Dear Friends,
The largest union in the USA, the National Education Association, just concluded its national meeting. More than 9000 delegates attended, by far the largest union meeting this year. What was done? Not much. NEA’s leaders, whose salaries top out at more then $450,000, spent plenty on perks for the delegates, including a party sponsored by anti-union Target corporation.
NEA’s program was not devoted to the life and death issues of the day. Instead, nearly every Democratic presidential candidate, and one Republican, paraded before the attendees who became an audience, not activists developing strategy for greater people’s control of schools and communities.
Rouge Forum members distributed a thousand flyers. Our email list grew a bit, but clearly the top levels of NEA are not going to be helpful in matters of war, legalized segregation, curricula regimentation, the militarization of schools, or high-stakes exams. Nobody is going to save us but us.
Mark your calendar for the next Rouge Forum Conference in Louisville, March 14, 15, and 16, next year. And, if you would like to invite a Rouge Forum speaker to your campus, just let us know.
We note the tragic irony of the Sunday New York Times editorial blaming Bush for the Iraq war’s failures, demanding a speedy exit.
The Times, remember, is as responsible as any voice of power for inveigling public support the imperial war. Its pages still seek to obscure the invasion’s reasons: oil and regional control. Now the Times portrays nearly every insurgent as “Al Queda,” following their earlier path.
Only days before Defense Secretary Gates made it clear the US is not leaving Iraq. That is one thing the Bush/Clintons are not lying about. The US cannot leave Iraq, cannot abandon the oil fields, and cannot allow the world to continue to witness the US military exposed as cowardly and incompetent.
This reality is spelled out quite clearly in a Clinton-based think tank report. The Center for a New American Security, headed by Madeline (“500,000 dead is acceptable damage”) Albright, issued the “Shaping U.S. Ground Forces for the Future: Getting Expansion Right,” paper. It demonstrates the need for 100,000 more ground troops, to protect US vital interests, and a draft, coupled with national service requirements—buttressed by more sophisticated appeals to nationalism.
Next week we will initiate an analysis of why it is the US anti-war movement (other than the courageous direct-actions of Cindy Sheehan) has been unable to influence the conduct of these wars, and what might be done.
The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil website is updated.
What can educators and activists to connect intellectual work with daily life in these critical times? We have three examples:
1. An analysis of the recent Supreme Court decision attacking integration by Adam Renner, in Louisville.
2. “My Child Needs a Union!” by Joan Locurto
3. Exemplary work led by Kathy Emery, in San Francisco, “Lessons from the Freedom Schools.”
San Francisco Freedom School begins July 7th and runs for seven consecutive Saturdays through August 18th (10 AM – 4 PM, pot luck lunch, 152 Church Street at Market). We study the Civil Rights Movement as a case study of how social movements happen. (As Jean Anyon argues in Radical Possibilities, there can’t be any real progressive education reform unless in the context of a social movement).
Learn the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement IN DEPTH from veterans of that struggle, activities and films. The sessions are FREE! — free textbooks too! All ages welcome. We have an extensive film and book library from which you can borrow throughout the year. Get SFUSD professional development credit.
Summer Curriculum: http://educationanddemocracy.org/SFFS/2007_curriculum.htm
To register for any, several or all Saturdays or get more info write to Kathy Emery at mke4think@hotmail.com
General info about the summer program here.
Thanks to Alan S (for the CNAS heads up) Dan C., Gil G, Bob A, Suber, Big Al (happily married), Josh, Melissa, and Evelyn, Echo, Erin, Stan Cutter, Sharon Agopian, Sidney G, Mary in South Africa, Vincent R, Ann W, Calley, Susan M, Donnie Alcorn, George and Sharon and the Kids (keep that arm oiled), Bonnie M, and David.
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