Scenes From the Classroom Struggle

By SCOTT McLEMEE

"If this event were serving the interests of the ruling class," says a participant in the Marxism and Education conference at the University of London, "we'd have coffee, and maybe something to eat."

Everyone laughs, which is one way to forget about how uncomfortable the chairs are getting. Karl Marx joked to Friedrich Engels that he would make the bourgeoisie pay for the hemorrhoids he developed while writing Das Kapital at the British Museum, a few blocks from here. After several