Episode 379 of RevolutionZ starts with some discussion of the savaging of the Iranian people before returning to our sequence of chapter excerpts from the forthcoming book, The Wind Cries Freedom to discuss experiences of education and economy in the participatory revolutionary struggles of the next American revolution. 

Trump represses and depots; bellows and bombs. Are we doomed to chase every new outrage, or can we build a unified movement that outlasts headlines and outmaneuvers chaos? 

Are we whacking moles, one by one, with us divided up like the moles are? With us atomized? Or are we united so as to collectively thrash the whole field of moles all together? One big struggle? Can we go from war talk and whiplash politics to a grounded strategy that links antiwar action, racial and gender justice, economic equity, anti-fascism, and environmental preservation into one big movement of movements to actually compound strength rather than splinter it?

From that foray into foreign affairs made local, we present the 24th chapter of Miguel Guevara's oral history project. This time, he questions Bertrand Jagger, Bridget Knight, and Julius Rocker about education and then also economy. The interviewees and Miguel together discuss how universities trained obedience and optimized for fractured attentions were pushed toward a new mandate—curiosity, context, and courage. Communities opened public schools at night, turned libraries into festivals, and made classrooms into commons. Student strikes didn’t just shut campuses down; they reopened them as shared spaces where teachers and students co-chaired sessions, set aims, and demanded preparation for balanced jobs that reject classist pipelines.

Workplaces followed suit. Early co-ops that initially kept managerial habits learned that full irreversible transformation needs balanced jobs and self-managed decision-making. The critical breakthrough came when shops federated workers’ councils, shared methods, provided mutual insurance, and spread solidarity across industries. Public services moved first, but hospitals, manufacturing, and large firms of diverse kinds developed cracks where new norms—solidarity, equity, transparency, diversity, ecological standards and especially self-management—took root.

Throughout their interviews the interviewees describe their thoughts and feelings regarding on-going struggles and events. We hear about a long march through the economy to spread new remuneration norms and work roles inside firms and then to reorient allocation writ larger. Instead of markets that pit workers against consumers, and one another, we hear how councils began to plan together around need, capacity, and impact. Participatory budgeting simultaneously began to spread these habits in cities to turn policies into a public craft. 

The result, the interviewees explain, was a transitional landscape where two economies coexist:ed one clinging to ownership, profits, power, and spectacle, the other winning trust by delivering dignity, competence, equity, and shared voice. The discussions also address independent media, transforming institutions from the inside, and building new ones from scratch always with eyes on relentless outreach to ensure that the new can grow without being captured or bent out of shape by the old not yet entirely replaced.

If building schools as commons and reconstructing jobs to only produce effectively but also ensure self management sounds like a future worth winning, perhaps hit follow and share this episode with fellow students, neighbors, friends, and/or workmates.

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