New Jersey December 5, 2008 — In 2006, the Director of the Transformative Studies Institute (TSI) predicted the Great Collapse of 2008-09 (Globally Segmented Labor Markets: The Coming of the Greatest Boom & Bust, Without the Boom). As thousands stand in food lines and wait for government bail-outs that will never come, the Transformative Studies Institute announces an initiative to establish a scholar-activist university whose goal is to create a global society beyond the demise of capitalism.
“Every western society is now realizing the failures and false promises that have been offered to them through capitalist rhetoric,” said Dr. John Asimakopoulos, Director of TSI. “The Transformative Studies Institute will not only offer a ray of hope, but the tools to build a brighter future.”
An endowment for TSI will allow for a university where students are educated not trained; where faculty teach and conduct research rather than face political purges and retaliation; and where administrators administer, not govern.
The pursuit of social justice, respect of diversity of all, and human and labor rights are the founding principles of TSI. We do not believe in the privatization of education, health care, utilities, transportation, public infrastructure, defense, housing, and social services. We will promote community decision making over corporate governance; eliminate corporate involvement in news media and the creation of an independent public foundation with tax funds to finance free and independent journalism; zero tolerance for conflicts of interests at all levels of government and prohibition of all political patronage positions; zero corporate involvement in the political process at all levels; nationalization of all private (especially elite) universities; direct action to foster meaningful change and social justice based on self-organization and self-direction.
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