Students, Campuses and Dominant Corporate Power, by Ralph Nader

NYPIRG Student Action Meeting Sign

Image by Leon Fishman via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page, July 16, 2022
July 18, 2022

When it comes to corporate power and control over their lives, now and into the future, today’s college students are perilously dormant. When it comes to putting pressure on Congress to counter the various dictates of corporatism, there is little activity other than some stalwarts contacting their lawmakers on climate violence.

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The Workings of Commodified Education, by Yanis Iqbal

I hate standardized tests

Image by Jonathan Moore via Flickr

by Yanis Iqbal
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Aligarh, India
February 12, 2022

Under the neoliberal accumulation regime, a shift takes place in the internal dynamics of the educational system. Insofar as public education is either privatized or forced to operate along competitive lines through budgetary cuts, not only does the labour power of those who are the products of the education system remain a commodity, but also the knowledge itself that goes into the production of this commodity becomes a commodity. Education becomes, in other words, a process for the production of a commodity (the labour-power of those who receive education) by means of a commodity (the knowledge they receive).

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A Falling Rate of Learning? Commodification and Neoliberal Education, by Yanis Iqbal

Slaves to Money, Solidarity (9 of 25)

Image by Glenn Halog via Flickr

by Yanis Iqbal
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Aligarh, India
January 12, 2022

Under neoliberal capitalism, the commodification of education has accelerated. Before the establishment of the current accumulation regime, the educational sector was predominantly controlled by an interventionist state, committed to countercyclical macroeconomic management. The labour process of teaching within a state-owned domain followed the general pattern of any other production process. According to Michael Heinrich, such a general form – which is independent of any social determinations – comprises a distinction “among functional activity (labour), the object of labour (which is modified by labour), and the means of labour (the tools with which this process of modification is made possible) as elements of the labour process.”

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Teach Youngsters About Corporatism’s Harms, by Ralph Nader

Corporations are NOT People

Image by Catherine via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page, Sept. 24, 2021
September 26, 2021

If you think elementary, middle, and high school students know too little history, geography, and government, try asking them about the corporations that command so many hours of their day, their attention, what they consume, and their personal horizons.

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Michael Hudson: Surprise: Corporate Junk Before Students?

Indentured Student - Cartoon

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
May 25, 2021

theAnalysis-news on May 24, 2021

Why is the Fed buying corporate junk bonds and debt but won’t buy out student debt? Michael Hudson on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay.

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The Dynamic of Revolutionary Struggle in Turkey, by Yanis Iqbal + Turkey University Protests

Turkey university protests

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

by Yanis Iqbal
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Aligarh, India
February 12, 2021

Since January 4, 2021, student protests have been going on in Turkey. At Bogazici University in Istanbul, rectors are elected through free and fair elections by faculties. The only time in the institution’s history when these democratic processes were suspended was in the aftermath of the 1980 coup d’état. In today’s time, it is again being done.

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Chris Hedges: The Student Uprising in Paris in May 1968

Chris Hedges: The Student Uprising in Paris in May 1968

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on May 16, 2020

On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to author and translator, Mitch Abidor about the student uprising in Paris in May 1968.

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Who Among the Contented Classes Will Unfurl the Flag of Rebellion Against the Plutocrats and the Autocrats? by Ralph Nader

20110928 Class War

Image by Chris Piascik via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Updated: May 22, 2019

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page, May 9, 2019
May 21, 2019

For all the rhetoric and all the charities regarding America’s children, the U.S. stands at the very bottom of western nations and some other countries as well, in terms of youth well-being. The U.S.’s exceptionalism is clearest in its cruelty to children. The U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate of comparable OECD countries. Not only that, but 2.5 million American children are homeless and 16.2 million children “lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis.”

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David Swanson: If Everybody Matters, War Can Never Be Justified At All

End war

Image by Ricky Leong via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Mar. 10, 2019
March 12, 2019

Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County on Mar 12, 2019

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. The U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation awarded him their 2018 Peace Prize, and he has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Ellen Brown: The Unsustainable Burden of Student Debt

Indentured Student - Cartoon

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

with Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
November 1, 2018

on Oct 31, 2018

The student debt problem is exploding, growing three times as fast as any other kind of debt, yet the Trump administration is making it more difficult for students to seek debt relief. Ellen Brown of the Public Banking Institute outlines the implications.

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Pat Elder: It’s Not A Volunteer Force, Amy. It’s A Recruited Force. + Militarizing Schools, Criminalizing Students

Thoughts and Prayers Don't Save Lives, student lie-in at the White House to protest gun laws

Image by Lorie Shaull via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Pat Elder
World Beyond War, Feb. 21, 2018
February 26, 2018

Part 1: Inside the U.S. Military Recruitment Program That Trained Nikolas Cruz to be “A Very Good Shot”

Democracy Now! on Feb 21, 2018

https://democracynow.org – Dozens of students who survived last week’s school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida have arrived in Tallahassee to push for new gun control measures. On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Florida House of Representatives blocked a bid to bring up a bill to ban sales of assault-style rifles in the state. The Florida gunman, a 19-year-old white former student named Nikolas Cruz, was a member of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program before he was expelled from the school. Cruz was also part of a four-person JROTC marksmanship team at the school which had received $10,000 in funding from the NRA. For more, we speak with Pat Elder, director of the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, an organization that confronts militarism in schools. He’s the author of Military Recruiting in the United States.

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Chris Hedges: The Rise of Fascism in India

Chris Hedges: The Rise of Fascism in India

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Feb 19, 2018

Shehla Rashid Shora, Indian Activist, discusses Hindu fascism through religious and political unrest and classism in India.

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Rebel Without a Clue: Autonomy and Authority in the American Public School by Susan Cain and Mark Mason + Caleb Maupin: After Florida…

Question authority

Image by duncan c via Flickr

by Susan Cain and Mark Mason
Guest Writers, Dandelion Salad
Mark Mason, PhD
crossposted from Dissident Voice Feb. 5, 2018
February 16, 2018

The American high school dropout is an unconscious revolutionary. Instead of casting aspersions upon the dropout, we should attempt to decode this behavior that is condemned by parents, school authorities, educational experts, religious leaders, politicians, and peers. To understand the distress of the American high school student requires us to examine the politics of quitting school. Leaving school is a political act. Its political causes cannot be investigated in a context of isolating and blaming the individual.

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Today’s Students–Slavery by Debt, Part 2 by Ellen Brown

Slaves to Money, Solidarity (9 of 25)

Image by Glenn Halog via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
January 5, 2018

This is the second in a two-part article on the debt burden America’s students face. Read Part 1 here.

The lending business is heavily stacked against student borrowers. Bigger players can borrow for almost nothing, and if their investments don’t work out, they can put their corporate shells through bankruptcy and walk away. Not so with students. Their loan rates are high and if they cannot pay, their debts are not normally dischargeable in bankruptcy. Rather, the debts compound and can dog them for life, compromising not only their own futures but the economy itself.

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Today’s Students–Slavery by Debt, Part 1 by Ellen Brown

Indentured Student - Cartoon

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
December 28, 2017

Higher education has been financialized, transformed from a public service into a lucrative cash cow for private investors.

The advantages of slavery by debt over “chattel” slavery – ownership of humans as a property right – were set out in an infamous document called the Hazard Circular, reportedly circulated by British banking interests among their American banking counterparts during the American Civil War. It read in part:
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