Saturday, September 24, 2011

Europe Against Austerity Conference


EUROPE AGAINST AUSTERITY CONFERENCE

The European left gathers in London to debate responses to the economic crisis in Europe
Europe Against Austerity Conference
1st October, 10am-5pm, Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, London WC1H 9AU

In the last two years Europe has seen waves of strikes, mass demonstrations, student radicalizations, civil disobedience and even riots in response to government austerity policies.

Struggles have broken out against cuts to pensions and raises in the retirement age, increased post-school education charges, reduced welfare payments, privatisations and falling living standards.

Is there an alternative to cuts and privatisation? What does the left say to the crisis of the Eurozone? What were the fundamental economic causes of the ‘great recession’ and does the left have a different way out? Is the European left as nationally fractured as its governments increasingly are?

This conference brings together the main left political, trade union and campaigning forces across Europe in the widest such forum since the meetings of the European Social Forum.

It will be an unparalleled opportunity to hear what the alternative voice from across Europe from West to East, South to North.

Speakers will include representatives of Die Linke (the German Left Party), the European Left Party (http://www.european-left.org/), Partie de Gauche (the French Left Party), Sinn Fein, the European
Attac network, (http://www.attac.org/en/what-attac) and anti-austerity campaigns and left parties from Denmark, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Eastern Europe joining British trade unionists (including Len McCLusky general secretary of Unite), and Jeremy Corbyn MP.

The conference is now a free-standing European-wide initiative with support across the EU and beyond. For a full list of current supporters see here: http://www.europeagainstausterity.org/conference-supporters/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Tackling Michael Gove's Education Revolution






TACKLING MICHAEL GOVE’S EDUCATION REVOLUTION: CAUGHT IN THE [EDUCATION] ACT

Tackling Michael Gove’s Education Revolution
CAUGHT IN THE [EDUCATION] ACT

Michael Gove’s new Education Act gives the Secretary of State some 50 new powers. What is the agenda behind this shift of power to the centre? What is the role of profit in these plans? How can education be defended? Join the workshops that will be led by our guest speakers to discuss the way forward.

10am - 3.30pm Saturday 19th November 2011
University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY

Clyde Chitty/Melissa Benn – A Divided Education System
David Wolfe (Matrix Chambers) - Implications of the new Education Act
Stephen Ball (Institute of Education) – Privatisation
Martin Johnson (ATL) – Edubusiness
Sam Ellis (ASCL) – Paying the Price
Christine Blower (NUT) – The International Scene
Patrick Roach (NASUWT) – What Next?

For more information, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/EducationAct2011

Conference fee: £20 (including buffet lunch)
Organised and supported by: Anti Academies Alliance, CASE, Comprehensive Future, FORUM (www.wwwords.co.uk/FORUM), ISCH, Socialist Educational Association


Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Monday, September 19, 2011

LINKS Update - 19th September 2011






LINKS UPDATE – 19th SEPTEMBER 2011

What's new at Links: Thailand, Pakistan, ecosocialism, 9/11, Sudan, Egypt, GCC, Venezuela, Palestine, Swaziland, Blacks & Comintern, Australian left

* * *
Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373

You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643

Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au/ and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to
consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au

*Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in Links.

* * *
Thailand: Why aren’t the generals in jail?
By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
September 19, 2011 -- On the fifth anniversary of the September 19, 2006, military coup in Thailand, General Sonti Boonyaratgalin should be facing charges for staging an illegal coup and tearing up a democratic constitution. General Prayut Junocha should also be facing charges for ordering the killings of nearly 90 unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators last year.

Pakistan: Arrested, tortured for assisting climate change victims
[Urgent: Please send messages calling for the release of Baba Jan and his comrades c/- farooqtariq@hotmail.com. Farooq Tariq will be a guest speaker at the Climate Change Social Change activist conference in Melbourne, over September 30 to October 3.]
By Farooq Tariq

September 15, 2011 -- Baba Jan, a federal committee member of the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), has been taken from jail ... and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is torturing him on the name of investigation”, fears the LPP.




Derek Wall: 'Ecosocialism places Marx at the centre of its analysis'
September 10, 2011 -- Economist, activist and writer Derek Wall is a member of the Green Party of England and Wales (and the Green Left grouping within it) and is the author of several books on ecology and politics. Wall will speak via video link at the Climate Change Social Change activist conference in Melbourne,r September 30 to October 3. He maintains the ecosocialist blog Another Green World. He spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Simon Butler about the politics of ecosocialism.


US rulers turned 9/11 outrage into blank cheque for endless war
By Rupen Savoulian
September 17, 2011 -- Near where I live in Sydney, there is a war memorial commemorating all those people from the area who have died serving the Australian armed forces in wars overseas. There are columns for each war Australians have participated in, followed by the names of those who never returned. For instance, there are columns for World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945), the Korean War (1950-53), and also the "International Campaign against Terrorism (2001– )". Notice that last one? Unlike the others, the war on terror has no end date.


Sudan: Secret police target Communist Party press
September 15, 2011 -- The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed alarm at the growing censorship of opposition newspapers in Sudan. The regime's secret police, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), halted the distribution of four different opposition newspapers without cause.


Dateline Egypt: Everything up for grabs in ongoing revolt
By Raul Bassi, Cairo
September 11, 2011 -- After the overthrow of Egypt's dictator Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, a new chapter in Egyptian history is being written and its authors are the people themselves. Anything could happen and everything is up for grabs given the profound political, social and economic crisis in which Egypt's neoliberal system finds itself in.


Thailand: Free Somyot Prueksakasemsuk!
September 17, 2011 -- Australia Asia Worker Links reports that jailed trade union activist Somyot Prueksakasemsuk was denied bail on September 12. Somyot is in jail for allegedly insulting the Thai king, under the country's notorious lèse majesté law.


New book: Adam Hanieh's 'Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States'; Modern slaves in the GCC
Long-time friend of Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, Adam Hanieh, has just released a book that is essential reading for all those following developments in the Middle East. With Hanieh's permission, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal publishes an interview with the author, conducted by Jadaliyya, and a short excerpt from the book.


Venezuela: Communes in Caracas
September 7, 2011 -- Translated by Owen Richards -- Among the aims of community organisation is that of building the communal state, where power is exercised directly by the people, through self-government, with an economic model of social property and local self-development. Based on this premise, 236 communes and more than 9000 communal councils have been established, according to information from the Ministry of Popular Power for the Communes.


Palestine: Ilan Pappe -- At the UN, the funeral of the two-state solution
By Ilan Pappe
September 12, 2011 -- We are all going to be invited to the funeral of the two-state solution if and when the UN General Assembly announces the acceptance of Palestine as a member state.


Black liberation and the Communist International
By John Riddell
September 11, 2011 -- The influence of the Communist International was decisive in the early 1920s in winning a generation of black revolutionaries to Marxism. On this the historians agree. But what did this influence consist of, and how was it exerted?


Eyewitness Swaziland: The birth of ‘Liberation Friday!’; 'The struggle for a democratic Swaziland continues'
By the Swaziland Democracy Campaign
September 10, 2011 -- Friday, September 9, marked the last day in the second Global Week of Action on Swaziland, culminating in a large protest march in Mbabane that resulted in pitched battles between a heavily armed and aggressive security detachment, and mostly poor workers, students and the unemployed, who gathered legally and peacefully as they have done all week.


On the Australian left: 'Let’s unite behind Green Left Weekly'
September 8, 2011 -- For many years we were regular contributors to Green Left Weekly and proud supporters of the paper. We’ve now decided to resume writing for GLW and we urge other former contributors to consider doing the same.

* * *
Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Sunday, September 18, 2011

'Rage! How Writers Change the World' - by Victor Rikowski






RAGE! WRITERS CHANGE THE WORLD

This is an essay written by Victor Rikowski when he was a final year student in Music, Creative Writing and English Literature at Bangor University, Wales.

It was written as an assignment for the QXE3089 module, ‘Rage! How Writers Can Change the World’.

Victor’s essay can now be found at The Flow of Ideas website:

Rikowski, V. (2011) Rage! Writers Change the World, An essay written for the QXE3089 module, ‘Rage! How Writers Can Change the World’, Bangor University, Wales, April, online at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=articles&sub=Rage%20-%20Victor%20Rikowski


Whilst at Bangor, Victor was in Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, a post-punk folk band. For more on this, see: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Journal of Transformative Education - Call for Papers






JOURNAL OF TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION – CALL FOR PAPERS

The central aim or scope of the journal reflects a keen interest in furthering, through scholarly analysis, inquiry, and dialogue, the fields of transformative learning and transformative education. This work can and does occur within a wide variety of educational contexts, including adult education, education for the professions, continuing education and professional development, higher education, community education, and the workplace, as well as more informal and non-formal settings for adult learning.

We would like to encourage submissions from either practitioners or researchers who are working from a transformative perspective in educational that relate to the aims and scope of the journal. We receive a fair number of submissions now from folks in in-service teacher education, and it would be
wonderful to have adult education more represented in the journal as well.

For more information on the journal I encourage you to peruse the journal's website at http://jtd.sagepub.com/.

For a specific call for papers, go to: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/31118_JTED_CFP_Oct09(2).pdf.

For Guidelines for Manuscript Submission, go to:
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsProdDesc.nav?ct_p=manuscriptSubmission&prodId=Journal201653#tabview=manuscriptSubmission

**END**

‘I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

‘Maximum levels of boredom
Disguised as maximum fun’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com/
Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com
Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Saturday, September 10, 2011

The Assault on Universities: A Manifesto for Resistance






THE ASSAULT ON UNIVERSITIES: A MANIFESTO FOR RESISTANCE

The UK White Paper on universities that was published in June contains yet more proposals that will embed the market ever deeper into our educational system through the entrance of private providers and the extension of a logic of financialisation. The deadline for submissions is 20 September and we encourage you to make a response (http://bit.ly/jpLET3).

We would also like to let you know that the manifesto has now been published in a book, 'The Assault on Universities: A Manifesto for Resistance' (Pluto Press) which contains a series of short essays identifying the consequences of the reforms as well as possible alternatives. We are sure you will find it both stimulating and useful in your response to the attacks on higher education.

Details of the book are at: http://bit.ly/lKgYdE.

You can also use the book and manifesto as the focus for a meeting, debate or other form of campaign activity where you work.

We would be delighted to help arrange a meeting on your campus and to build up a head of steam against the government's disastrous reforms.

No university is immune and there will certainly be a good audience for a lively and topical meeting.

Please don't hesitate to contact us: hemanifesto@gmail.com (or d.freedman@gold.ac.uk if you have trouble accessing gmail).

With best wishes
Des Freedman
Michael Bailey


Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Radical Philosophy New York Conference 2011






RADICAL PHILOSOPHY NEW YORK CONFERENCE 2011

Radical Philosophy
New York Conference 2011

Columbia University, New York
Friday 21st October 2011, 9am – 7.30p

The event is free but advance registration is essential, to:
radicalphilosophyrsvp@gmail.com

Sessions:
Postcolonial Worlds
Representing Capitalism
Biocapital and Security
Temporalities of Crisis
Politics of Information

Speakers:
Claudia Aradau – RP/International Relations, King's College London
Souleymane Bachir Daigne – Philosophy, Columbia University
Tim Bewes – English, Brown University
Antonia Birnbaum – Philosophy, University of Paris 8
Finn Brunton – Information, University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Marilena Chaui – Philosophy, University of São Paulo
David Cunningham – RP/English, University of Westminster
Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui – Workshop on Andean Oral History, Bolivia
David Golumbia – Media, University of Virginia
Harry Harootunian – Literature, Duke University
Esther Leslie – RP/English, Birkbeck, University of London
Rosalind C. Morris – Anthropology, Columbia University
Mark Neocleous – RP/Politics, Brunel University, London
Peter Osborne – RP/Philosophy, Kingston University London
Kristin Ross – Comparative Literature, New York University
Kaushik Sunder Rajan – Anthropology, University of Chicago
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak – University Professor, Columbia University


Programme details and abstracts @: http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/uncategorized/radical-philosophy-conference-2011


Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Marxism and Education: International Perspectives on Education for Revolution









MARXISM AND EDUCATION: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION FOR REVOLUTION

CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

Special Issue of Cultural Logic
http://clogic.eserver.org/

“Marxism and Education: International Perspectives on Education for Revolution”

Issue Editors: Rich Gibson & E. Wayne Ross

FOCUS OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE
The core issue of our time is the reality of the promise of perpetual war and escalating color-coded inequality met by the potential of a mass, activist, class-conscious movement to transform both daily life and the system of capitalism itself. In this context, schools in the empires of the world are the centripetal organizing points of much of life. While the claim of capitalist schooling is, in the classics, education, “leading out,” the reality is that schools are segregated illusion factories, in some cases human munition factories. Rather than leading out, they encapsulate.

Mainstream educational and social research typically ignores, disconnects, the ineluctable relationships of what is in fact capitalist schooling, class war, imperialist war, and the development of varying forms of corporate states around the world.

At issue, of course, is: What to do?

The long view, either in philosophy or social practice is revolution as things must change, and they will.

Connecting the long view to what must also be a long slog necessarily involves a careful look at existing local, national, and international conditions; working out tactics and strategies that all can understand, none taken apart from a grand strategy of equality and justice.

GUIDELINES
The editors are seeking manuscripts that explore education for revolution and are informed by Marxist perspectives. We are particularly interested in manuscripts that explore and examine:

* local/regional contexts and educational activism linked to global anti-capitalist movements;
* broad foundational and historical themes related to education and revolution (e.g., philosophy, social movements, community organizing, literacy, popular education, etc.); and
* organizational and practitioner perspectives.

The editors are also interested in reviews of books, film, and other media related to education for revolution.

Article manuscripts should be approximately 5,000-10,000 words in length (20-40 pages), although we will consider manuscripts of varying lengths. The editors prefer that manuscripts be prepared using either APA or Chicago styles. Manuscripts should be submitted as email attachments (Microsoft Word or RTF) to the both editors: rgibson@pipeline.com and wayne.ross@ubc.ca.

Authors interested in submitting manuscripts should email manuscript title and a brief description to the editors by December 1, 2011. Final manuscripts are due April 1, 2012.

ABOUT CULTURAL LOGIC
Cultural Logic, which has been online since 1997, is a non-profit, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that publishes essays, interviews, poetry, and reviews (books, films, and other media) by writers working in the Marxist tradition.

E. Wayne Ross
http://www.ewayneross.net/
wayne.ross@mac.com

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com/

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Capitorg: Education and the Constitution of the Human in Contemporary Society









CAPITORG: EDUCATION AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

This paper is my first writing, relating to my first public appearance (apart from seminars / lectures with my own students), for three years – apart from the eulogy for my father’s funeral (written on 21st February 2009). Furthermore, Dublin was only my second trip outside the UK in 32 years; so in many respects it was something special for me. Thus: it felt a bit like the first leg of a ‘comeback’ tour!

I would like to thank the people in the Praxis & Pedagogy group at The Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCam) in Dublin for inviting me (especially Glenn Loughran). They were wonderful hosts.

The paper was completed in London at breakneck speed (during the ‘marking madness’ season) on 23rd May 2011, and was delivered to an audience at The Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media, in Dublin, on 25th May. It was revised on 27th May, went through further editing and proof reading on 6-7th September, and was finally posted to The Flow of Ideas on 8th September 2011.


The full reference and link to the paper is:

Rikowski, G. (2011) Capitorg: Education and the Constitution of the Human in Contemporary Society, A paper prepared for the Praxis & Pedagogy Research Seminar, The Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCAM), Dublin, Ireland, 25th May 2011, available online at ‘The Flow of Ideas’: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Capitorg

Note: the paper reads better if you click onto the ‘Print Friendly’ option at the end of the page.


The tremendous flyer for the event can be viewed at: http://www.gradcam.ie/glenn_rikowski.pdf


Praxis and Pedagogy

The group is convened by Glenn Loughran, artist, activist, and PhD Scholar at the NCAD and GradCAM. Other members include John Buckley (NCAD/GradCAM), Edia Connole (NCAD/GradCAM), Susan Gill (DIT/GradCAM) and Thomas McGraw-Lewis (DIT/GradCAM).

The group convenes Wednesdays bi-weekly.

For more information on joining the Praxis & Pedagogy seminar series, and/or related activities see http://www.gradcam.ie/, or email the group at praxis@gradcam.ie

Praxis & Pedagogy is at: http://praxispamphlet.wordpress.com/


Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Sunday, September 4, 2011

School Culture and Fear of a Blank Planet - by Dishi Phillips






SCHOOL CULTURE AND ‘FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET’ – BY DISHI PHILLIPS

This is an essay written by Dishi Phillips when she was a final year student in Education Studies at the University of Northampton.

It was written as an assignment for the Education, Culture & Society module (EDU3004) that Dishi studied during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Dishi’s essay can now be found at The Flow of Ideas website:

Phillips, D. (2011) School Culture and Fear of a Blank Planet, an essay written for EDU3004 ‘Education, Culture and Society’, Education Studies, School of Education, University of Northampton, 10th January, online at ‘The Flow of Ideas’: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=contributions&sub=School%20Culture%20and%20Fear%20of%20a%20Blank%20Planet%20-%20Dishi%20Phillips

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com/