Reclaiming Communist Philosophy

This book is unique in its utilization of the natural sciences to explain and illustrate key concepts of communist philosophy. In its recapitulation of the spirit of Engels’s unfinished manuscript, The Dialectics of Nature, it relies on the physical sciences developed since Engels’s time to reaffirm the validity of materialist dialectics, a point which is more easily made in the context of natural phenomena than it is in social phenomena. The basic philosophical tenets underlying Communist ideology are all supported by the natural sciences. The book is situated within the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist tradition. Its overarching theme is the need to reclaim our most fundamental weapon of that tradition—it’s methodology or philosophy—which has been vitiated or even scrapped by well-intentioned revolutionaries throughout the 20th century. In particular, some of Mao’s philosophical formulations are found to be erroneous and in opposition to his practice. With the rapidly accelerating deterioration of the global capitalist order in progress since 2007, the urgency of this reclamation cannot be over-emphasized.

Dialectics of Education is a rich collection of essays analyzing both the role of education in shaping ideology in the United States and the political implications of struggles for educational justice. This book seeks to recover and reframe the dialectical materialist tradition in critical education, studies and carries this tradition forward into theory and practice relevant for today. Building on the tradition of the groundbreaking book Schooling in Capitalist America that was first published in 1976, author Wayne Au presents a Marxist perspective on educational policies and pedagogy and the highlights the potential for struggle in both the political arena and the classroom. This book is an essential tool in the growing resistance against the privatization of education and for the struggle for educational rights for all students regardless of ethnicity or social status.

Philosophy of Religion for OCR is an ideal guide for students taking the Philosophy of Religion component of the OCR Religious Studies AS and A Level course. Drawing on insights gained from many years of teaching experience, Dennis Brown and Ann Greggs’ landmark book follows the OCR specification closely and includes: ·clear and comprehensive discussion of each topic in the specification ·discussion of both historical and cutting-edge philosophical approaches ·use of excerpts from primary sources to engage students in philosophical debate ·profiles of important philosophical and religious thinkers, a glossary and helpful chapter summaries ·discussion questions, activity boxes, thought points and suggestions for further reading ·practical ideas on study skills, essay-writing and assessment objectives Philosophy of Religion for OCR provides a clear, accessible and comprehensive introduction to each of the topics on the course, including ancient philosophy, mind, body and soul, arguments for and against God’s existence, religious experience and religious language. Written by two experienced teachers and textbook authors, Philosophy of Religion for OCR will assist students of every ability to achieve their best. This book, which covers component 01 of the OCR H173 and H573 specifications, should be paired with Religion and Ethics for OCR, by Dennis Brown and Mark Coffey, which covers component 02.

The Nature of Revolution provides the first account of art and politics under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. James A. Tyner repositions Khmer Rouge artworks within their proper political and economic context: the materialization of a political organization in an era of anticolonial and decolonization movements. Consequently, both the organization's policies and practices--including the production of poetry, music, and photography--were incontrovertibly shaped by and created to further the Khmer Rouge's agenda.Theoretically informed and empirically grounded, Tyner's work examines the social dimensions of the Khmer Rouge, while contributing broadly to a growing literature on the intersection of art and politics. Building on the foundational works of theorists such as Jacques Rancière, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin, Tyner explores the insights of Leon Trotsky and his descriptions of the politics of aesthetics specific to socialist revolutions. Ultimately, Tyner reveals a fundamental tension between individuality and bureaucratic control and its impact on artistic creativity and freedom.

America has steadily regressed from a Republic under the Sign of the Cross towards a mobacracy under the Sign of the Scorpion. Social responsibility and the ethics of conscience have vacated the Field of Dreams like a Baroid tater -- an all about me cult of celebrity has evolved. Reclaiming the Strike Zone traces the metaphorical cleat marks through forbidden history. The Inside Baseball version of the Soviet Socialist Paradise and Nazi Germany is pitched shekel free. Sub-systems of the American superstructure featuring education, entertainment, youth activities and family are explored in-depth. The search for something that has been lost -- the secret of the American Dream and American Exceptionalism -- is pursued. All base paths lead to the Christian Church and Jewish Nation. Wise Christian philosophy has been Billy-Goated off the playing field -- secular humanism has taken The Hill. Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud have taken a turn at-bat and gone long. Red tide has been harnessed into Economic Determinism by the F&F Boys. The hidden ball trick has been pulled on the sheeple. Disciples of General Zod lack American patriotism. Time is of the essence to restore what has been taken -- its the bottom of the 9th with two away. DO IT AMERICAN and dont give up the ship are battle cries. Intellectual Millenials must step up to the plate and reclaim what their baby booming Spock baby parents baptized in Dewey waters booted. Identifying the proton pseudos and resetting is the task. Restoring sub-systems [especially education] while playing small ball is the answer. Truth and patriotic leadership are catalysts. A burning desire to be an American -- free and independent -- without getting JFKd is the secret. There is a happy ending -- it is certain. The Good News delivers that promise.

A philosophical consideration of Soviet Socialism that reveals the hidden desire for capitalism in contemporary anticapitalist discourse and theory This book, a philosophical consideration of Soviet socialism, is not meant simply to revisit the communist past; its aim, rather, is to witness certain zones where capitalism's domination is resisted--the zones of countercapitalist critique, civil society agencies, and theoretical provisions of emancipation or progress--and to inquire to what extent those zones are in fact permeated by unconscious capitalism and thus unwittingly affirm the capitalist condition. By means of the philosophical and politico-economical consideration of Soviet socialism of the 1960 and 1970s, this book manages to reveal the hidden desire for capitalism in contemporaneous anticapitalist discourse and theory. The research is marked by a broad cross-disciplinary approach based on political economy, philosophy, art theory, and cultural theory that redefines old Cold War and Slavic studies' views of the post-Stalinist years, as well as challenges the interpretations of this period of historical socialism in Western Marxist thought.

This book is about the Anatomy of Neoliberalism and Education from a Marxist perspective. It is the dialectical materialism of neoliberal ideas, examining the material conditions of how these ideas and practices emerged, and under what conditions. Each of these elements is related to the other and can only be properly understood as part and parcel of the whole system of capitalism, which links them together. This book investigates neoliberalism's political, cultural, and financial tools. It goes deep in the forces who have supported neoliberalism and how it became "common sense". It explores the imperialist outcomes and the social devastation it created. It then goes to see how these ideas and policies have been implemented in education. In short, it is the materialist conception of the history of the American empire. It then uses the analytic tools developed through this investigation to re-read the neoliberal educational reforms.

Whereas This Fist Called My Heart, the first Peter McLaren reader (2016), offers a window into the development and reorientation of McLaren’s work over time, Tracks to Infinity emphasizes the significance of orientation in his contemporary work. McLaren’s earlier work was oriented toward the idea of a contradictory postmodern subjectivity located outside the increasingly fragmented, indeterminate late capitalist society. If the concept of the critical subject or change agent is perceived to be simultaneously located both inside and outside of the world that exists, however mundane, it begins to appear as a utopian or idealist construction. While discourse is indeed important, locating the revolutionary potential exclusively within the abstract realm of language or the sign can lead to a disconnected relationship with the concreteness of everyday struggle. As the fog of the disembodied, postmodern subject began to lift, McLaren reoriented his engagement with and gaze toward the concrete value-creating laborer as the active agent of revolutionary educations’ process of becoming—collectively becoming something other than abstract labor. This volume is filled with deep engagements with the concreteness of lived experience juxtaposed next to the bourgeois propaganda of the capitalist class political establishment as manifested in the Trump era. Praise for Tracks to Infinity... “There is no masking the profound legacy of Peter McLaren for those of us honored to be counted among his many students and friends. To me, his revolutionary teachings amount to a raging bonfire of praxis for the cognitively weary...and while fire's nature burns and is dangerously beyond our control, historically speaking, fire is also the Promethean foundation stone for the humanization of the world. Herein, then, is a truly infernal collection of writing and ideas on education and politics—or perhaps just enough to thaw the numerous minds and hearts that have grown deadly cold from the icy spiritual hell that is our time of masterful warfare, an age when the beloved community is daily being stripped naked, shot and then laid out on a press table like a macabre photograph of the supposedly dead Ché.” Richard Kahn Core Faculty in Education, Antioch University, Los Angeles “Peter McLaren is one of the most innovative and resourceful advocates of critical pedagogy originating from Gramsci and Freire. What distinguishes his work is the nuanced dialectical interweaving of national/ethnic struggles and global imperialist hegemony, exposing the limits of transnationalist-cosmopolitanist postmodernism (eliding the reality of finance capitalism) and covertly racialized globalism functioning as a decoy for white supremacy. This volume represents cuttingedge praxis in historical-materialist research and application.” E. San Juan, Jr. Fellow of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas “Huerta-Charles, Marc Pruyn & Curry S. Malott have given birth to Volume II of THE first ever Reader of Peter McLaren’s expansive works. As a leading scholar and activist of our time, this groundbreaking text showcases a range of his punchy insights into multi-culturalism, imperialism, methodology and revolution. The book is unrivalled for anybody wanting to understand education and society, and do something serious about its ills.” Alpesh Maisuria Senior Lecturer in Education Studies, University of East London Co-Deputy Editor, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies Co-Convener , Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD) Seminar Series