Class, Neoliberal Capitalism in Crisis and the Resistant and Transformative Role of Education and Knowledge Workers

This chapter calls for transformative activism by education and other cultural workers - teachers, lecturers, journalists - in order to develop an economically just economy, polity and society. This chapter sets out key characteristics of neo- liberal global capitalism (and,importantly, its accompanying neoconservatism) and its major effects on society and education. It highlights the obscene and widening economic, social and educational inequalities both within states and, globally, between states; the de- theorisation of education and the regulating of critical thought and activists through the ideological and repressive state apparatuses; and the limitation and regulation of democracy and democratic accountability at national and local educational levels. The chapter analyses three components of the `Capitalist Agenda for/in Education' within the current neo-liberal /neo-conservative globalising project of Capital, and, calls for critical engagement with- challenging- the Radical Right in its neoliberal, Conservative, neoconservative, traditionalist religious, and its social democratic (sometimes revised as `Third way') manifestations. The chapter also calls for engagement with ideological and cultural fashions and with fashionable `knowledge workers’ within the media and the academy -fashions such as postmodernism, which, together with social democracy/ left revisionism, ultimately serve the function of `naturalising' neo-liberal Capital as the dominating `common sense'. They do this partly by virtue of their ignoring, or deriding Marxist derived/related concepts of social class, class conflict and socialism. Such academic fashions as postmodernism and left revisionism debilitate and displace viable solidaristic socialist counter-hegemonic struggles

Transformative education, critical education, Marxist education: Possibilities and alternatives to the restructuring of education in global Neoliberal / Neoconservative times

This paper briefly examines the context-specific paths and policies of neoliberalism and neoconservatism and the resistance to their depradations. While calling for activism with micro-, meso- and macro-social and political arenas, the paper focuses on activity within formal education institutions. It suggests a series of measures- a socialist Manifesto for education, for discussion. It concludes with a call to action for teachers and education workers (and others) to be “Critical Educators,” Resistors, Marxist activists, within and outside official education

Immiseration Capitalism, Activism and Education: Resistance, Revolt and Revenge

This is a panoptic paper in five parts. In Part One, Immiseration Capitalism, I examine the current neoliberal cum neoconservative austerity capitalism and its `class war from above’, in particular its resultant relative immiseration and its absolute immiseration, with particular reference to Greece, Ireland, Britain and the USA. In Part Two, Anger at, Analysis of and Activism within/ against Immiseration Capitalism, I argue that there is a necessity for Anger, (Marxist class-based) Analysis, and Activism, with Programme, Organisation and Strategy. Activism, Analysis and Strategy are then addressed in terms both of electoralism and in terms of direct, extra-Parliamentary activism, both being deemed necessary, but with the former having limitations and the latter being deemed essential. Here, I lay a stress on the importance of revolutionary Marxist party. In Part Three, I identify the main features of Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism and Education for Austerity Capitalism and Immiseration, contrasting this, in Part Four, with Activism in the Education Arena: Critical Pedagogies, Socialist Education. Here, I summarise key aspects of critical pedagogy and socialist education, and also summarise Marxist critiques of theories that serve to disable class based analysis and activism in education and society: postmodernism, identity politics, and revisionist/ reformist socialism. In Part Five, Resistance: Revolt, Revenge and Strategic Activism, I return to Resistance and Revenge and call for them to be strategically focused. The paper is also slightly autobiographical, referencing some of my own relevant experiences, blogs and writing. As a panoptic paper it is therefore, inevitable a summary paper, in places, an extended annotated bibliography

Class Struggle and Education: Neoliberalism, (Neo)-conservatism, and the Capitalist Assault on Public Education

In this article I examine the nexus, the mutually reinforcing connection between neoliberal and neoconservative ideology and social and political forces, and variation between countries such as Britain, the USA and Turkey. This analysis is then applied in particular to neoliberal/ neoconservative education 'reform' in England, focusing on marketisation, high-stakes testing, privatization and pre-privatisation, and the increased surveillance of teachers as a result of new public managerialism in education, as reinforced and enforced by the school inspection system. These effects are then related to the lived work experiences of specific teachers, using their own word. I conclude the article by examining and calling for resistance, for teachers and critical education workers to educate, agitate and organize in various arenas, and to consider the importance of political programme- in particular to consider the utility of the transitional programme as advanced by Trotsky

Seven contemporary ideological perspectives on teacher education in Britain today

This paper examines and critiques seven contemporary ideological perspectives on teacher education in Britain, it examines the Radical Right, the \u27Soft Centre\u27, the \u27Hard Centre\u27, and the \u27Left in the Centre\u27. In doing so it refers to three interrelated levels of discourse: the popular Press, the academic Press and the work of ideologues, and the Party political. The paper critiques not only the Radical Right but also Centrist positions such as the erstwhile Left, the \u27Left in the Centre\u27, criticising their virtual evacuation of the cultural and ideological field of teacher education

Marxist education and teacher education against capitalism in neoliberal/ neoconservative/ neofascist/ times

In this article I analyse global and national neoliberalisms- economic and social class war from above- neoconservatisms which are leading to and connected with NeoFascisms- with their scapegoating, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, heterophobia, militarism and the attacks on dissent- whether electoral, media, or from academics/ universities and workers’ organisations and actions. Six prime examples are Erdogan in Turkey, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Trump in the USA, Orban in Hungary, the Law and Justice government in Poland, and the racist government in Italy, in effect led by Salvini. Across Europe Far-right anti-immigrant, xenophobic and ultra nationalist  authoritarian parties are recruiting and becoming electorally significant- and, in some cases, significant on the streets. Critique social democratic reformist parties and governments for adopting neoliberal austerity policies and thereby becoming delegitimised, together with the too-often `accomodationist' trade union and party leaderships. and critically examine prospects for left social democracy as represented, for example, by the Jeremy Corbyn led Labour Party in the UK. Much of the article is devoted to the resistant and the revolutionary role of teachers, academics and education/ cultural workers in different arenas, from national and local electoral and direct action politics/ Focusing on Critical Education, Critical Educators, Marxist Education, Marxist Educators, I seek to address four aspects of education: pedagogy, the curriculum, resistance in the classroom and the hidden curriculum, and the structure of schooling nationally and locally (within-school). I conclude by setting out what is specifically Marxist about the proposals set out. These are: (1) Class Analysis: the Capital-Labour Relation; (2) Capitalism must be replaced by Socialism and that change is Revolutionary; and (3) Revolutionary Transformation of Economy and Society needs to be preceded by and accompanied by a Class Programme, Organisation, and Activism. Regarding capitalism, our task is to replace it with democratic Marxism, to lead, firstly, into socialism, and ultimately, into communism. As teachers, as educators, as cultural workers, as educational, union and party activists, as intellectuals, we have a role to play

Immiseration Capitalism

Description to be added.Cannot be left empt

Resistance in Britain

In recent years there have been expressions of anger and frustration against the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition government and the predecessor New Labour government’s neoliberalising policies. The momentum against government policies that immiserate a larger proportion of the population (whilst the income of the super rich globally grows at a staggering rate of 14% per year (Bower, 2013)), may seem to have diminished at present (summer 2013) but it is likely to rise, especially as direct action and local and national demonstrations continue, and as new webs and political formations of and strategies for resistance are created. As Gramsci (1971) observed, hegemony is never won outright, and the continuation of such struggles is important in building class consciousness. Whilst we recognise the powerful and growing penetration of the idea that there is no alternative (TINA) to austerity neoliberalisation, and the concomitant imposition of increasing severe sentences on those who revolt against (and not merely evade) the status quo, we believe that resistance must strengthen at the levels of ideas and activism. This belief impels this chapter. The chapter has four sections. First we outline the current political landscape that has been moulded by the ruling capitalist class embarking on an aggressive policy agenda to expand, accelerate and deepen the reality and ideology of neoliberalisation. We examine expressions and demonstrations of public anger that are resisting the neoliberal and neoconservative status quo. We then, in section two, focus on the accumulation of anger/resistance and government/media responses to this. The third section focuses specifically on anger, activism, protest and resistance in education, at school, further/vocational college level and at university level.2. A brief fourth section reports on and analyses the current state of organisation and development of resistance to immiseration capitalism in England

The Other Left : 96th Street/Allisonville Road

This presentation documents the planning, design, construction, and operational effectiveness of the first full median u-turn intersection in the state of Indiana. The presentation contains a before-and-after study of the intersection, comparing operational measures of effectiveness prior to and 2 years subsequent to intersection construction. Safety, travel time, and LOS are highlighted