A.J. Muste: Some Notes on Workers' Education (1935)

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/muste/1935/12/workereduc.htm 

[ "History will repeat itself in this entire field. Already there are signs of this. When an upturn occurs in the trade union movement and with it in the field of workers’ education, the movement has at first an aspect of spontaneity and idealism, classes spring up rapidly, funds are available, idealistic young men and women believe that they are going to be “free” to teach the “truth” and the whole truth as is not the case in public schools and colleges. They believe that they will be given the opportunity to develop a new revolutionary spirit in the unions with union funds and the support of union officials. But presently it is again demonstrated that educational enterprises and institutions in the labor movement, as everywhere else, are the tools or instruments of the social forces and interests which create them, finance them and utilize their output. In the main they must serve the ends of these interests or the official ban is pronounced. Educational enterprises do not for any length of time remain immune from the struggle of interests for power which is the dominant feature of social life under a class system. As a matter of fact, the underlying clash of tendencies and interests will come to the surface more quickly and sharply than was the case in the decade and a half beginning in 1918. The reason is, of course, that the general pace of economic development is speeded up in this period of capitalist decline and, with this, crises emerge more quickly in all classes and fields, including the working class and the labor movement. Revolutionists can effectively utilize many of these workers’ educational enterprises – we do not of course imagine that it is possible to give all workers at all times the full revolutionary program – but only if they have a clear conception of the character of such enterprises and cherish no illusions as to their possibilities and stability. " ]