Archive | Updates

Ward Churchill on Colonialism and Genocide

Click here to watch “Colonialism=Genocide:  Reflections on Sartre’s Formulation,” a 2014 Walter Rodney Speaker Series lecture by Ward Churchill.

RODNEYLECTURE CHURCHILLRead More

Counterpunch Interview…

“…what I think we’re witnessing fifty years on is consolidation of precisely the kind of entity extolled by then-U/Cal Berkeley president Clark Kerr in his 1963 book, The Uses of the University. For those unfamiliar with the tract, Kerr likened what he preferred to call “multiversities” to governmentally/corporately-owned factories—albeit, “knowledge factories”—wherein managers such as himself employed to oversee a worker force—the faculty—whose job it was to convert raw material—that is, students—into the finished product or products desired by the owners, all with maximal efficiency. Sound familiar?”

Read Ward Churchill’s interview with Joshua Frank…… Read More

Honoring for Russell Means-NYC Jan.27

On January 27, 2014 an honoring event for the late Russell Means will be held in New York City.  It is a fundraiser for T.R.E.A.T.Y. Educational Endowment, and will feature Ward Churchill reading from  Russell Mean's most famous speech, "For the World to Live, 'Europe' Must Die."  For tickets and more information, please visit http://russellmeanslegacy.com/?page_id=2. … Read More

Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

On Sept. 30, 2013, a Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was filed on behalf of Ward Churchill by the Human Rights Research Fund and his Denver attorneys, David Lane and Robert Bruce.

The Petition addresses the attacks on Ward Churchill as part of a larger movement to suppress indigenous perspectives on U.S. history, especially the U.S.' history of genocidal policies and practices, and to undermine ethnic studies programs and courses in U.S. education.

The Inter-American Commission is part of the Organization of American States (OAS) and has investigated and issued opinions on a wide range of human rights violations in the Americas, including the U.S.… Read More

Colorado Regents Free to Violate the Constitution

The Supreme Court denied cert in Ward Churchill's case against the University of Colorado in a decision announced April 1, 2013.  This lets stand the Colorado courts' ruling that the Regents have absolute immunity from suit, even when they deliberately violate the First Amendment — or any other provision of the U.S. Constitution.

So much for academic freedom.  For a thorough report from the Colorado Conference of AAUP chapters on the bogus nature of the claims made by the University against Ward Churchill, click here (Churchill section is at pp.116-251).Read More

Update

The University of Colorado did not bother to respond to Ward Churchill's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court (see below).  The Supreme Court, however, has instructed University counsel Patrick O'Rourke to respond by Feb. 28.    … Read More

Churchill v. University of Colorado: U.S. Supreme Court petition filed

The Colorado courts have set a dangerous precedent by ruling that tenured professors investigated or fired in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights have no effective legal remedy.  Ward Churchill’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme court to decide these issues:  

 

I.       Does a bad faith investigation of all of a tenured professor’s writings and public speeches, undertaken by state university officials in retaliation for the exercise of constitutionally protected speech and with the stated purpose of finding grounds for termination, violate a clearly established right and create a free-standing First Amendment cause of action?   

 

 II.      Should absolute, quasi-judicial immunity completely shield a state university and its board of regents’ termination decisions, even when a jury has determined that these officials fired a tenured professor in retaliation for speech protected by the First Amendment and would not have fired him but for his Read More

Russell Means

November 10, 1939 – October 22, 2012

We join those honoring Russell Means, a man who insisted on living as a free human being and who consistently worked—and fought—for the people.  As observed by Ward Churchill, “He gave pride to something that was systematically crushed.  To be Indian was not to be human.  He turned that around in a real fundamental way.”  

Russell Means struggled for all peoples to be free, from Pine Ridge to Palestine, from the Miskito of Nicaragua to the Dalits of India.  And, he emphasized, “When I fight for my people’s rights, when I stand up for our treaties, when I protest government lies and illegal seizures and unlawful acts, I defend all Americans, even the bigoted and misguided.” 

Click here for pictures and details of the honoring ceremony in Kyle, SD; here for background.   For more information see Read More

Colorado Supreme Court: CU Regents Are Above the Law

 Sept. 10, 2012

The Colorado Supreme Court has affirmed the lower courts’ decisions in Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado.  Click here to read its opinion.

Churchill’s attorney David Lane plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.   According to Lane, “The court never said his First Amendment rights were not violated.  They simply said the Regents are above the law, which is a dangerous precedent.”

What Happened?

Six years ago Ward Churchill was a professor of American Studies, chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at UC-Boulder, and the most-frequently cited Ethnic Studies scholar in the country.  He was also the recipient of a number of awards for service to and scholarship at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

On Sept. 12, 2001 Ward Churchill’s reflections on the 9/11 attacks were published on an obscure website.  His statements did not generate any appreciable controversy Read More

Oral Arguments, June 7, 2012:

Oral arguments to the Colorado Supreme Court took place before a packed courtroom on June 7, 2012.  At some point in the next few months, the Court will rule on whether the Regent of the University of Colorado have absolute immunity from suit, even when they deliberately violate the Constitution; whether state employees have a right to legally contest retaliatory investigations; and whether professors fired in violation of the Constitution have a right to a remedy.

In the meantime, Ward Churchill continues to speak and write.  Check out a new book edited by Pierre W. Orelus, "A Decolonizing Encounter:  Ward Churchill and Antonia Darder in Dialogue."

As described by Peter McLaren, Professor of Critical Studies in Education, "Darder and Churchill pull no punches.  Their brilliant analyses dismantle today's boneyard of political inertia among the liberal left to bring a new and powerful political agency to … Read More