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Texts :: culture |
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Why Libertarian Education? |
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by Iain McKay |
29 Aug 2005
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"Anyone involved in libertarian politics, constantly and consistently challenges the role of the state's institutions and their representatives within our lives. The role of bosses, the police, social workers, the secret service, middle managers, doctors and priests are all seen as part of a hierarchy which exists to keep us, the working class, subdued. It is relatively rare though for the left wing to call into question the role of teachers. Most-left wing activists and a large number of libertarians believe that education is good, all education is good, and education is always good. As Henry Barnard, the first US commissioner of education, appointed in 1867, exhorted, 'education always leads to freedom'." |
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Texts :: culture |
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Paideia: 24 Years of Anarchist Education in South-West Spain |
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by Fiona Taylor |
29 Aug 2005
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"My observations, including a lot of discussion with the adult collective, and some group interviews with ex-students � is that Paideia turns out lovely, thinking people. People who are super sensitive to other people's needs and feelings. I think they are often a little shocked by how disrespectful, unjust, conformist etc people who haven't been to Paideia are. In this way � the school is a kind of microcosm for how our communities might be, how we might relate to each other and enact a just system of self-management and direct democracy . . . except they're kids, and we all live in (and go home at the end of the day to) a world which is very different to this. The revolutionary potential of Paideia then, might be that the kids go home, and at 15 go out into the world with a way of living which influences all they come into contact with. To an extent I think this is true." |
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Texts :: culture |
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Theses on the Cultural Organization of Russia |
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by Second All-Russian Conference of Anarcho-Syndicalists, 1918 |
29 Aug 2005
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"In the area of culture and education the Second All-Russian Conference of Anarcho-Syndicalists sets as its goals . . . To seek ways and means of developing the initiative and creativity of the masses. This will help improve conditions within the framework of the present bourgeois state socialist order. It will also make it possible for the proletariat to create its own socialist -- as opposed to bourgeois -- culture and its own art, which will reflect the shining beauty and magnificence of stateless socialism and open to the human mind the widest prospects and possibilities." |
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Texts :: culture |
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The Origins and Ideals of the Modern School |
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by Francisco Ferrer Y Guardia |
29 Aug 2005
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"We can destroy whatever there is in the actual school that savours of violence, all the artificial devices by which the children are estranged from nature and life, the intellectual and moral discipline which has been used to impose ready - made thoughts, all beliefs which deprave and enervate the will. Without fear of injury we may place the child in a proper and natural environment, in which it will find itself in contact with all that it loves, and where vital impressions will be substituted for the wearisome reading of books. If we do no more than this, we shall have done much towards the emancipation of the child. " |
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Texts :: focus |
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The aims and objectives of Earthworker |
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by Earth Worker |
29 Aug 2005
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Earth Worker is a caucus of Australian trade union and environmental organisations' members coming together under the auspices of Victorian Trades Hall Council in the recognition that workers' rights and concern for the environment are a common issue. |
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Texts :: focus |
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Anarcho-Syndicalism, Racism and Struggle |
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by Direct Action Movement - IWA |
29 Aug 2005
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"To be anti-racist it is not only necessary to be against racism and scum like the nazis (I'll get around to them later), it is also necessary to be against the STATE, (whatever colour flag the government waves), against the bosses and finally against the patronising and racist race relations industry. To be truly anti-racist one must also campaign actively for racial unity, the unity of the working class. True anti-racism is also anti-statism, if the state is smashed the whole racist structure is smashed. And without state protection how long will the nazis last?" |
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Texts :: focus |
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Racism and the Class Struggle |
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by Workers Solidarity Federation |
29 Aug 2005
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"Anti-racist work should occupy a high priority in the activities of all class struggle anarchists. This is important not simply because we always oppose all oppression, and because anarchists have long been opponents of racism. It is also because such work is an essential to the vital task of unifying and conscientising the working class- a unity without which neither racism nor capitalism can be consigned to the history books. " |
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Texts :: focus |
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Divided and Ruled - Racism and Sexism |
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by Class War |
29 Aug 2005
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"Even though discrimination against women predates capitalism, the economic exploitation of women has become an integral part of our economic system. Women are still much more likely to have part time or casual jobs than men. But even more far reaching than this is the huge amount of work that women do which is unpaid, such as housework, cooking, child care etc (often even when they have jobs as well). This unpaid work rears the next generation of workers for the capitalist entirely free of charge. You don't have to be a genius to see why this is a good deal for the capitalist class. This situation is the economic basis of sexism. Needless to say the capitalist will never pay more than a pittance for this work. The idea of "wages for housework" is an illusion. We believe the only real solution to low pay and no pay for women is removing capitalism. " |
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Texts :: focus |
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Women in the Spanish Revolution |
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by Liz Willis |
29 Aug 2005
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"The fate of women in revolution is closely connected with the fate of the revolution as a whole, In Spain, there were initial gains, even if partial, limited and fragmented (it could be argued that the lives of Spanish men were not totally transformed either); stabilisation set in with the wartime situation, to be followed by reverses; defeat brought reaction. But the fate of women must not be left as a neglected, subordinate factor, or the social revolution, as well as the women's cause, will be diminished and damaged." |
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