Opinion: Kevin Hattie

Venezuela; The beginning of the end?

There is turmoil in Venezuela. Students have been protesting against the government in nation-wide demonstrations characterised by disorder and violence that have led to the death of three people. Initially organised to protest against economic shortages and insecurity, these demonstrations have been calling for ‘la salida’ – the exit of President Nicolás Maduro. They have been supported by sections of the opposition alliance, Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, led by Leopoldo López and Maria Corina Machado.

 These events mark a rerun of earlier events, when the opposition pushed for the removal of Chávez through a failed coup in 2002, a private sector lock-out in 2002-3 and a recall referendum against Chávez in 2004. Maria Corina Machado, a signatory to the 2002 ‘Carmona Decree’ that temporarily dissolved the Chávez government, was a key protagonist of the recall referendum. Her ‘civil society’ organisation, Súmate, received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, where she was feted by President George Bush in May 2005.

The Chavistas learned a number of lessons from the events of 2002-2004:  the importance of consolidating grassroots support; the need to build regional solidarity; the capacity of the private sector to paralyse economic activity; and the urgency of countering false reporting on the country. It was this period that was the catalyst for the transformation of an initially centrist Third Way project into Socialism of the Twenty First Century.

The opposition similarly absorbed lessons, after anti-government unions, business associations and the local Roman Catholic Church failed to galvanise public opinion behind regime change in 2002. It adopted an electoral path as the balance of power swung to moderate factions, and radicals associated with unconstitutional tactics were pushed to the margins. This reaped dividends in national and regional elections after 2008 as the MUD focused on bread-and-butter voter concerns and wooed Chavistas alienated by the government’s statist lurch with soothing language of reconciliation and promises to improve, rather than remove, the benefits delivered by the Missions.  At the same time, the protagonist role of the private sector media was gradually tempered by introduction of European-style broadcast regulations.

US-based lobbies antagonistic toward the advance of Chávez’s socialism no longer saw these elements of ‘civil society’ as an effective oppositional vehicle and jettisoned them, deciding that a new tool for regime displacement had to be nurtured.  Students in private sector universities became the new vanguard of ‘democracy promotion’.

In 2008, the US-based Cato Institute awarded the US$500,000 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty to student leader Yon Goicoechea for his role in mobilising protests against the suspension of private broadcaster RCTV’s licence. At the same time, a sizeable amount of the US$45 million in funding provided annually by US institutions to Venezuelan opposition groups was channelled to ‘youth outreach’ programmes.

With financial support and media training, Venezuela’s student and opposition-aligned Juventud Activa Venezuela Unida  became vociferous and mobilised, focusing after 2010 on the alleged censorship by the state of private sector broadcasters and on government legislation intended to democratise the administration of the universities. The latter was portrayed as a threat to university autonomy and some public institutions, such as the Universidad Central de Venezuela, were driven into the opposition camp.

In 2011 JAVU activists staged a hunger strike in support of ‘political prisoners’ and demanded that the Organisation of American States should intervene. Protests in 2012 focused on underfunding in the higher education sector and in 2013 demonstrations were organised outside the Cuban Embassy, first to demand the return of Chávez from chemotherapy in Havana and then to challenge the result of the April presidential election.

The current protests are important on two counts. First, they mark a coming together of the student movement and radical elements of the MUD. López and Machado have been organising with the student leadership, in particular in relation to the February 12th demonstrations on Venezuela’s Day of the Youth, which commemorates the role of young people in the 1814 independence battle of la Victoria.

Frustrated by the slow dividends of the electoral route, López and Machado are challenging the position of Henrique Capriles as MUD leader, even though he defeated them both in the MUD’s 2012 primaries. As Capriles in recent weeks has nudged closer toward dialogue with President Maduro on the issue of public security, following January’s murder of former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear, the uncompromising López and Machado have sought to open a chasm between Capriles and grassroots anti-government sentiment.

In turn, the student movement has embraced the ‘salida’ demand of López and Machado, threatening to stay on the streets until Maduro leaves office. This is against a backdrop of  growing tension, with ongoing raids by security forces on private sector warehouse facilities, where food and goods are allegedly being hoarded to create artificial shortages, and with the interception of a recorded conversation between a former Venezuelan ambassador and a vice-admiral where plans for violence and ‘something similar to April 11th’ were being discussed.

The second distinctive aspect relates to the role of social media. Although mobilisations and related violence have been on-going, with two student deaths in 2010, they have not received the same level of attention as the protests earlier this month. One indication of an orchestrated campaign has been the frenzied activity by opposition youth on Twitter, which seems to be substituting for the once vociferous but now calmer private sector media that could traditionally be relied upon to galvanise international attention.

Despite claims that social media ‘democratises’ the media, it is clear that in Venezuela it has had the opposite effect, exacerbating  the trend towards disinformation and misrepresentation, with overseas media groups and bloggers reproducing – without verification – opposition claims and images of student injuries allegedly caused by police brutality and attacks by government supporters. In its reporting, the Guardian newspaper cited tweets by opposition activists claiming pro-government gangs had been let loose on protestors. No evidence to substantiate this extremely serious allegation was provided. It also reported on the arrest of 30 students on 12th February, following serious disorder, including barricade building, tire burning and Molotov cocktail attacks, as if it were an egregious assault on human rights. The report was subsequently tweeted by Machado. By way of context, 153 students were arrested in the UK during the 2010 protests against tuition fees.

The images disseminated, for example, to a Green Movement activist in Iran and then circulated to her thousands of followers with the tag line ‘pray for Venezuela’s students’, and to other democracy movements around the world show Egyptian and not Venezuelan police beating demonstrators. This same image was carried by the Spanish newspaper ABC. Photographs and video clips of Chilean, Argentinian and Bulgarian police suppressing demonstrators and carrying out arrests (in their home countries) have been circulated and published as of they were assaults in Venezuela, and one widely reproduced image shows Venezuela’s Policia Metropolitana corralling student protestors. The Policia Metropolitana was disbanded in 2011. Twitter has additionally been used to harangue commentators, including this author, who checked the accounts of her abusive critics to find most had only been tweeting for a day and in that space of time had accumulated around 40,000 followers.

Capriles has been steering the opposition down the electoral path in recognition of the fact that ordinary voters are alienated by violent protest and disorder. It has been widely acknowledged that such a strategy will take time to produce results, but it allows the MUD to build an electoral base and credibility as a political alternative. This hard work will be undone by a return to unconstitutional activities. The students and MUD radicals offer no governance plan, with ‘salida’ serving as a hash tag, not a strategy, according to one opposition blogger.

Just as in 2002, radicals have forgotten that the people they must convince are Venezuelan voters, not international opinion. There can be no short cut to replacing a movement and government that is genuinely popular. Attempting to induce regime overthrow is unnecessary when the option of a recall referendum is available, and it is irresponsible when the outcome of violent change will only be a cycle of violent revenge. Finally, journalists have yet to learn that authoritative reporting requires fact-based accounts, not recycled and unchecked tweets from Twitter – a mechanism that can be used to promote delusion as well as democracy.

Foodbanks

Following the opening of a foodbank in Milngavie, the SSP has been voicing it's disgust at the Tory and Liberal Democrat austerity drive that forced people to become reliant on food packages.

SSP member, Angus Clark had this letter published in the Bearsden/Milngavie Herald.

Dear Sir,

The opening of a foodbank in Milngavie, as referred to in a recent B&M Herald article, made depressing reading. Although the initiative is to be welcomed in one sense, it is an alarming indicator of how desperate ordinary people have become and is a shame on our society.

 In the last 18 months the number of foodbanks opening across the UK has tripled. In only the last year the biggest provider of foodbanks, the Trustle Trust has handed food parcels out to 355,985 people, including 120,000 children. These people are relying on foodbanks to survive but this represents just the tip of the iceberg as this only includes those referred by their GP of welfare advisers. This situation has arisen as a direct result of the Con Dem Governments attack on working people through welfare cuts, the Bedroom Tax, fuel price increases, poverty wages, and delays in welfare payments, and this is borne out by the Trusts report. This crisis is so bad that Tesco will be supplying the equivalent of millions of meals a day and most of its surplus fresh food to charities. The British Red Cross have, for the first time since the Second World War, announced that they will be distributing food parcels in Britain. Most people are having to spend a bigger proportion of their income on escalating food prices and some are even having to buy less food.

 This is all leading to a social catastrophe and the Con Dem Government are trying to deny that their policies are linked to this massive increase, blaming it on’ poor financial planning’. People who have worked all their days are proud and do not find it easy to ask for food hand-out’s. Those who are in poverty wages also feel guilty but find it impossible to pay the mortgage, clothe the children, heat the house and put fuel in the car. The decision to go down to a foodbank will be a painful one but they should not feel ashamed. The Government should feel ashamed. The young schoolboy who has not enough money to pay for his school lunch and no food in the house to make a sandwich and decides to stay off school to avoid embarrassment should not feel ashamed. The Government should feel ashamed.

The Con Dem Government, of which our MP Jo Swinson is a Member, commissioned an Investigation into the reasons for foodbanks and said they would publish the information by the summer of 2013.The need for a survey was a diversionary tactic as we all know the reasons for the increase in foodbanks, notwithstanding this, our elected representatives decided not to publish the Investigation. Maybe they had something to hide? However on 4^th December 2013 a member’s motion was tabled to get this Investigation published along with measures to help people avoid having to rely on foodbanks. As usual our elected representatives voted against this motion, including our local MP Jo Swinson. Jo voted predictably along party lines, just as she voted in favour of retaining the bedroom tax, which is now in the process of being defeated in Scotland due to public pressure.

The increase in foodbanks is a worrying trend in that they are the last ‘safety net’ for ordinary people who are in desperation. They run the risk of becoming ‘institutionalised’ and taken for granted which we as a society must never accept. If they fulfil a need in Milngavie then, by implication, they will fulfil a need throughout the country and this is a depressing fact. However, in reality the increase in foodbanks are just one symptom of a failing and degenerated economic system which is no longer capable of providing for basic needs never mind advancing the living standards of ordinary people. This is what we are witnessing in the 21^st Century, a system which does not deserve to live, but which refuses to die. We all need to do what we can to help it on its way.

ANGUS CLARK

SCOTTISH SOCIALIST PARTY

On the 30th Anniversary of the Miner's Strike...

Burns Lunch

Yesterday, Campsie Branch had their Burns lunch in Kirkintilloch.  We invited SSP West of Scotland Organiser, Richie Venton to share in our celebration.


Branch Organiser, Neil Scott, introduced Ron Mackay by reminding everyone there was more than one anniversary on our minds. This year, Cameron and the Tories were wanting us to "celebrate" World War 1. He reminded comrades that Friday was the 95th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday events in George Square where Red Clydesiders like Willie Gallacher were baton charged by the police, and because of the Westminster fear of Revolution on the Clyde, tanks were sent up to patrol Glasgow's streets.

Ron delivering the toast to the Haggis

Neil quoted the words of Burns and Gallacher, that resonate across the years on the attraction of working class young men to war.

I'll Go and Be a Sodger, by Robert Burns

O why the deuce should I repine, 

And be an ill foreboder? 

I'm twenty-three, and five feet nine, 

I'll go and be a sodger! 

I gat some gear wi' mickle care, 

I held it weel thegither; 

But now it's gane, and something mair- 

I'll go and be a sodger! 

And from Gallacher:

"What a terrible attraction a war can have! The wild excitement, the illusion of wonderful adventure and the actual break in the deadly monotony of working class life! 

Thousands went flocking to the colours in the first days, not because of any "love of country," not because of any high feeling of "patrotism," but because of the new, strange and thrilling life that lay before them. 

Later the reality of the fearsome slaughterhouse, with all its long agony if filth and horror, turned them from buoyant youth to despair or madness." 

- Revolt on the Clyde, William Gallacher

And the graffitti that appeared on Kitchener posters all over Glasgow:

"Your king and county need you, Ye hardy sons of toil.
But will your king and country need you when they're sharing out the spoils?"

Ron then told us of a Burns Supper he had attended at which "T-Total" Willie Gallacher had toasted the Haggis with water. Richie thanked Ron and expressed his honour at sharing a party with Ron, who is a true inspiration to us all. 

Richie,and the rest of the comrades, read poetry and sang along with Ron's saxophone rendition of A Mans a Man - the entire, packed restaurant applauding that one!


Richie wrote afterwards:



Hello all, 

A hasty but heartfelt and huge thanks to you all for inviting me to such a good Burns gathering today. 

As always, I found the Campsie SSP members not only good comrades but good friends, and today was a lovely amalgam of chat, poetry, music, fun and politics. I warmly appreciate the invitation. And as I said to several of you at the end, I am eager to help - within the time constraints on me - to build up an even stronger local SSP branch, including with SSP public meetings putting our own unique arguments and vision for independence, during this relatively short period of 8 months where people are far more open, far more engaged with political debate, wide open to the quality socialist aims we have. 

SSP Campsie Capitalist of the year prize to...

I'm sure I will see you all again very soon in our joint efforts. 

Meantime, thanks for being such a good, friendly crowd of socialists. 

 Yours in socialism - not silence!! 

Richie

And well done Mark for winning our Capitalist competition (earning chocolate coins when anyone dared say the words, socialism, silence or SSP!)!

A Man's a man!

It was an enjoyable start to a year of very hard political work that will see SSP Campsie organising events and delivering the Socialist message to the doorsteps of thousands of homes across the constituency in the lead up to the referendum for Scottish self determination.

Edna reading "A Man's a Man..."

Tam O'Shanter!

An Ode to a Mouse...

The SSP Campsie Curry...

...was today!

Many thanks to the Indian Cottage for a great meal (and a super deal!) and putting up with the racket!

We also managed to decide that we will make a collection for the local foodbank at the next branch meeting.

 

Utopia

 Review by Kevin Hattie

                                                 

On Thursday 20^th of December 2013, ITV and its Scottish sister channel STV aired a documentary film by Australian investigative journalist John Pilger. Anyone familiar with Pilger’s work will be aware of the truly shocking nature of previous documentaries such as: War on Democracy, Death of a Nation and Stealing a Nation. However, despite the fact that his previous work has created a ‘nothing shocks me anymore’ mind set, the setting of this latest documentary and given it was filmed only last year (2012), has perhaps hit those viewing it in the UK harder than many of the older documentaries.

Australia is a country with close ties to the UK. It is a country that still shares the royal family, and displays a Union Jack in the top left hand corner of the national flag. Many of the people are descended from British settlers many generations ago and there are a large number of British people living in the country having moved recently. It is perhaps this connection which we feel to Australia that makes John Pilger’s documentary as hard hitting as it was. There is no doubt that had this particular situation come to light in any country it would have been equally as shocking, but through decades of inaccurate media coverage the people of Britain have come to believe that Apartheid is a thing of the past, and exclusive to under developed countries with despotic governments.

Firstly, it is important to state that Australia is a country with some wonderful features, friendly people and vast natural beauty. It is none the less important to ask questions of the image that most people have of the Island continent. Racism is something that leaves an ugly scar on a countries image but Australia still has an open wound. The aborigine population have been subjected to slavery, genocide, rape and robbery in a country that seems to forget about its original people. War memorials speak of Australia’s heroes in the WW’s with intense detail, but they seem to forget the first war that the country experienced; that of the aborigines against the British invaders. The only place the aborigine people are represented at this particular museum is in stone carvings on the wall alongside Animals such as Lizards and Birds. This rejection of the true history of Australia’s past mixed with the dehumanising effect of the stone carvings leaves the viewer in disbelief. Surely a country as developed and as modernised as Australia would not lack the ability to see how offensive and racist it is to display such things?

From the lack of truth about Australia’s oppressive history, which includes a former concentration camp turned luxury island resort with no mention of the islands previous use, to modern day apartheid. The aborigine population see none of Australia’s wealth trickle down to them. 1 in 3 of the native people die before the age of 45 and the incarceration rate in northern Australia for Black Australians is 10 times higher than Apartheid South Africa. Specific cases of police brutality and lack of care resulting in deaths of aborigine men, with no convictions, puts faces to the statistics. 2 of the men interviewed during the program died during the filming. Living conditions no doubt played a major role. Shacks with a mattress on the dirt floor reminded the viewers of sub Saharan Africa and the poverty that exists there. Keeping in mind Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, this fact is even more inexcusable.

John Pilger at one point during the documentary set out to interview citizens of Australia in Canberra who were celebrating ‘Australia Day’, a day that celebrates the history and formation of the country. Asking questions about how the native people will feel on such a day, Pilger received mixed responses ranging from confusion to right out racist ignorance. One man had the audacity to say if they come to this country they should learn to live our way. Obviously the fact that these people he refers to were there first escaped this gentleman.  This statement however summed up nicely the very attitude that has plagued this earth allowing such racism and intolerance to exist.

It is a refusal to accept other cultures and differences that have caused great divisions in the world since people started moving freely across it. Schools promote homogeneity, capitalism excludes anybody and any group of people that it does not see as value producing and nationalism is thrown around to keep people supporting profit making, illegal wars such as the Afghan war. The above statement from the Australian gentleman on the streets of Canberra is the very attitude which allows the oppression and murder of whole groups of people based on their race, religion and/or culture. The aborigine people do not ask that the white people that inhabit Australia leave and return to their ancestral homes in Europe. All they ask is that they get the opportunity to live in dignity, and to be allowed to celebrate their ancient culture which has survived oppression and genocide. They are more than happy to live side by side with their white Australian brothers and sister in doing so. 

Open Letter to local Labour Party activists

from Willie Telfer, SSP Campsie Strathkelvin Organiser

Many groupings look to their elders for sage advice on the future. This should be the case in relation to local labour activists approaching the independence referendum next year.

Willie Telfer (left) "Labour Party activists would do well to listen to Canavan and Charlie Gray - stalwarts of long standing commitment to true 'Labour' values."

Look at the position of the once giants of the local Labour party, Dennis Canavan and Charlie Gray. Names from the local past when a labour party branch was an integral part of the life of every town and village in Strathkelvin, where the pursuit through representation of social justice provoked large numbers of ordinary folk to become active to ensure their election to Westminster and to the Strathclyde region.

With their experience and their long standing commitment to true Labour values surely the modern day Labour activist would be well advised to listen to them on independence. Denis is of course a national co-chair for a Yes vote and is proving a powerful advocate who is respected by all in Scottish politics, he links independence  with the opportunity to build a progressive society which could show the way for other progressive forces in UK . Gray would agree with that opportunity,though his recent declaration for independence is perhaps more targeted at the heart and soul of Scottish Labour and those activists that still carry the torch for socialism in an organization embarrassed by the very word.

The fact is that the Labour party in an independent Scotland would and should go back to being the mass party of the people,of the working class. It would be free of the shackles of chasing the minds of middle England, placating the Sun, the Mail and the Express, Old Scottish labour values for Scottish people, I believe they would see a regeneration of activism as they rediscover the cause.

The recent white paper on independence shows at present that amongst the larger parties the SNP have at least a decent idea of politics for a cause and in coalition with the SSP, the Greens and other forces on the left, the message of a fairer more just Scotland will gain the day.

I say the only place for a true socialist to be,no matter which party banner they fly, is in the yes camp. Don't take my word for it comrades, Canavan and Gray are calling you again to build a better country and to save the soul of the Scottish Labour party itself.

Opinion: Neil Scott

Madiba - Our Fight

Rosie Kane has a thread on her Facebook on which people have been writing where they were when they heard about the passing of Nelson Mandela. This article started off as a post there.

Read on HERE

Opinion: Angus Clark

Jo lies down with Coalition Tory Bedfellows- Yet again!

(Published in this weeks Bearsden /Milngavie Herald)

Only weeks ago in their autumn party conference in Glasgow the Lib Dems condemned the’ bedroom tax’ for discriminating against the most vulnerable in our society. I was therefore disappointed but not surprised to discover that local MP and Cabinet Member Jo Swinson gave her backing to the bedroom tax at a recent crucial Parliamentary vote. It confirmed my view that when it comes to the crunch, Jo will lay down to her Tory coalition masters – yet again! She has consistently supported Cameron and Clegg and voted for repressive measures that the Coalition has put in place. However this must rank as her greatest betrayal yet as this was a genuine chance to finish off this dreadful measure once and for all. Her path as a career politician is now secure in that she seems to place more loyalty to this neo- conservative led government than she does to the views of her constituents, many of whom are already affected by this attempt to make the most vulnerable make more sacrifice for the bankers’ crisis. Recent modifications to exclude certain categories of recipients do not address the fundamental regressive nature of the measures and Discretionary Housing Benefit will only assist a few for a very limited period of time.  

The imposition of the bedroom tax is just the latest regressive measure to be given her support in her meteoric rise up the greasy political pole to Cabinet level, and she will no doubt be well rewarded. She also supported hiking University tuition fees up to £9000, a part privatised NHS, the dreadful Welfare Bill, War with Syria the lowering of taxes for billionaires and millionaires and Nuclear Weapons. Does she consider that this record fairly reflects the views of her constituents or the general populace-I think not. Some of her Lib Dem colleagues did indeed keep true to their principles and voted to scrap the bedroom tax and their action should be welcomed. Other MPs including Labour, decided that they had better things to do than turn up for this important vote which is very disappointing as this was a vote which could have been won, although I do not doubt that it would have been close.

Let’s be under no illusion, the bedroom tax is not a ‘single issue’ although it may appear so if directly affected. Governments don’t think that way! It is just one part of a concerted ideological plan to radically scale back the Welfare State [which has no democratic mandate].  Unlike the Poll Tax of the late 80’s which was aimed at the whole populace, the bedroom tax is targeted solely at social tenants drawing benefits both unemployed and in work, and by implication, already on or near the ‘breadline’ who are deemed to have an ‘extra room’. It therefore hits the unemployed and those in poverty wages ‘disproportionately’ leaving them hardly anything left over to live on. So much for the ‘Mansion Tax’ which Jo Swinson and the Lib Dems used to push for! Now it’s OK to penalise those at the foot of society, and join in with the Tories and the ‘Cabinet of Millionaires’ in giving the most vulnerable a ‘good kicking’. Who will be next in line?

                                                             

 We all know there is a better and more equitable way to tackle the nation’s housing shortage and overcrowding problems. The bedroom tax will never be a solution but it will and is leading to misery for thousands of adults and children, including ill health and suicide.

At the next Westminster election I am sure that the constituents of East Dunbartonshire are no mugs and will not be taken in by the Governments ‘fostered illusions’ over this and other matters. They should also cast an eye over Jo Swinson’s voting record before casting their vote.

Opinion: Kevin Hattie

 "School Days - the best days of your life." Really..?

To speak of our education system today, is to speak of a multiverse where the experience of attending school can vastly differ from person to person, even among those who attended the same one. This isn’t totally surprising as people experience many of the same things in different ways. Take for example a work of art, one person may fail to see past the denotation of such a thing but for someone else a world of endless possibilities may be opened up. Unfortunately I don’t buy the idea that the differing experiences of people in education is in anyway related to perception and someone’s own unique way of looking at the world. After some deep thought about my own experiences of school, and discussion with a couple of people who had similar experiences, I have come to wonder if there is a common feature among those who find the experience pleasant and those who perhaps dreaded a weekday for thirteen odd years.

‘School is the best time of your life’. This is a phrase that justifies other phrases such as ‘if I had a penny for every time….’ Due to the sheer number of times a child will probably hear this phrase uttered by a parent or older person trying to encourage them to enjoy the experience. I have no doubt the feeling is genuine among the older generation who remember their school days fondly, perhaps not because they truly enjoyed it at the time, but because they didn’t have the weight of responsibility that adult life has brought them, and also the fact that the whole world lay ahead of them. I for one never accepted this opinion, and have come to place it alongside other myths such as; if you are bad Santa Claus won’t come to you and the Tories favourite: ‘We’re in this together’. It is suffice to say that I consider school to be something rather different from those who romanticise it. 

For me the classroom was not so much a place of learning, but a place of suppression. Maybe I have the wrong idea of what education should be like but I like to think that the school should fit around the pupils and not the other way about. I believe that to give the impression that authoritative figures deserve ‘natural respect’ as opposed to earning it, is a convenient way to teach young people that our politicians deserve the same free ticket to gaining obedience. Maybe again I have the wrong idea but should information given by these authority figures be accepted without questioning out in wider society? No, so why should pupils be expected to accept what a teacher says without questioning them? To challenge a teacher on something was to cross the line in my school. We got the whole ‘I have a degree in this subject’ lecture as if that was enough to squash any possibility of the person being wrong.

Critical thinking and questioning things is for me the most important part of learning. We as people have to be able to make our own minds up about things and to always be true to our values as individuals and as a collective humanity. We can’t allow for the media to have us so indoctrinated with a particular way of thinking that for them it is almost effortless to influence public opinion and to get people to go along with a particular agenda. If you stand back and look at what capitalism has created in this world, you soon realise it is something so unnatural that it has to stop or else we will cease to be. Boris Johnson and David Cameron might celebrate the culture of greed and wish for it to be weaved into the school curriculum somewhere, but if you truly believe that possessions are the defining aspect of a human being then you clearly have sold your soul for short term vices.

‘Work hard and you’ll get a well-paid job’.  Another myth perhaps, given that this so called meritocracy that we live in see’s investment bankers on seven figure salaries while someone genuinely useful, like a nurse or an engineer will be worrying about the rising prices of fuel and food. But put this aside and look at another reason why this phrase should be discouraged. ‘Well paid’, why is this the most important aspect of a career? The government have been quick to encourage people to leave behind the more creative subjects and to look at something which contributes more directly to the economy. Well firstly the creative industries bring a lot of money into to this country, and secondly people should be encouraged to find fulfilment on a spiritual level before they have to worry about ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’.  

School and universities should be places where society develops its thought and its collective consciousness. Not somewhere to go so you become more ‘employable’.  Why should working class people be told to make themselves more useful to the policy makers of society? Education seems to be just that, a place where the workers go to be taught how to be workers. A lack of decision making in the classroom leads to a lack of decision making in the workplace. I would encourage people to study what interests them and to question what they learn. I would encourage people to believe in the power they have in their hands to bring about change in society. It seems however the education system would encourage people to passively accept certain norms and values and to learn through repetition and retention of meaningless information which has not been questioned. It is a sad fact today that the education system of our country encourages a heteronomous society and promotes homogeneity over diversity of the individual, the reasons for this may lie somewhere in the fact that those who have their hands on the levers of power require things to remain as they are and for true human nature and freedom to be oppressed as this is the only way to maintain this pathological ideology of capitalism. If you step outside the rules created to maintain the status quo you will be marginalised and the ‘best time of your life’ may not quite live up to its billing. This is why some of us hated school, not because we are lazy, stupid, hard to motivate or mentally ill, but because we refuse to get in line and conform to the values that would see us willingly participate in a criminal ideology.