Dr. John Barry Queen’s University Belfast Northern Ireland

1. Academic Engagement in Politics: Reflections from an Irish PerspectiveOr….‘Educate, Agitate, Organise’ Dr. John Barry Queen’s University Belfast Northern Ireland

2. Educate, Agitate, Organise Rallying cry of progressive, left, libertarian and anarchist groups for over a century Slogan of the ‘Industrial Worker’s of the World’ (IWW) Union, (known as the ‘Wobblies’) circa 1910.

4. But first…A word from one of our sponsors…. “Those who profess to favour freedom and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.... Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and never will”. Frederick Douglass, freed slave and anti-slavery campaigner (1857) What is the role of the academic, the ‘public intellectual in such contexts of political struggle and activism? Knowledge (is) power (leads to) responsibility How does my daytime job relate to my evening and weekend work? And vice versa? ‘Academic’ as in ‘its just academic’ – irrelevant, pastime – hobby, interesting but useless

5. Teaching and Research Academic political activism and dangers of abusing one’s position in context of teaching Begin from a view of my job as to teach and hopefully produce, critical, and hopefully engaged, citizens ‘Teaching politics, politically’ i.e. through free debate and argument, to give students the tools and experience and exercise to develop their own ideas, challenge mine Not to produce, in the words of the former Vice Chancellor of my university, ‘Oven ready graduates’, ready to be slotted into the labour market. Success is NOT that all my student think, act, vote ‘Green’ but WHATEVER political position they take on this issue is one the is informed and reasoned, not unreflective What is a university education for? Is it a business? A play of ‘skills dissemination’? Or the latter plus a training ground for citizenship and individual political, social and personal development?

6. Teaching and Research Problems of being seen as too ‘partisan’, ‘ideological’ and therefore losing that most conventionally prized virtues of the academic – ‘neutrality’, ‘objectivity’ But… the unbiased listener is deaf – issue is contestation of ideas, values not abandoning of one’s values and perspectives Academic peer review process (properly done)– very useful and important ‘quality control’ on minimising purely ideologically biased research but equally importantly helps protect one’s status as an academic from charges that one’s academic work is ‘corrupted’ by one’s activism Political activism can help improve one’s scholarly work – do we think less of JS Mill’s work because he agitated for women’s rights, but what of Heidegger’s work and his connection with the Nazis? In relation to many aspects of teaching sustainability politics or green politics, the outside world within which students live is already ideologically loaded, so critiques of dominant knowledge/power structures is a small step to ‘rebalance’

7. Northern Irish Context Northern Ireland political context – post-conflict, ethno-nationalist dynamics, consociational settlement Often for first years that I teach, it’s the first time a ‘Catholic/nationalist’ has sat beside a ‘Protestant/unionist’ Accents matter University as a non-engaged actor politically – a ‘safe haven’ from the surrounding conflict You cannot ignore the political context…but of course most of the time it is ignored Pedagogic reasons for using/referring to the political conflict/settlement – like references to popular culture (using The Sopranos to explain aspects of Machiavelli), the conflict, peace process/settlement is a way to may the abstract real for students Small size of Northern Ireland – a village, everyone knows one another – one cannot hide one’s public political activism, so best to simply be honest and open about it

8. Some personal reflections On one hand, being an academic is not good for a ‘conventional’ political career – we’re not dogmatic enough! Everything is provisional, and needs to be qualified and as academics we tend to be interested in the complicated not the simple, and we tend not to like to toe ‘party lines’ arbitrarily! Hard lesson I learnt in relation to press releases – remove the footnotes!! But also, as an academic I am unusual as a politician in that on the basis of new evidence or argument I am willing to change my view, and also to acknowledge the virtues (few as they are!) in the views of my opponents And also, in part as an academic, I ‘play the ball, not the player’, keep the debate/argument focused on the issue not the person

9. Past struggles for justice and social change

10. What we’re struggling against…? What are we struggling for?

11. OK, so what does it mean

12. Educate… 1. Problem of ignorance… ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’ Socrates (Most) people don’t willfully seek to destroy the planet and exploit and harm other people 2. Issue of structures and individual and collective action and behaviour – state, market, mainstream culture etc. 3. Leads to problem of mindlessness… Example of ‘mindless consumption’

14. Educate… 4. Ignorance, apathy and elite dominance… Crisis of democratic politics – a. decline in voting, participation in politics b. eclipse of being a ‘citizen’ by ‘consumer’ identity e.g. of US President Bush’s urge to Americans post 9/11 to ‘go to the malls’ c. consumer society – a betrayal of the Republic? Of democracy? Issue is achieving balance between consumerism and democratic citizenship Remembering that democracy DOES NOT require consumerism or excessive material affluence

15. Agitate… Critique of the current ‘new world order’ Free your mind … And have fun while doing it! Role/ responsibility of academics in giving students/citizens the critical skills, education, tools to know how to be politically active

16. From adbusters.com

19. Pop a pill for every ill… More profit in illness, stress, mental illness than health and well-being… TV, advertising, marketing etc. is a significant part of the political environment in which we live and operate…so get to know it!

20. Lessons from the Zapatistas – know your environment!

21. Organise… Individual action alone insufficient Danger of ‘lifestyle politics’ – consuming green products WILL NOT create a sustainable and just society Necessary but not sufficient Also, there is no ‘one size fits all’ model of a just, sustainable society, value of pluralism Need to organise politically and act collectively Individual action alone will not change state or corporate behaviour and policies Non-violent direct action as a strategy… this is what democracy looks like….

22. This is what democracy looks like….

23. Conclusion Academic engagement in politics – obligatory or voluntary? “being an activist is my rent I pay for living on this planet”, Alice Walker Many ways for scholars to be active in politics – from standing for elections to canvassing for candidates to providing knowledge/information, writing letters/columns in the press Rationale for courses in PhD training on this issue? Alongside courses on how to communicate with the public/write policy briefs for decision-makers? Take your pick…Educate, agitate, organise!

24. The thinking which got us into the problem cannot be the same we need to solve it. Albert Einstein New Thinking and Creativity