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Revolutionary Education: Theory and Practice for Socialist Organizers
Revolutionary Education, Theory and Practice for Socialist Organizers Promoting socialist consciousness is one of the central tasks of building a revolutionary movement in the U.S. This requires the organized and intentional efforts of an expansive base of militant organizers equipped to intervene in a variety of campaigns and movements. Such organizers are not only activists but also educators. Revolutionary Education will help facilitate the training of such revolutionary organizers and educators. The chapters in this book address a range of themes in Marxist educational praxis, touch on diverse historical movements and provide examples of how they can inform our own practices today in pre-revolutionary times. Two appendices provide a series of tactics for facilitating the study, discussion and teaching of revolutionary ideas.
Teachers and organizers strike a common one foot grounded in the mud and the muck of the world as it is, the other foot striding toward a world that could be, but is not yet. When we knock on a door, organize a meeting or encounter our students, we see, not a collection of deficits and deficiencies, but sparks of meaning-making energy, agents with the power and the potential not only to understand the world, but, if they choose, to collectively transform it. Revolutionary Education — part credo and manifesto, part road map, part strategy and tactics — connects the dots. An indispensable text.
— Bill Ayers, author of “Demand the Impossible,”
“Public Enemy” and “Teaching Toward Freedom”
Revolutionary Education is an incredible book for activists and educators alike, especially those looking for concrete tools to organize in classrooms, community centers and shop floors. In pulling together this book, Liberation School has done a great service for the socialist movement.
— Wayne Au, Professor,
University of Washington Bothell;
Editor, “Rethinking Schools”
Teachers and organizers strike a common one foot grounded in the mud and the muck of the world as it is, the other foot striding toward a world that could be, but is not yet. When we knock on a door, organize a meeting or encounter our students, we see, not a collection of deficits and deficiencies, but sparks of meaning-making energy, agents with the power and the potential not only to understand the world, but, if they choose, to collectively transform it. Revolutionary Education — part credo and manifesto, part road map, part strategy and tactics — connects the dots. An indispensable text.
— Bill Ayers, author of “Demand the Impossible,”
“Public Enemy” and “Teaching Toward Freedom”
Revolutionary Education is an incredible book for activists and educators alike, especially those looking for concrete tools to organize in classrooms, community centers and shop floors. In pulling together this book, Liberation School has done a great service for the socialist movement.
— Wayne Au, Professor,
University of Washington Bothell;
Editor, “Rethinking Schools”
- GenresEducation
135 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 14, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 24, 2022
Absolute necessity of a read for any socialist organizer. A combination of theory and practice, this book provides a solid, optimistic, and correct understanding of “how” we engage in revolutionary education with the masses of people.
February 2, 2022
An extremely timely and helpful short text on the importance of revolutionary pedagogy in our movements. Examining the lessons we can learn from revolutionary educators like Lev Vygotsky, Paolo Friere, and Amilcar Cabral, this work examines their dialectical processes for developing their theories of education and applying them in revolutionary situations. Packed with discussions that are immediately applicable to revolutionary organizing today, highly recommend this to anyone struggling to build power for the working class.
November 30, 2025
Thank you to the comrade that recommended this book! This is a great book composed of essays and serves as a short dive into revolutionary education and how to employ it. I love a practical book that is short and sweet and doesn't need to wax poetic about the masses. If you are looking for something to be a succinct guide on developing revolutionary educational forums & studies this is great. I am even using it as a framework for cadre-development in other, more logistical areas of organizing work.
April 16, 2024
This PSL publication is a collection of essays linked to political education. It's an uneven read.
Chapters 1-3 are the high notes of the collection. They lean on works by Vygotsky and Freire to present key considerations in education: build onto the base of what people already know, act as a guide as they venture into the unknowns; education is constantly happening, it's not limited to the classroom; education is a dialogue between people with different types or levels of knowledge, not a power hierarchy between those who know and those who do not know; link the topics you are learning to their broader context.
The remaining chapters suffered from being weakly related to the theme (the role journalism plays in education was not the subject of the chapter on journalism; there is an even more unrelated overview of Amilcar Cabral's life in Chapter 5), or a little low in content for a more advanced audience. Chapters 6 and 7, which deal more specifically with what organizing looks like and what mistakes organizers sometimes make, might be useful for getting other PSL members all on the same page, but don't present anything new, and don't present it particularly compellingly.
It's an easy read, however. Little knowledge is assumed. Each chapter is short and divided into short subsections. The language and arguments are straightforward. This book has a place on some reading lists, but not all.
Chapters 1-3 are the high notes of the collection. They lean on works by Vygotsky and Freire to present key considerations in education: build onto the base of what people already know, act as a guide as they venture into the unknowns; education is constantly happening, it's not limited to the classroom; education is a dialogue between people with different types or levels of knowledge, not a power hierarchy between those who know and those who do not know; link the topics you are learning to their broader context.
The remaining chapters suffered from being weakly related to the theme (the role journalism plays in education was not the subject of the chapter on journalism; there is an even more unrelated overview of Amilcar Cabral's life in Chapter 5), or a little low in content for a more advanced audience. Chapters 6 and 7, which deal more specifically with what organizing looks like and what mistakes organizers sometimes make, might be useful for getting other PSL members all on the same page, but don't present anything new, and don't present it particularly compellingly.
It's an easy read, however. Little knowledge is assumed. Each chapter is short and divided into short subsections. The language and arguments are straightforward. This book has a place on some reading lists, but not all.
December 23, 2025
The class struggle manifests itself in many different forms but one thing is clear- in order to tackle each issue, one must not only address the root cause (who has power and what system allows it ie capitalism) but also provide an alternative (socialism).
Highly recommend this for all organizers and people engaged in revolutionary movements. The book does a great job of simplifying complex concepts but also not being afraid of discussing and expanding on themes that some organizers with a more advanced political understanding might be familiar with. Something for everyone.
Highly recommend this for all organizers and people engaged in revolutionary movements. The book does a great job of simplifying complex concepts but also not being afraid of discussing and expanding on themes that some organizers with a more advanced political understanding might be familiar with. Something for everyone.
March 3, 2024
Start was great, but mid and end was mediocre. I recommend reading the introduction and at least the first two chapters (Vygotsky and Freire). The appendices are useful to read as well. The rest is stuff you probably already read somewhere else, or just not good or full of platitudes and not useful.
October 5, 2022
Indispensable! Particularly loved the essays on Vygotsky and Freire.
February 19, 2023
Awesome collection of essays. Relatively brief and easy to read, without sacrificing its revolutionary qualities - required reading for community organizers, activists and socialists, in my opinion.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews