A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part Six

The following is the sixth of several posts that provide a verbatim reply (with a somewhat different order) to a "clinical evaluation" (a performance evaluation of my teaching) made by the principal of Ashern Central School (Ashern, Manitoba, Canada), Neil MacNeil, in the fall of 2011 when I was teaching grades 6, 7 and 8 … Continue reading A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part Six →

Review of Thier’s Book “A People’s Guide to Capitalism,” Part One

I recently participated in a group called No One Is Illegal here in Toronto. The group decided to provide a zoom reading meeting every week to discuss the book A People's Guide to Capitalism, by Hadas Thier, with many participants not belonging to the group but interested in understanding more about capitalism. We read the … Continue reading Review of Thier’s Book “A People’s Guide to Capitalism,” Part One →

Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Eighteen: The Hidden Curriculum of Learning to Develop a Positive Attitude Towards Being Exploited and Oppressed

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 Eighteen: The Hidden Curriculum of Learning to Develop a Positive Attitude Towards Being Exploited and Oppressed →

Management Rights in a Spanish Collective Agreement: An Expression of “Free Collective Bargaining” or the Dicatorship of Employers?

There are undoubtedly variations in the rights of workers from country to country, but the fundamental principle of the power of employers as a class is constant. This power is often implicit but also often is expressed more explicitly--even in collective agreements between employers and unions. For example, the following is taken from the collective … Continue reading Management Rights in a Spanish Collective Agreement: An Expression of “Free Collective Bargaining” or the Dicatorship of Employers? →

A Worker’s Resistance to the Capitalist Government or State and Its Representatives, Part Twelve

This final post in this series has to do with a long psychological vocational assessment performed by Jeffrey Karp on May 30, 2014. It is 15 pages long. I choose only to select the last few pages since they illustrate the oppressive nature of such assessments. On page 13, Mr. Karp wrote the following: Mr. … Continue reading A Worker’s Resistance to the Capitalist Government or State and Its Representatives, Part Twelve →

Critical Education Articles Placed in the Teacher Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Seventeen: The Failure of Micro School Reformism to Address Children’s Poverty

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 Seventeen: The Failure of Micro School Reformism to Address Children’s Poverty →

The Ontario Federation of Labour’s Workers-First Agenda: A Critique: Part Two

Introduction The first part of this series focused on a critique of the phrase "good jobs and decent work" expressed in the Ontario Federation of Labour's campaign titled "Building the Fight for a Workers-First Agenda" (https://ofl.ca/event/activist-assembly-2022/). This post will focus on a critique of the phrases "high quality affordable housing" and "health care." I draw … Continue reading The Ontario Federation of Labour’s Workers-First Agenda: A Critique: Part Two →

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Real Assumption of Some Bureaucratic Tribunals, Part Six

It is supposed to be a fundamental principle of criminal law that a person is presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the State (government). This is the ideology or the rhetoric (which much of the left have swallowed). The reality is otherwise. In reality, the administrative apparatus of various organizations of the government and semi-governmental … Continue reading Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Real Assumption of Some Bureaucratic Tribunals, Part Six →

A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part Five

The following is the fifth of several posts that provide a verbatim reply (with a somewhat different order) to a "clinical evaluation" (a performance evaluation of my teaching) made by the principal of Ashern Central School (Ashern, Manitoba, Canada), Neil MacNeil, in the fall of 2011 when I was teaching grades 6, 7 and 8 … Continue reading A Principal’s Evaluation of My Teaching Basic French, or: How to Oppress a Worker Through Performance Evaluation, Part Five →