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Review of Robert Kagan, Dangerous Nation by Cliff duRand
Neo-liberalism on a Global Scale by Cliff duRand
NEWSLETTER #10 (PDF) - December 2007
Center for Global Justice PowerPoint presentation
VISION
STATEMENT for
the Research and Learning Center
We live in a transitional historical moment. An old social
order is striving to extend itself in a desperate effort to survive,
while around the world, peoples who no longer find such an order humanly
viable, yearn for a new world. We are caught between an old dying order
and a new one not yet born.
On the global as well as the local levels, progressive
social movements are struggling for social justice against corporate
rule, inequality, sexism, racism, environmental destruction, poverty
and war. Mobilizing a rising tide of people of all ages, many nationalities
and social identities, classes, faiths, etc. the social movements of
our time are raising the consciousness of men and women in both the
First and Third Worlds. They are finding that the existing social order
neither meets their interests nor is consonant with their image of the
kind of society in which they wish to live. Their protest is not only
a radical rejection of what exists but also an expression of faith that
another world is possible.
Such a moment as this cries out for the committed engagement
of intellectuals. What is required is no less than bold, transformative
thinking in service to the emancipatory projects of our social movements.
What is needed is not ivory tower intellectuals, but thinkers rooted
in the concrete struggles around us. We strive for a dialectical unity
of theory and practice based on the understanding that theory without
practice is empty, while practice without theory is blind. We must understand
that social action tests theory while at the same time theory informed
by struggle gives direction to our practice.
The Research and Learning Center seeks to be a locus of
such praxis. We call together activists of all disciplines to form a
nurturing community of thinkers in support of progressive social change.
Located in San Miguel de Allende, the Center will incorporate resident
members, affiliated members located elsewhere, and visiting members.
Here in the tranquility of central Mexico we find a refuge for scholars
and activists alike to reflect, discuss, write, and learn together in
a supportive community.
The specific projects undertaken will depend on the interests
and talents of the members attracted to this Center and will evolve
over time. Persons are drawn to such a center by elective affinity through
shared values, visions and missions. The work of the center will be
plural and fluid, depending on the interests of those who join together.
Through dialog, consensual groups will emerge that will undertake group
projects. While a broadly conceived radicalism will be the initial principle
of unity, over time a common mission is likely to evolve, but the center
should always remain open to new currents. Since the inaugural event
is a Workshop on AlterGlobalizations, the initial work of the Center
is likely to be strongly oriented to alternative globalization issues.
But the Center remains open to many other projects as well.
We are a thinking community, not a social action organization.
We will not be participating in Mexican politics. But we will be engaged
in transformative thinking. Being located in this part of the Third
World so closely tied to the United States gives us a vantage point
for understanding North-South relations. Indeed, we hope the Center
can become a locus of North-South and South-South dialogue.
This project is embedded in a global network. Such a
democratic network, a nonhierarchical and noncentered structure of interconnected
nodes, has been offered as the organizational model for an alternative
globalization. Indeed, this has always been the structural model of
social movements. The research and learning center is one such node
in a growing social change network.
We invite you to join us, remembering that a new world
is possible, but it takes our committed effort to make it real.
Drafted by Cliff DuRand, February 2004.
with amendments by Bob Stone, Betsy Bowman, Kathy Russell, and Ross
Gandy.
To send thoughts directly to the authors: cdurand@morgan.edu
To leave comments on this Vision Statement: click
here.
To read comments already left on this webpage: click
here. |
