The Radical Left Underestimate the Ideological Power of Employers and Overestimate Their Own Ideological Struggle

Leftists frequently refer to themselves and others as the left. This is vague to the point of being useless. Often, what is meant by being left is being paying lip-service to being anti-capitalist--without in reality doing anything to oppose the power of the class of employers as such, either ideologically or in practice. A good … Continue reading The Radical Left Underestimate the Ideological Power of Employers and Overestimate Their Own Ideological Struggle →

Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Eight: The Mind-Body Problem

This is a continuation of earlier posts. 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 started to provide a summary of the article along … Continue reading Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Eight: The Mind-Body Problem →

The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Social Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Six

The following issue deserves a separate post. As I have tried to stress throughout these posts, unions in Canada (and undoubtedly elsewhere) are inadequate organizations for representing the interests of the working class The issue illustrates how union reps limit the development of a critical approach to a society dominated by a class of employers. … Continue reading The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Social Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Six →

The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Social Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Five

Introduction Before I obtained a so-called permanent teaching position (I will explain in a much later post why I use the word "so-called"), I worked for a number of years as a substitute teacher (with short periods of term teaching positions). I became an executive member of the Winnipeg Teachers' Association (WTA) (in the province … Continue reading The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Social Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Five →

Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Seven: Critique of the School Curriculum

How to Aim for Socialism Without Aiming for It, or The Nature of the Social-Democratic or Social-Reformist Left

The following post that I had already posted a couple of years ago is relevant for a confrontation with a person whom I consider to be a social democrat or social reformist. I will refer to this "debate" later on. The above title is a take on a scene in the movie Enter the Dragon, … Continue reading How to Aim for Socialism Without Aiming for It, or The Nature of the Social-Democratic or Social-Reformist Left →

The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Social Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Four

Before I obtained a so-called permanent teaching position (I will explain in a much later post why I use the word "so-called"), I worked for a number of years as a substitute teacher (with short periods of term teaching positions). I became an executive member of the Winnipeg Teachers' Association (WTA) (in the province of … Continue reading The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Social Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Four →

Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Six: The Reduction of the Nature of Teenagers to Their Brains

Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Five: The Division Between the Intellectual and the Manual or Physical

The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Three

Even before I served as the chair of the Substitute Committee for the Winnipeg Teachers' Association (WTA), I tried to establish communication between the rank-and-file teachers and substitute teachers and myself. Such communication forms a necessary aspect of the work of the radical left. A Philosophical (Critical) Commentary on the Collective Bargaining Seminar, August 22-24, … Continue reading The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Three →