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Interview with Ward Churchill
Posted by D-Rock on 07/20/05 (Shite)
Counterpunch just posted an interesting and in-depth interview with Ward Churchill. For those who aren’t aware of the controversy that erupted earlier this year, it goes roughly like this:
September 12th, 2001, Churchill wrote and essay entitled “On the Justice of Roosting Chickens” that was posted on several websites (including this one). It stirred up a little controversy, particularily in our inbox, but passed without much hoopla.
Several years later (and a good year after the essay had been published in expanded form as a book of the same name), in January of 2005, the whole thing resurfaced when he was invited to speak at Hamilton College. Someone “exposed” the essay, and a national campaign by right-wing media pundits (led by none other than Sir General Ass-Face Bill O’Reilly) and other jackboots to get Ward fired, discredited, jailed, and even executed. Accusations flew about his scholarly integrity, his “Indian-ness” (we got some choice emails on this one let me tell you), and anything else that could be conjured up to distract the public at large from the intelligent, rational, and sobering arguments laid out in his essay.
The following is a bit of a read, and goes into detail specifically about the plagairism charge, but is pretty interesting, especially regarding his ideas about the larger right-wing strategy to use academic integrity to shut down “progressive” writers and the like. Keep an eye peeled for a second installment on CounterPunch as well, which apparently will address the charge that Churchill does not “qualify” as Native American.
14 fragments of dialogue thus far ...
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Comment by Caitlin on July 21st, 2005 at 4:14 am:
*Sigh* Why does the left ALWAYS do this, turning in on itself? Have we not got enough enemies? And don’t you just get the feeling that they were offended before they’d even read the fucking thing? I didn’t see anything to be offended by, and I have the delicate sensibilities of something delicately sensible. Plus I think it was him who called Madeline Albright a “malignant toad”. Classic.
“But, then, he was an unabashed white guy, and a pacifist to boot, so…”
So the Left are doing now what feminists have been doing since the 70s. Remember Bell Hooks and the invisibility of a civil rights agenda among the mainstream (rich white) women’s lib? And if its all based on academia and standards of scholarship, what the fuck has his race got to do with it? It seems like a pretty bizzare (and cheap) argument when everything else has been disproved – “Well, you’re not even an American Indian, so there.”
Its kinda funny how, over here, America is viewed in a certain respect as a “Promised Land” for ethnic minorities [I live in what I think is referred to as the most racist city in the Europe] (”the current right-wing campaign to drive a number of Arab and Arabist scholars out, not only of the academic context but of the political discourse more generally.”) and liberal activists [I can't speak for Blighty but it seems theres a hell of a lot more social initiatives in l'America than here] (”to discredit and thus neutralize oppositional scholars on a selective basis, and that it can do so without serious opposition from, and often with the active complicity of, so-called leftists.”)…. Shame.
Ok, sorry.. Rant over.
Comment by Danarcho on July 21st, 2005 at 11:45 am:
Relating to the essay, I was not offended by it…but I think I see how any wealthy white person could be offended. Churchill basically says that the people in the Pentagon and WTC were not innocent civilians, it is partially their fault for the tyranny that the US causes in the East. Pentagoners are military personel, and corporate fatcats worked at the WTC, which has the military serving it’s interest. My brother said something like that to me when he was eleven or so…he also added that “maybe the janitors are innocent.” Haha how cute.
I agree with Caitlin on the no-you’re-not-an-Indian argument. How ironic that Churchill argues that the Americans are racist genocidal maniacs, and they attack his race.
This Malkin woman is nuts. I read about her thesis somewhere else. She argues for internment camps for the 21st century for them insane extremist terrorists (ie Middle Eastern folk for now, anyone else who is a threat to the PR industry and the machine as a whole). I’d like to read it. Well, the modern day internment camps equal Guantanamo Bay and the like, and with this whole Patriot Act bullshit, they could potentially lock anyone away.
Malkin says: “Make no mistake: I am not advocating rounding up all Arabs or Muslims and tossing them into camps. But when we are under attack, “racial profiling” or more precisely, “threat profiling,” is wholly justified.”
Oh me oh my, “threat profiling.” Haha I love the little word changes, and especially how backwards this sounds.
They call Chruchill crazy!
Although I do agree with the rest of her email, Churchill doesn’t back up what he says and her book probably isn’t plagiarized. All hacks think alike anyway.
It’s funny how the media got involved with his plagiarism. I bet half of them had never heard of him until this story broke out. They go to any length to crush a radical.
And if Churchill is charged with treason, it’s safe to say all of us here are fucked on that one…
Comment by tomcole on July 21st, 2005 at 12:30 pm:
modern day witch hunt. media policies based on reaction, or instinct, and not on analytical thought.
bill oreily: cowboy
ward churchill: indian
its the same all around. just look at kanehsatake coverage (some of you may know as oka), or grassy narrows. finger pointing and pigeon holing instead of discussion.
capitalist hit list:
1. women
2. indigenous peoples
tommy selami
Comment by Tim on July 23rd, 2005 at 4:33 am:
Awesome article. Keep them coming.
Comment by JohnT on July 24th, 2005 at 7:15 pm:
This whole situation that Mr. Churchill is in makes my blood boil from, not only the stupidity of it, but from KNOWING that there are many, many people who actually agree that Ward should be reprimanded and/or even executed for going against the State (telling the truth).
“America’s state religion is patriotism, a phenomenon which has convinced many of the citizenry that ‘treason’ is morally worse than murder or rape.” – William Blum
Comment by getmethe40 on July 25th, 2005 at 7:57 am:
Ok. This is nice.
Much Thanks to G7 for the blog thing it’s lovely you brought something like this back. Promise we won’t ruin it.
Anywho. Firstly the fact that we even have to talk about this and defend him is a total joke. A website publication? Why has nobody died from laughter yet? Sorry.. but I can go down to my local Spar and buy half a dozen papers telling me the same thing Churchill is, apart from the WTC is Baghdad and the Pentagon system are street kids.
But that’s my point, the fact that so many of us are saying the same thing “As long as you’re closer to these terrorist institution than I am then you’re not as innocent an I am.” And it comes from the left and the right, all the time.
So are those closer connected to US terror who died on 9/11 less innocent than those who are connected to it in a more remote way? Because if anyone actually thinks that is a decent moral theory, applicable to THIS world, then I’d love to hear how it can be mapped. Personally I don’t know anybody who has escaped marginalized support for my country at war and achieved the innocence Churchill desires. Being active in this society requires a limited amount of violence. Just take apart your computer and see where all the lovely parts came from. And where the materials come from. That’s violence.
SO.. all I’m saying is if you’re really committed to making the planet a better place then the first thing we can do, and Churchill can do is be honest with ourselves to a degree that makes us sane, rational human beings. If those who died on 9/11 are not innocent then neither are ANY of us by our own stupid, stupid standards.
Take the stance that these people working at the Pentagon System (uhh.. the whole US population) and the WTC are not innocent. So the ones killed have been replaced. The physical structures will be rebuild and the institutions will most likely keep on functioning. Doesn’t anyone wonder why you can fly three planes into these buildings and it can keep functioning? I think the answer should be pretty obvious by now. Trying to work out should be burried as innocent/not is nothing to do with anything, the thought shouldn’t cross our minds.
Our planet functions on these two institutions and a whole degree of others that suck in pretty similar ways. Why even try to draw a line between whose innocent and whose not.
Comment by 420 on August 4th, 2005 at 2:14 pm:
ok… ward churchill is a government shill.. just like malkin… he is coverning up the trail of bush’s reichstag, hitler burned his own parliment building down and blamed it on the communists!!. … ward churchhill is mucking up the argument by saying america desrved the attacks because of there foreign policy… the military industrial complex conducted 911, … and blamed it on the muslims and thats why 911 is bushes reichstag
Comment by 420 on August 4th, 2005 at 2:20 pm:
the pentagon was not hit by a plane it was hit by a scud missle… cheney was in control of norad and the cia was conducting drills flying planes into wtc.. the buildings were taking down by a controlled demolotion that takes weeks to set up…. bush’s brother ran securty at the WTC… break the false left right paradime … that keeps the population bickering …. on side issues google any of my information it is all correct…
Comment by D-Rock on August 4th, 2005 at 7:10 pm:
… note to 420 … talking like you’re out of your tree … unlikely to be heard … google distraction propaganda … we live in the matrix this is a hologram
Comment by 420 on August 5th, 2005 at 5:11 pm:
note to D-Rock … yeah well these are all established facts that can be found in the backpages of news papers or in a news clips of mainstream media. the globalist like to show off and are constantly rubbing there orchestrated events in our faces and we all distracted by side issues like WARD CHURHHILL…… side issue.. the CIA trained and funded AL CIADA and there is a history of state sponsored terrorism against its own people dating back to NERO burining rome down and blaming it on christians!!! HItler buring his own parliment building down to blame on communists, Okalahoma and WTC 1993 were government ops. If you dont beleive me read the De-classified govt document ” Opernation Northwoods ” in this 10 page document the CIA is trying to find a pretext to invade Cuba and in this early 1960’s document the suggest blowing up an american plan of tourists, to blame on cubans, flying a hijacked plane that is romote controlled into a building as a pretext to invade Cuba. The document appearded on JFK ’s desk and he flipped out and wanted to dismantle the CIA as well as the Federal Reserve ( which is a private company that makes money out of nothing and lends it to the government) it is not a branch of the government … we all no what happened after that… CIA killed his ass… I am not a fan of JFK but this indisputable evidence
Comment by getmethe40 on August 7th, 2005 at 3:35 pm:
you make me want to smoke crack my friend..
Comment by getmethe40 on August 7th, 2005 at 4:14 pm:
..and the federal reserve is not a private company its members are appointed through the government and it certainly doesn’t make money out of nothing. it controlls a great deal of financial intrest rates globally. since nixon pissed off everyone by abolishing the bretton woods system, i think its changed quite a bit. im no fancy pants economist but you have to be really fucking stupid to miss the fact that there’s lots of cash lining certain peoples pockets but everywhere looks like a fucking dump. well thats because of the growth of speculative capital flows and because of the federal reserve. the federal reserve is all about inflation. it looks out for people who own parts of financial markets, and those assholes sit around all day and speculate against currencies that are stable. unemployment and low economic growth mean little inflation- great if you invest because inflation means potential growth, and growth just aint stable. so then the whole country looks like shit cuz you want to move money away from places that actually stimulate the economy cuz growth causes inflation and they lose out because their pennies are worth less. boo-fucking-hoo
paul volcker in 79 said that the living standard of the average american has to drop. he was head of the federal reserve then. and time has told us he’s an honest man.
im thinking there are logical reasons behind the shit sad state of the world. simple understandable economic reasons. fuck knows. im a kid.
it aint conspiracy its class war.
Comment by 420 on August 17th, 2005 at 12:13 pm:
Dear pass me the 40
Allan Greenspan and the other appointees that are in charge of the federal reserve company. ( they are figure heads taking orders) If you research the history you will realize that the USA has switched from government owned money supply to private at least 7 times.
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution states that Congress shall have the power to coin (create) money and regulate the value thereof. Today however, the FED, which is a privately owned company, controls and profits by printing money through the Treasury, and regulating its value.
The FED began with approximately 300 people or banks that became owners (stockholders purchasing stock at $100 per share – the stock is not publicly traded) in the Federal Reserve Banking System. They make up an international banking cartel of wealth beyond comparison. The FED banking system collects billions of dollars (Reference 8, 17) in interest annually and distributes the profits to its shareholders. The Congress illegally gave the FED the right to print money (through the Treasury) at no interest to the FED. The FED creates money from nothing, and loans it back to us through banks, and charges interest on our currency. The FED also buys Government debt with money printed on a printing press and charges U.S. taxpayers interest. Many Congressmen and Presidents say this is fraud.
Who actually owns the Federal Reserve Central Banks? The ownership of the 12 Central banks a very well kept secret has been revealed
Rothschild Bank of London
Warburg Bank of Hamburg
Rothschild Bank of Berlin
Lehman Brothers of New York
Lazard Brothers of Paris
Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York
Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
Goldman, Sachs of New York
Warburg Bank of Amsterdam
Chase Manhattan Bank of New York
Comment by getmethe40 on September 7th, 2005 at 6:00 pm:
You actually DID make me want to smoke crack and now I regret talking for two reasons. Off the point. Shoot me.