In this paper, I argue that teachers' efforts to defend education against reactionary forms of di... more In this paper, I argue that teachers' efforts to defend education against reactionary forms of digitalization and from complete automation should be supported by progressives. At the same time, efforts aimed at creatively transforming or sublating digitalization in non-deterministic ways to forge new pedagogical projects should also be enthusiastically engaged. Drawing on Marx's conception of sublation is crucial since it represents the process through which an aspect of something is overcome while other aspects of it are preserved in an altered form. Because sublation occurs both within entities as they develop and out of entities as they are negated, I contend that sublating digitized education both within capitalism and beyond capitalism should be pursued simultaneously.
This article explores how crises within capitalism tend to emerge as crises of realization. As th... more This article explores how crises within capitalism tend to emerge as crises of realization. As the digitalization of capitalism is now presupposed or postdigital, the article explores how this developing context is impacting capitalism's tendency toward crisis. Arguing that the digitalization of commerce is part of the neoliberalization of capitalism , the article situates the postdigital as not only about accumulation but also about part of a larger capitalist class offensive against the global proletarian class camp of the post-WWII era. Given this postdigital context, the article then explores the pedagogical implications and the pedagogical responses to what Jodi Dean has called communicative capitalism. Finally, the article examines instances of teacher rebellions and strikes as places where the communist educator might demonstrate solidarity and agitate against what is. The first premise of this article is that it is in the interest of the broadest masses of humanity for the ugly and painful reality of capitalism to be sublated into some sort of beautiful socialist opposite. To begin understanding what this process of change might look like as it is developed out of the present, we must be clear regarding our understanding of the current contours of capitalism, which is the postdigital. Because teachers have arguably taken the lead in the labor movement in the USA, we will examine the recent wave of teacher strikes and what lessons they offer for struggling in a specifically neoliberal postdigital. To grasp how these strikes, and the movements of the many more generally, have developed out of the present, in other words, we must be clear regarding our understanding of the current postdigital contours of actually existing capitalism.
The concept of " Immiseration Capitalism " indicates a systematic tendency of Capital to heap the... more The concept of " Immiseration Capitalism " indicates a systematic tendency of Capital to heap the " accumulation of misery " on the lives of the producing class alongside enriching the appropriating class. Neoliberalism is a specific political project within the history of class struggle that has reasserted the dominance of Capital over Labor, bringing concrete possibilities and a historical urgency to transcend capitalist social relations. Socialist education has a significant revolutionary role to play in this urgency.
Peter McLaren's Pedagogy of Insurrection offers a tour de force for educators and workers interes... more Peter McLaren's Pedagogy of Insurrection offers a tour de force for educators and workers interested in finding a way out of a social universe that is becoming, with each passing day, increasingly savage, imprisoned, despoiled and dominated by an out-of-control finance capital. McLaren brings more than three decades of experience as an educator, activist, and global revolutionary to over four hundred pages of biting critique and capitalist-smashing analysis.
No significant scholarship in educational studies has focused on Lefebvre's engagement with socia... more No significant scholarship in educational studies has focused on Lefebvre's engagement with socialist state theory and his position against Stalin. As a result, when Lefebvre's thoughts on the state and on actually existing socialism are mentioned, they are engaged completely uncritically. This essay addresses this crucial gap. Toward these ends, I critically engage Lefebvre's work on one of the most important and central concepts of socialist state theory, the dictatorship of the proletariat. While Lefebvre embraces Lenin's theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, as spelled out in The State and Revolution, following Khrushchev, he argues that Stalin distorted it in practice. Given the recent beginning stages of the vindication of Stalin as a result of previously unreleased Soviet-era state documents, this essay could not be more timely. In addition, the popularity of socialism among US youth also warrants a more honest appraisal of the historical context and contributions of Stalin. Joseph Stalin's predecessor Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 speech to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) dealt a heavy blow to the proletarian camp of the global class war. In his speech, Khrushchev argues that the cult of personality that grew around Stalin shielded him from all manner of scrutiny, leading to ''a whole series of exceedingly serious and grave perversions of Party principles, of Party democracy, of revolutionary legality'' (Khrushchev, 1956: lines 15–16). To build his case, Khrushchev cites a few passages from letters penned by Lenin expressing his concern regarding Stalin's excessively rude, abrasive, and assertive personality. Khrushchev also cites disciplinary letters from Lenin to Stalin to further his case. After laying this foundation based primarily upon Stalin's personality, Khrushchev goes on to accuse Stalin of crime after crime after crime against the people. In short, Khrushchev paints Stalin as a genocidal, bloodthirsty egomaniac more concerned with maintaining his own power than advancing socialism. As a result of Khrushchev's speech, combined with generations of anti-communist propaganda in the US in particular, a grotesquely distorted image of Stalin has served as the
In this paper, I argue that teachers' efforts to defend education against reactionary forms of di... more In this paper, I argue that teachers' efforts to defend education against reactionary forms of digitalization and from complete automation should be supported by progressives. At the same time, efforts aimed at creatively transforming or sublating digitalization in non-deterministic ways to forge new pedagogical projects should also be enthusiastically engaged. Drawing on Marx's conception of sublation is crucial since it represents the process through which an aspect of something is overcome while other aspects of it are preserved in an altered form. Because sublation occurs both within entities as they develop and out of entities as they are negated, I contend that sublating digitized education both within capitalism and beyond capitalism should be pursued simultaneously.
This article explores how crises within capitalism tend to emerge as crises of realization. As th... more This article explores how crises within capitalism tend to emerge as crises of realization. As the digitalization of capitalism is now presupposed or postdigital, the article explores how this developing context is impacting capitalism's tendency toward crisis. Arguing that the digitalization of commerce is part of the neoliberalization of capitalism , the article situates the postdigital as not only about accumulation but also about part of a larger capitalist class offensive against the global proletarian class camp of the post-WWII era. Given this postdigital context, the article then explores the pedagogical implications and the pedagogical responses to what Jodi Dean has called communicative capitalism. Finally, the article examines instances of teacher rebellions and strikes as places where the communist educator might demonstrate solidarity and agitate against what is. The first premise of this article is that it is in the interest of the broadest masses of humanity for the ugly and painful reality of capitalism to be sublated into some sort of beautiful socialist opposite. To begin understanding what this process of change might look like as it is developed out of the present, we must be clear regarding our understanding of the current contours of capitalism, which is the postdigital. Because teachers have arguably taken the lead in the labor movement in the USA, we will examine the recent wave of teacher strikes and what lessons they offer for struggling in a specifically neoliberal postdigital. To grasp how these strikes, and the movements of the many more generally, have developed out of the present, in other words, we must be clear regarding our understanding of the current postdigital contours of actually existing capitalism.
The concept of " Immiseration Capitalism " indicates a systematic tendency of Capital to heap the... more The concept of " Immiseration Capitalism " indicates a systematic tendency of Capital to heap the " accumulation of misery " on the lives of the producing class alongside enriching the appropriating class. Neoliberalism is a specific political project within the history of class struggle that has reasserted the dominance of Capital over Labor, bringing concrete possibilities and a historical urgency to transcend capitalist social relations. Socialist education has a significant revolutionary role to play in this urgency.
Peter McLaren's Pedagogy of Insurrection offers a tour de force for educators and workers interes... more Peter McLaren's Pedagogy of Insurrection offers a tour de force for educators and workers interested in finding a way out of a social universe that is becoming, with each passing day, increasingly savage, imprisoned, despoiled and dominated by an out-of-control finance capital. McLaren brings more than three decades of experience as an educator, activist, and global revolutionary to over four hundred pages of biting critique and capitalist-smashing analysis.
No significant scholarship in educational studies has focused on Lefebvre's engagement with socia... more No significant scholarship in educational studies has focused on Lefebvre's engagement with socialist state theory and his position against Stalin. As a result, when Lefebvre's thoughts on the state and on actually existing socialism are mentioned, they are engaged completely uncritically. This essay addresses this crucial gap. Toward these ends, I critically engage Lefebvre's work on one of the most important and central concepts of socialist state theory, the dictatorship of the proletariat. While Lefebvre embraces Lenin's theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, as spelled out in The State and Revolution, following Khrushchev, he argues that Stalin distorted it in practice. Given the recent beginning stages of the vindication of Stalin as a result of previously unreleased Soviet-era state documents, this essay could not be more timely. In addition, the popularity of socialism among US youth also warrants a more honest appraisal of the historical context and contributions of Stalin. Joseph Stalin's predecessor Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 speech to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) dealt a heavy blow to the proletarian camp of the global class war. In his speech, Khrushchev argues that the cult of personality that grew around Stalin shielded him from all manner of scrutiny, leading to ''a whole series of exceedingly serious and grave perversions of Party principles, of Party democracy, of revolutionary legality'' (Khrushchev, 1956: lines 15–16). To build his case, Khrushchev cites a few passages from letters penned by Lenin expressing his concern regarding Stalin's excessively rude, abrasive, and assertive personality. Khrushchev also cites disciplinary letters from Lenin to Stalin to further his case. After laying this foundation based primarily upon Stalin's personality, Khrushchev goes on to accuse Stalin of crime after crime after crime against the people. In short, Khrushchev paints Stalin as a genocidal, bloodthirsty egomaniac more concerned with maintaining his own power than advancing socialism. As a result of Khrushchev's speech, combined with generations of anti-communist propaganda in the US in particular, a grotesquely distorted image of Stalin has served as the
The purpose of this analysis is to explain and contribute to the anti-capitalist undertones that ... more The purpose of this analysis is to explain and contribute to the anti-capitalist undertones that exist within the current movement against police brutality. We focus particularly on the relationship between race and capitalism. What we see below is that a review of the evidence seems to suggest that the social justice movement of the 21st century must take as its center a critique of capital, which provides the larger context that informs the manifestation of bourgeois ideology from white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, to the blatant disregard for the health of the world's vital eco-systems. At the end of the article, we turn to the concept of "national oppression" as articulated in the U.S. context by Harry Haywood, to offer a way of organizing against capitalism and racism.
Learning with Lenin: Selected works on education and revolution, 2019
Lenin’s contributions to Marxism, the socialist struggle, and liberatory movements more generally... more Lenin’s contributions to Marxism, the socialist struggle, and liberatory movements more generally have revolved around true praxis: the merging of theory and practice. Marx’s own theories, of course, were also based on practical experience and theoretical reflection, but in the academy Marxism has become reduced to a mode of analysis completely detached from mass movements. Perhaps this explains low interest in Lenin among academics, who in general cling to a pure kind of Marxism that, by definition, can’t be changed by practice. Over the last decade, however, activists, organizers, and even younger radical academics have increasingly turned to Leninism and the practical and theoretical experience of the struggles of working class and oppressed people for inspiration and to understand their own struggles. This isn’t new in the United States, of course. Throughout most of the 20th century radical organizations and individuals looked to and linked with the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Ethiopia, and elsewhere. After the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950s, and then the neoliberal offensive in the 1970s, these links were broken. Learning with Lenin seeks to contribute to the rematerialization of a revolutionary movement in the United States by focusing on the peda- gogy of Lenin.
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