The Occupy Wall Street Movement has been both ignored and vilified by the mainstream media. The Wall Street banker-pundits themselves pretend not to understand the protests, to see them as the acts of an ignorant and misguided social fringe. Yet seen in the context of the global youth protest they take on a deep and significant meaning - a disenchantment with the political system, an anger at the social and economic abuse by the powerful and a desire for change - real change that does not depend on the presence of an image-perfect charismatic leader, but from a grass roots movement that may yet portend the re-emergence of a new brand of decentralised Socialism.
This is a GUEST article by Rick Ayers, an adjunct Professor of Teacher Education at the Unversity of San Francisco. In this penetrating analysis, Rick takes a takes at the Occupy Wall Sttreet Movement that is sweeping the world and suggests that it is confounding educational and social theorists who for generations have talked about changing and improving the system. The left and the Right have debated different goals and strategies, but it has all been TALK. The difference here, suggests Rick, is that the protest is about action.Yes, the protesters have multiple and often not very clear goals. Yes, they lack a centralised point of reference or control. But what they share is a determination to create change, to stop waiting for the Ubermensch to come and save us all with a grand masterplan. they understand how thhe system works, they recognise its structural inequalities and they intend to redistribte the wealth.
Rick suggests that the same principles and strategies might be applied to schools, allowing the learners to organise and direct their own learrning. He suggests that if we want clues as to how this might shape up we ought to read the works of critical pedagogues who have been laying out the arguments and strategies for decades - Linda Darling-Hammond, Pedro Noguera, Debbie Meier, Monty Neill, Diane Ravitch, Bill Ayers, Kris Gutierrez, Anthony Cody amongst others. Good stuff.
This PDF involves a critical analysis of New Zealand's environmental legislation. It traces the history of the Act and its subsequent modification(s). I*t then goes on to list its serious failures to conserve the New Zealand environment, cataloguing:
Filthy rivers and lakes
Unsustainable and pollutibng farming, fishing and mining practices
Government, Ministerial and Departmental failures to exact compliance
Asking why this has happened it delves into the relkationship between the legislative theory and practice and the ideology of free market capitalism - in particular the obsession with ECONOMIC GROWTH. It goes on to discuss the options available to citizens to wrest control of the environment from the cosy relationship between government, banks and the military/industrial complex. To download the PDFclick here
A guest piece by critical theorist educational sociologist, Head of the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Malta. Peter Mayo. Peter remembers that other 9/11 in 1973 when August Pinochet led a military coup - backed by the CIA and instigated at the request of US multinational IT&T - that resulted in the bombing of the Presidential palace (photo) and assassination of the elected Marxist President, Salvador Allende and the murder and "disappearance" of hundreds of thousands of union representatives, student activists, leftist intellectuals. He asks why this atrocity (which ended ten times more lives than the more recent 9/11) did not receive the media coverage of its successor. Could it be that in that case, the people of Chile had chosen to challenge American global foreign policy and hegemony? It was first published in Counterpunch Magazine,September 17-18, 2011.
Organic Explorer is New Zealand's original and foremost Eco-tourism guidebook and website (www.organicexplorer.com), authored by my wife, Leonie Johnsen and myself. This is the introduction to the just published 3rd Edition. It's different from any other tourism guidebook you have ever seen. Unlike others of the genre, it doesn't ignore or gloss over the increasingly sombre environmental realities of this beautiful country we live in. Instead, it takes a critical look at the rivers, lakes, beaches, forests and wildlife that are so important to our $18.6 billion tourism industry. The book asks how New Zealand tourism is coping in the face of 'dirty" farming practices, mining, logging and oil exploration, and what needs to be done to preserve and heal the uniqueness that visitors pay thousands of dollars every year to come and witness. It takes a critical look at Government policy and practice, and strips away the veil of green-speak and PR lies about our Pure New Zealand image. It's a great critical analysis of New Zealand's primary industry that at the government level puts image before substance, short-term profits above long-term sustainability.
The Introduction sets out an overview of the book with stark statistics about the corporate and governmental lies. It catalogues how New Zealand has:
increased its greenhouse gas emissions by 22% since signing the Kyoto Protocol in 2005. The protocol binds countries to a 5% average reduction on their 1990 levels over 5 years.
an emissions total 60% higher than britain per head of population
the 12th highest emissions in the world per head of population
the 9th highest rating of household waste
the 11th highest energy consumption among the 20 OECD countries
the 6th highest ecological footprtint in the world
the 8th bhighest car ownership rate in the world
one of the work public transport systems in the world
and to cap it off, there are more than 8,000 undocumaneted toxic waste dumps through out the country posing a serious threat to health and safety. The Introduction confronts the contradictions and holds the government's feet to the fire about its ideological pursuit of the (un)free market. Still, even after all of this, New Zealand is a FANTASTIC country to visit! If you plan to visit here, be sure to buy your copy of the latest Organic Explorer Book on Amazon. Order your copy now HERE
We may be witnessing the beginning of the end of free-market global capitalism. despite political assurances to the contrary - of business as usual - and theirongoing blind pursuit of Free-Trade Agreements (China, india, the USA?) the signs are all around us that the system is falling apart under the twin pressures of peak oil and climate change. In New Zealand this winter, fruit and vegetable prices reached unprecedented levels due to the earlier Queensland flood and the cost of air freight. Unable to compete with the Queensland growers in earlier, better times, new zealand growers has ceased production, and in the absence of their product, demand has vastly outstripped supply. The same has happened with other foods, so that low-income New zealand families were unable to properly feed themselves.
ll of this has happened over the last 20 years because we have allowed ourselves to be lulled into being consumers rather than producers, buying our commodities and luxuries from far away and supported in this by the cheap price of oil. At the same time that we have used cheap oiul to fuel (no pun intended) our export drive to sell our own commodities and produce far overseas where prices are higher and profits bigger. In this, we have also condemned poor New zealanders to pay high export prices for domestic products that we produce here in profusion - milk, cheese, lamb etc.
These prices and the economy on which they are built are completely dependent on cheap fossil fuel and on a stable global climate. When either of these two things change (as they now appear to be doing) the price of food increases. As we run out of oil and as the climate change progresses, the world food system is becoming increasingly unstable and unsustainable. This critical analysis examines the intersection of these two variables and suggests that we may not have much longer to prepare for the coming collapse.
From 1840 to the present, this critical analysis covers Maori land marches, Manapouri Dam protest, logging protests, anti-nuclear activism (including the Rainbow Warrior), pesticide and herbicide (Agent Orange) protests, State asset sale protests, GMO protests, and the reality and future probablility of State repression and State terrorism. We point to the Ruatoki "Antiterrorism" raids as a thing of the future. We celebrate and salute the "troublemakers" of New Zealand who have thus far prevented the complete ruination of this land and the expropriation of its "resources through a collusive relationship between government and international capitalism. It makes the point that we are approaching or have already passed the limits of our ability to prevent dramatic and cataclysmic environmental, political, economic and social change. There is no alternative left other than direct uncompromising activism in the face of a recalcitrant government and the theft of our heritage.
This is a second GUEST article - this time by Antonia Darder and Peter Mayo. Antonia is an internationally recognized scholar, artist, poet, activist, and public intellectual. She holds the Leavey Presidential Endowed Chair in Ethics and Moral Leadership in the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University. She also is Professor Emerita of Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Antonia and Peter interrogate the ways in which the Cubans have resisted and adapted to almost 50 years of US embargoes, and economic oppression. Without glossing over the internal social and cultural restrictions that the Cubans have had to adopt to avoid and prevent the internal sabotage of their socialist regime, they detail the ways in which the government has developed alternaticve and non-exploitative economic relations withy other countries - offering a real alternative to the free-market capitalist system that has driven us to the brink of extinction. It was first published in Counterpunch Online , 7th-9th October 2011. To download the PDF click HERE.
For a further detailed description of how the Cuban medical system far surpasses those of the UK and the US and operates as a significant "Trade" export see THIS
PLEASE NOTE
Although these essays are directed specifically at the New Zealand context, (because I'm becoming much more active at the local level) they have relevance for situations that exist across the globe. The ideology of the free market and of unlimited growth and development has brought the planet to the edge of annihilation. If we wanrt to survive as a species - if we want any species to survive,we have to become actiive NOW. These essays may help you to make sense of your own context. And if you think I may be exaggerating the case for our planetary demise, watch this You Tube video of Jeremy Rifkin. It's scary!
There are more than 100 (free) downloadable and fully illustrated PDFs on all of these topics and more from the Primer level, up to PhD. The PDFs are direct and easy to understand. There are also sets of extensive bibliographies and glossaries and related web links in all of these areas. For access to some you will need to register, but that is easy and quick (top right), and they are
ALL FREE!!!
Have a browse, pass it on to friends and colleagues
Remember, knowledge isn't power: it's responsibility exercised through relationship-building.
Knowledge is to be shared not hoarded
I have had eighteen months of travel. I have been to the USA (many States), Mexico, Canada, Iceland, England and New Zealand. We have returned home to discover that the prices of all commodieties has increased by no less than 50% during the time of our absence. A few things to think about:
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia lifted its interest rates more than 25 base points (by .45%) above the Reserve Bank recommended rate this month, putting further financial pressure on already stressed mortgagees, at the same time that the Bank's CEO, Sir Ralph Norris voted himself a $20.5M pay packet.
The Big Four Australian banks, the Commonwealth Bank, WestpaC, ANZ AND NAB have all increased their rates and all of their executives have given themselves massive pay hikes. Mike Smith (ANZ) $13.6M, Gail Kelly (Westpac) $12.1M, and Cameron Clyne (NAB) $7.1M.
At the same time, George Frazis the Westpac New Zealand Boss, became the highest paid executive of a New Zealand company with his $5.9M pay package at a time when the Ombudsman revealed that Westpac NZ had received a record number of customer complaints about its fees and bank charges.
We live in a country that is one of the world's most prominent exporters of dairy products. Fonterra, the primary dairy company in New Zealand boasts on its trucks that it delivers "2.5 tonnes of dairy produce to the World". Meanwhile, friends only half-jokingly tell me that they are "saving up" to buy a block of cheese (which costs an unbelievable $15 per kilo.) Then, just a few days ago, it was reported that the CEO of Fonterra, Andrew Ferrier, had just granted himself a $1.5M annual pay increase.
At the same time, Fonterra is one of the greatest polluters of the New Zealand environment and one of the companies putting our greatest natural resource - water - under pressure from irrigation - costing rhe New Zealand taxpayer millions of dollars annually. Add to this the loss to the economy through the impact on the tourism industry - our largest export earner.
Multiply these examples a thousand times across the planet. Clearly something is out of whack! Is it the beginning of the end of Capitalism? Will the people rise up in outrage and dismantle this corrupt economic system? Is it time we started taking to the streets? When does frustration turn to armed insurrection? How hungry do people have to be? Just remember that all of these people were educated in schools. Education promotes the kind of acquisitive, competitive, couldn't-care-less attitudes exemplified by these examples. We need to educate differently. Let's stop playing the Capitalist game in schools.! Some suggestions? Let;s teach our children:
No borrowing!
No growth
No consuming
No Free Trade!
No Global Economy
Grow and buy local
Don't vote
Don't pay taxes
Don't co-operate
Grow-you-own
Resist
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The website is constantly growing and developing and your feedback will play an important role in keeping it topical and relevant.
There are four main sections:
Critical Theory
Critical Theory: An introduction to the field of Critical Theorising, with bibliographies, glossary, main theorists and personal writings. Outlines of some of the areas in which Critical Theorising has been influential.
Critical Education Theory and Practice
Critical Education Theory: An introduction to Critical Education Theory, with its genaeology, subfields, a glossary, main theorists, bibliographies and personal writings and academic analyses
Critical Education Practice: Examples of critical practice taken mostly from the field of Community Engagement in Design Education, applyinng Critical Theorising and Critical Practice to a wide range of fields (Education, Health, Community Development etc.)
Critical Design Theory and Practice
Critical Design Theories: An overview of the highly contested space of Design and Design Education theorising, including critical historical studies, Postmodernism, Theories of Resistance, and the role and significance of Social Architecture and Community Design. Personal and guest papers all downloadable.
Critical Design Practice : A brief chronology of my own persional work and development in design practice, with some illustrated examples of work in the area of Community Engagement.
Community Engagement and Strategic Planning
Programme Development: A brief overview of my work in Academic Programme Development while working for five years at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi. The developed programmes (based upon critical theorising and practice) are described, along with a brief philosophy of programme development for indigenous peoples.
Space Programming: A brief overview of the importance of and relationship between critical education practice and good space planning.
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Thanks for forwarding this to me; it's a really great review, not just in the sense that it's supportive, but it really situates the book within the issues and the issues within the book. It's obvious that you have a fine command of this material and I'm glad to now be aware of your Webpage and will turn my students on to it.
Great article Tony! And what a terrific website! A wonderful job bringing together themes and issues of importance to critical educators everywhere. There is much to offer social justice educators from a variety of fields. Well done, companero.(Peter Mclaren)
I am in awe of your energy, diligence and resilience, and beyond that, astuteness and resoluteness in maintaining a critical stance. Those are a lot of paper(s) to work through. Thanks also for reading my paper carefully. I worried, that with a critical stance, you mighy be impatient with my reaching back into the classical tradition in social theory, and especially Weber, whom we don't usually think of as critical. But, you grasped my point precisely and encouraged me about the value of such less than obvious sorts of critical work. Good on you, if that is the appropriate term. Thanks for your work and, as someone once said to me, in passing, many years ago, Don't lose your critical edge."
Thank you for sending along this great review. I appreciate your insightful observations on my chapter and on the volume as a whole. It's great to see such a careful and close reading of the book. I am also impressed by your wonderful website. All the best,
A colleague sent me a blog mentioning me which you had graciously responded to offering your website as a resource on critical pedagogy. Just wanted to thank you for the work you've put into this admirable decoding of the critical end of things...(Ira Shor )
This is a superb resource which forges links between important areas -architecture, sociology and critical education. I shall certainly share this with colleagues/students, friends and family members starting with my daughter who is an architect. It is also a brilliant teaching tool.
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