*** CURRY STEPHENSON MALOTT, DEREK R. FORD: Marx, Capital, and Education. Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Becoming. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, P.O. 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 -Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ), "Narrative, Dialogue, and the Political Production of Meaning" series, No. 5. 2015, 165 p., 31,20 €. ISBN 978-1-4331-3111-0.
The comments generated by this book in academic circles have been caustic. One professor speaks of this book as 'written by revolutionary educators for revolutionary educators;' while another sees it as 'a weapon to be used (…) in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow capitalism,' which is guilty of having turned democracy and social justice into 'empty shells;' and a third points out that 'twenty-five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, world 'leaders' continue directly and indirectly to promote anticommunist disinformation and propaganda' thus making themselves accomplices of a 'relentless capital-centered offensive which depoliticizes people,' this professor of education welcoming the way the book's authors 'show how and why existing political-economic arrangements can and must be replaced by a human-centered society and economic system.' It should be noted that twenty-five years after the fall of the Iron Curtain,, this chorus of praise for two openly Marxist authors comes mainly from the United States and the wider Anglo-Saxon world. As Bob Dylan used to sing, the times they are a'changin,' because it is also true that these odes to Marxism are nowhere to be heard in the 'new' Europe.
All the same, the enthusiasm generated by this book in the world of the teachers of future teachers deserves consideration. As Prof. Peter McLaren explains in the preface, ignoring the book because of its communist foundations would amount to 'forfeiting an important opportunity to learn what it takes to be a transformative educational warrior in a global war.' It would at any rate mean missing an opportunity to understand or improve one's understanding of the ideological war to be fought today by Marx's inheritors. This book invites readers, in fact, to take the plunge into a vision of the world that some will judge ideologically biased but which nevertheless deals with problems that increasing numbers of the citizens of the world feel to be growing more acute. Hence when the writer of the preface, who is seen as one of the fathers of critical (read, Marxist) pedagogy, refers to 'corporate efforts to privatize education and transform education into a subsector of the economy,' surely he is voicing a trend that is giving rise just about everywhere in the world to ill-ease well beyond the ranks of Marxists. It would be deceitful to claim otherwise. This book aims precisely to be an intellectual handbook providing people destined to become teachers with a way of arming future generations in order to lead a practical battle against this stranglehold by allowing them to become full human beings. By reconciling Marxism and humanism, Curry Stephenson Malott (assistant professor of Educational Foundations in the Department of Professional and Secondary Education at West Chester University of Pennsylvania) and Derek F. Ford (who is part of the Social Justice Studies Program at Hobart & William Smith Colleges) wish to contribute to the rise not of a genetically modified Marxism, but to 'a new gene pool of freely associated producers,' which can only be achieved through revolutionary action. They plan to make a frontal attack on pedagogy that 'has a similar effect on the student as the machine has on the production of products,' which they say lead to the 'the creation of a class of passive dependents,' unable to lead their existence without exchanging their labour for pay.
Some will think that this is a re-singing of the same old Marxist refrains of the past. This is not incorrect. It would, however, be silly to not listen to their denunciation of neoliberal capitalism and austerity erected as the new Mammon, for example when they argue: 'Taxes are reduced on the capitalist class; education is cut as state coffers dry up; the quality of said programs therefore becomes degraded; the public is thus more easily convinced that the problem with education, ironically, is that is lacks competition; privatization is proffered as the only solution.' Surely this is a change that we can discern to a greater or lesser extent just about everywhere in the world, including in the European Union? In fact, one doesn't need to be Marxist to discern a number of sources of malaise in this modern world of ours. Although no doubt not all the Marxist medicine prescribed in the book will be taken, the authors do at least deserve the recognition of those who aspire to a new world.
Michel Theys
*** LINA DENCIK, PETER WILKIN: Worker Resistance and Media. Challenging Global Corporate Power in the 21st Century. Peter Lang (see above). "Global Crises and the Media" series, No. 18. 2015, 260 pp, €33.70. ISBN 978-1-4331-2498-3.
Lina Dencik (senior lecturer at the Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies) and Peter Wilkin (reader at Brunei University's School of Social Science) have a deeply negative view of globalisation, seeing it as consecrating the power of global corporations and the decline of trade union movements. The way they see it, the media have largely contributed to this evolution, revealing themselves over past decades to be 'an element of repression and social control.' In this book, they look at whether movements representing workers can take advantage of new internet-related media in order to fight the domination of big business and, better, change the nature of global capitalism and its heads of state accomplices. In the eight chapters, they give a schematic overview of the development of trade union forces from the middle of the nineteenth century to May 1968, a pivotal time that led on to the birth of the digital economy that has upset both the world of corporations and that of nation states, particularly when neoliberalism asserts itself as pensée unique. The authors then analyse the influence that social media have had on trade unions and bodies representing civil society more widely, spending time on phenomena such as the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street movement and the rebels in Gezi Park in Istanbul. Finally, they draw lessons from three movements protesting against working conditions. Summing up, they look at the role that hackers could play in preventing corporations and countries from taking control of the digital world.
(MT)
*** NIKOS INGLESSIS: La révolution du Grexit. Le projet de retour à la drachme, la dette effacée et le développement économique.Editions Livanis (98 Solonos, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3661200 - Fax: 3617791 - Email: webmaster@livanis.gr - Internet: http://www.livanis.gr ). 'Politique' series. 2015, 253pp, €12. ISBN 978-960-1429-69-4.
Economist and journalist Nikos Inglessis deals in this book with issues relating to the State budget, fiscal policy, public debt and budget policy. He does so while arguing for a return to the drachma, thinking that the introduction of a new national currency will make it possible to increase liquidity and finance productive investment. In this way, he says the State could stop borrowing from abroad, which would prevent it creating new debt and having to pay extra interest. Returning to a national currency would also mean that people would not lose their goods and money, there would be inflation but not devaluation, unemployment would fall due to new investment and pay and pensions would gradually rise. The author adds that there are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation - by the sword or by debt. The second is more effective because initially at least, it is invisible for the people being enslaved. The author explains that conquerors then appear as partners that want to help, calling their expensive loans 'aid,' and their fiscal raids 'budget adjustment,' and pay and pension cuts 'reforms.' And finally, a High Commission - the troika - takes charge of governance of the 'aided' country with as its prime task collecting taxes from the vassalage of the people, in other words interest on the loans.
(AKa)
*** GEORGE KARAMBELIAS: Les six mois qui ont secoué la Grèce. De janvier à juillet 2015. Editions Enallaktikes Ekdoseis (37 rue Themistokleous, GR-10683 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3826319 - Fax: 3839930 - Email: ardin@hol.gr - Internet: enalekdoseis.net). 2015, 272 pp, €16. ISBN 978-960-427165-8.
For five years now, and particularly during the first six months of this year, Greeks have tried out all possible political combinations and means to solve the acute crisis that has hit the country and is getting worse by the day. In this book, economist George Karambelias, an editorialist on a number of printed media for more than forty years, describes the ins and outs of this grand voyage, seeking out the various guilty parties. There are leading politicians, of course, particularly those on the left, but also the contamination of all the trades and State services. However, the author stresses that one must not forget that the Greeks, even in the midst of the post-war decadence, have never ceased to demonstrate that they have a strong gene for resistance, as they have shown in recent months and years. Channelling this into a positive, creative direction could therefore provide the basis for the country's great leap forwards, the challenge now being to ensure that it goes in this direction rather than into destructive nihilism. From this emerges the question that runs through the book: leaving aside rogue politicians and learning from the experience that has been endured, how can the Greeks creatively transform themselves and, turning their back on a parasitic integration in Western Europe, manage to develop an endogenous modernisation project while ensuring, of course, that they do not deliver the country over to the neo-Ottoman Carybdis that is impatiently waiting in the wings?
(AKa)
*** MICHALIS MITSOPOULOS, THEDOROS PELAGIDIS: Comprendre la crise en Grèce. Editions Psichogios (121 rue Tatoiou, GR-14452 Metamorfosi. Tel: (30-210) 2804800 - Fax: 2819550 - Email: info@psichogios.gr - Internet: http://www.psichogios.gr ). 2015, 496 pp, €16.60. ISBN 978-960-496647-9.
The Greek economy has in recent years been the subject of constant debate in international economic bodies. The authors of this book analyse the economic challenges facing Greece, providing answers to the question of how and why a strong economy could so quickly find itself on the brink of total breakdown. Michalis Mitsopoulos, lecturer at Athens University of Economics and at Piraeus University, who has also worked as a ministerial economic advisor, and Theodoros Pelagidis, lecturer in economic analysis at Piraeus University, also examine the errors committed by the Greek economic and political system, the role played by powerful lobbies, the dysfunctioning of the markets on various levels and the implementation of the International Monetary Fund's aid programme. They describe how mal-adapted policies and corruption have led the nation to bankruptcy, and how it could get itself out of this fix. The research also analyses the role of the media, seen as an obstacle to reform, the civil service (that lobbies are trying to get their hands on), corruption, and many other factors that have brought Greece to where it is today.
(AKa)
*** DIMITRIOS XENAKIS (Ed.): Crise en Europe et en Grèce. Les dilemmes et les options. Editions Papazisi (2 Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 - Fax: 3809020 - Email: papazisi@otenet.gr - Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2015, 149 pp, €9.59. ISBN 978-960-02-2900-4.
In the extremely brittle political and economic context experienced by the European Union today, it is extremely important for Greece to demonstrate that it is reliable and can head off the risk of a disorderly bankruptcy. This collection of essays highlights the way the inability of the eurozone's economic and monetary union, combined with Greece's vulnerability and its lack of budget discipline, have led the country to economic collapse while causing Europe to go down the path of economic nationalism. The book contains the interventions by fourteen university academics (mostly economic experts who have often played a role in governments) in conferences organised by the Progressive Research Centre. "Europe: integration or disintegration?," "The Euro and Greece: dilemmas and options," "Euro crisis and globalisation," are some of the topics addressed by the specialists, who have made a constructive contribution to public debate and encouraged the European reflex in Greece.
(AKa)