[act-ma] Round Table: What is the Occupy movement? Thursday, Harvard University

[Divya Menon Kohn]

*ROUND TABLE: What is the Occupy movement?
Hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society*
*
*
*Speakers:
*Jason Giannetti
Nick Ford (ALL-oNE)
Evan Sarmiento (FRSO)
Stephen Squibb (Occupy Harvard, n+1)
Doug Enaa Greene (Kasama Project)


*DATE*: December 15 (Thursday)
*TIME*: 6-8:30 PM
*Location*: Room K354, CGIS Knafel Building, Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA
(No ID necessary to enter)
http://www.facebook.com/events/267223019993579/
http://boston.platypus1917.org/2011/12/07/what-is-the-occupy-movement/

*Email: *boston (at) platypus1917 (dot) org


*EVENT BRIEF:*

The recent Occupy protests are driven by discontent with the present state
of affairs: glaring economic inequality, dead-end Democratic Party
politics, and, for some, the suspicion that capitalism could never produce
an equitable society. These concerns are coupled with aspirations for
social transformation at an international level. For many, the protests at
Wall St. and elsewhere provide an avenue to raise questions the Left has
long fallen silent on:

*• What would it mean to challenge capitalism on a global scale?*

*• How could we begin to overcome social conditions that adversely affect
every part of life?*

*• And, how could a new international radical movement address these
concerns in practice?*

Although participants at Occupy Wall St. and elsewhere have managed thus
far to organize resources for their own daily needs, legal services, health
services, sleeping arrangements, food supplies, defense against police
brutality, and a consistent media presence, these pragmatic concerns have
taken precedent over long-term goals of the movement. Where can
participants of this protest engage in formulating, debating, and
questioning the ends of this movement? How can it affect the greater
society beyond the occupied spaces?

We in the Platypus Affiliated Society ask participants and interested
observers of the Occupy movement to consider the possibility that political
disagreement could lead to clarification, further development and
direction. Only when we are able create an active culture of thinking and
debating on the Left without it proving prematurely divisive can we begin
to imagine a Leftist politics adequate to the historical possibilities of
our moment. *We may not know what these possibilities for transformation
are. This is why we think it is imperative to create avenues of engagement
that will support these efforts.*

Towards this goal, Platypus will be hosting a series of roundtable
discussions with organizers and participants of the Occupy movement. These
will start at campuses in New York, Chicago and Boston, but will be moving
to other North American cities, and to London, Germany, and Greece in the
months to come. We welcome any and all who would like to be a part of this
project of self-education and potential rebuilding of the Left to join us
in advancing this critical moment.

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___

The Platypus Affiliated Society 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. In Boston, Platypus
chapters meet for reading groups and coffee breaks at Harvard University
and MassArt. For more information, see http://boston.platypus1917.org
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