Civil Disobedience and a Refusal to Become Neoliberal Agents

 Photo by Ava M. Capote

Many thoughts went through my mind as I prepared my speech at Taking Back Our Schools Rally on May 17, 2014. What is expected of me? What do I want to do? How best can I contribute? In the end, I decided to talk about what has been on my mind a lot lately: civil disobedience. This is largely due to my learning with Daniel Friedrich this spring and an introduction to the ideas developed by a French philosopher, Michel Foucault.

The real question for Foucault is not so much about what is wrong with the current neoliberal policies but how the influences of neoliberalism have come to dominate the ways we live and think. 

How have we come to allow such a significant change to take place? 

How is it that we have allowed corporate leaders to dictate our children’s education?

Foucault makes me realize how it was us, the constituents of the society, who have come to accept the terms and conditions of neoliberalism and govern our own activities accordingly. The “small government” of neoliberalism is made possible because we, who have unknowingly become the very agents of the neoliberal regime, actively sustain it by internalizing its values and demands.

 

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Civil Disobedience and a Refusal to Become Neoliberal Agents

by Daiyu Suzuki

Hello. One thing I want to tell you is that you guys look beautiful!!

You remind me of a beautiful quote from the Wisconsin Uprising in 2011:

What does democracy look like?

This is what democracy looks like!!

Politics belong to the streets, not the capitol.

Anyway, my name is Daiyu Suzuki, and I am many things.

Among them, I was born and grew up in Japan. I was a public junior high school teacher there as well, for six and half years. I am also a father of two daughters, who attend a NYC public school. At the same time, I am a doctoral student of education, and am a co-founder of an education activist network called Edu4.

Today, I would like to talk about the possibilities and meanings of civil disobedience. I think this is particularly pertinent to this rally because we have here with us various educational constituent groups who have engaged in different forms of civil disobedience such as opt out parents and teachers who have refused to administer testing. A favorite journalist of mine named Chris Hedges has once said that, unfortunately, there is no political mechanism left in the United States to combat the power elite, except for civil disobedience.

Now, many people may dismiss civil disobedience as something insignificant or something that is not powerful enough. Others may want to burn the buildings instead. However, civil disobedience may look very different if we see it as an active rejection of our own identities imposed by neoliberalism and our refusal to become the agents of neoliberalism.

What if we start questioning the identities imposed upon us and what we are expected to do?

Parents! I am a parent, too. As educational consumers, we are expected to “choose” the best schools for our children. But what if we question why we need to choose and refuse to do so?

As educational consumers, we are expected to compete with other families by supporting our children to do better on tests. What if we refuse to compete and tell our children not to take tests? What if we tell our children to care and collaborate with others so that no child would be left behind?

As tax-payers, we are expected to hold our schools and teachers “accountable” for what we pay. What if we refuse to be relegated to tax-payers but as citizens hold our political leaders accountable for supporting, not getting in the way of, teachers to teach as true professionals?

Teachers! I was a teacher, too. As educational service providers, we are expected to meet the needs of our customers and raise their test scores so that they will be college- and market-ready. What if we, as educators, refuse to test them but instead teach them, not so that our students will be college-ready or market-ready but democracy-ready to address the sufferings and injustices of this common world?

Students! I am a student, too. As the future work force of the United States, we are expected to compete with students from other countries and be successful entrepreneurs. But what if we, as the next generation and the learners of life, demand happiness and imaginative capacities as the goal of our education?

What if we refuse to become “self-responsible customers” in the education market and call it out loud that there is something terribly wrong when our federal government is making $41.3 billion profit off the student loan? That quality education should not be a choice but our fundamental human right?

What if we say “ENOUGH!” and refuse to become the agents of neoliberalism?

What if?



*This is an elaboration of the speech I gave. 
You can watch the actual speech below (Courtesy of Mert Melfa).