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Potential Presidential candidate takes aim at Ward Churchill for his 9/11 essay

Rudy Giuliani on ABC 7 Morning News: 'Guiliani for President?'

By an HC and mim3@mim.org, April 12, 2005

Various commentators and at least one poll suggest that former New York mayor and imperialist megalomaniac Rudy Giuliani should run for President in 2008, though he will not be running for the u.$. Senate or New York Governor.(1)(2)(3) However, "the possibility of a White House run in 2008 is not out of the question" according to Giuliani's aide.(4)

On Sunday, April 3, at the University of Colorado at Boulder campus Giuliani went out of his way to accuse CU Professor Ward Churchill, target of a bureaucratic witch-hunt because of his essay on 9/11 and the Amerikan "collateral damage" double standard "Some People Push Back," of being "hurtful" and also incompetent.(5) "He said that Churchill's grasp of the country's political situation may show that [he] isn't responsible enough to teach, likening his essay to a geography teacher teaching that Earth is flat."(5)

As Pierrette J. Shields' relatively factual article points out, Ward Churchill said only that "those working in the trade centers in technical or bureaucratic jobs weren't innocent victims of the attacks" (my emphasis), though other u.$. citizens were similarly complicit in u.$. imperialist militarism and genocide. This stands in contrast to numerous news stories portraying Churchill as saying that all the 9/11 World Trade Center dead were part of the "technocratic corps"--even after Churchill unnecessarily clarified his statements for those with utter reading comprehension problems--when obviously Churchill does not say that in "Some People Push Back."

Giuliani's statement, including his comments in a news conference before his speech at the Coors Events/Conference Center in Boulder, is an example of subjectivism. Giuliani forecloses the scientific debate and does so in a way that has even offended some quasi-materialist-minded Liberals. Giuliani defines truth (and falsity) in terms of what (dis)comforts him from his "very personal perspective."(5) And on top of that, Giuliani is wrong. The role of exploiter typical Amerikan parasite in repeatedly supporting militarism and genocide is not so controversial to the scientific-minded as to be out of the question. In fact, the onslaught of emotive, prescientific and frankly preverbal response to Churchill's essay indicates just how scientifically provocative the essay is. "Some People Push Back" does not claim to prove its thesis conclusively, but it is still provocative to the scientific materialist, making its point clearly and concisely, and drawing the reader's attention to the urgent need to consider their own responsibility for militarism and genocide.

Giuliani deserves some credit for at least focusing on the real issue --Ward Churchill's ideas in "Some People Push Back"--if only by accident or due to his "very personal perspective." That is more than MIM can say for the white nationalists, crypto-fascists and assorted lackeys who presume to disprove Churchill's indigenous identity on the basis of his lack of full enrollment in an Uncle $am-recognized indigenous organization.

The reason why Rudy Giuliani attacks Ward Churchill is that Giuliani realizes that Churchill's ideas are unpopular with most Amerikans. Giuliani is milking his 9/11 experience for all it is worth morally, and he may think that his statements about Churchill will help him to win the presidency in 2008. Although President Bu$h won't be able to run for re-election in 2008, it is interesting that Bu$h has not publicly commented on Ward Churchill, but Rudy Giuliani has remarked on Churchill negatively and could be President someday. It will be an awkward situation if Giuliani becomes President, and Churchill is still a Professor.

Although Rudy Giuliani pretended to support Ward Churchill's "freedom of speech" on April 3, only suggesting that Churchill should be fired for alleged incompetence, it is disturbing and deeply symbolic of the ongoing bureaucratic witch-hunt against Churchill that he so deliberately attacked Churchill during a speaking event organized by University of Colorado at Boulder's Distinguished Speakers Board, on the CU at Boulder campus.(6)(7) Churchill is a Professor in the same university's Ethnic Studies Department. Career bureaucrat Giuliani evidently does not understand that firing Churchill would be a civil rights violation and it gives credence to those who say they faced repression in New York City under his rule. The freedom of speech question can't be separated from the firing question. Even the Phil DiStefano-led investigation committee concluded--for a deceitful tactical reason--that Churchill can't be fired for what he said in an essay written for Dark Night. Now, the CU officials and government bureaucrats are going after Churchill ostensibly for what are specious allegations of plagiarism and "fabricated" indigenous identity.

Giuliani is old enough to have had a chance to study some history. There are over 200 links in Google searches requiring the words "bombing," "Dresden" and "collective responsibility" alone. The incompetent one is a Giuliani forced to appear stupid for political reasons or sheer viciousness.

At least in Newt Gingrich's case, there is a broader agenda and we cannot say he is unaware as Giuliani claims to be: "We ought to say to campuses, it's over…We should say to state legislatures, why are you making us pay for this? Boards of regents are artificial constructs of state law. Tenure is an artificial social construct. Tenure did not exist before the twentieth century, and we had free speech before then. You could introduce a bill that says, proof that you're anti-American is grounds for dismissal." (9) Newt Gingrich just wants a purge based on "anti-Americanism"--by which everyone would be purged because there are no Americans anymore, only Amerikkkans.

Governor Pataki, another candidate for president was perhaps the first to get on the purge bandwagon, the Amerikkkan answer to the Amerikkkan vision of Mao's Cultural Revolution: "'I am appalled first that this person with such a warped sense of right and wrong and of humanity teaches at a higher education institution anywhere in America,' Pataki said in Albany, N.Y."(10)

At the moment, we do not know where another likely candidate for president Senator Frist stands on the question. We do know he recently backed the courts on the Schiavo so-called right-to-die case and George W. Bush himself said he was for checks and balances.

Many have already compared the anti-Churchill politicians to Stalin and Mao for wanting a purge of academia. At the same time, Giuliani, Gingrich and Pataki would all claim to oppose Mao's Cultural Revolution. So the question becomes who is right, the liberals or the purge-oriented Republicans.

MIM would say that these Republican candidates for governor do oppose Mao's Cultural Revolution. Wags could point out that so-called workers are most in favor of firing Churchill, but as MIM has said all along, the proletariat is a tiny minority inside u.$. borders. The people Giuliani, Pataki and Gingrich pander to for votes are labor aristocracy. That's why this movement against Ward Churchill has no potential for revolutionizing education and the rest of society. The Chinese Cultural Revolution targetted power-holders on the capitalist-road. Ward Churchill is targeting war criminals and facing punishment and death threats as a result. It's a different set of emphases.

The other main difference between the purge of Ward Churchill-like professors and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, is that in the Chinese Cultural Revolution the aim was to "consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat." Though there was more free speech in China than in cities like Cambridge, Massachusetts that do not allow postering on public property (with the exception of criticism of Mao himself which was not allowed), China claimed to be a dictatorship of the proletariat. China did not claim to be a "free country," because Marxist theory says such is impossible till classes are gone. In contrast, Giuliani et. al. say the united $tates is a "free country" while leading the lynch mob. The existence of the movement to purge academia in the united $tates is further proof that Marx was right that freedom is impossible in class society. They call it "freedom" and then slime people for their speech.

The bureaucratic witch-hunt targets Ward Churchill not just for daring to differ with popular Amerikan opinion on 9/11 or the Bu$h government's foreign policy more specifically, but because of Churchill's particular ideas. This is not a witch-hunt against dissent in the abstract. That is not how ideological struggle and repression work concretely. However, stunts such as Giuliani's have the potential to result in further civil rights violations. MIM condemns this despicable use of the World Trade Center dead for grandstanding. It is deeply hurtful to the world's people. Those Amerikans who want to avoid future attacks arising from u.$. militarism and genocide should support Ward Churchill's freedom to speak the truth, and oppose Giuliani's callous abuse of the WTC dead. It will be a small step toward taking collective responsibility.


Notes:

1. "Marist poll says Hillary should seek re-election; Rudy should run for president," April 12, 2005, http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/Marist_HilRud-12Apr05.htm

2. Alexander Bolton, "Eye on '08, Newt hits Iowa, N.H.," April 12, 2005, http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/041205/newt.html

3. Marc Humbert, "Aide: Giuliani too busy to run for senate or governor in '06," April 5, 2005, http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20050405/localnews/2105527.html

4. "Giuliani 'too busy' to challenge Hillary," April 4, 2005, http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43640

5. Pierrette J. Shields, "Giuliani knocks prof on CU stop," http://www.longmontfyi.com/region-story.asp?id=1139

6. "Giuliani Rips Prof. Ward Churchill," April 4, 2005, http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/4/4/102255.shtml

7. Jake Blumberg, "Giuliani speaks about leadership at CU Boulder," April 4, 2005, http://www.collegian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/04/4250dddf337eb

8. Amanda Griscom Little, "Giuliani-Come-Lately," April 8, 2005, http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2005/04/08/little-giuliani/index.html

9. http://www.poliblogger.com/index.php?p=6309

10. http://news4colorado.com/topstories/local_story_032213147.html