Walda Katz-Fishman

Comments on Burawoy: A View From the Bottom-up

Burawoy’s call for a critical and transformative “public sociology,” whose goal is realizing the “real utopia” of democratic socialism, is welcome. We especially value and appreciate his call at this time because Burawoy has offered it during his presidency of the ASA – and thus from inside the profession and a key center of power in defining sociology as both theory and practice. We also value and appreciate it because it comes at a crucial moment in bottom-up movement building – another powerful process in defining social theory, social struggle and their dynamic relationship in social transformation. Our brief comments are informed by our work in Project South as “organic public sociologists” – in the trenches as well as the academy for 35+ years. They are also informed by a long and rich tradition of radical and Marxist sociology that teaches us many lessons. Two of the most essential are that “Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point however is to change it.” For us this change is fundamental, qualitative, systemic, transformative, and is central to our historic struggle for human liberation in the broadest, deepest and most inclusive sense. And, second, that theory and practice are two aspects of a powerful, dialectical unity born out of and continuously tested in our social struggle to end all forms of exploitation and oppression. Neither can exist without the other. Burawoy argues – and we agree – that change flows from outside the university in. The movements of the 1960s and 1970s – black liberation, national liberation and anti-imperialist/anti-colonial struggles, women’s equality, sexual equality, environmental justice struggles, etc. – created the conditions for a radical sociology. Social struggles outside the university

Diversity and equality: race and class in America

Discussions of diversity, multiculturalism, and democracy often neglect the historical and structural economic and political inequalities embedded in these racial/ethnic/cultural differences among peoples in America. In this article we present a historical materialist analysis of African Americans and other oppressed peoples within the context of capitalist development. The current period of the electronic revolution and the labor displacing technology of the postindustrial era is creating the conditions for the erosion of the reform based social contract, and for heightened degrees of economic and political polarization, often expressed as racial polarization. At the same time, the abundance created by the high technology revolution contains the possibility of realizing equality and democracy for African Americans and for all of the American peoples.

Race, Class and Transformation: Confronting Our History to Move Forward

From inside today’s bottom-up movement for equality, justice, democracy and social transformation, we want to share experiences and lessons for understanding race and class in the context of historical and contemporary U.S. capitalism and social struggle. We cannot resolve a problem unless there is clarity about its root cause. America at its inception was a Southern nation grounded in genocide and slavery. The white supremacy and racialization embedded in law and society is no longer de jure, but its content remains de facto in every aspect of social life, even in the so-called “post-racial era.” The question of race in America – from indigenous genocide and the slave system, to the attack on immigrant communities and the execution of Troy Davis – inextricably links race and a racially exploitative and oppressive system to the very core of American class exploitation and super-exploitation, state power and repression, ideology, and social and environmental well bring. Based on this history of U.S. capitalism and the deep interpenetration of race and class, we argue that it is not possible to resolve racism and white supremacy until capitalism is ended. In the classroom of life – whether formal education settings, or the movement itself – theory, practice, and study around these questions is increasingly converging. We offer as a pedagogical tool the critical study of social history – the debunking of historical myth and the claiming of our real history of domination, oppression, and exploitation, and of resistance and social struggle. This means gaining clarity around the victories of past movements, what has and has not been won, and where we are today and why. The intensifying motion and activity in society in the current moment in response to the deepening economic crisis presents the strategic opportunity for confronting our history to move forward.

The South and the Black Radical Tradition: Then and Now

From the inception of the emerging American nation, the South is a central battleground in the struggles for freedom, justice, and equality. It is the location of the most intense repression, exploitation, and reaction directed toward Africans Americans, as well as Native Americans and working people generally. At the same time the South is the site of the most heroic resistance to these oppressive conditions of class domination, of white supremacy, and of sexist social relations in the public and private sectors. The institution of chattel slavery thrusts the Black radical tradition into the forefront of these early struggles. Todays globalization in the electronic age and neoliberal policies — the attack on the New Deal and Civil Rights reforms of the past era — again place the Black radical tradition at the center of the struggles for freedom, justice, and equality. We present a historical materialist analysis of the Black radical tradition in the South, from slave resistance and rebellions in the 1500s through the Civil War to the economic and political justice struggles in the current period. Black women — often working class — are always at the core of the Black radical tradition and are frequently in its leadership. Black radicals in each period make revolutionary demands that challenge state policy and/or capitalist property relations. But history reveals that each victory, hard fought and won, merely reforms capitalism and is only temporary. We conclude that the Black radical tradition in America calls for the liberation (i.e., the full economic, political and social equality) of the black masses. Permanent victory means that the Black radical tradition is at the heart of a working class-based movement to bring an end to the global capitalist system and to the class, color, and gender oppression that is its cornerstone.

A Critical Pedagogy with College and High School Students in St. Louis Post-Mike Brown

This article presents a critical pedagogy for a racially oppressed working-class community, situated in this current moment of capitalist crises. In the aftermath of the police killing of Mike Brown and militarized police occupation in St. Louis, MO, students from a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) employed a Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) module with African American high school students, during Alternative Spring Break 2015. The political education tools were grounded in Historical Materialism and Critical Race Theory. This was rooted in a movement-based praxis by and for the most affected persons (people of color, women, indigenous, immigrants, and queer populations). The PIC module informed this pedagogical process of raising consciousness, creating a vision, and strategizing toward long-term social change. Here, we discuss how this module enabled students to begin to grapple with the root of systemic racism, by connecting theory to their lived experiences. We understand this process as contributing to scholar activism, rooted in transformative public sociology. The modifications are discussed for implementation within future curriculums.