The Rouge Forum – Update 20th May 2009

The Rouge Forum – Update 20^th May 2009

Rouge Forum Update: War, Decay and Sane Resistance!

A Message from Rich Gibson 

Dear Friends,

We will circulate a full report from the Rouge Forum Conference at Eastern Michigan University over the weekend. This is a very brief preliminary report from the student newspaper:
http://www.easternecho.com/content/rouge-forum-discusses-youth-education-emu-0

On the Education Front:

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/19/ca-special-election-051909/?california&zIndex=101745&dsq=9568515#comment-9568515

The California Teachers Association and NEA bosses wasted more than $12.2 million on their outrageous tax the poor scam that failed completely and, worse, managed to convince even more poor and working people that organized education workers are actually enemies. Nice work, CTA.

Meanwhile, UTLA managed to cower their way out of what was to be last Friday’s mass walkout, fearful of a judge’s order against it.

Everyone should be clear on this. The only illegal job action is one that fails. If thousands of teachers walked out, the judge would do nearly nothing, indeed nothing except try to fine CTA. So? CTA is not a bank and CTA members can picket judges’ homes.

The Green Dot Takeover: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-greendot11-2009may11,0,3289443.story

Since UTLA and NEA have done so little to build a base among poor and working class parents and kids, and since AFT loves Green Dot, this plan to seize the school system is conceivable.

And it is another move from the LATimes to attack the rising militancy of the education workers who have a walkout scheduled this week. There are thoughtful and active alternatives to all this … http://www.rougeforumconference.org/
        
Obama placed Bob Bobb, paid jointly by the Broad Foundation and the Detroit Public Schools, in charge of DPS. Then The One declared Detroit “Ground Zero,” in the education wars. Bobb announced a plan to federalize DPS. Would that be a first? http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_outrages.html?id=3621

On the Perpetual War Front (the education agenda is a war agenda):

Obamagogue To Cover up Torture Photos: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/white-house-wants-a-delay-in-the-release-of-detainee-photos/?hp

Escobar: Pipelineistan Part 2: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175071/pepe_escobar_pipelineistan_goes_af_pak

On the Fake Radicals Front:

Once the Weathermen were liberals (and police agents) with bombs. Terrorists who opposed the hard work that it takes to build a mass class conscious movement to transcend the system of capital. Now, they are just liberals without bombs. But, unlike Billy Ayers and the rest of the Weathermen, at least Mark Rudd admits he and his ganglet destroyed the Students for a Democratic Society on the eve of the biggest outpouring of mass action from 1950 on. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/books/review/Barrett-t.html

On the Organized Decay is an Element of Fascism Front:

Detroit Photo Essay: Who is next? http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/detroit-troubled-city

Neighbors Prevent Firefighters from Saving Detroit Drug Den: http://www.detnews.com/article/20090518/METRO01/905180378/Neighbors-harass-Detroit-fire-crews-fighting-blaze-at-drug-house

Foreclosures hit high in April http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/13/us-foreclosure-rates-051309/?california&zIndex=98434

The troubling reality that fascism in the past has sometimes been a popular mass movement: The Third Reich at War:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/books/review/Reich-t.html?pagewanted=2&ref=books

On the “This is not, not, for sure, not a depression, it’s ah, well, ahem,” Front:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/books/review/Rauch-t.html?ref=books

Tickled by the NYTimes reassurance that this is not, surely not, absolutely not, could not be, a GREAT depression, it’s just a depression. And good time are right around the corner.

On the Unions Became What They Claimed to Set Out to Oppose Front:

UAW Won’t Strike Chrysler Until 2015: http://www.freep.com/article/20090513/BUSINESS01/90513086/UAW+won+t+strike+Chrysler+through+2015

You don’t need to pay a union to surrender. You can throw up your hands and do that alone. Concessions do not save jobs. They just make bosses want more. The UAW is a prime example. When they say cut back, we should say, Fight Back!

The Torment and Demise of the United Auto Workers Union: http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/gibson.html

Unions are unfit to meet the crisis at hand. While it may be important to have one toe in a union in order to meet people and build a base for real change, it is equally important to have ten toes out of the union—in an organization that can connect reason, passion, and power. Like the Rouge Forum. Please spread the word. There is no single “Line” of the RF. We have many voices and many varying talents.

Here are the last two stanzas to the great workers’ song Solidarity Forever:

They have taken untold millions
that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle
not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power;
gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.

In our hands is placed a power
greater than their hoarded gold;
Greater than the might of armies,
magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world
from the ashes of the old
For the Union makes us strong.

Well, the union didn’t make us strong, but the rest is on the mark and the struggle continues.

Thanks to Joe Bishop and the Eastern Michigan volunteers, Adam and Gina, WayneO,  Nancye, Patricia,  Faith and Craig, Greg (whose speech will be up by the weekend), Pat B, Bill-Scott–the youths-and Marty, Paul, Cory, Connie,  Travis, Roger, Doug S and Doug Y, Gil G (that book is terrific) Billy X, Donna, Sherry, Zena, Em, Candace, Rebecca, Sonia, Maria, Chris (what a long drive), Susan O and H, O and Ido and the baby, Steve and Perry for getting things going and you too Kevin and Marc, Michael who is a smart guy and good friend, the heroic Sergei and the secretaries, Jeremiah, The Uprising and Tainted Machine, Staughton Lynd who is a beacon of good sense, Marty G who should have been there, Big M, Bob and Tommie, and all who made the conference a delight.

Good luck to us, every one.
Rich Gibson

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

The Rouge Forum – Update May 10th 2009

The Rouge Forum – Update May 10^th 2009

A message from Rich Gibson

Dear Friends

Less than one week to the Rouge Forum Conference in Ypsilanti, Michigan at Eastern Michigan University. Keynote speakers include Staughton Lynd, author, radical historian, civil rights leader; Greg Queen, winner of the National Council for the Social Studies “academic freedom award,” and Rebecca Martusewicz, eco-justice educator and activist. http://www.rougeforumconference.org/

Education News

Students at Los Angeles’ Crenshaw High walked out of school last week in protest of budget cuts:
http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/local/west-edition/44620717.html

People are being positioned so that the fight-back is almost inevitable. The question is: Will it make any sense and win?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers10-2009may10,0,1000273.story
Call it paranoid but it is not entirely coincidental that the LATimes is running a series of articles on “bad teachers” and UTLA (which may well be true) just days before the planned UTLA walkout on May 15. The walkout, unfortunately, is scheduled for that date in order to not disrupt district testing, but it is one of the first direct-action responses to come from any large NEA or AFT local. The walkout came to being after considerable rank and file struggle inside the union, demanding collective action.

The LATimes does not have much to say about the reasons for rising inequality and the real promise of perpetual war, that is, capital’s relentless quest for profits. Nor does it deal with the daily lives of children in Compton and when it does mention them, it does so in terms of being under privileged, not super-exploited.

But, come to think of it, UTLA doesn’t speak in those terms either.

Its parent body, CTA, is working with the Gropenfuhrer to pass the anti-working class tax hikes, trying to panic voters into taxing themselves rather than the rich. A recent CTA news spends most of its glossy pages telling teachers how to adjust to the financial crises, rather than how to fight back, dealing with the consequences of the crises rather than to address the causes at the root.
http://www.utla.net/

There are alternatives:
http://www.rougeforumconference.org/

Here is the New Yorker’s abstract of an article touting the partnership of the American Federation of Teachers and Steve Barr, of Green Dot charter fame: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_mcgray and a response from Susan Ohanian
http://www.susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=545

But the fact is that the education agenda is a war agenda, and vice versa: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20965

Industry, Finance, War, and Pedagogy

Chrysler Gets Judge to Allow The Bankrupt Company to Borrow $4.5 Billion from USA! Huh?
http://www.freep.com/article/20090504/BUSINESS01/90504013/Judge+lets+Chrysler+borrow+$4.5+billion

Don’t forget those Good For the Rest of Your Life Rouge Forum Posters: http://www.geocities.com/elethinker/posters.html

Chalmers Johnson on the Signs of Decay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2CCs-x9q9U

The banks behind the Meltdown (Center For Public Integrity): http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/economic_meltdown/

One-half million people are now fleeing the Swat Valley. Whether the guerrillas will stand and fight or melt away is yet to be seen:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/half-a-million-flee-swat-valley-as-pakistan-faces-months-of-fighting-1681831.html

In April and May, 1975, US forces fled Vietnam, the world’s most powerful empire forced out by peasant nationalists who fought imperialism for decades, making huge sacrifices. The US defeat was caused, mainly, by Vietnamese military and political operations, but also by the actions of soldiers in the US military and civilians in the anti-war movement. Here is a clip from the film, Sir No Sir, as a reminder that people can resist, under harsh conditions, and win http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDk6Qal2DCI

May 9 is Victory Day (May 8 in the US–Victory in Europe day) seemingly forgotten in America now. But the sacrifices of the people of the world in defeating fascism should be remembered: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/What_Is_Fascism_Gibson.html

Thanks to Joe B and the entire Ypsi gang for pulling together a great conference and to Adam and Gina Renner for taking the lead in developing the most recent edition of the Rouge Forum News: It is the only clear expression of education radicalism in the US.
http://richgibson.com/rouge_forum/newspaper/spring2009/index.html

Thanks too to Susan H and O, Amber, Diego, Ernesto, Lucy W and S, Jesus, Joseph, Amilia, Candace, Bob and Tommie, Wayne and Perry, Steve, Big Al, Nancy, Lisa, Marisol, Ricio, Chantelle, The Wailers, Harv, Ned, Ray, Earl, Sandy and Van, Mickey, Jim, Phillip and his entire gang, Selene and Frank, Carolina, Maria, Bruno, Daniel, Natalia, Nereyda, Edgar, Edwardo, and Gil

All the best and good luck to us every one.
Rich Gibson

 

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

The Rouge Forum – Update 5th May 2009

The Rouge Forum – Update 5^th May 2009

A message from Rich Gobson

Dear Friends

Less than two weeks until the Rouge Forum Conference  ( http://www.rougeforum.org ), May 15-17, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Join us! Come meet others whose interest in education goes to society as well. The core issue of our time is rising color-coded inequality met by the possibility of mass, class-conscious, resistance. No education organization in North America has the limited good sense and courage to say that.

The National Education Association will meet in San Diego in July, making sure no NEA member grasps this is not a tea-party but class war. Here we see how NEA pours $2million more into a campaign for a regressive California tax: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/29/BAK317ATCO.DTL

United Teachers of LA plan a one day walkout on May 15, but they don’t want to interrupt testing. Huh?

Primer on Chrysler Bankruptcy: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/business/01primer.html?_r=1&hp

Well, at least this is 1/2 good news. “Union leaders said they chose May 15 “to have the least conflict with month long testing,” including the state’s STAR tests, which are the most prominent yardsticks for a school’s academic standing. But there are Advanced Placement tests, which are important for college applicants, scheduled for that day. “

In a week, Chrysler went under, the Sunnis rose again, the Taliban swept 60 miles from the capital–some week!

The UAW’s retiree VEBA benefits to disappear? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103703634&ft=1&f=1001

Who can argue that the government, the capitalist democracy in which the latter always loses, is anything more than executive committee and armed weapon of the rich? How the Banksters “own the place,” in Congress: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009051801/banksters-win-one-lose-one-congress

We note with sadness the death of William Pomeroy whose writings on the Huks in the Philippines was terrific:
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/14337/ See his book, The Forrest, among others.

Marx on School: “The only worker who is productive is one who produces surplus value for the capitalist, or in other words contributes to the self-valorization of capital. If we may take an example from outside the sphere of material production, a schoolmaster is a productive worker when, in addition to belaboring the heads of his pupils, he works himself into the ground to enrich the owner of the school. That the latter has laid out his capital in a teaching factory, instead of a sausage factory, makes no difference to the relation. The concept of a productive worker therefore implies, not merely a relation between the activity of work and its useful effect, between the worker and the product of the work, but also a specific social relation of production, a relation with a means of valorization. To be a productive worker is therefore not a piece of luck, but a misfortune.” Marx 1977, Capital, Vol 1, translator, B. Fowkes, New York, Vintage
p 644

Thanks to Wayne, Joe B, Adam and Gina, Phillip, Tammy, Donna, Sue H, Sherry, Connie and Doug, Eric C and S, Ginger H, Don A, Virginia P, Carol, Susan and Susan, Paul and Mary, Sandy and Van.

Good luck to us, every one!
Rich Gibson

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rouge Forum News

Rouge Forum News

 

Rouge Forum News, Issue 14: Call for Papers

The Rouge Forum News is an outlet for working papers, critical analysis, and grassroots news. Issue 14 of the RF News will be dedicated to papers delivered at the Rouge Forum Conference at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI.

Conference presenters, if you would like your paper to be considered for Issue 14, please send your essay to Adam Renner at arenner@bellarmine.edu by June 15, 2009.

 

Rouge Forum News, Issue 15: Call for Papers

The Rouge Forum News is an outlet for working papers, critical analysis, and grassroots news. Issue 15 will be dedicated to our persistence in providing links between runaway capital, the rabid and rapid standardization of curriculum, the co-optation of our unions, the militarization of our youth, and the creep of irrationalism in our schools.

We are interested in work from academics, parents, teachers, and students: teachers at all levels, students in ANY grade, parents of children of any age.

Something small, something big, something serious. It is the stories we get from people like you that make the RF News what it is. If you have a story to share, but would like to protect your identity, use a pen name. Pen names are ALWAYS welcome!

We NEED Art! Songs! Poems! Editorial cartoons! Links to online videos or other material!

We are looking for narratives, as well as research, and the interplay between research and practice which focuses on the economy, curriculum, unions, etc. If you have a story to tell, some research to share, a book to review, we’d love to see it (and share it).

We publish material from k-12 students, parents, teachers, academics, and community people struggling for equality and democracy in schools—writing (intended to inform/educate, or stories from your classroom, etc.), art, cartoons, photos, poetry. You can submit material for the RF News via email (text attachment, if possible) to Adam Renner at arenner@bellarmine.edu  

PLEASE SUBMIT BY AUGUST 15, 2009.

See Issue 13 of the Rouge Forum News: http://richgibson.com/rouge_forum/newspaper/spring2009/index.html.
All past issues at available here: http://richgibson.com/rouge_forum/newspaper/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

The Rouge Forum – Update April 26th 2009

The Rouge Forum – Update April 26th 2009

 

A Message from Rich Gibson

 

Dear Friends

Educators attending the Rouge Forum Conference (May 15-17, Ypsilanti, Michigan) can now gain Continuing Education Units for attending conference sessions. Please spread the word.

Thanks to Joe Bishop and the Michigan work group for this big step forward. Links to the current issue of the Rouge Forum News and conference details are here: http://richgibson.com/rouge_forum/

 

This week in the schools:

Sacramento holds segregated assemblies to promote racist high-stakes exams: http://www.sacbee.com/education/story/1799186.html
Laguna Creek Principal Doug Craig said dividing the students by race allowed staff to talk about test scores without making any one ethnic group feel singled out in a negative manner.”Is it racist? I don’t believe it is,” Craig said.

Poway AFT Local Leads Southern California in Making Concessions: Concessions don’t save jobs. Like giving blood to sharks, concessions only make bosses want more.  It should be no surprise that the Poway district is represented by the worst union in the USA, the American Federation of Teachers, but it is of little matter now. The Poway union now sets the table for the rest of SoCal and especially San Diego. Nobody should follow their lead.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/23/bn23powcut163430/?education&zIndex=87564&disqus_reply=8639982#comment-8639982

Controversial Stanford Study on Big Tests, Girls, and Minorities, by Emily Alpert: http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/04/22/education/829testing042209.txt

 

This week on the economy:

Joseph Stiglitz – One of the reasons why our economy is weak is that we have growing inequality in our society. That means that people who would spend the money don’t have it. We sustained their consumption by lending but that lending was unsustainable and so unless we do something about the underlying inequalities both within our countries and across the world, it may be difficult to restore the global economy to the kind of prosperity that we would hope.

Reich: We are not at the beginning of the end: http://www.truthout.org/041309R

GM and Chrysler Bankruptcy May End Pensions: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090415/AUTO01/904150364/&imw=Y

Jackknife: The collapse of the Teamsters Union: http://www.clnews.org/forums/showthread.php?t=16368

Social Inequality and Mental Health: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/03/15/2003438475

 

This week on wars and resistance:

 

California Towns Defeat Military Recruiters: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/14/california_towns_fight_back_against_justice  

 

 

Forget Star Wars, It’s Back to the Little Wars: http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis144.html

Democrats and Rockefeller backed CIA Torture: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/09/democrats/

With sadness, we note the death of Lindy Blake, courageous mutineer and Vietnam war resister: http://slash.autonomedia.org/node/12572

“The sky is, of course, falling. We are lambs among wolves. The core issue of our time is the relationship of rising color-coded social and economic inequality challenged by the potential of mass class-conscious resistance.” http://rikowski.wordpress.com/tag/e-wayne-ross/

Thanks to Amber, Adam, Gina, Wayne, Dave, Kevin, Beau, Vanessa, Cheri, Donna, Kelly, Sarah, Marisol, Ernesto, Candace, Sally, Sandy, Ann, Ruthie, Della, Jose, Greg and Katie, Joe B, Paula, Alfie, Steve R and Rick C, Bill,  and Glenn.

See you in Ypsi!

All the Best and Good Luck to us, every one!

Rich Gibson

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

The Rouge Forum – Update 9th April 2009

The Rouge Forum – Update 9^th April 2009

 

A Message from Rich Gibson

 

Dear Friends:

For those teaching or learning about the current depression, here are some more good sources:

* Lewis Corey’s outstanding 1934 book, Decline of American Capitalism, is online free at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/corey/1934/decline/index.html
   

* How Goldman Sachs was at the Center of the Oil Trading Fiasco that Bankrupted SemGroup: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0413/096-sachs-semgroup-goldman-goose-oil.html
        

* The auto crisis, likely leading to the bankruptcy of GM (and the end of retiree health benefits, etc.) but this is also an indicator of the power of finance capital over industrial capital and the shift to the corporate state as US society decays: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/business/31assess.html?_r=1&hp
        

* Stiglitz on State Capitalism as Robbing Workers: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/opinion/01stiglitz.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print
        

* Updated interview with John Bellamy Foster: http://democracyandclassstruggle.blogspot.com/2009/03/interview-with-john-bellamy-foster-of.html
        

* Bello’s Primer on the Meltdown: http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/bello031008.html
        

* The Economist on the Huge Fraud Beneath the Fiscal Crisis: Missing the Deeper Fraud; Exploited Labor:
http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=15090
        

*Five Million Jobs Lost So Far This Depression: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/business/economy/04jobs.html

Current Developments:

 

* Centinela CalfiorniaTeachers Wildcat Strike:  http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_12034343    

* Al Sharpton and the Ruling Class: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/04/pols_press_part.php
        

* Labor Bosses Forge Unity Committee:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040703222.html The plum here is the dues from 3.5 million education workers, members of the National Education Association who will quickly learn that they are funding yet another layer of enemies.

Criticism of “Progressive” Warmongers:

 

The term “progressive” may have no meaning anymore. If it is Move.on, that means slavish support for the demagogue, Obama. If it is United For Peace and Justice, it means the same thing in shifty terms.  

UFPJ’s recent Wall Street demos,

deliberately set up to counter demands from rank and filers to demonstrate on the anniversary of the war, failed completely. This is nothing to gloat about even though we said, years ago, that following UFPJ would do just this. Still, it is tragic.       

 

Less than 10,000 people demonstrated, down from the one million who hit the streets six years ago. But numbers are not everything. UFPJ trumped that by teaching people nothing at all important about why things are as they are, what to do in order to develop grand strategy (peace, justice, equality, freedom, etc.) or strategy (how to understand specific local circumstances and to seek out choke points where people can use powerful direct action moves) and tactics (particular actions that link these three elements).  

Why would that be? Because UFPJ is run by remnants of the Communist Party USA, people who have never sought to build a mass class conscious movement and who have always fought those who try. The current Rouge Forum News has a very fine article by Tom Suber about the wreckage that UFPJ leadership is creating. http://blogs.ubc.ca/ross/2009/04/rouge-forum-news-issue-13/

Let us be clear. The core issue of our time is accelerating color coded inequality met by the potential of organized mass class conscious resistance. Neither the CP nor UFPJ want any part of that.  

Here is a sampling of UFPJ’s failures:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/04/content_11129335.htm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jPati7jbLo532dVb5D55XbX9T3bgD97B8IUG0
http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN0335443120090403

The task at hand is ours. The $10.9 trillion dollars the corporate state just printed for the banks and insurance companies is going to come from the lives and labor of someone. Either it will come from the ruin of hundreds of thousand of poor and working people, or, if we fight back, it can come from the rich. Let them suffer and pay, as they should. The degree of the pain will be determined by the levels of our real resistance in schools, in communities, at work places, and in the military. When they say Cut Back; We should say Fight Back.

This is a critique from Antiwar.com: Progressive Warmongers:

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/04/07/progressive-warmongers/

We note with sadness the death of a friend, Janet Jagan:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/30/janet-jagan-guyana-america-marxist

http://www.rougeforumconference.org/

Rich Gibson

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Education Agenda is a War Agenda

The Education Agenda is a War Agenda: Connecting Reason to Power and Power to Resistance

 

Rich Gibson and Wayne E. Ross have written an excellent paper that links the US education agenda with its foreign policy and the current economic crisis.

 

You can view it at: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20965

 

Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Rouge Forum: Apocalypse Now and Again

The Rouge Forum: Apocalypse Now and Again

 

Update 30 March 2009

 

A Message from Rich Gibson

 

Dear Friends

A reminder of the outstanding Rouge Forum Conference, Education, Empire, Economy and Ethics at the Crossroads, May 15 to 17, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at Eastern Michigan U. http://www.rougeforumconference.org/

This is the only education-based conference in North America that will seriously take up questions of economic collapse, perpetual war, and the booming rise of inequality and irrationalism–and what to do. Keynote speaker, Staughton Lynd, will address the question at hand: What is to be done?

A blast from the past sets up our current condition: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.” Dickens speaking for Micawber in David Copperfield.

The Obamagogue: “But one of the most important lessons to learn from this crisis is that our economy only works if we recognize that we’re all in this together, that we all have responsibilities to each other and to our country.” March 24 2009.

Let us be clear: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda and agenda to mask class war, a war of the rich on the poor which the rich clearly recognize and the poor do not—yet.  The most important less is we are NOT all in this together.

The core issue of our times is the accelerated rise of color-coded inequality met by the potential of mass class conscious resistance. The promise of perpetual war is every bit as real as it was with Bush. The same bankers who produced this very real economic crisis, collapse, are the bankers of the Obama regime. His transparent demagoguery has not worn out yet, but it may soon as the wars are lost and the economy spins into either deflationary chaos or the almost equally ruinous alternative: rampant inflation.

Here we see firms using bailout money to bribe the political class: http://www.newsweek.com/id/190363
Is it hard for liberals to hold up their notion of democracy inside what is now clearly a capitalist democracy, the former overwhelming the latter, while the near seamless merger of the corporations and banks with the political class is finalized? No it is not. Why?

Rolling Stone on “The Wall Street Revolution”: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/7

George Soros Sees No Bottom to World Financial Collapse
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51K0A920090221

Quotes From the Great Depression–note the parallels
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/writing/2009/03/great-depression-quotes-1929-vs-2008-1.html

Here are two pieces on what can happen if class conscious resistance does not begin to materialize:
* Fights break out at auto dealership as jobs are lost: http://www.freep.com/article/20090328/BUSINESS06/90328025/Fights+break+out+as+auto+dealership+closes
* Preparing for Civilian Unrest In America: Michel Chossudovsky: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12793

On the upside, resistance and red flags are flying in France: Academic and student anger grows; The nation’s universities continued to be disrupted by strikes and protests against proposed teacher training reforms last week, while university presidents called for a year’s delay in introducing the changes to allow time for reflection and consultation: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090320100214606

On the downside, because of grotesque misleadership from groups like United For Peace and Justice, the potential of a million people in the streets in the US six years ago opposing the wars, only 5-10,000 turned up on the anniversary this year:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032101368.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Could sanity be peeping up in this mire of crises in the US ? Some districts are limiting homework
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-homework22-2009mar22,0,5760396.story?track=rss

Wayne Ross and I have a piece under consideration at Z Mag: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20965

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-border25-2009mar25,0,761284.story
Is it not odd that DHS is going right into Mexico? “Through “strategic redeployments,” the Department of Homeland Security plans to send more than 360 officers and agents to the border and into Mexico, Napolitano said. Costs across the board, totaling up to $184 million, will be revenue neutral, funded by realigning from less urgent activities, fund balances, and, in some cases, reprogramming, she said. “

And is it not odd that troops are going to be sent to the US side of border areas to do police work???????

Two sources to add to John Bellamy Foster’s current book, “The Great Financial Crisis,” are classics:
Dunayevskaya: Outline of Marx’s Capital: http://www.marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1979/outline-capital/index.htm This is a terrific teaching tool.

Lewis Corey’s (aka Louis Fraina) book, “The Decline of American Capitalism,” written in 1932, arranges an understanding of the present collapse in notable, prescient, detail. Only a very few reasonably priced books are left in print.

The Rouge Forum Blog is up and you are welcome to join it. http://therougeforum.blogspot.com/

And in hopes that this week we can leave ‘em laughing:

South Park on the Economy:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/220760

SNL: Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford??!! http://consumerist.com/consumer/clips/snl-skit-dont-buy-stuff-you-cant-afford-252491.php

A modern, roaring, version of L’Internationale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx7A3UYKXj4

Thanks to Susan, Perry, Steve, Wayne, Amber, Doug S, Joe B, Kenny, Sherry, Matt, Victoria, Joe C, Adam and Gina, Bob, Victoria, Tommie, Michael, David, Sharon A., Della, Barbara, Faith, Denny, Jim B, Kim B, Gil, Ernesto, Angel, Jackie, Ann, Candy, GF, Peter, Ricky, Steve, Dennis, Kirk, TC, Bob S, John and Mary, Mary and Paul, and to adjuncts everywhere.

Good luck to us, every one.
Rich Gibson

(More news on those Seattle teachers who resisted testing their students next week).

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Rouge Forum – Update March 20th

The Rouge Forum – Update March 20^th

 

A Message from Rich Gibson

 

 

Dear Friends

On this sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on Iraq, let us all bring friends to the streets on Saturday to demonstrate that there is still a thread of sanity and resistance in the USA. The war agenda is an education agenda as well.

Please remember to spread the word about the Rouge Forum Conference, May 15 to 17, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The full conference schedule is now up here: http://web.mac.com/wayne.ross/Rouge_Forum_Conference_2009/Welcome.html You’ll have a tough time deciding what outstanding sessions you want to attend. Be there—or square!

In a speech on March 18th, The Obamagogue declared forthrightly, as he has in the past, that he is for capitalism, for free marketeering, for pay for added value. That’s a pretty clear statement about why it is he is for the spurious merit pay project as it fits neatly with the agonies of the failed system of capital, with obscuring the reality of a full scale attack of the rich on the poor using the government, now almost fully merged with corporations, as a weapon against children and teachers. The education agenda is a war agenda: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0318/p01s02-ussc.htm

Here is what The Obamagogue, who now represents not only the seamless merger of corporate and governance life, but who obliterates the line between news and entertainment, said to Jay Leno that was actually significant http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/20/what-obama-said-last-nigh_n_177401.html

The Obamagogue, whose demagoguery is no longer an amusement, proposes to tax those who have health benefits in order to pay for those who do not: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/us/politics/15health.html

The Florida Education Association followed the lead of the California Teachers Association in demanding a state sales tax hike to pay for education, an opportunist move that pits one set of working people, educators, against the entire working class which carries the burden of sales taxes. http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/article984475.ece

As the economy presses down, resistance rises. At issue is whether people make any sense of resistance. The French General Strike of March 19th: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7951949.stm

Immanuel Wallerstein on the possibility of Civil War in the USA http://www.binghamton.edu/fbc/253en.htm

What happened to the economy? Easy. Micawber from Dickens’ David Copperfield: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”

Joe Bishop, Rouge Forum Conference Coordinator, on inequality and education: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/03/accountability-legerdemain-and-the-intensification-of-inequality/

A survey on American Individualism in the midst of the crisis from Faith: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/17/surveys-americans-grip-to_n_175618.html

Closing with an excerpt from a note from Brazil:

“In the history of crises of capitalism, the dominant classes, owners of capital, and their governments have adopted the same prescription to exit them. First, they need to destroy a part of (over-accumulated) capital (lacking demand) to make room for another process of accumulation. In recent months, over 4-trillion dollars in paper money have gone up in smoke.

 

Second, they call for wars. War is a way of destroying goods (weapons, munitions, materials, facilities) and getting rid of the social tension of workers. And it does so in such a way as to also eliminate the industrial reserve army. Thence the First and Second World Wars, and then the Cold War. Now, given the fear of atomic bombs, they stir up regional conflicts instead. The attacks on the Palestinian people by Israel, the provocations in India, and the threats against Iran all fit in this strategy as well. The strategy is to increase military spending and destroy goods.

 

Third, magnify the exploitation of workers. That is to say, in crises, lower the average wages, and bring down the living standards and thus the costs of the reproduction of the labour force, in order to restore the rates of surplus value and restart accumulation. Hence also the expansion of unemployment, which keeps multitudes surviving only on the basic baskets of goods, etc.

 

Fourth, a greater transfer of capital from the periphery to the center of the system. This is accomplished by the direct transfer from enterprises in the periphery to their headquarters, as well as through the manipulation of the dollar exchange rate, the payment of interests, and the manipulation of prices of goods sold and bought in the periphery.

 

Fifth, capital goes back to using the state as the manager of the savings of the population to shift these funds for the benefit of capital. For this purpose, capitalists again valorize the state, not as the caretaker of the interests of society, but as the steward of their interests, to use its compulsory powers and thus collect money from everyone, through taxes as well as savings deposited in the banks, in order to finance their way out of the crisis.

 

We are witnessing the application of these classic measures, reported in the press every day – here in Brazil, in the center of capitalism, and in the rest of the world. But, as with everything in life, there are always contradictions. For each action of capital, the government, etc., there will be its contradiction, which society and workers can recognize and exploit to change the situation. The historic periods of crises are also periods of change. For better or worse, there will be changes! Crises create openings and rearrange the positioning of classes in society.”

Thanks to Joe, the Bills, Faith, Wayne, Amber, Erica, Bob, Tobie, Sally, Sandy, Rudy, David, Sharon A., Carol Panetta and Bob too, Duke, Adam and Gina, Candace, Randy Matthews, Matt, Ken, Barb, Linda L. Gil, and Sherry.

Good luck to us, every one.

Best wishes

Rich Gibson

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Rouge Forum – Update 9th February 2009

The Rouge Forum – Update 9th February 2009

 

 

A Message from Rich Gibson

 

 

Dear Friends,http://www.richgibson.com/rouge_forum/. That’s also the place where you’ll find the call for proposals for the Rouge Forum Conference, May 15 to 17, at Eastern Michigan University.http://www.therougeforum.blogspot.com/Who will get what in the “what about ME?” scramble for bailout money this time? Much of that will be set up by who paid who what. Last time the Tarp recipients spent $144 million on lobbyists.    Send a check when you write congress or Obama: http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/02/02/daily65.html?ana=e_du_pubThe Iraq war is far from over; war in Afghanistan is expanding. The anti-war movement is split, never met the potential represented by the mass outpouring of opposition to the Iraq invasion. Still, it appears that the biggest anti-war actions will be on March 21, the sixth anniversary of the invasion (really 3/19), in cities all over the US. Here is Tom Ricks, “The Iraq war is not over,” although corporate media still cannot spell O-I-L. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/08/thomas-ricks-war-in-iraq_n_165002.htmlhttp://www.juancole.com/2009/02/obama-may-postpone-afghan-surge-severe.html

Resistance rises world wide, if we in the US do not see a lot of it. The French general strike most recently demonstrated that students and school workers can indeed initiate and lead struggle for social justice. Here is an update from Italy: http://www.counterpunch.org/quadrupanni02042009.htmlThe UTLA test boycott is still on. Let’s spread this idea and expand it to ALL the high-stakes exams. http://www.utla.net/pab Friends in Fresno are preparing to make presentations to their school board for just that purpose.http://vimeo.com/2904353Here is an opportunity to make some international connections:
American Councils for Education: Seeking Fellowship Placements The American Councils for Education, in association with the U.S. Department of State, is seeking to place five young professionals in non-governmental internships across the country during the fall 2009 intern season (September-December).? Prospective interns will be arriving in the United States in mid-August under the auspices of the federally funded Legislative Education and Practice program (LEAP) and will be ready to report to work in early September. LEAP Fellows are dedicated public servants between 23 and 33 years of age from Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. They are college -educated (many have advanced degrees in law or international studies), speak fluent English, have had previous U.S.-based experience, and are eager to learn how Americans address rule of law, civil society, work in advocacy, infrastructure, energy, human rights, and related topics, so that they may better their own societies. Interns will be available to work a full-time schedule and will be fully supported by American Councils and the U.S. Department of States in terms of compensation, health insurance, etc. To learn more, please contact RaeJean Stokes at 202-833-7522 or via email at: leap@americancouncils.orgThanks to Joe B and C, Amber, Donna, Sharyn, Erin, B and N, Bob, Susan O and H, Gene, Patrick, Harold, Bonnie, Kathy, Angie, Ravi, Bill, A and G, Karen C, Willie Himebaugh, Chuck R, Tom T, and Wayne.

The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil page is updated at:

The deadline for articles for the Rouge Forum News is March 1. Schools, k through universities, face massive cuts. What’s going on in your area?  Send articles, cartoons, photos, etc to Adam Renner: arenner@bellarmine.edu

Spread the word. NO CONCESSIONS. Concessions are like giving blood to sharks. It only makes bosses want more (look at the United Auto Workers). Not one step back. In fact, we want MORE. We know the bosses are weak. We want a shorter work week with no cut in pay. No Layoffs. Add another shift, cut class size. No evictions. Free health care for all. Tax the rich. Free wireless everywhere. Stop high stakes exams. Recruiters off the campuses. Academic freedom for students and teachers. (and you can make up some of your own, I am sure).

Take a look at the Rouge Forum blog and join in the discussion. If we can get that going, we can demonstrate the collective nature of our problems, which have few if any individual solutions, and share information about what people are doing:

 

 

Juan Cole believes Obama may have to delay his Afghan surge as the US supply routes are cut

 

Gilbert Gonzalez is working on a video on the Bracero Program. He’d like some help. This is a teaser video

 

 

Down with the Banks and Up with the Rebels!

All the best

Rich Gibson

 

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski