No matter how impressive the material consequences of globalization may be, it seems evident that its soft dimension, that is, the cultural expansion is at least as important in maintaining America's power. The ability to persuade others to want what we want by emphasizing the appeal of the American lifestyle is much more beneficial than military or political coercion.

Although (the majority of) the American intelligentsia, which used be considered leftist, and (most of) the media has submited themselves to the pro-war power group lead by the Bush style, neoconservative, fundamentalist-religious mission, there are progressive movements and communities in the USA, which do not join the narrow-minded "patriotic" choir and turn against the "narrathemes" defining and dominating public discourse.

Latin America pays a high price for being the Number One laboratory of neoliberal experimentation in the past quarter of a century: the area has now turned into one of the most unstable regions in both economic, political and social sense. 2003 could be a decisive year for the future of the continent.

The trinity of oil, terrorism an liberal political liberalisationprovides several meanings to the war againts Iraq. The liberal perspective unites these three lines in one and claims that although war is not a decent thing but at least it removes one bloody dictator. In the historical-critical view, however, the picture is incomplete. The war agains Iraq can be understood as the spreading the exhausted "values" of the US civilisation in the frame of a "recolonisation" that aims to integrate the peripheric and semi-peripheric parts of the world into the coming global order.

In Hungary, a selective educational system has evolved and seems to have stabilized, which is incapable of providing social equality even on the lowest level. The factors, which have pushed the quality of mass education "upwards", such as technology constraint, raison d'état, and labour movement, have disappeared. If it represents the fundamental values of public education (liberty, democracy and solidarity), is there a chance for progressive pedagogy to meet the political left again?