E Wayne Ross

Dear Friends,

Are you going to the National Council for the Social Studies conference in Houston? If so, please let Adam Renner know (see the announcement below). We will arrange a meeting and social event in Houston. Plus, Rouge Forum Steering Committee member Greg Queen will be getting the academic freedom award! Come to his presentation on Saturday.

Remember the Rouge Forum Conference, the weekend of May 15 at Eastern Michigan University. The call for papers is coming soon.

This week, educators in France led mass demonstrations against the attacks on their jobs. Here is one of many videos. This is what could be done, but it will have to be done by shoving aside the leadership of both school workers’ unions.

A second survey of all the major US unions web sites shows that none of them, but the American Federation of Teachers, has anything at all to say about the massive $700 billion bailout to the banksters. None but the AFT even discusses the growing financial collapse. The AFT supported the bailout.

Job losses in the US for October are projected to be above 200,000, meaning it will be possible that a million people will have lost jobs in 2008. Couple that with the eroding tax base from foreclosures, the existing state budget shortfalls, corporate debacles like the Big Three (maybe Two or One), and it is easy to foresee demands for concessions and cutbacks from education workers; reviving our old chant: When they say cutback, We say Fightback! Part of our task is to make sense of the resistance that invariably will build, connecting reason to power.

In Puerto Rico, school workers voted down a raid by company union organized by the corrupt Andy Stern’s Service Employees International Union by about 18,000 to 15,000 with more than 90 percent of the educators voting. The teachers were banned from voting for the union, FMPR that had led their mass strike earlier in the year. Stern had joined with the governor of Puerto Rico to create yet another dues funnel for SEIU. Stern models SEIU’s structure after General Motors, today an apparently poor choice.

In Mexico, education workers in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Morelos lead school/community struggles for equality and freedom. Now, they are crossing old borders and joining each others’ struggles, brushing aside the union leaders they know always sell them out.

In China, in 2006, there were ninety thousand demonstrations involving 100 people or more, against the government’s “reforms.”

Italy (from Humanite): “Tens of thousands of university and high school students, primary and university teachers, researchers and parents are now organizing daily demonstrations and sit-ins throughout the country, from Milan to Rome to Naples, to protest against the budget cuts in education programmed for the coming years…..The cuts are part of a vast set of measures aimed at cutting government expenses. The three main trade union confederations have called for a general strike in the public schools on October 30 to denounce the return to a single course of studies in primary school, and a general strike in higher education on November 14. Hot, hot, the Italian Autumn is hot!”

This is the Ed Week Blog on the sideshow debate about education between the two major candidates’ ed advisors.

As a follow up to our recent Steering Committee meeting, we have asked Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.edu) to be our Rouge Forum Community Coordinator. He will take on the very ambitious tasks listed below. With Joe Bishop having given us a real chance to move ahead with EMU conference announcements, etc., it seems this structural step forward is timely and appropriate.

Of course, we want your ideas . So, please let Adam and me know what you think.

The RFCC would: coordinate the leaders of the various work groups:

(1) myspace (or is it Facebook now?) page;
(2) annual Rouge Forum conference (this work group leader will change annually based on where the conference is held);
(3) online teacher certification program (Joe C);
(4) curriculum development (Doug S.);
(5) conference committees like NCSS, etc., and
(6) finance (Rich and Wayne?);

And coordinate the work of the regional chapters of the RF (northeast, midwest, south, west)–connecting national to local action, prepping regional chapters for presentations at annual conference, working on grass roots organizing, etc. ; coordinate the production and dissemination of a regular 4 page mailer of RF work, action, theory, curriculum, etc. (This will take some doing and probably $, but a regular hard copy of something coming out of the RF is critical). Seek connections/partnerships with parallel people/organizations. And provide info for the regular RF updates (updates on conference, updates on regional chapter work, updates to myspace, etc.)

The main work of the RFCC, with all of this said, is connecting/coordinating people with info and action–being a little more deliberate about implementing the aims of the RF and helping people find their place in this one organization poised to say and do anything about the current debacles, particularly, and capitalism, generally.

Thanks to Ginger, Perry, Adam and Gina, Cloe, Amber, Donna, Betty, Kathy K., Gil, Dirty Edd, Linda R., Joe B and C, Greg and Katie, Beau, Wayne, Jane P, Bob and Tommie Lee, GF, Andy, Chuck R., Alan, and Weird Eric.

best, r

Dear Friends,

Remember to mark you calendars: the weekend of May 15th, the Rouge Forum Conference at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

What with wars and economic collapse in the forefront of American minds, it seems the hot education debate is vanished. Perhaps for good reason as the major party candidates agree on the crux of NCLB, merit pay, the expansion of charters, the heroification of Teach For America’s drive-by projects in poor neighborhoods, and they must be clear on what will be the school budget impact of the financial firestorms.

Depending on where you live, PBS and NPR plan discussions between McCain and Obama surrogates, but really, what can be said to demonstrate passionate disagreement? Not much. Here is Fairtest’s examination of the candidates positions.

Having surveyed the web sites of the major unions in the US, only one has anything to say about the bankster bailout—the American Federation of Teachers, in support of it. The rest are pouring millions of dollars into the Obama campaign.

Why would the huge National Education Association and AFT shower Obama with member cash when his fundraising is already over the top, $150 million in September, within a billion dollar electoral spectacle? In the case of NEA, it’s dues income and jobs. The early childhood education centers Obama may set up will be contested terrain for NEA, but rumor has it that Reg Weaver, outgoing NEA president, is lined up for an administration job in that field.

Meanwhile, the tyranny deepens as banksters, AIG bailout recipients, go partridge hunting on taxpayers’ nickels
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/10/14/2008-10-14_aigs_lords_and_lady_of_the_hunt_may_find.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19dowd.html?ei=5070
(Defarge was right).

Those who were born with the least capital will get hurt first and worst in these crises. And the wisdom they display will often be exemplary, a lesson for us all. Right now, people in Morelos Mexico (named for the revolutionary) are battling the police and the military. They are led by teachers and other school workers who are demanding an end to school privatization, a project of the “Alliance for Quality Education,: which also seeks to demolish teacher benefits won over decades. The fight has gone on for more than two months, demonstrating that educators are centripetally positioned to initiate social change. The Morelos fighters were recently joined by comreades from Oaxaca—a learning from all; one lesson being that their top union leadership consistently betrays them. The Morelos educators are good examples of people connecting reason to power, with solidarity. Here is one of many links on Morelos.

Thanks to Gil, Amber, Gina and Adam, Sandy. Bill and Bill, Greg and Katie, Melissa, Nancy, Bonnie, Sarah, Giselle, Eva, Lisa, Liz, Betty, Gloria and the Michigan gang, Kim, Bob, Dirty Edd, Pete, Dave, George and family, Wayne, and Sue. H.

All the best

r

Dear Friends,

Perhaps the most auspicious event of October: the birth of Hurricane Ian Boyer whose eyes might see into the 22nd century. Congratulations to the entire Boyer family who showed there is no room for the failed system of capital, and Ian, on the same planet.

Here is Karl Marx himself, who, when every capitalist economist has to admit, “everything we knew for certain was wrong,” and when so many capitalist economists are proclaiming, “This is socialism,” when in fact it is national socialism, deserves more than a nod:

From Marx, Kapital vol 3, chapter 30 [the words New York and Federal Reserve added]:

“In a system…where the entire continuity of the…process rests upon credit, a crisis must obviously occur — a tremendous rush for means of payment — when credit suddenly ceases and only cash payments have validity. At first glance, therefore, the whole crisis seems to be merely a credit and money crisis. And in fact it is only a question of the convertibility of bills of exchange into money. But the majority of these bills represent actual sales and purchases, whose extension far beyond the needs of society is, after all, the basis of the whole crisis. At the same time, an enormous quantity of these bills of exchange represents plain swindle, which now reaches the light of day and collapses; furthermore, unsuccessful speculation with the capital of other people; finally, commodity-capital which has depreciated or is completely unsaleable, or returns that can never more be realized again. The entire artificial system of forced expansion of the [ecomony] cannot, of course, be remedied by having some bank, like the [FederalReserve], give to all the swindlers the deficient capital by means of its paper and having it buy up all the depreciated commodities at their old nominal values. Incidentally, everything here appears distorted, since in this paper world, the real price and its real basis appear nowhere, but only bullion, metal coin, notes, bills of exchange, securities. Particularly in centers where the entire money business of the country is concentrated, like London [or New York]…the entire process becomes incomprehensible.”

In our current circumstances, education workers who are the most organized workers in the US, who sit in the centripetal point of social and economic life for most people in this society, schools, who look out at about 50 million students (1/2 of them draft eligible in the next three years), who are among the last working people in the US who have fairly predictable employment (granted, there are thousands of layoffs), health benefits, and wages, who set up the vision of how and why the world works for kids—education workers may well be the next target for elites. Merit pay tied to test scores, more regimented curricula, what will likely be booming class size, more militarization of working class schools will mean not merely reaction, but resistance as school workers like other workers before us will have to fight to live.

At issue will be whether or not the Rouge Forum can take the lead to make sense of why these struggles must occur, whether the resistance can be girded by solidarity or whether we will be unable to convince people of the truth of the old labor saw, “An injury to one goes before an injury to all,” and whether or not we will be able to link the fight in schools to the fight against the system of capital itself.

In a Detroit suburb, Westland, teachers went on strike from Monday to Thursday last week. Teachers rarely want to strike. Nearly all teacher strikes are illegal (though the only illegal strike is a strike that fails). But the Westland teachers struck to save their health benefits and for class size caps (class size in Westland is far over the top). Those two demands tied the teachers, students, and parents together.

When a judge ordered the teachers back to work on Friday, they chose to return–against our advice. But on Friday, the students struck the school system on their own, with parental support—more than 200 students staying out. We can learn from this all these lessons and one more—the great potential of Freedom Schools, built on real issues outside the atmosphere of fear and coercion inside most schools. The student strike continues on Monday.

In the state of Morelos, Mexico, school workers entered there 48th day of a strike against both their employers, demanding that the educators concede all job security, and their union bosses, who demand the teachers cave. The school workers set up their own, separate, organization to lead the strike which is supported by students and most parents. Morelos educators were joined by teachers from Oaxaca who arrived with considerable experience about union leaders’ betrayals from their 2006 massive strikes.

On Saturday, the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice held a teachin with plenary sessions led by Marjorie Cohen, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Mike Davis and others. It brought together high school students fighting JROTC, Vietnam vets, peace activists, teachers, university students, Rouge Forum members, and community leaders. Despite considerable effort, the entire local press blacked out any coverage of the event.

A month ago a serious discussion about the system of capital would have been actively opposed by many of the leaders of the group. But in this meeting, Capitalism was put on trial by nearly everyone (but for four Navy spies who were sent to watch and disrupt). This is one short speech on the Political Economy of Capitalism and the Emergence of Fascism.

Here is Monthly Review’s John Bellamy Foster: Can the Financial Crisis be Reversed?

Thanks to Joe B, Gil G, Bob A, Amber, Tommie, Wayne, Adam and Gina, Greg and Katie and the girls, Bertell, Roxanne D. O., Tina S, Chandra, Sandy and Van, Colleen, Chantelle, Nancy, Beau, Roxie, Candace, and congratulations to the about to be Mom who shall remain anon.

All the best,

r

Dear Friends,

The Rouge Forum Conference, 2009, will be at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti the weekend of May 15. Please begin to plan accordingly, prepare workshops, set up travel, etc. It appears we will have quite a few low cost dorm rooms available. EMU is close to Detroit Metro Airport. Thanks to Joe Bishop for his great work on this conference already.

As we suggested two years ago in considerable specificity, finance capital trumped itself while overproduction and de-industrialization sabotaged the North American work force with plenty of help from liberals, conservatives, union leaders, post-modernists, the profit-media, and many people who, in the last 15 years, refused to use the terms: Capitalism, Imperialism, Crises, Collapse, and Class War–and worse, attacked those who advanced those ideas.

The bi-partisan $700 million robbery last week was a clear instance of, not just class rule, but the domination of capital itself, the giant sucking pump of profits, over whatever anyone thought of as capitalist democracy, which bears as strong a relationship to democracy that the Pope does to “do unto others.” Surely, if reality has any connection to reason, many people can see the government is an executive committee and armed weapon of the rich. Inside, they work out their differences, then let us choose who will oppress us best.

The economic crisis is, in part, summed up in Monthly Review, here and here is a shorter piece from the Globe and Mail: “The end of the American order”
The debilitating credit crisis has knocked the U.S. from its perch as the supreme economic power. The climb back up will be steep.

What is next? Hard to predict as if a dozen cue balls were driven into a hundred racks, the only guarantee that no balls could stop. The crashing will continue. Good bet over time: Steep inflation (war costs plus minted money for bailouts) and a ferocious attack on working people to pay for it. Teachers are likely to be next in line.

But it is not merely an economic crisis. It will result in a terrible extension of tyranny into every aspect of life. It is not a dime that people will fight and die for, but social justice, summed up in the movements of history as: Equality and Freedom! It is the tyranny of daily life that prompts upheavals for social change. Again, here is a classroom exercise on the historical critique of tyranny.

When ruling class commentators come on “Marketplace” on National Public Radio (bossed by the hustler who ran Radio Free Europe) and announce that nobody trusts the government, everyone is outraged at the Wall Street bailout, and that the politicians are “pygmies,” who cannot get anything right, when the PBS economist Solomon admits, “everything my colleagues and I knew was wrong,” (but cannot bring himself to say, “Marx was right”), and he goes further to say, “this is socialism,” but cannot be clear and say: National Socialism; then we know something profound is afoot.

But there is no Left (yet) over any size that is able to conduct Grand Strategy, Strategy, and Tactics in order to face down the system of capital and its personifications. In education in North America and much of the world, the only Left is the Rouge Forum.

The anti-war left in the US managed to take a movement that quickly put a million people on the streets six years ago, to one that cannot put a hundred thousand people out now–and in the interim taught people nothing important (those responsible? United for Peace and Justice, above all–here is our analysis from a year ago, by Tom Suber: http://richgibson.com/wheremovement.htm ).

The education resistance movement has been largely derailed by those who want to disconnect education from social crisis, or who want to teach their way out of capitalism. This is how we sought to set that right: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~rgibson/TestingSchoolReformDebate.htm

So, we head into what may well be a very dark era. Still, the few cannot rule the many without considerable consent won, admittedly, through fear and bribes, but consent that has to be disconnected from reason. Our project remains: Connect reason to power.

Part of that is recognizing good work. Here is Jeffrey Perry: The biography, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918, by Jeffrey B. Perry, is being published by Columbia University Press and is scheduled to be in bookstores by November/December 2008.

And Monthly Review on the deepening crises in education.

The Rouge Forum Steering Committee is working on several projects: A MySpace Page, a Teacher Certification Program, our conference, and more avenues for publication (remember to subscribe to Substance, the hard copy voice of education resistance in the US). If you want to help, let us know and we will set you up with the work group leaders. Suggestions for projects always welcome.

As things stand today, we have about 4600 people on our email list. All volunteers. Will you share some of the Rouge Forum’s thoughts with friends and ask them to sign on?

For some cheer, here is Professor Louis’ rap on Corporate Power!

Thanks to Joe B, Amber, Adam and Gina, Wayne, Paul and Mary, Joe L, Katie and G, Sue H, Teeyah and Moshe, Bob and Tommie, Joe C, Bill of OP, Donna, Candy, Carol O, Agopian, Dan, Melissa and Josh, Isiah, Jules, Breisach, and Weird Eric.

Down the banks!
Up the Rebels????
All the best

r