Skip Navigation | Sheffield IMC | UK IMC | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

UK Indymedia UK Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia

UG#567 Radical Democracy & The Rebirth of Epimethean Man (Deschooling Society 7)

Robin Upton | 10.09.2011 11:35 | Oaxaca Uprising | Analysis | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Sheffield

We start this week's show with Professor David McNally on 21st century instances of people rebelling against their would be overlords. Then a set of activists in Spain on how a recent wave of protests against the austerity morphed into an experiment in self-government. Finally, we conclude our reading of radical philosopher Ivan Illich's 1971 book, Deschooling Society, in which he describes the re-conceptualisation needed to break from the counter-productive and dependency producing hierarchical institutions of the 20th century.

ug567-hour1mix.mp3 - mp3 27M

ug567-hour2mix.mp3 - mp3 27M


We start the show with a talk by Professor David McNally, author of many books, most recently Global Slump, which unmasks the 'new austerity' as the enabling of a huge resource grab by the plutocrats. Speaking on 2011-04-13, he notes the hopeful signs of people, when really up against it, resisting their programming by taking their lives into their own hands. He starts by describing the 2000 Cochabamba 'Water Wars', in which people defied police bullets to drive Bechtel out of the country. Then we hear how in 2006 the teachers' union in Oaxaca, Mexico, stepped outside the self-interested model to shoulder some burden of their whole community. In response people rallied in their hundreds of thousands to protect them from the attacks of local and national police, culminating in an anti-government movement which found people running their own media and policing their own streets. He then speaks about the great popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, which he characterises as both inspired by hunger and rising food prices and also a desire for freedom.

In our next section, we hear various activists from Spain on the self-organising people's assemblies which have been happening there as a result of activism which continued beyond the election. Hundreds of thousands of people, again, have been massing in peaceful protest, something that not widely reported on by the commercially controlled media until violence erupted as a result of agents provocateurs.

We conclude the show with the final chapter of Illich's Deschooling Society. Following on from last week's episode, in which he described his vision for decentralised, bottom up hierarchies, In chapter 7, Rebirth of Epimethean Man, Illich describes what will be necessary to break out of the trap of institutionalisation. He suggests we need to fundamental our self-conception, from a mass of consumers with needs to individuals with out own roles and purposes. We can no longer demand that institutions meet homogeneous 'needs', but must trust instead in friendship, not in material consumption but the joy of spontaneous, unplanned life.
Thanks to C. S. Soong for the David McNally interview, and to John Larsen for pointing me to the Spanish activists interview and to Chris for posting it.

Robin Upton
- e-mail: unwelcome [Aŧ] unwelcome guests [Døŧ] Net
- Homepage: www.UnwelcomeGuests.Net/567

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Sheffield Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Sheffield [navigation.actions2016]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2015]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

Sheffield Actions 2013

G8 2013

Sheffield Actions 2012

Workfare

Sheffield Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

Sheffield Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Sheffield Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Sheffield Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Sheffield Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Sheffield Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Sheffield Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Sheffield Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Sheffield Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech