{"id":21901,"date":"2018-08-25T23:38:53","date_gmt":"2018-08-26T07:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=21901"},"modified":"2018-08-26T02:04:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-26T10:04:14","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-almost-back-to-school-while-pence-lurks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-almost-back-to-school-while-pence-lurks\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Almost back to school! While Pence Lurks…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Prisoners nationwide go on strike to protest ‘modern-day slavery’<\/h1>\n

\"Prison<\/a><\/p>\n

The event is spearheaded by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak<\/a>, a network of imprisoned prisoner rights advocates based out of Lee\u00a0Correctional Institution in South Carolina and supported by the\u00a0Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee<\/a> (IWOC), a prisoner-led trade group.<\/p>\n

Inmates plan to abstain from reporting to their assigned jobs, halt commissary spending, hold\u00a0peaceful sit-in protests and refuse to eat during the strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrisoner participation depends on their location and privilege status,\u201d said Amani Sawari, a prison reform activist\u00a0and spokesperson for the strike. \u201cIf inmates are working they can suffocate the prison industrial complex by reducing their spending. In some detention facilities, prisoners may not be working so they might do a sit-in. It all depends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The call for action comes as a response to a prison riot that took place in Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina in April of this year, resulting in the death of seven inmates and injuring of over a dozen others. Inmates posted videos on social media showing the aftermath at the budget-strapped prison.<\/p>\n

The prisoners released a list of 10 demands on the IWOC website that include, in part, the immediate improvement of prison policies, an increase in prisoner wages and rescinding laws that prevent imprisoned persons from having a chance at\u00a0parole. The inmates also call for more rehabilitation services and voting rights.<\/p>\n

Prisons in at least 17 states are expected to participate in the\u00a0protests, according to Sawari,\u00a0with a majority of them located in the South and West Coast.<\/p>\n

Highline teachers join list of districts ready to strike–all of Washington State?<\/h1>\n

\"Teachers<\/p>\n

Highline teachers joined a growing list of districts prepared to strike if new contract agreements are not reached before the start of the school year.<\/div>\n

It’s going to be an important couple of weeks as teachers unions and school districts statewide go to the negotiating table for new contracts. The crux of the debate is the McCleary decision and new funding.<\/p>\n

Back in 2012, the state Supreme Court ruled that Washington was not properly funding public schools, and the court ordered the legislature to come up with a solution. Two years later, the court found the legislature in contempt for failing to establish a plan. Then, this past June, the court found the state satisfied the conditions of the McCleary decision, triggering extra funding for districts.<\/p>\n

Highline Education Association said at least $2 billion of the new funding is for educators salaries, and teachers want what is fair and equitable.<\/p>\n

Highline Public Schools is scheduled to start on September 5.<\/p>\n

“It is a date that we expect to have an agreement, and if we can’t come to an agreement by that date then the membership may take action and that action might be a strike,” said Sue McCabe, Highline Education Association president.\u00a0 www.king5.com\/article\/news\/local\/highline-teachers-join-list-of-districts-ready-to-strike\/281-587124929<\/a><\/p>\n

Nation\u2019s Second-Largest Teacher Union Local Begins Strike Authorization Vote<\/h1>\n

\"Press<\/p>\n

WHO: United Teachers Los Angeles<\/strong>\u00a0represents more than 33,000\u00a0LAUSD educators, including teachers, librarians, counselors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, therapists, substitutes, early childhood and adult teachers. They have been working without a contract for over one year.\u00a0This strike authorization vote\u00a0will allow the UTLA Board of Directors to call for a strike if one becomes necessary. Voting results are expected Aug. 31.<\/p>\n

WHAT:<\/strong>\u00a0After 17 months of fruitless bargaining, the California Public Employment Relations Board has declared we are at impasse with LAUSD. As UTLA demands that\u00a0LAUSD stop stalling and get to mediation immediately, tens of thousands of LAUSD educators begin a strike authorization vote tomorrow that lasts through Aug. 30. UTLA has made it clear to LAUSD that we are ready and willing to meet for mediation on August 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, & 31.\u00a0However, Supt. Austin Beutner and the district have basically ignored their legal and moral obligation to participate and refused to meet until September 27.<\/strong>\u00a0Despite a\u00a0$1.7 billion<\/strong>\u00a0projected reserve, LAUSD refuses to make progress on key issues, including:<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Smaller class sizes<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fair pay raise<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0More nurses, counselors, psychologists, and librarians<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Less testing and more teaching<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Charter and co-location regulation<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Real support for school safety<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Community schools and support for families<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Greater stakeholder input to help magnet school conversions<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Expanded support for bilingual education<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Improved working conditions for early education and adult education teachers\u00a0 www.utla.net\/news\/tomorrow-nations-second-largest-teacher-union-local-begins-strike-authorization-vote<\/a><\/p>\n

www.facebook.com\/Wecareaboutstudents\/videos\/1421817331252013\/?t=33<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marxism and Education: Fragility, Crisis, Critique, Negativity, and Social Form(s)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glenn Rikowski<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Glenn<\/p>\n

Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK<\/em><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Twenty-one years ago, I wrote an article (Rikowski, 1997) that advocated a scorched earth policy for Marxist educational theory, and to start again from scratch after the conflagration. This paper begins such a rebuilding; only now do I feel able to begin the process, though my article\u00a0Education, Capital and the Transhuman<\/em>\u00a0(Rikowski, 1999; reprinted as Rikowski, 2002a) can be viewed as a prefigurative effort in this respect. In that article, I tried to condense many of my ideas on Marxism, education and labour-power into a text that provided a summary of critique and analysis of capitalist education that I had worked up over the previous 15 years, but it was not exactly the kind of article I had envisaged as a starting point for my work in 1997.\u00a0Education, Capital and the Transhuman<\/em>\u00a0was partly a reaction to the news, in 1998, that my father had cancer and I experienced a certain vulnerability and feelings of mortality that drove me to attempt to condense what I regarded as my key ideas on Marxism and education into a single article.<\/p>\n

Thus, belatedly getting back on track, the following basic questions seemed important to me in 1997 (and indeed many years before that): Why Marxism? Why Marxism and education, or Marxist educational theory? Through addressing these questions, it is proclaimed that the significance of Marxism as a radical science is that it intellectually disrupts and ruptures capitalist society and its educational forms.<\/p>\n

The paper rests substantially on the work of John Holloway, especially his early articles in\u00a0Common Sense: Journal of the Edinburgh Conference of Socialist Economists<\/em>, and\u00a0Capital & Class<\/em>. On this foundation, it is argued, firstly, that the importance of Marxism resides in its capacity to pinpoint fragilities and weaknesses in the constitution, development and rule of capital in contemporary society. Understanding these fragilities and weaknesses in the constitution of capital sharpens the critical edge of any movements aimed at social transformation out of the madhouse of capital. It is indicated how Marxist educational theory plays an important role in this enterprise. These points are illustrated through consideration of the following ideas and phenomena: fragility, crisis, critique, negativity and social form(s). It is argued that fragility must be the starting point as Marxism is primarily a theory of capitalist weaknesses, and not the opposite: a theory of capitalist domination. Following Holloway, Marxism is a theory\u00a0against society<\/em>, rather than just another theory\u00a0of<\/em>\u00a0society. richgibson.com\/RikowskiMarxism.htm<\/a><\/p>\n