Support Ward Churchill

As many of you may know, Ward Churchill, an AK author who has long been active in the struggle for indigenous rights as well as around other struggles surrounding the oppressive role the US government plays in so many lives, has recently been fired from his position as a professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado Boulder. Ward has consistently been attacked on varying grounds by other academics, the US government and members of our own communities. It is important to remember that the state has historically used underhanded tactics to create divisiveness in communities and social movements, particularly ones perceived to be a threat. Ward’s case is just one example of state attacks on academics, activists and radicals and must be viewed and analyzed in the context of the ongoing evolution of a strategic onslaught by the government and its powerful interests against forms of dissent worldwide. Ward, of course, is no stranger to state repression, having written extensively on the subject. Below are but a handful of titles from this prolific author. To find out more about Ward’s continuing battle with UC Boulder and the Colorado Regents as well as how to support him, please visit www.wardchurchill.net.

Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America (2nd edition), by Ward Churchill. Pacifism, the ideology of nonviolent political resistance, has been the norm among mainstream North American progressive groups for decades. But to what end? Ward Churchill challenges the pacifist movement’s heralded victories—Ghandhi in India, 1960s anti-war activists, even Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement—suggesting that their success was in spite of, rather than because of, their nonviolent tactics.

“Pacifism as Pathology” was written as a response not only to Churchill’s frustration with his own activist experience, but also to a debate raging in the activist and academic communities. He argues that pacifism is in many ways counterrevolutionary; that it defends the status quo, rather than leading to social change. In these times of upheaval and global protest, this is a vital and extremely relevant book. Also includes an extensive new introduction by Derrick Jensen, a preface from Ed Mead, former political prisoner and member of the George Jackson Brigade, and Mike Ryan’s essay “On Ward Churchill’s ‘Pacifism as Pathology: Toward a Revolutionary Practice.” www.akpress.org/2007/items/ pacifismaspathologyakpress

Acts of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader, by Ward Churchill. A greatest hits, and his most important writings on indigenism from the last two decades—many published in book form for the first time. From land issues to culture, government repression to genocide, “Ward Churchill has carved out a special place for himself in defending the rights of oppressed people, and exposing the dark side of past and current history, often forgotten, marginalized, or suppressed. These are achievements of inestimable value.” – Noam Chomsky. Almost 500 pages of the best of WC.
www.akpress.org/2003/items/actsofrebellion

On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of US Imperial Arrogance and Criminality, by Ward Churchill. As far as Ward Churchill is concerned, the record speaks for itself. The “Most Peace-Loving of Nations” has been engaged in brutal military campaigns in every corner of the globe, unceasingly, since its inception. In attempting to forever alter American’s false self-concept, Ward Churchill contextualizes US aggression and the most effective response to it yet—the attacks of September 11th—in a readable format. Churchill has painstakingly chronicled both US military campaigns—domestic and foreign—from 1776 to the present and US attempts to violate, obstruct, and/or subvert International Law from 1945 to the present. Drawing from US military and interventionist history, lessons from Nuremberg and the UN’s own voting records, the two chronologies, exhaustively researched and annotated, illustrate a heart-wrenching history of senseless butchery and democracy deterred. In this context, the only fitting question for a nation still reeling from the wake-up call of September 11th is “How can they not hate us?” In his newest offering, Churchill demands that the American public shake off its collective unconscious and take responsibility for the criminality carried out in its name. Introduction by Chellis Glendinning. www.akpress.org/2003/items/onthejusticeofroostingchickens

Agents of Repression: The FBI’s Secret War Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, by Ward Churchill. “A powerful indictment, with far-reaching implications concerning the treatment of political activists, especially those that are black or Native American.” – Noam Chomsky. This excellent exposé should be an obligatory text. This new edition features a new preface by Ward Churchill exposing the FBI’s recent efforts to prevent a presidential pardon of Leonard Peltier and its ongoing cover-up of a roster of murders of AIM members and sympathizers. www.akpress.org/1996/items/agentsofrepression

Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, Cinema, Art and the Colonization of American Indians. The reworking of fact into expedient fantasies is a well-known historical process. In this volume of incisive essays—expanded and revised since the original publication in 1992—Churchill examines the cultural propaganda that has served to support the continued colonization of Native America. From justifying exterminating the savages, to “civilizing” them, to the appropriation and stereotyping of native culture—the noble savage and the quaint dispenser of native wisdom—literature, art, and film crafted by the dominant culture are an insidious political force, disinforming people who might otherwise develop a clearer understanding of Native American struggles.
www.akpress.org/1998/items/fantasiesofthemasterrace

In a Pig’s Eye: Reflections on the Police State, Repression, and Native America [CD] by Ward Churchill. More than 17 years after the firefight at Oglala Village on Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975, Leonard Peltier continues to sit in a cage in a federal prison. Not for anything anyone, including his prosecutor at any point in the last 15 years has been prepared to say they actually believe he did, but rather as a symbol of the arbitrary ability of the Federal Government of the United States to repress the legitimate aspirations, for liberation, of the indigenous peoples within its claimed boundaries. And why, despite still “owning” some of the most valuable land in America (most of the uranium reserves, 20% of the oil and natural gas, water rights throughout the arid West, et al.) do the remaining 2 million Native inhabitants live in conditions of poverty commonly found only in the Third World—a life expectancy averaging under 50 for both men and women; 60% unemployment; a per capita income on the Pine Ridge Reservation of $2,000 a year… Welcome to counterinsurgency, American style. State financed, highly illegal methods of framing, blaming, and murdering activists has quite a history. From anti-labor Pinkerton thugs and the Palmer raids on anarchists to infiltration of the anti-globalization movement, Churchill traces the ugly history of the FBI and US State repression.

In this keynote lecture, Churchill weaves together the themes for which he has become hailed as an activist and scholar—genocide, repression, and resistance—and amply demonstrates why the fate of Leonard Peltier, the current state of Native America, and the long, sordid history of the State clampdown on dissent have ramifications across the globe. www.akpress.org/2002/items/inapigseye