“Caracas: one of the most dangerous cities of the planet. . .” goes the blurb for the movie Express Kidnapping — the only Venezuelan film viewed internationally so far, and the top grossing movie here. Crime, according to the Latinobarometro 2008 report, is the biggest problem in Venezuela for 57% of its respondents. So it […]
Subjects Archives: Education
Education, Schooling, Teaching, etc.
The Obama Stimulus — A View from Cincinnati, Ohio
People in Cincinnati, like others around the country — either having lost their jobs or fearful of losing them — have been waiting anxiously, some desperately, for news that President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan would help them. Now the news has arrived, and the news is that help is coming. Help for the banks and […]
Reading, Writing, and Union-Building
“It’s a well-established fact,” reports the New York Times Book Review, “that Americans are reading fewer books than they used to.”1 According to the National Endowment for the Arts, more than 50% of those surveyed haven’t cracked a book in the previous year. In labor circles, the percentage of recent readers may be even smaller. […]
BC Students Forced to Take Prof. Bill Ayers Off-Campus
Chestnut Hill, MA — After administrators at Boston College forced the cancellation late Friday afternoon of an academic lecture featuring Professor Bill Ayers, student organizers of the event have decided that the show will go on — off-campus. Student groups and faculty at Boston College drew criticism from a right-wing talk radio show host […]
Nepal: Meeting the People’s Liberation Army
For the last week I have been with the JanaMukti Sena, the People’s Liberation Army, mostly with the Kalyan/Anish Memorial Brigade of the 3rd division. This is the People’s Hospital. Set up by the People’s Army, it now serves both them and the public. It has many facilities, including a pharmacy, an operating room for […]
Catalonia: Thousands of Citizens Demonstrate against Government’s Education Policies
On Thursday, the 19th of March, about 30,000 teachers and students took to the streets of Barcelona to march against the education policies of the Government of Catalonia. The unions charged that the New Law of Education, like the Bologna Plan, aims to open the door to the privatization of education. The demonstrators demanded […]
Iran: Poverty and Inequality since the Revolution
Thirty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed equity and social justice as the Revolution’s main objective. His successor, Ayatollah Khamene’i, continues to refer to social justice as the Revolution’s defining theme. Similarly, Presidents Khatami and Ahmadinejad, though they are from very different political persuasions, placed heavy emphasis on social justice in their political rhetoric. Yet the […]
Statement of Joel Kovel Regarding His Termination by Bard College
Joel Kovel holds the Alger Hiss chair in social studies at Bard College and is the author of Overcoming Zionism among other titles. He has recently been informed by the college that his contract will not be extended beyond July 1. In the statement below, he argues that the termination is due to his […]
An Open Letter: Come Occupy a Building with Us . . . Now
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
Rediscovering Hubert Harrison
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
The Distribution of Bolivia’s Most Important Natural Resources and the Autonomy Conflicts
Over the last year, there has been an escalation in the political battles between the government of President Evo Morales and a conservative opposition, based primarily in the prefectures, or provinces. The opposition groups have rallied around various issues but have recently begun to focus on “autonomy.” Some of the details of this autonomy […]
Citizen Diplomacy Tour to Iran — October 2008
Dear Anti-War Activists, Mina Doroud, Jamshidieh Park, Tehran. Photo by Hamed Saber. As you all know, the Bush administration is ratcheting up its rhetoric on Iran, and all of us are concerned and wondering how best to react and counter this growing threat. As a resource to the anti-war movement, Global Exchange organizes […]
Call for the Immediate Resignation of Antioch University Chancellor Toni Murdock and Board of Trustees Chair Art Zucker
We, the undersigned, call for the immediate resignation of Antioch University Chancellor Toni Murdock and Board of Trustees Chair Art Zucker. For the past year, we have watched the negotiations between Antioch University and alumni groups who are dedicated to the future of Antioch College. It is now apparent that Antioch University never had […]
South Africa: A Drive through a Xenophobic Landscape
19 May 2008: Friends, this is simply an account of what I saw and experienced in a twenty four period. It might be incomplete. It is not an analytical piece as such, but I hope a small step towards trying to understand what had taken place in this city, in this country that I […]
Mumbai’s Rebels: Those Who Couldn’t Remain Unmoved
The risks of a militant struggle for an alternative path of development that is radically different from the one followed by India’s ruling classes seem to most dissidents far too dangerous. Yet there are some who stand firm in their conviction: what should be, can be. An outline of a few of Mumbai’s rebels […]
Standardizing Learning: Rethinking a Policy of One-Size-Fits-All
Daily in countless classrooms across the U.S., teachers are using standardized curriculum to prepare their students to take and score highly on high-stakes achievement tests. But critics say forcing K-12 schools to follow a single standard of education is no cure-all. In fact, such an approach places students and teachers into a historic trend of […]
Tombstones Mark Anniversary of Another Infamous Date
March 19, 2003: a date that will live in infamy. Perhaps not in the minds of many of our fellow citizens, but surely to most people around the world. On that date, U.S. military forces invaded Iraq. Almost a year later I was in a small farming village some miles north of Baghdad, accompanying members […]
Antioch Confidential
Antioch Confidential examines several documents that were until now Antioch University attorney-client privileged communications. What role has this confidentiality played in the health of a College that has functioned through a decades-old shared governance system, a governance system that has been integrated as a major component of its educational curriculum and that has historically […]
End of Japan’s National Development State for Higher Education
Introduction Japan’s vast higher education system has around 5,000 institutions. This includes a tertiary level of about 1,300 government-approved, degree-awarding colleges and universities. Seven hundred forty-five of these are designated as ‘daigaku,’ a term which refers to any institution that has received government sanction to award four-year degrees equivalent to a baccalaureate. These four-year […]
The Cincinnati Public Schools: Military Recruitment in the Guise of College Prep?
The Cincinnati Public Schools appear to be promoting military recruitment in the guise of college preparation through a corporate program called “Making Your College Search Count.” Students at Walnut Hills High School spent fifty minutes this week in a required assembly listening to a talk about getting into college, and though the presenter never […]
