No investigation, no right to speak?

No investigation, no right to speak?

Richard Pithouse

In January last year I was in Harare for a conference organised by the people around the journal Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy. There were lots of interesting people and papers, and interesting visits to flourishing farms, but one of the things that really struck me was a paper by a Brazilian scholar who has worked with and on the MST in Brazil, as well as the Landless Peoples’ Movement (LPM) in South Africa.

Schedule of Public Events for Silvia Federici's Visit to Rhodes University 18 – 21 September 2013

18 September

Launch of Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle and seminar presentation on Reproduction and Women's Struggles in an era of 'Primitive Accumulation.' - 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., Humanities Seminar Room

19 September

Seminar for postgrad students on 'Feminism & the Commons' - 10:00 a.m. – 12: 30 p.m., New Seminar Room, Politics Department

Academic Freedom Lecture “Academic freedom and the enclosure of knowledge in the global university” - 6:00 pm, Eden Grove Blue

20 September

Workshop with activists hosted by the Unemployed Peoples' Movement – 2:00 p.m., UPM Office

21 September

Student organised seminar - 2:00 pm. - 5:00 p.m. Sociology A

Recolonising The Humanities?

Too many elite groups would have us stifle debate about academic freedom in the country

John Higgins, The Mail & Guardian

Academic debates can often be confusing for the general reader, and this is the case with some the arguments around academic freedom taken up in Suren Pillay’s recent Mail & Guardian article: “Decolonising the humanities” (Getting Ahead, April 5).

Judith Butler's Remarks to Brooklyn College on BDS

Judith Butler

Editors Note: Despite a campaign to silence them, philsophers Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti spoke at Brooklyn College on Thursday night. In an exclusive, TheNation presents the text of Butler's remarks.

Usually one starts by saying that one is glad to be here, but I cannot say that it has been a pleasure anticipating this event. What a Megillah! I am, of course, glad that the event was not cancelled, and I understand that it took a great deal of courage and a steadfast embrace of principle for this event to happen at all. I would like personally to thank all those who took this opportunity to reaffirm the fundamental principles of academic freedom, including the following organizations: the Modern Language Association, the National Lawyers Guild, the New York ACLU, the American Association of University Professors, the Professional Staff Congress (the union for faculty and staff in the CUNY system), the New York Times editorial team, the offices of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Brooklyn College President Karen Gould whose principled stand on academic freedom has been exemplary.

The Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility (1990)

PREAMBLE

Intellectual freedom in Africa is currently threatened to an unprecedented degree. The historically produced and persistent economic, political and social crisis of our continent continues to undermine development in all spheres. The imposition of unpopular structural adjustment programmes has been accompanied by increased political repression, widespread poverty and intense human suffering.

Rhodes University Declaration of Academic Freedom - 3 May 1983

At a meeting of the Academic Freedom Committee of Rhodes University on May 3, 1983, those present solemnly re-affirmed their belief in academic

freedom as follows:

• It is our duty to uphold the principle that a university is a place where men and women, without regard to creed or colour, are welcome to join in the acquisition and advancement of knowledge.

• That it is the duty of the university to guarantee the rights of participants in the opportunities and privileges made available by belonging to a university.

• That academic freedom is essential to the integrity of institutions of higher education and the unfettered pursuit of truth.

• That the ideals of academic and human freedom are intimately bound up with each other, and that free universities cannot exist in an unfree society.

• We pledge ourselves to work for the attainment of these ideals in South Africa within our respective institutions, and to continue faithfully to defend them against encroachment in any form.