​Very happy to be part of this new School for Social and Cultural Change (SSCC), as the tutor on an 8 week online course there called:
'Radical Reading: Political Comic Books'
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Enrolments begin March 1st and the courses begin on April 1st (and that's no fooling).

"RevolutionZ along with PARC Media have created a new online School for Social and Cultural Change (SSCC). The second session will run from April 1 though to June 1. Sign up is now open.

You can visit the school to read about courses and instructors and to see the facility and, should you choose to do so, to sign up for a course.

New courses, available starting April 1, are
Consequences of Capitalism with Noam Chomsky and Marv Waterstone,
Lay Down My Sword and Shield with Kathy Kelly,
Logic for Left-Wing Debaters and Activists with Ben Burgis, Political Economy and Political Ecology with Patrick Bond,
Activism and Social Change with Eugene Nulman,
How We Advance the Abolition of War with David Swanson,
U.S. and British War Crimes and Propaganda with Rob Driver, and Radical Reading: Political Comic Books with Sean Michael Wilson.
We hope SSCC will soon have a steadily growing selection of courses that develop and share skills, knowledge, strategy, and vision."

Radical Reading: Political Comic Books | School for Social and (teachable.com)

わたしの 本が 賞 を とりました Award time!
Today I received a ‘Scottish Samurai Award’ from the OSS (Order of the Scottish Samurai), a group that promotes and celebrates connections between Japan and Scotland. I got the award for my various books on Japanese history and culture.

Past recipients include comedian Billy Connolly, the Scottish National Party leader, actress Joanna Lumley and the Prime Minister of Japan. The patron is Lord Bruce, descendent of King Robert the Bruce (of Braveheart movie fame. ha!).

So, here I am with the certificate and medals, in my Gunn Clan tartan kilt (the Wilson family is part of that clan). Plus the Japan themed books that I have made so far, with various lovely Japanese artists.
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Thanks to OSS member Will Reed for organising this. I also got a specially made inkan stamp from a craftsman in Yamanashi Prefecture.

"A KPMG UK spokesperson stated the company’s commitment to unconscious bias training, as well as to a range of training programmes to discuss bias and micro-aggressions. “We are fully committed to ensuring that KPMG’s working environment is inclusive and a place where all our people can reach their full potential, regardless of their identity, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or socio-economic background...”

It’s good that such powerful people are held to account for discriminatory behaviour... But what such corporations never add to their ‘look how good we are’ statements is the following:

"...we will also dismantle the elite ownership system in which a small group get a huge amount of wealth and power and the control of our corporation...and change the structure to a workers cooperative in which everyone equally shares the profit and everyone has a real say in how the company is run, and is therefore genuinely able to develop to their full potential.”

No. they don’t say that - because that would really change things!

The people who own and run such corporations are ok to reduce discrimination according to the above aspects, because it does not fundamentally threaten their power and wealth. And it gives their organisation a look of decency and democracy. But, radical system change that involves fully democratic sharing of profits and decision making DOES threaten their power and wealth. Which is why they dont include such change and are often violently against it.
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So, although reducing such discrimination is a good step, we need to go 3 or 4 steps further and deeper... if we are to fully root out abusive and exploitative workplace systems that stop people reaching their full potential.

​'Unconscious bias is crap': KPMG staff share shock at UK chair's comments | KPMG | The Guardian

It has shown that conservatives can change in 'big government spending' type modes very quickly, which is a fundamental challenge to decades of neo-liberal thinking.

Perhaps even more radical is that has shown that sometimes huge social changes can happen very quickly. How long did it take for 100s of millions of people to adjust to a very different style of social interaction and way of doing business? 6 months? 3 months? In some places even less.

It shows that, if the majority of people think it necessary and beneficial, very large changes in society can happen - quickly, in a cooperative way and largely without violence.
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Both of those considerably undermine conservative, capitalist world views.
Nice!

My new book, just finished, is announced this week.
 
The Spirit of Japan.
 
It’s a mostly text book this time, not a comic book - but has 20 very nice colour illustrations by Fumio Obata. The publishers says:
 
The Spirit of Japan is an accessible introduction to Japanese spiritual practice, including festivals, rituals and everyday magic! This book is perfect for those who are curious about spirituality or Japanese culture and would like to know more.

​Click the image to see more.

A colourful 4 page interview with me out today in the December issue of THE HALL NEWS magazine (from page 30, a few pages after an article about Bob Dylan – good company to be in).
 
Nice!
 
 And I just did an online talk about my books at Robert Gordon’s School in Aberdeen. Which felt like a symbolic full circle for me, because it was in Aberdeen Central library - on the same road as the school, barely 5 minutes away - that I first started writing, when I was 17.
 
 
https://issuu.com/thehallnews/docs/the_hall_december_issue_2020_

A very old story of mine, that I wrote about 20 years ago, is in this new collection,  with art from my fellow Scot Jim Stewart.  

https://globalcomix.com/c/the-son-of-we-love-monsters

​At the time Orwell was referring to being able to criticise the Soviet union even when they were an ally against the Nazis. But the point applies now also.
Which means someone may be offended or find it disrespectful or annoying. But if we decide we are not allowed to say something because someone might not wish to hear it, for those various reasons or others, then we are making things worse, not better.
Both because we are losing that key element of liberty and also because an open expression of differing views is important in the dialectical process of moving forward towards solutions and better systems and situations.

Having conferences and debates etc about the money aspects of comic book making, without discussing the basic economic system of society... is a bit like a conference on lung cancer not including the problem of smoking.

Not only that but when a researcher suggests focusing on the problem of smoking they are pushed aside, their point ignored, or folk get annoyed that they bring the issue up. Would be very blind and odd thing to do.
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But that's what happens in the comic book world when you mention that the economic system is the cause of the money troubles creators face.