, and what I have to recapture is the whole past of the world... In no way should I derive my basic purpose from the past of the peoples of color. In no way should I dedicate myself to the revival of an unjustly unrecognized Negro civilization. I will not make myself the man of any past. I do not want to exalt the past at the expense of my present and of my future."
The Platypus New York Chapter presents:
The Cradle Will Rock (1999), a film screening and discussion
Friday, December 11th, 6:00 pm-9:00 pm
The New School, 66 W. 12th St., rm. 404.
There will be a short discussion following the film. If you wish to attend and are not a student at the New School, please contact Chris Mansour @ chris.d.mansour@gmail.com to get your name on the security list.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0150216/
Panel held on December 6th, 2009, at the University of Chicago.
A moderated panel discussion and audience Q&A bringing together three leading figures of the Pakistani labor movement to talk about workers rights, women’s rights, the struggle to organize in the shadow of the Taliban, and the impact of the ongoing war in Afghanistan on the workers of Pakistan. These topics will be explored in light of the increasingly pressing need to reconstitute an international Left.
Panelists:
Rubina Jamil
President, Working Women Organization; and Chair, All Pakistan Trade Union Federation
Atiya Khan
Platypus Affiliated Society; and PhD candidate in History at the University of Chicago
Introduced and moderated by Spencer Leonard, Platypus Affiliated Society; Editor-in-Chief, The Platypus Review; and Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences, University of Chicago
Background reading:
The Failure of Pakistan: A Concise History of the Left
The Poverty of Pakistan’s Politics
Red Channels and the Platypus Affiliated Society present:
The Poverty of Student Life, a film screening and discussion
Monday, November 23, 7:30 pm - 10:30 pm @ The Brecht Forum, 451 West Street
San Francisco State: On Strike - Newsreel, 1969, 25 minutes
Community Control - Newsreel, 1969, 50 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes | Digital Projection
Discussion with:
Pam C. Nogales C. of the Platypus Affiliated Society
Luz Schreiber of the Committee in Defense of the Children's Learning Center at Hunter College, and Ollin Imagination
Jitu Weusi - teacher, principal, member of the African American Teachers Association, co-founder of The East (1969-1985)
[more TBA]
* * *
1. Politics of the contemporary student Left
3. The New School occupation and the direction of student politics: an interview with Atlee McFellin
4. Five questions to the student Left
