Ep 68: Free Speech & the Left, an interview w/ Nadine Strossen

On this episode of SPS, Pamela N. and Platypus member Adrienne F. interview Nadine Strossen, an American legal scholar and civil liberties activist. Strossen served as the president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1991 to 2008; she is currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education Expression (FIRE); and is the author of Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know (2023). We discuss her history on the Left, her relationship to the antiwar movement, the Students for a Democratic Society, and radical & progressive positions today. We also take up the recent illiberal turn in society, and what if any effect it has had on the ACLU, as well as her proposed solutions. Finally, we take a critical look at demands by the Left to reform the Supreme Court. If you live in the East Coast, Platypus is hosting its annual East Coast Conference in Boston on Oct 11-13. There will be a variety of panels, teach-ins and social gatherings. Panels include, "The American Revolution and Communism" held at Boston College on 10.12 and "The Role of Theory in Defeat," at Harvard University on 10.13. More information will be available at: https://www.facebook.com/platypusbc | https://x.com/BcPlatypus | https://www.instagram.com/platypusbc/ The French chapter of Platypus is holding a virtual panel, on "Popular Front Politics Today," held in French on Sat Sept 28 via Zoom. The panel will feature, Gilles Candar, Aymeric Monville, and a member of the Spartacist League. More information will be available at: https://www.instagram.com/platypusfrance LINKS - Strossen, Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know (2023) https://global.oup.com/academic/product/free-speech-9780197699652 - Strossen, Hate: Why We Should Resist It With Free Speech, Not Censorship (2018) https://www.amazon.com/-/en/Nadine-Strossen/dp/0190859121 - Strossen, Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights (1995, new ed. 2024) https://nyupress.org/9781479830763/defending-pornography/ - Nogales, “The Cancel Wars: The Legacy of the Cultural Turn in the Age of Trump” in Platypus Review 131 (November 2020) https://platypus1917.org/2020/11/01/the-cancel-wars-the-legacy-of-the-cultural-turn-in-the-age-of-trump/ - ACLU Case Selection Guidelines (2017) https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/aclu_case_selection_guidelines.pdf - Strossen, “The First Amendment Doesn’t Protect White Supremacists Behind Violent Charlottesville Rallies,” LA Progressive Newsletter, Dec. 7, 2021 - Strossen, “Charlottesville Three Years Later: The First Amendment Confronts Hate and Violence,” Los Angeles Review of Books, Aug. 10, 2020 - Strossen, “The Interdependence of Racial Justice and Free Speech for Racists,” 1 Journal of Free Speech Law 51-70 (2021) - Moyn, “Socialists Have Long Fought to Disempower the Supreme Court. That’s More Urgent Than Ever Now,” Jacobin (2020) https://jacobin.com/2020/09/supreme-court-socialists-ruth-bader-ginsburg-death - Cotlin, “Mayor Eric Adams, DSA agree: expand the court” City & State New York (2023) https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2023/02/mayor-eric-adams-dsa-agree-expand-court/383006/ - Lazare, “A central driver” in the Weekly Worker (2021) https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1337/a-central-driver/ - Strossen on SCOTUS term limits, in “Forum: What’s the Matter With the Supreme Court? And what can be done to fix it?” in The Nation (2018) https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/forum-whats-the-matter-with-the-supreme-court/ - Sublation Media with Doug Lain, “Nadine Strossen Talks to Marxists” (2023) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gd5-KoOosA - “The Politics of Free Speech,” (04/06/24) Platypus International Convention 2024 panel, Chicago, IL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anorBcUZ-uE - "Free Speech and the Left," Platypus virtual panel (05/02/24), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9xc0IIKUz8