{"id":10111,"date":"2013-03-23T20:47:53","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T04:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=10111"},"modified":"2013-03-23T20:57:24","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T04:57:24","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-spring-fighting-season-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-spring-fighting-season-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Spring Fighting Season Edition!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fight Back!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I can have no other notion of all the Governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who on pretence of managing the public only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without danger, preserve all thast they have so ill acquired, and then that they may engage the poor to toil\u2026for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please.<\/em>
\nFrom Thomas More\u2019s Utopia, 1516. <\/strong>saveourcola.wordpress.com\/<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

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iuonstrike.tumblr.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Failure of Capitalist Production: Underlying Causes of the Great Recession
\nby Andrew Kliman<\/strong> Synopsis<\/p>\n

Chapter 1: Introduction.
\nChapter 2: Sets out the theoretical framework that underlies the empirical analyses that follow. It discusses key components of Marx\u2019s theory of crisis\u2013\u2013the tendential fall in the rate of profit, the operation of credit markets, and the destruction of capital value through crises\u2013\u2013and how they can help account for the latest crisis and Great Recession.
\nChapter 3: Discusses the formation and bursting of the home-price bubble in the U.S., and the Panic of 2008 that resulted. It then discusses how Federal Reserve policy contributed to the formation of the bubble, arguing that the Fed wanted to prevent the United States from going the way of Japan. After Japan\u2019s real-estate and stock-market bubbles burst at the start of the 1990s, it suffered a \u201clost decade,\u201d and the Fed wanted to make sure that the bursting of the U.S. stock-market bubble of the 1990s did not have similar consequences. The latest crisis was therefore not caused only by problems in the financial and housing sectors. As far back as 2001, underlying weaknesses had brought the U.S. economy to the point where a stock-market crash could have led to long-term stagnation.
\nChapter 4: Examines a variety of global and U.S. economic data and argues that they indicate that the economy never fully recovered from the recession of the 1970s. Because the slowdown in economic growth, sluggishness in the labor market, increase in borrowing relative to income, and other problems began in the 1970s or earlier, prior to the rise of neoliberalism, they are not attributable to neoliberal policies.
\nChapter 5: Shows that U.S. corporations\u2019 rate of profit did not rebound after the early 1980s. It also shows that the persistent fall in the rate of profit\u2013\u2013rather than a shift from productive investment to portfolio investment\u2013\u2013accounts for the persistent fall in the rate of accumulation. (more<\/strong> www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org\/economic-crisis\/new-book-the-failure-of-capitalist-production.html<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Gitmo Hunger Strike <\/strong>A mass hunger strike has been unfolding in the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison for nearly six weeks. RT has been badgering the UN, prison officials, detainees\u2019 attorneys and activists to get a full account of the situation.
\nMarch 22
\nThe number of Guantanamo Bay detainees on hunger strike has increased to 26, up one from the previous day, Guantanamo Bay spokesman Capt. Robert Durand told RT via email on Friday following a written request.
\n\u201cAs of Friday, 22 March 2013, we have 26 hunger strikers, with 8 receiving enteral feeds. This an increase from Thursday, which was 25\/8. Tuesday and Wednesday, it was the 24\/8, Monday, 21\/8, and Friday, 14\/8.
\nWe have two detainees in the detainee hospital for rehydration and observation, on enteral feed. We have two other detainee in the detainee hospital for non-hunger strike, non-life threatening treatment,\u201d Durand said. \u00a0 rt.com\/news\/guantanamo-bay-hunger-strike-399\/<\/a><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LWoOMP6C7Vc<\/a><\/p>\n

Demonstrators Attack Muslim Bros Offices In Egypt <\/strong>Egyptian protesters have ransacked an office of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party in the northern coastal city of Alexandria.
\nIt was the second such attack on an office of the Islamist group on Friday. The first was in the Cairo neighborhood of Manial.
\nBoth attacks happened as opponents and supporters of the Brotherhood clashed near the group’s headquarters in Cairo.
\nAn Associated Press cameraman saw protesters attack the office in Alexandria, leaving with computers, files and other objects. The attack took place near the site where unknown assailants fought protesters demanding the resignation of President Mohammed Morsi, who is a member of the party.
\nBrotherhood offices came under attack across Egypt last December.
\nThe group has characterized the assailants as “thugs” and “counter-revolutionaries” seeking to oust the democratically elected leader. english.ahram.org.eg\/NewsContent\/1\/64\/67484\/Egypt\/Politics-\/Egypt-protesters-storm-Muslim-Brotherhoods-Alexand.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago Fights School Closings–but to save capitalist schooling? Better a class conscious movement to Rescue Education from the Ruling Classes: <\/strong> I don\u2019t see any Caucasians being moved, bussed, or murdered in the streets as they travel along gang lines, or stand on the steps of a CPS school,\u201d said activist Wendy Matil Pearson as opponents of the school closing plans protested outside Horatio May Elementary Community Academy in the Austin neighborhood. \u00a0http:\/\/chicago.cbslocal.com\/2013\/03\/22\/school-closing-opponents-call-mayor-a-racist-liar\/<\/p>\n

The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/span><\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n

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There is a link between the state and the interests of capitalists. …The state, especially in organizing and directing the educational system, trains bureaucrats, technicians, executives and workers for the economy…the state’s educational system does not merely train personnel in the skills required for production. The ideological structure necesssary to maintain the hierarchy and absolutism of factories, businesses, and banks, is part of the state’s educational curriculum. ..the state socializes the population into an ideology that makes the existing class structure, the distribution of wealth and political power, wholly legitimate. (Gil Gonzalex, Progressive Education. p13)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Council On Foreign Relations’ (and War-Whore Rice) Issue Task Force Report: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda (class war and imperialist war) <\/strong>The United States’ failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country’s ability to thrive in a global economy and maintain its leadership role, finds a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)\u2013sponsored Independent Task Force report on U.S. Education Reform and National Security.<\/strong>
\n“Educational failure puts the United States’ future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk,” warns the Task Force, chaired by Joel I. Klein, former head of New York City public schools, and Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. secretary of state. The country “will not be able to keep pace\u2014much less lead\u2014globally unless it moves to fix the problems it has allowed to fester for too long,” argues the Task Force. \u00a0The lack of preparedness poses threats on five national security fronts<\/strong>: economic growth and competitiveness, physical safety, intellectual property, U.S. global awareness, and U.S. unity and cohesion, says the report. Too many young people are not employable in an increasingly high-skilled and global economy, and too many are not qualified to join the military because they are physically unfit, have criminal records, or have an inadequate level of education.<\/p>\n

“Human capital <\/strong>will determine power in the current century, and the failure to produce that capital will undermine America’s security,” the report states. “Large, undereducated swaths of the population damage the ability of the United States to physically defend itself, protect its secure information, conduct diplomacy, and grow its economy.”<\/p>\n

The Task Force proposes three overarching policy recommendations:<\/strong>
\nImplement educational expectations and assessments in subjects vital to protecting national security. <\/em><\/strong>“With the support of the federal government and industry partners, states should expand the Common Core State Standards, ensuring that students are mastering the skills and knowledge necessary to safeguard the country’s national security.”
\nMake structural changes to provide students with good choices. <\/em><\/strong>
\n“Enhanced choice and competition, in an environment of equitable resource allocation, will fuel the innovation necessary to transform results.”
\nLaunch a “national security readiness audit” <\/em><\/strong>to hold schools and policymakers accountable for results and to raise public awareness. “There should be a coordinated, national effort to assess whether students are learning the skills and knowledge necessary to safeguard America’s future security and prosperity. The results should be publicized to engage the American people in addressing problems and building on successes.”<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud,\u201d warned Condoleezza Rice, President Bush\u2019s national security advisor. In the long war that followed, more than 4,000 U.S. troops were killed, but not a single \u201cnuke\u201d was ever uncovered. (above, with pal Ghaddaffi) <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

NEA’s New Poster Boy and A Vacillating Reactionary Front for NEA’s Counterfeit Education Resistance <\/strong> The Network for Public Education<\/a>, a new volunteer organization formed by Diane Ravitch, Anthony Cody, and other education experts, plans to use grassroots advocacy to defend public education from a wide range of well-financed threats.\u00a0 Ravitch told<\/a> the New York Times<\/em> that the Network is calling for “broad-minded public school curriculums that included arts, sciences, foreign languages and physical education; better financing for schools; more respect for teachers; and the ‘appropriate use of testing to help students and teachers, not to punish or reward students, teachers, principals, or to close schools’.”\u00a0 According to the Network’s Web site, the group will also support candidates who “oppose high-stakes testing, mass school closures, the privatization of our public schools and the outsourcing of its core functions to for-profit corporations.” Issue #158 – March 22, 2013<\/span> NEA ESEA UPDATE<\/p>\n

Killing Ethnic Studies in Tx <\/strong>when Patrick’s bill \u2014 along with companion House Bill 1938 from Republican state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione \u2014 is heard and amended, it’s likely to morph into what its authors truly intended: an attack against ethnic studies, including Mexican American Studies, African American Studies and other programs developed in the last half-century to fill in the blank spaces left by Eurocentric scholarship.
\nRead more: www.mysanantonio.com\/news\/local_news\/article\/Ayala-Legislation-takes-aim-at-future-of-ethnic-4362237.php#ixzz2OF1z6hyP<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

After the San Diego EA Made big Concessions—and an Untested Superintendent is hired with an 8% raise ($255 thou) over the last boss—<\/strong>a School Worker Writes <\/strong>I think these raises that these Central Office administrators are receiving are disgusting and shameful. On Sunday, 3\/10\/13 the Union-Tribune reported that Deputy General Counsel received a $60,000 raise. Stan Dobbs (Mr. \u201cteachers make $92,000\u2033) makes a base salary lf $173,000 \u2013 12% higher than the person who had that position. Today I received word from my principal
\nthat I am in excess from my school because the District is raising class size to 24-27 students per class (K-3). We are constantly beat over the head with how much the District spends on \u201cteacher\u201d salaries\u2026what about administrator salaries????
\nBefore the election and passing of Prop 30, all we heard was that the District needed this extra money to help solve its budget problems, yet what do they do with the money, but give exorbitant raises. \u00a0http:\/\/thebreakfastclubsandiego.wordpress.com\/2013\/03\/18\/new-sdusd-board-approves-7-8-raise\/#comments<\/p>\n

Michigan and More–So Long foreign language instruction <\/strong>Even as foreign language immersion grows in Metro Detroit, districts around the country are dropping foreign language classes, mostly in rural and poor areas, according to a nationwide survey by the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C.
\nDistricts scaling back foreign language offerings include Warren Consolidated Schools, which traditionally taught French, German and Spanish. Now it offers only Spanish.
\n“The number of students who selected French or German in ninth grade to begin their two-year world language requirement dropped significantly,” said chief academic officer Brian J. Walmsley. “Although we do not offer French and German, we do offer students the opportunity to take these courses through dual enrollment options.”
\nForeign language studies could be de-emphasized statewide by a bill that would drop it as a high school graduation requirement. \u00a0From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com\/article\/20130318\/SCHOOLS\/303180344#ixzz2OKsJFC43<\/a><\/p>\n

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/span><\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Lone British Soldier, of 16,500, who made it from Kabul to Jalalabad in the Afghan war of \u00a01842. Empires cannot learn.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Perseus wore a magic cap that the monsters he hunted down might not see him.
\nWe draw the magic cap down over eyes and ears as a make-believe that there are no monsters.” Marx<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“Americans know so little history they cannot connect cause and effect.” Chalmers Johnson. And hence, Americans cannot link German V1 Rockets and Hellbound Drones. <\/strong> <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n