-
Marx’s Nightmare
He awoke with the aftertaste of his nightmare weighing heavily on his fading recollection of factory-fed vampires in striped pantaloons red runnels of blood flowing from their culled smiles squeezing the tears of the night shift workers into small vials assembled on conveyor belts to be sealed, stamped and sold back to the workers for […]
-
Interdom at Eighty: Reflections in Russia, on Dreams Old and Renascent
Russia, as travelers have noted over the centuries, is immense. Most of it is far from large bodies of water. And yet, in a first visit after many years, I came upon some unusual islands right in the heart of the country. But they were not islands in the geographic sense. Some were children’s islands. […]
-
The Story of Ordu Is the Story of Every University in Turkey
In a society where employees are only expected to perform well according to predetermined criteria, where loyalty to superiors and management is permanently tested through the nightmare of contract non-renewal, where there is a desire to transform universities into subsidiaries of monopoly capital, those who say “a university should not be like that” will […]
-
What’s Behind the Growth of Right-Wing Hatred in Germany?
No, it wasn’t shredded wheat. This shredding was not of breakfast food and has been much harder to digest; it was evidence on serial murder! The related biliousness is all the more painful due to a worrisome new survey of rightist hatred in Germany. But first some background. For a year now the case of […]
-
Revisiting Dust-Covered Dreams
Najaf, Iraq, November 11, 2012 I returned from Baghdad last night. Over coffee this morning, I filled the father of my host family in on my trip. I told him it was wonderful to see everyone, but I only heard sad stories. A few minutes ago a fierce wind rose, blowing the trees and […]
-
Con Los Ensenadenses
I write from a dark place where oblivion follows me like my flickering shadow in the Ensenada sun along the boardwalks en el malecón con los vendedores I think of you no more (ya no pienso en ti) un clavo saca otro clavo la gente is primera somos benditos por ser revolucionarios y ya está […]
-
Are You With Me? (Louis Reyes Rivera 1945-2012)
This is a 10-minute film dedicated to freedom fighter Louis Reyes Rivera. Rivera was a member of the 1969 occupation of City College, which was led by students of color and won open admissions. He spoke to Students United for a Free CUNY at the AME Church in Harlem on October 27, 2011 before […]
-
The Need to Enrich Our Knowledge
The filmed scenes of the massacre in Libya, starting to be seen, offend for their total absence of humanism and the crass lies that served as an excuse for invading and taking over the natural resources of that country. With more than 25,000 combat missions, NATO air forces backed up the monstrous crime. They stated […]
-
Colombia: Struggle for Peace, Struggle over Land
Terror, political persecution, arbitrary detention, and militarization have long dominated Colombia. State-mediated killings now run into the tens of thousands. More than four million rural inhabitants have been displaced from sustenance-providing land. In the face of seemingly endless suffering, however, there is now a better chance for peace in Colombia. Having recently announced that its […]
-
Learning from Rhee
On the evening of February 7, Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of DC public schools and the public face of the opaquely funded StudentsFirst, addressed an audience of some four thousand people at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. The lecture was divided in three parts. First, Rhee introduced herself and described her leadership of the DC […]
-
A Witch Hunt Against Teachers
A shameful witch hunt against teachers is underway, a full-blown hysteria being fanned by the media working hand in hand with politicians. In one of the crudest efforts to manipulate public opinion, as Juan Gonzalez reported, Mayor Bloomberg solicited local media to obtain the teachers’ ratings under Freedom of Information laws and publicize them. As […]
-
Occupy Your Education: A Note to Students about Changing the World
The current Occupy Movement has captured people’s imagination and refocused the national discussion on issues of economic injustice, social stratification, and corruptions of American democracy. Contrary to what some people might think, the Occupy Movement is not composed solely of “young, idealistic college kids.” People of many different ages, ethnicities, and ideological persuasions are […]
-
Camila Vallejo, Proud of Being Communist
The Chilean student leader doesn’t mince her words. “The ideas of communists today have real significance for they make sense in the context of people’s awakening,” said Camila Vallejo, a militant of the Communist Youths and one of the main leaders of the student movement which has been demanding structural reforms of education for […]
-
Prison vs. Princeton
It costs the state of New Jersey more money to hold a prisoner for one year than to fund one Princeton student’s tuition. Here’s an overview of the disturbing trend of prioritizing prison over higher education in the US. PublicAdministration.Net was created as an online informational resource for individuals looking to pursue public administration-related […]
-
The Time for Action Is Now
“In 1969, a group of black and Puerto Rican students occupied City College demanding the integration of CUNY, which at the time had an overwhelmingly white student body. The occupation spread to other CUNY campuses, forcing the Board of Trustees to implement a ground-breaking new admissions policy.” Such occupations also occurred in the 1980s […]
-
The Vampire Squid Turns to Education
In his Republic, Plato analogized elites to guard dogs who must be educated as to whom they must guard against and whom they must protect. One of Plato’s nightmare scenarios was a ruling class that lost the ability to make this distinction and turned wholly predatory on its sustaining population. Enter our present-day banking […]
-
Al Jazeera and U.S. Foreign Policy: What WikiLeaks’ U.S. Embassy Cables Reveal about U.S. Pressure and Propaganda
“Al Jazeera is a vital component to the USG’s strategy in communicating with the Arab world.” — Joseph E. LeBaron, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, November 6, 2008 “Al Jazeera Board Chairman Hamed bin Thamer Al Thani has proven open to creative uses of Al Jazeera’s airwaves by the USG beyond straightforward interviews.” — Joseph E. […]
-
India: The Latest Employment Trends from the NSSO
No sooner were the results of the 66th Round of the National Sample Survey Organisation (relating to data collected in 2009-10) released, than they became the subject of great controversy. Surprisingly, the controversy was created not by critics of the government and its statistical system, but from within government circles! Some highly placed officials found […]
-
Public Spending on Education in India
The failure of the Indian state more than six decades after Independence to provide universal access to quality schooling and to ensure equal access to higher education among all socio-economic groups and across gender and region must surely rank among the more dismal and significant failures of the development project in the country. It is […]
-
Electoral Performance of the Left — A Review
The following presentation contains graphic data. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. — Ed. (function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })(); Barbara Steiner is a political scientist based in Vienna and member of Transform.at. Walter Baier is an economist based […]