Platypus Melbourne

"Today, the Left in Australia somewhat resembles the [Australian] Left as it was prior to the October Revolution, differing only in the volume of small Left groups that compete for the larger population of non-ALP socialists.

This is the sense in which I say that the 20th century turned out to be a mistake.

Apart from October 1917, political parties have not made revolutions. Revolutions have been made by armies of one kind or another. Political parties have been part of opinion formation and the political education of the masses, but they have not actually made a revolution. Parties are governments-in-waiting, and whether the road to power is a parliamentary election or a military conquest will determine the nature of the formation which claims to be a “party.” Although parties may be a factor in opinion formation, generally the job of opinion formation is the work of social movements."

Andy Blunden - "The party question", our today in the Platypus Review
https://platypus1917.org/2026/04/01/the-party-question/

Thank you to everyone that came and spoke to us at O-Week!

This week our reading group will be reading and discussing Rosa Luxemburg’s classic pamphlet ‘The Mass Strike’, on the tasks facing the Social Democratic Second International in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish-German Marxist of the Second International, who was active from 1895-1918 (when she was tragically executed by the new 'socialist' government of Germany).

This text is her response to the (1st) Russian Revolution of 1905 (not to be confused with the big revolutions of 1917). An epoch of struggles had broken out across Europe and Russia, and the German Marxist party (the SPD) was reluctant to learn lessons from the Russian situation. After travelling through Russia undercover and later having long discussions with Lenin, Luxemburg penned this pamphlet to bring the new revolutionary understanding home to Germany - the core of European Capital.

Full syllabus: https://shorturl.at/IHvL7

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/pas1917melbourne

All are welcome!

Please ignore the dates in this post - we have changed what we are reading in the coming weeks.

Find the full syllabus here: https://shorturl.at/IHvL7

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/pas1917melbourne

(LinkTree also in Bio)

"Under a covert class dictatorship": An interview with Humphrey McQueen for the Platypus Review - Jonny Black.
Goes to some interesting and unexpected places.

https://platypus1917.org/2026/02/01/under-a-covert-class-dictatorship/
https://linktr.ee/pas1917melbourne

Bernstein's misfortune proves that he approached the whole question from the wrong angle. Phenomena such as modern imperialism cannot be measured in terms of ‘right’ and ‘morality’. Its tendencies, its roots, its historical significance as the final stage of capitalist development – that is what social democracy must grasp. The inseparable connection between imperialism and capitalist development, of which it is the legitimate child despite its repulsive ugliness, or rather precisely because of its repulsive ugliness – that is what we must teach the working class to understand. And from this it must draw the conclusion that imperialism, war, land grab, the trafficking of peoples, the violation of rights, and the politics of violence can only be fought by fighting capitalism, by opposing global political genocide with social revolution. But if one seeks remedies and solutions to its conflicts within imperialist politics and wants to resist its Sturm und Drang by simply trying to roll it back to what has already been overcome, then that is not proletarian but petty-bourgeois, hopeless politics. This politics is basically nothing more than the constant defence of yesterday's imperialism against today's imperialism.

Moral outrage certainly plays a major role in our protest movement against world politics. However, it only becomes a political factor when it is linked to an understanding of the historical laws of the phenomenon, when it is directed not against external forms but against the essence, not against the consequences but against the root cause; in a word, when it is the revolutionary indignation of a mass that is rebelling against the capitalist social order as such.

- Rosa Luxemburg "Petit-Bourgeois or Proletarian World-Politics?" (1911)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeQD7AbpRZM

On Friday, October 12, 2018, Platypus member Richard Rubin delivered a talk at New York University on what it might mean to be a Marxist in the 21st Century.

What does it mean to be a Marxist in the 21st Century? (10/12/18 teach-in) On Friday, October 12, 2018, Platypus member Richard Rubin delivered a talk at New York University on what it might mean to be a Marxist in the 21st Century....

"China and the Left" (25/09/25 panel) On September 25, 2025, the Platypus Affiliated Society chapter at ANU hosted a public forum on the topic "China and The Left."DESCRIPTION:What would it mean ...

https://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=52946

Las 3 R: Reforma, Revolución y Resistencia (7/13/25 Panel en Español) Las 3 R: Reforma, Revolución y ResistenciaJulio 13, 2025 at 16:00 CST“Luego del fracaso de la Nueva Izquierda de los años 60, la desesperanza subyacente resp...