Intellectuals: Spontaneous and Self-Conscious
Part 5 of the CU Course “Education” Live Session, Part 5 of 10 ・ Date: 26 February 2014 (Wednesday) ・ Time: 17h00 (to 18h30) ・ Venue: FAWU Office, 5th Floor, Dr Neil Aggett House, 90 President Street, Johannesburg ・ Topic: Organic Intellectuals, 2005, McLaren and Fischman <https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/18-philosophy-and-religion/180 92%2CMcLarenandFischman%2COrganicIntellectuals%2C2005.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1 > (attached; excerpt from Fanon also attached). See the composite introduction, below. ・ Course: <http://www.nehawu.org.za/NEHAWU%20Campaigns_Communist%20University%20Politi cal%20School%20Material%20Course%20Packs_23%20Education.html> Education ・ To download any of the CU courses in PDF files please click here <https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses/> . Once more, the Vanguard and the Mass In this part of our course, we have grouped together some writings about the relationship of the intellectual to society, and of the teacher to the student. It gave us an occasion to consult with the great pedagogue and disciple of Paulo Freire, Peter McLaren; and through him, in the attached article, with the communist leader and writer, Antonio Gramsci. The organic intellectuals are those individuals who, in human society, provide leadership to, and consciousness of, the social organisation that is characteristic of all such human society. As state organisation rises historically from the local to the national, and as education of the young is transferred to the schools and to the universities, so also do the intellectuals en masse become more conscious of their own place in society, and they become more organised. The license to teach, in its exemplary form, is now the doctorate of the state, awarded by the academy. Universities have developed during the transitions from feudal and church power, to bourgeois, secular power. In the most recent two centuries, the highest historical form of self-conscious vanguard leadership has developed, in the form of the communist parties. After discussing Gramsci’s conception of “organic intellectuals”, McLaren and his co-author Fischman quote from Gramsci as follows: “Critical self-consciousness means, historically and politically, the construction of an elite of intellectuals. A human mass does not ‘distinguish’ itself, does not become independent in its own right without, in the widest sense, organizing itself; and there is no organization without intellectuals, that is without organizers and leaders, in other words, without the theoretical aspect of the theory-practice nexus being distinguished concretely by the existence of a group of ‘specialized’ in conceptual and philosophical elaboration of ideas.” In 2013 there was considerable public debate in South Africa. The SACP released a statement that said: “The SACP is of the view that we should not just provide an education that produces readily made goods for absorption by the labour market but that our education, an education that must be essential, must be underpinned by the vision of People’s Education for People’s Power! This vision requires that our schooling and post schooling education systems do not just produce skilled individuals, but individuals who are able to interpret and make sense of their political, ideological and socio‐economic conditions and thus be actors to radically alter those conditions.” Dr Michael Rice wrote: “What is needed is a complete revisioning of education; what it is, what it is meant for, who it is meant to serve and how, and how to assess its worth. The abolition of the present public exam system would go a long way to making such a paradigm shift possible. Sticking with the present system is not an option.” The Communist University is outside of the system, unrecognised, and unsupported. It is a “school for life” in the sense of that term used by N F S Grundtvig and the Danish folk-high-schools. The CU requires no entry qualification, and it awards no certificates or degrees. It has no recognised Doctors. Yet it is certainly an institution of higher learning, where Marxism, the modern humanism, can be learned. If the Communist University tried to issue certificates, or take money contributions from its students, it would be crushed and suppressed as “bogus”. The dual, conflicted, condition of universities, including but not limited to the ones in South Africa, has been part of their nature from their beginning. What are they for? Who do they belong to? Who do they serve? This conflict is not over, and it will not be over until the free development of each has truly become the condition for the free development of all; until the university has been universalised; and until the class struggle has been left behind. -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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