The New SPACEThe New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education Pluralism Page |
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"Without Cause: Yale Fires An Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar" by Joshua Frank
"Last week Prof. Graeber was informed that his teaching contract at Yale would not be extended. However, it was not Graeber's scholarship that was ever in question; rather it was his political philosophies that may have played a heavy hand in the administration's unwarranted decision..."
www.counterpunch.org/frank05132005.html Support David Graeber by Signing an Online Petition |
New Additions "The Machiavellian
Circus: How Well-Meaning Collectives Degenerate into Power Struggles
& Purges" by Joshua Howard 7th Annual Conference of the Association of Heterodox Economics "The AHE is the principal world forum encouraging and supporting pluralism in economics with participants from nearly 30 countries expected at the conference." The 2005 conference is organized around the theme of "Pluralism in Economics." |
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Pluralism
Policies Genuine pluralism differs from mere diversity or
passive tolerance. It requires transparent policies and practices
that protect and encourage dissidents and dissident perspectives, in order
to foster active engagement with and discussion of alternative
views. Thus, in keeping with its pluralistic mission, the New SPACE
commits itself to the following policies. We urge other educational
institutions to adopt and implement these or similar pluralism
policies. We are currently
discussing additional policies, and encourage suggestions from
others.
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"Doing Pluralism" Alan Freeman comments on pluralism, the World Social Forum, the launching of the New SPACE, and the events which led to it. Excerpts from Alan Freeman's Letter Alan Freeman (www.greenwich.ac.uk/~fa03) recently edited with Boris Kagarlitsky, The Politics of Empire: Globalisation in Crisis (Pluto, 2004). With Ernest Mandel, he co-edited Marx, Ricardo, Sraffa (Verso, 1984) and with Guglielmo Carchedi, he co-edited Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics (Elgar, 1996). Freeman and Andrew Kliman co-organize the International Working Group on Value Theory (http://www.iwgvt.org/). In April 2005 Alan Freeman was elected chair of the Greater London Authority branch of UNISON, the main trade union representing local government employees in the UK. The New SPACE welcomes Freeman’s positive assessment and defense of our school. However, in accordance with our commitment to pluralism, and especially our “Open Dialogue” policy (published elsewhere on this page), we also invite responses from institutions and persons criticized in his piece.
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“Suppression of Dissent” website
Brian
Martin has courageously fought against the suppression of dissent – from
wherever the suppression comes – for more than a quarter century. His “Suppression of Dissent”
website contains a wealth of very valuable information and advice on how
to fight suppression of dissent.
Martin writes, “It is vitally important that
action be taken against suppression. This is because the most important
effect of suppression is ... on others who observe the process. Every case
of suppression is a warning to potential critics not to buck the system.
And every case in which suppression is vigorously opposed is a warning to
vested interests that attacks will not be tolerated.”
www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent
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IWGVT Scholarship Guidelines
The
International Working Group on Value Theory has been struggling for
critical pluralism within the discipline of economics, including radical
economics, for the past 11 years.
Among other activities, the IWGVT promotes its Scholarship Guidelines. “It is common in academic
discourse for proponents of one perspective to exclude, ignore, and deny
legitimacy to opposing perspectives. Against this, the aim of the
guidelines is to achieve a style of debate in which different perspectives
engage with one another. We seek to foster a dialogue which is pluralist,
because no interpretation of a theory, and no presentation of the facts,
will be ruled out a priori, but also critical, because proponents
of various perspectives will need to confront the
alternatives.”
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NY left
institution purges CAPITAL teacher
New York--On
Feb. 9 [2004], the Brecht Forum informed the teacher of its course on
"Capital, Marx's Capital and Alternatives to Capital," Andrew Kliman, that
it does not want him to teach there in the future, and that it "would not
object" to his leaving before the current course was over. The expulsion
letter came in response to Kliman's and the class' complaints that the
Brecht substantively rewrote the course announcement without his knowledge
or consent. The Brecht's version of the announcement hid the fact that the
course is a seminar on Capital and, without permission, identified him as
having written for NEWS & LETTERS.
"Such numerous
and important changes are by no means 'purely stylistic,' as the Brecht
claims," Kliman said. "I have never before had text substantially altered
like this without consultation. I've never even heard of such a case
before. The Brecht has shown itself to be a petty, sectarian institution
utterly lacking in intellectual integrity."
Kliman had
been teaching for a sixth term at the Brecht to an unusually large class
of 23. The course has resumed at another location.
Teachers at
the Brecht Forum, a 28-year-old New York City left educational
institution, are not paid. The purged seminar leader is a widely published
Marxist-Humanist theorist whose writings have clashed with established
"Marxist" economics. He and others have refuted "Marxist" economists'
alleged proofs of Marx's internal inconsistency.
What was
Kliman's crime that merited expulsion? Only that he and the class objected
to the Brecht re-writing the course description and Kliman's biography
without his knowledge and consent for its catalogue, website, e-mail and
flyers. The Brecht did this not once, but twice. The rewriting, which
disguised the fact that the course was a course on CAPITAL, undoubtedly
served to reduce enrollment.
Although the
Brecht claimed the changes were "stylistic," it is known that the
administration dislikes Kliman's work and politics. One student reported
from personal conversations that leaders of the Brecht were "out to get"
him. During another discussion of the rewriting problem, an influential
person at the Brecht complained about Kliman's "idealism" and expressed
disagreement with his recently published "Marx's Concept of Intrinsic
Value."
The three-term
seminar emerged out of Kliman's Brecht course on CAPITAL Vols. 2 and 3. He
and several students co-wrote the new course's description. Acting on its
own, the Brecht changed the course title to "Four Questions" and removed
several points in the description, actions that disguised the fact that
the course consists primarily of a close reading of Vol. 1. In addition,
Kliman's biography was changed by removing references to his prior Brecht
teaching, dropping some of his publications, and adding that he had
published in NEWS & LETTERS.
When this
happened last fall, Kliman objected privately, and the Brecht sent out the
correct version of the course description to its email list. Yet when the
winter publicity appeared, the description had again been modified, and
the Brecht's rewrite of Kliman's bio again replaced his own. This occurred
even though he had asked the Brecht not to alter the text without his
permission.
Kliman and the
class then requested a correction, an apology, and assurance that such
re-writing would not occur again. The Brecht's executive director, Liz
Mestres, not only refused, but insisted she has a right to make changes to
course announcements without the knowledge and consent of their authors,
even when the changes are additions that disclose teachers‚ supposed
political associations. As one student said, "There is little doubt that
Mestres made this identification to scare off prospective students."
Brecht
administrators faulted Kliman for discussing the matter with the class;
they interrupted two class meetings by shouting at him when the matter was
being discussed. Several students sent letters to the Brecht objecting to
its rewriting without permission. Another objected to the idea that such
matters should be kept from the class. Kliman's several attempts to
discuss the matter with Mestres were rebuffed.
Many class
members think the issues at stake are fairly simple: no school has a right
to rewrite course descriptions and bios without consultation; the class
has a right to present its project as it sees fit; no institution has the
right to publish teachers' supposed affiliations without permission. Yet
some class members held that a left institution should not be challenged,
even if it suppresses other leftists, in order to maintain "unity"-even
when changing its practices would not harm the institution in any way.
Another
student countered that "Only through reasoned debate can leftists work out
differences and problems and figure out how best to fight. That is, the
tactic of suppressing dissenting views is not only wrong 'in principle,'
but produces backward movement, not forward. By debating and developing
ideas now about what non-capitalism means, we are helping the movement go
forward toward that goal. The process we are engaged in is the very
opposite of suppressing dissent." --Seminar participants (This article first appeared in the March 2004 issue of News & Letters)
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