Photo: Steven Salaita
The ruling class uses a variety of tactics, legal and otherwise, to attempt to silence dissent. However, recently we have seen a series of victories such as that won by students at Missouri, as well as a victory won by educator Steven Salaita. These victories show that building solidarity, direct action and organizing with an internationalist political outlook are winning tactics that are—and will continue to—unite working people and win.
Steven Salaita is an award winning author and professor of American Indian Studies. In his talks and writings, he ties together the struggles of Native Americans, Palestinians (he himself is Jordanian-Palestinian), and critiques of historic colonialism and present day, expanding U.S. imperialism.
In 2014, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offered Salaita a tenured position as Associate Professor in their American Indian Studies Program. During this same period, the Israeli government mercilessly bombarded Gaza’s civilians, a war crime. Salaita was highly critical of the Israeli government’s actions and tweeted bluntly about them.
As a result of these tweets, the University of Illinois received a sudden barrage of complaints from Zionists, demanding Salaita not be hired because of his condemnation of Israel. The University gave in to the political pressure and rescinded the offer. Salaita had already left his previous teaching job to accept this new position and had moved his family to Illinois. What was in essence the firing of a tenured professor for expressing political views sparked an academic boycott of UIUC, as academic conferences and visiting scholars began to cancel in protest of Salaita’s mistreatment.
Salaita also sued the University to get his job back, as he had been unfairly terminated for his political expression. This was a violation of “academic freedom,” the idea that professors have the right to freedom of speech, without fear of reprisal, even when their ideas may be controversial. Tenure is intended to protect academic freedom by protecting professors from being fired for their views; a tenured professor can only lose his or her job for gross incompetence or ethical violations. As is well known, more and more instructors in universities and colleges are not tenured or tenure track professors but instead equally qualified but much lower paid “adjunct” faculty, who can be fired (or not rehired) “at will.” However, Salaita was a tenured professor, making his firing all the more shocking.
After a protracted legal battle, this past week Salaita, who now teaches at the American University in Beirut, received a settlement of $875,000 from UIUC. He recounted his experiences in a powerful article he wrote for The Nation magazine. In it, he criticizes what he characterizes as the “economics of today’s corporate universities” and says, “I condemn injustice, I always will … no matter what my state of employment. … On campus, as in Palestine, Zionism has proven itself incompatible with democracy. … Palestinian Solidarity is not a slogan, Black Lives Matter is not a hashtag, Unionization is not a catchphrase, Idle No More isn’t a trend.” In this piece, Salaita condemns academics who “prefer the ‘concept’ of activism” but who themselves rarely engage in social justice struggles. He urges working people to continue the struggle, saying, “We upend the system which requires racism and repression to function.”
