In my view, there is nothing inherently wrong with the idea of the “big society.” The problem is with “Cameron’s big society.” You just know that his idea is to cut the public sector and then those managers made redundant can set up companies to provide the same centralised, remote and bureaucratic service.
If someone was to convincingly suggest that power is devolved and communities to have a say in education and health, I would be all for it.
Perhaps the “left” should look again at some of the issues raised by “the big society” instead of condemning all the ideas contained therein. An attack on govt proposals could then be better formulated.

It’s not as far out as it seems. A major influence on the “Free Schools” policy is the American charter schools, these grew out of the school voucher movement, and school vouchers were often promoted by African American parent activists.

OK, I had to take a second look at that title (and then a third when I remembered Malcolm X was dead).

Then the article as a whole did nothing to remove the slight sense of surrealism I was experiencing. I suppose it makes sense – localism is not a right/left issue, unless one side or the other is insisting on centralisation (left in Britain currently, right in the 1980s, so it is hardly a constant).

It does raise the useful question of whether opposing everything the government does is worthwhile (obviously I don’t think so, but then I was not opposed to everything the last lot did either).

And I now have the delightful image of Erik Pickles giving a black-power salute. Somehow that doesn’t seem odd either…

What Overhere said.

The idea that civic society should take over chunks of what central government does is a very attractive one, I think. Community groups will generally know more about what’s needed on the ground than Whitehall does.

The problem is… that architecture doesn’t exist any more. It’s been dismantled by 30 years of over-centralizing governments. If the state stops offering a service, you won’t magically get community groups to start offering them instead. You just won’t have the service any more.

Jonn.
Agreed. That is why I am deeply suspicious of Cameron and his “big society.” Perhaps the “left” could be looking at rebuilding the necessary architecture..

#2 That’s different to what Malcolm X was proposing, though. School vouchers were a defeatist attempt to at least get some black kids out of a racially divided school system with residualised underachievement accepted as the norm by a privileged white class. Malcolm X wanted to raise standards for all ignored kids rather than just a few, by taking over the system. Our opposition to free schools is (in part) because they’re less democratic, not that we have opposition to localised control. If whole area’s school systems were taken over by communities (and genuinely taken over, not run by a handful of people together with big business) then there wouldn’t be the problem with free schools dividing communities against each other & some schools being left behind.

This article is ludicrous. No, Malcolm X’s politics weren’t “perfectly” Marxist, but he achieved a lot more in liberation struggle than most Marxists do. And his politics (certainly his views on race) did evolve, especially right at the end of his lifetime after his pilgrimage.

tim f,

Our opposition to free schools is (in part) because they’re less democratic, not that we have opposition to localised control.

That is only true for a certain value of democratic where democratic means everyone locally, involved or not has a voice in decision making.

Arguably an equally valid version of democratic is where everyone involved in the school (or whatever) has a say in its running. If you don’t like the choice of schools available due to their democratic decison making, set up one of your own with the correct democratic ethos!

Remember any definition of democratic units will be arbitrary. It is necessary to argue for a local council unit say being the correct unit to also run schools, as much as it is for the parents.

Charter schools? I can see why the Tories approve:

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6301/firing_of_pregnant_chicago_teacher_becomes_battle_over-charter_schools/

I remember reading it when I was 16 and it had a formative inflence on my politics. Possibly one of the reasons why I never became a Marxist . . . . .