Platypus Affiliated Society

The Platypus Affiliated Society organises reading groups, public fora, research and journalism focused on the 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.

The aims of the club are:

1. To host public fora on the history and contemporary currents of Left political thought for student audiences, featuring a purposefully diverse range of opinions from its different intellectual traditions.
2. To host recurring, year-long reading groups on the on the history of Left philosophical and political thought from 1755 to 1969, covering thinkers from the Enlightenment such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith, the Socialist thought of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and the critical theory of Frankfurt School.
3. To conduct interviews with the notable thinkers of the Left today for publication in our free international monthly journal, The Platypus Review.
4. To have regular on-campus casual discussion groups – ‘coffee breaks’ – where students can come and openly discuss the panels that we’ve hosted, along with all aspects of their experiences with political thought and activity on the left.
5. To host movie screenings, covering a wide selection of historical documentaries and biographical films of political characters from the Left.
6. To enrich campus life with an intellectual forum for discussing Left history and political theory, without the constraints or added pressure of student activism.

Mailbox 173
Level 4, Building 168
University of Melbourne VIC 3010