text:
School Reform Fails the Test
How can our schools get better when we've made our teachers the problem and not the solution?
By Mike Rose
During the first wave of what would become the 30-year school reform movement that shapes education policy to this day, I visited good public school classrooms across the United States, wanting to compare the rhetoric of reform, which tended to be abstract and focused on crisis, with the daily efforts of teachers and students who were making public education work.
I identified teachers, principals, and superintendents who knew about local schools; college professors who taught teachers; parents and community activists who were involved in education. What's going on in your area that seems promising? I asked. What are teachers talking about? Who do parents hold in esteem? In all, I interviewed and often observed in action more than 60 teachers and 25 administrators in 30-some schools. I also met many students and parents from the communities I visited. What soon became evident—and is still true today—was an intellectual and social richness that was rarely discussed in the public sphere or in the media. I tried to capture this travelogue of educational achievement in a book published in 1995 called Possible Lives: The Promise of Education in America. Twenty years later, I want to consider school reform in light of the lessons learned during that journey, and relearned in later conversations with some of these same teachers.
For all of the features that schools share, life inside a classroom is profoundly affected by the immediate life outside it, by the particular communities in which a school is embedded. Visiting a one-room schoolhouse in rural Montana or a crowded high school in Chicago, you will find much in the routines and the curriculum that holds steady—the grammar of schooling, as historians David Tyack and Larry Cuban called it in Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform (1995). Yet within that grammar lie differences: in topics of discussion, in the illustrations that teachers use, in how the language sounds, and in the worries of the day pressing in from the neighborhood. These differences, the differences of place, make each school distinct from every other.
During my travels, I watched as third-graders in Calexico, a California-Mexico border town, gave reports on current events in Spanish and in English. They followed the journalist's central questions—who, what, why, when, where, and how—exploring the significance of the depleted ozone layer, of smog in nearby industrial Mexicali, of changes in the local school board.
In Chicago, 12th-graders discussed Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, trying to make sense of the characters' different perspectives, offering provisional explanations of important occurrences in the novel. They were gaining a sense of the power of speculation, of moving an inquiry forward by wading into uncertain waters.
On Baltimore's West Side, first-graders combined literature and science by reading a fanciful story about hermit crabs and then conducting an experiment—resulting from a student's question—to understand the environment in which the crabs thrive.
In small towns in the Mississippi Delta, middle school children played games with physical representations of algebraic operations, part of civil rights activist Bob Moses's Algebra Project, a curriculum as well as a social movement that still helps prepare children, regardless of academic background, for algebra, which Moses believes is an important pathway to opportunity.
And in a one-room schoolhouse in Polaris, Montana, students kept a naturalist's journal on the willows in the creek behind the school. At one point the teacher bent over an older student who was working on sketches and measurements. The teacher pointed to one detailed drawing and asked his student why he thought the willows grew in such dense clusters, rather than long and snaky up a tree. The boy had fished these creeks for years, the teacher later explained, and "I just wanted him to take a different look at what he already knows."
The teachers in these varied classrooms shared a belief in their students' ability to become engaged by ideas and to develop as thoughtful, intellectually adventurous people. They saw the subjects they taught—whether science, literature, or math—as bountiful resources that would foster their students' development.
To update Possible Lives, I spoke to each of these teachers again about 10 years after my visit and found that all of them shared a deep concern about the potential effect of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 on the classrooms they had worked so hard to create. No Child Left Behind and the Obama administration's 2009 Race to the Top initiative are built on the assumption that our public schools are in crisis, and that the best way to improve them is by using standardized tests (up to now only in reading and math) to rate student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Learning is defined as a rise in a standardized test score and teaching as the set of activities that lead to that score, with the curriculum tightly linked to the tests. This system demonstrates a technocratic neatness, but it doesn't measure what goes on in the classrooms I visited. A teacher can prep students for a standardized test, get a bump in scores, and yet not be providing a very good education.
Organizing schools and creating curricula based on an assumption of wholesale failure make going to school a regimented and punitive experience. If we determine success primarily by a test score, we miss those considerable intellectual achievements that aren't easily quantifiable. If we think about education largely in relation to economic competitiveness, then we ignore the social, moral, and aesthetic dimensions of teaching and learning. You will be hard pressed to find in federal education policy discussions of achievement that include curiosity, reflection, creativity, aesthetics, pleasure, or a willingness to take a chance, to blunder. Our understanding of teaching and learning, and of the intellectual and social development of children, becomes terribly narrow in the process.
School reform is hardly a new phenomenon, and the harshest criticism of schools tends to coincide with periods of social change or economic transformation. The early decades of the 20th century—a time of rapid industrialization and mass immigration from central and southern Europe—saw a blistering attack, reminiscent of our own time. The Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 triggered another assault, with particular concern over math and science education. And during the 1980s, as postwar American global economic preeminence was being challenged, we saw a flurry of reports on the sorry state of education, the most notable of which, A Nation at Risk (1983), warned of "a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people."
Public education, a vast, ambitious, loosely coupled system of schools, is one of our country's defining institutions. It is also flawed, in some respects deeply so. Unequal funding, fractious school politics, bureaucratic inertia, uneven curricula, uninspired pedagogy, and the social ills that seep into the classroom all limit the potential of our schools. The critics are right to be worried. The problem is that the criticism, fueled as it is by broader cultural anxieties, is often sweeping and indiscriminate. Critics blame the schools for problems that have many causes. And some remedies themselves create difficulties. Policymakers and educators face a challenge: how to target the problems without diminishing the achievements in our schools or undermining their purpose. The current school reform movement fails this challenge.
Back when I was visiting schools for Possible Lives, critics were presenting charts of declining scores on SATs but overlooking the demographic and economic factors that contributed to these numbers—for example, more low-income and immigrant students were taking the tests (arguably an egalitarian development). Comparing our test scores with those of other countries, the critics also failed to consider the social, economic, and cultural differences. (Students in our nation's affluent districts fare much better in international comparisons.) The proposed remedies included not only new curricula and tests to measure the mastery of these courses of study, but also more time in school, more rigorous teacher education and credentialing, and market-based options like school choice and vouchers. And the primary goal of reform was always presented as an economic one: to prepare our young people for the world of work and to protect our nation's position in the global economy.
Since then, the reform effort has spread and grown more intense, and it continues to focus on public school failure. No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have dramatically increased the influence of the federal government on public schools. Both programs require states to establish standardized testing programs, and federal funding often depends on the test results. If schools don't meet certain performance criteria, they are subject to sanction and even closure. Race to the Top added a competitive grant program to the federal effort, requiring states to lift limits on charter schools and tie teacher evaluations to students' test scores in order to be eligible for a significant one-time award of federal funds. Some philanthropies have also supported the reform agenda, and private advocacy groups have championed causes ranging from charter schools to alternative approaches to teacher credentialing to, most recently, overturning teacher tenure and union protections.
Not all those who identify themselves as reformers would subscribe to the redefinition of teaching and learning that concerns me, and some of those reformers are raising among their peers the same issues I am. But a dominant account does emerge from many influential reform reports and organizations, and it is supported by the U.S. Department of Education.
A core assumption underlying No Child Left Behind is that substandard academic achievement is the result of educators' low expectations and lack of effort. The standardized tests mandated by the act, its framers contended, hold administrators and teachers accountable—there can be no excuses for a student's poor performance. It's true that some teachers don't expect much of the young people in their charge, particularly students from low-income backgrounds and underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. But because we know that so many factors contribute to student achievement, the strongest of which is parental income, the low expectations of some teachers cannot possibly account for all the disparities in academic performance. The act's assumptions also reveal a pretty simplified notion of what motivates a teacher: raise your expectations or you'll be punished—what a friend of mine calls the caveman theory of motivation. An even more simplistic theory of cognitive and behavioral change suggests that threats will lead to a change in beliefs about students, whether these beliefs come from prejudice or from pity. Still, No Child Left Behind's focus on vulnerable students was important, and the law did jolt some low-performing schools into improving their students' mastery of the basic math and reading skills measured by the tests.
But the use of such tests and the high stakes attached to them also led to other results that any student of organizational behavior could have predicted. A number of education officials manipulated the system by lowering the cutoff test scores for proficiency, or withheld from testing students who would perform poorly, or occasionally fudged the results. A dramatic example is the recent case of cheating in Atlanta, where school personnel all the way up to the superintendent were indicted.
Studies of what went on in classrooms are equally troubling and predictable. The high-stakes tests led many administrators and teachers to increase math and reading test preparation and reduce time spent on science, history, and geography. The arts were, in some cases, drastically reduced or eliminated. Aspects of math and reading that didn't directly relate to the tests were also eliminated, even though they could have led to broader understanding and appreciation of these subjects.
Not long ago, a teacher I'll call Priscilla contacted me with a typical story. She has been teaching for 30 years in an elementary school in a low-income community north of Los Angeles. The school's test scores were not adequate last year, so the principal, under immense pressure from the school district, mandated for all teachers a regimented curriculum focused on basic math and literacy skills. The principal directed the teachers not to change or augment this curriculum. So now Priscilla cannot draw on her cabinets full of materials collected over the years to enliven or individualize instruction. The time spent on the new curriculum has meant trims in science and social studies. Art and music have been cut entirely. "There is no joy here," she told me, "only admonishment."
It makes sense to concentrate on the basics of math and reading, for they are central to success in school, and an unacceptable number of students don't master them. And a score on a standardized test seems like a straightforward measure of mastery. But in addition to the kinds of manipulation I discussed, there are a host of procedural and technical problems in developing, scoring, and interpreting such tests. Test outcomes depend on the statistical models used, and scores can fluctuate and be marred by error—thus there is a debate among testing experts about what, finally, can be deduced from the scores about a student's or a school's achievement. Similar debates surround the currently popular use of "value-added" methods to determine a teacher's effectiveness.
A further issue is that a test that includes, say, the writing of an essay, a music recital, or the performance of an experiment embodies different notions of learning and achievement than do the typical tasks on standardized tests: multiple choice items, matching, fill-ins. I have given both kinds of tests. Both have value, but they represent knowledge in different ways and require different kinds of teaching.
The nature of a school's response to high-stakes pressure is especially pertinent for those less affluent students at the center of reform. When teachers in schools like Priscilla's concentrate on standardized tests, students might improve their scores but receive an inadequate education. A troubling pattern in American schooling thereby continues: poor kids get a lower-tier education focused on skills and routine while students in more affluent districts get a robust and engaging school experience.
It's important to consider how far removed standardized tests are from the cognitive give and take of the classroom. That's one reason for the debate about whether a test score—which is, finally, a statistical abstraction—accurately measures learning. Some reform leaders, including Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, are now trying to dial down the emphasis on testing. But because tests are easy to use and have an aura of objectivity, they are likely to remain central in the reform agenda.
Priscilla's story is emblematic not only of the mechanical and restrictive pedagogy that is frequently forced on teachers in a test-driven environment, but also of the attitude toward teachers. They live in a bipolar world, praised as central to students' achievement and yet routinely condemned as the cause of low performance.
When the standardized test score is the measure of a teacher's effectiveness, other indicators of competence are discounted. One factor is seniority—which reformers believe, not without reason, overly constrains an administrator's hiring decisions. Another is post-baccalaureate degrees and certifications in education, a field many reformers hold in contempt. Several studies do report low correlation between experience (defined as years in the profession) and students' test scores. Other studies find a similarly low correlation between students' scores and teachers' post-baccalaureate degrees and certifications. These studies lead to an absolute claim that neither experience nor schooling beyond the bachelor's degree makes any difference.
What a remarkable assertion. Can you think of any other kind of work—from hair styling to neurosurgery—where we don't value experience and training? If reformers had a better understanding of teaching, they might wonder whether something was amiss with the studies, which tend to deal in simple averages and define experience or training in crude ways. Experience, for example, is typically defined as years on the job, yet years in service, considered alone, don't mean that much. A dictionary definition of experience—"activity that includes training, observation of practice, and personal participation and knowledge gained from this"—indicates the connection to competence. The teachers in Possible Lives had attended workshops and conferences, participated in professional networks, or taken classes. They experimented with their curricula and searched out ideas and materials to incorporate into their work. What people do with their time on the job becomes the foundation of expertise.
More generally, the qualities of good work—study and experimentation, the accumulation of knowledge, and refinement of skill—are thinly represented in descriptions of teacher quality, overshadowed by the simplified language of testing. In a similar vein, the long history of Western thought on education—from Plato to Septima Clark—is rarely if ever mentioned in the reform literature. History as well as experience and inquiry are replaced with a metric.
These attitudes toward experience are rooted in the technocratic-managerial ideology that drives many kinds of policy, from health care to urban planning to agriculture: the devaluing of local, craft, and experiential knowledge and the elevating of systems thinking, of finding the large economic, social, or organizational levers to pull in order to initiate change. A professor of management tells a University of California class of aspiring principals that the more they know about the particulars of instruction, the less effective they'll be, for that nitty-gritty knowledge will blur their perception of the problem and the application of universal principles of management—as fitting for a hospital or a manufacturing plant as a school.
This dismissal of classroom knowledge fits with the trendy discourse of innovation and creative disruption, a discourse that runs throughout education reform, asserting that it will take entrepreneurial outsiders to change the system. I understand the impulse here, because getting something fresh through large school bureaucracies can be maddening. But creative disruption is predicated on the belief that anything new must be better, and it relies on a reductive model of organizational and technological change. One of the celebrated technologies in the disrupters' armory is the computer, which clearly allows wonderful things to happen in education. But online charter schools have a troubled record, and higher education's much ballyhooed massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are proving to be much more limited in their usefulness or success than predicted. The computer's potential is realized only when people who are wise about teaching and learning program it, and when it is integrated into a strong curriculum taught by someone who is savvy about its use.
If you pare down your concept of teaching far enough, you are left with sequences of behaviors and routines—with techniques. Technique becomes central to the reformers' redefinition of teaching, and the focus on technique is at the heart of many of the alternative teacher credentialing programs that have emerged over the past decade. Effective techniques are an important part of the complex activity that is teaching, and good mentorship includes analyzing a teacher's work and providing corrective feedback. Teachers of teachers have been doing this for a long time. What is new is the nearly exclusive focus on techniques, the increased role of digital technology to study them, and the attempt to define "effective" by seeking positive correlations between specific techniques and, you guessed it, students' standardized test scores. What is also new is the magnitude of the effort, punched up considerably by a $45 million project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to measure effective teaching.
Because teaching involves a good deal of craft, I'm all for implementing useful techniques, from guidance on giving directions to ways to pose a math problem. But given the technocratic orientation of contemporary school reform, I worry that other aspects of teaching less easily observed and circumscribed—bearing, beliefs about learning, a sensibility about students' lives—will get short shrift.
Techniques don't work in isolation. The sequencing of questions, for example, is a crucial skill, but it depends on the teacher's knowledge of the material being taught, children's typical responses to this material, the kinds of misconceptions and errors they make, and the alternative explanations and illustrations that might help them. A teacher can't ask meaningful questions for long without this kind of knowledge. In equal measure, the effectiveness of techniques, particularly for classroom management, is influenced by students' sense of a teacher's concern for them and understanding of them.
When I was visiting schools in Chicago, I spent time in Michelle Smith's high school math classroom. One morning, she was calling her class to order and saw that a boy who plays the class clown was sitting way in the back. She called him by name, then said, "My young gentleman, I'd like you to sit up here where I can see you." The student groaned, uncurled himself from his desk, and walked to the front, sauntering for the benefit of his peers. "C'mon darlin'," Smith added, head tilted, hand on hip, "humor me." She watched; he sat down. "Thank you, sir. I feel better." With a mix of humor and direction, she had deftly changed the seating to ensure order in the room—an effective technique for classroom management.
Imagine, however, the unpleasant ways this situation could have played out: the student refusing to move, insulting or threatening her, or stirring up his comrades sitting nearby. But Smith's action occurred in the context of a relationship with the class and with that boy, a legacy of her care and of the learning that goes on in her classroom. ("Miss Smith," the boy later told me, "she's teaching us how to do things we couldn't do before.") Smith knows local culture, understands the rituals of masculinity and the huge importance of allowing that student a little space to save face. She has developed a classroom persona that blends sass and seriousness, and she uses it strategically. Technique works in context and within the flow of other events.
If you conceive of teaching as a repertoire of instructional and behavior management techniques, then you won't appreciate the kind of social knowledge Michelle Smith possesses. This pinched notion of teaching combined with a "no excuses" stance toward low achievement yields a troubling response to economic inequality: the belief that the right kind of education can overcome poverty. We have a long tradition in the United States of seeing education as, in Horace Mann's words, the "great equalizer" of social class differences. As our social safety net has been increasingly compromised, we have put the school at the center of our dwindling welfare state. Even though half a century's research has demonstrated that parental income level is the primary determiner of educational achievement, the reformers hold fast to the demand that schools can overcome the assaults of poverty. Charter school leader Doug Lemov, whose Teach Like a Champion has become a user's manual among reformers, offers a good illustration. In his introduction, Lemov reflects on the charter school teachers he has observed:
These outstanding teachers routinely do what a thousand hand-wringing social programs have found impossible: close the achievement gap between rich and poor, transform students at risk of failure into achievers and believers, and rewrite the equation of opportunity.
Schooling becomes the one solution to poverty, the intervention that will work where others have failed.
About 15 pages later, however, Lemov offers a reminder of the ugly staying power of inequality. A former student of his, "the bright and passionate son of a single mother with limited English," made the remarkable journey to Williams College. At college, though, the student's problems with writing dogged him and were reflected in a professor's unfavorable response to a paper he wrote on Zora Neale Hurston. Lemov tells this story to stress the importance of teaching students standard written English. But having worked in university programs that serve students like this one—and having been such a student myself—I find that this story represents the intractability of inequality: even after the best teaching Lemov and his colleagues could provide, this young man still needs assistance at further points along the way. The student will also need people who understand what he must be feeling: the crushing disappointment, the possible anger, and the deep blow to his confidence. Schools like Lemov's might be able to narrow an achievement gap, improving the scores on district or state standardized tests, but not necessarily erase the achievement gap, which requires sustained help of many kinds, including programs that Lemov dismisses as "hand-wringing."
The teachers in Possible Lives worked with significant numbers of low-income children, and every one of those teachers tried in some way to address their hardship. They might have drawn in social service agencies, or participated in church-based or civic organizations or political campaigns aimed at helping the poor. Sometimes they tried to find resources for parents, or tutored and counseled their students individually, or spent their own money and donated food, clothing, and other goods. They taught diligently, sometimes brilliantly, fought back despair, didn't let up. "The problems are big ones," a young Calexico teacher told me, "but they're not going to stop me from teaching." You cannot be in teaching—or medicine or counseling or the ministry—without slamming up against failure. These teachers did not rush to find excuses for their failures, but they knew the trauma poverty brings and did their work with that awareness. To deny the effects of poverty blinds you to the reality of your students' lives, lives you need to understand as fully as you can to intervene and enlist others inside and beyond the school. I deeply believe in the power of teaching, but to make teaching the magic bullet against inequality or to pit it against other social and economic interventions leads to insular and self-defeating education policy.
As is the case with public school teachers today, many of the teachers I wrote about grew up in families with modest incomes. Some came from the same region or background as their students. A small number went to major universities, but most graduated from smaller state universities or local colleges with teacher education programs. Some of the teachers I visited were new, and some had taught for decades. Some organized their classrooms with desks in rows, and others turned their rooms into hives of activity. Some were real performers, and some were serious and proper. For all the variation, however, the classrooms shared certain qualities. These qualities emerged before our era's heavy reform agenda, yet most parents, and most reformers, would want them for their children.
The classrooms were safe. They provided physical safety, which in some neighborhoods is a real consideration. But there was also safety from insult and diminishment: "They don't make fun of you if you mess up," said a middle school student in Chicago. And there was safety to take intellectual risks. The teacher was "coaxing our thinking along," as one of the students reading Faulkner put it.
Intimately related to safety is respect, a word I heard frequently during my travels. It meant many things: politeness, fair treatment, and beyond individual civility, a respect for the language and culture of the local population. Surveying images of Mexican-American history on the walls of a Los Angeles classroom, a student exclaimed, "This room is something positive. As you walk around, you say 'Hey, we're somebody!' " Respect also has a cognitive dimension. As a New York principal put it, "It's not just about being polite—even the curriculum has to be challenging enough that it's respectful."
Talking about safety and respect leads to a consideration of authority. I witnessed a range of classroom management styles, and though some teachers involved students in determining the rules of conduct and gave them significant responsibility to provide the class its direction, others came with curriculum and codes of conduct fairly well in place. But two things were always evident. A teacher's authority came not just with age or with the role, but from multiple sources—knowing the subject, appreciating students' backgrounds, and providing a safe and respectful space. And even in traditionally run classrooms, authority was distributed. Students contributed to the flow of events, shaped the direction of discussion, became authorities on the work they were doing.
These classrooms, then, were places of expectation and responsibility. As a Los Angeles middle school teacher observed, "Children can tell right off those people who believe in them and those who patronize them." Young people had to work hard, think things through, come to terms with each other—and there were times when such effort took them to their limits. To be sure, some students weren't engaged, and everyone, students and teachers, had bad days. But overall the students I talked to, from primary-grade children to graduating seniors, had the sense that their teachers had their best interests at heart and their classrooms were good places to be. The huge, burning question is how to create more classrooms like these.
What if reform had begun with the assumption that at least some of the answers for improvement were in the public schools themselves, that significant unrealized capacity exists in the teaching force, that even poorly performing schools employ teachers who work to the point of exhaustion to benefit their students? Imagine, then, what could happen if the astronomical amount of money and human resources that went into the past decade's vast machinery of high-stakes testing-—from test development to the logistics of testing at each school site—if all that money had gone into a high-quality, widely distributed program of professional development. I don't mean the quick-hit, half-day events that teachers endure, but serious, extended engagement of the kind offered by the National Science Foundation and the National Writing Project, by university summer programs in literature or science or history, by teams of expert teachers themselves.
In such programs, teachers read, write, and think together. They learn new material, hear from others who have successfully integrated it into their classrooms, and try it out themselves. Some participating teachers become local experts, providing further training for their schools and districts. Electronic media would facilitate participation, connecting people from remote areas and helping everyone to check in regularly when trying new things. These programs already exist but could be expanded significantly if policymakers had a different orientation to reform, one that honored teaching and the teaching profession. Distributed professional development would substitute a human development model of school reform for the current test-based technocratic one. And because such professional development would enhance what teachers teach and how they teach and assess it, there would be a more direct effect on the classroom.
Imagine as well that school reform acknowledged poverty as a formidable barrier to academic success. All low-income schools would be staffed with a nurse and a social worker and have direct links to local health and social service agencies. If poor kids simply had eye exams and glasses, we'd see a rise in early reading proficiency. Extra tutoring would be provided, some of which could be done by volunteers and interns from nearby colleges. Schools would be funded to stay open late, providing academic and recreational activities for their students. They could become focal institutions in low-income communities, involving parents and working with existing community groups and agencies focused on educational and economic improvement. Such schools already exist, and an Obama administration initiative called Promise Neighborhoods awards grants to local programs and agencies that provide health and social services. But the provision of services is conceived as an add-on rather than an organic part of school reform itself, and the services are awarded by competition to only a percentage of the neighborhoods and schools that need them.
My proposals do not address all that ails our schools, and what they cost might be better spent on other ideas that are in the air. But they do move us away from the current model of reform and closer to the immediate needs of teachers and students. The proposals assume that our schools have talent to be tapped, and that the physical and social burdens of the poor are a drag on achievement.
As with the current reform programs, these proposals would draw on government and philanthropic funding and on large, sometimes distant, organizations such as the National Science Foundation. But the interventions would be adapted to the needs of particular schools and communities by local teachers and social service providers. The writing of narratives or a study of water-borne organisms would play out differently in New York City versus the Mississippi Delta.
Surveying the many unsuccessful and hugely expensive attempts at school reform in our past, historians Tyack and Cuban observed the same mistakes being repeated over and over again: top-down remedies, grandiose claims about the latest technology, disdain for teachers. To improve our schools, we need to be informed by knowledge gained from many days in the neighborhoods surrounding them and from many, many days inside the schoolhouse itself, learning from children's experience and the full sweep of a teacher's work. This is what contemporary school reform has failed to do. l
Posted by ed notes online at Sunday, January 04, 2015 No comments:
What if in 2015.....
[View the story "What if in 2015....." on Storify]
Posted by ed notes online at Wednesday, December 31, 2014 No comments:
Divisions on the Left: The great Lenin debate of 2012 - and ISO
Recently the ISO held an event about Marxism and invited people on the MORE listserve to attend. It is clear that there are many views on the left.
http://externalbulletin.org/2014/06/21/the-great-lenin-debate-of-2012/
The great Lenin debate of 2012
Posted by Ben S
(Or, the bankruptcy of "Leninism" Rediscovered)
Over the past several decades, much of the international Left has come to question the "Leninist" party-building model that was hegemonic among Western socialists for the majority of the twentieth century. In the United States, it appears that the crisis of "Leninism" has sharpened in the years since 2008. While "Leninist" groups are notoriously prone to factional strife in general, this period seems to have witnessed an intensified tendency toward splinters and splits within these groups. Inevitably, this trend has generated new scatterings of disaffected ex-members, at least a portion of whom remain active in politics and activism. This process has been aided by the writings and (in some cases) the ongoing interventions of previous generations of ex-"Leninists," who have, no doubt, helped many newly purged and "bureaucratically excluded" comrades to make sense of their experience within the sect-based Left. To this end, influential roles have been played by the likes of Louis Proyect and other former members of the 1970s-era U.S. Socialist Workers Party. Many former "Leninists" have also been influenced by such historical critics of sect-based socialist organizing as Hal Draper and Bert Cochran.[1]
This dynamic is certainly reflective of my personal experience as a newly-expelled member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO). To summarize my story in very brief, I was booted out of the ISO in February alongside my comrades in the (now officially disbanded) ISO Renewal Faction. During the course of our hard-fought factional struggle within the ISO, members of the Renewal Faction discussed a number of articles critical of "Leninism" and socialist sects. To mention a few pieces in particular, at the height of the factional fight, we passed around and debated Hal Draper's "Toward a New Beginning" (1971) and "Anatomy of the Micro-sect" (1973), as well as a number of more recent documents, including Scott Jay's "On Leninism and anti-Leninism."[2] Naturally, these pieces helped us make sense of the stultifying, undemocratic environment within the ISO and our experience of being ostracized and defamed by the leadership and their loyalist followers. Notably, since being purged from the ISO, members of the Renewal Faction appear to have adopted differing views on the subject of Leninism – and, for that matter, Trotskyism, as well. Nonetheless, it's safe to say that our experience has led us all to develop profound critiques of the party-building approaches adhered to by socialist sects like the ISO.
For me personally, I can say that – since February – I've done a great deal of reading into some of the many Leftist debates and studies that deal with the deep-seeded historical and methodological flaws at the heart of the party-building model still adhered to by much of the Left. Like so many of my fellow "Leninist" burnouts, I've been particularly influenced by the writings of British academic historian Lars Lih – the author of the paradigm-shattering study, Lenin Rediscovered, first published in 2005.[3]
Beyond this, I've taken particular interest in reviewing one recent debate that deals specifically with the ISO's approach to "Leninist" party building. This is the so-called "Great Lenin debate," set in motion in January 2012 when Pham Binh, a former member of the ISO, wrote a scathing review of a now dated political biography of Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin.[4] Pham's review — published online by the Australian socialist journal Links – focused on Building the Party (1975), the first volume in a three-part series on Lenin by the late Tony Cliff, the key leader of the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP).[5] In the months follow its initial release, Pham's review led to a volume of responses by activists and scholars in both the United States and Britain. While most of the replies dealt predominately with historical questions, the debate inevitably came to take on a more practical posture as well, with questions of party-building strategy quickly rising to the fore.
Naturally, at the time, this debate garnered widespread exposure within much of the Anglophone Left – a development that, I'd argue, relates to the profound relevance of many of the points brought to light in Pham's initial review. Despite this, it's my view that this debate is important enough to warrant renewed attention. For this reason, I have chosen to compile a complete listing of the contents of this debate, which I've included as a "reading list" below. By doing this, my goal is to assist other activists – including past, present, and future members of the ISO – that are attempting to make sense of the the flawed state of the Left today. The greater purpose behind all of this, of course, is to contribute — in whatever way possible — to the collective, ongoing task of renewing the international Left.
Before proceeding to this list, however, let me first provide a short summary of the debate, followed by a few insights about the debate's lasting importance.
Tony Cliff and Pham Binh
So why is it that a review of Tony Cliff's Building the Party – a book released some 37 years prior to the outbreak of "the great Lenin debate" – proved to be such a lightning rod for the socialist Left in 2012? The most substantial reason for this relates to the importance of this particular book within the U.S. ISO – and for that matter, the group's former British sister organization, the SWP (as well as other affiliates and ex-affiliates of the SWP's International Socialist Tendency). Since the ISO's formation in 1977, the group has used Building the Party as a textbook to guide their organizational activity. This is, fittingly, the very purpose that this book was written to serve. As Cliff's fellow SWP member Duncan Hallas wrote at the time of the book's release, Building the Party was intended as a "manual for revolutionaries." Thus, by calling into question the factual accuracy and interpretative merit of Cliff's book in his 2012 review, Pham simultaneously cast doubt on the very party-building model and core mission of both the ISO and the SWP. For this reason, Pham Binh's critique of Building the Party functioned not just as a book review – it also served as an exposition of the methodological flaws and the historical inaccuracies at the heart of the organizational project adhered to by these groups.
As an ex-ISO member that had become thoroughly disenchanted with the stultifying, undemocratic culture that permeates the ISO, Pham undoubtedly wrote this review with the intention of bringing these very issues to light. Notably, Pham makes this point in a somewhat explicit manner in a follow-up piece, released less than a week after his initial review article:
I drew my conclusions about Cliff's book only after I closely studied what Lenin said and did and compared it to what Cliff claimed Lenin said and did. The more I studied, the more striking the divergences became.
As someone who was a member of the US International Socialist Organization for many years and used Building the Party as a text to (mis)educate people on Lenin and the Bolsheviks, the nature, scale and pervasiveness of Cliff's distortions continually shocked me as I discovered them.[6]
So what kind of dirt does Pham bring to light in his analysis?
Interestingly, Pham structures his review as a exposition of the factual errors present in Cliff's book. The piece thus takes the form of a chapter-by-chapter analysis of Cliff's mistakes and distortions. In this way, Pham frames the review as something of a scholarly intervention, aimed at calling out Cliff for his sloppy, factually-inaccurate historical account. On a more subtle level, however, Pham's review implies that the real problem with Building the Party is not just the sheer volume of "errors, falsehoods and lies" contained within the book — rather, it relates to the political importance of Cliff's many factual blunders. As Pham reveals, Cliff presents an image of V.I. Lenin as being what amounts to an apparatchik and a cunning bureaucratic operative. Thus, in Cliff's account, Lenin frequently resorts to deception and behind-the-scenes scheming in order to enforce his will within the Russian socialist movement. Such actions helped to bring about positive political results, Cliff's account seems to imply, because of Lenin's unprecedented skills as a Marxist and socialist leader – gifts that endowed him with the ability to continuously perceive the correct path forward long before other comrades had come to realize the tasks of the day. As Pham notes in the opening section of his review, Cliff's depiction ascribes what amounts to "superhuman attributes" to Lenin. This is evident – Pham asserts – in Cliff's assertions that "Lenin adapted himself perfectly to the needs of industrial agitation" and "[Lenin] combined theory and practice to perfection."
While Pham does not spell out this point in detail in his initial review, it's clear that the flawed depiction of Lenin in Cliff's Building the Party is a matter of significant political relevance. Historically, the basis for this faulty analysis stems — in part — from Cliff's bureaucratic, top-down view of the socialist movement and his immediate political agenda at the time he wrote the book in the mid-1970s.[7] Over the years, this flawed political vision has — in turn — had a negative residual impact on generations of ISO and SWP members that have been encouraged to view this book as a "manual for revolutionaries."
Given the political implications of Pham's review, it isn't surprising that this piece provoked a shrill, vituperative response from the leadership of the ISO. This is most evident in a reply article by Paul D'Amato — a longtime member of the ISO Steering Committee and one of the group's leading dogmatists. In his rebuttal, also published in Links, D'Amato blasts Pham's review as being a "hatchet job" and "a series of poorly aimed potshots" at Tony Cliff.[8]
Even prior to the release of D'Amato's piece, Pham's review had also prompted Leftist historian Paul Le Blanc – a former member of the U.S. SWP who joined the ISO in 2009 – to pen a pair of dismissive response articles in the days following the review's release.[9] Just as D'Amato was soon to do in his rebuttal, Le Blanc's articles stridently defend Tony Cliff while simultaneously denouncing Binh for the critical tone of his review. As Le Blanc proclaims in the introduction to his first reply piece, "I have found Comrade Pham's article… to be disappointing – rendered much less useful than it could have been, given that its obvious purpose is to persuade the reader that Tony Cliff's book is little more than a mass of 'egregious misrepresentations' and 'has so many gross factual and political errors that it is useless as a historical study of Lenin's actions and thoughts'. This is a demolition job. It doesn't offer much that we can use and build on as we face the challenges of today and tomorrow."[10]
Following several initial exchanges between Binh and this duo of ISO theorists, a group of other Leftist authors also joined the fray. Notable among them was none other than renowned historian Lars Lih. On February 16, Lih published the first of a series of detailed articles focusing on historical questions brought to light by this debate in the Communist Party of Great Britain's journal, Weekly Worker.[11] Crucially, while these articles are posed as impartial, scholarly contributions, Lih's analysis consistently aligns with arguments presented in Pham's review. At the same time, Lih is also harshly critical of a number of factual and interpretative points presented by both Le Blanc and D'Amato. Most remarkably, at one point in his February 16 essay, Lih calls out Paul D'Amato for depicting Lenin as a being what amounts to a duplicitous liar. (Specifically, Lih's critique deals with the assessment D'Amato provides of Lenin's handling of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party's 1912 Prague conference). As Lih insinuates, this is particularly troubling since D'Amato obviously views Lenin as being a figure worthy of political emulation. In summarizing this point, Lih raises a series of sharp questions about the ethical outlook of "Leninist" sects in general and the ISO (and Paul D'Amato) in specific:
D'Amato's description of Lenin's duplicity (sorry, "advantageous tactical maneuvering") is essentially the same as the one made by Lenin's most vehement critics at the time – only D'Amato seems to approve of rather than condemn Lenin's behavior. After all, it helped Lenin fool the Europeans and get party funds! …
I am not a member of any left organization and so I cannot comment on whether this kind of casual cynicism is the norm – I seriously doubt that D'Amato would apply it to issues today. But, speaking as a historian, I maintain that Lenin would have been severely annoyed by this defense: ah, that Lenin, he was a clever one – by stating the exact opposite of his real intentions, he reaped factional and financial advantage! As opposed to the D'Amatos on the left and the Elwoods on the right, I maintain that Lenin actually behaved in an honest way during this episode, saying what he meant and meaning what he said.[12]
In addition to Lih's intervention, this debate also prompted response pieces by, among others, Louis Proyect and a pair of Leftist authors from the Communist Party of Great Britain – James Turley and Marc Macnair.[13]
After the initial flurry of exchanges released from late January to April, this debate eventually morphed into something of a scholarly discussion (albeit one with substantial practical relevance) between Lars Lih and Paul Le Blanc. For the remainder of the spring and much of the summer, the two historians published a number of articles in both Links and the Weekly Worker that grappled with various historiographical issues raised by the debate. Ultimately, the closing shot in this exchange came on September 1, when Links published a final contribution by Paul Le Blanc. The article provides a fitting title for this epic, seven-month-long historiographical battle — "The great Lenin debate."[14]
So why is "the great Lenin debate" important?
As I see it, this debate is important because it provides compelling proof that the organizational model relied upon by "Leninist" sects in general – and, in specific, the ISO – is based upon a false reading of history.
Granted, this same point has been compellingly argued both prior to and since the release of Binh's 2012 book review. To cite one particularly notable example, Hal Draper's 1990 article "The Myth of Lenin's 'Concept of The Party' – or What They Did to What Is To Be Done?" backs up this point with eloquence and substantial historical documentation.[15] What's more, as already noted, Lars Lih's academic writings have also done much to show the faulty understanding of "Leninism" that underpins so much of the contemporary Left.
Nonetheless, I'd argue that "the great Lenin debate" is somewhat unique in its ability to expose the fallacious nature of the "Leninist" approach to party building. The reason for this stems from the noticeable influence of real-life class struggle and on-the-ground socialist organizing within this particular exchange. Unlike most the studies and exchanges on this subject, "the great Lenin debate" took place within the context of an important moment in the U.S. class struggle – namely, the Occupy Wall Street movement, which reached its crescendo in mid-November 2011, just over two months before the release of Pham's initial review article. Crucially, this context appears to have done much to imbue this exchange with a practical focus that bellies the esoteric, scholarly nature of the debate itself. The reason for this has much to do Pham Binh's close involvement in the Occupy movement. As documented in a series of journalistic accounts and essays about the movement published throughout late 2011 and early 2012, Pham was an active rank-and-file participant in Occupy's New York City encampment. Naturally, Pham's writings on the movement are thus infused with the outlook of someone with a vested interest and material stake in this struggle. To this end, Pham's analysis of OWS – while certainly problematic in a number of regards – is, nonetheless, written with the goal of helping to push this important movement forward. Pham's astute critiques of the ISO and the socialist Left from this period fit within this mold.[16]
In addition to the influence of Occupy, the "great Lenin debate" also greatly benefits from the intervention of Lars Lih. In his four contributions to this debate — each published in Weekly Worker – Lih provides detailed empirical research to back up a number of claims initially advanced by Pham Binh. To cite one particularly significant example, Lih's articles provide ample evidence to back up Pham's contention that, prior to 1917, the Bolsheviks never considered themselves to be a political party. Rather, they saw themselves as a faction within a broader, more inclusive, multi-tendency socialist party – the RSDLP. (And as Lih has repeatedly pointed out in his other writings, the RSDLP was modeled after none other than the German Social Democratic Party).
On the reading list
Before proceeding, I wanted to say a brief word about how I've gone about formatting the reading list. For one thing, in contrast to typical bibliographies (which are, of course, ordered alphabetically), I've chosen to structure this list chronologically. Since the debate includes multiple responses and counterresponses written over the span of several months, structuring the list in this manner is essential in order to render the content of the debate easily comprehensible.
What's more, in addition to the actual debate itself, I've also included a short appendix bibliography that lists other documents of substantial relevance. This includes a series of articles from a 2010 symposium in the British academic Marxist journal Historical Materialism focusing on Lars Lih's Lenin Rediscovered.[17] Notably, according to Pham Binh, this symposium provided much of the initial inspiration for his review of Cliff's Building the Party. As Pham later pointed out, "What prompted me in the first place to look at Cliff's book carefully, chapter by chapter, in the summer of 2011 was Lars Lih's response to Chris Harman and Paul Le Blanc in Historical Materialism 18. Here, Lih mentioned some of Building the Party's factual errors. I was curious to see if there were any errors that Lih had not brought to light. The rest, as they say, is history."[18]
"The great Lenin debate": Reading list
Click here for the complete 23-article collection compiled into a single PDF file.
1. Pham Binh, "Mangling the party: Tony Cliff's Lenin," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, January 24, 2012.
2. Paul Le Blanc, "Revolutionary method in the study of Lenin – A response to Pham Binh," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, January 31, 2012.
3. Pham Binh, "Paul Le Blanc's defense of Tony Cliff's 'Building the Party,'" Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, January 31, 2012.
4. Paul Le Blanc, "Five points in response to Pham Binh," Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, February 1, 2012.
5. Paul D'Amato, "The mangling of Tony Cliff," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, February 4, 2012.
6. Louis Proyect, "Paul D'Amato and the Red Condom," Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist, February 6, 2012.
7. Pham Binh, "United States: Another socialist left is possible – a reply to Paul D'Amato," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, February 10, 2012.
8. Paul Le Blanc, "Revolutionary organization and the 'Occupy moment," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, February 16, 2012.
9. Lars Lih, "Falling out over a Cliff," Weekly Worker, February 16, 2012.
10. Paul Le Blanc, "The Lenin wars: Over a Cliff with Lars Lih," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, February 19, 2012.
11. "Some Thoughts on Lih's intervention in the 'Cliff/Lenin Debate,'" Pink Scare, March 8, 2012.
12. James Turley, "Fur flies over Lenin," Weekly Worker, March 22, 2012.
13. Pham Binh, "Over a Cliff and Into Occupy With Lenin," Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist, March 27, 2012.
14. Pham Binh, "Wanting to get Lenin wrong," Weekly Worker, March 29, 2012.
15. Paul Le Blanc, "1912 and 2012," Weekly Worker, April 5, 2012.
16. Marc Macnair, "Both Pham Binh and Paul Le Blanc are wrong," Weekly Worker, April 5, 2012.
17. Paul Le Blanc, "The birth of the Bolshevik party in 1912," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, April 17, 2012.
18. Lars Lih, "A faction is not a party," Weekly Worker, May 3, 2012.
19. Paul Le Blanc, "Bolshevism and party building — convergence and questions," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, May 5, 2012.
20. Pham Binh, "Liquidating lies," Anticapitalist Initiative, May 8, 2012.
21. Lars Lih, "How Lenin's party became (Bolshevik)," Weekly Worker, May 17, 2012.
22. Lars Lih, "Bolshevism and revolutionary social democracy," Weekly Worker, June 7, 2012.
23. Paul Le Blanc, "The great Lenin debate — history and politics," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, September 1, 2012.
Appendix: Related literature of note
Binh, Pham. "A response to Paul LeBlanc's 'Marxism and Organization'." Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist (June 29, 2011).
____________. "Occupy and the tasks of socialists." Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal (December 14, 2011).
Blackledge, Paul; Ronald Grigor Suny, Robert Mayer, Chris Harman, Alan Shandro, Paul Le Blanc, and Lars T Lih. "Symposium on Lars Lih's Lenin Rediscovered." Historical Materialism 18 (2010): 25-174.
Cliff, Tony. Building the Party: Lenin, 1893-1914. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2002. Available online through the Marxists Internet Archive.
D'Amato, Paul. "Marx, Lenin, and Luxemburg: Party, organization, and revolution." International Socialist Review 92 (Spring 2014).
Shawki, Ahmed. "What kind of party do we need?" Socialist Worker (December 2, 2011).
1. See Louis Proyect, "The Leninist Party: an annotated bibliography," Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist, March 11, 2009.
2. Hal Draper, "Anatomy of the Micro-Sect," 1973, available through the Marxists Internet Archive; Hal Draper, "Toward a New Beginning – On Another Road: The Alternative to the Micro-Sect," 1971, Available through the Marxists Internet Archive; Scott Jay, "On Leninism and anti-Leninism," to the victor go the toils, November 25, 2013; Joaquín Bustelo, "Lenin Was Not a Leninist," The North Star, March 13, 2012.
3. Lars T. Lih, Lenin Rediscovered: What Is To Be Done? in Context (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2008).
5. Tony Cliff, Building the Party: Lenin, 1893-1914 (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2002). Available in full online through the Marxists Internet Archive.
6. Pham Binh, "Paul Le Blanc's defense of Tony Cliff's 'Building the Party'" Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, January 31, 2012.
7. See Jim Higgins, More Years for the Locust: The Origins of the SWP (London: IS Group, 1997). Available online through the Marxists Internet Archive.
9. Paul Le Blanc, "Why I'm joining the US International Socialist Organization: Intensifying the struggle for social change," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, October 2009. Paul Le Blanc, "Revolutionary method in the study of Lenin – A response to Pham Binh," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, January 31, 2012.
10. Le Blanc, "Revolutionary method in the study of Lenin."
11. Lars Lih, "Falling out over a Cliff," Weekly Worker, February 16, 2012.
13. Louis Proyect, "Paul D'Amato and the Red Condom," Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist, February 6, 2012. James Turley, "Fur flies over Lenin," Weekly Worker, March 22, 2012. Marc Macnair, "Both Pham Binh and Paul Le Blanc are wrong," Weekly Worker, April 5, 2012.
15. Hal Draper, "The Myth of Lenin's 'Concept of The Party' — or What They Did to What Is To Be Done," 1990, available online through the Marxists Internet Archive.
16. See Pham Binh, "Occupy and the tasks of socialists," Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, December 14, 2011.
17. Paul Blackledge, Ronald Grigor Suny, Robert Mayer, Chris Harman, Alan Shandro, Paul Le Blanc, and Lars T Lih, "Symposium on Lars Lih's Lenin Rediscovered," Historical Materialism 18 (2010): 25-174.
[This article was first published on Red Atlanta.]
Posted by ed notes online at Thursday, November 27, 2014 No comments:
Justin Wedes Swipes Occupy Twitter Account
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/nyregion/occupy-wall-streets-twitter-account-is-focus-of-lawsuit.html?_r=2&referrer=
Occupy Wall Street Activists File Suit Over Control of Twitter Account
Protesters in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday, the three-year anniversary of the first Occupy Wall Street demonstration.
Andrew Renneisen / The New York Times
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Three years after the Occupy Wall Street movement began, an unlikely conflict has emerged over one of the cause's most precious tools: a Twitter account.
During the primacy of the Occupy movement in New York, people across the country followed @OccupyWallStNYC and other social media accounts to track the latest developments, from encampments to conflicts. Now one group of activists is accusing a former comrade of taking unilateral control of the shared account and locking out the organizers he had once collaborated with.
According to a lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the Twitter account was created in summer 2011 by Adbusters, the Canadian magazine that first called for an occupation of Wall Street. The resulting protests began on Sept. 17, 2011.
Adbusters turned the account over to Marisa Holmes, the lawsuit said, a filmmaker and activist who had helped to moderate Occupy meetings in August 2011 in Tompkins Square Park. Ms. Holmes, in turn, gave others access to the account, which now has 177,000 followers.
But in August, Justin Wedes, one of those with access, changed the passwords and locked out his fellow administrators, according to the lawsuit.
"Each and every day that goes by while Wedes remains in control of the Twitter account is another day of plaintiff's lost opportunity to speak to the Twitter audience that they worked to cultivate and rightly should control," the suit states.
Mr. Wedes did not respond to requests for comment via phone or email. But in a blog post dated four days after the lockout, he wrote that he disbanded the collective of administrators because relationships among the group had become fractious.
"Clearly the question of ownership of the account is a contentious one, and I don't pretend to have all the answers," he wrote, adding that he planned to put the account "in the hands of responsible stewards."
Ms. Holmes had a different recollection of events, saying that other members of the collective were about to vote Mr. Wedes out of the group.
"The key point is that it was a collaborative project, but he didn't get that," she said. "Justin was censoring other people and promoting his own work."
The account was dormant for about a week, she said. But then the posts began again, apparently written by Mr. Wedes. Some promoted large-scale events like a climate march planned for this weekend in New York. Others referred to projects connected to Mr. Wedes, like a campaign in Detroit protesting the city's decision to shut off water to residents with unpaid water bills.
Over the years there have been lawsuits between companies and employees about control of Twitter accounts. But the recent suit would appear to present a rare instance of that type of squabble among members of a political protest movement, let alone one that was created largely through the use of social media.
The suit is asking the court to order Mr. Wedes to turn over control of the Twitter account to OWS Media Group. The suit also seeks $500,000 in compensatory damages, and requests an injunction forbidding Mr. Wedes from turning over control of the account to anyone else or sending further messages from the account.
Mr. Wedes did not appear ready to comply. Not long after the lawsuit was filed on Wednesday, the account offered a new post: "Lawyers are the tools of the 1% and their children. We believe in class war."
The message was deleted less than an hour after it had been posted.
Posted by ed notes online at Wednesday, September 24, 2014 No comments:
The ISO Versus Socialist Alternative
eekend Edition July 4-6, 2014
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Sectarian Delusions on the American Left
by LOUIS PROYECT
Another International Socialist Organization Internal Bulletin has been leaked to the public over on the External Bulletin website, home to a group of former members. It contains an article written by long-time leader Todd Chretien that targets Socialist Alternative (SAlt)—the group that is rightfully proud of their comrade Kshama Sawant being elected to the Seattle City Council and for her role in the passing of a $15 minimum wage.
I have been partial to Chretien in the past because of his close ties to the late Peter Camejo, whose gubernatorial campaign in California he helped organize in 2003. I worked closely with Camejo in the early 80s and confess to having stolen all my best ideas from him.
The ISO's chief criticism of Socialist Alternative's electoral strategy is that it is "triumphalist", a musty term from the Marxist lexicon. Specifically, Chretien regards SAlt's call for a hundred independent candidates to run in the 2014-midterm elections as an "overblown perspective". In his view, her victory did not necessarily mean that political conditions had ripened to the point where such a large number of candidates would be forthcoming. Such "triumphalism" might even be catching–to the point where ISO'ers would be seduced into believing that it was feasible to form a new "broad" party in the near term, or that regroupment of the far left was the order of the day. Heaven forefend.
The ISO is not the only group on the left that is wary about efforts on behalf of "broad" parties. WSWS.org, the newspaper of a tiny sect that is hostile not only to SAlt but also to the ISO (and just about everyone else on the left as well), told its readers:
Socialist Alternative has called for a new coalition of like-minded groups, in alliance with the trade unions, to run 100 "independent" candidates in local elections next year. Their aim is to establish a political framework analogous to Syriza in Greece, the Left Party in Germany, and the New Anti-capitalist Party in France.
In tracking down SAlt's call, it turns out to be more what we might call food for thought rather than a promissory note. From the Kshama Sawant website:
As a concrete step to get there, we should form coalitions throughout the country with the potential to come together on a national level to run 100 independent working-class candidates in the 2014 mid-term elections. The unions who supported the Moore and Sawant campaigns and many others should run full slates of independent working-class candidates in the mid-term, state, and local elections.
Chretien points out that the 100 independent candidates have not materialized, a sure sign of SAlt's pie-in-the-sky tendencies. But was such a call anything more than what we used to call "propaganda" in the American SWP? (For some odd reason the ISO has studied the SWP for useful hints about party-building. In my view, this is like studying the Hindenburg or the Titanic for transportation ideas.)
Before it became a dirty word, propaganda meant raising an idea that could inspire people to take political action. For example, Lenin used to propagandize for a constituent assembly in Czarist Russia whether or not it was immediately on the agenda. I for one think that the call for a hundred independent candidates was not only right but also one that could be raised again in the next election cycle, to use the hackneyed term from CNN and MSNBC.
With respect to the Syriza question, it is not exactly clear that SAlt is so gung-ho on a broad party. In the most recent Greek elections their comrades ran their own campaign as a way of differentiating themselves from a party that they have characterized as "inadequate" and adhering to "watered down" demands. So, WSWS.org can breathe a sigh of relief.
Unlike the people behind WSWS, the ISO is at least verbally committed to the idea of a Syriza type formation in the USA. Just over a year ago their leader Ahmed Shawki gave a talk to an ISO conference that pointed in such a direction even if it ultimately led nowhere. One must conclude that both the ISO and SAlt are both capable of making unfulfilled projections. I urge that they be forgiven for such peccadillos.
Probably worried a bit about the smaller organization breathing down the ISO's neck, Chretien calls attention to a SAlt article filled with the characteristic bravado of small propaganda groups convinced of their special role in the final showdown with capitalism. The article speaks of having picked up new members in 45 cities and projects the group doubling in size this year, mostly on account of Kshama Sawant's high profile.
Like Hertz deriding Avis, Chretien dismisses all this as "irrational exuberance", Yale economist Robert Schiller's term for stock market and real estate bubbles. One can understand why he would be so skeptical. It was not so long ago that the ISO itself had the illusion of nonstop growth until it ran into the glass ceiling all such groups impose upon themselves with their ideological purity and their bogus notions of "democratic centralism". If SAlt's goal was to become a party of 1,000 members, history will record that it is certainly within reach. But in a country of nearly 300 million people, that is like spitting into the ocean. The sad reality is that it is only a broad left party that can begin to reach those millions, something that neither the ISO nor SAlt is ready to acknowledge except as an abstraction. In reality it would require dissolving themselves into a much larger movement and thus losing their precious individuality.
Let me turn now to the rather arcane matter of how the ISO distinguishes itself from SAlt in terms of their revolutionary bona fides, a topic that I am sure would make most CounterPunch readers' eyes glaze over. I will do my best to make my account as lively as possible.
SAlt's "irrational exuberance" was something they supposedly caught like a bad cold from their leadership in Britain, where the Committee for a Workers International is based. This latest attempt to build a Fourth International has the same tendency as every one in the past, going back to the days when Leon Trotsky was running the show. It revolves around the idea that a prerevolutionary situation exists and that it will be squandered unless Leninist parties are built in the nick of time. Chretien scoffs at the CWI's claim that their South African section was in the vanguard of the working class given their tiny vote (0.05). We are led to believe that Socialist Alternative has the same delusions of grandeur.
Of course, such projections are essential for groups in the "Leninist" mold. How else would you persuade young people to give up so much of their time, energy and money unless they felt that socialism was on the near-term agenda? What tends to happen with such groups is burn-out as people reach their 30s or 40s and the cold, hard reality sinks in that capitalism stands before them like an immovable object when their small numbers are quite resistible. The only force capable of making a dent in that immovable object will have to accept people on their own terms. The largely Black and Latino NYC subway work force that is quite capable of bringing Wall Street to its knees by not reporting to work and that supported the Occupy movement is not likely to attend 3 meetings a week or fit in with a milieu largely made up of white kids who attended Columbia University and other top-drawer institutions.
Chretien also takes issue with CWI leader Peter Taaffe's claim that a "rapid and peaceful socialist transformation" of society is possible, an obviously revisionist notion. No such illusions exist in the ideologically granite-hard ISO that would never make such errors. Instead of succumbing to parliamentary cretinism as they used to put it a century ago, the ISO has an "extra-parliamentary" orientation. What Chretien fails to mention is that Taaffe was not speaking about Fabian socialist gradualism but rather about one of the most "extra-parliamentary" struggles of the past 50 years, namely the May-June 1968 events in France when workers and students built barricades and seemed poised to take power. Taaffe wrote:
There is not only the sombre tragedy of Chile, but the brilliant example of France, when in May 1968 over 10 million workers participated in a magnificent general strike. The economy was paralysed and the state suspended in mid-air. When General de Gaulle fled in panic to the headquarters of the French forces in Germany, his commander-in-chief, General Massu, told him bluntly that it would be impossible for the army to intervene against the working class under those conditions. A rapid and peaceful socialist transformation of French society would have been entirely possible.
In other words, Taaffe was not talking up Norman Thomas but V.I. Lenin. A "rapid and peaceful socialist transformation" was possible in the same way that it was possible in October 1917. Bloodshed only came when Soviet Russia was invaded, after the relatively peaceful initial conquest of power. One hopes that Chretien can avoid quoting his adversaries out of context in the future. Such behavior does not reflect well on him.
Chretien complains about SAlt reneging on promises to work with the ISO on election campaigns: "It remains to be seen if SAlt can overcome its sectarian tendencies and learn how to genuinely collaborate with other forces on the left." Who can say why (or even if) this haughty attitude was manifested? Similar complaints were raised about the ISO when their rivals approached them about endorsing Sawant's first campaign for city council. My experience with these sorts of "he said, she said" disagreements is that both parties share blame. Since they are fighting for market share, there is an almost inevitable tendency to blame each other when an agreement can't be reached like in a failed corporate merger.
Finally, Cretien draws a contrast between the ISO and the group that it can see gaining rapidly in its rear view mirror:
Our stated goal is no different from Socialist Alternative's. We are "dedicated to the project of creating a revolutionary workers' party as a part of a worldwide movement for socialism." However we are going about this task in way that is different from SAlt's approach. Our vision is not that the ISO will just become the revolutionary workers party when it reaches a certain size and we drop the "O" and add a "P." The creation of real mass party of revolutionary workers will undoubtedly involve forces larger than us. Our work is in the creation and development of Marxist militants who are able be involved with those larger forces, movements and unions in order to weave the threads that will in the future pull sections of these forces into that thing that will be a party.
One of the things I have learned about the Leninist left over the years is that except for the nethermost reaches like WSWS.org or the Spartacist League, it is de rigueur to make disclaimers like it "will undoubtedly involve forces larger than us." The problem is that we are not interested in what happens down the road. We are focused on 2014 when small left groups have a heavy responsibility for taking the next step to draw in larger forces. The ISO, like the Socialist Alternative, is an energetic, uncompromising, principled group that we can appreciate for its efforts. However, we are in a period of deepening class confrontation where everybody on the left will be sorely tested as to their ability to transcend artificial divisions that weaken us in the face of the enemy. The time to overcome such divisions is now, not in the distant future. In fact actions that we take today, or fail to take, will have an impact on the relationship of forces down the road. Unless we begin to move away from sectarianism today, our chances of success in the future will be compromised if not entirely thwarted. One hopes that both the ISO and Socialist Alternative can rise to the occasion.
Louis Proyect blogs at http://louisproyect.org and is the moderator of the Marxism mailing list. In his spare time, he reviews films for CounterPunch.
Posted by ed notes online at Thursday, August 28, 2014 No comments:
The Indypendent: What's A Cop To Do?
Good cops, dedicated and skilled ones, learn how to look for signs of criminal behavior instead of profiling by race ...good policing requires judgment, being able to tell the difference between a black teenager in sneakers who's running because he just snatched a purse and one who's running because his mother said he had to be home for dinner by 6pm....a former Baltimore city cop and Maryland state trooper, told me in 2012. Police who are "serious about their craft" watch out for the body-language cues that indicate when someone's carrying a gun or looking to break into parked cars. To search large numbers of people instead of patiently observing to see who the real bad guys are, he said, is both unconstitutional and lazy policing.
The left and left-liberals haven't handled the issue well either. They've focused on the racism of police practices, mass incarceration and law-and-order politics while largely ignoring people's legitimate fears. Leftists regularly call for abolishing the prison-industrial complex (or abolishing prisons entirely) without articulating a clear idea of how they'd deal with violent crime. That leaves the issue as rightwing property.... The Indypendent, What's A Cop To Do? Life After Eric Garner's Death, STEVEN WISHNIA, August 14, 2014 Issue # 199
See more at: http://www.indypendent.org/2014/08/14/whats-cop-do-life-after-eric-garners-death#sthash.yS1gHiVg.dpuf
For a left-wing newspaper, I thought Steven Wishnia went outside the "usual left suspect" piece. Rarely do you see terms like "the craft of policing." And just like we know that the attacks by ed deformers on teachers are unfair by lumping them all in one bag, we might also be concerned about lumping all police in one bag.
They included a photo of Josmar Trujillo, who I know from my gym and from some of his struggles over his kids' charter school and leadership of stop and frisk activities in Rockaway. Josmar is one of the most articulate people I know and he has appeared on the WNYC Brian Lehrer show.
The article summarizes with some basic background:
Posted by ed notes online at Friday, August 22, 2014 No comments:
Charter Cap Battle Looming in NY State
New York charter sector prepares for fight over limits
A rally in support of charter schools in Albany, March 2014. (AP Photo/Tim Roske)
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By Eliza Shapiro 5:49 a.m. | Aug. 11, 2014 follow this reporter
Barely six months after New York City's charter school movement seemingly secured its future with sweeping legislation in Albany, advocates are gearing up for a new battle in the upcoming legislative session to eliminate or increase the cap on the number of new charters that can be created.
Emboldened by their legislative successes last session, thank to help from Governor Andrew Cuomo, charter leaders and groups are in the early planning stages of launching a unified push to get the cap extended or eliminated as a line-item in this year's final budget. Sources said that meetings with legislators will likely begin later this fall after the governor's race, and intensify throughout the winter.
New York City will likely have just 17 slots for new charter schools by this fall, assuming that the charter proposals currently under review are approved, as is widely expected.
Advocates say they're optimistic about their chances, which would all but guarantee rapid growth for the charter sector.
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"Usually the conditions that lead to lifting a cap include long waitlists for charters, strong academic performance and many successful models that you want to replicate, support from political leaders and a strong, vocal advocacy infrastructure," said Nina Rees, the president and C.E.O. of the National Alliance for Charter Schools. "It is the right place to completely lift the cap," Rees said, adding her group, which has national influence, will help in the effort to extend the cap if local advocates ask.
Advocates are expecting more support from Cuomo, who took up the charter cause in a very public way this year by siding with Success Academy leader Eva Moskowitz and other charter leaders in a fight with the city, and muted opposition from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was on the losing side of that fight.
A spokeswoman for Cuomo referred Capital to a budget official, who noted that the statewide cap still allowed room for charter growth outside of New York City.
"The breaks start to go on now in terms of ability to plan new charters," said James Merriman, C.E.O. of the New York City Charter School Center. He also said that, as the cap quickly approaches, "the cap starts to look like the Berlin Wall. It's simply an artificial barrier."
Merriman believes New York City will have a strong case to make in removing its charter cap, which would ensure that the city's charters have both a dedicated funding stream for charter facilities and unlimited room to grow.
"It's fundamentally a crazy policy to put any limit on creating more successful public schools," he said.
New York City's charter cap was created under New York's original 1998 charter law allowing 200 schools statewide, and was extended by 114 schools during a 2010 fight in Albany over the cap. New York state and New York City have different caps; there are still 139 slots available for upstate charters.
Fresh off her victory in Albany against Mayor Bill de Blasio earlier this year, Success Academy C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz is likely to emerge as one of the leaders of the charter cap push. Noting the shrinking cap, Moskowitz applied to open 14 new charter schools by 2016 with the remaining charter slots, which will nearly double the size of her charter network.
"[Moskowitz] is sitting on a goldmine, and would make a great advocate to make the case for lifting the cap," said Rees, whose group recently appointed Moskowitz to its "charter hall of fame." A spokeswoman for Moskowitz declined to comment.
Devora Kaye, a Department of Education spokeswoman, said "as we work to support all children and educators, we look forward to collaborating with all community stakeholders."
Opposition from the United Federation of Teachers and its affiliates is all but guaranteed, meaning a familiar series of rallies and counter-rallies will likely flood the Capitol in 2015.
"Given the charters' track record, the cap should be lowered," Michael Mulgrew, president of the U.F.T. said in a statement. "Raising the cap will drain more money from New York's traditional public schools, and the only ones to benefit will be a few people in the charter industry."
During the 2010 cap battle, union leaders and charter critics worked in more regulations on how many special needs students and English language learners charters would have to admit, by way of compromise. Charter advocates say more regulations in that vein will be likely to pass legislation this time around.
And while the 2010 charter cap fight was lengthy and contentious, the national picture is encouraging for the local charter sector, as many states have successfully eliminated their caps. According to research from the National Alliance, the majority of states with unlimited charters originally had caps. Some states, like Colorado and Maine, have charter laws with sunset provisions that will eventually eradicate the caps the laws were passed along with. Others, like Iowa, Louisiana and Tennessee lifted their caps in order to be eligible to receive federal Race to the Top funding.
Posted by ed notes online at Monday, August 11, 2014 No comments:


text:
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Home » Pennsylvania Forklifts: How to Find the Best Value Deal
Pennsylvania Forklifts: How to Find the Best Value Deal
Pennsylvania Forklifts for Sale – Pennsylvania, the sixth most populous state with nearly 13 million residents, is located in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic portion of America. The state's economy is largely driven by industrial manufacturing sectors which grew tremendously during the early years of the 20th century. It includes steel production, coal mining, logging, coal mining, and textile production.
They have drawn cheap labor from the influx of foreign immigrants, mainly non-English speaking laborers and children. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge has established the Allegheny National Forest with an aim to protect the watershed in the Allegheny River while supporting the growth of timber production.
With a gross state product amounting to $644 billion, Pennsylvania is ranked the sixth largest economy in the U.S. It would have been the world's 18th largest economy if it were an independent country. About 50 of the world's largest companies are headquartered in Pennsylvania. Companies such as H.J. Heinz, PPG Industries, King of Prussia, U.S. Steel, and GE Transportation Systems are mostly located in suburban areas.
The agriculture sector also plays an important role with the state having 59,000 farms covering nearly 8 million acres of land. Pennsylvania leads the nation in the production of Agaricus mushroom. It contributes 64% share in the total sales volume of the U.S. from 2015 to 2016.
Estimating Prices of Pennsylvania Forklifts
There are many things to consider when buying Pennsylvania forklifts. First in the list is the price, of course, and then followed by value. Value is determined by a variety of factors such as the expected lifespan and usage, the functionality and the role of the equipment itself. Each brand has their own sets of strengths and weaknesses.
As such, it is important that before purchasing Pennsylvania forklifts, you do your own research in finding the right model at the right price. It is important to consider as well the innovative technology that each brand offers to help organizations meet their handling needs.
The price of Pennsylvania Forklifts depends largely on how much weight they can lift. Hence it is important to choose only a forklift that has the right capacity to handle specific jobs without overspending for an extra capacity that you don't actually need. There are two types of Pennsylvania Forklifts based on engine– the electric and the internal combustion (IC).
Electric forklifts operate on batteries while the IC uses diesel fuel gas or liquid propane gas. Electric forklifts are costlier upfront but have lower hourly operating cost. You can buy a 5,000 lb electric forklift for $18,000- $25,000 while an IC counterpart may cost $16,000 to over $28,000. The price tag increases as forklift weight rise, too.
Cities in Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Wilkes-Barre, West Mifflin, Baldwin, Back Mountain, Upper St. Clair, Johnstown, Reading, Drexel Hill, McCandless Township, Pittsburgh, Carlisle, Levittown, Lancaster, Plum, Municipality of Murrysville, King of Prussia, Wilkinsburg, Pottstown, McKeesport, Mount Lebanon, Altoona, Municipality of Monroeville, Radnor Township, Penn Hills, New Castle, Bethel Park, Hazleton, Allentown, State College, Shaler Township, Springfield, Erie, West Chester, Harrisburg, Chester, Lebanon, Ross Township, York,Easton, Scranton, Norristown, Williamsport, Bethlehem
Pennsylvania Forklifts State Resources
Pennsylvania State Website
County List In Pennsylvania
Forklift Suppliers in Adjacent States
Delaware Forklift Suppliers
Maryland Forklift Suppliers
New Jersey Forklift Suppliers
New York Forklift Suppliers
Ohio Forklift Suppliers
West Virginia Forklift Suppliers
Forklift Types
Forklifts come in a variety of types and sizes to fit your requirement.
Sit Down Rider
Sit down forklift has a seat for a rider which faces the mast. In this position operator can see the lifting process while comfortably seated, which increases productivity.
Pallet jacks make pulling product through the warehouse or distribution center easy and convenient. Pallet jacks are cheap, small in size, and good for small loads.
Reach Truck
Reach Trucks deliver on efficiency, safety and performance. Unique features coupled with the longstanding productivity, ergonomics and low cost of ownership.
An Order Picker solves even the most challenging high-reaching warehouse needs. They easily maneuver narrow aisles in warehouses with minimized rack impact during case picking.
Rough Terrain
Rough Terrain forklifts are designed to be driven over uneven and rocky surfaces transporting a heavy load. Due to size, tires, and weight capacity, these forklifts are primarily used outdoors.
Lull Forklift
The Lull forklift features a unique sliding chassis frame that allows workers to reach forward and retract, with an additional seven feet, without having to move the equipment.
Aerial platforms and scissor lifts are for lifting workers (usually one or two people) and are excellent for indoor and outdoor construction, maintenance and installation applications.
Articulated telescopic bucket trucks are designed to be the safest and most reliable aerial lifts for the telecom, utility, electric power distribution & transmission and sign & light industries.
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The Pros and Cons of Forklift Rental
One of the necessities of all large warehouses is the forklift truck. Forklift trucks are powerful industrial machines that can lift and transport heavy materials through short distances. All warehouses, especially ones that house large and heavy materials such as lumber, construction materials, bulk products, machinery, and other goods, need at least one of these industrial machines to move those materials around.
Get a Dependable Used Forklift
Though owning a forklift may sound great, the process of selecting and buying a used forklift is not as easy as it seems. Choosing a used forklift is quite a tedious job because there are so many options to choose from
Buying New Forklifts – A Guide
When buying new forklifts, there are questions to consider first even before you start looking at forklifts. These pointers will assist you in identifying your specific requirements and the type of forklift you may need.
Forklift rental prices
"I leased a Komatsu Forklift for one month for $850.00. " --Manufacturing Company, Oceanside, California
"We entered into a rental agreement for a Nissan Forklift at $524 per month for 36 months." -- Government, Washington DC
"$950 for a month's rental." -- Transportation/Logistics, Lawndale, North Carolina
"I am renting a forklift. The forklift cost broke down this way: Base monthly price $1,050. $85 delivery fee. $85 pick up fee." -- Business Services, Mosier, Oregon
"Komatsu (5000 lb capacity) - Rental for approximately $900 per month. This is a test for a lease at approximately $400 month for 36 months." -- Business Services, Chicago, Illinois
Used forklift prices
"$12,000. Got a fantastic deal with a 2006 Yale forklift having 3,500 hours. This one had pneumatic tires, capacity load of 12,200 lb, fork height of 12 ft." -- Recycling Company, Orange County, CA
"$10,000 used Komatsu FG25ST forklift. This one came with a 5000 lb lift cap, max lifting height of 11 ft. and had 1,300 running hours." -- Freight Co, Baltimore, MD
"$3,830 - used 1987 Toyota forklift. Has automatic power shift and 42' and 48' forks that came with it. Lower height 77" and 115" for a max forklift height." -- Shipping Dept., Sacramento, CA
"$9,000 for a 05 Toyota forklift. 48 in. forks, gas powered, has side shift, 15' lift." -- Government dept., Albany, NY
"$10,000 used 04 Komatsu Forklift, 2300 hrs, 5500 pound cap, gas, side shift, three stage boom, cushion tires." -- Manufacturing Co, Rockford, Il
"$12,000 for a 5000 pound pneumatic 2004 reconditioned Hyster forklift truck." -- Manufacturing Co, San Francisco, CA
"$13,000 for a Komatsu 5000 pound 3-stage, side shifting, good tires, 600 hrs, brand new paint job, LPG, 60 day warranty given." -- Media Co, Florham Park, NJ
"$7,200 for a 1999 Yale 3,500 forklift. Has 9,500 hrs, great condition." -- Agriculture Co, Aberdeen, WA
"Paid $8,000 for my used 1997 Nissan 50 forklift and it was fully reconditioned, included a 60 day warranty and they even delivered it to my location." -- Wholesale Co, Tulsa, OK
"$9,000 - 5,000 lb LPG forklift having decent pneumatic tires, 3 stage upright. It was reconditioned and had a 6 mo warranty which made the decision easy." -- Manufacturing Co, Springfield, IL
"Yale forklift with a 12,000 lb capacity. It was in great shape having very low hrs and no reconditioning was required. Got it for $20,500." -- Fireplace Dist, Lake Worth, FL
"$10,000 for 2004 Schaeff, 2200 hours, completely reconditioned which included new batteries, new paint. Forklift performs and looks brand new." -- Gov Dept, Duluth, Minnesota
"I bought an old Hyster 5000 lb. lift for $4500. It had 48" forks with 3 tier lift. It ended up being a great buy." -- Wholesale Co, Greenville, SC
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Brown cloth and tan paper boards. minor rubbing and wear head and tail of spine on dust jacket which is protected by mylar.
An interesting and informative book for those seeking to begin an autograph collection. Contains 240 pages including index with photographs and facsimile signatures throughout. Author details proper procedures in acquiring autographs, how to protect them and a list of reputable U.S an international autograph dealers and auction houses (very light marginalia).
The joy and techniques of autograph collecting. Presentation from Hamilton on the free endpaper.
To most people the word "autograph" means simply a person's signature. But autograph material can be any note or letter, whether signed or not, a document such as a check or deed, a book manuscript, notes of music set down by a composer, a sketch by an artist.
Steven Raab: "Knowledge is the key to building a collection that stands the test of time."
Collects facsimiles of letters by historical figures including Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Virginia Woolf, Pablo Picasso, and Maurice Sendak.
The Manuscript Society Criteria for Describing Manuscripts and Documents 3 presents standardized abbreviations (codes) and recommends their use. Most of the code letters are not new, but because of the extreme variability in their usage over the years, it became necessary to adopt a more precise set of criteria for all to use. Periods between abbreviations were eliminated (e.g. ALS instead of A.L.S.). Precise dictionary definitions for each code letter were applied (e.g. A = autographed). Autograph is a noun or transitive verb, not an adjective; thus ALS = autographed letter signed, not autograph letter signed).
The UACC's Study of Machine Signed Signatures by Paul Carr is a 38 page monograph fully illustrated of Autopen patterns from Presidents, astronauts to movie stars.
written by Madigan, Thomas F.


text:
Rom e Sinti, cittadini senza patria?
Titolo Rivista: SOCIOLOGIA DEL DIRITTO
Autori/Curatori: Maurizio Cermel
DOI: 10.3280/SD2008-003005
Rom and Sinti, Citizens with no Homeland? - The condition of the Rom and Sinti peoples represents very well the contradictions present in European society and the problems that Europe has to tackle if it is to pursue the path of political integration. There are several million people in the Rom and the Sinti population, distributed in small communities all over the continent. Because of their lifestyle and different language and customs, they are in practice denied access to the civil, political and social rights due to other citizens, both in Italy and in the majority of other European countries. This denial of their cultural identity sometimes verges on racial discrimination: as they lie on the margins of civil society, the authorities often treat them in ways that are incompatible with the principles of freedom, equality and solidarity on which today's modern democracies are founded. What the institutions in the various states ought to do, on the other hand, is work together with the Rom and Sinti organisations and with the international organisations to safeguard a cultural identity that enriches Europe as a whole just as much as its national identities do, while at the same time contributing at making these people fully entitled European citizens. Eligio Resta, God and the Majority Award The history of the principle of majority is still a powerful indicator for interpreting contemporary developments in economic democracy and in political democracy. The work by F. Galgano that led to these notes illustrates a line of commentary about the form and the contents of the rule of the majority that is pursued right up to the decline perceived in the present day. Overwhelmed by the crisis afflicting the concept of representation today, the principle of the majority has come back to question us about the space reserved for deliberative democracy.
Maurizio Cermel, in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL DIRITTO " 3/2008, pp. 139-170, DOI:10.3280/SD2008-003005