Ward Churchill Solidarity Network

Columbus Day Protests in Denver: More Than 80 Arrested; Police Use Excessive Force

(Photo from the Try-Works.)

Protests again halted Denver’s annual celebration of the genocidal legacy of Christopher Columbus, resulting in the arrests of 88 demonstrators. Despite the fact that the protestors only engaged in passive resistance, the Denver police used excessive force on many. For news, see here and check for updates at www.transformcolumbusday.org and www.coloradoaim.org.

In 2004, Denver police arrested 244 Columbus Day protesters, including children and elders. In late January 2005, a jury acquitted the initial group of defendants (including Ward Churchill) and the City was forced to drop the remaining charges. Immediately thereafter, the local media began attacking and attempting to discredit Ward Churchill.

The Columbus Day holiday originated in Colorado 100 years ago. At that time Columbus’ legacy of murder and slave trading was being rewritten to glorify the conquest of the Americas in conjunction with the United States’ expansion and “acquisition” of colonies such as Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. For excellent background on Columbus and his legacy, see the award-winning documentary, “The Canary Effect”; see also a short video here.

This October, Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen were featured in a series of events in Charlottesville, Virginia, highlighting the devastating legacy of both Columbus and the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. For details, see here and here.

Maori Activists Targeted in New Zealand

Paralleling the attacks on Indigenous peoples across the U.S. and Canada, New Zealand has inaugurated enforcement of its so-called anti-terrorism laws by targeting Maori activists. For more information, see here.

Another Attack on Academic Freedom: This Time It’s the Publishers

A Message from Howard Zinn on behalf of the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism:

As you may have heard, in late August of this year, The University of Michigan Press, after receiving a series of complaining and threatening emails and letters from an ultra-Zionist group called StandWithUs, an offshoot of Campus Watch, withdrew from distribution Prof. Joel Kovel’s book Overcoming Zionism, published by Pluto Press in London, United Kingdom.
Since then, following numerous protests by fellow academics and scholars, The U. of M. Press Executive Board has restored the book to its distribution listings.  But, ominously, the Board has indicated its intention to reconsider its contract with Pluto Press in mid October.

Overcoming Zionism is a serious, well researched work espousing a humanistic resolution. It is a valuable addition to the growing debate, in and out of American academia, that is re-examining longheld assumptions about the sources of conflict in the Middle East. It should be discussed - supported or refuted ¬ but not suppressed.

But even more serious is the University’s threat to cancel its distribution contract with Pluto Press. Pluto is a valuable and unique intellectual resource, publishing progressive books of a consistently high quality. It provides an alternative viewpoint essential to discussion and debate of important social issues, such as those concerning Israel/Palestine and the Middle East. The cancellation of Pluto’s contract with the University would be a serious blow to the principles of pluralism, academic freedom and free speech.

We urge you to add your voice to those of the many professors and authors that have vigorously protested these actions. We ask that you send a letter or, better yet, an email to U. of M. Press Executive Board Chair Peggy McCracken with copies to University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, Dean Janet A Weiss; and Provost Teresa Sullivan, demanding that the University of Michigan Press continue its contract with Pluto Press. Further, we ask that you forward this request for support and suggested support letter to those on any list that you may maintain or have access to.

We attach a sample letter, below, along with email and postal addressees, for your convenience. Please send this immediately, or feel free to compose your own. Time is of the essence so please act quickly.

Thank you for your kind support.

Sincerely,
Howard ZinnFor the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism:
www.codz.org
FOR SAMPLE LETTER & ADDRESSES:
www.codz.org/send-letter.html#one

And the struggles continue…

The attempt to silence Ward Churchill has failed, but the unremitting attacks on him by the University of Colorado, local and national politicians, and the media have had a very predictable chilling effect on those who would question the status quo.

Despite the smokescreen of “research misconduct” charges, most people understand that CU was under tremendous political and financial pressure to get rid of Professor Churchill, and simply had to find some pretext. Ward Churchill has filed suit, charging the University with firing him in retaliation for his First Amendment-protected speech. He continues with a full schedule of speaking engagements around the country, and has several new books in the works.

We are grateful to the many people who have sent contributions to the legal fund. Even with David Lane contributing his time, depositions, transcripts, filing fees and expenses associated with bringing in witnesses, require us to raise tens of thousands of dollars. The University, apparently, is happy to spend its tuition or tax dollars on this; we have to rely on regular folks around the country. So, we hope you’ll join our campaign to raise $25 from 1,000 people…

At the same time, we need to remember that this case isn’t about a statement Ward Churchill posted on an obscure website on September 12, 2001, much less about a handful of footnotes or attributions in his prolific body of scholarship. It’s about sending a message (i.e., “shut up”) to all who would question the legitimacy of the U.S. government’s actions, both today and in the past.

It’s about our collective right to constitutional protections regardless of the “popularity” of the underlying issues, about the ability of people of color and Indigenous peoples to bring our histories and perspectives into the academic mainstream, and about the elimination of all avenues of effective social change that are supposed to characterize a democracy.

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen DePaul’s Prof. Norman Finkelstein denied tenure as a result of vicious attacks by Alan Dershowitz (known for arguing in favor of “regulated” torture); an (unsuccessful) attempt to prevent eminent constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky from becoming dean of UC-Irvine’s new law school; the mobilization of state power against Indigenous peoples from the Diné (Navajo) to the Mohawk Nation; who are attempting to protect their lands.

The government continues to prosecute the “San Francisco 8” as part of a larger effort to discredit community-based liberation movements of the 1960s and ‘70s; to target contemporary eco-activists and anti-war protesters as “domestic terrorists”; and to undermine the rule of law with attacks on lawyers such as Lynne Stewart, or those representing Guantánamo detainees. The genocidal legacy of Columbus will soon be celebrated around the country….

We appreciate the outpouring of national, even international, support for Ward Churchill which, we believe, reflects a broad understanding of how these issues are all connected. Over the next few weeks we’ll be reorganizing this website and updating it to include links to many of these struggles. Please contact us if you’d like to sponsor a talk by Ward Churchill, or have a link to a related struggle.

Support Norman G. Finklestein

Sign a letter of support at The Norman G. Finklestein Solidarity Campaign.

Academic Freedom Declines Across the United States

From Arabisto.

Please note: This piece was written by Ithaca College professor Terri Ginsberg and New York-based journalist Rima Abdelkader.

Historian Tony Judt, Professor of European Studies at New York University , was scheduled to speak on the Israeli Lobby and American Foreign Policy at the Polish Consulate in New York City in October.  Due to pressure from two Jewish American organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, his talk was cancelled.  Judt had also been scheduled to speak on the same topic at Manhattan College, but that speech was canceled due to similar pressures.  The ADL and the AJC believe that Judt, a Jewish American, is too critical of State of Israel and as such, should not be allowed to speak publicly on that topic.

In September, University of Colorado’s Chancellor Phil DiStefano announced that his university would consider firing tenured Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill for his criticism of the Bush Administration and its handling of the events of 9/11.  Churchill is currently being subjected to university censure for research misconduct by an appointed outside faculty review committee comprised of faculty members from chosen campuses around the country.

The Judt and Churchill cases are not unique.  Since the events of 9/11 and the subsequent U.S.-led military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq , U.S. campuses have become a battleground for an increasing number of publicly scrutinized attacks on professors whose teaching and research entail criticism of Zionism and of U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East .  Each attack has involved blatant violations of academic freedom that have gone largely unchecked despite protest from faculty, unions, and scholarly organizations.

Perhaps more troubling is the case of Professor Douglas Giles.  Unlike Churchill, untenured adjunct Giles was fired from Roosevelt University in Chicago in November 2005 for using the concept of Zionism as a demonstrative example in his Comparative Religion course.  Giles was told by his dean that no classroom discussion of religion is permissible that may be construed as offensive to students of a particular faith.

More recently, University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole was denied a Middle East Studies position at Yale after pressure from neoconservative donors and media pundits who expressed objection to Cole’s public criticisms of Israel.  Cole is former president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.

The most notorious of these cases occurred at Columbia University in New York in Spring 2005.  Professors Hamid Dabashi, Rashid Khalidi, and Joseph Massad, among others, who teach at Columbia’s Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) Department, were investigated by a university-appointed non-faculty committee after The David Project accused them of anti-Semitism, and media pundits, elected officials, real estate developers and wealthy donors began demanding that Columbia dismiss them.  In the end, Columbia’s investigative committee was unable to substantiate the accusatory claims.

In the U.S. , academic freedom is a constitutionally guaranteed right meant to protect the role of the university as a site for producing knowledge where its aim is to serve the public good.  As citizens or residents of the U.S. , academic scholars are endowed with the right to speak publicly, outside the academic sphere, on issues that may or may not pertain to their fields of disciplinary expertise.  In addition, academic freedom stipulates that scholars, not elected officials, private interests, or media pundits, are the ones authorized and entitled to make collective decisions about academic knowledge, and about what may or may not be published and professed. 

Regrettably, we are in a time and place where scholars are being intimidated from openly discussing subjects they teach or topics about which they feel strongly unless their ideas align with particular schools of thought, especially with regard to Zionism and to U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East.  As we write, academics and university employees in the U.K. are being encouraged to spy on students who appear South Asian or Middle Eastern and who the British government suspects of supporting Islamic extremism.  In addition to this, attempts are being made by neoconservatives to block both the hire of Wadie Said, son of the late Edward Said, by Wayne State University Law School in Michigan , and the tenure of anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj, author of a book that criticizes Israeli archaeology at Barnard College in New York .

If it is truly contributive to the public good, academia must be responsive to public issues and concerns and must treat scholars who speak publicly in accordance with accepted, usual and customary norms of scholarly practice.  Political litmus tests should not be used as criteria for academic appointments, tenure, or promotion, nor should accusations of anti-Semitism be made indiscriminately against scholars who articulate legitimate criticisms of Zionism and of U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East .  If elected officials, university administrations, mainstream journalists, and responsible citizens do not speak out and take action against these draconian measures, they will become guilty of facilitating the death of free speech in what may be its last bastion, academia.

Clip From The Canary Effect - Columbus Day

The Canary Effect has played at a number of festivals and won ‘The Stanley Kubrick Award For Bold And Inovative FIlm Making’ At Michael Moores Traverse City Film Festival. It premiered at New Yorks Tribeca Festival, and will be shown at the American Indian Film Festival in San Fransisco in November.

View clip here.

Transform Columbus Day

Join AIM and TCD Friday, October 6, to Transform Columbus Day. Come out and bring 100 of your closest friends. The world will be watching, literally, with international media here for the Denver Art Museum Opening. This is a unique opportunity to present a different vision from “Columbush” and to say no to war and imperialism. The more people there, the stronger impression we’ll make. Come help Denver show the world that Another World Is Possible.

More information is available at www.transformcolumbusday.org

“We Think the Price Is Worth It” - Rahul Mahajan

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.

–60 Minutes (5/12/96)

Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s quote, calmly asserting that U.S. policy objectives were worth the sacrifice of half a million Arab children, has been much quoted in the Arabic press. It’s also been cited in the United States in alternative commentary on the September 11 attacks (e.g., Alexander Cockburn, New York Press, 9/26/01).

Continue reading.

What Better Way… - Jayne Lyn Stahl

What better way to commemorate the 5 year anniversary of the cowardly act that transformed a healthy, if neurotic, democracy into a totalitarian nightmare than with another cowardly act.

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