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CAMBRIDGE, MA April 16--The rally for Ward Churchill at Harvard University had a disappointing turnout of 10 people, but the basis for future work is in place with hundreds of Boston area signatures collected and a five digit figure of posters, flyers and newspapers going out. Hundreds of passers-by heard a speech through a megaphone that touched on the difference between Lawrence Summers and Ward Churchill, the difficulties of Harvard students trying to demonstrate against the CIA, the historical role of Harvard and Yale in air bombing and the "psychological warfare," the "collective responsibility" movement after World War II, a professor labelled "terrorist" in the Netherlands and the "war on terrorism" as it applied in Nepal. The theme of the speech stressed how the rulers scapegoat professors without state power to distract attention to the real problems of terrorism.
Within pointing range was a building where professors and researchers had a role both in World War II and the Vietnam War. The speaker pointed out that although the campaign against Ward Churchill has Fox News and other media outlets usually reserved to presidential candidates with hundreds of millions in campaign cash, history has shown that we can succeed in making the subject of 9/11 speakable again. The majority of the Amerikans and British favored the "collective responsibility" movement for Germany and Japan after World War II, especially in connection to their civilian casualties from air bombing. Sooner or later, the Amerikans and British will realize that 9/11 was not the first air bombing of civilians in history.
The speech started by mentioning how Ward Churchill was not speaking; no one from his Colorado American Indian Movement (AIM) chapter was speaking; no one was post-modernist anarchist like Ward Churchill; probably no one had read all his books and no one there knew him persynally. Nonetheless, we see the ramifications of this case both for academic freedom today and the interpretation of 9/11.
The speaker pointed out that by failing to adopt a consistent internationalist view, Amerikans contribute to neo-Nazi movements in Germany, Japan and places like Serbia. Other countries are less and less likely to take collective responsibility if Amerikans do not.
As for the Bush's administration's "fight for democracy," the speaker pointed out that the god-king of Nepal has the Bush administration's support; yet the god-king never won an election and never had a party elected in parliament. At the same time, the Bush administration scapegoated the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) for "terrorism" in order to distract attention from the people with connection to previous air bombings of civilians--people connected to the u.$. government. In fact is was the god-king air bombing his people who should have been linked to 9/11-type behavior, because as far as we know, the rebels controlling most of the country still do not have an air force. The secular forces in Nepal are in control of 80% of the country; yet the Bush administration chose to support the minority in Nepal. The speaker asked, "do you think if a god-king came to power here, there might be a civil war and if so we should not think people in Nepal are different than any other people. . . . It's not terrorism: it's a civil war. It would be like calling Abraham Lincoln a 'terrorist.'"
Not all reactions to the Ward Churchill campaign in Cambridge are positive. One passer-by said Ward Churchill "should be executed." One womyn walking through Harvard Yard said she wished she could could fire him herself and another womyn said much the same. On the other hand, in the campaign over days, MIM also spoke with several different people from Colorado in Cambridge for one reason or another. One expressed confidence that Colorado would shake its current image of repressing Ward Churchill, because "Boulder is so not like that." Another recounted going into a speech of Ward Churchill and coming out turned around. Churchill "knows how to defend himself. He was brilliant," said another persyn. Most people are still in the stage of asking "who is Ward Churchill?" Based on previous experience in campaigns for individuals, we are confident we can turn that situation around with time.