[Peace] [Peace-discuss] 11:30AM Tue Sep 9th: demonstration in support of Steven Salaita -- was: Upcoming campus-wide event

[Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga via Peace]

Ya'aQov,

With all due respect, this is a red herring you are asking us to catch. I
think we are constantly learning from our prior setbacks in struggle. It
will be a mistake to insist that we conflate the differing contexts of the
violation of academic freedom of James Kilgore and Stephen Salaita. While
both fell afoul of the neoliberal tyranny of donors  (or more correctly,
the fear of/anticipation of the whims of private funders), it was James's
advocacy for prison reform and personal history of incarceration, and not
as in Stephen's case, the third rail of Israeli exceptionalism, that
occasioned either breach. I suspect James would urge us to participate
fully in defense of Stephen's rights. In other words, we are not faced with
Sophie's Choice here.

If we wish to do nothing, we could claim any number of theories, for
example that this problem is more widespread in U.S. higher education and
we should therefore fight for all or none of those who are wronged by the
system, including Norm Finkelstein and Ward Churchill in the past.

Vukoni

PS. Vijay Prashad has a good article on Counterpunch regarding the use of
the ruse of civility to silence or get rid of faculty who make university
administrations uncomfortable. Here is the link to it (
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/08/berkeleys-faux-free-speech/).

On Sat, Sep 6, 2014 at 5:43 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace <
peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> It's true that there are two notable violations of academic freedom at
> UIUC recently (and of course many more in the past).
>
> But the conspiracist concentration on Qatar suggests that the "pro-Israel
> issue is your only focus, not  the anti-war one."
>
> Qatar can do little without the permission of SA & the US.
>
>
> On Sep 6, 2014, at 5:33 PM, ya'aQov via Peace-discuss <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
> I challenge the statement this is a protest of the attack on academic
> freedom and free speech.
>
> Were it such protest, James Kilgore need be added to the names
> representing UIUC's attack on freedom of speech and academic freedom.
>
> People on this list know James Kilgore's discharge was a blatant such
> attack as well.  Yet they say nothing about it.  The reason they say
> nothing, is so the pro-Palestinian issue be the only focus, not  the
> academic freedom one.
>
> Alas, James did not have the Qatar oiled propaganda to support him.
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-- 
"You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of
madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn
your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future." Thomas
Sankara
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