"I Participate, You Participate, We Participate ... They Profit," Notes on Revolutionary Educational Activism to Transcend Capital: The Rouge ForumRouge Forum Art by Colin Ross
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. We hope to demonstrate that the power necessary to win greater democracy will likely rise out of an organization that unites people in new ways--across union boundaries, across community lines, across the fences of race and sex/gender. We believe that good humor and friendships are a vital part of building this kind of organization, as important as theoretical clarity. Friendships allow us to understand that action always reveals errors--the key way we learn. We chose Brer Rabbit as a symbol to underline the good cheer that rightfully guides the struggle for justice. Every part of the world is our briar patch. We had modest success in defeating
the standardized test, the MEAP, in Michigan. We work in faculty
organizations and unions to deal with the racism and sexism in
academia. We try to press forward questions of class size, curricular
freedom, anti-racist pedagogy, real inclusion, and a just tax system.
As part of the Whole Schooling Consortium, we have
sponsored forums in the U.S., uniting hundreds of people for democracy
and equality. Visit http://richgibson.com/rouge_forum/ for updates |
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