As a student of critical social theory who works within the radical pedagogical tradition influenced by Freire and Marxist currents, I am fundamentally concerned with revealing structural explanations for inequality in power relationships in society and doing so in ways that enable oppressed and exploited groups and classes to change the relational basis that underpins and constitutes this historical set of social fetishes and structures (the objectified effects of concrete and abstract human labor). I chose my career in education based upon the personal example of people who I admire such as Freire, Fanon, Lumumba, Luxemburg, and Che who committed their individual energies and capacities for thought and action to collective endeavors that might serve to transform this totalizing system of oppression that structures our everyday lives. In the late 1990s, student and social activism were cresting in the United States with the "Battle of Seattle" and the antisweatshop movement (Rikowski, 2001a). In Los Angeles, Justice for Janitors and the Bus Riders Union/Sindicato de Pasajeros (BRU) had won significant victories. It was during this period of acute struggle that I began my doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Faced with the urgency of change required, I wanted to pursue a scholarly career with both a social purpose and a decidedly activist edge.