Critical Theories in Education
UK teachers strike over attacks on pensions.
Details at:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5616
Strikes will take place in schools, further education colleges and universities. This is action across the UK education sector on an unprecedented scale.
Message from Gilbert Gonzalez for the Mingas Network
Dear friends: Thank you once again for your patience, support, and
solidarity in our struggle against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
The next few days and weeks will be crucial in this struggle as President
Obama has indicated he will submit the Colombia, Panama and Korea FTAs for
congressional approval after the upcoming congressional recess.
Below we have included a number of informative videos on the impact of the
FTA on Colombia. Please look at them and, if you have time, share them
with others and send them to your friends, lists, etc.
Video of Impact upon Colombian workers and small farmers
Video of Impact upon Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities
Video of Impact on Colombian Civil Society
An over-all view of the impact of the FTA: What will you do if the
Colombia Free Trade Agreement is passed?
On the Colombia FTA, and others like it, California’s Congressman Miller
has said: “The American worker can compete, but it can’t compete against
the Colombian Army, against Colombian death squads… that’s not fair
competition, but that is what it’s protected in these trade agreements.”
The House of Representatives recess will take place from June 24th to July
5th. As you share this material with friends and list members please ask
them to contact their representatives by letter, fax, email, phone, or by
personal appointment, asking them to vote against this horrible
NAFTA-clone of a treaty.
If they don’t know who their representatives are they can find out by
going to:
http://whoismyrepresentative.com/
The Mingas Network will be glad to provide you with more information about
the specific impacts of the Colombia FTA and the reason the proposed White
House “Action Plan” does not right all that is wrong with the treaty. Just
send us a message.
Thank you again for your support, and your patience.
Sincerely yours,
Gilbert Gonzalez
for The Mingas Network*
The Mingas Network is a group of individuals from across the United
States, Canada and Colombia who are concerned with improving labor
conditions, promoting sovereignty and strengthening democracy and in
Colombia. We are united in our support for social movements and our
rejection of all acts of violence in Colombia, regardless of their source.
Is an Emancipatory Communism Possible?
A talk by Allan Armstrong
Wednesday, April 13th at 7:00 PM
at TRS, Inc, 44 East 32nd Street, 11th Floor
Manhattan (between Madison & Park Avenues)
Presented by Marxist-Humanist Initiative & The New SPACE
===========
Mention of the word “Communism” today conjures up visions of tyrants. Young people, even when they clash violently with the representatives of global capitalism in Seattle or London, call their protests “anti-capitalist,” not communist. However, anti-capitalism is not enough. Revolutions can lead to
immediate feelings of intense liberation, but they are usually followed by much longer periods of defense, setbacks, and painful reconstruction. The 20th century was the “Century of Revolutions,” but it eventually produced so little for humanity at such a high cost, that it is not surprising that many are very cautious, despite growing barbarism.
Allan Armstrong will argue that it is vital that we outline a genuine new human emancipatory communism, which takes full stock of the failings of both “official” and “dissident Communism,” and which can persuasively show that human liberation can still be achieved. He will explore Marx’s vision, particularly as detailed in his “Critique of the Gotha Program,” which emphasizes the need to break with capitalist production relations rather than expecting a new society to come about through political changes.
Allan Armstrong, a republican, Scottish internationalist, and communist, is currently co-editor of Emancipation & Liberation, the journal of the Republican Communist Network. He is also involved with the commune, a collective dedicated to outlining a new communism for the 21st century. Armstrong is the author of “Why We Need a New Emancipatory Communism” and “The Communist Case for ‘Internationalism from Below“
Inside Higher Ed: The Would-Be Provost Who Quoted Marx
“In the university, the higher up the hierarchical structure, the more one has decision-making power and the further one is from the actual ‘work’ (discovering and disseminating knowledge).”
Timothy J. L. Chandler, the co-author of a 1998 journal article with that quote about university hierarchies, is going to stay a step closer to actual work. On Thursday, he announced that he is turning down the position of provost at Kennesaw State University — in part because of furor set off in the local area over the article, which applies class analysis and several times cites Marx.
The Rouge Forum 2011: Call for Papers
Education and the State: A Critical Antidote to the Commercialized, Racist, and Militaristic Social Order
The Rouge Forum 2011 will be held at Lewis University. The University’s main campus is located in Romeoville, IL, which is 30 minutes southwest of Chicago, IL. The conference will be held May 19-22.
Proposals for papers, panels, performances, workshops, and other multimedia presentations should include title(s) and names and contact information for presenter(s). The deadline for sending proposals is March 22. The Steering Committee will email acceptance or rejection notices by April 1. The proposal formats available to the presenters are as follows:
Bringing together academic presentations and performances (from some of the most prominent voices for democratic, critical, and/or revolutionary pedagogy), panel discussions, community-building, and cultural events, this action-oriented conference will center on questions such as:
SUBMISSIONS
Proposal Formats
Individual Proposal: (45 minutes)
The Rouge Forum welcomes individual paper proposals, with the understanding that those accepted will be grouped together around common or overlapping themes, Presenters will have approximately 45 minutes to present or summarize their individual papers. Individual paper submissions will be considered for panels with the same topic/theme. If you would prefer to present your paper/research individually you should consider the alternative format proposal. A 300-500 word abstract of the paper will be peer reviewed for acceptance to the conference.
Symposium Proposal: (90 minutes)
Presenters are also welcomed to submit proposals for a symposium. A symposium is typically composed of a chair and discussant and three to five participants who present or summarize their papers. Each symposium is organized around a common theme. Each participant will have between 15 and 45 minutes to present their papers, depending upon the number of participants involved in the symposium. A 300-500 word abstract of the symposium will be peer reviewed for acceptance to the conference.
Panel Proposal: (90 minutes)
A panel discussion is another venue available presenters. A panel discussion is typically composed of three to six participants who discuss their scholarly work within the context of a dialogue or conversation on a topic or theme related to the conference theme. Typically, each panelist is given 10-15 minutes to discuss the topic, present theoretical ideas, and/or point to relevant research. A chair should be identified who introduces the panel and frames the issues and questions being addressed. In addition to the chair, we encourage (but do not require) organizers of panels to include a discussant who responds to the comments of the panelists. Individual proposal submissions will be combined into panels with the same theme/topic. A 300-500 word abstract of the panel discussion will be peer reviewed for acceptance to the conference.
Alternative Format and Special Interest Groups (90 minutes)
Alternative proposals that do not fit into the above categories, such as workshops, performances, video and multimedia presentations, and round-table dialogues, are encouraged. We also welcome proposals for the organization of special interest groups. A 150-250 word abstract of the panel discussion will be peer reviewed for acceptance to the conference.
Email proposals to conference coordinator Brad Porfilio porfilio16@aol.com, by March 22, 2011.
Additional information on Rouge Forum 2011 is available at rougeforumconference.org
The current issue of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor has been updated with two new field reports.
Issue No. 17 of Workplace “Working In, and Against, the Neo-Liberal State: Global Perspectives on K-12 Teacher Unions” is guest edited by Howard Stevenson of Lincoln University (UK).
The new field reports include:
The NEA Representative Assembly of 2010: A Longer View of Crisis and Consciousness
Rich Gibson
Abstract
Following the 2009 National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly (RA) in San Diego, new NEA president Dennis Van Roekel was hugging Arne Duncan, fawning over new President Obama, and hustling the slogan, “Hope Starts Here!” At the very close of the 2009 RA, delegates were treated to a video of themselves chanting, “Hope starts Here!” and “Hope Starts with Obama and Duncan!” The NEA poured untold millions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours, into the Obama campaign. In 2009, Van Roekel promised to tighten NEA-Obama ties, despite the President’s educational policies and investment in war. What happened in the year’s interim? What was the social context of the 2010 RA?
Resisting the Common-nonsense of Neoliberalism: A Report from British Columbia
E. Wayne Ross
Abstract
Faced with a $16 million budget shortfall, the Vancouver school trustees, who have a mandate to meet the needs of their students, have lobbied for more provincial funding to avoid draconian service cuts. The government has refused the request, and its special advisor to the Vancouver School Board criticizes trustees for engaging in “advocacy” rather than making “cost containment” first priority. The clash between Vancouver trustees and the ministry of education is not “just politics.” Rather, education policy in BC reflects the key features of neoliberal globalization, not the least of which is the principle that more and more of our collective wealth is devoted to maximizing private profits rather than serving public needs. British Columbia is home to one of the most politically successful neoliberal governments in the world, but fortunately it is also a place to look for models of mass resistance to the neoliberal agenda. One of the most important examples of resistance to the common-nonsense of neoliberalism in the past decade is the British Columbia teachers’ 2005 strike, which united student, parent, and educator interests in resisting the neoliberal onslaught on education in the public interest.
Weeks of strikes, protests and demonstrations have brought much of France to a standstill as workers, students and others voice their strong opposition to a government proposal to raise the age for a minimum pension from 60 to 62. A quarter of the nation’s gas stations were out of fuel, hundreds of flights were canceled, long lines formed at gas stations and train services in many regions were cut in half. Protesters blockaded Marseille’s airport, Lady Gaga canceled concerts in Paris and rioting youths attacked police in Lyon. The unpopular bill is edging closer to becoming law as the French Senate is preparing to vote on it today. Collected here are recent images of the unrest around France. Update: Pension reform bill just now passed by French senate. (40 photos total)
A man holds a placard which reads “Listen to the public’s rage” during a demonstration in front of the French Senate in Paris October 20, 2010. French trade unions kept up their resistance on Wednesday to an unpopular pension reform due for a final vote in the Senate this week. (REUTERS/Charles Platiau)
View more photos here.
The 1979 documentary, The Wobblies, directed by Deborah Shaffer and Stewart Bird, is now available on line at google video (1:28:39). Highly recommended.
Related links:
“Remember the Industrial Workers of the World?”
By Michael Aktinson (Village Voice) June 20, 2006
This 1979 documentary established a new, primary-research modus for historical nonfiction—no narrator, no authorial perspective, just original documents and witnesses—but its subject matter was, and still is, its most radical characteristic. By the ’70s American culture had been made to forget that the Industrial Workers of the World had ever existed, just as in the century’s first decades the segregated union utopia was condemned, brutalized, legislated against, campaigned against, and demonized. Today, things haven’t changed much—Deborah Shaffer and Stewart Bird’s film stands among a scant handful of books detailing the labor movement’s astonishing power and growth, its newspapers and songs and sheer membership, as well as the sickening history of suppression, murder, and criminal injustice that was brought to bear upon it. (Don’t forget Warren Beatty’s Reds, shot around the same time and with several of the same elderly survivors.) American high schoolers should have to see it to graduate, but then so much of what they’re taught would evaporate as a consequence. Released with new interviews and old anthems, and alongside nine other classic docs in the “Docurama Film Festival I.”
Documents, Essays and Analysis for a History of the I.W.W. at marxist.org
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) web site
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION
12-16 July 2011, Athens, Greece
Organized by the journals :
Journal of Critical Educational Policy Studies (UK)
Cultural Logic (USA/CANADA)
Kritiki (GREECE)
Radical Notes (INDIA)
Download flyer here [PDF]
ROUGE FORUM CONFERENCE, 2010: CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Education in the Public Interest: Teaching and Learning for a Democratic Society
Rouge Forum 2010 will be hosted at George Williams College on the scenic banks of Geneva Lake. Located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, the college is nestled between the major metropolitan areas of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. The conference will be held August 2-5.
Bringing together academic presentations and performances (from some of the most prominent voices for democratic, critical, and/or revolutionary pedagogy), panel discussions, community-building, and cultural events, this action-oriented conference will center on questions such as:
To learn more about the conference, please contact any of our conference organizers:
Faith Wilson (fwilson@aurora.edu)
Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.edu)
Wayne Ross (wayne.ross@ubc.ca)
Rich Gibson (rgibson@pipeline.com)
Gina Stiens (stiensg@yahoo.com)
Doug Selwyn (dselw001@plattsburgh.edu)
Joe Cronin (jcronin@antioch.edu)
Or visit the conference website at: www.rougeforumconference.org.
Submissions
Proposals for papers, panels, or performances should include title(s), no more than a 500 word description, and names and contact information for presenter(s). Presenters should plan on 45 minute time slots to deliver papers. Panels and performances will be awarded 90 minutes.
Review of Paper and Panel Proposals treating any of the above questions will begin April 15, 2010. Please send your proposals to Faith Wilson (fwilson@aurora.edu). As we expect a number of proposals for a limited number of slots please forward your proposal as soon as possible.
Performance Proposals should also be forwarded to Faith Wilson (fwilson@aurora.edu) by April 15, 2010. Please describe your art/performance and how it may relate to the conference topic/questions.
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