Social justice has now become a buzzword these days. There is social justice this and social justice that, here a social justice, there a social justice, everywhere a social justice. This buzzword forms the ideology of the social-democratic left, for example, as well as the conservative right. After all, who is against social justice? The … Continue reading School Rhetoric: Ideological Use of the Concept of Social Justice, Part One
Tag: Ideology
The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part Four: To Resist or Not to Resist the Police
Are You Arrested? The Ambiguity of Being Detained by the Police When a police officer stops a citizen, an immigrant or a migrant worker, it may be understandably unclear whether s/he is arrested or not and what s/he can do or not do if stopped by the police. From McBarnet, page 36: Arrest-that is, the … Continue reading The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part Four: To Resist or Not to Resist the Police
The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part Three: Arbitrary Arrest and Police as Privileged Citizens
Introduction This is a continuation of a series that exposes the reality of courts as part of the exposure of the reality of the rule of law. The series involves quotes from the book by Doreen McBarnet (1983) Conviction: Law, the State and the Construction of Justice as well as short commentaries related to the … Continue reading The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part Three: Arbitrary Arrest and Police as Privileged Citizens
The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Social Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Seven
In the last post in this series, I pointed out that before I obtained a so-called permanent teaching position , 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 Manitoba, Canada), … Continue reading The Radical Left Needs to Call into Question Existing Social Institutions at Every Opportunity, Part Seven
Critical Education Articles Placed in the Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Nine: A Feminist Logic?
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 Staff Lounge While I Was a Teacher, Part Nine: A Feminist Logic?
The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part Two: The Case, Not the Truth, is Relevant in Court Proceedings
Introduction This is a continuation of a previous post (The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part One). I explored how judges influence what juries define as "reasonable doubt." As I indicated in the previous post: The following series of posts are meant to complement the series of posts on the … Continue reading The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part Two: The Case, Not the Truth, is Relevant in Court Proceedings
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
The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part One
Introduction The following series of posts are meant to complement the series of posts on the issue of reforming versus abolishing the police (see for example Reform or Abolition of the Police, Part One or Reform Versus Abolition of the Police, Part 8: The Police and the Political Economy of Capitalism). The following is mainly a series … Continue reading The Real World of the Rule of Law: Courts as Oppressive Organizations, Part One
Reform Versus Abolition of the Police, Part Six: Unions and the Police
I read an article on unions and the police that I thought would be useful for readers: George Rigakos & Aysegul Ergul (2011), "Policing the Industrial Reserve Army: An International Study," in Crime, Law & Social Change, Volume 56, Number 4. (see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227052617_Policing_the_industrial_reserve_army_An_international_study). I came across the article while researching the function of the police … Continue reading Reform Versus Abolition of the Police, Part Six: Unions and the Police
Do Workers Work for a Particular Employer or for the Class of Employers? Part One: A Limitation of Some Radical Left Critiques of Capitalist Relations of Production and Exchange (A.K.A. Capitalism)
While doing some research for a post on this blog, I became aware of how many Marxists claim that workers really work for the capitalist class or the class of employers rather than a particular employer. I asked my wife, who worked in Guatemala as a saleswoman, whether she thought that she worked for a … Continue reading Do Workers Work for a Particular Employer or for the Class of Employers? Part One: A Limitation of Some Radical Left Critiques of Capitalist Relations of Production and Exchange (A.K.A. Capitalism)
The Abolitionary 