Forty activists attended Education Not for Sale’ s “Education for Freedom” dayschool at the University of East London on Sunday 21 October.
There was a practical session to plan ENS’ s activity for the period ahead, as well as a very useful forum on the campaign to defend NUS democracy (which three people from the SWP/Respect, one person from the CPGB and several extra non-aligned activists also attended).
But the main focus of the day was on discussing ideas around education in depth — something which rarely happens in the student movement. So low is the level of political culture at present that debate is almost entirely around issues like grants and fees — with many activists not even rising to the level of demanding free education for all. “Education for freedom” discussed things in a lot more depth.
We began with a discussion on how capital is reshaping our education system, with speakers on New Labour’ s education agenda, racism in education and how education relates to Marx’ s idea of a “realm of freedom” beyond the confines of exploitative productive relations. This served as a basis for a very productive initial discussion.
Participants then divided into workshops, including one on education, alienation and the environment, and one on the revolutionary ideas for transforming education developed in struggles such as the French general strike of 1968 as well as by theorists such as Paolo Freire.
Much more of this is needed. We would like to organise further discussion alongside an ENS policy— and a decision-making conference in the spring. If you would like to help, please get in touch!
ENS will be having an open steering committee meeting on 9 December. For more information, or if you would like an ENS speaker or materials for your campus, visit www.free-education.org.uk
