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 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.” |
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
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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