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So here I am on Friday during lunch break. I’m all done eatin’ and already went for my ritual 6-minute walk around the block. I get back on the compound and I run into a couple of standard five (grade 7) students who are carrying drums. I happen to be aware that their teacher is not teaching today and that no “real” replacement has been found (don’t ask about substitutes…). I know these kids can drum though, so I pressure them to start drummin. They’re carrying two Garifuna drums and a couple of shaker-thingys. They keep telling me that the Principal will get mad at them but I assure them that it is ok and any heat they get for it will fall on me. They begin to play. These kids are GOOD, trust me. Eventually a crowd is forming and now I’m pressuring others to dance. Hell, it’s Friday, c’mon. Nobody partakes but a decent size crowd forms and they’re all totally into the beats. So in a last ditch effort, I start cutting the proverbial rug on the grass next to the outdoor basketball court by the principal’s office…. and in the middle of the crowd that just formed.  Ya, I did. I was rockin some Punta moves and even threw a Dougie in there for good measure and for the Beiber fans. It was a fun lunch break.

At the end of any day, I salute my students with individual high-fives (free of charge, of course). I stand at the doorway and as they are dismissed they are welcomed to join me in the great art of high-fiving.  Many of my students have become accustomed to adding a friendly hug to this high-five and I’m ok with that. Only today was different. There weren’t just high fives and hugs. No. These hugs n such were accompanied by whispers of “nice dancing today, sir” and “I like how you dance, sir” and “hope to see you dance on Monday, sir”. No joke. This instantly reminded me of the intern who did the sidewalk splits.

Will I forever be remembered as the crazy white Canadian who danced alone at lunch time?

I now have bulletin board material to be an even better teacher who makes a difference above and beyond dancing in the courtyard on a full stomach. I  don’t wanna be that guy.

P.S.

My hiccups are gone. Apparently blogging works better than Rolaids.

A survey of nearly 400 social workers shows that half agree cyber-bullying is a problem in the schools but fewer than 20 percent say their school has an effective policy in place to tackle the issue.

Jonathan Singer, assistant professor of social work at Temple University and study co-author says one of the problems is the attacks often occur after school hours.

“There might be some school policy in place if the cyber-bullying affects a child’s ability to learn regardless of when it happens then we have a responsibility to jump in.”

He adds most of the social workers surveyed had only been trained to recognize regular bullying and with an average age near 50; had never experienced cyber-bullying themselves.

Reported By Lynne Adkins, KYW Newsradio.

[listicle id=55129 align=left show_title=true]

Education Crisis

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR EDUCATION

30th JANUARY, 11AM-5PM, LSE

The Quad, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE

The protests, walkouts and occupations of last term were just the first chapter in a much longer struggle for the right to education and against Con Dem austerity. In 2011 as university managements gear up to implement massive fees increases and students and staff are faced with vicious attacks on courses, jobs and our education we will need to go further. The first National Assembly for Education is open to students, staff and all supporters of our movement: let’s get together and discuss the future of education and how we fight for it.

The assembly will include: planning and co-ordinating future actions. Break out sessions for university students * school and college students * education workers. Opening plenary with activist Jody McIntyre, Mohamed Bani (eye witness to Tunisian revolution), and occupiers from round the country.

Called by university occupations, including: King’s College London, LSE, Sheffield, Manchester, UWE and UEL

Supported by Education Activist Network, National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, London Student Assembly

PROGRAMME:

10.30 11am – Registration

11am -12noon Opening Session

Short introductions followed by discussion and debate with:

* Jody McIntyre activist
* Ben Beech UCL occupation
* Ruby Hirsch Le Swap school
* Mohamed Bani- eye witness to Tunisian revolution
* Jim Wolfreys UCU NEC, Kings College

12noon-2pm: Break Outs

* Higher Education students * organising the occupation movement * building support for the education strike and shut down of education

* School and College Students * organising at school and college * building a walk out * supporting strike action

* Education workers

* Supporters

2-2.30pm Lunch Break

2.30-4pm Report backs from break outs and discussion of future actions

National Assembly for Education: http://educationassembly.wordpress.com/

Email: nationalassemblyforeducation@gmail.com

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

On Wednesdays the University runs tours of the Fallowfield accommodation campus, and also Guided Visits of the University Campus complete with an information session (details here). As part of my role as a student ambassador, I lead tours on these sessions, and really enjoy meeting the prospective students and taking any questions they might have. Accommodation is always a huge factor for lots of people, and every year the accommodation office runs an Open House day, where prospective students can view rooms in all our accommodation campuses; City, Victoria Park and Fallowfield. The details will be advertised shortly on the website, where you can also find further details on the halls of residences.

The last week has been busy. I returned to Manchester on Monday for the start of the exam period (although I have no exams, YAY!) as I had a few work shifts. Working as a student ambassador has shown that the university outreach doesn’t just extend to A-level prospective students, but also to younger secondary school aged pupils, inspiring students and offering careers advice to help with future decision making. Many of the students are potentially the first students in their family to go to university and some come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The workshops we run show the vast array of different courses available to them at university and further still, the different careers on completing a degree. I really enjoy working with the students, but also have found the days beneficial to myself!

In my week before returning to Manchester, I spent a cold, wet, rainy day on London tube stations, bombarding the people of London with information about Read International and asking politely if they would kindly donate. We’d been lucky enough to secure permits for several high profile Central London stations, so this was a great opportunity to get our fundraising target up. Collecting opens your eyes to the general public. Some people are really interested in what you are doing, what the charity stands for, others don’t care what it’s about but happily get rid of their loose change regardless (especially in rush hour).  You get waves of people so if the person in front just donated, the next three are likely to, then there are people that completely ignore you and are downright grumpy!!! As well as being successful on the fundraising side, it was great publicity for a fairly unknown charity; I met a few school teachers and parents who were really interested in getting their schools involved. We raised around £600, although the exact figure is still being counted.

Over the weekend, I had a trip with my church choir to sing choral evensong in Guildford Cathedral. We actually sung there back in 2008 as part of our Jubilee year, and they invited us back to sing again. Guildford Cathedral was designed by the same architect as our own church, so we feel some affiliation towards it. We arrived in similar fashion to our previous encounter, hiring a London double decker bus. It was a lovely occasion, and appreciated by all who shared the service. Now back to the hard work as my dissertation really takes some shape. I’ve got a week to finish two draft chapters!!!

www.ccboe.com

First off, the usual round-up of stuff that’s worth paying attention to: This call-out for a “Network X gathering” isn’t exactly something that I’d have written myself, but it is an encouraging attempt to try and improve communication and co-ordination among the anti-capitalist/radical/uncontrollable wing of the movement, and so should be supported. Also, as the police and media gear up for another witch-hunt, this advice from Fitwatch is worth reading.

Anyway, the post is inspired by the media coverage of the protests in general, but particularly by the Channel 4 interview with WAG, and by having read this libcom debate. In general, it seems likely that as long as the current wave of disruptive protests continues, the media will continue to portray ‘anarchists’ as being responsible for all the most exciting, courageous and attention-grabbing aspects of them, regardless of how small a role we actually play. Consdering how marginalised anarchist ideas normally are, this would seem to offer a potentially useful platform. (Obviously, you have to be careful about this: on the day of an action itself, anyone trying to get pictures of individuals breaking the law is doing the police’s job for them, and should be treated as such. Likewise, it’s a good idea to avoid giving your real name – especially if you’re defending illegal activity, but also just in general, really.) Now, many anarchists would object to this, saying that the mainstream media are always going to be hostile to our ideas and so they’ll never represent us fairly.* There is some truth in this, but it’s not the whole story. I’d argue that to view the media as entirely one-sided and hostile means misunderstanding both the way that liberal ideology in general works, and particularly how the market affects the media.
In general, liberalism prides itself on its commitment to tolerance and free speech. Of course, as the police have been happy to demonstrate, it is still ultimately founded on repression, but in general the current system tries to use repressive violence as a last resort. This means that, paradoxically, the system can afford to give space to anti-capitalists and other radical critics, precisely because the act of giving that space can be used as proof of how tolerant and ultimately fair and justified it is. Similarly, competition among media brands means they have to establish distinctive identities in order to get an audience and sell advertising space. So, the BBC brands itself as being fair and impartial, and the Guardian brands itself as being open-minded, tolerant and progressive. So, by giving space to radical critics, they can ultimately demonstrate the qualities they want to associate themselves with, and so improve their branding.
Now, there’s a very obvious reply to this. If, by talking to the media, we just play into the hands of liberal ideology and the marketing strategies of particular media brands, then why do it? Wouldn’t it be better to just stay outside? The problem here is that by refusing to use the space to offer us, we don’t actually undermine them in any way. They benefit from being prepared to give us a platform, not from us using it. If they just say that they spoke to us but we refused to comment, that still establishes them as being willing to talk to us, and so being fair/tolerant/etc. Also, just because we don’t talk to them doesn’t mean no-one will; it’s very easy to find people to speak on behalf of ‘the protesters’, from incoherent egomaniac wankers like Chris Knight to various Trots looking to take control of the movement. If people with decent politics boycott the media, that doesn’t hurt the media, it just guarantees that the only people appearing in it will have dodgy politics of one kind or another.
It is true that the media does very often misrepresent us, but again, they don’t need our help to do it. I’ve been involved in a project that attracted vicious attacks from the local press, but they didn’t even bother speaking to us. In general, if the media want to attack you, they don’t need you to say anything, they can just get some comments from the police, from an institution you’re opposing, and maybe one or two other sources of right-wing opinion, and they’ve got enough material for a hack job. Not speaking to them will not stop that happening. There are plenty of shit articles about anarchists and protesters, but there’s also a surprising number of very good ones, sometimes in very unlikely places.
So, my appeal to anyone involved in an anarchist group (well, excluding primitivists and the like) would be this: know the media’s weaknesses, and use them to your advantage. Write provocatively-worded call-outs before major demos, and then write up reports afterwards celebrating (not claiming responsibility for, but expressing solidarity with) the most subversive and attention-grabbing events that took place on the day. It’s not often the media offers you free advertising, so make the most of it.

*There is also another, more complex objection that can be made to my views here: it could be said that I’m still essentially working with a Leninist/vanguardist view of consciousness that sees ‘us’ as having the right ideas, and political activity as just consisting of spreading the right ideas from ‘us’ to ‘them’. I don’t really know how to respond to that, other than saying that it’s a criticism that could be leveled at virtually any form of activity that involves saying that we have ideas and trying to explain what they are.

But on to the day itself: what to make of it? In many ways, it seems like the headline should be either “politicians act like utter bastards” or “coppers act like utter bastards”, but I’d argue this impulse is mistaken. Apart from anything else, neither of these stories really count as news. As Robinson Jeffers said, “be angry at the sun for setting if these things anger you.” They were just behaving like politicians and coppers have always behaved. Yes, we should condemn the police pulling Jody McIntyre from his wheelchair (twice), the police beating and kicking people on the ground, the bastards who gave Alfie Meadows a brain hemorrhage, and the kettling of kids in the freezing cold till past 1am, but can anyone really honestly say they’re still shocked when the police act like this? Perhaps if you’re a 15-year-old who’s never encountered the police before (of course, it’s worth bearing in mind that lots of kids that age are already very well acquainted with them), but after Blair Peach and Harry Stanley and Roger Sylvester and Jean Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson, only an idiot could expect the cops to not behave like cops (of course, as climate camp last year proved, there are still a fair few idiots around). The real story to take away from yesterday is not just that the bastards carried on fucking us over as usual, but that people are no longer prepared to go on being passive victims. WAG, Ian Bone, Laurie Penny, Paul Mason, lolrevolution, the Commune and Truth, Reason & Liberty all have reports up which are well worth reading, along with this bit of musing on the slogans of the day, but here’s my personal list of a few highlights:
A cop coming over all Bodger & Badger:

The book bloc comes to London:

I can’t say I was that inspired by some of their choices, but it’s always nice to see a bit of Debord:

Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and Lord Palmerston all received some attention, along with the attacks on the Treasury and the Supreme Court, and of course Charles and Camilla. (That BBC video is also notable for its attempt to recycle the tired old “few anarchist troublemakers” myth, this time choosing to blame the Wombles. Yes, those Wombles, who stopped existing in summer 2006, for fuck’s sake.) The protesters in Glasgow, Newcastle and everywhere else also deserve recognition.

At the end of the day, the vote may be over, but the class struggle certainly isn’t. The rise in fees may have been voted through, but so was the French CPE and the poll tax. It was always very unlikely that the students alone would be able to beat back these specific attacks on their own; what is needed, now as before, is a joint struggle. We already have the National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts (with the accompanying Troll a Tory Day) and Tube strikes in London to build for this week alone – the disruptive potential of student protests taking place that day in solidarity with the Tube workers could be intense. Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive…

Beyond that, I’d like to finally get around to writing that evaluation of the UK uncut protests against tax dodgers that I’ve been intending to do for ages. (Acknowledgements are due to “class worrier”, whose piece on indymedia made a lot of these points more concisely and almost an entire month earlier.) To start off with, a few general observations: one of the fundamental difficulties that any protest campaign has to deal with is that power is very well insulated from any kind of popular pressure. Once every few years, we get the chance to vote, but once that’s happened we lack any way to influence Parliament until the next election rolls round; and we have no control whatsoever over the bodies like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank that twist the arms of any government that steps out of line. Occasionally, as we’re seeing with the current outbreak of mass militancy, it becomes possible to break through the barriers surrounding powerful institutions, but normally we’re left with a choice between ineffectual demonstrations outside the centers of power, or using our ability to apply genuine pressure in places where it can’t have any real impact. The summit protests that raged against the IMF, WTO, G8 and G20, but were usually unable to actually stop these institutions from meeting and doing what they wanted, are a good example of the first option, the university occupations over Gaza that saw people taking direct action against targets that had no real connection to the Israeli state are an example of the second. (I’d like to make it clear that I’m not just dismissing either of these protests: the summit protests may not have stopped many summits, but it wasn’t through a lack of will to do so, and the Gaza protesters may not have influenced the Israeli government much, but it’s not like there were many Israeli military facilities lying around that they could have blockaded. People do the best they can under the circumstances, and a lot of the time the circumstances just don’t permit effective action.) Normally, strikes and other forms of workplace-based direct action are the best hope that ordinary people have of wielding disruptive power, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones.

With these thoughts in mind, I’d like to turn to looking at the UK Uncut protests more directly. They aim to discredit the idea that the cuts are necessary by bringing attention to the amount of tax that corporations avoid paying. Here’s my attempt to work out their pros and cons.
Pros:
1) It’s an idea that seems to have really taken off. Their last day of action saw an impressive number of different protests taking place, and shop and bank occupations have been successful in getting quite positive write-ups from the mainstream media, even in unlikely places like the Scottish Sun. Anything that challenges the idea that “we’re all in this together” and that cuts are inevitable and in our best interests, is a positive development.
2) It’s not just for students. Protests like last Saturday’s day of action mean that workers affected by the cuts can go beyond just cheering while watching new reports of students kicking off, or visiting an occupation for a few hours and then leaving, they can actively get involved as full participants.
3) They can be empowering. Ultimately, I still agree with the Solidarity group that it’s all about “whatever increases the confidence, the autonomy, the initiative, the participation, the solidarity, the equalitarian tendencies and the self-activity of the masses and whatever assists in their demystification”. Throughout our entire lives, we’re bombarded with the idea that we can only make ourselves heard by using the “correct” methods – voting, lobbying, etc – methods, which, of course, really rob us of our ability to affect anything. Anything that demonstrates the existence of alternatives is to be welcomed. (Well, not anything, I wouldn’t welcome racists taking direct action against a mosque, but you know what I mean.) It’s easy to forget if you’ve been involved in radical politics for a while, but the first time you do the opposite of what you’re told, take a bollocking from a copper or a security guard, and still stand your ground, is a really liberating experience, and so a lot of people will emerge from their first invasion of a shop or a bank a lot more confident than when they came in. (The opposite can be true, of course, which is why I’m critical of badly-thought-out militant actions: when you get yourself kettled and don’t achieve anything, the ultimate lesson you take away is that you can’t beat the state after all, which is why black blocs and the like can actually end up being a disempowering experience for those involved in them.)
Cons:
1) To go back to what I was saying at the start of this post, and at the risk of sounding redundant and obvious: Topshop aren’t actually making any cuts. Neither are Vodafone. Even the evil banks aren’t actually driving the public sector cuts. No matter how much inconvenience you cause Sir Philip Green, you won’t make him stop the cuts, because he’s not doing them. So, this is ultimately a propaganda tactic, not an end in itself. No matter how exciting and confidence-building it is, no matter how much media coverage it gets, it’s still indirect action.
2) Much more seriously: Even if the government collected an extra £25 billion, or however much, in tax from corporations and the rich, it still wouldn’t be an extra £25 billion for us. It would be an extra £25 billion for the state, which could choose to use that money to invest in public services instead of making the cuts – or it could choose to push through exactly the same programme of cuts, and spend the money on beefing up the police force to beat the shit out of anyone who complains. We don’t exercise any democratic control over the state, and the only way to get it to do what we want is by fighting it. Anarchists and communists should always argue against any idea that confuses the capitalist state with the abstract interests of “society” as a whole, let alone the working class.
3) Finally, the argument behind these protests is limited because it’s ultimately still within the terrain of capitalist economics. The claim that big business and the rich are avoiding paying £25 billion in tax may sound impressive at first, but it’s simple enough for our opponents to counter-claim with the (not entirely untrue) argument that it would never be possible to collect that money because they could simply flee the country to somewhere with lower tax rates, and from then on it becomes an argument about the details of economic policy, which we’re likely to lose because a) there are a lot of economists who are Tories (or some other form of defender of the status quo), who have done their homework and know what they’re talking about, and b) arguments about the details of economic policy are really boring (even duller than my blog, and that’s saying something), and cause any normal person to stop paying attention immediately. At which point the government can go back to doing what it was doing, and we’ve lost by default. In the long run, the only arguments we can really rely on are those based on communist economics. Not “if this people paid x tax then we could afford y”, but the far simpler and more revolutionary position that “we need this, and we will fuck you up if you try to take it away from us”.

Conclusion: Clearly, these protests aren’t entirely good or entirely bad. I wouldn’t say that anarchists/communists shouldn’t get involved in them, but we should try and keep our demands clear, making sure that the message is “cuts aren’t inevitable, there’s an argument to be had here”, rather than “this particular change to tax laws will mean the state has enough money to sort everything out”. Within the campaign, we should be arguing for a clear class perspective and against reliance on statist solutions. And we should only be involved as long as it doesn’t take time and energy away from anything better: I can’t see any reason why school or uni students would bother getting involved in this, because they’re now engaged in a struggle that addresses their own needs much more directly (most recently, the Birmingham students who occupied their MP’s office deserve massive respect). For those in work or on benefits, the protests against tax-dodging companies may still be the best option immediately available, but we should still be trying to generate the mood needed to take action with our workmates or other claimants around our own immediate interests, and not around the state’s.

Final, totally irrelevant, blog-geek footnote: while I was bored and procrastinating today, I stumbled across this piece of pompous liberal student wankery, so I helpfully explained one of the many reasons why liberalism is so fucking stupid, and took the piss out of a mistake the author had made in the text while I was doing so, because I’m just a dick like that sometimes. At time of writing, they’d removed my comment, fixed the mistake, and closed comments. Liberal commitment to freedom of speech: don’t you just love it?

More generally, one question that seems to need addressing is this: in a situation where vast numbers of people are more-or-less spontaneously adopting the kind of militant tactics that normally only tiny groups of anarchists and communists argue for, is there still any particular role for those tiny groups? Having thought it over, I think there’s a few things we can usefully be doing:
1) Setting up legal defence campaigns. Clearly, a lot of tactics can spread very quickly without needing to be particularly organised – the idea of occupations, the militant spirit that saw Millbank trashed and stopped the kettle, and so on. But, without wanting to be too pessimistic, I don’t think that legal defence campaigns are going to spontaneously spring into being without being organised, and, since this movement is clearly not willing to stay within the bounds of legality and the police have already started making mass arrests, they are definitely necessary. Supporting anyone who gets caught up in the legal system is something that those of us with organising experience can usefully do without setting ourselves up as any kind of an ideological elite.
2) Communicating with each other. In view of the divisions which are already beginning to emerge, it seems fairly safe to say that, at some point, some factions within this movement, probably quite well-organised ones, are going to try and stop us being as effective – that is to say, disruptive – as we can be. It’d be naive to think this isn’t going to happen at some point and in some form, so it can’t hurt to be prepared for it. Anticuts.org.uk is potentially a really useful resource precisely because it’s a non-aligned hub, and not under the control of any particular faction, but clearly one website is not enough. Those of us who want to take this particular phase of the class struggle as far as it can possibly go should start sharing information and tactics, and make sure that we have independent  channels of communication that are open, democratic, and not easy for anyone to take over. We shouldn’t be relying on NCAFC’s good intentions, we need to make sure that we have the ability to communicate with each other nationally even if the NCAFC leadership and the admins of the big facebook groups go lukewarm.
3) Spreading the struggle. Ian Bone’s said that we need to see more “neets on the streets”, and it makes a lot of sense. In some ways, the unemployed are the group most similar to school students: a lot of them aren’t much older, they’re both quite difficult to effectively discipline, and there’s a similar lack of formal structures – neither schoolkids or claimants have an Aaron Porter claiming to represent them. If many of them do start turning up on the streets (which they can do without even having to formally bunk off anything), it could add another potentially explosive element to an already unstable situation. But there are also important differences: all schoolkids spend a vast amount of time in the presence of other pupils, whereas the benefits system is pretty much set up to keep the vast majority of claimants separated from each other as much as possible. It’s much harder for word of mouth to spread through a jobcentre that most people visit once every two weeks than it is for it is to spread through a school that everyone spends five days a week in. The national day of protest against benefit cuts that’s been called for the 15th is a good start, but there’s no reason to assume benefits claimants will automatically know about it. Where Defend Welfare or Disabled People Against Cuts groups already exist, it’s worth getting in touch with them, where not anarchists – especially those of us who’re on the dole – should be taking the lead in leafletting jobcentres to publicise anti-cuts events.
The days ahead are crucial. Let’s not waste them. (I was going to try and write my analysis of all the UK uncut stuff at this point, but it’s already 7 on a Friday night and I have other priorities. Sorry. Next time, I promise.)

Oh, and finally, hahahahahaaha fuck the Lib Dems hahahahaha.

For those of us who’ve experienced police brutality before, whether your memory goes back as far as G20 or the 60s, it should be clear that this kind of shit is not an isolated incident, it’s just the police doing their job. Campaigning for the police to stop doing this is about as much use as voting Lib Dem (or Labour) – they can’t stop doing this permanently, only briefly as a tactical concession, and even that’s very unlikely for the foreseeable future. You can’t get rid of repressive police tactics unless you get rid of the police. Rather than feigning shock and making liberal demands for the police to behave better, we need to be making this case to those around us, whether they’re already involved in the protests, the parents of those who are involved, or just watching from the sidelines. We don’t want a reformed police force any more than we want to be represented by a different set of politicians. This may sound utopian, but it is the case that there’s already a growing anti-parliamentary revolt, so it doesn’t seem too unrealistic to hope that it’ll turn into an outright rejection of the capitalist state as a whole. (Speaking of futile attempts to channel and contain the movement, Truth, Reason & Liberty reports that Aaron Porter’s already backtracking on his backtracking.)

In other news, Camden’s (Labour) council are having their budget-slashing meeting tonight. It’s probably the case that Lewisham was a “Millbank moment”, and that all town hall/council chamber protests from now on will have a much harder time of it; but it’s also the case that, ultimately, we are many, they are few. These evening protests are currently the best way for workers to get involved in the growing revolt, so let’s get stuck in.

Onto the day itself: As well as massive protests in Dublin and across Italy, new occupations broke out in the Slade School of Art (part of UCL, where another occupation is still going on), Nottingham and King’s College London, and Sheffield occupied again, having already been evicted once. But the most exciting features of the day were elsewhere: in central London, the protests managed to stay mobile and avoid being kettled, which is a massive leap forward in terms of escaping police control, and in Oxford and Birmingham council chambers were occupied, along with the Tory offices in Aberdeen. (See anticuts.org.uk, indymedia and libcom for more info.) The question of where power lies is a massive one, too big to tackle now but I hope to return to it soon, but it’s really good to see that people are no longer content to just demonstrate passively outside the centers of power, or even occupy relatively weak locations like universities, but are starting to confront the state head-on. Hopefully Lewisham, Oxford, Birmingham and Aberdeen are just the start and soon the list of council occupations will be as long as the list of occupied unis.

The Edinburgh uni occupation’s started a valiant attempt to keep track of the various occupations here, complete with contact details. Inevitably, it’s probably never going to be totally up-to-date, but looks worth keeping an eye on.
In the Guardian, David Mitchell gives a good (and witty) summary of why “student violence works better than any amount of priggish argument… A photo of broken glass is a thousand times more politically threatening than a kid with an unwise haircut whining about his allowance.” Militant tactics are appealing to people who wouldn’t think of themselves as radicals or revolutionaries precisely because they offer something different to the tedium of normal politics. (Although, the media being what it is, it appeared alongside yet another smug, patronising piece recycling the tired old myth that “the few anarchists and professional agitators in balaclavas, who would be responsible for the televised attack on a police van, were a heavily outnumbered minority.” How out of touch can these people be to seriously believe that there are no teenagers who’re pissed off and independent enough to be able to decide to attack a van on their own, so it must’ve been the work of someone who was paid to do it?)
One noticeable shift has been that Aaron “Despicable” Porter, the chief bureaucrat of the NUS, has now openly apologised for his scabby attitude towards direct action – although, of course, he’s still eager to make it clear that “I stand by calling acts of violence ‘despicable’.” For someone with such an interest in politics, you’d think he might have encountered the idea that violence is a contested concept and there’s never a clear line between violence and non-violence, but that’s a whole different argument. This is clearly a very mixed development – in many ways, it’s better to have someone like Porter in open opposition to the movement, so no-one can be in any doubt about what side he’s on, rather than inside it and attempting to disarm it. Apart from anything else, it’ll certainly give encouragement to all the lefty defenders of the NUS leadership, who’ll seize on this change of heart as proof that we’re all on the same side really and we can win by sticking together as long as we don’t scare “our leaders” off by doing anything too radical. But it also has some positive implications – it makes it easier for those students who’re still conservative enough to pay attention to the likes of Porter to get involved in occupations and other direct action, and once that starts happening, the situation often has a radicalising logic of its own, outside anyone’s control. It’s also a clear sign that it’s no longer possible to have any credibility at all with many students without at least paying lip service to direct action – Porter wouldn’t be sucking up to the occupiers if he didn’t recognise that they enjoy a lot of popularity.
In other news, just because we’re no longer in the traditional pattern of Europe kicking off while British radicals watch in envy doesn’t mean that Europe’s gone any quieter. Last week saw a one-day general strike in Portugal, and student protests have also erupted across Italy. The crisis is international, so the more our responses spread across national borders the better.

Now, what next? Beyond tomorrow’s day of action, there’s been two call-outs for actions on the weekend: UK Uncut have called for a “National Day of Action Against Corporate Tax Avoiders” (I intend to write an examination of the pros and cons of this kind of “direct action tax collection” sometime soon) this Saturday, and there was a more general call-out for a united day of action on a weekend that workers would be able to join in with, although the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts seem to be pushing for that to be on Saturday 11th instead of the weekend. Whenever it happens, the first major weekend anti-cuts protest will be an important test: it’s likely that the numbers of students and school kids may well be starting to diminish after so many events (those who’re scared of getting in trouble will be able to attend without getting told off by their schools for it, but those who aren’t that bothered about getting in trouble will be aware that, it being a Saturday, they could get away with staying in bed or doing something more fun instead, so their attendance will depend on how far protesting has stopped being a chore and become something that’s enjoyable in its own right), but it’s the first time that there’s really been a chance for workers to get actively involved. Hopefully, a good turn-out on the 11th (or whenever) could be the first sign that the youth revolt is starting to turn into a class-wide one.

The targetting of Lib Dem HQ in Edinburgh and Simon Hughes’ office in London are both very encouraging signs, and the dispersed nature of the protests around the country made them much harder to police, as well as making it easier for vast numbers to participate, and meaning that people outside the capital were presented with something happening on their doorstep, rather than just another set of vague, far-off events in London. The amount of open mass meetings that seem to be happening are another important development, and it’s worth stating once again how much the left have been totally left behind. The original call-out may have come from the National Convention Against Fees and Cuts, but there’s no group with anything even approaching the level of presence in schools and sixth forms needed to take control of something like this. Even the mainstream media (well, the Guardian at least) seem to be slowly catching on to this aspect of the protests, gratifyingly reporting “[Claire] Solomon led the London march early today with a megaphone but found her directions overruled when students, instructed via mobile phones, spontaneously sprinted toward parliament.”

The next big focus looks to be the 30th of November, just days away. It’s possible this could backfire – anyone who went through the experience of Stop the War knows how disheartening it can be to just try to do the same thing again and again with inevitably diminishing returns, no matter how good the first time was – but this really looks like it could pay off, building on the existing mood of excitement and the massive amount of publicity the last two demos got. It’ll also give those who’ve not occupied yet a good reason/opportunity to do so, and allow those who’ve occupied and been evicted to just go all-out and occupy again.

So where next? It seems unlikely that this burst of energy will last for ever, especially with the Christmas holidays coming up. Of course, I could be wrong, maybe this is just the ideology of a politico trying to justify a role for myself in a movement that has no real need of me and the protests will just spontaneously continue to snowball and snowball, but either way it looks like at some stage there’ll be a move from the very loose networks we’re seeing at the moment to some kind of more structured form. It’s crucial that if and when this happens, we don’t allow the left to fuck it up. No matter how well-intentioned individual lefty militants are, the trots have demonstrated time and time again that they ruin everything they get control of. Even when they’re defending militant tactics now (which is the case in a lot of places, but it certainly isn’t everywhere, as their behaviour in Glasgow has showed), sooner or later the need to build their Party will come into conflict with the demands of the movement. When local anti-cuts groups are set up, they’ll try to influence them into having a closed, hierarchical leadership structure that they can then gain control of. Those of us active in the anti-cuts movement who recognise the dangers this poses need to be arguing against this. Better to risk seeming petty and sectarian now than to end up with an impotent, deradicalised movement in the long run.
The other crucial point at the moment is how far the youth are ahead of everybody else. In some ways this is to be expected, since the penalties for bunking a day of school or uni are far lower than those for walking off the job, but it can’t go on forever. Ultimately, no matter how heroic they are, school, college and uni students on their own aren’t going to beat the government; the class as a whole certainly can. A combination of the disruptive power of public sector workers with the defiant spirit of the students and pupils would be devastatingly effective. The dream scenario would be real, practical unity across these sectors: not just a handful of right-on students visiting picket lines, but mobs of scary 15-year-olds going fucking mental at scabs. We can only hope, but even if things don’t get quite that good, any action by workers that even comes close to the spirit of the last few weeks would be a very welcome move. (A few disclaimers here: obviously, students/schoolkids and public sector workers aren’t the only ones affected, hopefully pensioners and benefits claimants will start kicking off as well. And by saying I want the school students to go beyond just thinking of their own immediate interests and start developing a more general class consciousness, I am in no way lining up with all those liberal wankers trying to draw lines between the “good” protesters who really care about the issues and the naughty kids who ruin it for everyone because they just want an excuse to bunk off school and fight the police. In some ways, I think kids who just want to fight the cops have better politics than those who’re just really concerned about the education cuts: one group is just asking for a specific reform that can be granted fairly easily, the other is made up of those who’re generally pissed off with the conditions of their lives, and are directing that anger at a symbol of the class enemy instead of one of the multitude of alternative targets that are available. I know which one sounds like a better starting point for a revolutionary movement to me.)
If the movement manages to avoid being co-opted and managed by the bureaucrats seeking to steer it into totally ineffective channels, and the class as a whole gets involved rather than leaving the youth to get picked off on their own, I think there’s a real chance that we can break the coalition and bring the government down. But what then? Whoever gets in will still be required to manage the economy in the interests of capital. They may (or may not) be a lot more cautious and a lot less aggressively cocky, but there’s still going to be pressure on them to attack our living standards. If we’re going to be able to defend ourselves in that situation, we need to build a movement that won’t be disarmed by the promises of the Labour Party and its defenders – a movement against cuts, not a movement against “Tory cuts”.
So, that’s the task facing us. To stop the bureaucrats and wannabe bureaucrats on the left gaining power over the movement’s structures, while not boring everyone to death with endless incredibly dull arguments about structures, leadership positions and democracy. To spread the spirit of the youth revolt until we have an all-out rebellion by everyone who’s fucked over in this society. And to build a movement with enough political suss to stop it getting taken in by the promises of Labour, without just turning it into another tiny sect with spot-on politics but no real power to influence anything. It won’t be easy. But what else can we do?

Nearly 250 school students have gone through  the weekend course till date.  To what effect, is not clear . I forgot to ask the project spokesman if they have a feedback channel in place to assess the impact of their project.   The Internet holds out endless possibilities,  of which even many parents are not aware. Their lack of awareness, worse still, their misperception of  Internet as  a corruptive  influence ,  inhibits them from getting their children a computer .  Many middle-class parents are dismissive of the Internet because of the mistaken belief that it is mostly  about video games and porn photos.  They wouldn’t want their children exposed to the Internet.

This is in sharp contrast from  the US and western Europe where children  are introduced to computers as interactive toys.  They come in attractive colours and have cartoon-based learning features. Computers with Internet connection are  made available in children’s  section of public libraries.  By the time they are ready for schooling children are familiar with computer usage.  At middle school level students are encouraged to  browse the Net to collect material for their school projects.  At higher classes students interact  with peers and teachers online  through class-room sites.

Back  home in India most govt.  schools and even many middle-class  households have no computer,  let alone broadband connectivity.  Internet penetration is low and the digital divide is wide.  Besides, there is a sizeable segment of uninformed adult population with a prejudiced mind about computer.  Internet awareness programme for school students cannot succeed without addressing parental prejudices. The Mysore University school of info. management would do well to give an orientation course for parents,  along with the Internet Safari for their school-going children.  Teachers need to be motivated enough to encourage their students to take advantage of the two-day programme.  Maybe  the university  school,  instead of expecting children to come to their premises for training,  should consider taking their Internet Safari to various schools.  College students could be drafted as volunteers for taking up the schools programme.

Public-spirited staff   in corporate sector could be involved as volunteers  in implementing  Internet awareness project in city  schools. I have in mind the likes of Ashwin Upadhyaya who visited a local school on weekends to interact with students.  Ashwin’s school intervention programme covers a wide spectrum of subjects that could be learned through the Net.  Ashwin says it has been a learning experience for him to interact with  school students every weekend.

Mr Athif  Mohammed can be contacted at 9886772356

Also read -  ‘Neteracy’ for seniors, in 5 days

Why what we have is never enough

We may have life and liberty. But the pursuit of happiness isn’t going so well.

As a country, we are richer than ever. Yet surveys show that Americans are no happier than they were 30 years ago. The key problem: We aren’t very good at figuring out what will make us happy.

Never strive for Success, strive for performance and when you do that success will come kiss your feet

We constantly hanker after fancier cars and fatter paychecks — and, initially, such things boost our happiness. But the glow of satisfaction quickly fades and soon we’re yearning for something else.

Similarly, we tell our friends that our kids are our greatest joy. Research, however, suggests the arrival of children lowers parents’ reported happiness, as they struggle with the daily stresses involved.

Which raises the obvious question: Why do we keep striving after these things? Experts offer two explanations.

We aren’t built to be happy. Rather, we are built to survive and reproduce. We wouldn’t be here today if our ancestors didn’t struggle mightily to protect and feed their families. The promise of happiness, meanwhile, is just a trick to jolly us along.

“This is an incentive scheme for the benefit of our genes,” argues Boston money manager Terry Burnham, co-author of “Mean Genes.” “It’s a very fundamental trick that’s played on us, this lure of perpetual bliss.”

Don’t like the idea that we’re hoodwinked by some hard-wired set of ancient instincts? Blame it, instead, on societal beliefs.

Working hard and raising children may not make us happier. But these beliefs keep society functioning — and those who embrace them prosper and end up passing these values onto their children.

We’re bad at forecasting. Consider a study by academics Daniel Kahneman and David Schkade.

They asked university students in the Midwest and Southern California where they thought someone like themselves would be happier — and both groups picked California, in large part because of the better weather. Yet, when asked how satisfied they were with their own lives, both groups were equally happy.

“When you’re thinking about moving to California, you’re thinking about the beaches and the weather,” says Mr. Schkade, a management professor at the University of California at San Diego. “But you aren’t thinking about the fact that you’ll still be spending a lot of time in the grocery store or doing chores. People emphasize differences that are easy to observe ahead of time and forget about the similarities.”

When we predict what will make us happy, we’re also influenced by how we feel today. If we buy the weekly groceries just after we’ve had lunch, we will shop much more selectively. The downside: A few days later, we will be staring unhappily into an empty refrigerator.

Maybe most important, we fail to anticipate how quickly we will adapt to improvements in our lives. We think everything will be wonderful when we move into the bigger house. We don’t realize that, after a few months, we will take the extra space for granted.

Experience should help us avoid repeating such mistakes. But it doesn’t, in part because we don’t accurately recall how we really felt, says Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, author of “Stumbling on Happiness.”

One example: We work devilishly hard to get that next promotion, because we’re sure it will leave us elated. We forget that, when we last got promoted, it was a bit of a letdown.
With any luck, just knowing we are susceptible to these pitfalls will help.

But you might also try a reality check, Prof. Gilbert says. Suppose you think you will be happier if you move to a small rural town, adopt a child, or quit your job and become a high-school math teacher.

Don’t rely on the opinions of people who live in small towns, have adopted kids or become teachers. Instead, spend some time observing these folks — and see whether they’re happy.

National and international experts led by world-renowned School Planner Mr. Prakash Nair from the USA developed the concept and plans for the school. They decided to name the school “Pathways” to represent Howard Gardner’s multiple pathways to learning.

There is universal radio networking and every student from Grades 7 to 12 use laptop computers. Facilities include seven laboratories, a spacious Library-Media-Centre, studios for Art, Music, Dance, Theatre and Craft-Design-Technology. Sporting facilities include an Olympic-size football field, a 400 metre track, a 25 metre pool, a putting green, tennis, basket ball and volley ball courts, cricket field, horse riding ground and a three storey centre for indoor sports that houses well-equipped gymnasium, squash courts, table tennis, snooker and pool tables and weight-training equipment gymnastics and aerobics.

Residential facilities are based on the model of a first-class British independent boarding school with professional staffing, comfortable study-bedrooms and catering of international standard. Solar Systems and Water Harvesting are in place as part of the Energy Conservation Measures.

A School built today with tomorrow in mind….

SOME USEFUL INFO :-

Primary Years Programme (Nursery – Grade 5)

Pathways Middle School Programme (Grade 6 – 8)

Cambridge IGCSE (Grade 9 – 10)

IB Diploma Programme (Grades 11 – 12)

FEE Structure for Indian Residents

FEE Structure for NRI’s/Expatriates

Procedure for Remitting Payments

All cheques/ drafts/ remittances to be made in favour of PATHWAYS WORLD SCHOOL payable at Delhi or Gurgaon. All Cheques/drafts/remittances must clearly state (a) Invoice Number (b) Student’s Name (c) Grade Applied For

All couriers/ mails should be to be sent to the corporate office at :
2, Sainik Farms, C-1 Lane, New Delhi – 110 062, India

Domestic Payments

All domestic payments can be made by way of Demand Draft or Cheque payable at Delhi or Gurgaon.

Payments In INDIAN CURRENCY
CITIBANK NA
Ground Floor, DLF Square, M-Block, Jacaranda Marg, DLF City Phase II, Gurgaon – 122002
Pathways World School (Revenue A/C)
A/C no: 0003669246
IFSC CITI 0000014

International Payments

All International payments can be made by way of Wire Transfer to School’s Bank Account as follows :

Payments can be made in USD, EURO, Pound Sterling and Japanese Yen..More details

Date Schedule for prospective students

Timing for School visit on these dates are 10 am to 3 pm
Placement Assessment 10 am to 12 o’clock
Interaction 12 pm to 5 pm

Pathways World School Visit

You are most welcome to visit the school and have an informal discussion with or without your child. This can be done by fixing a prior appointment with the Head Admissions & Communication Alka Verma through mail at admissions@pathways.ac.in or telephone +91 98186 66677. A meeting can also be arranged with the Principal or any other faculty member that you may wish to see.

Application

Parents are requested to be frank and honest in providing information in the admission application form. Adverse information if any, whether scholastic or behavioral, will not be a ground for refusal of any admission request. Any such information would in fact help the school to create a suitable environment for your child, once admitted. Any wrong information or concealment of information discovered later may lead to cancellation of admission.

To complete the application process, please follow the steps outlined below. If you have any questions about the application process, please contact the Admissions Office at +91 98186 66677 or +91 98186 66688.

Interviews

The interview is as pleasant and non intimidating as we can make it. It is normally conducted by Head of Admissions, School Director, the respective Principal, Head of Pastoral Care and Residence Co-ordinator (if applicable). We are interested in knowing about the child’s/ student’s educational development, use of language, social skills, academic enthusiasms and extra-curricular interests. The aim of the interview is to find about what the student knows, understands and enjoys.

While coming for the interview please bring with you the following :-

Examples of the applicant’s school work in the form of exercise books, portfolios etc. Primary applicants (up to Grade 5) should bring at least one book which they are currently reading inside or outside school.

Primary school candidates are examined by the Primary Head. This is an oral interaction and the child may also be asked to perform some simple activities.

Admission seekers for Grades 6 to 9 have an oral interview and a written test. Testing is done for Basic English and Mathematics. For Grade 9, students will also be assessed for Integrated Science (Physics, Chemistry and Biology).

Students are only taken into Grade 10 if they are transferring from a similar school and their admission is based on reports from their existing school and an interview and test.

Admission to Grade 11 is by oral interview, written tests in English, Mathematics. All the IB Diploma candidates also have a meeting and group discussion with the School Director. The candidates should demonstrate the ability to meet the requirements of the IB Diploma.

In Grade XII only transferring IB Diploma Students are admitted.

Admissions during the year

Parents may register at any time during the year for admission in the current year and will be interviewed whenever a place is available.

Admission

On being offered a place parents will be given two weeks time to pay the admission fee (if the student is not joining immediately) and security deposit to secure the place. No student shall be allowed to attend classes unless an ID number has been generated. ID numbers are issued on receipt of fees. Parents further need to fill and submit various forms and declarations that would be given along with admissions acceptance letter. Before allowing the student to take up his/her place a transfer certificate should be lodged with the admissions office from the earlier school of the student.

Overseas Applicants

Overseas applicants shall follow the same procedure as stated above. Exceptions will be made on date of placement assessment.

Everything inevitably comes to an end. Two years ago, fifty-six students embarked on one of the greatest peregrinations of their lives;  August 2008 marked the start of the IB Programme at Pathways World School. And after two seemingly endless years of gruelling hard work and ceaseless repudiation and remarks from teachers, it came to pass that this year in 2010, the fifty-six students, standing tall and proud witnessed the twilight of their two years shine upon them in their best moments of glory.

Community Service Awards for our young responsible citizens

As the daylight began to fade, the parents took their seats, hearts beating with excitement, and watched their once-infantile children elegantly stride onto the stage dressed in the customary purple Graduation Gowns, the tassels of their mortarboards hanging proudly from their heads.

The evening began with the dulcet notes of Celine Dion’s immortal song, ‘My Heart Will Go On’, played by the school orchestra. Indeed, long after we have left school and are striding towards our futures, ‘every night in [our] dreams’ we’ll reminisce about one of the best nights of our entire secondary school experience.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

After Dr Naidu’s enlightening words of advice, warning and good luck to the class of 2010 came the most awaited moment: the Awards. And for some, the stars simply dimmed to let them glow and stun the audience with their resplendent radiation. Joshua Lee – the valedictorian held everyone’s attention as he addressed the crowd and recounted his past four years at school. Among the numerous experiences that he shared, he shared one parting advice with his friends: passion above all else is most important. Hard work, sincerity and success simply tag behind.

This was followed by CAS awards, the Global Citizen Award and then the subject awards. Shortly afterwards, the IB programme certificates were distributed. Everyone dazzled the crowd with their brilliance. It was our day and we took it with pride glistening in our eyes with uncontained happiness. The Chief Guest, Dr Kanti Bajpai addressed the graduating class, sharing some important advice on what he has learned from his own experience of growing up: being cynical and arrogant are two of the worse afflictions one can acquire and we must strive to avoid these two vexations that are akin to cardinal sins.

Chairman Pramod Jain awarding the students

The evening could hardly have ended without Prateek Jalan having something to say about it! And indeed he had, and what fine words he had to share! Amongst the many things that he spoke of, the most memorable was the poem that he composed to encapsulate the years of joy that Pathways brought him, and indeed every one us standing on the stage. After Prateek, Rishi Chitkara took the stage as he shared some of his own experiences with the crowd and shed light on the true friendship that binds every individual of 12th grade to one another.

Abhishek Bansal exuded the true sense of being a Pathwaysian as he addressed the audience and with a hint of sorrow and nostalgia proudly presented them with all that Pathways gifted him with. This was followed by the senior school principal Ms Maya Norula’s speech about the ‘strange’ yet amicable group of students that the school has to part to with this year. All of us, at some point in our time in senior school presented some affliction of an adolescent but despite that it was deeply moving to hear that all our mistakes were forgotten and that we had all left a positive impression on everyone.

Pathways wishes - Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.

With these final words that came out somewhat reluctantly for words of parting are always the toughest to express, the class of 2010 proceeded to complete the final rite of passage by flipping the tassel and having their candles lit. This was followed by the National Anthem. Then the ceremony came to a sad end. But the words that were uttered by the students and teachers will remain eternally in our minds. Ms Maya Norula’s recitation of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, ‘The Gift’ will stay with me forever. As will Anagh Chaudhry’s final words: ‘Dare to be whatever you can be!”

Although the theory of global warming was “invented” not very long ago, and we are still in the process of figuring out which side to believe on this issue, most of our teaching faculty grew up on the works of environmentalists like Gerald Durrell. Some of us were studying the general decapitation of the earth’s forest cover and dealing with high levels of pollution in cities when Gro Harlem Brundtland chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development (1983) which popularized that marvellous phrase “Sustainable Development“. Suddenly, it was as if the lines separating nations had disappeared off the map of the world – and there was growing realization that we had a “common future” and our “common wealth” needed joint and concentrated thought and action to preserve the planet.

Gerald Durrell - The Mockery Bird

The Mockery Bird, by Gerald Durrell, (published in 1981) a delightful work of fiction, helped us to understand the very delicate eco-balance that exists between a bird, a tree, a moth and a human community on a little island called Zenkali. Having learnt such lessons early in life and grown up trying to do everything in one’s power to help preserve the environment, the world debate about Global Warming causes much concern – are we in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, if the side opposing the theory wins out? If the idea is indeed a myth as many claim, or indeed if it is not being caused by CO2 emissions as highlighted by others, should we return to our earlier exploitative and potentially disastrous lifestyles and completely forget the wisdom of sustainable development?

Treading thus through this minefield of claims and counter-claims, it was heartening during the Middle School Science Fair to see a project called “My Eco-Friendly City” created by a student of Grade 6. Pancham Yadav, one of our editors, had built this model using scrap materials, putting the school’s philosophy of recycling into active practice. What makes the project exceptional is how well it is planned, including little details like how traffic moving along a road would set windmills rotating, which in turn would generate electricity that could be used for lighting purposes…

It is humbling to interact with students like Pancham. The vision, the drive and ambition to ensure that the planet and indeed the human race does not implode, infuses our daily lives with hope for the present and the future.

Making of “My Eco Friendly City“

My Eco Friendly City

Model Eco-Friendly City

One idea is all you need to change lives

Make your city beautiful, The world will be beautiful