On October 8, 2022, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted this panel at the New School, NYC as part of its East Coast Conference. The panelists were Tom Canel, D. L. Jacobs (Platypus), Daniel Lazare (CPGB, Weekly Worker), Saira Rafiee (CUNY), and Jochem Schmon (New School).
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WHEN AN INDIVIDUAL represents a politics, their biography can become a political treatise. Doug Greene’s recently published biography of Michael Harrington is a case in point: Greene announces the political thrust of the book in its very title: A Failure of Vision.
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THE GOAL OF THIS ARTICLE is to examine the evolution of one sector of the American Left (the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)) regarding issues of (anti-)Zionism. I try to delineate in what ways DSA’s internal “Overton Window” regarding Zionism has shifted, not to argue for or against any particular orientation.
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HERE IS A MOMENT OF IRONY for those who like to ponder such things: I read D. L. Jacobs’s piece “What was the Millennial Left?” while in the process of letting my membership in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) lapse. The irony is that if I thought his critique of the Millennial Left were applicable to DSA, I would have been more likely to renew my membership!
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THE PLATYPUS AFFILIATED SOCIETY'S project is to think through the impact of defeat and decline on the revolutionary Left’s theory and praxis. Although both my political and philosophical opinions differ profoundly from those of Platypus, I find great value in engaging with their viewpoint on the relationship between philosophy and politics. I hope that this essay will contribute to a productive discussion.
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