Sign on: Solidarity with Bill Mullen

The USACBI Organizing Collective seeks signatures from college and university students, faculty, and staff in support of the following open statement. You need not be an endorser of USACBI to sign onto this statement, even as we invite you to endorse the USACBI call here if you haven”t yet done so. Please sign and share this public statement!

Sign on and share: https://goo.gl/forms/osGPTmf83i6pheaG2

US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) expresses its utmost solidarity with our comrade and colleague on the Organizing Collective, Bill Mullen, who is facing false and malicious attacks by Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University, where Mullen is Professor of English and American Studies.

We condemn Daniels”s attack and recognize it as part of a larger attempt on the part of university administrators to vilify students and faculty fighting fascism, while they offer protection to those who are actually spreading fascism on college campuses under the cover of “free speech.” We also note that the question of Palestine brings clearly into focus university administrators” implication in white supremacy and fascist violence.

Professor Bill Mullen, as one of the founding members of the Campus Anti-Fascist Network (CAN), is vigorously opposing the fomenting of fascist violence on university campuses, including by those who identify as neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Even as Mullen has been engaged in strenuously fighting the antisemitism and racism promoted by “alt right” groups, his university president has falsely charged him with “anti-Semitism,” presumably on the basis of his Palestine solidarity work, including with the USACBI campaign.

CAN”s platform is premised on supporting democracy and respect for human rights, and opposing white supremacy and imperialist and fascistic violence. Daniels purposefully inverts and misrepresents CAN’s work, and in doing so creates and perpetuates a dangerously false equivalence between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, while letting real antisemites, in the form of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, speak freely. With no evidence to support his accusations, Daniels” dishonest association is meant to discipline those like Mullen who engage in anti-racist, anti-fascist work on the principle of justice.

Daniels” misconception–an all too common one–that anti-Zionism is antisemitic blinds him to the fact that the faculty member he demonizes is at the front lines of the fight against antisemitism, and that this activity, as part of Bill Mullen”s anti-fascist organizing, is perfectly consistent with his support for the Palestinian struggle. Both struggles involve upholding democratic principles, respect for human rights, and opposition to violent forms of nationalism and white supremacy in the US and elsewhere.

In attacking Bill Mullen, Mitch Daniels does something worse than equating anti-fascism with fascism. He supplements the work of the fascists through such baseless, distracting accusations.

All social justice movements have a stake in confronting this new form of McCarthyism, especially as growing bipartisan repression in the Trump era aims to systematically isolate and silence intersectional grassroots resistance wherever it appears.

For precisely these reasons, we stand in support with our comrade, Bill Mullen, as we refuse to divide our anti-Zionist organizing from the work of resisting fascism and white supremacy in all its forms.

–The USACBI Organizing Collective

Sign on and share: https://goo.gl/forms/osGPTmf83i6pheaG2

Organizational Endorsers (list in formation) 
American Muslims for Palestine
Al-Awda New York, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
French Association of Academics for the Respect of International Law in Palestine (AURDIP)
Belgian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
International Socialist Organization (ISO)
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Labor for Palestine
LA4Palestine
NYC Solidarity with Palestine
Radical Sanctuary collective, UC Davis
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

Signatories
Cynthia Franklin, English, University of Hawai’i
Ebony Coletu, Pennsylvania State University
Craig Willse, Cultural Studies, George Mason University
Heike Schotten, Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston
David Lloyd, Department of English, University of California, Riverside
Adam Miyashiro, Stockton University
Chandni Desai, University of Toronto, Department of Equity Studies
Ahmed Abbes, Directeur de Recherche au CNRS, Paris, France
Herman De Ley, Em.Prof. Ghent University (Belgium)
David Klein, California State University Northridge
Rima Najjar, Al-Quds University, Palestine
Andrew Ryder, Honors College, Texas Christian University
Aaron Jaffe, Liberal Arts, Juilliard
Ron Jacobs, Library, Saint Michael’s College, Vermont
Sandy Nicoll, UNISON (TU) Branch Secretary, SOAS University of London
Evan Fritz, CLAS, UConn
Annagul Yaryyeva, American Studies, Purdue University
Tithi Bhattacharya, Purdue University
Jordy Rosenberg, University of Massachusetts
Nizan Shaked, California State University Long Beach
Jared Sacks, Columbia University
Lara Langer Cohen, Department of English, Swarthmore College
Nalini Iyer, English, Seattle University
Jonathan Isaac, Department of English, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Dana Mills, Department of Philosophy, Oxford Brookes, UK
Aren Aizura, Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota
Ruben Fitch, Computer Science, UCSC
Pranav Jani, English, The Ohio State University
Bret Benjamin, English, University at Albany, SUNY
Madeleine Fenn, Undergraduate Student, Texas Woman”s University
Steve Wellinski, Eastern Michigan University (Purdue Alum ’93, ’96, ’02)
Joseph Varga, Labor Studies, Indiana University
Alex Bartolo, Hampshire College
Nicole Colson, International Socialist Organization
Pablo Mukherjee, English&Comparative Literary Studies; Warwick University
Eric Covey, American Studies, Miami University
matt hooley, English, Clemson University
Mary Ann Cain, Indiana U Purdue U Fort Wayne
Sherry Wolf, Rutgers
Vida Samiian, Liguistics, California State University, Fresno
Nada Elia, Purdue Alum, PhD 1993
Timothy J Reiss, Comparative Literature, New York University (Emeritus)
Kim Compoc, English and Ethnic Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Robert Warrior, American Studies, University of Kansas
Walter Daum, Mathematics, CCNY (retired)
Denise Romero, Journalism, Lehman College
Patrick L.Gallagher, Modern and Classical Languages Kent State University
Charles Holm, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Jennifer Ponce de León, English, University of Pennsylvania
Suvir Kaul, Dept. of English, University of Pennsylvania
Todd Gordon, Law & Society, Wilfrid Laurier University
Holly Lewis, Department of Philosophy, Texas State University
Vicente M Diaz, American Indian Studies
Manzar Foroohar, History Professor, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Helen Jun, English, University of Illinois, Chicago
Emilio del Valle Escalante, Romance Studies, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Brinda Bose, Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Candace Fujikane, English Department, University of Hawaiʻi
David Shorter, UCLA
Austin McCoy, University of Michigan
Muhammad Yousuf, Philosophy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Zoe Lawlor, University of Limerick, Ireland
Megan Ferreira, Conservation Biology, SUNY-ESF
Harriet Malinowitz, Department of Writing, Ithaca College
Wesley Bishop, History, Purdue University
Gerardo Renique, Department of History, City University of New York
Kimberly Drake, Scripps College
Sarah Ehlers, English Department, University of Houston
Cathy Bergin, University of Brighton
Amit Baishya, University of Oklahoma, English
Rachel Beaty, University of Arizona
Tyler Shipley, Dept of Liberal Studies, Humber College
Eric M. Fink, Elon University School of Law
Bob Ross, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Point Park University
Anna Bjork Einarsdottir, University of California-Davis
Chris Hauck, Department of Engineering, Syracuse University
Caitlin Fox-Hodess, Sociology, UC Berkeley
Rebecca Comay, Philosophy, University of Toronto
Wayne Heimbach
Lenora Hanson, English, NYU
Laleh Khalili, SOAS, University of London
Johnny E. Williams, Sociology, Trinity College
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Women”s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University
Isaac Davis, University of North Texas
Joanne Wiedman
Julie Webber, Illinois State University
Christian Haesemeyer, Mathematics & Statistics, University of Melbourne
Lewis Roberts, Indiana U Purdue U Ft Wayne
Matt Rowe, Sociology, UC Berkeley
Seth Uzman, Department of Mathematics, University of Texas at Austin
Troy Storfjell, Languages and Literatures, Pacific Lutheran University
victor mendoza, University of Michigan
Kaitlin Kelly-Thompson, PhD Student, Political Science, Purdue University
Alex Lubin, American Studies, University of New Mexico
Geoffrey Wildanger, Comparative Literature, Brown University
Magid Shihade, Birzeit University
Lori Puopolo, Trinity College, Class of 2018
Uri Horesh, Language and Linguistics, University of Essex
Brittney Vaal Student, Purdue University
Nancy Welch, University of Vermont
Guy Miller, United Transportation Union
Shelley Steeby, UCSD
J. Kehaulani Kauanui, American Studies, Wesleyan University
Snehal Shingavi, Associate Professor, English, University of Texas, Austin
Sophia Azeb, New York University
Erik Wallenberg, History, Brooklyn College
Jean O’Brien History, University of Minnesota
Steven Spires
Douglas Armato, University of Minnesota Press
Ernie Artiz, Department of English, UC Berkeley
Elizabeth Dean, Department of History, University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign
Joseph Perez, Lehman College
Rachel Rubin, University of Massachusetts Boston
Campus Antifascist Network
Paige Sarlin, Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo/SUNY
Maximillian Alvarez, Comparative Literature & History, University of Michigan
Alex Long, English Department, Purdue University
Linda Hess, Stanford University
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Linfield College, Department of English
Rio Scharf, Harvard Law School
Jeff Goodwin, Sociology, New York University
Carol L. Tilley, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Luz Calvo, Ethnic Studies, Cal State East Bay
Maí¯a Pal, Social sciences, Oxford Brookes University
Lisa Rofel, Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley
Jose I. Fuste, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, University of Washington, Bothell
Thompson E. Potter, Jr., Faculty Secretary, Harvard Law School (personal identification)
Darwin Tsen, Modern Languages Department, Carthage College
Sam Menefee-Libey
James Hunter
Moustafa Bayoumi , English, Brooklyn College CUNY
Dani Carrillo, Sociology, UC Berkeley
Robin D. G. Kelley History, UCLA
Robert Boyce, International History, London School of Economics and Political Science
Valerie Wayne, English, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Ellie Hamrick, Department of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
Viet Nguyen, English, University of Southern California
Hester Eisenstein, City University of New York
David Roediger, American Studies, Kansas
Kevin Adams
Richard Matthews, Social Justice Studies, Lakehead University, Canada
Ira Dworkin, Texas A&M University
Alexander Mann, Formerly French and Italian, Indiana University
Michael Letwin, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, and Labor for Palestine
Kristin Lawler, Sociology, College of Mount St. Vincent
John King, School of Professional Studies, NYU
Jeffrey Melnick, American Studies Department, University of Massachusetts Boston
Melissa F. Weiner, Sociology, College of the Holy Cross
Anna Baltzer, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Ida Maydae
Anthony Monteiro, Unaffiliated independent researcher
Marcus Sanchez, English, University of North Florida
Dilan Kurt, student, Trinity College
Zakariya Uddin, Sociology, University of Maryland
Margaret Macpherson
Monisha Das Gupta, Ethnic Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Kate Griffiths, CUNY
Jesse Cohn, English, Purdue University Northwest
Rana Makki, Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut
Piya Chatterjee, FGSS, Scripps College
Namaluba Malawo, Mathematics, Purdue University
Safwan Akkari, Mathematical Sciences
Elmo King, Documentary Film, Brooklyn College
Nitasha Sharma, Asian American Studies, Northwestern
Dror WARSCHAWSKI, Biophysique, CNRS
Sunaina Maira, Asian American Studies, UC Davis
Kyle Brooks, Kennesaw State Alumni

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