Category Archives: Rouge Forum Update

The Rouge Forum 2008 conference will be held March 13-16 at Bellarmine Universitiy in Louisville, KY.

For more information and to submit a proposal or register for the conference visit the conference website.

Follow

Dear Friends,

The Rouge Forum web page is updated at www.rougeforum.org. We call your attention to the No Blood For Oil section of the page for updates on the expanding wars as well as those good-for-the-rest-of-your-life antiwar posters for sale at lifesaving prices. And, for those under 35, remember: If They Attack Iran—You’re Drafted.

This week, however, we focus on the rising of workers and students in France, taking direct action against the Sarkozy regimes attacks on education, rights to strike, health care, and pensions. The corporate press in the US has largely ignored this struggle which has spread to more than twenty universities.

The French student resistance demonstrated, in 1968, several key things that remain true today:
*Students can initiate mass struggle for social change, but cannot complete them. For that, a worker-student alliance is necessary, and possible.
*When hope in schools is eradicated, uprisings typically follow.
*Mass struggles that turn to direct action, as in strikes or general strikes, can confront massive, organized, ruthless force with reason to believe that winning is possible.
*Those struggles are routinely betrayed from within. In 1968, the Quisling force was the official Communist Party of France which did all it could to divert and finally destroy the uprisings. One would expect the same from the CP-USA, and all its affiliates, today–as we witness the muddle that the CPUSA front, the United For Peace and Justice Coalition, has made of what there is of the anti-war movement. The core of that is the CP’s ironic rejection of the term, “class struggle.”

The Rouge Forum will be very active at the upcoming National Conference for the Social Studies conference in San Diego at the end of November. Come visit our booth and our presentations about high-stakes testing. Plus, please RSVP if you would like to come to our Rouge Forum party on Saturday evening. You are welcome to invite friends, but we need some guess for the number of people.

Thanks to Bill T and B, Greg, Katie, MrJ, Sean, Bill S, Candy, Elise, Irene T, Sue Horning, Charley in Vista in Africa, Seepho, Mary, Doug and Connie, Beau, Erin, Colin, Wayne, and Sharon A.

All the best,

r

Follow

Dear Friends,

On our recent tour of California, CalCare’s Susan Harman, Bob Apter and I learned that one of the main things going on in schools today is fear. There are numerous sources of the fear we saw, but curricula regimentation, high-stakes exams, and militarization seem to be key. Our full report will be in the upcoming issue of Substance News.

Fear cannot serve as a basis for education, unless one wishes to train slaves. It follows that it falls upon each of us who seeks to connect reason to power to find answers to the fear that pervades schools.

One good answer is resistance, direct action. We have three recent examples of direct action in schools which can serve as models. They deserve our support.

Chicago Indymedia is carrying an article on 70 students at Morton West High who led a sit-in against the Iraq war and now face suspension and expulsion. We need to demonstrate solidarity with this courageous action. Here is a link to a petition on their behalf and the Indymedia article which includes phone numbers and email for authorities involved. Better still, we need hundreds of Morton High disruptions, perhaps under the slogan: If They Bomb Iran—You’re Drafted.

In Vancouver, a teacher refused to give a high stakes exam, was disciplined, but has been gathering support ever since. A Simon Fraser University dean is among her supporters, saying she was protecting her students from ‘psychological and educational vandalism. ‘

David Wasserman, a Madison teacher, refused to proctor his students’ high stakes exams, was threatened with severe discipline, and chose to return to his classroom.

David deserves our support as well. His email address is: dwasserman@madison.k12.wi.us

Here are email addresses for his bosses and others:
School board:
ccarstensen@madison.k12.wi.us
mpcole@madison.k12.wi.us
lkobza@madison.k12.wi.us
lmathiak@madison.k12.wi.us
bmoss@madison.k12.wi.us,
asilveira@madison.k12.wi.us
jwinstonjr@madison.k12.wi.us

Art Rainwater (District Superintendent): arainwater@madison.k12.wi.us

Libby Burmaster (State Superintendent): elizabeth.burmaster@dpi.state.wi.us

We need dozens of David Wassermans, acting in concert.

These are not the first test resisters. George Schmidt, fired for publishing the Chicago Case test, was among the first of those, and many others just walked away from teaching. But these direct actions are indicators that we can stand up to fear and reverse it, if we stick together.

On a broader scale, teachers in Bulgaria recently led massive job actions, demonstrating the Rouge Forum thesis that in many societies, social change can indeed emanate out from schools. Here is a link on Bulgaria .

Perry Marker sent along a link to a wonderful web site that should be useful to all social studies, cultural studies, and math educators: http://www.chrisjordan.com/

Remember the Rouge Forum booth and presentations at NCSS, coming up in San Diego at the end of November. Those who want a short history of the Rouge Forum, look here http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=97

Thanks to Sherry W., Perry, Wayne, Susan, Carol, Val, Suber, Bill T., Sean, Mike A, MrJtheteacher, Beau, Greg and Katie, Bill, Della, Dave, Denise, Sharon A., Stewart, Dan C., Jim3, and Amber.

All the best, r

ps. we can always use donations. The Rouge Forum web page is updated at www.rougeforum.org. Those good-for-the-rest-of-your-life anti-war posters are up for sale!

Follow

Rouge Forum Conference, 2008
Education: Reform or Revolution?
Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY

The Rouge Forum is a group of educators, students, and parents seeking a democratic society. We are concerned about questions like these: How can we teach against racism, national chauvinism and sexism in an increasingly authoritarian and undemocratic society? How can we gain enough real power to keep our ideals and still teach–or learn? Whose interests shall school serve in a society that is ever more unequal? We are both research and action oriented. We want to learn about equality, democracy and social justice as we simultaneously struggle to bring into practice our present understanding of what that is. We seek to build a caring inclusive community which understands that an injury to one is an injury to all. At the same time, our caring community is going to need to deal decisively with an opposition that is sometimes ruthless (www.rougeforum.org).

The theme for the 2008 Rouge Forum Conference is: “Education: Reform or Revolution?” and will be hosted by Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY March 14 –March 16, 2008. Given the recent Supreme Court decision, striking down the local school district’s student assignment plan; the ongoing war(s) in the Middle East; and the consistent environmental degradation of the planet, the 2008 conference will focus on one of the major socializing influences in our lives: Education.

Bringing together academic presentations and lectures (from some of the most prominent voices for democratic, critical, and/or revolutionary pedagogy), panel discussions (on such topics as the local school district’s student assignment plan), professional development (on critical literacy and environmental education) for teachers in the region, community-building, and cultural events (poetry, music, dance, and/or drama) performed by local students and artists, this action-oriented conference will center on questions such as:

• What is the future of public education in the US? (And, how might it be connected to and/or critical of endless war, declining democracy, and environmental devastation?)

• What is a democratic classroom? What does ‘democracy’ mean?

• Why is public education necessary? Toward what ends should we educate?

• Of what should a compelling public education consist? (Narrowing/Focus and standardization? Expanded and/or critical thinking? Something else?)

• Can the current system be reformed in order to better serve children, families, and citizens?

• If not, what would a new system look like? How would it be implemented? What past models exist on which to work and build?

To learn more about the conference, please contact any of our conference organizers:

Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.edu),
Rich Gibson (rgibson@pipeline.com),
Wayne Ross (wayne.ross@ubc.ca).
Gina Stiens (stiensg@yahoo.com)
David Owen (dsowen04@louisville.edu)
Jardana Peacock (jardana99pk@yahoo.com)
Mary Goral (mgoral@bellarmine.edu)
Sonya Burton (sburton@bellarmine.edu)

Review of Paper Proposals treating any of the above questions will begin December 15, 2007. Please send your proposals to Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.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 Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.edu) by December 15, 2007. Please describe your art/performance and how it may relate to the conference topic/questions.

Whether wishing to present or attend, please visit www.rougeforum.org for registration information

Follow

Dear Friends,

The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil Page is updated. See especially recent work from Scott Ritter and Sy Hersh.

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the murder of Che Guevera whose sense of egalitarianism swept well beyond the confines of the Cuban revolution, and whose adventurous, courageous spirit lay at the heart of his triumph and tragedy. While Che is for sale today, like everything, his notions of an equitable society based on the sacrifices of new women and men, people who would fight for the right to share, remain challenging to the fear and greed that propels, for example, most US schooling.

Soon, we will also mark the 40th anniversary of what may have been the most conscious, militant, of the 60’s anti-war demonstrations, the March on the Pentagon of October 21, 1967, organized by, among others, the Students for a Democratic Society, the largest of the student movements of the time, later demolished by the terrorist Weatherman sect in 1969. The Weatherman theft and destruction of the SDS mailing lists took place just before the biggest outpouring of antiwar resistance during the May uprisings against the invasion of Cambodia, and the killings at Jackson and Kent State. Watch for upcoming editions of the Rouge Forum and Substance News for an analysis of the Weathermen, then and now.

The debates that went on inside SDS, about nationalism, racism, sexism, capitalism, imperialism, and the resistance, continue today. However, one thing appears different. Masses of people were willing to take serious risks, including imprisonment and death, in order to help change society. Che was clear: Change is sacrifice.
http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/war.htm

Upcoming conferences and action: The Rouge Forum will be gathering at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference in San Diego, November 29 to December 2, complete with a party. Plan to join us at sessions, on our tour of San Diego, and at the social.

The Longshore Workers, ILWU of San Francisco, recently passed a “Strike Against the War,” motion. They plan a conference in SF on October 20.

The Rouge Forum has supported the demonstrations against the wars on October 27. Be there! We hope to unite antiwar people with the movement for justice inside schools.

Set aside Vets Day weekend, upcoming, for a Calcare/Rouge Forum discussion on the plans to boycott NCLB in the spring in California.

The Supremes in black robes issued a ruling supporting the dismissal of a teacher who told her kids she honked for peace.

Neither big schools’ union took action to end the campaigns of fear and intimidation in schools.

In Canada, a courageous teacher was reprimanded for refusing to administer a standardized exam.

Whole Language guru Ken Goodman issued a personal call for resistance to the NCLB, as Jonathan Kozol’s call for NCLB reform came in for some criticism in Indymedia.

Up the rebels. Thanks to Adam, Gina, Bob, Susan, Ken Jr, Sherry, Sharon A., Dave, Beau, Erin, William and Christopher, Amber, Panyon, Sharon E, Michael, Sipho, Mary, Wayne, Paul, Kathy E., and Gilda.

All the best,

r

Follow

Dear Friends,

A two week road trip throughout California can tempt one to conclude that Thoreau’s comment, “What news? How much more important to learn that which is never old?” might be right.

But, in that two week period, UAW executives negotiated what may stand as the worst sellout of wages and health benefits in the history of US labor, agreeing to multiple-tier wage systems, a shell game for health benefits, an end to in plant restrictions like unlimited overtime. Should this package stand, it will surely influence education contracts, soon.

In Michigan, the state legislature shutdown state government, mainly because legislators want to eradicate a model health insurance plan administered, mostly, by the Michigan Education Association, probably the best educator health care plan in the US.

While Alan Greenspan admitted, “Iraq is largely about oil,” the dollar collapsed against, among other things, the Canadian loonie, making Rouge founder Wayne Ross a Cassandra of finance.

NEA executives did a weird dance of not opposing NCLB, while trying hard to appear to oppose NCLB, and key NEA locals began to pressure the union to stand for NCLB abolition. At the same time, AFT fought hard to retain NCLB, but to defeat merit pay, rather like the ethics of concentration camp guards.

Democrats and Republicans remained united as a class, for war and NCLB.

National resistance to the empire’s wars, and its school regimentation, remain bogged down, mainly by fear (in the k12 world) and opportunism (in academia).

Japanese teachers (1500 of them) joined to reject the re-militarization of their nation and schools, protesting against a new national pledge, while Denver students marched out of classes, refusing to chant religious portions of the US pledge.

Bulgarian teachers initiated and maintained a massive strike for pay and better working conditions.

A student at the University of Florida coined a new US phrase: Don’t Taze Me Bro!
while spectators, looked on and did nothing.

Seymour Hersh suggested that Americans learn nothing from history, paralleling Chalmers Johnson’s belief that Americans know no history and so cannot connect history and contemporary reality.

Scott Ritter warned, again, of a US attack on Iran .

All this and more is linked on the Rouge Forum No Blood for Oil Page.

With CalCare, activist NEA locals, parents, and students, the Rouge Forum is launching a major effort to overcome NCLB’s atmosphere of fear in schools, and its high-stakes exams, with direct action boycotts. We would like to meet with all those who are interested in helping out. Our California tour demonstrated that direct action is possible, and necessary. We will have a full report on the California tour soon.

Here is Jonathan Kozol writing about his anti-NCLB fast.

The Rouge Forum will have a big presence at the upcoming National Conference for the Social Studies Conference in San Diego, November 28 to December 1 this year. Plan to come on the phantasmagoric Rouge Forum tour of the city, the day before the conference begins.

Please plan to join us at the Rouge Forum Conference in Louisville, KY, March 14, 15, and 16.

Thanks to Adam, Gina, Amber, Tommie, Bob, Susan H and O, Betty M., Hoffie, Candace, Sherry, Sharon A., Bill Blank, Greg and Katie, Carol Panetta and Bob, Lyn Stinson, Perry, Wayne, MThomas, Kevin, Peter M, Dave Hill, Glenn Rikowski, Beau, Erin, all those who welcomed us on our road trip and Wanda J.

All the best, r

Follow

Dear Friends,

The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil web page, used as a reference by teachers all over the world, is updated.

We’re supporting the call for mass direct actions in opposition to the imperial wars on the third Friday of each month as well as organizing teach-ins around the US. Please urge colleagues to join us!

Summer is gone. School is back. The wars expand. Inequality and segregation boom, underpinning the regimentation of what kids know, and how they come to know it, in schools; setting youth up for a future of meaningless jobs or the military, fighting the enemies of their real enemies, here at home. So, the Rouge Forum ratchets up the work.

Part of that project is the organizing tour Susan Harman, Bob Apter, and I will take around California, mainly to listen to educators, parents, and kids about what they see in school, seeking to better analyze concrete problems that connect to the social realities that surround all of schooling. We leave on September 8th, returning when we think we are done, or done in. If you would be willing to meet, please let me know.

The start of school in harsh times means we need to ask, once again, “why am I here, whose interests am I serving, why have school, or, How Do I Keep My Ideals and Still Teach?” Here’s a question and answer piece that may be challenging.

With the NCLB trailing only the empire’s wars on the Congressional agenda, we note that the leadership of NEA is supporting the NCLB by staying on the sidelines, while AFT’s top executives are lobbying hard for its re-adoption, with a few minor modifications. Quislings (mis-leaders) in our midst are part of our focus in this Update.

AFT and NEA executives are not going to fight the NCLB for us, nor will they act to end the wars, because their high salaries (nearing $500,000 at NEA) are drawn from the imperial trough. Their allies are not the rank and file of the unions, but the bosses at the US Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the others who joined NEA and AFT in writing the NCLB at the outset. That is one big reason we formed the Rouge Forum and said: Justice Demands Organization.

Here, for example, is the Chicago AFT’s boss, Ms Stewart, trying to fight her members who sought to vote NO on a tentative five year contract for the city’s teachers and again here
and yet again here.

If you go to Google Video and search for Chicago Teachers Union, there will probably be more videos up tomorrow. In addition, Substance News, based in Chicago, has instant coverage of this attack on whatever there is left of union democracy.

Proof of the Rouge Forum thesis that educators are uniquely positioned to fight for equality, democracy, and freedom, is the exemplary action of Tijuana teachers last week, fighting for pensions, but also on the side of their kids. They shut down the US border at San Ysidro with a mass demonstration. Here is one video of many.

We can learn to search out our own choke points of power in our own cities, learn how to do power analysis that give greater meaning to our actions. In San Diego, we have been working on that.

In San Diego, the superintendent of schools took a week and devoted it to a Support the Troops Surge in which teachers were directed to have even elementary kids fill out cards (carrying ads of war profiteers like Xerox) to mail to troops. Teachers were directed to lead demonstrations and ice cream socials in support of militarism, etc. Thousands of cards found their way to Rouge Forum members, but next time we will expand our activities. If you’re in an area where similar things are planned, please contact me and we can work on flyers, etc.

Jonathan Kozol was once seen as a resister. Now he’s asking school workers to be subversive. What that is, is not entirely clear, But we need to get beyond Kozol and seek a real plan of action in schools and communities. To that end, Indymedia recently published an analysis of Kozol’s work.

Remember, the Rouge Forum will have a considerable presence at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference in San Diego, November 28 to December 2nd. Of special interest is a Border Tour of San Diego. We will have limited seating for this tour, so please sign on early. It will be a good time to learn about the social relations that set up life in So-Cal, and to get together with like-minded people before the convention begins. This tour is going to be terrific.

And save the date for the Rouge Forum Conference in Louisville, March 14 to March 16, 2008.

Here is a link to our flyer on the REAL Labor Day

Wayne and I have a new book, Neoliberalism and Education Reform, just out from Hampton Press.

Check the Rouge Forum Art by Colin Ross.

Thanks to Gil, Amber, Erin, Beau, Ssg. Lloyd, Sean, Wayne, Bill and Marty, Greg and Katie, Ann W., Sally, Perry, Steve, Dave, Marc, Curry, Sandy, Suber, Bob, Melissa and Josh (how is the baby?), Justin, Richie G., Boots, Judy D, David, Sharon A, Lucille K and Lucy W., Alcorn, and Llona.

All the best in the new school year,

r

Follow

Dear Friends,

Depending on where you are, tomorrow is V-J day, celebrating the fact that the mass of the world’s people rose up, made shocking sacrifices, and crushed fascism, if only temporarily. Today, little note of VJ day is taken in the corporate media, perhaps because so many prominent Nazis in Germany and fascists in Japan were restored to power or brought to the USA under Operation Paperclip. The efforts of these fascists reverberate even today as we witness the reemergence of fascism, in somewhat new forms. But VJ day is a reminder that fascism shall not prevail. What is fascism?

Back to School!

For those developing literacy syllabi, remember Patrick Shannon’s outstanding presentation at the last Rouge Forum conference in Detroit, Pedagogies of the Oppressors: Critical Literacies as Counter Narratives and also linked here.

And, for audio, check out Wayne Ross’ web site where, in collaboration with Michael Baker, he is now podcasting Michael’s radio show on education and schooling. Michael’s guests include Peter McLaren, Noam Chomsky, Rich Gibson, Nancy Patterson, Prentice Chandler, and many others discussing education and schooling from a perspective that is rarely heard on the airwaves.

Visit the web site and click on “Room 101” in the menu. You can listen and subscribe to the podcasts from the site. The podcasts are also available free on iTunes. More information on the podcast and links are available here.

For those interested in the ongoing debates about how resistance can be built against war, militarism, and the enslavement of education in History circles, here is a note to the Historians Against the War, where I serve on the Steering Committee, urging openness, organization, and ethics as central to the project.

From September 7 to 19, my friend and longtime union organizer, Bob Apter, and I will be touring California, starting out from San Diego. We would like to meet with educators, students, parents, community organizers, who are interested in exploring ideas and action about schools and the wars, as well as those who are just concerned with the way teachers and kids are getting treated in an increasingly regimented environment. How are you keeping your ideals, and still teaching?

As much as anything, we want to listen to people, to learn what new teachers are hoping for, and what more experienced education workers see has changed—and what can be done. We want to meet with school retirees who can lend long-term perspectives. We also hope to connect with other anti-war coalition members along the way, to see how the work is going in other areas of the state, or around the US, so we can learn from one another.

We hope to connect with Susan Harman in mid-tour and go on to travel Northern California with her in the latter half of the trip.

In San Diego, Rouge Forum members have worked with the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice in developing a coherent strategic plan for the year, focused on schools, the wars, and broadening the base of existing progressive groups. We started with an analysis of the particular condition in San Diego, using this as a template.

Every community is different, but the questions posed can be used anywhere.

Remember, the Rouge Forum will have a considerable presence at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference in San Diego, November 28 to December 2nd. Of special interest is a Border Tour of San Diego. We will have limited seating for this tour, so please sign on early. It will be a good time to learn about the social relations that set up life in So-Cal, and to get together with like-minded people before the convention begins. This tour is going to be terrific.

And, not for the kiddies, here is George Carlin answering the critical question: why have school?

Last, internationally known marxist scholar, Dave Hill, wants a new position. Here is his vita. Dave has earned the right to a good spot. Let’s see if we can help Dave land a great job.

Happy New School year. Remember to tell the kids: We can understand and change the world. We do not have to be missionaries for capitalism.

best, r

Follow

Dear Friends,

Remember the dates: November 29 to December 2 the Rouge Forum will gather at the National Council For Social Studies conference in San Diego. We have presentations scheduled, as well as a tour of San Diego and a social event. We need ideas for resolutions to bring to NCSS and the College and University Faculty Association–as well as writers for the resolutions. More, we hope many social studies school workers will join us in an anti-war demonstration during the conference.

Mark calendars for the Rouge Forum Conference, Louisville, March 14, 15, 16, 2008.

We will need to do some fundraising for these efforts. The Rouge Forum has served for a decade as a beacon for liberals, radicals, and the left in education. Only the Rouge Forum has consistently connected curricula regimentation, high stakes exams, and imperialism, racism, and war. We’ve proved our mettle. Part of activism is helping pay the way. Ideas on fundraising are always appreciated. As one RF member said some time ago, “the way you get money sets the tone of what you are and will be.” Right now, we don’t have any.

The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil page is updated. It holds new articles from Alex Cockburn, Chalmers Johnson, Sean Ahern, and others. Those spiffy Rouge Forum “US Get Out of the Middle East,” posters are still on sale, good for the rest of your life. Great for the upcoming round of demonstrations.

This week we feature two brief videos, one suggested by Susan Ohanian who plays a key role in the effort to eradicate the NCLB, curricula regimentation for endless war, and high-stakes testing.

That short cartoon is also linked to Susan’s web site.

Secondly, here is a link to Alternate Focus, an independent not-for-profit film group that produced, among others, the video, Bases Are Loaded, demonstrating that the massive buildup of US bases in Iraq is yet another piece of evidence that the US military is not going to leave Iraq, but plans a long-term occupation to control the oil fields, and the region. The online version of this film is like a Cliff’s Notes of the longer version.

Our friend and colleague Alfie Kohn has an excellent piece on standarization in schools, here.

Here are friends of the Rouge Forum acting to restrict military access to schooling, not in Oakland CA, but militarized Florida:

We note the House, controlled by Dems House Authorized the Expanded Illegal Surveillance Program.

As some people know, I am on the Steering Committee of the Historians Against the War. Here is a link to a piece I wrote in response to criticism from some members of the list who suggested that it is, to say the least, unacceptable, to note that the United For Peace and Justice Coalition is a funnel for the Democratic Party, that UFPJ fears talk of capitalism, exploitation, imperialism, and base-building for radical social change.

We urge everyone to participate in the day to day base-building that makes a movement possible, to battle the racism and sexism that poisoned past movements, and to join in the coordinated upcoming events like teachins, demonstrations, and direct action against the empire’s endless wars.

Thanks to Amber, Erin, Beau, Monty, Suber, Dave H, Joe B, Bob A, Susan H, Kerry N, Sharon Ago…., Della R, Candace, Cheri, Ken, Barb, Carol J, Sean, Gil G, Big Al, happily married still, and Wayne. Bon Voyage to Doug, now on the road to power in the vast northeast.

best r

Follow

Detroit burns, 1967

Dear Friends,

Remember to mark calendars for the Rouge Forum Conference, Louisville, March 14, 15, 16, 2008.

The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil page is updated.

Of special interest is organizer Tom Suber’s critical report to the Rouge Forum from the UFPJ conference in Chicago.

We salute the school workers of Peru who, with their militant actions against anti-working class high-stakes exams, sparked a general strike that lasted 15 days, demonstrating the Rouge Forum thesis that education workers are centripetally positioned to initiate resistance, if not carry it through to peace with justice.

George and Sharon Schmidt, editors of Substance News from Chicago, the hard-copy media of the education resistance, offer a free three month subscription to Rouge Forum readers. You can email your request to Substance at Csubstance@aol.com. You may be asked to verify that you are on the Rouge Forum list (in order to ward off spammers, etc).

Two historical notes:

1. Today is the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion, a massive urban uprising, commonly posed today as a riot. While the rebellion was spontaneous, an insurrection, it was hardly a riot. A massive outpouring of armed resistance to racist exploitation and, especially, police repression fought the US military apparatus (including the 82 Airborne) for five days, finally meeting defeat. Surely, more than 43 died (working in Receiving Hospital as a volunteer, I lost count of the bodies). John Hershey’s “Algiers Motel Incident,” demonstrates the kind of brutality that typified the police. Following the uprising, thousands of jobs were opened to black people, transportation was offered (even to the suburbs), welfare rules eased; the carrot replaced the stick, for awhile. NPR has a review of the time at here.

And the Detroit News here.

Detroit today is a dying ghetto (lost 1.2 million residents, the mayor boasts of how many empty homes he can bulldoze each year, not one major grocery store in the city) being killed off by racism. Its schools, lynchpin of any possible recovery, teeter on the brink of complete collapse. The rebellion only speeded decay that had gone on for years. For a fine reprise of the city, see Mirel’s, Rise and Fall of an Urban School System. Detroit may well be the future.

2. Today is also the 35th anniversary of the passage of Title Nine, which opened school sports to women and altered the landscape of the US in innumerable ways.

With great sorrow, we recognize the death of Michigan’s Rabbi Sherwin Wine, humanist and early supporter of the Rouge Forum. His was a life lived with courage and meaning.

Watch for upcoming notices of the Rouge Forum San Diego Film series (suggestions for films happily accepted).

All the best,
r

Follow