<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Much is at stake in the Churchill case and students continue to build support for him. They were joined by Bill Ayers and Derrick Jensen at an event last week. Below, an article from </span>Revolution<span style="font-style: italic;"> newspaper </span>(http://revcom.us/a/158/WChurchill-en.html)<br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Jay</span><br><br><h1><font size="4">Ward Churchill Lawsuit Against University of Colorado Begins March 9th</font></h1>
<!-- ===========PASTE COPY ================= -->
<p> The jury trial for Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University
of Colorado (CU) is scheduled to begin in Denver District Court on
March 9th. Churchill was a tenured professor and chairman of the ethnic
studies department at CU-Boulder when he was fired by the CU Board of
Regents in July, 2007, supposedly for research misconduct. The lawsuit
charges that Churchill was in fact fired in retaliation for writing a
controversial essay about the 9/11 attacks. </p>
<p> As readers of <i>Revolution</i> are aware, this case began in early
2005 when Ward Churchill was the target of a highly orchestrated,
nationwide political witch-hunt by two powerful Republican governors
and other politicians and right-wing forces after an essay he’d written
shortly after 9/11 came to light. In that piece Churchill described the
attack on the World Trade Center as an example of “chickens coming home
to roost,” and compared the business operatives working in the WTC
serving “America’s global financial empire” to “little Eichmanns.”<a href="http://revcom.us/a/158/WChurchill-en.html#footnote1"><sup> 1 </sup></a><a name="text1"></a> </p>
<p> Right away Bill Owens, Republican governor of Colorado at the time,
called for the University to fire Churchill because of these remarks.
And the university conducted an investigation to see if Churchill
should be fired—or jailed—for what he’d written. Concluding that his
writings were protected speech, the university switched tactics and
announced that Churchill would be investigated for academic misconduct
instead. <br></p><p><br></p>
<p> The administration pulled together a collection of old charges and
disputes made over the years about minor elements of Churchill’s large
body of work, and claimed they amounted to serious academic misconduct.
Despite the fact that it was clear the only reason Churchill was being
investigated was because of his political statements, a faculty
committee agreed to do the dirty work of carrying out an academic
inquisition. Their findings of “research misconduct,” which have been
called a sham by those who have taken the time to study them, were used
by the University President and Board of Regents as a pretext for a
blatantly political firing. [For more on the history of this case, see <i>Revolution</i> <a href="http://revcom.us/a/092/churchill-en.html">Issue #92</a>, and <a href="http://revcom.us/a/098/churchill-firing-en.html">Issue #98</a>]. </p>
<p> Natsu Saito, Professor of Law and wife of Churchill, wrote in a
November, 2008 update: “This is a classic ‘pretext’ case in which CU
has come up with claims of ‘research misconduct’ to fire Ward for
speech protected by the First Amendment. Simply put:</p>
<ol><li>CU never would have investigated but for Ward's "controversial" speech;</li><li>CU didn't have any actual complaints, so they solicited and invented them;</li><li>the evidence didn't support CU's findings; and</li><li><i>even if</i> the allegations were true, they aren't things tenured professors ever get fired for... except in politically motivated cases.”</li></ol>
<p> In preparation for the trial, Churchill’s attorney David Lane
questioned ex-governor Owens in a deposition released February 5th. In
it Owens admits that he told the University to fire Churchill because
of the content of the essay. And he also admits that if they HAD fired
him for that reason it would have violated Churchill’s free-speech
rights. But according to Owens, the university “didn’t follow my advice
and, in fact, chose to ignore it.” Therefore, Owens claims, even though
the University went ahead and fired him, using the pretext of academic
misconduct, there’s no basis to say as Churchill does that he was fired
because of “pressure from the top.”<a href="http://revcom.us/a/158/WChurchill-en.html#footnote2"><sup> 2 </sup></a><a name="text2"></a> </p>
<h3 class="subheadnew">Students Build Support on Campus</h3>
<p> Student organizations on the Boulder campus have been organizing
support and raising funds for Churchill’s upcoming lawsuit. And they
are calling for students and other supporters to come to the opening
day of the trial. On March 3rd members of Students for True Academic
Freedom (STAF) erected a 3-foot-by-3-foot cage labeled “Free Speech,”
and took turns making their case for Professor Churchill from inside
the cage. <br></p><p><br></p>
<p> STAF and two other student groups—Student Environmental Action
Coalition and 180 Degree Shift at the 11th Hour—have also organized an
event for March 5th , “Forbidden Education and the Rise of
Neo-McCarthyism.” The event will feature William Ayers, Distinguished
Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University
of Illinois at Chicago; and activist and author Derrick Jensen. Ayers
was the repeated target of right wing forces, including vice
presidential candidate Sarah Palin, during the recent election
campaign. Churchill will join them for a question-and-answer session. </p>
<p><br> </p><p>Aaron Smith, member of STAF and recent CU graduate, told the Rocky
Mountain News “What we’re trying to show with this event is that Ward
Churchill is not alone in this… These speakers are going to put
(Churchill’s) case into the political context of an attack on academic
freedom on a national scale.”<a href="http://revcom.us/a/158/WChurchill-en.html#footnote3"><sup> 3 </sup></a><a name="text3"></a>
In an act that shows the University is not yet finished trying to
intimidate those who defy them, they have told the students they are
being charged $3,000 for the cost of providing “security” for their
program. </p>
<h3 class="subheadnew">Centerpiece of a Much Broader Assault</h3>
<p> The attack on Churchill has been the centerpiece of a much broader
assault on critical thinking and dissent in academia by right wing
media mouth-pieces, and by self-appointed academic censors, out to
intimidate and silence especially scholars whose research questions and
challenges official myths about this country’s history, and its role in
the world. Churchill’s scholarship has done both—bringing to light the
genocide of the Native people by the European settlers; and exposing
the repression against domestic political opponents during the height
of the 60s. </p>
<p> In the update referred to above, Professor Saito wrote: “Why fight
this particular injustice? We're doing it because Ward has become a
symbol of what academic freedom and the right to political dissent mean
in this country, in these times… every week we hear of professors being
fired, or intimidated into changing what they teach. And students who
believe everything they hear on the TV ‘news.’ For real change to
happen, the next generation will have to know how to think critically.
That won't happen—regardless of who's in the White House—unless we
defend the First Amendment in practice, not just in theory. The
chilling effect of CU's actions are very real. If rightwing forces
don't encounter resistance to this firing, they will consider it
license to constrict freedom of expression even more.”</p>
<p> From the very beginning Churchill has refused to back down in the
face of open intimidation and vicious and ugly threats, and attempts to
destroy his academic career and his reputation. His courageous and
determined stand has inspired many others—faculty and scholars and
students—to do the same. Many more people—faculty and students and from
all arenas of society—need to condemn this whole railroad and join the
battle to support Churchill, and the universities as places where
critical thinking and dissent are valued and encouraged. </p>
<b><p>Notes</p></b>
<p class="blurb" id="footnote1">1 Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi, put in
charge of the trains that carried Jews to the death camps in Poland
during WW II. After the war he was captured in Argentina, brought to
Israel for trial, and executed. [<a href="http://revcom.us/a/158/WChurchill-en.html#text1">back</a>]</p>
<p class="blurb" id="footnote2">2 “Ward Churchill, Bill Owens tangle again,” Lynn Bartels, <i>Rocky Mountain News</i>, 2/6/09 [<a href="http://revcom.us/a/158/WChurchill-en.html#text2">back</a>]</p>
<p class="blurb" id="footnote3">3 “Bill Ayers coming to CU to defend Ward Churchill,” Lance Vaillancourt, <i>Rocky Mountain News</i>, 2/20/09 [<a href="http://revcom.us/a/158/WChurchill-en.html#text3">back</a>]</p>
<!-- ====================== END COPY HERE ==================== -->
<p><a href="http://revcom.us/commentform-en.php">Send us your comments.</a></p><br><br><div id="RTEContent"><div id="RTEContent"><div><strong> </strong><em></em><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Stop</span> thinking like an American, <br>Start thinking about humanity!<br></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 127, 64); font-weight: bold;"></span></div></div></div></td></tr></table><br>