MIDWESTERN MARX
  • Home
  • Online Articles
    • Articles >
      • All
      • News
      • Politics
      • Theory
      • Book Reviews
      • Chinese Philosophy Dialogues
    • American Socialism Travels
    • Youth League
  • Dr. Riggins' Book Series
    • Eurocommunism and the State
    • Debunking Russiagate
    • The Weather Makers
    • Essays on Bertrand Russell and Marxism
    • The Truth Behind Polls
    • Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century
    • Lenin's Materialism & Empirio-Criticism
    • Mao's Life
    • Lenin's State and Rev
    • Lenin's LWC Series
    • Anti-Dühring Series
  • Store
    • Books
    • Merchandise
  • YouTube
  • Journal of American Socialist Studies (JASS)
  • Contact
    • Article Submissions
    • The Marks of Capital
  • Online Library
  • Staff

7/10/2021

Loyalty Oaths for Teachers in Florida’s New Red Scare. By: Amiad Horowitz

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Picture
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claims Florida schools have become 'socialism factories,' and he wants to force teachers to reveal their political opinions. | AP
The Red Scare is back in Florida. As was reported by People’s World last month, the Republican-led government of the state has been ramping up its attacks on democracy with a special focus on using the state education system to spread anti-communist ideology. Anti-communism almost always goes hand in hand with the promotion of racism (covert or overt) and other repressive or fascist-like ideologies. Right on cue, the government of Florida is showing the accuracy of that assessment.
​
The law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis will require Florida state schools to survey the political affiliations of all their teaching staff. The governor says Florida schools have become “socialism factories” and that this bill will put an end to this imaginary problem.

Such laws are a callback to the infamous “blacklists” of the McCarthyite 1950s, during which professionals were banned from work in many fields and persecuted because they were communists or suspected of being communists. At its height, thousands of Americans were banned or shunned from their places of work, and even more were intimidated into keeping their thoughts secret to avoid such a fate. People were intimidated or blackmailed into falling in line with anti-communism. A few years ago, it was generally accepted that the McCarthyite era was a stain on the democratic history of the U.S., but apparently, the Florida Republican Party has reconsidered.

The Florida governor insists that these surveys, which will not be anonymous, will not be used for purposes of hiring, firing, and promotions—which, if true, begs the question of how it will address the DeSantis’s issue with left-wing teachers “indoctrinating students.” So is the goal simply to instill fear among educators?

This law has another provision that allows students to film their teachers so that they can sue them. Republicans claim this is meant to protect students from “indoctrination,” but it can easily be used to intimidate teachers that may have beliefs with which some students disagree. This is an all-out assault on teachers’ freedom and ability to teach their students as they have been trained to do.

This latest law is part of a general overall Republican-led assault on education and democracy across the United States. Just two weeks ago, Florida forbade schools from teaching critical race theory. A number of other Republican-governed states look to follow in line.

Equally transparently, many Republican-ruled states have been passing laws in order to suppress their citizens’ ability to vote. These laws are specifically aimed at minorities and working-class people because they are more likely to vote against Republicans. Now, Florida is leading the way in the next phase and trying to prevent children from learning any ideas that the Republican Party considers “stale,” as the governor choose to label them.

Some more progressive members of Congress have been trying to fight back against this Republican assault on democracy. The “For the People Act” was proposed with the hope of defending the voting rights of Americans. The bill passed the House, but got stuck in the Senate due to a lack of support from corporate Democrats and the threat of a Republican filibuster.

The Republican Party is doing all it can to make sure they do not lose any power. The easiest way to attain that goal is to make it harder for people to vote, and to ban the teaching of any ideas that the Republican Party disagrees with or which could threaten their rule. These are the bricks that are used to lay the road to fascism.

Author

Amiad Horowitz studied history with a specific focus on Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh. He lives in Hanoi, Vietnam.


This article was republished from People's World.

Archives

July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020

Share

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

Details

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020

    Categories

    All
    Aesthetics
    Afghanistan
    Althusser
    American Civil War
    American Socialism
    American Socialism Travels
    Anti Imperialism
    Anti-Imperialism
    Art
    August Willich
    Berlin Wall
    Bolivia
    Book Review
    Brazil
    Capitalism
    Censorship
    Chile
    China
    Chinese Philosophy Dialogue
    Christianity
    CIA
    Class
    Climate Change
    COINTELPRO
    Communism
    Confucius
    Cuba
    Debunking Russiagate
    Democracy
    Democrats
    DPRK
    Eco Socialism
    Ecuador
    Egypt
    Elections
    Engels
    Eurocommunism
    Feminism
    Frederick Douglass
    Germany
    Ghandi
    Global Capitalism
    Gramsci
    History
    Hunger
    Immigration
    Imperialism
    Incarceration
    Interview
    Joe Biden
    Labor
    Labour
    Lenin
    Liberalism
    Lincoln
    Linke
    Literature
    Lula Da Silva
    Malcolm X
    Mao
    Marx
    Marxism
    May Day
    Media
    Medicare For All
    Mencius
    Militarism
    MKULTRA
    Mozi
    National Affairs
    Nelson Mandela
    Neoliberalism
    New Left
    News
    Nina Turner
    Novel
    Palestine
    Pandemic
    Paris Commune
    Pentagon
    Peru Libre
    Phillip-bonosky
    Philosophy
    Political-economy
    Politics
    Pol Pot
    Proletarian
    Putin
    Race
    Religion
    Russia
    Settlercolonialism
    Slavery
    Slavoj-zizek
    Social-democracy
    Socialism
    South-africa
    Soviet-union
    Summer-2020-protests
    Syria
    Theory
    The-weather-makers
    Trump
    Venezuela
    War-on-drugs
    Whatistobedone...now...likenow-now
    Wilfrid-sellers
    Worker-cooperatives
    Xunzi

All ORIGINAL Midwestern Marx content is under Creative Commons
(CC BY-ND 4.0) which means you can republish our work only if it is attributed properly (link the original publication to the republication) and not modified. 
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Online Articles
    • Articles >
      • All
      • News
      • Politics
      • Theory
      • Book Reviews
      • Chinese Philosophy Dialogues
    • American Socialism Travels
    • Youth League
  • Dr. Riggins' Book Series
    • Eurocommunism and the State
    • Debunking Russiagate
    • The Weather Makers
    • Essays on Bertrand Russell and Marxism
    • The Truth Behind Polls
    • Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century
    • Lenin's Materialism & Empirio-Criticism
    • Mao's Life
    • Lenin's State and Rev
    • Lenin's LWC Series
    • Anti-Dühring Series
  • Store
    • Books
    • Merchandise
  • YouTube
  • Journal of American Socialist Studies (JASS)
  • Contact
    • Article Submissions
    • The Marks of Capital
  • Online Library
  • Staff