{"id":7627,"date":"2012-08-11T22:06:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-12T06:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=7627"},"modified":"2012-08-11T22:15:56","modified_gmt":"2012-08-12T06:15:56","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-fat-man-little-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-fat-man-little-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Fat Man! Little Boy!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fightback!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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above, Montreal Cops using pepper spray on student strikers <\/em><\/p>\n

Montreal Strike Continues <\/strong>With the suspended winter term set to resume next week at many CEGEPs, Montreal police say they won’t enforce certain clauses of Bill 78, Quebec’s contentious student strike law, unless school authorities ask them to.
\nThe law makes it an offence to organize or partake in a protest “that could result in” a student being blocked from a classroom, where the demonstration is in or within 50 metres of a school building. It is also an offence to “contribute to slowing down, degrading or delaying” university or college classes.
\nViolators face fines of $1,000 to $5,000 for individuals and up to $125,000 for a student or faculty association. The amounts double for a subsequent offence.
\nThe measure was passed in May as the Liberal provincial government sought to contain the sometimes tumultuous protests stemming from Quebec’s student crisis.
\nThe Montreal Police Service said in a communiqu\u00e9 Friday evening that it won’t take action on the provisions relating to demonstrations blocking or delaying access to schools, or others forcing professors to report to work, unless a school’s administration makes a request for police intervention.
\nSpokesperson Cmdr. Ian Lafreni\u00e8re said it wouldn’t make sense to disperse protesters and free up an entry into a school building if, for example, classes were already cancelled.<\/p>\n

AtandT on Strike–scabbing begins <\/strong>About 20,000 AT&T Inc. workers in the East and West started striking Tuesday even as the telecommunications giant reached tentative deals with unions in the Southeast.
\nThe company’s contracts with two major branches of the Communications Workers of America expired in early April, leading to months of acrimonious negotiations. Now, 17,000 wireline employees in California and Nevada and 3,000 employees in Connecticut have decided to strike, AT&T said in a statement. \u00a0 www.latimes.com\/business\/money\/la-fi-mo-att-strike-20120807,0,1704022.story<\/a><\/p>\n

Levins Versus EO Wilson <\/strong> Obviously I am not arguing that evolution doesn\u2019t happen. The point is that we need a much better argument than just a claim that some genotype might be beneficial. And we need a much more rigorous understanding of the differences and linkages between the biological and social components of humanity\u2019s nature. Just calling some social behavior a \u201ctrait\u201d does not make it heritable.
\nIn a book that attempts such a wide-ranging panorama of human evolution, there are bound to be errors. But the errors in The Social Conquest of Earth form a pattern: they reduce social issues to biology, and they insist on our evolutionary continuity with other animals while ignoring the radical discontinuity that made us productivores and divided us into classes. \u00a0http:\/\/climateandcapitalism.com\/2012\/08\/01\/is-human-behavior-controlled-by-our-genes-richard-levins-reviews-the-social-conquest-of-earth\/<\/p>\n

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Petition to Save Tenure at Detroit’s Wayne State U <\/strong> The undersigned individuals and organizations of the academic community, from local and neighboring states, write to express their concern with the attempt to end tenure for the faculty at Wayne State University, and eliminate job security for Academic Staff at the negotiations table. docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dFJRR1BYYVRoYmlYQmd3OVBCOXRtRGc6MQ<\/a><\/p>\n

Teachable Moment as Kiddies Return: Why Have School? <\/strong>As schools open throughout the US, one typically ignored question needs to be asked in every classroom: Why have school? Why are we here?
\nLet\u2019s step back a moment in order to put school in its proper, social, perspective.
\nSchools are the centripetal organizing point of de-industrialized North American life, and much of life elsewhere. Evidence: School workers, not industrialized workers, are by far the most unionized people in the USA, more than 3.5 million union members. School unions are growing, if slowly, while industrial unions collapse, evaporate, because, in part, industry evaporates, and because industrial union leaders abandoned the heart of unionism\u2014the contradictory interests of workers and employers. Nearly one-half of the youth in high school today will be draft-eligible in the next seven years.
\nWhat is going on in schools?
\nThe demagogue, Obama, invaded US schools with his Race to the Top (RaTT) project personified by Chicago\u2019s education huckster Arne Duncan. The RaTT speeds what was already happening in capital\u2019s schools and adds a few factors for spice.
\nThe RaTT\u2019s predecessor, a bi-partisan project touted by Democrats and Republicans alike called the No Child Left Behind Act had at least these key factors:
\n(1) The development of a regimented national curriculum to promote nationalism;
\n(2) High stakes standardized tests to promote segregation and ignorance through with a pretense of scientific backing; and
\n(3) the militarization of schools in poor and working class areas.
\nThe RaTT makes logical extensions:
\n\u2013 Sharpened demands for a national curriculum in more subjects (beyond literacy and math),
\n\u2013 merit pay based on student test scores,
\n\u2013 attacks on all forms of tenure (made palatable to the public because they know through experience that there is no shortage of incompetents in schools),
\n\u2013 Layoffs, hits on pay and benefits, increases in class size,
\n\u2013 Tuition hikes driving youth out of college with razor-like precision, typically rooted in inherited wealth.
\n\u2013 Some privatization, but hardly only privatization (the corporate state reflects both the unity and contradictions internal to the ruling classes who have different short term views of profitability).
\n\u2013 Calls for national service setting up a syphon for middle class opposition to a draft.
\n\u2013 Intensified moves into cities and schools in crisis, like Detroit, demonstrating the contradictory goals of social control and profiteering.
\n\u2013 Ruthless competition between school districts and states for limited RaTT
\nreward dollars.
\n\u2013 A harsh rule of fear and intimidation sweeping across all of capitalist schooling.<\/p>\n

Fear seems to be the core emotional value in schools today.<\/p>\n

What is the social context of school?<\/p>\n

The education agenda is a class war agenda, and an imperialist war agenda. One begets the other. \u00a0 www.counterpunch.org\/2010\/09\/07\/why-have-school\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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above, high school teacher Bill Boyer inside Detroit’s Dexter Ferry School. <\/em><\/p>\n

A Reminder: Why Have School? <\/strong> As schools open throughout the US, one typically ignored question needs to be asked in every classroom: Why have school? Why are we here?
\nLet\u2019s step back a moment in order to put school in its proper, social, perspective.
\nSchools are the centripetal organizing point of de-industrialized North American life, and much of life elsewhere. Evidence: School workers, not industrialized workers, are by far the most unionized people in the USA, more than 3.5 million union members. School unions are growing, if slowly, while industrial unions collapse, evaporate, because, in part, industry evaporates, and because industrial union leaders abandoned the heart of unionism\u2014the contradictory interests of workers and employers. Nearly one-half of the youth in high school today will be draft-eligible in the next seven years.
\nWhat is going on in schools? \u00a0http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2010\/09\/07\/why-have-school\/<\/p>\n

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above, Bill Boyer at Dexter Ferry School in Detroit, holding thrown away American Civilization text. <\/em><\/p>\n

Tweedle Dee vs Tweedle Crook, LAUSD vs AIG <\/strong>Insurance giant AIG will pay nearly $79 million to the Los Angeles Unified School District to settle a lawsuit over its failure to pay claims on properties with environmental and pollution hazards, The Times has learned.
\nAlthough AIG admitted no wrongdoing, the $78.8-million settlement, combined with earlier payments under the policy, approach the full value of $100 million in coverage the district purchased in 1999.
\n“This is a gold medal, not a bronze, in terms of success, a lot of money,” said David Tokofsky, a former member of the Board of Education that voted to purchase the policy and later sued to enforce it. “Sometimes the huge L.A. Unified is the little guy against such giants as AIG.”
\nThe district’s goal at the time was to provide a financial hedge against any extraordinary cleanup costs incurred during its $20-billion school construction effort.
\nThe move proved wise for L.A. Unified and a poor gamble for AIG, which is best known for its central role in helping trigger the nation’s 2008 economic crisis.
\nThe district paid about $7.5 million up front for the 20-year policy and also agreed to pay the first $100,000 on any claim. Even so, the claims quickly absorbed what the district put in, and AIG resisted paying more. L.A. Unified filed suit in 2006, beginning a protracted legal battle that consumed millions of dollars, according to people inside the district who were not authorized to disclose the information. www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-lausd-insure-20120806,0,5918915.story<\/a><\/p>\n

Ohio Ed Boss, Procuring for ETS, Bolts <\/strong> Ohio Schools Superintendent Stan Heffner resigned on Saturday, under fire after the state inspector general found he lobbied improperly for a private education company he planned to work for.
\nHeffner gave no reason for the resignation, which is effective on Friday, in a two-sentence letter released by the state Education Department.
\nA report issued Thursday by Inspector General Randall Meyer said Heffner already had signed an employment agreement with Educational Testing Service when he testified before the state Senate Finance Committee in May 2011 for legislation that benefited the firm. Heffner was the interim state superintendent at the time. \u00a0http:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/metro\/index.ssf\/2012\/08\/ohio_schools_chief_stan_heffne.html<\/p>\n

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