Drexel professor suspended following right-wing attack

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PHILADELPHIA—George Ciccariello-Maher, a con­ troversial left-wing professor at Drexel University in this city, was placed on administrative leave after a string of death threats from far-right internet trolls.

All of his classes were cancelled for the quarter with­ out a replacement. The university has stated that this is a step meant to “ensure the safety of our campus.”

Last December, Ciccariello-Maher came under in­ tense fire for a Twitter post saying, “All I want for Christmas is White Genocide.” As a Political Science professor, Ciccariello-Maher has repeatedly criticized the concept of “white genocide” as a fiction used by far-right reactionaries, and the tweet was clearly sa­ tirical. At the time, Drexel “condemned” the tweet but did not take action. Now, after tweets blaming Las Ve­ gas shooter Stephen Paddock’s actions on white su­ premacy and patriarchy drew the ire of internet Nazis, he has been suspended.

There have been rumors that classes may continue on-line. A student in one of Ciccariello-Maher’s cours­ es told Socialist Action, “We don’t want that; the class was meant to be in person since it’s heavily discus­ sion-based.”

As a professor teaching radical theory and vocally opposing the far-right in their on-line stomping grounds, Ciccariello-Maher has drawn attention. In an editorial in the Washington Post, he wrote, “As a schol­ ar and teacher, giving context and depth to contempo­ rary debates is an important part of what I do, and it’s a calling I take seriously.”

The Intercept, an on-line platform funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and lent credibility by jour­ nalists such as Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill, published an attack by Zaid Jilani called “Left-Wing Drexel Professor Who Opposes Free Speech Has His Curtailed.” This cowardly article quotes “The College Fix,” a right-wing blog with connections to Educa­ tion Secretary Betsy DeVos and implies that, because Ciccariello-Maher thinks that racist educators should be fired, he does not deserve free speech or academic freedom. This is not the quality journalism that The Intercept touts, but rather an open and personal at­ tack.

Ciccariello-Maher told Socialist Action: “It’s disap­ ... Catalonia (continued from page 4: “No to Article 155! Solidarity with the Catalan people!”) the state and the capitalists. Faced with the take-over of TV3 [the main Catalan TV channel] by the Rajoy govern­ ment, who could be better to contravene that interven­ tion than TV3’s own workers? The editorial board ought to become the wage-earning employees of the media.

Faced with the supposed flight of companies and banks in Catalonia, what better measure is there to respond to these pressures than nationalization under the control of the workers of those banks and companies?

If the bankers and the businessmen want to leave, let them go! But let the money and the companies remain, and under the control of those who must work for a liv­ ... Puerto Rico (continued from page 1: “Disaster capitalism rages in Puerto Rico”)

has fallen squarely on the poorest and most vulner­ able: the fiscal control board has cut public health spending by a third, lowered the minimum wage for workers below the age of 24 to $4.25 an hour, raised utility bills, cut the public pension system, and closed public schools.

The hurricanes, however, have enabled the intensifi­ cation of this ruling-class offensive. Demands for the cancellation of Puerto Rico’s debt by the U.S. Congress have been bluntly rejected. In fact, the majority of the disaster relief allocated to Puerto Rico by the House is in additional loans of more than $5 billion, rather than grants, as is typical for disaster relief to U.S. states. In the same bill, the House cancelled $16 billion in loans for the National Flood Insurance Program—but not a dollar of Puerto Rico’s debt. Such “disaster aid” will only indebt Puerto Rico further and expand the aus­ terity demands from the fiscal control board.

The U.S. government and the disaster capitalists will not concede anything without a fight. We are not help­ less in the face of this offensive, however. By building a mass movement of workers and students, we can pointing to see The Intercept publish a poorly timed and poorly thought-out personal attack at a time when solidarity is more necessary than ever to block the right-wing campus takeover. Jilani’s screed is an embarrassment for himself and for The Intercept.”

This is far from the only recent attack on left-wing ac­ ademics. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an African-Ameri­ can socialist who teaches at Princeton, had to cancel public speaking engagements due to death threats. Johnny Williams, at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., was suspended because of a quote on Facebook. And a recent rule change by the University of Wisconsin re­ gents could punish students for actions that “[disrupt] the free speech of others.”

Following a few high-profile protests, particularly at the University of California at Berkeley, the far right has created a false narrative (echoed in the capital­ ist media) about “free speech” being in peril for rac­ ing. The method by which this can be carried out goes through the self-organization of our class in the work­ place and in the neighborhoods, and by an extended general strike.

For this reason, the fact that the working class would stand at the head of the democratic right to decide of the Catalan people acquires a fundamental character. A scenario like this would open the way to allow us to rec­ ognize our own right to decide, as a social class, about how we should live. Their crisis need not be our crisis, just as the crisis of their political system is not a prob­ lem but an opportunity to end their antisocial policies.

For this our response must be coordinated and pow­ erful, presenting a common front before the two bour­ geoisies, weakening the pillars of those responsible for labor reforms, cuts in pensions, and evictions, as are the monarchy or the unity of Spain. And the best way to do win. We’ve already seen a small taste of that when the Trump administration was forced by public pressure to issue a temporary waiver for the Jones Act to aid disaster relief.

Without a mass movement that can educate people about these struggles and keep the pressure up, how­ ever, such victories will be transient. Ten days after issuing the temporary waiver, the Trump administra­ tion declared that it would not renew it.

There are millions of Puerto Ricans living in the con­ tinental United States—more than live on Puerto Rico. This diaspora can form the core of a movement and build connections to the labor movement and other oppressed peoples; it has done so in the past. The struggles to close the U.S. Naval base at Vieques and to free Oscar López Rivera could not have been won without mass movements centered on the diaspora. The mass strikes of Puerto Rican students against aus­ terity can also serve as a template for building resis­ tance to austerity and disaster capitalism.

As Puerto Rico struggles to recover from the dev­ astation wrought by the hurricanes, it is imperative that the disaster capitalist offensive following in their wake, and the austerity and privatization campaign it forms a key element of, are met and defeated. Puerto Rico’s electricity infrastructure must be rebuilt, on the basis of solar, wind, and other renewable sources, and (Above) Drexel Prof. George Ciccariello-Maher.

ists and fascists. In reality, though, the chilling effect is strongest against the left wing on campus. This is particularly true of supporters of the Boycott, Divest­ ment and Sanctions movement for human rights in Palestine. Laws such as that passed in the state of New York, as well as pro-Israel groups, have been on the of­ fensive against professors and campus groups fighting for justice in Palestine.

Socialist Action opposes any restrictions by univer­ sities or governments on free expression. We believe that fascists and racists need to be opposed, not by regulating their speech, but by counter-mobilization through mass action.

We support George Ciccariello-Maher and demand that he be reinstated immediately and allowed to teach without censure or restriction. n that is with a general strike in Catalonia that extends to the rest of the [Spanish] state and that unifies solidarity for Catalan independence with [demands for] the non-payment of the debt, repeal of all labor reforms, prohi­ bition of dismissals, retirement at age 60, and the rest of our claims.

Faced with the divisions that they try to generate among the working class, we have to respond together. In Catalonia, [this requires] encouraging spaces for self-organization that can organize this method of struggle; and in the rest of the Spanish state, generating ties of solidarity in the work centers and educational cam­ puses.

The struggle of the workers there is that of the entire working class and youth, and we must organize it with the same intensity from within but also from outside Catalonia. n maintained under public ownership.

Puerto Rico must be freed from the undemocratic fiscal control board installed by the U.S. government. And the onerous debt burden, imposed on Puerto Rico in no small part through U.S. colonialism and corpo­ rate handouts, must be cancelled. The austerity drive that is devastating workers, students, and vulnerable people across Puerto Rico must end.

The capitalist class hopes to use the hurricanes as a cover to expand their profits at the expense of Puerto Ricans, and should they succeed, the model created will undoubtedly be adapted elsewhere at the ex­ pense of working people across the U.S. and around the world. We must show them that we will not accept disaster capitalism—in Puerto Rico or anywhere else.

We must also remember that, while all of these im­ mediate goals are necessary, they are not sufficient. The debt crisis in Puerto Rico and the general impov­ erishment of Puerto Rican workers are not accidents that can be resolved merely by clearing away some of their accumulated damage. They are constructions of the twin systems that bind Puerto Rico—capitalism and colonialism. Left alone, they will continue to re­ produce poverty, fiscal dependency, and vulnerability.

The only way out is to shatter the twin shackles and build a socialist Puerto Rico run by and for workers rather than Wall Street. n SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 2017 5