Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Twenty-Two: The Need for the Working Class to Defy the Law When Necessary

This is a continuation of a series of posts on summaries of articles, mainly on education. When I was a French teacher at Ashern Central School, in Ashern, Manitoba, Canada, I started to place critiques, mainly (although not entirely) of the current school system. At first, I merely printed off the articles, but then I … Continue reading Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Twenty-Two: The Need for the Working Class to Defy the Law When Necessary →

The Liberal Media’s Role in Pasting Over Oppression Abroad

John Clarke, former major organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, recently posted on Facebook the following: John Clarke An interesting examination of the role of the liberal media, focusing on The Guardian. Based on my own experience, I would add another consideration of major significance. Precisely because the liberal media does offer a … Continue reading The Liberal Media’s Role in Pasting Over Oppression Abroad →

Rocking-Chair Marxism

I was inspired by someone to change the title of this post from "Armchair Marxism" to "Rocking-Chair Marxism." On a Marxist listserve, we read the following relatively recently: I find your schadenfreude at the suffering of an invaded and oppressed people revolting [referring to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine]. [Schadenfreude is a German word, … Continue reading Rocking-Chair Marxism →

The Twenty Largest Employers in the Victoria, British Columbia Region, Based on the Number of Employees, 2011

When belonging to a leftist organization called the Toronto Labour Committee (Ontario, Canada), I worked on, in a minor position, on some statistics related to financial campaign contributions for the Toronto elections. Not being satisfied with this, I proposed that we start trying to develop a class analysis of Toronto. I indicated, though, that I … Continue reading The Twenty Largest Employers in the Victoria, British Columbia Region, Based on the Number of Employees, 2011 →

The Need to Develop More Rigorous Analyses of Common Problems of the Working Class

John Clarke, former major organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), recently posted the following on Facebook: John Clarke I saw a religious message on social media the other day that led me to ponder questions of reasoning and analysis. It suggested that a lack of physical evidence for the existence of Heaven was … Continue reading The Need to Develop More Rigorous Analyses of Common Problems of the Working Class →

School Rhetoric: Ideological Use of the Concept of Social Justice, Part Two

In a previous post, I pointed out how even the most radical article on social justice in the winter 2015-2016 edition of Leaders & Learners (the official magazine of the Canadian Association of School Administrators, or CASS) expresses the limited definition (and views) of middle-class ideology. This post will continue to critically analyze the content … Continue reading School Rhetoric: Ideological Use of the Concept of Social Justice, Part Two →

THE UNBEARABLE MANICHEANISM OF THE “ANTI-IMPERIALIST” LEFT

Robinson's criticism of the anti-imperialist left applies as much to those who defend the abstract right of an abstract Ukraine (apparently without classes, exploitation or internal oppression) to self-determination. Of course, criticism of such abstract positions does not mean that the Russian government's decision to invade the Ukraine should be exempt from critcism. However, the … Continue reading THE UNBEARABLE MANICHEANISM OF THE “ANTI-IMPERIALIST” LEFT →