Letter of solidarity with the students at UC Santa Cruz

To the UC Santa Cruz students:

We at the Rouge Forum applaud, admire, and support your efforts to help form a unified movement with the people of California.

The Rouge Forum is a group of 4500 educators, students, and parents seeking a democratic society. We are concerned with questions like: How can we teach against racism, nationalism and sexism in an increasingly authoritarian and undemocratic society? How can we gain enough real power to keep our ideals AND teach? Whose interests do schools serve in a society that is ever more unequal? We want to learn about equality, democracy and social justice as we simultaneously struggle to bring those into practice. (http://www.rougeforum.org/, http://www.therougeforum.blogspot.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouge_Forum).

In the German Ideology, Marx submits, “The class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.”

The connection and simultaneous control of this material and mental production comes into ever-sharper relief anytime we are confronted by our corporate media. The level of discourse is less than satisfying. And, frankly, frightening. Pick the issue: health care, immigration, worker's rights, war, education. While all of the issues are truly critical, the last is particularly problematic since control of schools is a final domino to fall in the imperial quest to completely (re)fashion our reality. Remove critical thinking, make children compete against each other for perceived scarce resources (standardized tests), use the results to reify hierarchies based on social constructions like race and gender and class status, make teachers compete against one another for perceived scarce resources (merit pay), boil dissent down to participation in (mostly) corrupt unions, excuse and/or cover-up the school to military and prison pipelines, monitor and make impotent our schools of education through if-it-wasn't-so-sinister-it-would-be-comical accrediting bodies like NCATE, and regulate truth. This has been the agenda. And, it has already buried itself deep into our educational psyche.

Your willingness to continue to confront this reality beyond the one day UC walkout on September 24 is an illustration of both a more deepened consciousness and the work we will all have to do to protect public education toward the creation of a more whole and healthy society.

Rouge Forum Update--9-27--from Rich

Why things are as they are: http://www.richgibson.com/blog/?p=9

(Lots of great links here on the recent UC walkout. Feel free to share your stories here.)

No Sense of Irony...

Okay, usually I am willing to go to the other side, as a way to get at the kind of thinking used on the right, but I've reached my limit. Granted, I understand that the whole "tea bagger" thing is an astro-turf project funded by the health care industrial complex, in particular Dick Armey, but the limits of logic have been so far exceeded that something has to be done. But where in the heck to start? We aren't dealing with rational thought, so hang on for the ride.
Case in point- this article: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/16/tea-party-protesters-protest-dc-metro-service/

Apparently republican Texas Rep. Kevin Brady is upset that the public transit system in D.C. wasn't ready for the influx (no, not one million but more like 70,000 if one doesn't count the faked Promise Keeper crowd photo from the 1990s) of protesters hitting the city to...protest government spending on public services. He went on to complain that seniors (who likely receive Medicare) attending the protest were forced to take cabs since there was no room for them on the trains. Now I'm confused. Isn't privatization and the "toll" system of paying for services the major policy dream of republicans and the Ayn Rand crowd? Why are they unhappy? This is their social vision come to pass. If I were a p.r. person for the libertarian party, I would whip up some t-shirts with the slogan "Walk Proudly- Renounce Socialism on Wheels."

Speaking of irony, a group of conservatives is concerned that only 25% of Oklahoma high schoolers correctly identified George Washington as the first U.S. president (http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=11141949). I'm not a fan of these sudden polls that throw out rapid fire questions to then show dismal results as proof that schools are teaching frivolous things. It's so Reader's Digest. But here we have a situation where conservatives are concerned about ignorance, yet these are the same folks who think the earth is roughly 4,000-6,000 years old! I could also be jumping to conclusions. Maybe part of the 75% named Jesus as the first U.S. president (since he is top choice as favorite philosopher). Then the conservatives shouldn't worry so much.

What is next, a debate about whether the sun revolves around the earth and vice versa? One thing I have learned is to never, I repeat never, make a statement about how things are bad, but thank goodness no one has (fill in the blank) yet. Yes, there is an anti-Copernican website out there, so my worst fears have been realized: http://www.fixedearth.com/ It's just good to know that there are people on this planet taking Glenn Beck's advice and "question boldly" (except the official story of 9/11), since that is evidence of our "freedom." Of course Beck forgot the rest of Jefferson's quote, which is to question boldly the existence of God. But that's just being picky.

All I can say is that the postmodernists must be happy by now to see their vision, like the tea-baggers, come to pass.

Rouge Forum Update--9-20-09--from Rich

See the RF Update here: http://www.richgibson.com/blog/?p=6

Letter of Solidarity with the UC Professors

To the UC Faculty:

We at the Rouge Forum applaud, admire, and support your efforts to respond to tuition hikes, enrollment cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and increased class sizes, which are indeed, complicit with the privatization of public education.

The Rouge Forum is a group of 4500 educators, students, and parents seeking a democratic society. We are concerned with questions like: How can we teach against racism, nationalism and sexism in an increasingly authoritarian and undemocratic society? How can we gain enough real power to keep our ideals AND teach? Whose interests do schools serve in a society that is ever more unequal? We want to learn about equality, democracy and social justice as we simultaneously struggle to bring those into practice. (http://www.rougeforum.org/, http://www.therougeforum.blogspot.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouge_Forum).

In the German Ideology, Marx submits, “The class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.”

The connection and simultaneous control of this material and mental production comes into ever-sharper relief anytime we are confronted by our corporate media. The level of discourse is less than satisfying. And, frankly, frightening. Pick the issue: health care, immigration, worker's rights, war, education. While all of the issues are truly critical, the last is particularly problematic since control of schools is a final domino to fall in the imperial quest to completely (re)fashion our reality. Remove critical thinking, make children compete against each other for perceived scarce resources (standardized tests), use the results to reify hierarchies based on social constructions like race and gender and class status, make teachers compete against one another for perceived scarce resources (merit pay), boil dissent down to participation in (mostly) corrupt unions, excuse and/or cover-up the school to military and prison pipelines, monitor and make impotent our schools of education through if-it-wasn't-so-sinister-it-would-be-comical accrediting bodies like NCATE, and regulate truth. This has been the agenda. And, it has already buried itself deep into our educational psyche.

Your willingness to confront this reality on September 24 is an illustration of the work we will all have to do to protect public education toward the creation of a more whole and healthy society. Where Rouge Forum members are affiliated with the UC system, we have encouraged them to join you. Where Rouge Forum members are unaffiliated with the UC system, we have encouraged them to take part in campus wide discussions relative to the status of higher education, academic freedom, and the importance of public education.

We stand in solidarity with you and offer the graphic pasted above, created by Rouge Forum member, Bryan Reinholdt, an elementary performing arts teacher in Louisville, Ky.

Sincerely,

the Rouge Forum Steering Committee

They say cut back…we say fight back

Rouge Forum poster for September 24 university/school walkout in solidarity with faculty at University of California

On the health care front: Doctors speak out for a single-payer system

These doctors say we can handle the truth: http://www.madashelldoctors.com

Rouge Forum Update--9/13/09--from Rich

http://richgibson.com/RFupdate091309.html

Call for manuscripts: Critical Education

Critical Education is an international peer-reviewed journal, which seeks manuscripts that critically examine contemporary education contexts and practices. Critical Education is interested in theoretical and empirical research as well as articles that advance educational practices that challenge the existing state of affairs in society, schools, and informal education.

Critical Education is an open access journal, launching in early 2010. The journal home is criticaleducation.org

Critical Education is hosted by the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia and edited by Sandra Mathison (UBC), E. Wayne Ross (UBC) and Adam Renner (Bellarmine University) along with collective of 30 scholars in education that includes:

Faith Ann Agostinone, Aurora University
Wayne Au, California State University, Fullerton
Marc Bousquet, Santa Clara University
Joe Cronin, Antioch University
Antonia Darder, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
George Dei, OISE/University of Toronto
Stephen C. Fleury, Le Moyne College
Kent den Heyer, University of Alberta
Nirmala Erevelles, University of Alabama
Michelle Fine, City University of New York
Gustavo Fischman, Arizona State University
Melissa Freeman, University of Georgia
David Gabbard, East Carolina University
Rich Gibson, San Diego State University
Dave Hill, University of Northampton
Nathalia E. Jaramillo, Purdue University
Saville Kushner, University of West England
Zeus Leonardo, University of California, Berkeley
Pauline Lipman, University of Illinois, Chicago
Lisa Loutzenheiser, University of British Columbia
Marvin Lynn, University of Illinois, Chicago
Sheila Macrine, Montclair State University
Perry M. Marker, Sonoma State University
Rebecca Martusewicz, Eastern Michigan University
Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles
Stephen Petrina, University of British Columbia
Stuart R. Poyntz, Simon Fraser University
Patrick Shannon, Penn State University
Kevin D. Vinson, University of the West Indies
John F. Welsh, Louisville, KY

Online submission and author guidelines can be found here.

Rouge Forum Update--Labor Day, 2009--from Rich

Dear Friends,

This week's update got a little long but there are bullet headlinesand notes on current job actions (Oakland U strike, UC strike, etc) early in this link, followed by a continuation of the discussion ofEducation vs Capital, why that is and what to do.Our friend Susan H got arrested in Seattle (not guilty as charged) for protesting the Torture Memos that came out of John Yoo and theBush administration, the ones that Obama would like to sweep away.

So, You Go Susan!

Steering committee members will be contacted this week.

Here is a link (http://richgibson.com/RFupdate090709.html) and good luck to us, every one.

r

Rouge Forum Broadside: Yes, We Told Them So: War, School, and The Demagogue

The following is an RF Broadside, created by Rich Gibson. I have inserted a few [bracketed] additions to extend an already-compelling analysis. We encourage your feedback and additions.

It is probably not all that helpful to announce that we told you so, but....Yes, we told many people so.

The core issue of our time is the rapid rise of color-coded inequality and the emergence of world war met by the potential of a mass, class-conscious resistance.

These are not "public" schools we see. They are capitalist schools in a society where capitalism trumped whatever vestiges of democracy existed a decade ago. They are segregated schools [as the last domino was felled by the Supreme Court in July, 2007]. That's not merely the result of bad people doing bad things, exploiting others (though they surely are bad people) but also the consequence of a social system dependant on exploitation---meaning inequality.

The education agenda is a war agenda. It is a capitalism in crisis agenda, a Regimented National Curriculum agenda, mostly to promote nationalism.

Such a curriculum necessarily sets up anti-working class and racist high-stakes tests. Both teacher unions, the NEA and AFT, helped design both the national curriculum and the high-stakes exams. They are in no position to stop the next step. The professional organization, from NCTE to AHA to NCSS and all in between, proved more than impotent; they too collaborated. Those tests necessarily and logically lead to merit pay which already exists in the deep divide in, say, Detroit and suburb pay and benefits.

Militarization of schooling is part of the war agenda. National service=war agenda.

To some degree, privatization and charters are part of the war agenda. Privatization serves some sectors of elites, and others not. Why fully abandon a huge, tax supported, funnel for war, ignorance, and inequality; missions for capitalism and their unwitting, ever so nice, missionaries?
Restoring hope is part of the agenda, but it is false hope. The future is war, inequality, unemployment, horrible options for youth and it will not change without a mass social movement for equality. War means work; why many people enlist and proof that our choice is community or barbarism.

All of these interconnected attacks on life and reason have already happened, all over the western world.

Merely opposing any one of these factors, like merit pay, but not the rest just reinforces the entire project. As we see, NEA now dishonestly speaks out about merit pay, but NEA backed the regimented curricula and high stakes exams, sharply attacked people like Susan Ohanian who spoke against them, and dumped the students who suffered most from them.

Too late for NEA which is merely trying to keep the rubes sending dues money, but there is now nothing much NEA can do. Only direct action strikes, boycotts, etc., can halt the drive to the factors described above.

NEA has done nothing at all to prepare for that, and is not likely to do so. The union leaders are completely corrupt and their structures don't unite people. They divide people: city from suburb, students from teachers, teachers from other public workers and private employees---as easily seen in the California Teachers Association's effort to pass off a tax on poor and working people just months ago, a project that cost dues-payers millions of dollars and failed miserably, convincing the public, again, that educators want to pick their pockets.

What would be helpful is to wonder about the analytical and critical mistake that led to all that support for Obama, a demagogue.

Several things led to the hysteria around Obama.
1. A misunderstanding of capitalist democracy which is now sheer capitalism and little democracy. There was no significant difference between the Bush/Obama/McCain or even Clinton policies. Obama has betrayed, if we take his consistency as a betrayal, his liberal supporters who, for what have to be psychological reasons, still support his personification of the reign of capital which has, among other things, failed in every important arena of human life.
2. A misunderstanding of the gravity of the current situation vis-a-vis the war of empires. The US is in rapid decline in relationship to Russia, China and even Europe and Japan---economically and militarily-- and the US has lost any ability to promote itself as a moral nation, internally and externally. This puts extraordinary pressure on elites who need soldiers, Boeing workers, prison guards, and teachers too.
3. A misreading of the real internal crisis inside the US; the rapid rise of segregation and inequality--which has not, yet, led to civil rebellions. But everything is in place to lay the ground for those uprisings, except a left which can make sense of why things are as they are, and what to do. Lost wars. Collapsed economies. Immoral leaders caught with dozens of hands in a thousand cookie jars, war without reason pulling 1.5 million people into direct action---and the wreckage of their lives. All that, and more, should mean massive resistance. But that has not happened? Why not? No draft. No left. Spectacles. Divide and Rule. Carrot and stick. The education system. The same ways tyrants always ruled.
4. The continuing appeal of racism and nationalism. [One need only look at the continuation of residential segregation in most of America’s major cities; the segregation of children of color, generally, into lower-tracked curricula; the percentage of Black and Brown men in prison, the Black unemployment rate vis-à-vis their fellow white workers; and the assault on immigrants from the Global South]
5. Acceptance of the division of labor inside academia which means, for example, historians talk to historians and write books while literacy people talk to literacy people and write books, and few academics seriously organize anything at all, as the state of the campuses illustrate now. (And, there is an open willingness of the overwhelming majority of faculty to abandon their academic freedom in favor of standards). [As well, the university commons continue to be sold off to corporate interests, students become customers, and faculty become tradable entities focused more on chasing after grants than focusing on their craft.] This means historians, as in AHA, don't pay much attention to teaching while too many education personnel don't know much history.
6. A general public so mindless about history and social processes (class war) that it can rightly be called hysterical, potentially dangerous. Steeped in spectacles and consumerism for more than a decade, so vacant about their location in the world that Chalmers Johnson says they cannot connect cause and effect (as with the endless wars, but in regard to NCLB’s schooling as well). Fickle to the core, they howled for Bush, abandoned him when things went wrong, then another bunch howled for Obama, and now we see a new crowd howling about health care--all leaping for thousands of forms of selfishness that keeps the war of all on all that is the system of capital alive and well.

Not recognizing the historical moment, rejecting the real whole of the situation, capitalism in decay everywhere, shatters analytical and strategic capability, meaning many people cannot tell left from right, muddle along looking for someone else to save us when no one but the collective Us is going to save us.

Those who are not angry and seething a bit these days may not be witnessing the ravages of war, hunger, unemployment, and unreason itself. The education agenda is a war agenda. The war agenda requires an education agenda: 49 million kids in school; many draft eligible.

Yup. We told them so. Big deal. Those who have not made a big mistake in life can be absolved. We are all lambs among wolves. But we do not have to be lambs among wolves if we recognize, and act on, the role of class consciousness.

Good luck to us, every one. Join Us!