Ward Churchill Solidarity Network

Belated Finding that CU Violated Ward Churchill’s Rights

In late January 2005 the media and local politicians decided that Ward Churchill’s 3-year-old essay on U.S. policy and the 9/11 attacks was suddenly front page “news,” and the CU administration immediately launched its “public relations” campaign against Prof. Churchill in violation of its own rules governing personnel matters.

Beginning in June 2005, Ward Churchill filed grievances with the Privilege and Tenure (P&T) Committee for this and numerous other violations of his rights under CU’s stated policies and rules. The P&T Committee, however, notified him that it would not hear the grievances until after the investigations were complete – i.e., until after the damage had been done.

A week after he had been fired, Ward Churchill was notified that a P&T panel had decided that, in fact, former Interim Chancellor Philip DiStefano and the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct (SCRM) had breached his rights to confidentiality.

The University publicly announced and posted numerous allegations against Ward Churchill and the May 2006 SCRM Investigative Report on which it purports to have fired him. It did not announce the dropping of most of those allegations, or post the P&T Appeal Panel’s Report of April 11, 2007, which dismissed several of the charges in the Investigative Report and concluded that but for the controversy over Prof. Churchill’s 9/11 remarks, the investigation would not have occurred.

The University has never posted or made publicly accessible any of Professor Churchill’s responses or submissions. It has said nothing about the five complaints of research misconduct filed against the SCRM Investigative Report, about how it has refused to investigate those complaints, or—most significantly—how the SCRM is now claiming that its own findings do not constitute “scholarship.”

Because of this imbalance in what the University has made public, Ward Churchill has made the documentary record of the internal appeal and dismissal process available.

Click here to read key documents.

Mumia Abu-Jamal II

Scholar-activist Ward Churchill has just been handed the academic equivalent of a death sentence, when the Board of Regents  of the University of Colorado voted to remove him from his professorial post.

Churchill has been the target of the rabid right since he published an essay shortly after 9/11, which likened Americans in their attitudes to Nazis.

From that point forward, academics at the University began sharpening their pencils to find the way to separate Churchill from his tenured position.

Indeed, his works, many of which are anti-imperialist in nature, has also made him an enemy of the right-wing nationalists and fascists in the corporate media.

Churchill has written strong, uncompromising books on U.S. history and social, political movements, like the Black freedom movement, and the Native American independence and rights movement.

His book, A Little Matter of Genocide, is a tour-de-force of American and British atrocities against Native people.  It is so searing, so honest, that it is difficult and painful to read.

As for his post 9/11 essay, “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens”, Churchill sought to engage the question posed by millions in the aftermath of the burning towers “Why do they hate us?”

It may sound rhetorical to compare Americans to ‘little Eichmanns’, but before World War II, Nazi and Fascist support groups were flourishing in America.

Nazi sympathizers filled Madison Square Garden for the U.S. - Nazi support group, the German-American Bund.  Fascist groups were electing councilmen and mayors.  They were feted by congressmen.  Perhaps the only group with more clout was the Klan.

Plus, where do you think the Nazis learned much of their racially exclusive theories, and of concentration camps, but from the U.S.?  That fact is documented.

The inspiration for Nazi and South African racial apartheid came from the U.S. segregation system, and so-called ‘reservations’ for Indian people.

This may prove somewhat unpopular for Americans to hear, but it is the truth.

Ward Churchill is precisely the kind of scholar that Americans need to read and hear, especially in this hour  of national and global crisis.  He is a brave and brilliant man who has slain more than his share of sacred cows.

As America engages in a global war based on lies, they need him now — more than ever.

Dare to read his books.

Click here to listen to the full August 5, 2007 edition of Prison Radio’s “Live From Death Row”.

Message from the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network (WCSN)

Note: This message will remain at the top of the page. Please scroll down for new updates.

We appreciate your many inquiries regarding ways to support Ward Churchill in the aftermath of the CU Regents’ decision to fire him. Some concrete steps we suggest:

1. Click here to sign the Open Letter to the Regents (see text below).

2. Help Ward Churchill sue the University of Colorado (see letter below).
Our goal is to raise $25 each from 1,000 people:

WCSN
PO Box 20035
Boulder, CO 80308
(checks payable to: David Lane, Esq.)

David Lane is donating his time; all funds will be used for legal expenses.

3. Take a stand wherever you see people being silenced.

Reinstate Ward Churchill

Open Letter to the University of Colorado Board of Regents
Concerning the Firing of Professor Ward Churchill

As scholars, activists, and concerned citizens, we protest your decision of July 24, 2007, to fire tenured American Indian Studies Professor Ward Churchill. To us, it is clear that:

* Ward Churchill was fired in retaliation for the exercise of his First Amendment-protected speech and in violation of the doctrine of Academic Freedom.

* The investigation into Professor Churchill’s scholarship was initiated and pursued in response to the political outcry over his statements linking U.S. policy to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

* The pretextual nature of the investigation is illustrated by the University’s refusal to investigate charges of misrepresentation and falsification of evidence, as well as plagiarism, which have been brought against the Investigative Report on which you have relied to dismiss Ward Churchill.

* Disciplines such as ethnic and gender studies were created in response to the failure of the “mainstream” academy to accurately portray our collective histories and realities, and professors like Ward Churchill brought in to ensure that students are exposed to a diversity of perspectives.

* The investigation and firing of Ward Churchill has had, and will continue to have, a chilling effect on all scholars and teachers who challenge the status quo, present alternative historical interpretations, or encourage critical thinking.

We realize that you are elected officials and have been under tremendous political and financial pressure to fire Professor Churchill. However, we urge you to take your responsibilities to the Constitution and to the education of future generations seriously, and to reinstate Ward Churchill.

(To sign on, click here.)

Firing Back: Ward Churchill v. University of Colorado

In a time when our basic civil and human rights are endangered it is critical to resist those who would have us believe that the current state of affairs is inevitable. We cannot allow ourselves to be silenced.

We do not believe the University of Colorado fired Ward Churchill because of so-called “research misconduct.” The attack on Ward Churchill is part of a larger effort to silence criticism of government policies and to discredit alternative, particularly Indigenous, histories and perspectives; an attack spearheaded by neoconservative groups like Lynne Cheney’s American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). For more on CU President Hank Brown’s ties to ACTA, see wardchurchill.net/files/cu_acta_ad.pdf.

There are many fronts in the struggle to preserve access to truth and the freedom to think and speak critically. In addition to whatever avenues you are already pursuing to redress injustice, we urge you to support Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado.

For background and updates, visit the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network (WCSN) website at www.wardchurchill.net.

Ways to help:

* Send donations for legal expenses to:

WCSN
PO Box 20035
Boulder, CO 80308
Make checks payable to: David Lane

Attorney David Lane is generously contributing his time and talents. Donations will be placed in a trust account and used only for legal expenses such as filing fees, depositions, etc.

• Volunteer in legal, educational, or fundraising efforts:
  E-mail: info@wardchurchill.net
• Have your organization or institution sponsor a talk by Ward Churchill:
  E-mail wardspeaks@gmail.com
• Spread the word and forward this e-mail to your networks.

In solidarity,

Kathleen Cleaver and Natsu Taylor Saito

Supported by strong and committed women including Pam Africa, Carrie Dann, Jennifer Harbury, Yuri Kochiyama, Cynthia McKinney, Pearl Means, Lynne Stewart, Haunani-Kay Trask, Sharon Venne, and many others in the struggle for justice.