Ep. 38: On Afghanistan, Podemos, & the Frankfurt School today

On this episode of SPS, Pamela and Sophia discuss the Biden bungle of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the responses by the “Left,” including Tariq Ali for the New Left Review and Branko Marcetic for Jacobin. SPS European Correspondent Andreas interviews Eduardo Maura, from the Spanish party Podemos, and asks him to reflect on his political trajectory, from his work in the Indignados -- the Spanish anti-austerity movement -- to Podemos in government, to the party’s recent electoral defeats. In the last segment, Platypus president Efraim interviews Mike Watson, a UK born art & media theorist, and author of The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What To Do About It, released by Zero Books in 2021. They discuss the different responses to the New Left by Adorno and Marcuse and the conditions of possibility for political consciousness in an administered society. Links: Chris Cutrone, “Afghanistan: After 20 and 40 years” in Platypus Review 139 (September 2021) https://platypus1917.org/2021/09/02/afghanistan-after-20-and-40-years/ Tariq Ali, “Debacle in Afghanistan” New Left Review: Sidecar (16 August 2021) https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/debacle-in-afghanistan Branko Marcetic, “Joe Biden Was Right to Pull Out of Afghanistan” Jacobin (24 August 2021) https://jacobin-v2.positiondevapp.com/2021/08/joe-biden-afghanistan-taliban-us-military-foreign-policy-pullout Tariq Ali Interviewed by Chris Cutrone, on Iraq, the anti-war movement, and the state of the Left conducted on October 15, 2007 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. https://platypus1917.org/2007/10/15/tariq-ali-interviewed-by-chris-cutrone/ “Imperialism: What is it—Why should we be Against it?” On January 30th, 2007, Platypus hosted its first public forum. It features Adam Turl of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), Kevin Anderson of the Marxist-Humanist group News and Letters, Nick Kreitman of the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Danny Postel of Open Democracy, and Chris Cutrone of Platypus. https://platypus1917.org/2010/07/09/imperialism-what-is-it-why-should-we-be-against-it/ “¿Más allá de la izquierda y la derecha? (Beyond left and right?): An Interview with Eduardo Maura of Podemos” by Lucy Parker and David Mountain with Nikos Manousakis in Platypus Review 72 (December 2014 – January 2015) https://platypus1917.org/2014/12/01/mas-alla-de-la-izquierda-y-la-derecha/ Mike Watson, The Memeing Of Mark Fisher: How The Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism And What To Do About It (2021) https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/memeing-mark-fisher Efraim Carlebach, “Forgetting Mark Fisher” in Platypus Review 115 (April 2019) https://platypus1917.org/2019/04/01/forgetting-mark-fisher/ Hosted by Sophia, Pamela and Andreas W., with original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy, and editing assistance by Michael Woodson. To learn more about Platypus, go to Platypus1917.org.