Andrew Gavin Marshall: Austerity = Poverty, Adjustment = Exploitation, Growth = Private Profit

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
August 23, 2012

Image by mkhalili via Flickr

Aug 23, 2012 by RussiaToday

Battered and bruised by austerity, Athens has begged the EU for ‘breathing space’. Regardless of whether Greece is given more time, its tactic to fight debt will remain the same: agressive austerity, privatization and cuts. However, Andrew Gavin Marshall [previously] from the Centre of Research on Globalization thinks those reforms will do much more harm than good.

Stand Strong and Do Not Despair: Some Thoughts on the Fading Student Movement in Quebec by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
August 16, 2012

Image by fatseth via Flickr

As eight of the fourteen CEGEP preparatory schools have voted to return to class, and thereby end the strike which began in February, Quebec is beginning to witness the fading away of the first phase of the student movement, mobilized by the planned tuition increases, and which expanded into a broader social movement known as the ‘Maple Spring.’ As some students have returned to class, they were met with a heavy police presence, no doubt to ensure ‘order’ during such a “dangerous” situation in which students enter school property. After all, Bill 78, which was passed by Jean Charest’s government back in May (now known as Law 12), made student protests on (or within 50 metres of school property) an illegal act.

Media Lies, Corporate Ties, and Truth Dies? … Don’t Count on It! by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
June 18, 2012

Image by pena2 via Flickr

I’m Here to be as Annoying as Humanly Possible to Those in Power

Our media is a melting-pot of misinformation, bought and owned by billionaires and oligarchs, whether it is public, private, or foundation-funded. Information is integral, propaganda is power, and media is money. Control of the media leads directly to control of the minds of those who consume it, and like all patterns of consumption, it is sustained by profit, but its purpose is much deeper, more pervasive and permanent: social control.

The Maple Spring and the Mafiocracy: Struggling Students versus “Entitled Elites” by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Image by ricardoara via Flickr

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
June 3, 2012

It says a great deal about our society when hundreds of thousands of students – already largely indebted, a significant portion of whom live well below the poverty line, who already work what few jobs exist for a generation forgotten before we leave home – take to the streets in protest and are portrayed as “entitled”, “spoiled brats” as they attempt to “negotiate” their very chance of having a future in this society… with a government that supports and works with organized crime, which is beholden to an economic elite, and which supports only those who can already support themselves.

Andrew Gavin Marshall: Montreal Student Protests 101 on Day 101 + Canada vs totalitarian govt crackdown

Image by Robin Dumont via Flickr

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
May 25, 2012

May 25, 2012 by thewestcoasttruth2

Andrew Gavin Marshall is a journalist living in Montreal. Andrew is a regular on Russia Today and many radio talk shows and is a wealth of information. In addition to being a brilliant writer, Andrew is also a student in solidarity with the protests against the outrageous tuition hikes…however, what is transpiring in Montreal goes well beyond tuition fees, this has become a fight against fascism and authoritarian control.

Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com, May 14, 2012
May 20, 2012

The student strikes in Quebec, which began in February and have lasted for three months, involving roughly 175,000 students in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province, have been subjected to a massive provincial and national media propaganda campaign to demonize and dismiss the students and their struggle. The following is a list of ten points that everyone should know about the student movement in Quebec to help place their struggle in its proper global context.

Meet Canada’s Ruling Oligarchy: Parasites-a-Plenty! by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
May 10, 2012

The following is Part 7 of the series, “Class War and the College Crisis.”

Part 1: The “Crisis of Democracy” and the Attack on Education

Part 2: The Purpose of Education: Social Uplift or Social Control?

Part 3: Of Prophets, Power, and the Purpose of Intellectuals

Part 4: Student Strikes, Debt Domination, and Class War in Canada

The Québec Student Strike: From ‘Maple Spring’ to Summer Rebellion? Part 6 by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Image by Robin Dumont via Flickr

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
April 30, 2012

The following is Part 6 of the series, “Class War and the College Crisis.”

Part 1: The “Crisis of Democracy” and the Attack on Education

Part 2: The Purpose of Education: Social Uplift or Social Control?

Part 3: Of Prophets, Power, and the Purpose of Intellectuals

Canada’s Economic Collapse and Social Crisis: Class War and the College Crisis, Part 5 by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
April 24, 2012

Part 1: The “Crisis of Democracy” and the Attack on Education

Part 2: The Purpose of Education: Social Uplift or Social Control?

Part 3: Of Prophets, Power, and the Purpose of Intellectuals

Part 4: Student Strikes, Debt Domination, and Class War in Canada

What are the Spending Priorities of the Government?

In the debate raging over increased costs of tuition in Quebec, increased debt loads of the federal and provincial governments, the need to reduce costs – impose “fiscal austerity” – and find “solutions” to these problems, very little context is given.

Andrew Gavin Marshall: Class War and the College Crisis

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
April 17, 2012

Andrew Gavin Marshall joins us to discuss his latest three-part essay on “Class War and the College Crisis.” We talk about how the education system is used to create and maintain national identity, how this process is used for the benefit of the ruling class, and possible ways that students, academics, and the public generally can use this knowledge to empower a meaningful critique of the dominant social hierarchy. If you appreciate Marshall and his work, don’t forget to support his People’s Book Project.

Student Strikes, Debt Domination, and Class War in Canada: Class War and the College Crisis, Part 4 by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
April 17, 2012

Part 1: The “Crisis of Democracy” and the Attack on Education

Part 2: The Purpose of Education: Social Uplift or Social Control?

Part 3: Of Prophets, Power, and the Purpose of Intellectuals

There is a process under way in Canada, led by the corporate and financial elite, and directed against the general population, the poor, and the young, intending to provide for the rich and powerful, to punish the poor and steal from the rest, to plunge into poverty, to repress, control, and dominate: this process is called ‘Class War’ and it’s waged by the super-rich against the supposedly superfluous rest. It’s objective is simple: to preserve, protect, and expand the control and domination of the wealthy over the majority.

Of Prophets, Power, and the Purpose of Intellectuals: Class War and the College Crisis, Part 3 by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
April 13, 2012

Part 1: The “Crisis of Democracy” and the Attack on Education

Part 2: The Purpose of Education: Social Uplift or Social Control?

Intellectual history is written by intellectuals and educational history is written by educators; thus, it would be inevitable that the flaws and failures of each are buried beneath, while the advances and accomplishments are exaggerated or over-estimated. There is, however, a seemingly consistent dichotomy which has evolved and persisted throughout intellectual and educational history: on the one hand, you have the much larger element – both in terms of the general purpose of education and in the general activities and ideas of intellectuals – who support and strengthen institutionalized power structures;

The Purpose of Education: Social Uplift or Social Control? by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
April 9, 2012

This is part 2 of the series, “Class War and the College Crisis.”

Part 1: The “Crisis of Democracy” and the Attack on Education

In Part 1 of this series, I examined the elite assault on education – through the Chamber of Commerce, right-wing think tanks, and the Trilateral Commission – which arose in response to the massive social and political activist movements of the 1960s. The threat of popular democratic participation – that is, active and activist participation of the population in the decision-making process of a community or nation – was too much to bear. The fact that a significant degree of this activism had been mobilizing from the universities was enough reason for elites to declare a “crisis of democracy” and demand more apathy, complacency, and pacification from the population, more authority for themselves, and more control over the society as a whole.

Class War and the College Crisis: The “Crisis of Democracy” and the Attack on Education by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
April 2, 2012

The following is the first part of a series of articles, “Class War and the College Crisis.”

Today, we are witnessing an emerging massive global revolt, led primarily be the educated and unemployed youth of the world, against the institutionalized and established powers which seek to deprive them of a future worth living. In Chile over the past year, a massive student movement and strike has become a powerful force in the country against the increasingly privatized educational system (serving as a model for the rest of the world) with the support of the vast majority of the population; in Quebec, Canada, a student strike has brought hundreds of thousands of youth into the streets to protest against the doubling of tuition fees; students and others are on strike in Spain against austerity measures;

Bringing Down the Empire: Challenging the Institutions of Domination by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
March 12, 2012

“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” –- Victor Hugo

We have come to the point in our history of our species where an increasing amount of people are asking questions, seeking answers, taking action, and waking up to the realities of our world, to the systems, ideas, institutions and individuals who have dominated, oppressed, controlled, and ensnared humanity in their grip of absolute control.